Bush Strafes New Orleans, Where's Huey Long?
by Greg Palast

The National Public Radio news anchor was so excited I thought she'd urinate on herself: the President of the United had flown his plane down to 1700 feet to get a better look at the flood damage! And there was a photo of our Commander-in-Chief taken looking out the window. He looked very serious and concerned.

That was yesterday. Today he played golf. No kidding.

I'm sure the people of New Orleans would have liked to show their appreciation for the official Presidential photo-strafing, but their surface-to-air missiles were wet.

There is nothing new under the sun. In 1927, a Republican President had his photo taken as the Mississippi rolled over New Orleans. Calvin Coolidge, "a little fat man with a notebook in his hand," promised to rebuild the state. He didn't. Instead, he left to play golf with Ken Lay or the Ken Lay railroad baron equivalent of his day.

In 1927, the Democratic Party had died and was awaiting burial. As depression approached, the coma-Dems, like Franklin Roosevelt, called for balancing the budget.

Then, as the waters rose, one politician finally said, roughly, "Screw this! They're lying! The President's lying! The rich fat cats that are drowning you will do it again and again and again. They lead you into imperialist wars for profit, they take away your schools and your hope and when you complain, they blame Blacks and Jews and immigrants. Then they push your kids under. I say, Kick'm in the ass and take your rightful share!"

Huey Long laid out a plan: a progressive income tax, real money for education, public works to rebuild Louisiana and America, an end to wars for empire, and an end to financial oligarchy. The waters receded, the anger did not, and Huey "Kingfish" Long was elected Governor of Louisiana in 1928.

At the time, Louisiana schools were free, but not the textbooks. Governor Long taxed Big Oil to pay for the books. Rockefeller's oil companies refused pay the textbook tax, so Long ordered the National Guard to seize Standard Oil's fields in the Delta.

Huey Long was called a "demagogue" and a "dictator." Of course. Because it was Huey Long who established the concept that a government of the people must protect the people, school, house, and feed them and give every man or woman a job who needs one.

Government, he said, "We The People," not plutocrats nor Halliburtons, must build bridges and levies to keep the waters from rising over our heads. All we had to do was share the nation's wealth we created as a nation. But that meant facing down what he called the "concentrations of monopoly power" to finance the needs of the public.

In other words, Huey Long founded the modern Democratic Party. Franklin Roosevelt and the party establishment, scared senseless of Long's ineluctable march to the White House, adopted his program, called it the New Deal, and later The New Frontier and the Great Society.

America and the party prospered.

America could use a Democratic Party again and there's a rumor it's alive -- somewhere.

And now is the moment, as it was in '27. As the bodies float in the streets of New Orleans, now is not the time for the Democrats to shirk and slink away, bleating they can't "politicize" this avoidable disaster.

Seventy-six years ago this week, Huey Long was shot down, assassinated at the age of 43. But the legacy of his combat remains, from Social Security to veterans' mortgage loans.

There is no such thing as a "natural" disaster. Hurricanes happen, but death comes from official neglect, from tax cuts for the rich that cut the heart out of public protection. The corpses in the street are victims of a class war in which only one side has a general.

Where is our Huey Long? America needs just one Kingfish to stand up and say that our nation must rid itself of the scarecrow with the idiot chuckle, who has left America broken and in danger while he plays tinker-toy Napoleon on other continents.

I realize that the middle of rising flood is a hell of a bad time to give Democrats swimming lessons; but it's act up now or we all go under.

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Subscribe to his commentaries or view his investigative reports for BBC Television at www.GregPalast.com

Amen Rick. Your's is the best damn post of the year. Wish I had your talent with the written word.

I'm not at all surprised at the defensiveness displayed by bush supporters. It must be very difficult to face, even at a safe distance, the results of votes for the man who has turned The United States of America into a third world nation.

The ability to protect human lives, the ability to respond to disasters such as the current one....THAT's what bush supporters have been voting to cut...in order to provide more profit to corporate America.

Yes...it must be very hard indeed to face such an obvious and painful truth....even for republicans.

As usual, you completely miss the point. You're so predictable it's almost not fun anymore.

