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Rising waters

I’m finding it exceptionally difficult to grasp the magnitude of the disaster in the Gulf Coast.  Quite apart from the initial damage and the post-hurricane flooding, the homelessness and starvation, the horrors of the Superdome and the stupefying ineptitude of the Dauphin, there’s the question of what will happen over the next few months as all that water sloshes around with all those nasty pathogens.  I mean, it’s not like we have a health care system for poor people, now.

Two mass-media things jumped out at me yesterday after I completed my Secret Mission in northern Virginia.  One was USA Today, which I picked up as I left my hotel, and whose headlines, throughout the first two sections, amounted basically to one large composite headline, USA: Y’ALL ARE SCREWED.  Amidst all the Katrina coverage, there were two magazine-length essays on what amounts to the collapse of our health care system for anyone who’s not affected by the repeal of the estate tax; I found it hard to believe I was reading the McPaper, which, back in the day, I used to rely on for 800-word stories and graphics like “USA Brighter, Happier than Sweden and El Salvador.” Apparently USA Today is running a three-day series on health care; it began here, continued here, and today’s installment features six separate stories, starting with this one on the cost of asthma medication.  (Jamie is the only person in our family who does not have asthma; the rest of us are basically Flonase-Vanceril Center.) The health care crisis, multiplied by Katrina, looks to me more or less like the looming oil crisis multiplied by Katrina: bad, worse, worst.  No doubt Republicans will propose a tax cut to respond to all this.

Speaking of Republicans, the other thing was the palpable desperation of Christian-Stalinist Radio, whose apparatchiks were flailing all day trying to insist that Bush’s response to the crisis in the Gulf Coast was full of compassionated concern.  Three or four times as I drove back to Pennsylvania I heard right-wing radio “reporters” “report” that the President looked out the window of Air Force One from a distance of only a few thousand feet and remarked repeatedly about the devastation. Now there’s a leader, these reports said. After only a couple of days, he went and looked out the window. As for me, I shudder to think what his remarks might have been—most likely bon mots along the line of his initial 9/11 response, “there’s one terrible pilot.” But I expect we’ll be hearing a lot along these lines in the coming days, about how moved and tearful the Commander in Chief is.  There will be no accounts of Dear Leader playing the guitar or riding his bicycle or clearing brush or flying to San Diego to preen and liken himself to FDR.  People who insist that Bush actually spent his time in this way as the hurricane bore down on the coast will be detained indefinitely for questioning.  And then in a few months, there will be a TV movie, Katrina: Time of Crisis, in which Timothy Bottoms demands to leave Crawford at once, snarling, “If some tinhorn hurricane wants me, tell it to come and get me!”

In the meantime, let’s check in on the Bizarro Gulf Coast, where a huge hurricane has left tens of thousands of well-to-do white people homeless.  In response to the crisis in the Bizarro Gulf World,

– C-5, C-17, and C-130 transport planes are flown repeatedly to the Bizarro New Orleans airport in order to evacuate refugees.  Some fool suggests sending fleets of buses to take well-to-do white people to a stadium in Texas, and is immediately fired.

– Bizarro news services report on how some intrepid well-to-do white people are “finding” food and drink in shuttered and battered stores.

– Bizarro Jonah Goldberg demands that we speak of the starving and desperate refugees with respect.

There’s more heartbreaking, infuriating info on what should have been done, or would have been done under any competent national leadership, from Will Bunch at Editor and Publisher.  And a comprehensive list of disaster-relief organizations, compiled by Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture.  Give what you can, and then do it again.

Posted by on 09/01 at 02:13 PM

  1. kos is reporting that just today the Republican National Committee sent out a mass email asking for help to make the estate tax repeal permanent, with no mention of the hurricane or its aftermath.

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  03:29 PM

  2. The video of the region speaks volumes for the horrendous toxicity of the water that is either still standing, or has moved towards other place.  Those divergent colors and streaks on the surface, that lovely brown ooze, the wild bubbling and clearly otherworldly color left on this and that surface.  How do those talking heads constantly fail to mention the environmental destruction that will lead to a health care crisis whose dimensions will dwarf the costs of rebuilding from this disaster.  That region of the country is already one of the most toxically polluted in the world, certainly the most so in the US.  Chemical stews of unimaginable morphing combinations and permutations are stirring around as wave after wave of oil and gasoline covers the surfaces of water and land.  Sewage and the dead(of all species) add biological compounds to this stew, increasing the outflow of disease vectors that will reside in that region for decades.  And who will suffer?? Well golleeee sergeant, if we just let the sickness get rid of all those poor people, and especially descendents of slaves, we could have us here a right good little community with jobs for all our lily white kids and be free from crime.

