SCOOP COMMENTARY: The Betrayal Of New Orleans
A digest of commentary on the disaster in New Orleans from Scoop contributors both local and Stateside….
Rosalea Barker
From Thursday morning's SF Chronicle: Louis Delasorsse, 38, had been at the Superdome since it opened. "It's no picnic
staying here. My real heartache is I don't know about my mother, grandfather or grandmother. They wanted to stay at
home. I begged ... See... Stateside With Rosalea: Glimpses
John Roughan
'Rapid' disasters--tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, even cyclones--come suddenly and most go away almost as quickly.
All disasters, however, change people's lives, alter their way of thinking but most of the time, those affected by
nature's power ... See... John Roughan: A Creeping Disaster?
Mark Drolette
As the unmitigated horror in New Orleans and environs unfolds and the type of immediate, massive government assistance
that was needed from the earliest moments of Katrina’s landfall Monday scandalously and unforgivably fails to
materialize, it is impossible ... See... While Bodies Rot, Bush Couldn’t Care Less
Greg Palast
The National Public Radio news anchor was so excited I thought she'd piss on herself: the President of the United had
flown his plane down to 1700 feet to get a better look at the flood damage! And there was a photo of our
Commander-in-Chief taken looking ... See... Bush Strafes New Orleans - Where Is Our Huey Long?
Harvey Wasserman
George W. Bush is in New Orleans today to deliver a clear and unmistakable message: Drop Dead. Little in our history can
match his administration's astounding non-response to this excruciating human catastrophe. See... Harvey Wasserman: Bush to New Orleans - Drop Dead
Mark Drolette
As he begrudgingly performed the photo-op hop during his “2005 I Care About Americans Devastated By Katrina, I Really Do
Tour,” George W. Bush predictably did the only thing he does well: utter utterly worthless words. While he inexplicably
spared us ... See... Drolette: “Like” Living In A Third World Country?
Remi Kanazi
I guess the people at Yahoo didn’t have their racism detectors on earlier this week. On August 29th an image appeared on
Yahoo of a white woman and man trudging through chest deep water after “finding bread and soda from a local grocery
store.” Huh. ... See... Remi Kanazi: Three-Fifths Relief
www.ecotalk.org - Lynn Landes
America is in a meltdown. And the world is watching. We are a nation of haves and have-nots governed by lunatics and
liars. I don't know if Bush and his neocon friends are completely incompetent, criminally insane, or just really, really
evil. Whatever the case, I'm afraid that another un-natural disaster, worse than Katrina or 9/11, is just around the
corner. See... Lynn Landes: American Meltdown
Genevieve Cora Fraser
At the risk of sounding paranoid, I have a few thoughts on the US government's response to Hurricane Katrina. Might the
so-called delays in the evacuation have been deliberate? I am not referring to the extent of the natural disaster itself
but the public planning ... See... As New Orleans Sinks Might a Texas Star Be Rising? & Home of the Blues Drowns in Bureaucracy
Doug Giebel
At least since 9/11 the major American media corporations have given President George W. Bush more than merely the
benefit of the doubt. If the positive-spin stories were Christmas presents for President Bush, nearly every day would be
Christmas morning, ... See... Doug Giebel: The President's Lump Of Coal
Jason Leopold
Why is President Bush more concerned with the state of marriage than the state of Louisiana? That’s what the New Orleans
City Business paper asked in early February, a couple of weeks after Bush’s State of the Union address, in which the
president ... See... Jason Leopold: The President’s Priorities
Jason Leopold
Two years ago this month, a Blackout plunged 50 million people in Northeastern U.S. and the Canadian province of Ontario
into total darkness for more than a day, wreaking havoc on the U.S. economy. Now, it’s the devastation in Louisiana,
Alabama, and Mississippi ...
Daniel Patrick Welch
"Galveston had a seawall, just to keep the waters down. But the high tide from the ocean spread the water over the
town." The worst hurricane in US history saw almost 6000 people drowned in Galveston, Texas a little over a century ago,
in a human tragedy ... See... Daniel Patrick Welch: Only in America
Mitchel Cohen
Les Evenchick, an independent Green who lives in the French Quarter of New Orleans in a 3-story walkup, reports that 90
percent of the so-called looters are simply grabbing water, food, diapers and medicines, because the federal and state
officials ... See... Mitchel Cohen: The People of the Dome
David Swanson
The trillion dollar question has long been: How do we get the major media outlets in this country to notice that the
White House is run by oil barons who launch illegal wars based on lies, defund everything else, and destroy the
environment at every ... See... Missing the Forest for the Uprooted Floating Trees
Norma Sherry
President Bush says "he's satisfied with the response" speaking of the apocalyptic horror in New Orleans, Mississippi,
and Alabama. He says this with a smile on his face: smiling in the midst of death and destruction. If he were a news
reporter he ... See... Norma Sherry: Katrina's Wrath, America's Shame
William Rivers Pitt
This will come as no surprise, but columnist Molly Ivins has again nailed it to the wall. "Government policies have real
consequences in people's lives," Ivins wrote in her Thursday column. "This is not 'just politics' or blaming for
political advantage. ... See... William Rivers Pitt: Wake of the Flood
Sam Smith
Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans And miss it each night and day - I know I'm not wrong... this feeling's
gettin' stronger - The longer, I stay away - Miss them moss covered vines...the tall sugar pines - Where mockin' birds
used to ... See... Sam Smith: Echoes Of New Orleans
Kelpie Wilson
Survivors of Katrina are looking around at their flooded world and calling it "our tsunami." Climate writer Ross
Gelbspan says Katrina's real name is Global Warming. In a general sense, he is correct, but the scientific record shows
that hurricanes ... See... Kelpie Wilson: America's Tsunami
ENDS