Sunday, April 29, 2007

New Orleans Redux

I'm still writing up my recallections of Pirate Con in New Orleans last week, some of it is understandably a litle blurry. I didn't see any of the 9th ward this time, although I did find an old friend who I'd lost track of who now lives there with his wife. They spend six months in their own house while they gutted and rebuilt it. They had water but no official power. They hooked up an extension cord to a neightbors house. That's hard core.

So what do I read today? That most of the foreign aid for Katrina victems was uncollected, refused or wasted.

Do you know what a lot of the attendees did early morning Saturday at Pirate Con? They went to a grade school in the area with much needed school supplies. $60 million dollars and it isn;t getting to where it needs to. This is what makes my brain hurt.

People laugh at Denis Kusinich for trying to get Cheny impeached. Why is this crazy? If anyone focused on any ONE of the disasters this administration had been either responsible for or has exacerbated, they would quickly come to the realization that we and our country are being forced into a flaming nosedive by a corrupt idiot. It's just that there are SO MANY fuck-ups, mistakes, miscaculations, missteps and wrong turns thay we just can't catch our breath. You can't keep up! Is that their strategy?

BONUS ROUND

It seems seven of eight "Successes" in Iraq in fact, aren't. Have a read. Your money and blood at work.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aaaahhhh. Mmmmmmm. This information is very calming and relaxing. It is a comfort to know that the world is screwed up and virtually everyone in it is worthless.

(When you previously ran that video of the guy handing out free hugs, I was starting to worry that perhaps the world had some hope in it and that my own negative views were jaded. It is comforting to know that my judgment on the matter was correct in the first instance.) Thank you for bringing me back to reality and confirming that things are still screwed up.

Sir Constantine.

Steve said...

I am a firm believer in the goodness of people. People will go to great lengths for their fellow man. I have witnessed this first hand. They may even lay down their life.

Where we tend to go wrong as a species is when we do not witness the outcome of our mistakes. When we do not see the consequences of our actions, we do not hold ourselves accountable. Actions have consequences. You would find it almost impossible to pull a gun on a stranger and shoot them in the face. But when you commit to a war, there will be thousands of deaths. How can we do this? Because we ourselves will not be pulling the trigger. That is why war must be the absolute last option.

These projects were good intentioned, but good intentions aren't enough. I want more smart people on the job. More qualified people. And I want them to take a personal interrest in the qulaity of the work rather that the profit margins.