Here's a damning timeline of the events during and directly following Katrina's arrival two years ago and the Bush Administration's response.
All our favorites are there, with links: the guitar-playing, the McCain birthday cake presentation, Condi Rice's theater-going and shoe-buying, and Bush's flyover.
That was the beginning of the end of this Administration's popularity, for sure, but there are still nearly 500 days to go. How many wars can he start, how many incompetent cronies can he install, how much more sheer mismanagement can the country bear?
Stay tuned.
Update: Paul Krugman writes:
Today, much of the Gulf Coast remains in ruins. Less than half the federal money set aside for rebuilding, as opposed to emergency relief, has actually been spent, in part because the Bush administration refused to waive the requirement that local governments put up matching funds for recovery projects — an impossible burden for communities whose tax bases have literally been washed away.On the other hand, generous investment tax breaks, supposedly designed to spur recovery in the disaster area, have been used to build luxury condominiums near the University of Alabama’s football stadium in Tuscaloosa, 200 miles inland.
But why should we be surprised by any of this? The Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina — the mixture of neglect of those in need, obliviousness to their plight, and self-congratulation in the face of abject failure — has become standard operating procedure. These days, it’s Katrina all the time.
That condo story is quite illuminating, by the way. Most of the condos are being bought by
. . . real estate investors who are purchasing the condos with plans to rent them out.And they intend to take full advantage of the generous tax benefits available to investors under the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, or GO Zone, according to Associated Press interviews with buyers and real estate officials.
The GO Zone contains a variety of tax breaks designed to stimulate construction in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. It offers tax-free bonds to developers to finance big commercial projects like shopping centers or hotels. It also allows real estate investors who buy condos or other properties in the GO Zone to take accelerated depreciation on their purchases when they file their taxes.
The GO Zone was drawn to include the Tuscaloosa area even though it is about 200 miles from the coast and got only heavy rain and scattered wind damage from Katrina.
The article goes on to say it's all quite legal. That may be, but it smacks of well-connected ethically-challenged cronyism to me.
Posted by Linkmeister at August 31, 2007 12:01 AM | TrackBack