New Orleans, Four Years Later

At Erik's request, I'm posting the intro to my Global Comment piece on New Orleans here. I did several interviews for this story, including one with James Perry, who's trying to replace Ray Nagin as mayor of New Orleans--and has my full support (if I lived there, I'd vote for the guy. If you do, you should.)

Four years. It’s a presidential term; it’s the length of a high school or college education.

It’s also the amount of time that has passed now since Hurricane Katrina swept across the Gulf Coast and devastated the city of New Orleans, driving thousands of citizens from their homes. Many still have not been able to return.

I spent four years of my life in New Orleans. They were four years that shaped me into the person that I am today. I learned about racism and I learned about jazz. I learned about poverty and class divisions, and I learned about real friendship. I learned what it was like to really fear your home being wiped out by a hurricane, and I learned what it was like to struggle to pay rent. I haven’t been back, but the city remains in my heart.

After the storm, many Americans opened their hearts (and in some cases, their homes) to New Orleans. We have a new president now, perhaps partly because Katrina exposed George W. Bush’s basic incompetence and lack of empathy. Those of us who have been paying attention have gotten quite an education from the government’s handling of Katrina, watching the initial fumble grow into four years of neglect.

According to James Perry, Executive Director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center and candidate for mayor of New Orleans, the Obama administration has made an effort to do better by New Orleans. He notes, though, that, “The thing that’s difficult about that for Louisianans and New Orleanians is that four years out, we’re tired of waiting.”

Please read the whole thing over at GC--they support me and pay at least some of my bills. Thanks for your support as well. New Orleans needs you still.

Treason in Defense of Moosehunting

Boy, you travel to Arkansas for a couple of days and you miss one of the most hilarious political events in recent years. Bad timing on my part.

Sarah Palin is just a joke. On Friday, some compared her to Geraldine Ferraro. Many Democrats compared her to Dan Quayle. That's not far off, but Quayle was significantly more competent. No, the real comparison is Tom Eagleton. To refresh your memory, Eagleton was George McGovern's VP pick in 1972. Immediately after his selection, it was revealed that he had a history of mental problems that he did not reveal to McGovern. This totally unvetted candidate became an embarrassment to McGovern and was replaced by Sargent Shriver.

I don't think McCain will dump Palin. It would make him look even more incompetent than the initial selection did. But I do think it is shocking he would select someone with this much baggage. It is more shocking that McCain did so little vetting of Palin. In modern politics, did McCain not think her history would be investigated? Every day, McCain's choice shows itself to be the move of a desperate and fading candidate.

Forget about the deal with her daughter. That should be out of bounds. But there is so much more. The abuse of power, the seeming corruption, the lying about being opposed to pork barrel spending (I supported the Bridge to Nowhere before I didn't support it!).

But what really gets me is the Alaskan Independence Party stuff. Not only is she crazy, but Palin and her husband are evidently on the verge of being traitors to their nation. Her husband was a member of the secessionists from 1995 until 2002, when Palin first ran for statewide office. They were both at the organization's founding convention. But on the Republican side, I guess it is OK to speak out against your country so long as it is in defense of right-wing extremist values. This is a big story that is just going to get bigger I think. She is so embarrassing as to make people seriously question whether John McCain is fit for the presidency. This is by far the most disastrous VP pick since Eagleton. Bush won with Quayle. But McGovern's already struggling candidacy was doomed by the sense that he did not know what he was doing. Neither does McCain.

I will say one thing about Palin's daughter. If this was Obama's daughter, the right-wingers would be up in arms about the lack of moral values among Democrats. But with Republicans, it is not about your personal behavior. Rather, it is about what side of the ideological divide you fall on. Any personal problem can be forgiven so long as you talk the talk. See the Swiftboating of John Kerry and the treatment of Dan Rather's story on Bush in the Vietnam years during the 2004 election for evidence.

I would also like to note that after watching and listening to Palin, I think she is the whitest person in America.