I Stand With Laura

First Lady Laura Bush has added her reasoned, schoolteacher voice to the debate over whom exactly George W. cares about and his response to the Katrina disaster. Speaking vaguely about Kanye West and the criticism of her husband, the first lady said in a Yahoo news story:

"I think all of those remarks are disgusting, to be perfectly frank, because of course President Bush cares about everyone in our country," the first lady said Thursday in an interview with American Urban Radio Networks.
"And I know that. I mean, I'm the person who lives with him," she said. "I know what he's like and I know what he thinks and I know how he cares about people."

I for one believe her. No, no sarcasm. No bullshit. In Bush's private moments I'm sure he feels a responsibility to every citizen and he is not actively trying to harm these people.

Laura continues:

Mrs. Bush said it was clear that poor people were more vulnerable when the hurricane hit.
"They lived in poorer neighborhoods. Their neighborhoods were the ones that were more likely to flood, as we saw in New Orleans. Their housing was more vulnerable," she said.
"And that's what we saw, and that's what we want to address in our country."

Again, she's exactly right. The poor were the hardest hit. Their housing was more vulnerable. And now they (the administration) wants to address the problem.

Of course, these things have been known FOREVER! It has been common knowledge that NO would flood, that the poor would be displaced and killed in massive numbers and that great pain would visit the region on the whim of mother nature. Bush in turn has spent his five years in office working for tax cuts for people with too much cash already, corporate give-a-ways, a stupid *STUPID* war, the privatization of social security, No Child Left Behind (well, maybe not NO child!) and the "global struggle against violent extremism." On his watch social services have been slashed, OSHA rules relaxed, environmental standards lowered (what's a little arsenic in the drinking water?) and oil prices have shot through the roof, all inordinately affecting the poor.

This has been the Bush agenda, and within it there has been no room for the poor. It's not that Bush doesn't care about "Black people." I doubt Bush considers people in such silly and primitive terms. Bush doesn't care about POOR people. He never has. If he did, perhaps the BILLIONS in corporate welfare might go to people who actually need it instead of oil companies and Boeing.

It should be noted that the poor are not Bush's constituency. They don't give him money. They don't vote for him. In fact, they actively work against him and his policies. They are his enemies. Why would he EVER do anything for them? You’re either with him or against him. That's the new American way, folks. Live it up!