Parrot Cage

Bush of the Bayou

After all his manifest ineptitude, after his cowardice in the face of crisis, after bungling his message as much as he bungles his office... he still gets a second term by appealing to his base.

Newly re-elected mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin is now officially the Bush of the Bayou.  Not that his opponent Mitch Landrieu was much of a prize pig either, but Nagin should hold the distinction of being possibly the worst US mayor this side of Marion Barry.  Actually, that's not fair to Barry.  At most, he ignored the crack epidemic; at the very least, he participated in it.  It's not like his incompetence destroyed his entire city.

We know that many Democrats and even progressives have made excuses for Nagin: blaming his appalling performance on the federal government which, conveniently enough, is dominated by Republicans.  Few remember that Nagin was one of these cardboard cut-out Black Republicans, a sock puppet for business interests, up until the moment he realized that no Republican could ever be elected mayor of New Orleans.  As mayor, up until Katrina, he behaved like that mercenary Republican sock puppet: fellating big business at every drop of a coin.

But Nagin's performance during and after Katrina is what should have spelled his permanent departure from American politics.  Historian and Tulane Professor Douglas Brinkley's new book The Great Deluge documents Nagin's many horrific shortcomings.  Most importantly, Brinkley answers the question that many of us were asking as New Orleans was drowning and the Superdome survivors wilting: where the fuck is the mayor?  We heard him call into a radio show with words of distress, but where was he calling from?  We didn't see any pictures of him commanding a war room, or even comforting survivors.  He didn't even call a pathetic press conference like hapless Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to call for a Day of Prayer as one of America's most important cities crumbled into chaos and ruin.  So where was the mayor?

He was hiding in a high-rise hotel.  Although he refuses to specifically address the allegations, Nagin has angrily denounced Brinkley's account of his performance.  Sadly, in a political climate where a politician need only appeal to the prejudices of his base, Nagin has never had to account for his whereabouts or for his inaction during the fall of his city.

Our favorite story from the book is how Nagin, when told that there was a crowd of people approaching the hotel, ran to the top floor and cowered behind locked doors.

Like Bush, the real tragedy is not necessarily that an ignorant or irrational electorate think that Nagin is worthy of office.  No, the really ominous shit is that, like Bush, Nagin still applies for a job that he must know he is incapable of performing.  Why is it that politics is the only profession where there is no definition of "unqualified"?

Alas, do the people of New Orleans deserve Ray Nagin?  Now they do.

New Orleans Mayoral Race--Which One Do They Deserve?

The New Orleans mayoral race will go into a runoff between Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu (brother of hapless Senator Mary Landrieu) and current mayor Ray Nagin.  While Nagin was the only established black candidate in the race, it is surprising that he has any suport at all in New Orleans.  Nagin's inept management of the disaster within his city almost makes him an honorary Bush.  Then again, with all the brown-nosing he's had to do with the administration, is it any wonder the guy's lost in chocolate city?

Those Nashville Elites

Even Nashville power duo Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are contemptuous of the administration's fumblings, post Katrina.  Why won't those fancypants elitists learn to just shut up and sing?

Katrina retrospective

The video footage released recently which shows Bush in a pre-Katrina preparations conference actively exercising his hands-off management style, isn't exactly new.

In a Newsweek article which we read at the time, and even linked to, there is another description of the master crises manager also doing his level best to not get too involved.

The president didn't look all that relieved or happy, however. His eyes were puffy from lack of sleep (he had been awakened all through the night with bulletins), and he seemed cranky and fidgety. A group of reporters and photographers had been summoned by White House handlers to capture a photo op of the commander in chief at his post. Bush stared at them balefully. He rocked back and forth in his chair, furiously at times, asked no questions and took no notes. It almost seemed as though he resented having to strike a pose for the press.

And while we're looking back in time, let's mull over the September predictions of Dick Morris that Katrina would lift Bush's legacy into the stratosphere.

But make no mistake about it: Every day for the next year, voters will see nonstop scenes of federal relief, rebuilding, renovation and reconstruction along with the empathy, sympathy and compassion these efforts imply in the heart of George W. Bush. He may have had a terrible first week, but he will rebound big time in the months to come.

What a dick.

A Minimalist Presidency

The Associated Press got their hands on a video conference held between the President and his FEMA team just before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast states.

Most astute media people have picked up on the significance of Bush's being told that the levees were in jeopardy of breaching--the contrast to his later claim that nobody anticipated that catastrophe marks a certifiable lie.

