It's the Feds' Job
It's the Feds' Job: "Sunday, September 11, 2005; Page B07
NEW ORLEANS -- The sense of wholesale apocalypse is beginning to ebb along with the floodwaters. Some streets that were underwater a week ago are dry. There's no problem with law and order now that almost everybody is gone. National Guard troops and helping-hand police units from as far away as Denver drive around aimlessly with nothing to do.
It's even possible to hope that the toll in human life is less awful than once feared. The truth is still hidden in flooded attics and beneath murky waters, but some local officials have begun hinting at final numbers in the low thousands, not the five-figure totals that once seemed inevitable. Maybe they're just being optimistic, but even the capacity for optimism is a welcome sign.
We still can't begin to see the end of this tragic mess, though. Now it falls to the Bush administration, so heavy on limited-government ideology and so light on effective follow-through, to launch a massive, latter-day Marshall Plan for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
I wish I had confidence that this White House was up to the job. I wish I had confidence that this White House would even try."
NEW ORLEANS -- The sense of wholesale apocalypse is beginning to ebb along with the floodwaters. Some streets that were underwater a week ago are dry. There's no problem with law and order now that almost everybody is gone. National Guard troops and helping-hand police units from as far away as Denver drive around aimlessly with nothing to do.
It's even possible to hope that the toll in human life is less awful than once feared. The truth is still hidden in flooded attics and beneath murky waters, but some local officials have begun hinting at final numbers in the low thousands, not the five-figure totals that once seemed inevitable. Maybe they're just being optimistic, but even the capacity for optimism is a welcome sign.
We still can't begin to see the end of this tragic mess, though. Now it falls to the Bush administration, so heavy on limited-government ideology and so light on effective follow-through, to launch a massive, latter-day Marshall Plan for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
I wish I had confidence that this White House was up to the job. I wish I had confidence that this White House would even try."
posted by Blackgold at 7:57 PM
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