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  03:47 PM

  3. the Republican National Committee sent out a mass email asking for help to make the estate tax repeal permanent, with no mention of the hurricane or its aftermath.

    I’m shocked.  The RNC isn’t usually so behind the curve on these things; they should be sending out bulletins on how New Orleans demonstrates that we need to shrink government to the size at which we can drown it in the bathtub.  (Oops, did Grover say “drown”?) Maybe tomorrow they’ll send out their mass email demanding passage of the new post-Katrina “investment stimulation” tax cuts.

    Posted by Michael  on  09/01  at  03:54 PM

  4. The crazy thing about the health care crisis is that it is a self-inflicted wound.  The only question is if we’ll be satisfied with blowing our foot off, or if we’ll insist on “eight to the noggin”.

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  04:00 PM

  5. Perhaps a new aphorism is in order, Michael?  Something like, “a liberal is a conservative whose home is under five feet of water.”

    I’m sure I’ve already seen calls for tax cuts to stimulate the economy, or perhaps I’ve been hallucinating that.  But Bush did mention that insurance fraud would be punishable by death, or something, because clearly the possibility of insurance fraud is our most pressing problem right now.

    Worst president ever.

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  04:09 PM

  6. Better still.  This is clearly the moment to suggest that the country move to dismantle the obviously inadequate FEMA and replace it with individual private disaster savings accounts.

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  04:12 PM

  7. I would love a bizarro world solutions to our real world problems.

    Posted by Amardeep  on  09/01  at  04:18 PM

  8. Thanks, emd!  Now you’re thinking ownership society-style.  And Betsy, insurance fraud is not the most pressing problem right now.  Looting is the most pressing problem.  That’s why local law enforcement has been instructed to stop looters.

    By the way, this is brilliant.

    Posted by Michael  on  09/01  at  04:19 PM

  9. Look, these people hate government—they’re like libertarians, only worse, b/c they think government should occasionally intervene to keep people from making love to each other.

    So why is anyone surprised they don’t make competent bureaucrats?

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  04:25 PM

  10. Laugh all you want, Michael, but when you criticize our president in a time of crisis, the hurricanes win.

    And the French don’t even have a word for “bayou.”

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/01  at  04:39 PM

  11. In related news, God fucking damn it.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/01  at  04:49 PM

  12. -Bizarro oil companies pledge not to respond to panicking consumers by raising prices unnecessarily and promise that any outlandish profits that may unintentionally occur this month from the disaster will be pledged directly to relief efforts.

    Posted by gzombie  on  09/01  at  05:07 PM

  13. The rhetoric around accountability is understandably angry.  I myself have gravitated from tears to rage (like so many, I truly love NO and find the disinterest in doing more to protect it in advance unforgivable).

    Yet I worry that the attempt to place causation will prevent a debate on risk management from emerging.  Disaster prevention is about controlling risk, not certain prophylaxis against tragedy. 

    We know for certain that Bush chose to ignore clear warnings of a natural disaster and he chose to let the risk increase.  He consciously chose to take even greater chances with one of the top disaster threats to the United States.  More simply, he decided to up the stakes in our perennial gamble with hurricanes.

    That is the measurement of leader and crisis prevention: how well did s/he manage risk, did s/he do what was wise and prudent or did s/he elevate the danger.

    The “Bush caused” this or “we could have stopped the flooding” that are sharper and suit the distress more but they will block out a very simple standard to judging Bush’s choices re: FEMA and disaster readiness.

    Having said that, I am ready to scream further obscenities at these fools.

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  05:11 PM

  14. Good one, bizarro gzombie.  That one’s really twisted.

    And Chris, pardon my insubordination and all, but didn’t the hurricanes just win?  And aren’t we wallowing through all the ways in which Team Bush decided it wasn’t even worth it to try to play defense?

    I do hope we find Fats Domino.  I’d be happy for any glimmer of hope at the moment, actually.  Massive resignations from the top down would help, but only as a modest start.

    Posted by Michael  on  09/01  at  05:13 PM

  15. Actually, Michael, there’s some truth to the bizarro-notion that there are hundreds of thousands of stranded upper-middle class SUV drivers in NO and the surrounding area...and that they’re looting.  As I wrote earlier:

    1. The looters I’ve seen on television aren’t 100% black, but the only places photos and video of looters are available (because the only places that network cameras are able to access) are in the downtown section of NO...which is a predominantly black and impoverished district. Talk of looters in the outlying areas--such what reportedly happened at the Walmart in an upscale NO suburb--indicate to anyone with knowledge of the area that there are, in fact, many middle to upper-middle class white people who have also turned looter.

