I can understand the government providing assistance for maybe six months. I don’t understand waiting around for a miracle.

Yes, Katrina was awful. The government response before, during and after was a fucking nightmare. You have no right to live where you used to live. I know that sounds heartless but it is true. Displacement sucks. Gentrification sucks. But in a capitalist economy that places more value on disaster real estate bargains, people will fall by the wayside:

[H]e sat outside his trailer this week, chain-smoking as workmen hauled another empty trailer away. He had already loaded all of his belongings — a television and some dishes and clothes — into his white Jeep Cherokee. But he was not sure how far the old Jeep would make it. With the motor mounts broken, he had rigged the engine on wooden sticks. In any case, he was not sure where to go. He had barely a day to meet the deadline to vacate the Renaissance Village trailer park, and he didn’t know whether he could pay $400 a month for an apartment in nearby Baton Rouge. So he just sat there, waiting.

What do these people expect? That we’re going to pay for them to sit in a trailer doing nothing for the rest of their lives?

Maybe I’m blanket-statementing here. I’m sure most of those affected by the hurricane and it’s aftermath are either back to work or have moved to an area with better opportunities.

Yet critics accuse the agency of pressing residents to leave before they have found permanent housing. With affordable apartments in short supply, some are relocating to motels — they can stay there for up to 30 days while they hunt for a new residence. Even those who have found rental apartments and houses do not necessarily have a plan for paying the rent when the government’s emergency subsidies run out.

Again: If you can’t find a residence where you used to live, shouldn’t you maybe look outside the area?

“They just want you to get out of here, but they don’t care where you move… I just pray to God and hope he brings me the answer,” he said as he dipped a saltine cracker into a can of tuna.

Why do people wait on God to save them like this? That drives me nuts. If God was going to save you why would he wait two-and-a-half years to do it? You’re not Job. This isn’t a test. Move to a better city.

This brings out my inner Republican. Make no mistake: The Katrina response was an absolute clusterfuck and it is a national embarrassment that we still have third-world conditions inside this country (not to mention the centuries hellholes in Appalachia). I’d use a sentence with the phrase ‘richest country in the world’ but I don’t think that is really true anymore.

Hell, move them to Phuket: they rebuilt that place in months after the tsunami.

What do you think? Should we continue to offer this kind of extensive assistance to those affected by Katrina – a whole 2 1/2 years later? What would you have done?

Analysis on the Vanity Fair article about Madonna from Spiked editor Brendon O’Neill:

Madonna is gushing about her adopted son and everything that he ‘represents”. And what is that, exactly? Cohen explains: baby David is a ‘living totem of life as it was lived before machines”. In other words, he’s a simple, wide–eyed, primitive being who helps to remind Madonna about what is really important in life as she jets from one photo–shoot and session recording to another.

…

Are YOU an African country ravaged by Aids and parched by drought? Fear not! Simply call Madonna! This fabulously wealthy white women from the West will solve all of your problems with a few fleeting visits, some looks of pained concern for the paparazzi, and a couple of million quid in donations

He goes on to highlight the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s takeover of Namibia so their child could be born in the cradle of civilization.

In cahoots with the Namibian authorities, Brad and Angelina -– or ‘Brangelina”, to use celeb–speak -– had a no–fly zone enforced over part of the country. Non–Namibian journalists had to seek permission to enter Namibia from both Brangelina and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

…

(Quoting Mahmood Mamdani) "in treating Darfur as ‘a place without history and without politics”, celebrities and others clearly give ‘the implication that the motivation of the perpetrators lies in biology (‘race’) and, if not that, certainly in ‘culture’”."

That’ll put to rest all questions:

… Bhutto was not killed by gunshots, as had been widely reported, and doctors at Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she died, say there were no bullet marks on the former … Perhaps more shockingly, an attendee at the rally where Bhutto was killed says police charged with protecting her “abandoned their posts,” leaving just a handful of Bhutto’s own bodyguards protecting her. Whatever the case, Bhutto’s precise cause of death may never be known because of the failure to administer an autopsy.

Catching up on the news:

Mulkasey got through.

After much raging. The Democrats finally drop telecom immunity from the bill. Fucking idiots. It should have been ‘off the table’ from the beginning.

Colorado Supreme Court affirms fertilized egg as person: “In a terse 7-0 decision today, the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the state Title Board’s approval of a 2008 proposed ballot measure to bestow constitutional rights on fertilized human eggs.”

CNN braces for more blowback from their super-shitty debate. Carville as analyst? Whoops. He’s an advisor to the Clinton campaign.

SNL fires 90% of their staff over writer’s strike.

Tasering in Chicago: “According to the lawsuit, about 9 p.m. June 15, Vega came to Guardi’s and ordered pasta salad. When Mendez walked into the cooler to get the food, Vega asked Mendez’s wife if she wanted to see Vega scare her husband. She said “no,” according to court documents. Then, Vega allegedly pointed the gun at Mendez’s head and fired, causing the prongs to stick to Mendez’s right temple and collarbone. Mendez went into convulsions and later became unconscious. He also bit off a piece of his tongue, the lawsuit said.”

Newsweek hires Karl Rove.

“Rapture is not an exit strategy.”

“Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor who is one of the secretary of state’s closest friends, recalls going into a shop where Rice asked to see earrings. The clerk showed her costume jewelry. Rice asked to see something nicer, prompting the clerk to whisper some sass under her breath. Blacker remembers Rice tearing the woman to shreds.”

“Let’s get one thing straight,” he recalls her saying. “You are behind the counter because you have to work for minimum wage. I’m on this side asking to see the good jewelry because I make considerably more.”

Actually good behavior:

The hotel heiress will spend about 23 days in a “special needs housing unit” at the Century Regional Detention Center in suburban Lynwood, Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said. Her sentence was shortened after jail officials gave her credit for good behavior, Whitmore said.