When Mike Meets Katrina
I don't intend to write up a lot of posts about Hurricane Katrina, partly because I'm not sure how some of my sentiments will be received. We can all agree that this is a colossal disaster, and the priority should be returning the South to stability as soon as is humanly possible. If you donated money to the terrorist-sympathizing Indonesians, or the pedophile enablers in Phuket, Thailand, you should be donating money to your countrymen. I didn't give jack for the tsunami relief, and even I'm going to be donating a few bucks this time around.
Anyway, that's not the point. One of the truly despicable elements of this tragedy is that people are trying to politicize it. There are (erroneous) claims that President Bush pulled money away from Louisiana for homeland security projects, and that the additional funds (assuming they were spent on the levees in the first place) would have alleviated the problem. This, of course, ignores the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers had been recommending stronger measures to reinforce the levees for years before President Bush came into office, and the measures hadn't been taken.
There are similar claims that, since various National Guard units from the South are deployed to Iraq, they're unavailable to help. Aside from local, parish/county, and state police units, there are thousands of National Guard personnel from effected and neighboring states who have been activated and deployed to help in the relief efforts.
There are even people who are claiming, without any scientific evidence whatsoever, that the so-called phenomenon of "global warming" is leading to stronger hurricanes, and that President Bush's refusal to ratify Kyoto is partly to blame. This is completely irresponsible, so it's not surprising that Gerhard Schroeder's environmental minister is one of the ones who's saying it loudest. (Of course, Schroeder's party, whose foreign policy platform is essentially "A vote for Schroeder is a vote against Bush!", is fifteen points behind in the polls, with only two weeks to go.)
And it's not surprising that Michael Moore is at the bandwagon's vanguard.
Anyway, I'm not going to harp on this issue. It's despicable to attempt to politicize something like this, just like it was despicable for Islamic clerics to claim that the U.S. government caused the tsunami with their top secret earthquake machine. Be aware that it's going on, and do your best to ignore it.
Anyway, that's not the point. One of the truly despicable elements of this tragedy is that people are trying to politicize it. There are (erroneous) claims that President Bush pulled money away from Louisiana for homeland security projects, and that the additional funds (assuming they were spent on the levees in the first place) would have alleviated the problem. This, of course, ignores the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers had been recommending stronger measures to reinforce the levees for years before President Bush came into office, and the measures hadn't been taken.
There are similar claims that, since various National Guard units from the South are deployed to Iraq, they're unavailable to help. Aside from local, parish/county, and state police units, there are thousands of National Guard personnel from effected and neighboring states who have been activated and deployed to help in the relief efforts.
There are even people who are claiming, without any scientific evidence whatsoever, that the so-called phenomenon of "global warming" is leading to stronger hurricanes, and that President Bush's refusal to ratify Kyoto is partly to blame. This is completely irresponsible, so it's not surprising that Gerhard Schroeder's environmental minister is one of the ones who's saying it loudest. (Of course, Schroeder's party, whose foreign policy platform is essentially "A vote for Schroeder is a vote against Bush!", is fifteen points behind in the polls, with only two weeks to go.)
And it's not surprising that Michael Moore is at the bandwagon's vanguard.
Anyway, I'm not going to harp on this issue. It's despicable to attempt to politicize something like this, just like it was despicable for Islamic clerics to claim that the U.S. government caused the tsunami with their top secret earthquake machine. Be aware that it's going on, and do your best to ignore it.
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