A Billion Here, a Billion There …

The Associated Press reports

President Bush has ordered helicopters and ships to Lebanon to provide humanitarian aid, but he still opposes an immediate cease-fire that could give relief from a 13-day-old Israeli bombing campaign.

There was talk on cable news that Condi Rice had offered U.S. aid for rebuilding Lebanon. I agree we have a moral obligation to help rebuild Lebanon, but somebody might want to ask the Bushies about rebuilding New Orleans.

10 thoughts on “A Billion Here, a Billion There …

  1. The Israeli’s have an obligation to rebuild it and pay reparations. Of course some would say since the precision( ahem) missiles have a US return address , we should be held responsible- or is that only when it is Iran?
    Compassionate conservatism- we will send aid but refuse to call off the dogs or try to stop the killing.

  2. What can you say to this. The man has the function intelligence of a piece of wood.

    We need a new word to capture the stupidity of this guy.

    If we survive his Presidency all it will take to shut up a Rightie is to say, “Yeah, all that may be true but aren’t you one of the ‘folks’ who supported Bush”.

    Followed by, ‘Yeah, uh-huh, listen I gotta catch my bus…’

  3. Oily fascism on the Mississippi.

    Just back from New Orleans. I am a filmmaker and I am working on a portrait of an environmental chemist named Wilma Subra. A woman who has dedicated her life to improving the lot of her fellow citizens by documenting levels of pollution and using the data to support various community groups. She has been instumental in getting the hard numbers that demonstrate “Cancer Alley” is not merely hyperbly.

    On my last day in town I was shooting the devestated portions east of New Orleans, the 9th ward, Arabi, and finally Chalmette, where I had just missed a press conference related to an oil spill during Katrina. Murphy Oil had a huge oil tank partially full of crude that was moved from it’s foundation during the storm surge. Thousands of homes were innundated with the toxic sludge.

    Anyway, this is an example of what we wish to include in the piece so I aim my camera out the window and shoot the refineries as I drive down a public street. B roll we call it.

    Within minutes we were chased down by what initially looked like cops but they were security guards. We stopped to speak to him. He told us it was illegal to video refineries and asked to see the camera. I refused to give it to him. We identified ourselves as filmmakers and freelance journalists. He told us that since 9/11 it was a felony to photograph oil refineries. We were soon surrounded by security vehicles, on a public street. We never trespassed.

    Finally Sheriff Buford Justice showed up and took our drivers licensces and threatened us with federal prison. I feel that the images of the refinary could be considered fair use. The main reason I did not want to surrender the tape was due several interviews on it. Finally, I offered to erase the 4 or 5 minutes. It would not be hard to recapture if we needed it.

    The Sheriff filled out a report for Homeland Security and for all I know I am on some gov. shit list by now. After an hour we were left to go.

    The region around the refineries is utterly devasted as is much of the region. There are no Sheriffs protecting the average citizen from the predatory and negligent practices of the oil industry. It is clear where the governments priorities are.

    I doubt they will rebuild Lebanon just as I doubt the promises to rebuild New Orleans. The oil infrastructure may be a different situation.

  4. Israel makes a mess, U.S. taxpayers pay to clean it up, PLUS we give “between” $250,000 and $350,000 per “settler” or “out poster” to relocate squatters from Gaza.Ouy f’in veh!
    This crap has got to stop…….

  5. I wouldn’t put too much stock into believing we’re going to help rebuild Lebanon…If you remember.. we are going to rebuild Iraq, build a “new” Abu Ghraib prison and a new Golden Dome mosque in Samarra.. Weren’t we going to land on Mars or every household in America was going to get free internet access so we could all be particpants in America? Bush and Condi are just waltzing the Lebanese down the garden path.

  6. I said, the day after Israel blowed up the Beirut Airport, “I bet Halliburton gets the contract to rebuild that.” Yep, here we go….

  7. Of course it would have been nice to try to prevent some of the destruction instead of waiting and waitng on the sidelines.

    But then again, given the state of our foreign policy in the Middle East, our intervention probably would have had zero effect.

  8. Is bombing and rebuilding the same thing to bush???

    Ok so that isn’t fair,,, he has done a heck of a job rebuilding Afghanistan… rebuilding the taliban and a better poppy crop…but hey it is something.

    I am sure glad, with our mounting debt that george has said he will spend more without asking congress,without a plan to pay for the spending for an expense that he could have prevented by telling Israel NO-NO….after all , as george understands…it’s “your money!”…he is just trying to give us the most “bang” for our buck.. why rebuild anything with entertainment like that?

  9. Maybe all of us should take it easy on the President. He does, after all, have a lot of blastocysts to save. Besides, I’m sure the snowflake babies (and their children) will figure out how to solve our crushing debt. At least important things, like abstinence education, are getting proper funding – our Leader only spends money on things that work! I say he’s done a HECK of a heck of a job!

  10. I was listening to New Orleans morning TV and Sally Ann Roberts, an eternal optomist, quoted a writer about hope. One must have patience with hope, but the hardest patience is that needed waiting for hope to arrive. That is where we are in New Orleans-waiting for hope to arrive.

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