What a sham!! McCain cancels the first day of the RNC, goes to Waterville, OH, packs food for the homeless to be Gustav victims. Then today, the new first day of the RNC the party of the privileged, the party and the administration that ignored Katrina for three days, put an inept person by the nickname "Brownie" in charge of FEMA. Finally, finally, when some money and aid starting going down the pipeline -- most of it went to rebuild fancy casinos along the Gulf Coast, repair the parts of New Orleans that business needed to attract tourists, tear down wrecked homes of the poor so that the wealthy could build more "productive" real estate on them !
The faithful GOPhers putting on large screens the telephone numbers and urls where those attending could show their compassion for the others. A cell phone number for instant contributions. This makes me sick. This is the party that has widened the huge gap between the haves and the have-nots with tax cuts for the wealthy, cut backs in health and welfare for the poor. Such hypocrisy. I know Republican fundamentalists claim to love and believe in Jesus.
There's something in the gospels about putting on airs and acting rather than doing the hard work and reaching out to your fellow less fortunate human beings.
On the otherhand, I feel sorry for these people: It must have been very embarrassing for them to have had the misfortune, to be so unlucky -- to have Gustav appear on the scene at the start of their celebration. Many Americans thought of how this party ready to party had let down the earlier Katrina victims. No wonder the GOPhers had to wring their hands and squeeze their eyes to wring out a few tears of contrived compassion.
Chris Hayes from The Nation:
If (McCain) cared about New Orleans and the Gulf Coast he could have done something these past three years. He could have made Gulf Reconstruction his issue, he could have excoriated his party for pushing federal dollars into the hands of cronies, for providing inadequate resources, for allowing the further destruction of the wetlands that serve as the only natural barrier to storm surges. He could have taken on the insurance companies that have been serially screwing the residents of the gulf. But he was too busy pushing for more troops, and more war and running for president.
Mother Jones Magazine:
Though McCain issued a statement the next week (after Katrina) calling on Congress to make sacrifices in order to fund recovery efforts, he was quoted in The New Leader on September 1 [2005] cautioning against over-spending in support of Katrina's victims. "We also have to be concerned about future generations of Americans," he said. "We're going to end up with the highest deficit, probably, in the history of this country."
That attitude was borne out in McCain's actions and votes. Forty Senators and 100 members of Congress visited New Orleans before he did; he finally got there in March 2006. He voted against establishing a Congressional commission to examine the Federal, State, and local responses to Katrina in med-September 2005. He repeated that vote in 2006. He voted against allowing up to 52 weeks of unemployment benefits to people affected by the hurricane, and in 2006 voted against appropriating $109 billion in supplemental emergency funding, including $28 billion for hurricane relief.
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"For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." Matthew 23:27