    2. There’s a class of experienced hurricane survivors who simply refuse to leave no matter how severe the storm. These people aren’t mostly poor...in fact, they’re mostly middle-class individualists whose parents rode out Camille and who themselves rode out Andrew. They wouldn’t have left no matter what, and now they’re stuck in what’s quickly become a near war-zone.

    I only say this because more and more talk among the left-leaning centers on the idea that the humanitarian disaster is directly linked to the class of citizenry whose lives have been destroyed.  Despite the disaster-preparedness (or severe lack thereof) of an administration more incompetent by the day, I think we can save the vitriol for a couple of days and recognize that they’re scrambling to save everyone they can in whatever way they can...but that way’s extremely limited.  All we see on the news are pictures of NO: I’ve not seen, heard or read much at all about the fate of the citizens in the even more low-lying parishes around NO.  The fact that they can’t even be penetrated at the moment I find horrifying in the extreme.  (I should note: I’m a Louisiana native, familiar with the area and in a state of sheer impotent panic at the moment, i.e. I apologize in advance if I sound a little shrill.)

    Posted by Scott Eric Kaufman  on  09/01  at  06:36 PM

  16. A quick charity plug.  I think that some of the mainline denomination groups are doing good work.  Billmon has a good post up with links.  Episcopal Relief and Development works through local dioceses, and in Mississipi they are coordinating with the Lutheran Disaster Relief.  As an Episcopalian, that would be my choice.  It is a religious group, but they don’t check IDs at the door, and they’re not in the business of proselytizing.

    They are housing people in conference centers etc.  It sounds a lot better than going to the Astrodome.

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  06:43 PM

  17. Strange, innit?  USA Today now stands out as a newspaper with a conscience.

    What a week. It’s been over five years now (since the 2000 election); will the tragedy never stop?

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  07:09 PM

  18. Oh, I don’t doubt that there’s looting going on in upscale neighborhoods, Scott—though I just caught half an hour of cable coverage of NO, and it is horrific:  the Hannity-O’Reilly crew are doing almost nothing but broadcasting images of evil black people who are Making Our Job Harder.  I’m just registering my skepticism that white folk from the exurbs would be warehoused and then abandoned in a football stadium and a conference center in the middle of massive flooding.  And my line about white people “finding” food and black people “looting” was drawn directly from this jaw-dropping pair of AP captions, which I assumed everyone was familiar with b/c they were posted on Eschaton (a common enough blogging assumption!).

    Posted by Michael  on  09/01  at  09:29 PM

  19. After only a couple of days, he went and looked out the window.

    Yes, that was my reacton, also to that photo of the President looking out a plane window.  And the one that was at whitehouse.gov of Bush being handed a map captioned President George W. Bush is handed a map by Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin seemed to cry out for a caption contest: ...and this, Mr. President, is the State of Louisisana, where New Orleans is. . . . or some such.

    And these images were intended as PR.

    Posted by Kathryn Cramer  on  09/01  at  09:42 PM

  20. Fats is alive.

    Also, Bush went out and found a couple real presidents to fix things up.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/01  at  09:45 PM

  21. A little bit of good news: Fats Domino Found in New Orleans.

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  09:45 PM

  22. Michael, I’m only trying to round the picture out, not defend the coverage.  (For instance, there’s been no news about heavily armed gangs of upper-middle class men wandering around upscale Pass Christian, Mississippi and “looting” people’s home at gunpoint.)

    Posted by Scott Eric Kaufman  on  09/01  at  10:27 PM

  23. Scott, there must be some Interpretive Interference at work here.  (Understandable enough.) I didn’t think you were defending the coverage—I feared you’d misread my second Bizarro World point.

    Good to see that Fats is alive.  Also good to see that the Dauphin has dispatched some real Presidents, one of whom cared about FEMA, one of whom didn’t.  Message:  I care.

