trickle effect of katrina

[zyllah.livejournal.com]

So I've been reading the news and thinking about it. I do not want to sound like a moonbat so if its just cold medicine paranoia please tell me;) We all know FEMA is not a first responder in the event of a disaster. That's part of why we have cities and states. And Fema has always been one of the not greatest of federal agencies. However, in the wake of Katrina does anyone doubt that there will be calls to federalize disaster response more than it already is even though florida, nyc, etc have done an alright job? I am a fan of smaller gov't so the idea of the gov't taking more away from the states is disquieting but who politically could afford to oppose it? Anyone who did would like they just didn't care which seems to be the ultimate sin in politics. Sure the blame bush and the feds song and dance is about blaming bush even though if you look at the facts the real people at fault are at the city and state level. However it will also have the added benefit of increasing the power of the feds, it will also lead to an out cry for even more of the federal gov't needing to take care of its citizens. I read an interesting opinion (can't remember where though) that talked about how many of the people left behind were used to parental gov't providing for them. It wasn't so much about their being poor but about the mindset that goes with a welfare state. Please excuse any fuzziness my darling husband brought home a cold from the field that I caught so I am a bit spacy.

(no subject)

[phangurl.livejournal.com]

Is the entertaintment industry getting dumber by the minute? Well, let's see:

Celine Dion claims that looting of luxury non-essentials in Hurricane Katrina-affected areas is okay because "the poor have never touched anything in their lives!" Sadly, that is not at all an out-of-context quote.

More fun stuff in the article: Harry Connick Jr. wonders why they can't just back up a big ole barge on the Mississippi and rescue all 300,000+ refugees all at once! (Harry's best subject in school wasn't math OR science, needless to say.)

And Sean Penn "attempted to rescue stranded children" in a boat that sprang a leak minutes after launching. They tried to fix it by dumping water out of the boat with a tiny plastic cup. Insert joke about the left being in charge of rescue efforts here. But maybe it wouldn't have sunk so fast if his whole entourage, including his personal photographer, had not been weighing it down. =)

Also in fannish news: I don't generally like his contributions to the deterioration of civil discourse, but the fact that Rush Limbaugh's Broadway one-man show to benefit Katrina victims put a temporary stop to Simba is very amusing. Says Rush: "I'm especially thrilled to be superseding The Lion King for one night. The animal-rights people are going to be upset about this, no question about it." Hee.

An Unnatural Disaster

[sakka.livejournal.com]

Came across this great article and thought I would share :)

( An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State )