Cabal

Grand Old Spenders

by pyrrho

the Cato Institute report on our big spending president: here.

There always seems to be a practical concern stopping conservatives from following through on the theories of fiscal responsibility they like to claim are their home turf.  Always some practical concern turns up... like an island in Alaska that MUST HAVE A BRIDGE... QUICK!  Before a democrat gets in office there!  Hurry!

Are they wrong or duplicitous... well as I've learned here, it doesn't matter that much, once you know it's pure fantasy, self delusion can mix with public delusion in a flexible range of ratios.

The report also notes Bush' big spending ways holds even if you subtract defense and homeland security spending.  At this point, using Clinton as the standard as the most recent Democratic President, there can be little doubt, can there, that the Democratic Party has more right to claims of fiscal responsibility.  Fair?

BTW: on the related topic of why world opinion matters even if we don't really care what they think... Clinton says: "What Americans need to understand is that ... every single day of the year, our government goes into the market and borrows money from other countries to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, and our tax cuts".

Every day.  Every day we borrow money from the world to pay for these deferred taxes that Bush has created in the form of spending and tax cuts.  We are the beggar here, the world, our benefactor, and does that not amount to a wake up call? If not now, then when?

Doctors That Don't Believe In Medicine

by pyrrho

Bush accepts federal responsibility for response to Katrina.  I'm glad he did, but I have to admit it does not create any positive expectations for me, indeed, my current experiences tell me it will be a reason to make further power grabs "in order to get things right".  This is what has already happened with the creation of DHS and rolling FEMA into that, and FEMA operates far worse than prior to this reorganization.  The party of small government complains it was red tape that struck them immobile.

My distrust has spread, and while I still claim an open mind, I also have to admit a few lingering questions.

Let me tell you that I believe in diversity, I believe two heads are better than one -- if they have two perspectives to share between them.  It's a good thing to work things through with people of different skill sets.  It's good to include liberal and conservative ideals in American legislation.  But some conservatives loath government and believe government simply can do no good due to some moral disadvantage which supposedly epitomizes all common social infrastructure (which is what government really is, in a democracy among free, not "governed", people), such as  Grover "get government small enough to drown it in a bathtub" Norquist. 

I question if this sort of government-loathing conservative can possibly be given the reins of government.

As an analogy, I have no problem with Christian Scientists or Reiki practitioners or anyone else that doesn't believe in modern medical practice.  They are fine by me, but I don't want one as my doctor.  I don't want surgery on me performed by a doctor that will say, "Surgery never works, but I'll give it a go... (you want anesthesia?)"

Belief in the fundamental ineffectiveness of government is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Is it Class or Race?

... or "other"?

by pyrrho

First, I've gone 1000% compassionate liberal as a result of Katrina.  The message to me... all the government failed, why?  Why?  Well the poor were abandoned to social chaos... DECADES before Katrina and ESPECIALLY in New Orleans.  Our parties failed us, we failed ourselves, and Katrina showed us what it really means... it showed us that you can't ignore the margins when you are talking about "national" security.

But then there is this question, was it a class that was left behind or a race.

I vote "class".  It was elderly, it was the weak, it was the poor.  It was poverty that was left behind.  It was the unlucky (what a day to lose your car keys)...

But I am compelled to point out that racism also played a role, in ensuring that a former slave class is still locked in poverty, ever since the end of slavery, and in ensuring that we have some serious lack of compassion many cases. 

Btw, this first hand account is very interesting, by two EMS workers from San Francisco at a conference in New Orleans.  Btw, yes, they are socialists you might find them biased for the poor, still, you ought to read their account, I think, which is a first hand story of what they went through, complete with some allegations which must, MUST be gotten to the bottom of, such as the police lying to the group of survivors to get them to stop camping in front of the police station where they thought they were safe, such as the police harassing and eventually breaking up their survival camp on a New Orleans overpass, and certainly the accusation that neighboring parishes were stopping New Orleans residents on bridges and sending them back into the city.

Let Them Stay

by pyrrho

Sounds like they are going to let the residents stay, as they should.  There is a power struggle between the city, state and local governments, as one local resident observed,, because that's the degraded state of our governmental bodies.

Johnny White's Sports Bar in New Orleans never shut down.   To shut a bar that's made it this far, now, in a dry part of New Orleans is un-New Orleans-like. Not that I can really be the judge of that but in general, a person's right to hold out on their property is fundamental.  I admire those that are willing to stay.  Maybe get them to sign a liability waiver... just in case.  I'd want to stay if I could.