Listen to the president’s speech. Read the
president’s speech. Our president has evolved temporarily from a Right Wing Republican to an Independent Progressive Liberal. Could this be true? The president has acknowledged the existence of poverty and implicitly its racial component. In doing so one can be sure the speech will garner support for the President for those who listen to his words superficially.


Unfortunately his handlers are still enforcing solutions to these issues by further suggesting policies that will transfer yet more monies to the Bush supporting companies (the wealthy). Lacking are policies that will allow the poor to come back to the city and work themselves out of poverty.

What a great speech it would be if as opposed to suggesting the hypocritical benevolence of free enterprise zones he would have the government competently and competitively manage the reconstruction with a barrage of small businesses. What a great speech it would be if the president did not attempt to suspend the
Davis-Bacon Act which ensures that high wages would be paid to the re-builders of the destroyed cities which would help pull them out of poverty. After all those large companies rebuilding will try to minimize wages to increase their profits.

I genuinely believe this president believe he is doing the right thing. He simply does not have the intellect to realize that his handlers continue to mislead him.

Today a California judge ruled that forcing children to recite the pledge of allegiance with the phrase “under God” is unconstitutional. Though the ruling by US District Judge Lawrence Karlton is constitutionally correct, this is a battle Liberals should not have fought. It gives the Sean Hannitys and Rush Limbaughs of the Right Wing fuel to rile up their uninformed base on an issue that does absolutely nothing for Liberal’s main causes. It further closes their minds which makes it that much harder for their liberalization. Sometimes being right is just not enough. Sometimes it is best to stay out or even lose a strategic battle in order win the war.

Hurricane Katrina has become an educator to all. It has illustrated that inasmuch as one would like to elevate the political discussion beyond party politics or race it is simply impossible unless the problems are viewed as human problems.

The media with its reacquired ability to challenge the president did a great job in showing the despair in New Orleans that affected mostly African Americans. In its lack of coverage in many poor rural areas that incurred its share of suffering it has given many in the Right Wing the moral cover to disavow what was really the most despicable condition any human could live in. Adding insult to injury the media played right into the stereotypes that many hold of black citizens by applying very little context to the entire ordeal. Not mentioned in any detail was that

• Most people (specifically black people) successfully and independently vacated the city with no governmental assistance.
  
  
  
• A large percentage of the evacuees in Houston simply needed time to contact families and friends requiring no further government assistance.
  
  
  
• Most people looting were doing so for sustenance.

Many disavow affirmative action programs. Many believe it is irrelevant whether the workplace reflects the melting pot that America is supposed to be. The lessons that Hurricane Katrina revealed both overtly and covertly is that unless all are represented in the media government and everywhere else then both innocent and sinister mistakes due to the lack of culture specific sensitivities will frequently occur creating unnecessary alienation between peoples. classic example can be seen below with the description of identical events.

Filed Under: General

Our country is in danger. Like lung cancer, sometimes it may be too late when the symptoms to our demise is eminent. Hurricane Katrina is equivalent to us catching Stage II lung cancer. Our chance for survival as the America we know is at 30% and falling.

How did we get here? Like the facade of the New York skyline on the Las Vegas strip we have a President that gives the semblance of resolve and determination without the aptitude, fortitude, or competence to govern. For too long the media at large has been scared to confront the administration for all its known incompetence with fear of retribution from the well oiled Karl Rove Right Wing. What a difference a wounded Tom Delay (possible election fraud) Karl Rove (possible treason for outing an American spy), and Ralph Reed (gambling scandal) has made to remind a “free” media of their constitutionally implied duty.

A competent leader need not know everything but must be able to listen to rational arguments and come to the correct conclusions. It is not necessary to be right all of the times but imperative to be right most of the times, specifically on issues that materially affects the country as a whole. When a president is wrong virtually one hundred percent of the times how can he be anything but the facade of a president.

President Bush’s four largest blunders the war in Iraq, the
ill-distributed tax cuts, the
energy bill, and the patriot act has already cost the country billions that will be paid by most tax payers. Each of these action however has resulted in a corrupted financial windfall for the administration’s friends.

Then came Hurricane Katrina. Visions of the Iraq war’s failure could be masked and managed by isolating the media as much as possible from the atrocities of the war. The temporary benefits of irresponsible tax cuts gave the stock market and key indicators the semblance of prosperity. The energy bill gave the false promise of energy independence to be fulfilled through its policies at a later date. The patriot act gave through its fascist articles the legal justification to cover up most of the government ineptitudes.

Unfortunately Katrina placed all of President Bush’s blunders into perspective visibly on the world’s TV screens. Resources stretched thin due to the war in Iraq remain scarce leaving Americans living in third world conditions in New Orleans for an extended period of time. The supposed prosperity from the tax cuts missed many a people. With or without an energy bill the oil companies imposed a recessive tax on America with inflated oil prices with no fear of retribution from a friendly administration. The patriot act with its repressive articles successfully dampened the media’s ability to truly report the failure of our homeland security for fear of compromising sources or themselves.

A broken façade is easy to repair, however, if the underlying superstructure is too damaged it will crumble.  Our superstructure is severely damaged by a huge budget deficit a failed economic policy a failed energy policy a failed war and a failed homeland security policy.