ALAS, POOR BROWNIE, I KNEW HIM, . . .

Everybody, including my master, lays blame on Brownie for getting off slow (or not at all) in the early hours after Katrina. I think they're all wrong to see him so. Brownie knew full well Bush's gatekeeper mind. He had every reason to believe that Bush had no intention of wasting money and resources on a bunch of poor people down in New Orleans, especially since most of them were black. So, he held back, bided his time, before stepping in with token assistance. In his position, the perfectly logical thing to do.

Brownie didn't know, nor did anybody else, what a parade of pain and helplessness was to be broadcast day and night over national television for all the world to see and judge us by. No one anticipated that sluggishness in response would become the topic of endless midnight and daytime television commentary.

After a while all those pictures and all that talk began to take a toll on Bush's ratings. That was when he began to react, to expect and demand some response from Brownie and other administration types. When the ratings began to fall, Bush began to look for someone to blame. Ah, yes, good old Brownie, doing a heckuva job down in New Orleans, holding everything up, keeping the gates closed to those ragged, hungry, homeless poor.

What Brownie didn't know was that the loyalty Bush regarded so highly, was to him, not from him. He needed a scapegoat and poor Brownie was it. The foot dragging that Brownie felt would make Bush see him as a faithful servant, instead morphed into a clarion call for Brownie's head. And poor Brownie found himself hanging out to dry.

So, you see, poor Brownie is not to blame. He was just doing what the boss expected. That he probably could not have done the job anyway is irrelevant.


Much of the time we also confronted the agonized face of Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow, governor Kathleen Blanco, inept but pitying everybody's pain. Wonder what she's doing now. Heard the other day that she was rallying behind Bush and his wild claims that he loves all kinds of people and will do all kinds of good things for them.

Will there be recovery from this disaster? Sure. Some corporate CEOs will be able to trade in their 100-foot yachts for 150-foot yachts, but the poor will remain poor, but homeless. Who can make money rebuilding shantys?

REBUILDING NEW ORLEANS

Since New Orleans is below sea level, any rebuilding is likely to just set the city up for another disaster no matter how the levees are reconstructed. The obvious need is to raise the city terrain above sea level. The problem is how to do that. Well, my poor dumb master can think and think and never find his own nose in front of his face. But, the solution is dirt simple and despite his obtuseness directly under his nose. I'll give it to you in a word--GARBAGE!

New York city, like many other cities across America, pay good money, not to mention shipping costs, to Virginia and maybe other states to accept and dispose of their garbage. My master tells me that a few years ago a barge loaded with New York garbage floated up and down the Atlantic coast for weeks trying to find a place to unload. Must have cost a fortune. My little mind immediately grabbed at this conceptual nugget and went to work.

Voila! New Orleans, here we come. We'll pay you to take our garbage. You'll get much needed landfill and we'll get cleaner cities. If you don't like the amount of money our cities put up, the federal government has promised all kinds of help for you, so they'll probably chip in to sweeten the pot. You could use that money, I'll wager. Surely Atlanta, Houston, St. Louis, and cities all across the land need a place to dump their garbage. Why not use this otherwise wasted material to build up New Orleans so that city can rise above sea level?

Looks like a win win situation to me, so don't anybody get uppity. Garbage is good stuff that's just been around a little while. Kinda like my master.

ANOTHER USELESS GESTURE

In an effort to shore up his flagging popularity, President Bush announced that he is taking responsibility for the government's Katrina debacle. That is an uttlerly meaningless gesture. If it had any meaning, he wouldn't need to have let Brownie go. Nor would it have any meaning had it come earlier. It is simply another expression of his contempt for the American people. He thinks that meaningless phrases and useless trips will fool the stupid American people into believing that he is concerned for the well-being of the nation and doing his job as President.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. We are not that stupid. And as for his concern for the nation, that is as phony as anything can be. Bush has a gatekeeper mentality that seeks to horde all national wealth and resources for the use of his own kind, leaving the tens of millions of others to drift in and out of poverty and pain. Sharing America's bounty is that last thing this administration will tolerate. What we have in Washington now is a purely selfish gang of thugs, robbing and pillaging the American economy for the benefit of the few at the cost and suffering of the many.

SLOW SLOUGHING

Tried watching a bit of Robert's senate confirmation hearing. Couldn't take much of it, though. One impression I got, admittedly faint, is that maybe
Roberts deserves to be confirmed just for sitting through and faking interest in all that self-serving bullshit the senators dished up.

Roberts wasn't too impressive either. Although I didn't hear all of his remarks, I did gather that he was faking it a bit, too. His speech smacked just a little too much of prior preparation. True, it was extemporaneous, as billed, but we have to remember that an extemporaneous speech can also be carefully prepared. It just has to be delivered without written notes.

I will try again on the morrow and see if the question and answer portion has any more meat.

A GATEKEEPER ADMINISTRATION

From its inauguration, the modus operandi of the Bush Administration has been t0 preserve and protect civil and legal privileges, wealth, natural resources, and basic human rights for the exclusive use of elites. The millions of ordinary Americans who make up the population of the United States have been regarded as mere chattel fit only to be used. In every governmental policy executed, from the Black and Hispanic soldiers fighting the war in Iraq to the supercilious comments of Barbara Bush on the lives of the poor in New Orleans, the imprint of this attitude lies clearly exposed.

Why was FEMA and other government agencies so slow in responding to the disaster along the Gulf Coast? Because the aim of our government was not to serve the needs of people, but to guard the gates protecting the interests of itself and its corporate confederates. The deliberate aim was to hold off assistance, to stall as long as possible, and when finally forced to act, to allow only bare minimum resources to be made available that would appease the public. Money spent on the poor in Gulf states, especially on poor blacks, would, in a word be money wasted.

You will recall that the initial government response was a law and order response. The troops came in with loaded weapons pointed at innocent flood victims. Fortunately, the scheme failed. The media, in its own selfish motivation, bluntly revealed to the whole world not only the magnitude, but the puniness and inappropriateness of the response. Our government responded because it had to, or else lose all credibility and the the ability to retain the power its minions so eagerly covet.

Thus, do we see the sad effects of a government of gatekeepers. Our nation has fallen mightily. And we have seen only the first steps in the ultimate tragedy that Katrina initiated. Just wait until the corporations, the no-bid contracts, the special interest profiteers, the crooked politicians, and the whole range of swindlers set up shop. This time our government will be a facilitator and the gates to booty will be thrown wide open. It won't be a pretty picture.

IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT

That's the refrain of the Bush administration by way of explanation for their bumbling approach to the tragedy in New Orleans and along the Gulf coast. As usual, their main efforts are directed toward shifting the blame for their incompetence onto somebody else. In this case, they're working overtime to lay the blame on state and local people.

Also revealed in stark reality by Homeland Security's obstructionists approach is that DHS's mission is to curtail civil liberties, not protect the American people.

Expect General Honore to be forced into retirement as soon after completing his assignment in New Orleans as can be effected without its being too obvious.