August 28, 2006- Gratitude

As everyone must know by now, we are fast approaching the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, in fact, it is tomorrow, and all the retrospcetives and documentariwes are pouring in, even the Weather Channel has “lost episodes” about Katrina, and everyone is talking about where New orleans is now compared to a year ago and where they have to go and so forth. We had that dude drive that motor home from New Orleans to Washington a week or so ago and go to the White House and met with President Bush to remind him that much needs to be done, as if Bush did not know that already, hell, the man ha dto cut his August vacation (holiday) back from the entire month to like ten days this year because everyone was on his case last year when Katrina hit, so the fact that he was even at the White House in August showed that he knew that shit still ha dto be done. He met with that hick dude and even had a Rose Garden press conference with him at his side, where the two of them came across like drinking buddies from some Southern saloon, agreeing on everything and talking about how cool the other was, it was regular lovefest. So Bush was well aware that New Orleans still needs a lot of help and assistance and he promised to send whatever they needed to make sure that New Orleans was rebuilt better than before. However, the mayor of New Orleans, that Ray Nagin dude, seems toi have a different take on it all. He was on some TV show or another talking about the anniversary and such and he was lamenting the fact that so mich is still undone, he said it was because there was still not enough help coming down that way, essentially the same shit that the traveking hick said to Bush in Washington, and he also said that he was not surprised that it was taking so long either. He was basically blaming the bureaucrats of Washington, saying that they get ibn the way, and he said that it was no surprise because New York still had “that hole in theground” that they had not yet fixed five years later, so if something there has taken so long, then New Orleans would not be on the fast track either. He was inferring that if New York got such shitty service, then New Orleans would not do any better, and that was th epoiunt that he said that he was trying to make. However, the obvious reference to what is known as Ground Zero in New York, where the World Trade Centers once stood, outraged everyone. it has all created another firsetorm surrounding Nagin, the dude has had more storms around him than all the hurricanes combined lately, and once again, he is on the defensive. He says that he was not trying to demean the tragedy in New York, just that it was the only catastrophe of equal magnitude to the one that he faced last year, so he said what he said. That has not mattered to many, who are yuuertly outraged that nagin would say anything like that about New York, because New York was very generous in its help and assistance to New Orleans last year, despite that hole in the ground that Nagin spoke of. So once again, Ray Nagin has made himself the eye of the storm and has everyone going on about him and the whole situation in New Orleans and so forth. The question is whether or not the comments that he made were justified or not, whether or not the language that he used was appropriate or not, and just what the fuck the dude was thinking when he was on that show saying that. All of these are good querstions, but the real underlying issue here is the meaning behind nagin’s comments, what he was really talking about, and he was not talking about a hole in the ground in New York City or anywhere else, he was referring to an agenda that he has and that he has always had ever since that fateful day last year when Katrina changed New Orleans forever. It changed more than just the landscape and the population base, it changed every agenda that politicians had down there.

Nagin was basiclaly saying that he was oissed off that there has not been enough money and such sent down his way in the last year, and that more was needed. That in and of itself is a fact, but Nagin did not refer to another issue surrounding all of this, and that is what has been done with the money that everyone has sent down that way. All sorts of stories have come out about people abusing the system like mad, signing up again and again undcer assumed names, and taking that Federal money and spending it on essentials for rebuilding your life, shit like cocaine and heroin, and sex change operations and digital TV sets, the necessary stuff. In addition t that, lots of that money has been disappearing into the black hole of Louisiana politiucians, the same places that it has been disappearing to for decades now. the politicians there, Nagin included, are also buying the heroin and cocaine and TV sets and such, I do not think any have had sex change operations, and they want more so that they can continue along this path. Nagin is front and center here, as mayor of New Orleans, he has the final say as to where an awful lot of that money goes, and rest assured that an awful lot of it goes right to him. That is why he is so pissed off, because he feels that he is not grabbing enough of it off of the top like he assumes that people all over New York City are doing, he feels that they are getting his money, and they have had their turn and now it is his. He feels that the hole in the ground he refered to is the reason that he and his pals are not getting what they feel that they deserve, so he came right out and said it on TV. he knows full well that any further monies sent his way just have to have a better oversight than the shit thus far has, and he does not want that, because that means that he won’t be able to get what he wants to get out of this all. That means that he has to take to the TV and get the public all upset all over again about the debacle that was Katrina in New Orleans, egt that stock footage shown of the stranded people and devastated neighborhoods, and say that it is still not much better now, so that everyone just pouts enorrmous pressure on Washington to just send him the money now so that he can dfo what needs to be done and help those poor people that are suffering so. that has been about all that nagin has done for a year now, make like Jerry Lewis will next weekend on his telethon and ask for money to help his cause, although his cause is not a disease, but himself and his agendas. he has become a shameless huckster for himself, playing in guilt and such all across America to do what Lousiiana politicians have been famous for ever sinxce trhe days of Huey Long, and that is steal money from anywhere and everywhere and keep it for themselves.

