Plop plop fizz fizz

The President, in one of his spontaneously totally stage-managed appearances amidst his usual fortress of solitude, in this case, Jackson Square in New Orelans’ somewhat depopulated French Quarter, announced a massive, massive infusion of federal aid into the “Gulf Opportunity Zone”. For good measure, the President noted the history of racial discrimination associated with poverty in the region (and, frankly, the rest of the nation).
One might be tempted to say “fool me once, shame on you…” But that would be incorrect. The President promised a massive federal infusion, and we will see a massive infusion of federal cash. In this case, Halliburton already has a large presence in the Gulf region (the Gulf of Mexico, region, that is) as its principal business (at least, before Dick Cheney made its principal business “bid rigging”) was [oil] rig building. Similarly, our friends and mercenaries from Blackwater Security are also on hand in New Orleans, making sure that the property rights of affluent White people take precedence over… well, anything else. Frankly, Bechtel and Dynegy are probably already in town too, so we have the full cast of characters associated these days with… large scale federal reconstruction projects. Perhaps “from Fertile Crescent to Crescent City”, or “Baghdad to Bayou” will become corporate slogans (and hence, post titles!)
Of course, given that there wasn’t any money in the federal budget to, say, shore up the levees and flood wall system in such a way as to have, say, resulted in less damage in the first place, one wonders where the massively greater amount of money to clean up the mess will be coming from. I think the answer there will be “from Beijing to Bayou” (via Bechtel, of course). Deficits don’t matter… Ronald Reagan proved that.
When politics give you lemons… well, Karl Rove just sees the opportunity to mix some Tom Collinses (virgin Collinses for our esteemed reformed alcoholic President, of course…) In this case, the triple play of (1) Cindy Sheehan calling attention to our… problems… in Iraq, (2) Hurricane Katrina and the non-federal response (in the usual course of events, when someone like the President “takes personal responsibility”, one might ask where his resignation letter is; of course, we haven’t had anything resembling the usual course of events since December of 2000 when the Supreme Court elected him President), and worst of all (3) record high gasoline prices… were causing some trouble (like an inconceivable 38% approval rating, two points below the level of people who would support Bush if he knife-raped a nun on live t.v.; of course, Presidential misdeeds are one thing; high gas prices are another matter.)
Anyway, with all this, the Bushmen just figure we’ll see (1) a smilin’ new Supreme Court Chief Justice, a virtual clone of the late prior Chief Justice (not to mention his law clerk!) and (2) more opportunities to get Karl himself off the front page, and now, (3) a massive new government spending opportunity! I won’t even start with “you know what they’d say if a Democrat proposed this…” What would be the point? (Turns out Brownie was doing a heck of a job! But for his criminal incompetence, this massive pork-barrel sweetheart contract program might have been less politically palatable.)
The party of small government, ladies and gentlemen… it’ll be here all week (at least). Well, it’s small in the sense of its response to the needs of the people, anyway. Especially in times of dire need. At least we can be sure that we’ll get the same great level of government service from the Bush Administration in the next 3 1/2 years as we have received in the last 4 1/2. I knew there was a reason the post titled referenced Alka Seltzer…