As has been pointed out numerous times before, this isn't singularly the result of GWB's policies. The inadequacy of the levee system has been known for over 40 years. Nothing substantial had been done about it in all that time. Many mayors, governors, and yes, even Presidents have come and gone in that time.

As I've stated elsewhere, this calamity is the creation of a very long cast of characters. Bush does share in that creation. But, he is hardly a one-man cast, as hard as you try to make it so.

Even your precious ex-President Clinton can claim his share of the blame, if blame absolutely HAS to be assigned. Anyone and everyone in power at the local, state, and federal level, all along the line, from the mid-60's to now could have done more to prevent this.

None of them did.

Sorry if that absolute reality is at odds with your imagined one.

Rick

BA, keep us posted on the progress.

As usual, you completely miss the point. You're so predictable it's almost not fun anymore.

As usual, and not surprisingly, you again entirely miss my point. The levee system? Yeah...there's a lot of blame...but most of it goes to those who supported the tax-cut policies which required money to be cut for hypotheticals...Democrats were forced to play this game too, to their disgrace.

I'm referring to the inability to deal with the crisis AFTER the levee failures. That's where we now rival Bangla Desh in our ability to protect human life.

For American citizens to have to wait DAYS for even the minimum of government intervention in a situation where people were dying like flies...THAT is dubya's legacy.

And it is the legacy of those who were foolish enough to vote to put America in this position.

The loss of human life is the primary concern, of course. But America will never be the same in the eyes of the world. They are now seeing the truth of the ruins bush has made of America's experiment in democracy. And they won't forget.

It's also been reported now that Fidel Castro offered last Tuesday to have 1100 doctors in New Orleans within 24 hours. bush turned down his offer. How many lives could they have saved? Every such death is blood on bush's hands...and his supporters' hands.

"Government is not the solution, Government is the problem."
President Ronald Reagan campaigning for President in 1980

That is the reason we were not prepared, for the levee
breaking, for the flooding and the abandonment of a hundred
thousand poor blacks in New Orleans. That central ideology
of conservative Republicans was reinforced further when Newt
Gingrich took the House in 1994, and then the Senate a few
years later. Voting irregularities in Florida brought in
George W. Bush as president with less votes than his
Democratic opponent which gave the "hate the government"
crowd control of all branches of government. In 2001 when
George Bush and the Republican Congress passed the first of
the tax breaks for the wealthy, the director of the Corp of
Engineers resigned in protest regarding the specific
defunding of fixing the leeve's in New Orleans, and a few
months later followed the protest resignation of the
Director of FEMA for defunding that organization too.

When I began this newsletter in hard copy in 1993, I said
this Right-wing talibanism upon the land is like a giant log
rolling down a mountain and could only be stopped by some
great catastrophic wake up call. I thought 911 would be that
moment, I have never been more wrong about anything in my
life. That made matters far worse as the fear and loathing
sent us deeper into religious intolerance, war, and leaving
the least of us behind. Hopefully this will finally wake us
up.

If you watched FOX News, or listened to AM radio, or took
notice of what conservatives politicians and pundits were
dishing out this week, you could easily see how transparent
they were in changing the subject from the abject failure of
all levels of government TO the bad, horrid, lawless,
looting, shooting, raping, murdering "NEGROES".

Will they get away with it? They sure were successful
earlier in the week. Gosh, everyone I talked to began with
saying how awful the looting was. But after five days of
literally no response, it finally looks as if the long
awaited turnaround back to the middle may be upon us.

Rack Jite News 9/2/2005

BA, that guy's pretty extreme and he won't get far in getting many folks to listen by couching his case in such extreme terms. He has some points buried in there worth noting, such as how badly the Bush crowd has tilted the country from its traditional values. But when you bury a pearl in a heap of garbage don't be surprised when people are not interested.

While BA's quote selection is too extreme and overstated to inspire much interest, I'm impressed by the vindictiveness of those who disagree. There's plenty to disagree with in BA's post, but when you stoop to petty ad hominum insults you're embarrasing yourself. Certain species of apes throw dung at their adversaries because it is the only "tool" they can use. Surely those who disagree with BA can demonstrate capabilities in argument that are above the level of an ape. Unless....

