By Pat Bataillon
Politics and lying seem to go hand in hand these days and it doesn’t bother all that many people.
I watched Surviving Katrina on Discovery last night and learned just that. Our current governmental scheme is totally incapable of telling any truths. All of the leaders in this country lied directly to the face of all the onlookers and sufferers of Hurricane Katrina. Lying about a war and an election and intelligence and terrorism and other politicians seems to be acceptable these days, but letting Americans die and lying about it? That’s bullshit.
This is not all Bush’s fault, or Brownie’s, or Chertoff’s, or Nagin’s. It was a series of lies being told to each other until passing the buck again and again started getting people killed. This was not a case of red tape or bureaucracy, it was simply a case of protecting political power and careers. Amazing that this is what the best governmental system in the world is capable of in times of distress and horror. All the political players involved in any way with this disaster are guilty, they should actually be tried for gross negligence.
I worked in politics for a while and realized how ugly it was. There was lying and backstabbing and cheating and stealing and everything you would expect from a politician and their underlings seeking power.
I understood that part of politics is screwing people and getting away with it. Poor people always have been a great group of people to screw because they will never be heard from and because they have no money. Money = political power.
Sadly, nothing has changed. New Orleans is still a quagmire. There are still no answers to what exactly went wrong with Katrina. A congressional panel should get together and write a book like the 9/11 commission did, that really did a whole lot of good.
Finally, since everyone in the government is still too busy a year later lying to one another about how much money Americans should give to New Orleans, the American people should do what they’ve been doing while the government fiddles. We should all match the donations that we made last year. If we don’t fix it who will?
On a lighter note, the Emmy’s were on last night. I saw that The Amazing Race won Best Reality Contest Show. It was weird watching all the producers come up on stage to collect their little statues. I would think that all the contestants from the winning season should have been up there collecting those awards instead. Just an observation.
Posted on August 28, 2006