This was written on 9/5 - read as such

What is the effect of this on the long term? Who would do this?

"By financing the war through deficit spending rather than the traditional mix of debt and wartime taxes, the Bush administration has shifted the fiscal cost from present day taxpayers to future taxpayers."

Again, we use the dissolute and sleazy former president to spearhead "private support" for relief. When did we privatize disaster relief? AS I discussed with Dad, how hard is it to move supplies on water. Don't we have a coast guard with boats, or Humvees that can go underwater (pipes up for exhaust and intake).
It seems like a big poorly managed mistake. I hope the consolidated services of D. H. Security (including FEMA and C. Guard) get reamed by someone. Not that I've seen anyone get fired from this administration..

Ok, no more cheap shots, please think about these issues!

I think there's an appropriate new application for the phrase "the soft bigotry of low expectations."
Let's look at the picture painted in this Sept. 1st news summary: (all above are pulled from NPR and below is CNN/Yahoo News)

The situation in New Orleans continues to deteriorate, with widespread flooding and looting. The evacuation of thousands of people from the Superdome in the city was halted early Thursday when shots were fired at military helicopters. There are reports of armed carjackings.

At the city's Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, blocks away from the Superdome, some 2 thousand people who had taken shelter from floodwaters are in desperate need of food, fresh water and security.

----- Where have we heard of this before? Groups of people forgotten and isolated, looting, and a breakdown of the social order... The flood has isolated N.Orleans for 4 days -- how long has Iraq been this way. Yes, that is where I'm headed!
It has been my impression that as things grew worse in Iraq, many of us had a vague feeling that it was "their problem", and that there was something different about Iraqi's. It is perfectly logical, I feel to have a sense of disconnection when told about be-headings, the mass looting of phone lines "for the copper" and the stoning of women who are violating Shar'ia law (some occurances last year in the "Satyr City" area).
THis is messed up. It seems uncivilized and brutal and very alien -- but back to New Orleans.
When I heard about shots being fired at helicopters, I had to verify that this wasn't a report from the Sunni triangle.
I rememeber seeing the black billowing smoke on TV from the Rodney King riots:
Estimates of the number of lives lost during the unrest vary between 50 and 60, with as many as 2,000 persons injured. Estimates of the material damage done vary between about $800 million and $1 billion. Approximately 3,600 fires were set, destroying 1,100 buildings, with fire calls coming one every minute at some points. About 10,000 people were arrested over the four days. (from Wikipedia)

Reports are also spreading of looting in Biloxi, upriver, and all along the coast. Are we so "free-
enterprise" that the moment police stop keeping an eye on us, it's crime spree time?

Blacgk-ck. I am disapointed in everything... Learning to Spell