Just different clues

You know, when I read this:

Already there's talk of rebuilding N.O. in such a way as to exclude those most affected by the hurricane.

The impact of the hurricane diaspora on the country will be interesting.

I can't help but recall this:

At a news conference, Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush's choice for head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had ''absolutely no credentials.''

She related that she had urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Michael Brown.

''He said 'Why would I do that?''' Pelosi said.

'''I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.' And he said 'What didn't go right?'''

Indeed, it looks like -- once the Newspeak and information-suppression counteroffensive gets into full swing -- things will turn out just swimmingly for Bush and his cohorts. Katrina will have provided all kinds of opportunities: clear an entire city of its lower-income (and blue-voting) blacks, blame black culture and local Democrats, and replace them all with upper-income "entrepreneurs." Meanwhile, it'll give El Presidente plenty of photo ops with swarthy firemen.

If he can keep surfing that wave, what indeed went wrong for Bush?

Sort of like when he "hit the trifecta."

Sure, it was arrogant. I'm not sure Bush was quite as "clueless" in this response as everyone seems to think.

That's not to suggest that there was a conspiracy or that "Bush knew", at least not any more than he did with 9/11. But there is a reason that, after being properely warned, Bush stayed on vacation and, essentially, sat on his hands, both before 9/11 and Katrina: It was in his best interests to do so.

The mistakes that were made in the runup to both events were in fact a direct outgrowth of policies that benefited Bush's cronies and his political allies. Counterterrorism -- derided in the early Bush administration as a "Clinton thing" -- was deemphasized in favor of the greatest defense-spending black hole ever devised, "missile defense." Preparing for a federal emergency in the event of a real disaster -- whether a terrorist attack or a hurricane in New Orleans -- was forsaken on behalf of pursuing a needless war in Iraq. The outcomes of both have been nothing but a huge bonanza for Bush's cronies.

Those policies were a product of this administration's priorities, which in the end are always about promoting the well-being of the moneyed class at the expense of the middle classes and poor, while effectively driving a wedge within those classes. That's no conspiracy; it's just the way the world works, especially with men like Bush in charge.