BA, that guy's pretty extreme

There are nothing but facts in the essay...and nothing but the truth...but I'll agree that telling the truth makes one an extremist in these days....

Originally Posted by aerogel

badaltitude your Clueless In fact it’s the Louisiana democratic Officials that have failed and it very Apparent now
We Louisianan’s No exactly what happen and its very apparent in the sign’s held up by every one around the state that are slamming Nagin and Blanco
And praising bush
The State Government can not handle did not prepare and did not respond to this crisis

the fact is the federal government is in control of my state at this time Because
NAGIN AND BLANCO ARE FAILURES...and this is there legacy

Thank you Geroge W Bush for the second wind and all the state's that are helping us this is commming not just from me but all the folks wokring here at the shelter

And I'm sure the folks still sitting in the Superdome will thank him as well, if they survive. And the hundreds or thousands of people still trapped in their homes will thank him too, if they can get out before they die. Maybe GW should have some of the dead bodies on the street propped up for a photo-op with little signs in their hands too.

Clueless????
Do you think ANY state, even red ones with Repug officials, could handle a crisis of this magnitude? What fantasy world are you living in? How much would you like to be taxed there in LA?

You should know a little more about your own state's efforts and capabilities before you start yapping about how ill prepared it is to handle an emergency. You sound as if you just moved there last year or something. I'll bet if it was Florida involved, you'd have seen more concern. And Florida can't handle something like this by itself either. And Florida reeks to the rafters with Repugs.

Here, read a little bit about what LA TRIED to do and what GW's new policies did to the state's, and all state's, capability to address a crisis like this.

I posted about half this article on this thread, https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...2&postcount=79

OH, BTW, Now they've recrutied Clinton's former FEMA head. He was the last one to have any experience with emergencies, (unless you count emergencies in the opinion polls).

The fact is that FEMA was in the best position and had the best staff able to handle big emergencies and it was defunded, crippled, demoted out of a cabinet position, and made an orphan step-child of DHS by GWB.

The results speak for themselves.

The republicans responsible for this catastrophe have also been trying to spin (or lie if you prefer) that Louisiana authorities were responsible for not requesting FEMA and other assistance early enough. Here's a link to the letter they sent the Feds requesting emergency assistance- sent on the 28th of August, 2005.


http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20...%20Request.pdf


Another lie right wing falsehood exposed. I'm sure the bush-ites who posted contrary information on this board will soon post apologies for spreading false propaganda.

The Repug talking points for this week:

The victims brought it on themselves for not evacuating. (let's ignore the hotels full of tourists and the hospitals, where there are STILL people trapped).

They are all thugs and criminals anyway.

It's Clinton's fault.

OH, and where's Guiliani?? The master of disaster is too busy making millions defrauding other governments with his phony crisis consulting.

If he was so great, where is he? He can come down and straighten this whole mess out. Then it'll be the fast track to the presidency.

Why wouldn't he do that? Because he's another emperor with no clothes but he's not stupid enough to think he really could.

Originally Posted by badaltitude

The republicans responsible for this catastrophe have also been trying to spin (or lie if you prefer) that Louisiana authorities were responsible for not requesting FEMA and other assistance early enough. Here's a link to the letter they sent the Feds requesting emergency assistance- sent on the 28th of August, 2005.


http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20...%20Request.pdf


Another lie right wing falsehood exposed. I'm sure the bush-ites who posted contrary information on this board will soon post apologies for spreading false propaganda.

Really, BA? Tell me why your precious Democrat Mayor of New Orleans ramrodded through a 600 million dollar project (sports stadium) instead of spending that 600 million on doing all the work on the levies when he could BECAUSE HE KNEW ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF THIS HAPPENING DURING THAT SAME TIME!
Just as in New Orleans, we here in Houston have some flooding issues from subsidence. And just like in New Orleans, it's a local problem, not a federal one, and local taxes are paying for the drainage system rework.

Keep shoveling, but be careful before it gets too deep for even you to stand in it.

Highflight