From: John Beckett 

Tony Williams  wrote in message
news::
> If the hurricane had hit a third world country the US would have known
> exactly how to help. Cleaning up a major city in at home appears to be a
> bit more difficult, not least because of the local politics. This guy
> has an interesting take:
>
> http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2005-09/03parenti.cfm

Uh oh - I hope Gary B doesn't see that story!

A couple of hours ago, I saw a PBS TV report (I occasionally watch a local
station that shows the US PBS NewsHour). Two points:

First, I see that serious help is finally arriving.

Second, their political panel had a discussion on the disaster. I was
amazed at how damning they were about the disaster response:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/political_wrap/july-dec05/bop_9-2.html

The token right-wing journalist (David Brooks) made some very interesting
observations (as did they all). Brooks was caustic.

---A sample---
"This is -- first of all it is a national humiliation to see bodies
floating in a river for five days in a major American city. But second, you
have to remember, this was really a de-legitimization of institutions.

"Our institutions completely failed us and it is not as if it is the
first in the past three years -- this follows Abu Ghraib, the failure of
planning in Iraq, the intelligence failures, the corporate scandals, the
media scandals."
---end---

Sorry about mixing Iraq into the picture. This is NOT an attack on the US
position in Iraq. The point is that even being totally in favour of that
position, one has to be concerned about the failures such as Abu Ghraib.

John

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