    Posted by Michael  on  09/01  at  10:35 PM

  24. it’s Bizarro World, indeed, but it’s important for us all to remember/tell ourselves that the ‘truth’ isn’t relative--in yet another Bizarro World twist, wasn’t it the Right who was originally refusing to buy into the ‘cultural relativity’ of the Left?

    they have worked so effectively to muddle the difference between truth and fiction, to the entire devastation of one of our major cities, and the befuddlement of half of our (voting) population--what’s right--who knows?

    well, take a look at two recent phenomena--Intelligent Design vs. Global Warming; both could be (mis)construed as being equivalent arguments--after all, they’re both just ‘alternative’ theories, right?

    wrong. Global Warming is accepted by a large percentage of legitimate scientists, and opposed by a handful of less-than-reputable people, while Intelligent Design is supported by an even smaller group of religious zealots cum quasi-scientists…

    the Right are incredibly effective at shooting down different viewpoints in isolation--however, the dots are coming so close together that more and more people will put them together, and the Right’s ‘explanations’ will be seen as the excuses that they are. BushCo has run out of excuses--it’s never been clearer--they are rank opportunists who’s obsession with Politics has completely overwhelmed their ability to Govern.

    People from Lousiana, who’s really looking out for you? here’s a hint: it ain’t Bill O’Reilly, and it ain’t George Bush. what’s gonna be build first, your home or an oil rig? They’ll be on the parade float, handing out checks, but where were they when they *really* had a chance to help fix this? Sorry, they needed the money to fund their war games and other business schemes:(

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  10:39 PM

  25. When you live in the incompetence, it is harder for the apologists to fool you.  The line being floated that the good stories aren’t being reported would be a kick if things weren’t so gawdawfull. 

    The other line starting to fill up is whether it is worth rebuilding, prompted by our good friend Denny.  Now THAT is premature and so utterly cold-hearted is makes ones skin crawl.

    All I can say, and maybe I am wrong, is that anyone who decides the value of NO based strictly on cash value and hassle either does not know that city or does not like it.  Anyone who loves that city would never say such a thing.

    It may be impossible, but nobody who cared about NO would write it off while it is still drowning.

    Posted by  on  09/01  at  11:18 PM

  26. I’m surprised, Berube, that you seem to think that the democratic party would be any better at offering health care to the people.  Both parties are the party of business, and until the Left in toto realises this, we’ll bounce between the two, like a dog on a chain strung out on Mexican brown.  Come to the fold of International Socialism, Berube, before it’s too late.

    Yr Comrade,

    Squidlow.

    Posted by  on  09/02  at  12:20 AM

  27. Comrade Squidlow,

    Do check out the performance of FEMA under Bush I and Bush II, and compare it to the performance of FEMA under that hideous neoliberal Clinton.  Check it out carefully.  Then tell me again why I shouldn’t care about the fate of working-class Americans in the two-party system.

    Now, you must know that I don’t like the two-party system as it stands.  So:  join with me and help move the Democrats to the left.  Until the next Constitutional Convention is convened, there really is no other alternative.  Take it from someone who’s paid his dues to two wonderful third parties, the Citizens Party and the New Party.

    Posted by Michael  on  09/02  at  12:52 AM

  28. In bizarro world, Christians actually follow the teachings of Christ.

    Posted by Roxanne  on  09/02  at  09:44 AM

  29. I live at 8 and a half feet above sea level in a coastal Texas swamp. I find the unfolding events and non-unfolding federal relief efforts in NOLA extremely disturbing. The shear incompetence and lack of compassion is maddening. There but for the grace of (insert favorite deity here) go I.

    I am making plans with my wife on how to approach protection of our irreplaceable mementos and valuable papers and how to evacuate ourselves, dogs and cats. We are under some strain in the discussions since she is a fan of Preznit Chimpy McNuggets and I, well, should be enjoying lemon chicken and Cyalume enemas at Gitmo.

    I did just hear on the radio that Fats Domino was rescued with his family and taken to an undisclosed location. What? Did they mistake him for Dick Cheney?

    Posted by  on  09/02  at  10:10 AM

  30. Terrorists hurricanes originate in Africa. Sudan has oil, right? Let’s go!

    Posted by  on  09/02  at  12:44 PM

  31. from:
    http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/42309.html

    Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint. Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. Tensions are very high, and there has been at least one murder and several fights. 8 or 9 dead people have been stored in a freezer in the area, and 2 of these dead people are kids. The people are so desperate that they’re doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the eldery in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.

    The buses never stop. Before the supplies were pitched off the bridge today, people had to break into buildings in the area to try to find food and water for their families. There was not enough. This spurred many families to break into cars to try to escape the city. There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area—Saulet Condos—once they tried to get cars from there… well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed. Snipers got on the roof and told people to get back.

    Posted by  on  09/02  at  12:53 PM

  32. Very interesting blog!

    Posted by Daniel  on  09/16  at  04:43 AM

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