damomoo

Some people just don't get it

I was on a break at around 10:30am when I took a drive to Costco to fill up the van with gas. I got to listen to Al Franken's show on Air America while on the way. The president in his speech last night announced a phone number to call to give assistance and Al thought it might be a good idea to call the person who had the 1-877-Katrina acronym as a telephone number to maybe offer up their number for usage in the aftermath of the hurricane. The woman who was the owner of the number actually happened to live in Louisiana but apparently was safe from harm. As Al gave her different scenarios of ways that she might cooperative you could hear the apprehension in her voice. He brought up a scenario where she may even receive a monetary gift for her trouble. She wouldn't budge. It was then that she said she was from Louisiana. She then mentioned that it's really not as bad as the media is making it out to be. She also said that her taxes are paying for the recovery anyways. She mentioned that they're all getting $2000 bucks and that they're spending it on designer purses and what not. I was speechless at this point. As the call went on Al kept his poise but was also kind of stumbling in disbelief. You know the phrase, "you can't make this stuff up", well, you just can't make this stuff up. Al asked her what radio program she frequently listened to and apparently it was another right wing host. She was confident in the person that she listened to and mocked Al for not knowing who he was, saying "you know he his, Al."
It's apparent to me that this whole fiasco with the disaster and the aftermath is not going to be handled in the best way possible. Here's what I see happening:

1. N.O. is too toxic to work in and clean up but like in NYC after 9/11, the cleanup crews will be told that everything is fine and that they can go back to work. In later months or years we'll hear of severe illnesses acrrued by those who did their duty to assist in the clean up.

2. Gentrification is working as we speak. One Republican Lousiana state senator said that God did what we could not do, clean up public housing. Many of those now in Houston do not plan on going back to New Orleans.

3. Watch who gets all the contracts to rebuild N.O. It will be anyone and eveyone who supported Bush, but not the actual New Orleanians that do the work. If they do it'll be for lower wages.

4. The mainstream media will not cover the story as thorough as they should.

We gotta take over the house and senate in 2006. No doubt about it.

posted by DJ John @ 3:47 PM