barbara on bush

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D) Oakland issued an excellent response to Bush's speech last night, calling it a nice gesture, but less than inspiring. To paraphrase a cliche, it seems as if even an optimist were to argue that Bush was actually going to come through on his promises (with "no new taxes" no less), it seems that he's dealing with the symptoms while ignoring the underlying disease:

I am glad that the President has indicated that he will commit significant federal resources to rebuilding the Gulf Coast.

However, if the President means to make good on his commitment to 'take responsibility' for his administration's failures in responding to Katrina, then he must demonstrate an equal commitment to tackling the systematic problems of
poverty and institutional racism that contributed to the magnitude of this tragedy.

The problem with the administration's response was not simply the failure to react to the hurricane in a coherent or competent manner. It was the tragic, longstanding failure to acknowledge the massive structural crisis that poverty and inequality pose for our nation and the stubborn refusal to conceive of any constructive role for our government in addressing it.

Americans have shown enormous generosity and courage in responding to this tragedy, and we are committed to rebuilding America as one country. Katrina revealed how different our fates can be, depending on our means and the color of our skins. This moment should galvanize us the way 9/11 did, and we should be recommitting ourselves to making America a united country, where everyone has a genuine chance of achieving the American dream.

Unfortunately, the President has given no indication that he committed to doing the work to create such a united America, and without a commitment to address systematic problems of poverty and inequality, I fear that all the federally funded reconstruction will be built on a rotten foundation.

novakula's backula

This is the newest tripe being solicited by the Prince of Dark
ness*/**:

McCain has been bomb

arded all sum

mer with attacks on him for opposing repeal. In mid-July, Birmingham, Ala., lawyer Harold Apolinsky, a longtime crusader against the estate tax, sent 23,600 letters to contributors who gave at least $2,000 to 15 senators opposed to repeal. McCain contributors were told: "Sen. McCain has shockingly failed to act on an issue of extreme importance to you." Contending that McCain's refusal to support estate tax repeal "may benefit and please the special interests, who've funneled millions of dollars into his many political campaigns," it asked backers to "contact" McCain and lobby him for his vote.

Any commentary that I would wish to offer has already been done perfectly by the New Republic, in an editorial in which the author notes that:

I realize the term "Orwellian" is overused in the context of Republican hackery. But the way this Apolinsky character invokes the phrase "special interest" is so completely the opposite of what the phrase actually means that I'm not sure how else to describe it. I had to read the graf several times to make sure I hadn't missed something.

* You may notice that I do not create hot links to many conservative web sites or specific articles. The articles that I link to always do, but, frankly, I do not like to encourage that particular web traffic. Sorry if that's not so fair and balanced.

** I'm sorry. I know it's petty, but I can think of few who I love to hate more than Robert Novak.