Sorry, Mr. President but there is no way I will ever believe you or Americans will ever care about

[RB TexLa]

Louisiana or Louisianians. We've heard your song and dance in Republican and Democratic tones, and it always produces the same result. You don't actually care and you will end up doing nothing if not making things worse for us. After decades and decades of lies from Americans we aren't disappointed in you for it, we just know better than to ever believe you.

[Cha]

1. That's too..they're going to

help anyway.

[saltpoint]

2. Cousin, thou speaks of nothing.

[janedum]

3. Obviously he cares about WALLSTREET. They get bailouts. Main Street gets Z-E-R-O-!

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. Don't expect anyone here to care, either. Everything's getting better now - Iraq, NOLA...

Hell, you could be a Republican troll as folks here accuse anyone of being who complains about RW, neoliberals and blue dogs raping New Orleans, as they continue to do (demolishing public housing, schools, not rebuilding levees in areas deemed not important, not closing the MRGO, not building a Thames Barrage across the Rigolets, not doing anything to restore the delta, no respect for historic preservation of the community or repatriation) and your analysis of the situation would still be correct.

[elocs]

5. If you don't toe the popular DU line you will be accused of being a troll or a Rwinger

or you will be thanked for your "concern". It's the lazy response.

[Leopolds Ghost]

9. It's the new Zeitgeist.

We're in the new Weimar republic with the anti-"concepts of liberal discourse" crowd
(the "concern troll" response is definitely antithetical to anyone who grew up caring
about liberal discourse) and the anti-"concepts of individual liberty" conformists.

Whoever wrote that book on the conformism and right-wing communitarianism of the millenial generation was right.

We're moving to the left on lifestyle issues and right on everything else. People claim there's been an ideological shift, there has. Witness the near-universal acceptance of permanent occupation of Iraq.

[madeline_con]

6. Aren't Louisianians Americans? n/t

[Atticus]

7. My thought also. nt

[Tejas]

8. 7.5 BilLioN DOLLARS to Pakistan.

Just saying.

:banghead:

[sendero]

12. Yeah..

.... they are our friend don't ya know. Yes. Right.

[Leopolds Ghost]

13. What about Iraq? And a Thames-barrage style barrier across the Rigolets would be too expensive

To preserve a city that the Blue Dog Dems believe should be depopulated and wither into an upscale tourist destination anyway "like Venice" (a city that is underwater half the year -- but nobody in Europe gives a shit either -- no money to be made in saving it outside the tourist season -- typical corporate neocon / neoliberal myopia -- bet you don't see footage of the annual 6-month flooding of St. Marks on the corporate news or the Carnival cruise line flyers)

Similarly,

They're building an above-ground subway in Tysons Corner VA (nations capital) in a highway median strip,

Because Bechtel (and the other private contractor who the government sold the right to construct mass transit) said tunnels were too expensive and "only work in Europe", and "we (Bombardier, Bechtel and the other typical awardees for all new US transit dollars) don't specialize in tunnels anyway" and fought to keep the European firms denied access to bid on the project. Then the local neoliberals (who've replaced the neocons) pride themselves on how they got the local transit authority "out of the construction business".

[sendero]

10. Well, no worries...

... I don't believe this president about anything any more - he's all talk and no walk.

To think back on inauguration night is just too painful, I really thought things were going to change. What a fucking fool I was.

[Leopolds Ghost]

14. Our nonprofit tried to organize a small fundraiser to benefit a Katrina relief group

To coincide with a series of social affairs set up for cong. staffers affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus.

They pledged to let us stack fliers on a table at their event, and referred us to another office.

"She's the CBC member who is involved in Katrina issues".

[MarjorieG]

11. You try working with this Congress and against its lobbyists. It's a long uphill.

[ipaint]

15. I don't blame you.

Today was a photo op to highlight ground zero of the take over of public education by charter schools. They descended like vultures after the hurricane to conduct a grand experiment in privatized "public" education. Obama's education secretary, arne duncan, is a big charter school fanatic (especially in the form of military high schools) from chicago and pushes obama's neo liberal mission to privatize public schools.

"Some critics call the charter invasion of New Orleans a challenge to democratic values. Writing about New Orleans in a new book, Leigh Dingerson, education team leader for the Center for Community Change in the District, says Louisiana school authorities have "opened a flea market of entrepreneurial opportunism that is dismantling the institution of public education in New Orleans."

But most educators and parents here are not taking sides in the ideological war over charters. An October teachers union report warned against "destructive rivalry" between regular and charter schools. Christian Roselund, spokesman for the United Teachers of New Orleans, said "the jury is still out" on how schools of any kind are going to perform. Regular schools are changing, too, and some state officials want to give tax-funded vouchers to help students attend private schools. Eighty-three percent of New Orleans public school families have low incomes.

Before the flood, New Orleans usually ranked near the bottom nationally in reading and math. This spring, results from the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program tests show modest gains for schools here, but overall achievement is still poor. There is no data yet on how charters compared with regular schools. About a third of fourth- and eighth-graders flunked the latest state tests. Sixty percent of sophomores failed in their first try at English and math tests that they must pass to graduate."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060802174.html

Vouchers and their kinder gentler cousin charter schools are neo con milton freidman's creation with the goal of privatizing public education.

http://www.friedmanfoundation.org/Welcome.do;jsessionid=D03563D6B36D1FB7C733CEA4468A5FD4


So you are right and you may see a little extra help but this wasn't about helping new orleans or louisiana, it was all about private business.

[emilyg]

16. K