However, he fucked up when he got into that shit about New York City. I am sure that it is true that Nagibn feels that graft that he could get is going there instead and does not like it one bit and had felt that way all year, but the fact that he came righjt out and said it on Tv shows just how greedy he has become ever sdince he became an international celebrity. Katrina changed his life by taking him from the unknown Mayor of a Southern American city and making him famous worldwide like the Pope, and that shit has gone straight to his head. the statements that the dude makes are increasinbgly grandiose, from that “chocolate city” crack to this latest one, and the dude seems to not care that everyone can see that he is using this all to feather his own nest, after all, the dude is going to be in the history books now because of this. He seems to feel that it has made him come kind of celebrity on the scale of Oprah or something, and thinks that he can say whatever he wants without reproach. he has shamelessly maniupulated this tragedy for a year now and shows no sign of stopping, for him, Katrina was like the war is for Bush, how he wil be remembered, and he has been busily trying to write his own story his own way. The poor people that he says that he stands for are not relly his concern, yes, they were his original political base, but he no longer needs them politicially because he sees that if New Orleans is rebuilt as the Yuppie city that everyone wants, that he’ll be the face of that city, and all those new Yuppies that will move in there will like him and support him because they admired the way that he handled himself during Katrina (these deluded souls), and he can get them to support him, and there is not a politician anywhere in the land that would not trade the support of the poor for the support of the Yuppies, and Nagin won’t either. However, to get that support, he now has to paint himself as a defender of the poor even though he wants them out as well, and when the inevitable happens, and the poor of New Orleans are gone once and for all, Nagin can blame that dastardly Federal governemnt, especially President Bush, who will be retired by them and nothing that anyone can say about him will matter then, so Nagin can blame Bush all he wants. Meanwhile he benefits from the influx of Yuppies there and gets rich and famous so that he can retire in luxury like Bush is one day too. Katrina was the greatest opportunity that dude ever had in his life and he is making the most out of it. He now has the chance to go from obscure politician to some great figure on maybe even a national political level somewhere, the options for the guy are endless now, and that storm one year ago yesterday is to thank for that, and I am sure that Nagin does just that every day now. He is going to milk this for everything that he can get, in true Lousisiana politican style, and the man has large aspirations too, but those aspirations might very well have taken a big hit when he talked about the hole in the ground.

There is no comparison between what happened in New York on September 11th, 2001, and what happened in New Orleans on August 29, 2005. What happened in New Orleans was a hurricane, something that the United States has been dealing with even before they were the United States and something that happens somewhere in the country every year, usually a few times over. No one can do anything when one of these storms approaches, except make forecasts and predictions and then get the fuck out of town, they are acts of nature or God or whatever. What happened in New York on 2001 was something else altogehter, it was an act of terror that was delibrately planned and executed by madmen, and in al its history, America had never seen anything like it before. They had seen hundreds, perhaps thousands, of hurricanes, but only September 11th, 2001. Yes, there were people that died in New Orleans on that day last year, but many of them were people that could not get out or would not leave, yes, chances were limited and weak here, but they did exist for people to blow town ahead of Katrina. No one had any real warning in New York City in 2001, that shit liuterally came out of a clear blue sky and just hit. Many of the people killed in New York were emergency workers trying to help however they could in an insane situation, and they died trying. There were no emergency workers killed in New Orleans last year, because they had all been taken off the job beforehand, essentially leaving the city helpless. While New York’s crews rushed to help, New Orleans’ crews were falling all over themselves getting out of town. New York’s people preformed abmirably under the most extreme of conditions, while New Orleans’ people preformed like a bunch of hicks and rubes and chickenshits and did a shameful job. Nagin forgets that when he speaks of the hole in the ground. His people just sat on their asses waiting for everyone else to come and do the job for them, while New York started cleaning up that hole in the ground within hours of the attack. New York showed that they were prepared for the unthinkable, at least in some way, while New Orleans showed that they were unprepared for the inevitable. None of that seems to have been changed in New Orleans this past year, we still hear stories about incompetency and such in the Pigs there and such, while New York used the horros of September 11th, 2001 to learn from and make plans for another such catastrophe should it ever occur. Everyone says that New Orleans will be wiped out again by another Katrina size hurricane if it hits, and there is one right now in the Atlantic threatening to become just that or even more, but no one says that New York will be wiped out by another terror attack. So there are so many reasons why the comparison that Nagin makes is totally absurd, and all that it comes across as is the whinings of a greedy, self-serving politician that wants more for himself and who no longer cares what he has to do to get it either. That is why those that are so pissed off at trhe dude are justified in what they say, and in blasting Nagin as well. However, Nagin has the ears of the sob sisters and do-gooders of America, those that feel that he has been done an injustice and such, and that he is not just a greedy politician, and they have considerable clout in America today. It was them that sent all that no strings attached money to New Orleans to begin with so everyone could party and such, and they feel that they need to follow the same path once again. In an election year, their voices are pretty loud and can convince some potential voters to go one way or another, and the media will help too, showing that heartwrenching footage over and over again, so Nagin stands a good chance of getting exactly what he wants here. he wil use it in ways that benefit no one except himself and his pals, and those that we see in that footage will be out in the water again, left out totally as Ray Nagin builds his future political career and retirement fund.