How Bush is spinning Katrina

[hedgehog]

Listen to last night's speech. It wasn't his incompetence that caused the suffering, it was all those merciless criminals preying on the vulnerable. Half the country is convinced that Saddam was behind 9/11. In 6 months, half the country will be convinced that everyone who died in Katrina was shot by a black looter.

[Skidmore]

1. Well, that spin could just suck in his own criminal network

who are preying on the people. We need some honest patriots on the ground there, willing to shine spotlights on what is going on. We know that Landrieu and Nagin have been neutralized and they will not be critical any longer. I wonder what deals were cut in those meetings.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. I did note that we got 17 or more minutes of great things and...

optimism, then the 2-3 minutes of what went wrong (not direct or honest or focused on where it belonged), followed by 5 min of empty platitudes and improper, insensitive symbolism. Whether Rove or Hughes painted much of the speech, it hit was wider from the mark than I expected. He - and they - have lost the touch, that's for sure. Let's hope that his number continue to spiral downward and the 06 elections continue to become more and more winnable.

[salin]

3. ironically he is also unleashing new 'merciless criminals' to prey

on the vulnerable - in the sense of turning the reconstruction into a money pot for rich and connected cronies - rather than on direct aid to communities and the vulnerable. Halliburton? Defrauds taxpayers, dodges taxes - but gets big $ contract with no-bid.

Remember when BUsh kicked off an initiative to help increase home ownership among the poor? The proposal would give buyers a 5,000 voucher for a downpayment - and the biggest pot of money (per home) went directly to home builders/realtors/developers, etc. Ergo - demand wouldn't drive the money going to the developers (if the $ went in terms to buyers - with low interest loans, the market would dictate which developers/builders etc would financially benefit... where his plan gave the money primarily to the developers/builders etc - to build... whatever ... little market-driven compensation involved) Not sure if it became law or policy - but if it did wouldn't it be interesting to see WHO got the big $ ?