September 1, 2005

The terrible disaster in New Orleans was not unforeseen. In spite of his too-little too-late bleatings, Bush personally scrapped a multi-million dollar program to strengthen the dikes around that flooded mass of tragedy but took the money for his criminal war in Iraq.

We now see a genuine phenomenon with dozens of American television reporters, on the ground and on the scene in New Orleans and southern Mississippi, turning against both the Administration and the governments of both Louisiana and Mississippi for their utter failure to relieve the terrible suffering of hundreds of thousands of trapped, starving and sick citizens.

I would like to add something to the bubbling pot that might cast a light on the disgusting official breakdown of rescue and support. This afternoon, I was having lunch at the Cosmos Club out on Massachusetts Avenue. A good friend is a member of the posh club (that once was the elegant town home of Sumner Welles), and while at lunch, I was privy to a very vocal conversation at one of the big round center tables in the club dining room.

One man was giving an overview of the situation to a group of his friends. The speaker was an undersecretary of an important department, well-liked by Bush and often in the White House to consult. The others ranged from an academic economist whose writings can be seen in a right wing paper and a number of Washington-based businessmen, all of whom are active and heavy contributors to the Bush White House.

The loud one had obviously had a few drinks at the bar and this is probably why he was not more discreet. The gist of his comments was horrible to contemplate and it sounded like a top Nazi discussing Jews.

It is well known here that the Bush family and many of the top advisers at the White House are racists but instead of detesting Jews, in this case, they all detest blacks. Their rationale, aside from their view of racial superiority, is that blacks are all “welfare queens, unwed mothers and drug dealers.” It was the very firmly stated view of the host that it was better for everyone that New Orleans was under water for the time being.

In that way, we were told (and I was not the only person in the dining room who heard all this), this served to “chase out the niggers” and permit Bush-supporting businessmen from buying up the soon-to-be condemned sodden houses for five cents on the dollar from friendly insurance companies (which one of them was a CEO of) and put up an enlarged and very profitable combination of industrial park and office building section. The money for this would, naturally, come from government grants which a terrified Congress (Mid Term elections are coming) had just voted for and the contracts to demolish the wrecked low-income slums would go, as a no-bid contract, to another stellar Bush supporter.

As for the refugees, our table of proto-fascists all commented on the fact that most of them were on welfare and probably all voted Democratic so they could all be shipped to California or Chicago at the public expense and allowed to occupy less valuable public housing there.

This conversation went on in a similar vein for some time and it was difficult for both myself and my host to refrain from making nasty comments or, for that matter, to enjoy our meal. These people are greedy and purely evil and I am <>positive<> from the overall conversations that Bush is conversant with this attitude and has no intentions of interfering with it.

He had an unparalleled opportunity to revive his sagging opinion polls and make an appearance in New Orleans, naturally with an army of sycophants and eager media, and be seen (in a safe place…probably in Baton Rouge…because the desperate black citizens of New Orleans have taken to shooting at people and Bush is scared to death of violence) holding a small and photogenic black child whilst comforting its mother. Instead, Bush, typically, opted to sail overhead in his luxury Air Force One and having seen the inundated city below, retired to his small but elegant dining room for a nice lunch with some of his top aides.

I should also note here that Bush now has added the Mayor of New Orleans and a half a dozen irate and very articulate news reporters to his hate list because they have <>dared<> to criticize him to a very large audience.

Maybe this time, the Democrats will organize and nail him and his friends to a wall somewhere and then open the flood gates and watch them drown like the rats that they are.