27-Oct-07, 01:07 PM

Bushites are plumbing the bottomless bottom of human behavior

It's obvious by now that the Katrina disaster has been aggravated by gross ineptitude bordering on dereliction of duty, and the natural indifference of a plutocracy that reacts primarily according to class interests...

By Madison

It is beyond belief that last night -- summoned to deal with the emergency caused by Hurricane Katrina -- Republican politicians wasted no time in demanding an end to the estate tax.

We now know that the Bush administration has been systematically reducing the role FEMA can play in emergencies, because the Bushites don't believe government has any major role in helping the vulnerable -- just in helping the rich. We now know funding that might have gone to reinforce the levees and dams protecting New Orleans and the Gulf Coast has been shifted over to support the killing and dying in Iraq. We now know the federal government, under the direction of our president, waited until days after the storm hit to send assistance that should have been in the region as soon as the storm was identified as a level five hurricane. We now know that all the officials, local and federal, knew New Orleans could not withstand anything stronger than a level three hurricane -- but, still, the president went on about his life as if the coming storm was no big deal.

Slowly, painfully slowly, and too late to help many victims who have already died from the after effects of the storm, our president is "responding" to the catastrophe; he tells us the relief efforts were "not acceptable,"

"Not acceptable"? How about "outrageous"?

As soon as the president saw the expected size of the hurricane, he should have ordered the navy to position ships as close to the damaged areas as they could safely be, but ready to go in immediately with drinking water, food, clothing, medical supplies and tents for shelter.

If the money spent for ONE day's warfare in Iraq had been spent building or rebuilding levees, dams and dikes to protect New Orleans, the city would still have been hit with the hurricane but it would not have suffered the inundation of flood waters it did. Yes, the money spent for one day's warfare in Iraq could have saved New Orleans.

And New Orleans is just the "canary in the mine;" as ocean temperatures continue to warm and the warmer waters accelerate the force of hurricanes, we can anticipate that many other low-lying coastal towns and cities will suffer the same fate -- too much water, water over the rooftops.

But there was another phenomenon I noticed as I watched the heartbreaking scenes in New Orleans: almost all of Hurricane Katrina's victims are black and poor. Most of those who were stranded did not have cars or trucks in which to evacuate their families. There were not enough buses to take them out of harm's way and the National Guard trucks that might have assisted the needy were over in Iraq.

Some of the cruelest right-wing media people are now blaming the victims for not evacuating the city, but many of the victims were too poor to own cars and could hardly be expected to walk thirty or forty miles to escape the effects of the storm. Many of the victims now stranded -- without proper shelter, without drinkable water, without sufficient food and without medical care -- are babies and toddlers, the elderly and the sick. Should their families have abandoned their loved ones and escaped to save their own lives? That may be a Republican solution; it's not a "solution" for most Americans.

Yes, most of the stranded who are now suffering so terribly in make-shift shelters are poor and black -- not George W. Bush's "kind," so he hasn't been rushing to help them. He's already five days late with his "concern."

And we now know what the priorities of the Congressional Republicans are; they are lusting to pass legislation giving even more tax breaks to America's wealthiest; they are frothing to eliminate the estate tax, which affects only a small percentage of the nation's wealthiest families.

I used to wonder if there was some bottom below which right-wing media people and Republican politicians would not sink. I no longer need to wonder; the answer is "no." They are plumbing the bottomless bottom of human behavior.

Madison is a writer specializing in political affairs commentary