Home > Let’s Make Sure President Bush Doesn’t Survive Katrina

Let’s Make Sure President Bush Doesn’t Survive Katrina

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 13 September 2005
11 comments

Catastrophes USA

We’ve all loved New Orleans, and the Big Easy has loved us right back. We’ve partied there, gambled perhaps, gorged on the delicacies and had a good time to the point of embarrassing ourselves. Losing yourself in the revelry was par for the course in this uniquely American city, a town where anything goes and all is forgiven.

Today New Orleans represents a national disgrace that is unforgivable. The devastating loss of life and human dignity in the Gulf Coast region must forever live in infamy. And the negligence of our nation’s leaders demands serious recourse.

How do some of the poorest people in the country hold the most powerful accountable? Community leaders from across the South met in Baton Rouge this weekend to begin formulating an answer to that question.

Over sixty grassroots organizers convened at Southern University for a nine hour meeting on how to balance the need to provide relief for the suffering with the urgency of fighting for justice. According to Norris Henderson, a criminal justice organizer from New Orleans, the meeting was a first step toward establishing a People’s Commission to have a voice in the allocation of resources for redevelopment. Southern activists also discussed the need to gain access to FEMA and Red Cross data bases in order to better serve displaced families desperately searching for loved ones.

Community Labor United (CLU), a New Orleans-based coalition, helped coordinate Saturday’s meeting. CLU wants impoverished people from the region to have a role in overseeing the local relief efforts of FEMA and the Red Cross and decision-making power in the reconstruction of the urban center of New Orleans. CLU is calling for lawyers to investigate the wrongful deaths that could have been prevented in the wake of Katrina and for a rigorous investigation of how and why the levees broke. CLU has also helped establish a People’s Hurricane Fund to be directed and administered by New Orleanian evacuees. (Go to www.qecr.org for more information.)

It’s critical that indigenous leaders have, not only a voice, but also real power in short-term relief efforts and long-term redevelopment. Otherwise, national leaders — including liberal ones — won’t confront the real issues. CLU’s Organizing Director Curtis Muhammed explains: "This is plain, ugly, real racism. While some politicians and organizations might skirt around the issue of race, we in New Orleans are not afraid to call it what it is. This is not just immoral — this has turned a natural disaster into a man-made disaster, fueled by racism." 

While it’s impossible to calculate exactly how responsible the Bush Administration is for the "man-made" death and destruction — where does the lethal force of nature end and the failure of public systems to save lives begin? — it’s certain that President Bush perpetrated a level of malign neglect that is treasonous. 
 
Treason, simply, is the betrayal of one’s country. Pilfering millions from New Orleans’ levee repair project to pay for a war based on deceit is a national betrayal. Sending one-third of Louisiana’s National Guard and much of Mississippi’s to Iraq is a national betrayal. Failing to declare a national state of emergency or to halt the "shoot to kill" policy of law enforcement which replaced orders to "search and rescue" is a national betrayal. 

Bush’s willful neglect of the people of the Gulf Coast amounts to criminal negligence. Bush appointed former PR handler, Michael Brown, to head FEMA after the guy was asked to resign from the International Arabian Horse Association. It’s clear that ensuring the safety of our country during a time of national crisis is as important to Bush as an equestrian contest. He didn’t put anyone with experience managing disaster at the head of FEMA because, in short, he could care less. Bush doesn’t want a strong FEMA. He doesn’t want a functional public sector. His only interest in government is to exploit the public good.

Katrina paints in stark and tragic relief what we already knew: the Bush Administration considers itself unassailable and unaccountable to all but the wealthiest American citizens. The poor and powerless are at critical risk. And none of us are truly safe. The President has placed our country on a fault line. 
 
Van Jones has put forward the right framework of action for recreating public safety and taking back the country. His nine steps for "shattering the old consensus and building a new one" [see Jones’ September 7th posting, "Now Let’s Rescue America: Nine Key Steps"] include, perhaps most importantly, maintaining the estate tax. The Democratic Party leadership in Washington, DC needs to demand a roll back of the 2001 Bush tax cuts and we should impose a windfall profits tax on oil company income for the balance of this year and next.

Tax revenue that results from these minimal fiscal reforms should be invested in rebuilding the decimated Gulf Coast region. Progressives from coast to coast should respect and support CLU and other organizations representing those who have the most to gain from a restorative version of redevelopment that redistributes resources.

Just as New Orleanians searched for higher ground in attics, on rooftops and beyond the eye of the storm, so must we rise up and seize the moral high ground. We must take back our country. Some national leaders called for the impeachment of Bill Clinton on the grounds that he fooled around with a White House intern. What then is the proper punishment for a President who wrecked havoc in the lives of thousands upon thousands of our fellow citizens? 
 
We must not only ask what Bush could have done to prevent — and still must do to repair — the damage; we must also ask ourselves individually and collectively what we can do to dethrone Bush. 
 
May the survivors of Katrina remind us that this will require sweat and sacrifice.
 
May the survivors of Katrina give us courage and fuel us with an outrage we’ve never felt before. It’s time to do and give more, far beyond the capacities we thought we had before the hurricane struck. It’s time to rise up like a flood surge and summon up the power to hold Bush accountable by removing him from office.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-m...

Forum posts

  • Do you mean Bush and his cabinet? We also need to replace many in Congress. Congress has done very little and has allowed the Patriot Act and Patriot Act II to be passed to take our Constitutional rights away. They are as much to blame for what has been going on in America as the President himself. Our one party system needs to be dismantled.

