I can’t wait to see the documentary. Kayne West is still right GWB hates black people. This situation is disgusting and makes me sick to my core.

The documentary was quite good–I liked that Lee provided the victims a venue where they could express their outrage. I know that Lee’s doc will only serve as a temporary reminder, but I think it’s an important document of the complete disregard for the people of New Orleans.

I can’t wait to see it. Unfortunately, because I don’t have cable, I’m going to have to wait a while.

National Disgrace - and what do you suggest??
A natural disaster levels an area the size of Great Britain and you say national disgrace!! Explain!! Do you want to raise everyones taxes and level the entire area and build everyone a home? I’m just asking? How do you dole out houses in that scenario? Are they all the same size regardless of what was felled by Katrina? Or do you get what you had before? Will that cause hur feelings? Normally in this country you have a house, you buy insurance. You live near water, you should have flood insurance as well as regular insurance. Just a thought! Many did not have adequate insurance. I personally cannot afford a house. However I suggest - don’t just call it a disgrace offer a plan - are you guys not the ones always parrotting “there was no plan”? Well give us a plan, and be specific!!

Sueanne, your questions remind me of the Republicans who, having gotten us into the quagmire of the Iraq War, claim that Democrats need to stop criticizing the administration’s conduct of the war and come up with a surefire way of solving the problem.

Well, you know what? As Colin Powell, quoting Tom Friedman, put it, “you break it, you own it. ”

The Republicans broke both Iraq and the Gulf Coast, and it is primarily their responsibility to get themselves out of it. Democrats do need to do what they can to help, but their ability to do so in concrete terms is limited by the Republican majority in Congress — something that will change in November.

In the case of the Gulf Coast, it’s true that a natural disaster crippled the area, but that disaster was compounded tenfold by the Bush administration’s lackadaisical response to the storm afterwards. No conscientious American will ever forget the clueless Republicans who sat on their asses eating birthday cake while Americans citizens drowned in toxic water.

But you want to know what I suggest, so here I go:

I suggest that you learn about the ways in which the federal government’s completely inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina was emblematic of a decades-long conservative effort to starve the public coffers of the funds needed to respond to natural disasters like this.

I suggest you take a look at this Hurricane Katrina Timeline and my series of Hurricane Katrina posts.

I suggest that the federal government is failing at the rebuilding process just as miserably as it failed in the aftermath of the storm, wasting millions of dollars through no-bid contracts and a lack of oversight.

Bush has followed through on few of the promises he made to the citizens of the affected region. That’s not leadership — that’s abdication of responsiblity on a massive scale.

As Frank Rich notes in his column today, that’s all according to plan:

It’s sickening.

For specific suggestions, I endorse many of the platforms expressed in this Truthout article.

Oh, and one further suggestion for you: you might consider the fact that not everyone is able to afford the kinds of insurance that they should, in a perfect world, be able to buy. They can’t afford it because of the conditions of endemic poverty that were highlighted by the aftermath of Katrina.

If you can’t understand that, my strongest suggestion is that you get a clue. Perhaps you can locate some compassion along the way.

I wish people would stop looking to the government to solve all of their problems. Then again, the government should stop promising to solve all of our problems.