Katrina Plus Two Years: Bush Goes to the Chocolate City, Upset Not to Find Willie Wonka:
George W. Bush is a terrible human being, and the world would have been better off if he had died in a drunk driving accident back in the 1970s. The Rude Pundit knows, he knows, fuck, how he knows, how fashionable it is to love the sinner but hate the sin, how people talk about what a good guy Bush is when he's not fucking up the country, the kind of guy you'd like to have a near-beer with. Fuck that. Relativism is for pussies. Bush is the kind of man who would finger fuck a man's wife and then giggle when he gives that man a shake with his unwashed hand.
Which is more or less what he did on his day-and-a-half tour of New Orleans and the Katrina coast.
Of all the stupid fucking things Bush said on his southern jaunt (and they were legion), this one had to be scraping bottom: "There's nothing more hopeful than to be with somebody who says, welcome to my home, particularly given the fact that these mixed-use housing projects have replaced old-style low-income housing projects that, frankly, didn't work. In other words, the storm came, created a lot of heartbreak and heartache, but people took a different look at how best to help people in their homes." Bush was talking to "new homeowners" at River Garden, a mixed-income housing complex, which is shorthand for "less poor negroes per square foot."
Look at what Bush said: we knew that the shitty hellholes we created for the negroes were shitty hellholes, so good thing the city got wrecked, 'cause we sure as fuck weren't gonna do anything unless we could steal the property back. Rents for a two-bedroom at River Garden start at $1200 a month, unless you're in one of the low-income subsidized housing that comprises 30% of River Garden. This'll work out just fine. Aren't conservatives supposed to be against social experimentation? Or maybe they just think this is some kind of reality show they can watch from a distance. This kind of shit is hard to do when you've got things like an economic base and a functioning infrastructure. But in a situation like New Orleans?
That's par for the course, eh? Unless the negroes are rioting or bobbing face down in sewage-filled floodwater, then just keep 'em controlled. But post-Katrina, oh, shit, they had to pay attention. When Bush was at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School, giving his only longer than a couple of seconds speech in New Orleans, he spent more time talking about what he sees as a good education than he did telling the kids that all the trashed, destroyed buildings they have to pass everyday will be replaced, that the neighborhood, the Lower Ninth Ward, will be safe from floodwaters despite the fact that the Lower 9 is still just as vulnerable as it was August 29, 2005. No, no, let's show he's a teachin' president: "I'll never forget, one time when I was governor of Texas, a woman looked at me and she said, 'Reading is the new civil right.' It had a profound impact on the policies that we have pursued since I've been in public office, and Laura has pursued as a lifelong reader. And that person was right."
The man was staring at a group of black children and parents and others whose homes were fucked up piles of mold, who lost almost everything they had, and he was telling them about how cool it is to read. Well, shit, at least he didn't read them any goat stories, a sure sign, as we know, of the apocalypse.
And then the motherfucker went to Mississippi and made a backhanded swipe at Louisiana: "The American people have written a check -- written checks for $114 billion to help the people on the coast...Now, of that $114 billion, about 80 percent has been obligated. Mississippi has taken the obligated money and is spending it wisely." Compare that to what he said in Louisiana: "Of the $114 billion spent so far -- and resources allocated so far, about 80 percent of the funds have been disbursed or available. And, of course, Don [Powell, the czar] and I will try to work through the bureaucracy in Washington, just like folks down here are trying to work through the bureaucracy to make sure that there are adequate plans for the money." Yes, Mississippians got the big beat down from Katrina, but, again and again, it needs to be pointed out: they didn't have to rebuild the state's largest city, they didn't have to deal with the damage caused by man-made incompetence, they didn't have to deal with the intractable poverty compounded by the storm. And who, exactly, put all that bureaucracy in place?
Fuck it. As long as Bush is in office, as long as this soulless approximation of a human being keeps running around and making feints at care, New Orleans is fucked. Bush came down to the quarters this week, and he danced a little with the negroes, but when he heads back to the White House, they've still gotta toil in the heat.
By the way, the Rude Pundit's eaten at Dookie Chase's, the same restaurant Bush patronized this week. He's right. The food's delicious. Huzzah for small favors.
By the way, go to When the Saints to do some good. And click over to their links to do more good. As the people of New Orleans know, despite the sight of Bush and Laura and Karl Rove eating fried catfish, we're on our own.
