Good Christian Folks
Having taken a mere four days to grasp the urgency of the flood situation, George W Bush has swung into action. Doing nothing hasn't worked. Pious platitudes haven't worked, even with Fox News. So Bush has moved down to the next item on the checklist: augmented military presence. Bush has ordered an extra 17,000 troops into the Gulf Coast area, including "elite combat units" - property protection with extreme non-racial prejudice, presumably. One hopes they can adjust to the idea that "taking someone out" in the Homeland actually means, y'know, taking them out.
Bush noted the government's "responsibility to our brothers and sisters all along the Gulf Coast" - perhaps someone told him New Orleans is full of damp little Jebs - and said it was "unacceptable" that "many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need". Although Bush has apparently not yet gone so far as to commandeer the resources of private health care companies to relieve the emergency, one shudders at his apostasy.
After all, American citizens who actually contribute to the economy - the ones with private vehicles and household insurance - are presumably in a minority among the thousands still trapped inside the city. Certainly they are unlikely to constitute a significant number among those other thousands reported to be "waiting for buses that failed to come because there was no plan for housing the victims elsewhere". And the more corpses and other detritus that remain to be cleared up, the more employment there will be when those aquatic relocatees who cannot pay their hotel bills are sent back to commence reconstruction. What need is there, in all this, for big-government interference? Can't the free market take care of things on its ownsome?
Still, at least the US government has retained some sense of priority. Loftily ignoring the state of the American health system, welfare system, prison system, etc., Bush has proclaimed that "In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need"; and our fellow citizens is exactly what he meant. Foreigners - even citizens of the elite combat units' most abject accomplice - are not a priority. "According to those who remain stranded in the stricken city, police had visited hotels and guest houses on the eve of the hurricane offering to evacuate Americans, but not Britons." Telephone operators have been helping the economy along by "refusing to accept collect calls from stranded Britons," and, no doubt, from nationals of lesser significance also.
Among those stranded is "a woman recovering from breast cancer who had been confined to a hotel room by herself because of fears over her immune system." The adventure should do her good. If it doesn't, let's hope she was on the NHS; or, better still, a smoker. Then, when all this is over, Tony can go and make one of his nice Atlanticist speeches to Congress, thanking the great nation which, even in its darkest hour, still helped to ease the burden of the British taxpayer.
Bush noted the government's "responsibility to our brothers and sisters all along the Gulf Coast" - perhaps someone told him New Orleans is full of damp little Jebs - and said it was "unacceptable" that "many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need". Although Bush has apparently not yet gone so far as to commandeer the resources of private health care companies to relieve the emergency, one shudders at his apostasy.
After all, American citizens who actually contribute to the economy - the ones with private vehicles and household insurance - are presumably in a minority among the thousands still trapped inside the city. Certainly they are unlikely to constitute a significant number among those other thousands reported to be "waiting for buses that failed to come because there was no plan for housing the victims elsewhere". And the more corpses and other detritus that remain to be cleared up, the more employment there will be when those aquatic relocatees who cannot pay their hotel bills are sent back to commence reconstruction. What need is there, in all this, for big-government interference? Can't the free market take care of things on its ownsome?
Still, at least the US government has retained some sense of priority. Loftily ignoring the state of the American health system, welfare system, prison system, etc., Bush has proclaimed that "In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need"; and our fellow citizens is exactly what he meant. Foreigners - even citizens of the elite combat units' most abject accomplice - are not a priority. "According to those who remain stranded in the stricken city, police had visited hotels and guest houses on the eve of the hurricane offering to evacuate Americans, but not Britons." Telephone operators have been helping the economy along by "refusing to accept collect calls from stranded Britons," and, no doubt, from nationals of lesser significance also.
Among those stranded is "a woman recovering from breast cancer who had been confined to a hotel room by herself because of fears over her immune system." The adventure should do her good. If it doesn't, let's hope she was on the NHS; or, better still, a smoker. Then, when all this is over, Tony can go and make one of his nice Atlanticist speeches to Congress, thanking the great nation which, even in its darkest hour, still helped to ease the burden of the British taxpayer.
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