Happy at Last

When Grover Norquist bounces around the gym like a carefree puppy dog, you know the worst is over.

The entire Norquist philosophy of less government but more government money for the total not needy is coming to fruition in New Orleans. The negligence of the Federal government, so much the reason behind the sad hurricane response, works best when doling out cost plus contracts, school vouchers, and every other cause espoused by Norquist and his group, The Americans for Tax Reform. No government oversight means free market forces are draining the Lake Pontchartrain of borrowed money right into the pockets of those who need it least. God Bless America.

Norquist's elation flies in the face of his being implicated in laundering money for Jack Abramoff. But with John Roberts' confirmation hearings going swimmingly, the future of the Supreme Court as total nonentity looks secure. Justice, like government oversight, will cease to exist.

Norquist's good friend, President Bush, has taken the blame for the poor hurricane response. Like Christ who took the blame for all the sins of the world, or any given right wing Christian who is daily absolved of any murder, rape and pillage if they simply own up to pledging their lives to Christ, Bush has cleansed the rest of the government of its previous life so it can get down to the business of giving out contracts to rebuild New Orleans just as it has been giving out contracts for rebuilding Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

All in all, it's bodes well for those who ride the exercycles of power here in the Tri-Lateral Commission Gym.

The International Gym

A lot of people, upon finding out that I work in the Tri-Lateral Commission gym, ask me about the international aspect of the gym. It's a fact, that all the facades having to do with country slough off here, and that there's a great comaraderie which emerges during the course of a good workout. It also has a lot to do with the fact that the majority of people in the gym work in one way or another for large multi-national corporations. Profit above Patriotism, as one gentleman told me.

Relief

Well, relief has come to the Tri-Lateral Commission gym. Karl Rove has started a campaign to put the blame on the chaos in New Orleans on all the homeless members of local government. The Army Corps of Engineers has decided to use its helicopters to fill the breeches in the levees rather than to rescue people, which means that the hiring of private contractors to finish the job is just around the corner. Finally, Bush nominated judicial nominee Roberts, a long time member of the Tri-Lateral Commission Gym, to be chief justice.

In short, the treadmills are humming again.

The "Whoops" factor

It's one thing being a racist in the privacy of your own home, but when a city...say New Orleans...finds itself treated worse than a third world country on account of its substantial African American demographic, then a simple "I'm sorry" isn't going to cut the mustard.

To let a whole city sit without food and water for five days after billions of dollars have been poured into something called "Homeland Security" unfortunately smacks of more than a simple "whoops, we didn't really think that the hurricane would be quite that bad." No it seems more of a "why waste money on a bunch of poor black folk who were told to get out of the city but didn't because they're ignorant."

For an administration that prides itself on a spanky clean image based on the smiling faces of Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell, this is not so good.

On the other hand, Bush isn't up for re-election, so who cares, really. Which seems to be the attitude here in the gym, even though that business about Public Works I blogged about a few days ago still weighs on the members. Any mention of diverting funds from the corporations, say, for government, is considered impolite for conversation and generally a good reason for expulsion.

So the hurricane has become like an elephant in the gym, no a dinosaur, or a blue whale even. And the spinmeisters working their amazing journalistic treadmills are trying to impose a kind of discipline on the past five days. If all goes well, in fact, those days will never have really existed at all.

Private Charity

While the entire city of New Orleans lacks a single functioning toilet, and the entire population is newly homeless and jobless, the president of the United States parades out two former presidents. He says here are a pair of guys who are going to get millions of dollars of private donations at some point in the future and it's really going to help everyone out.

It's such an illuminutty thing to do, and typical of the Tri-Lateral Commission Gym. Government money should go to corporations first, and then dribble down to the hoi polloi, maybe. Our members, the guys who ride the exercycles of power, couldn't even begin to think of the world in any other terms. So it's going to take a long time, New Orleans. So sorry.