Reflections In A Hurricane's Eye

Now that the hurricane season is back, the time has come for us to consider the ramifications of another category four - or worse - and what it could mean for the people of the Gulf Coast. The government's response (or, if you will, lack thereof) to the devastating damage wrought last year by Hurricane Katrina is final proof - as of any were needed - that the disastrous, ill-conceived experiment of trying to decrease the size of the federal government has been, to put it mildly, a dismal failure. In the first few days of the catastrophe it seemed as if no one on any level, federal or state, knew what the hell was going on, let alone what the hell to do. That should have come as a surprise to no one. It certainly didn't to me. If, by now, you are not aware of the fact that George W. Bush and the dirty old dingbats that comprise his administration are the most corrupt group of jackasses ever to occupy the oval office, you haven't been paying attention.

This is what happens when you naively hand your government over to people who don't believe in government. Generally speaking, it's not a particularly nifty idea. For over twenty-five years now, we've had to listen to these fools howling about "Big Government". Do you remember Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address? "Government isn't the answer to the problem; Government is the problem". Reagan was wrong. Then again, Reagan was usually wrong. But he looked so good on television, didn't he?

At a point in our history, when our population has already exceeded the quarter of a billion point, talking about, even hinting at a desire to shrink or eliminate the federal government is not only bad public policy, it's insane! Big government? It's a big country. Think about it.

Michael Brown is a guy who was forced to resign from his previous job of managing Arabian horses. The very fact that someone with his credentials could have been appointed to head FEMA, post 9/11, illustrates perfectly just how cynical the Bush Mob is with respect to their stewardship of our nation. It also shows how much they care.

Compassionate conservatism? Please.

In the meantime, America is reaping the whirlwind of an immoral, illegal invasion of Iraq. (Yes, folks, the president of the United States is a war criminal. You don't believe it? Go to the Geneva Convention and look up the legal definition of that term). Over twenty-five hundred American kids and scores of thousands of Iraqi men, women and little children have been murdered - for what?? All of this on top of an obscene tax cut that mainly benefits the already obscenely rich that is plundering our national treasure. As a Nobel Prize winning economist recently observed, "Bush's economic policy isn't a plan, it's a looting".

Compassionate conservatism, indeed.

The dirty little secret is this: It takes money - lots of it - to remedy the ravages of even the mildest of hurricanes. Had Katrina made herself known during the presidency of William Jefferson Clinton, he would have gone on national television, looked the American people squarely in the eye and honestly said to them, "Not to worry, my friends! Your government has a surplus of almost five trillion dollars. We will rebuild the Gulf Coast. Excuse me, sir, are you gonna finish that cheeseburger"?

Well, the money's gone, folks, and the administration of George W. Bush has squandered it. "Stolen it" is the more proper way of putting it. And you think that his ratings are low now? Oh, brother! Just you wait until the end of this hurricane season! They'll be in the teens! Could this entire mess have been avoided? Well, yeah. An informed, educated electorate might have done the trick, don'cha think?

Fifty years from now, the president of the United States, whomever he or she may be - who in all likelihood hasn't even been born yet - will still, on a daily basis, be dealing with the damage that a corrupt, hideous, half-witted frat boy named George W. Bush did to his once-great country so many years before.

I cannot believe that the United States has sunk this low. I just can't believe it.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

tomdegan@frontiernet.net