New Orleans has plenty of heat, humidity, and annoyances already, AND it's been one year since the national tragedy. Alas:
President Bush said he took full responsibility for the inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, which came ashore in Louisiana one year ago today and caused the deaths of more than 1,800 people.
"Governments on all levels fell short of their responsibilities," the president said in a speech in New Orleans. "A year ago I made a pledge: that we will learn the lessons of Katrina and do what it takes to help you recover."
OK, read that again...notice the contradiction? To be fair, the actual transcript indicates Shrub only took "responsibility" for "the federal government's response," and it wasn't exactly as if he either said or meant anything close to "mea culpa" and/or asked for forgiveness.
And he's still insisting that private efforts--again, to be fair, THANK HEAVENS SOMEONE is doing something--but he thinks the private efforts to deconstruct and/or reconstruct are somehow adequate. Good god: New Orleans really IS his concept of "compassionate conservativism."
I invite anyone to come down and take a look. Some have:
The late-night bars and jazz clubs are open in the French Quarter, as are the cafes in the elegant Garden District. One year after the worst natural disaster in US history, New Orleans is gamely giving the impression that the good times are rolling again.
But a couple of miles to the north or east, the Cajun [sic] bravura falls away like a cheap carnival mask, the streets fall quiet and the Crescent City becomes a dead zone.
If New Orleans is compassionate conservativism, then I say give me old fashioned big-spending liberal government any day.
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