I don’t do political stuff on this blog. I’m not interested in being a political commentator. I have opinions, and some strong ones, and probably better reasoned ones that I see paraded in what passes for political commentary in the newspaper, but my great ambition in life has never been to be a political pundit. And I’m not starting now.
I’m fairly conservative. No big surprise there. I’m not far right, but I’m definitely – on average – right of center. Some of my beliefs don’t fall to the right – I’m no great fan of the death penalty, for example – but – on average – I hew to the conservative side of things.
I considered myself a Republican, and voted that way, for most of my adult life. Until Aug. 29, 2005, or actually just a few days after Aug. 29, 2005, as the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina unfolded in my home state of Louisiana, my home town of New Orleans and the neighboring Mississippi Gulf Coast. I spent four days getting my then 83-year-old mother and then 87-year-old aunt out of the city. My older brother, who lives in a Louisiana parish (county) adjacent to Mississippi, was not heard from for a week after the storm. Family was scattered all over the United States.
The federal government, led by the Bush Administration, proved to be inept when it came to responding to the disaster. As columnist George Will wrote at the time, whatever else you wanted to say about Republicans, they were supposed to be competent. In the early days after the storm, the White House political strategists and PR people were more interested in making sure the President had plenty of staged “photo ops” to blunt the criticism he’d received.
People were dying on the streets of New Orleans, and the White House was worried about photo ops. I had stomached Tom Delay, and I had stomached the Republican spending binge. But it was the photo ops that broke it. I couldn’t stomach it any longer.
Now it’s another political party, another administration, and another catastrophe affecting my home state of Louisiana. Eleven men died. The environmental disaster continues to unfold. Whole industries are being destroyed. And the CEO of BP goes yachting and the President of the United States wants to “kick ass” but not before he goes golfing, for the 39th time since he took office, already more than his predecessor did in eight years in office.
On Sunday evening, C-Span showed a remarkable video of the president of Plaquemines Parish (south of New Orleans) calmly telling visitors how the government and BP have together made a bad situation far, far worse. The video is 35 minutes long, and it is a devastating indictment.
I’m fairly conservative. No big surprise there. I’m not far right, but I’m definitely – on average – right of center. Some of my beliefs don’t fall to the right – I’m no great fan of the death penalty, for example – but – on average – I hew to the conservative side of things.
I considered myself a Republican, and voted that way, for most of my adult life. Until Aug. 29, 2005, or actually just a few days after Aug. 29, 2005, as the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina unfolded in my home state of Louisiana, my home town of New Orleans and the neighboring Mississippi Gulf Coast. I spent four days getting my then 83-year-old mother and then 87-year-old aunt out of the city. My older brother, who lives in a Louisiana parish (county) adjacent to Mississippi, was not heard from for a week after the storm. Family was scattered all over the United States.
The federal government, led by the Bush Administration, proved to be inept when it came to responding to the disaster. As columnist George Will wrote at the time, whatever else you wanted to say about Republicans, they were supposed to be competent. In the early days after the storm, the White House political strategists and PR people were more interested in making sure the President had plenty of staged “photo ops” to blunt the criticism he’d received.
People were dying on the streets of New Orleans, and the White House was worried about photo ops. I had stomached Tom Delay, and I had stomached the Republican spending binge. But it was the photo ops that broke it. I couldn’t stomach it any longer.
Now it’s another political party, another administration, and another catastrophe affecting my home state of Louisiana. Eleven men died. The environmental disaster continues to unfold. Whole industries are being destroyed. And the CEO of BP goes yachting and the President of the United States wants to “kick ass” but not before he goes golfing, for the 39th time since he took office, already more than his predecessor did in eight years in office.
On Sunday evening, C-Span showed a remarkable video of the president of Plaquemines Parish (south of New Orleans) calmly telling visitors how the government and BP have together made a bad situation far, far worse. The video is 35 minutes long, and it is a devastating indictment.
Rod Dreher at BeliefNet, a native Louisianan now living in Philadelphia, waxed hot today about the story in the New York Times that suggests longstanding collusion between BP and the federal government as a major contributing cause to the explosion and inability to control the well afterward. BP has also been one of the leading proponents of President Obama’s cap-and-trade energy proposals. Not that politics has anything to do with this, of course.
And three weeks ago, Democratic "operative" James Carville ripped into the Obama Administration for its response to the oil spill; I never thought I would agree with anything Carville ever said (other than he loves LSU), but I agreed with him here.
Disasters happen. Life is full of risks. As we’re learning from BP and our federal government, life is also full of gross incompetence. People die. Environments are destroyed. But our leaders will have their photo ops and their golf games, and the worst part is that they don’t see anything wrong with what they're doing. Or not doing. I'm outraged. And I'm heartsick.
There’s no albatross around the neck of the federal government this time. There’s an oil-soaked brown pelican, this time.
And three weeks ago, Democratic "operative" James Carville ripped into the Obama Administration for its response to the oil spill; I never thought I would agree with anything Carville ever said (other than he loves LSU), but I agreed with him here.
Disasters happen. Life is full of risks. As we’re learning from BP and our federal government, life is also full of gross incompetence. People die. Environments are destroyed. But our leaders will have their photo ops and their golf games, and the worst part is that they don’t see anything wrong with what they're doing. Or not doing. I'm outraged. And I'm heartsick.
There’s no albatross around the neck of the federal government this time. There’s an oil-soaked brown pelican, this time.