However, more notable than Bush's "lie" is the opportunity to witness the President's management style.  Katrina was one of the most, if not the most, devastating natural disaster to ever strike this country.  Katrina was also, as the video shows, one of the most anticipated natural disasters.  At this key moment of crisis, as preparations were engaged, the President didn't ask a single question of his advisers nor issue a single unique insight or recommendation.  This is the Clarence Thomas School of Management.  Opening his mouth doesn't exactly inspire confidence, but Bush rarely spares the public that disappointment.  Why should his advisers fare any differently?  If ever there was lingering doubt about Bush's competence in basic management, the video footage provides historical evidence of a puppet Presidency.  The clothes have no emperor.

Oddly enough, the hero of the video seems to be "heckuva job Brownie".  While Bush sits and listens (and perhaps he wasn't even doing that), Michael Brown seems to display full comprehension of the impending disaster and, dare we say it, competence.  We know that Michael Brown wasn't exactly qualified to run FEMA, that he was yet another crony appointment in a corrupt administration, but at least he seems to have tried to rise above his lack of experience and expertise.  The same cannot be said of the President, who seems incapable of growing beyond knowing just enough to pretend to be in charge--and he isn't even very good at that.

Bed Wetting Racists to the Rescue

No racism in the handling of New Orleans' post-Katrina relief effort?  Just why do you think so many white relief workers and government employees would put such credence into David Duke-style urban legends?

Marauding Barbourism

Bush's press conference emphasized his devotion to spending what it takes to rebuild the Gulf States devastated by Katrina, and now Rita.  Perhaps he cares about his red-state kinfolk and genuinely wishes to improve the shattered lives of millions of poor Americans.  Or perhaps this is yet another opportunity to line the pockets of his contributors and puppet-masters. Guess what, he kinda let the cat outta the bag:

The engine that drives growth and job creation in America is the private sector, and the private sector will be the engine that drives the recovery of the Gulf Coast.

The first sign of the administration's regressive funding priorities in Katrina's wake was his conspicuously hasty torching of the Davis-Bacon Act, effectively neutralizing whatever benefit blue-collar workers could gain from government contracts.  See, the Bush people can move quickly when their objectives are at stake.

The next wave of enacting the Republican goal of wealth transfer has been an absolute stunning replay of no-bid contracts to firms outside the Gulf States but not outside the Republican circle of friends.

And it's all about the Haley Barbour connection.

Barbour is one of the singlemost sleazy corporate whores in American history.  He's not just a whore--that word isn't big enough for the level of depravity he's willing to accept for cash--he's a thick-assed, toothless, man-battered, soup-gargling HO-ERR.

As former Chairman of the Republican National Committee he hustled enough johns to start his own lobbying firm.  Name an unscrupulous industry (take your pick: pharmaceutical, gambling, music, oil, tobacco...) and Barbour has been their he-bitch: enabling their lax scruples and despoiling public funds.

In 2003 Barbour was elected governor of his home state of Mississippi.  Guess how he was able to afford such an endeavor?  After a typically racist campaign won him the hearts of the reddest of red states he soon began implementing the will of his pharmaceutical clients with draconian Medicaid restructuring.  Barbour simply dropped the 50,000 most needy Mississippians from the Medicaid rolls; and who might benefit from that?  Not content to let his pharmaceutical buddies gorge themselves at the state level, Barbour has gone national with his clients' craven appetites.

Welcome Katrina.

Barbour's remarkably unremarkable response to, or preparation for, Hurricane Katrina--on par with his hapless Democratic counterpart in Louisiana--is being retold and respun by the usual suspects in the parrotocracy: it isn't easy to repackage Barbour's pornographic relations with Washington money and Wall Street predators as a benefit to Gulf States, but leave it to Newsweek to obfuscate this orgy of greed which we all pay for.

The corruption which brought us Iraq, has quickly descended upon these Gulf States as yet another opportunity to enrich the rich.  Barbour's lobbying firm spawned New Bridge Strategies which, as their home page proudly explains, was created exclusively to exploit Iraq's miseries and America's open wallet.  The director is the notorious Joe Allbaugh, whose credits include parlaying a staff position on Bush's Texas political team into directorship of FEMA, only to hand that job to One Heckuva' Brownie.  Unlike team Bush, Allbaugh was johnny-on-the-spot for Katrina: that cat was on the ground securing contracts for his clients before Bush could even cancel his vacation.

Is it any wonder that dull parrot supreme Howard Fineman would go onto the September 17th edition of the Chris Matthews Show and reiterate his stock judgment that Barbour is presidential material, all evidence to the contrary.  Hey, why not cut out the middle-man puppet-figures like Bush and simply hand the treasury over to these Barboury pirates?  Because every pirate needs a beard.  And every pirate has his parrot.

