Daily Blague

Whatever I might have written about the fifth anniversary of 9/11, what I'm going to write recognizes another anniversary, the first, of Hurricane Katrina's devastation. A year after the flooding, New Orleans remains a provisional town, and critics who attribute foot-dragging at all levels of government to a surreptitious program of ethnic cleansing seem to have the only explanation for the Unites States Government's shocking inaction. This inaction is also reflected, in ways that may be more symbolic, if less important, in the sequel to 9/11. Almost everything that has been done (foreign wars) and not done (Ground Zero remains a hole in the ground) reflects a both a pervasive ineptitude and a glossy indifference characteristic of the bullying frat boy that our president has never outgrown.

Perhaps at some not-too-distant date, the two weeks between the anniversaries will be recognized as a Time of Atonement, when Americans reflect on the delinquencies of their TV- and celebrity-addled ancestors who voted for a patently unqualified candidate in 2000 and again in 2004. Although Mr Bush has many sincere supporters, it is my perhaps optimistic belief that relatively few Americans would vote for the record that he will have left behind when at last he quits the scene.

The actual agenda of the Bush Administrations appears to be the transfer of public assets to the private sector. But even I am surprised by Mr Bush's failure to extend a helping hand to his fellow Americans during some very dark hours.