  • Let me start by saying that I love New Orleans. The New Orleans I knew and loved will be gone forever. It will be back. It could be better, it could be worse, or it may even be as good, but it will never be the same.
    Most of the people who read these comments have never experienced a Category 1 Hurricane, let alone a Category 4 hurricane. Havng been through 3 hurricanes of various degrees, I know what I am speaking about.
    A good way of looking at this is seeing a hurricane as a combination of tsunami, tornado, and severe thunderstorm all rolled into one and lasting 8 to 12 to 16 hours.
    After such an event, it is virtual impossible for anyone anywhere to move around for quite a while.
    You can blame the Federal Government if you choose to, they made mistakes, as did the State government and City Government. Yes, you can even place the blame with those left behind. They know where they live, and they are well aware of the dangers. It is taught to all (even the poor) from the time they are very young. unfortunately, people become complacent. It is difficult to pack up and leave everything behind. In the back of your mind, you remember that the last one wasn’t so bad. You are always tempted to stay.
    Remember that every election day, volunteers come out to pick up the poor and elderly all over New Orleans to take them to the polls to make sure they vote. Where were these people during Katrina? Of course, as I have stated earlier, they probably couldn’t move or maybe they had already left.
    The plain ugly, nasty truth is the person most likely to blame is .....Katrina!
    Every now and again, Nature rises up and humbles us all. Before any of you think that this is a global warning fiasco, let me remind you that a category 5 hurricane hit Galveston, Texas in 1900, killing thousands, long before automobiles and hydrocarbons were invented and used.
    This has happened before, and it will happen again. The real tragedy here as that from the poorest resident all the way up to the White House, and everyone in between, did not take this seriously enough.
    When we lose a loved one in a tragedy, it is quite natural to try to assign blame. In this case the blame is not a human being or agency, but a storm.
    Lets hope that the real lesson learned here is that hurricanes this large kill lots of people, and all of the relief organizations and Goverment Entities can not stop that fact.

    • Yes, there +have been powerfull hurricanes in the past, this season is half over and the record for number of hurricanes is on the brink of being broken. A three year trend is now viewed ominously by weather forecasters. Olympia Snow visited Alaska and reported that telephone poles have collapsed because the frozen tundra is melting.

      I would tell Bin Laden that he does not need to destroy America, we can do it perfectly fine on our own. All the oil that is being fought for will contribute to global warming and you can predict how many million gallons of oil burned to elevate the mean temp. by one degree. The idea that oil people like Bush Cheney and Rice could havr the vision to see this and change course away from fossil fuils is beyond their imagination.

      I read about revolutionary developements in science that are making hydrogen technology avaliable and other developements for slowing global warming by fixating carbon.

      Bush is to blame for FEMA’s response and he is to blame for not knowing. Ask yourself if Bush has ever addressed the American people, the liberals, the poor, the non belivers in God. Idealy once a President gets elected he is the care taker of the White House for all Americans not his political party or those that can pay enough money to see him.

      Now is the time for all good Patriots to come to the aid of America and show the world that we can do better. Bush Sucks

    • Lets not kid ourselves... We all know the power of what storms can do. Sooner or later Mother Nature is going to have a bad day, and humans will feel her wrath. This is something i think we all know. But the is truly no denying how long it took Bush to get there. He isnt too blame for the damge but his personal response was a national disgrace. The leader of the free world is not capable of EVER acting the way he should. It took him a little longer that 7 minutes sitting in a chair with a stupid look on his face this time... It took more like 5 days to do something. My person opininon is that anyone who voted for him should be deeply ashamed of their ignorance.

  • Bush in a manic panic now is attempting to rescue his "legacy" from ignominy. He is high-stepping, grinning, shaking hands like crazy, hugging people (particularly survivors), and making sure that the camera people are getting all the details of his "sincerity" and "concern." The fact that this is about 4,000 dead people too late doesn’t matter. What matters is that Bush not be blamed for anything...ever. After all he gave up his vacation a day early to give speeches, play a guitar, eat cake with McCain, grin, smirk, shake hands, and tell everyone that everything is "all right." All of his cabinet and family are out, full force, hugging survivor victims in front of cameras, showing their concern before getting back on helicopters back to their palatial rooms, warm showers and heavy bodyguards. But despite all this apparent sadness, Bush is delighted because all of the hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money are going to go right into the pockets of his supporters, his followers, his corporate friends. This is really a very good time for him and Dick. Think all that money floating around, for the asking or taking, without any supervision, without any accountability, without any worry about investigations of corruption. Yes, Good Times!

    • These people are vultures, making profits on others death and misery. They have no morals and can’t wait for another fuck up so they can open the treasury and reward themselves with its contents. Cheneyburton already has the non-bid contracts why aren’t Americans outraged???

      Poor Americans are too stupid to realize that they are going to get the enormous bill for Bu$h’s deleriction of duty. He should be tried for his crimes and all government contracts denied to Cheneyburton, KBR, Bechtel, Carlyle. Impeachment now should be on the lips of every citizen that is not too dtupid to see what is going on.

    • oops, should be dereliction of duty...
      and stupid...

  • One more thing...
    On the charge of Racism:
    Most of the affected counties/Parrishes were predominately white. They too, are stuck without aid and relief due to the massive devistation caused by this random act of Natural Violence.
    I don’t think the Hurricane cared about race one way or the other when it struck.

  • Sept. 24 in DC....Reclaim your country!!!

    • Be there Sept. 24. I hope the mediawill cover these massive protests and quit being so chicken! The only reason the coverage was "honest" with the hurricane is because they got there before FEMA! Once the military et al arrived the Media was fed the Propaganda.