Do you get it yet America?  Like Iraq, Katrina is yet another excuse to cut spending on hard-won and desperately needed social programs to transfer wealth to the Republicanly well-connected.  Complete conversion to a Banana Republic is nearly complete.

 

Pinching One Heckuva' Brownie

Failed Arabian Horse Judge Wrangler, one-time recipient of Presidential kudos, and recently resigned FEMA director Michael Brown testified in the bogus Congressional inquiry.  In pure Republican fashion, rather than address the calamity of Katrina, Brown was concerned about his failure to control public perception. 

As Brown himself noted, his own public unravelling began with horsesass.org.  But with a resume more padded than a heavy metal rythmn section, the little white lies were bound to catch up somewhere.  Sadly, this was not a victimless crime.

Favorite Brownie quote:

I’ve overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I’m doing, and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it.

Remember, Brownie's been on the job since 2003, so if you're curious about 150 national disasters in the last two years that you might have missed, you aren't the only one.  This guy is such a pathological resume padder that we predict he will soon pioneer a 12 step program geared to his own peculiar addiction.

The Center for American Progress has documented many of Brown's failings while TPM Cafe lets readers do fact-checking on his testimony.

Just so you don't think Brownie is speaking his mind as a free man, it bears reminding that he's still on the Bush payroll.

At least Brownie will leave a legacy, beyond the mayhem he facilitated in New Orleans.

Brown apologists may be rare, and clueless, but they do exist.

Democrats are in a snit over Brownie trying to blame Louisiana Democrats for the Katrina mess.  But these particular Democrats are not exactly prize pigs and, despite their silence, will eventually be exposed for their responsibility in sinking New Orleans.  Nobody needs this kind of Democrat: Kathleen Blanco, Mary Landrieu, and Ray Nagin, may you never hold public office again.

And Brownie?  The resume construction resumes.

Fiscal Conservatives Hunt Unicorns

The President's new proposals to do and spend "whatever it takes" to rebuild New Orleans and the states devastated by Hurricane Katrina have finally jarred awake those mythical fiscal conservatives who once roamed this great land, heralding small government, cheap government. 

That, of course, was before they came to power.  Many have since embraced deficit-spending as an article of faith, now that their lips are firmly pressed against the trickle-down.

This new prospect of addressing poverty and racial division has suddenly reminded them that they really can't afford much more.  Perhaps it was all the reminders of LBJ's war on poverty which set them into a cold sweat.

Or maybe it was Clinton taking to the airwaves to suggest the unsuggestible: that we actually pay for our spending.

When faced with the prospect of repealing the tax cuts on themselves, these Congressmen may very well start tightening the budget.  John McCain's pork-for-reconstruction plan might be a good place to start.

And where are the deficit hawks when it comes to massive spending to fund elective wars overseas?  Too busy spending their tax cuts to notice?

On a related note:  LALARRY has a nice answer to capitalist twerp Stephen Moore's anti-spending piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Bush's New Deal

This morning we heard Garrison Keillor tell Al Franken that he was glad to see Bush transmogrifying (our word, not his)into Franklin Roosevelt.  He's not the only one that thinks so.

We find it puzzling that old-school liberals are thinking that our president has found Jesus and will address the conditions of poverty and racism in logical FDR ways.  Why the optimism?  Well, because they're old-school liberals.

The President's vow to "do what it takes" does not mean that he will do what is smart or even do what will work.  Instead, the Bush administration has already given us a taste for what they will inflict on the Gulf States.  It ain't FDR, it's fucking Murray Rothbard.

No, we've seen the results of "opportunity zones".  Anyone remember when they were called "Free Enterprise Zones"?  We heard that a lot after the 2002 Los Angeles riots--the last time the federal government was forced to confront the disparities of race and poverty in our country (and the effective last nail in the coffin of the Bush I Presidency).  Anyone remember how those Free Enterprise Zones worked out?  Well, it brought Wal-Mart to the ghetto with all the ensuing economic stagnation that it guarantees.  It benefitted corporations more than the people living there.

If anyone has an example of anything benefitting South Central Los Angeles arising from a Free Enterprise Zone, we'd love to hear it.

The Republican War on Poverty will be their usual class warfare: regressive taxation, privatization, zero regulation, and wage strangulation.  It's a war that's killing the poor, not poverty.

We can survive natural disasters, it's the human disasters that kill.