The early morning BBC report from New Orleans rang true.  It came from a Brit who lives there -- "ten blocks north of the French Quarter."  He assures us that the storm has diminished in the past few hours, that quite a few people have stayed, and that the whole thing has to do with creating a for-profit drama where none exists.  Well, okay, there will be a strong winds and maybe flooding but the damage (as with Katrina) will all be about work which has never -- in decades -- been completed on the levees by the federal government.  That is the horror, not the category 3 Gustav.

You can bet both incumbents and candidates will be out there making political claims during the next 48 hours.  Let's not overlook the profit motive for the news industry (NPR reports all major national news anchors are already in the area).  Let's not forget the opportunity for government contractors to pick up some practice and some overtime pay.  As Dan reports at Pruning Shears:

"... Mercenaries and the military are on their way to New Orleans.  First, Moira Whelan writes 'I just noticed that the daily brief customarily done in advance of a hurricane is happening because Gustov is bearing down on the Gulf Coast…but a big shift here: the briefing is being given by NORTHCOM.' Then Spencer Ackerman: 'Looks like Blackwater is on its way back to NOLA.'  It looks like the Shock Doctrine will be used to get us further acclimatized to a military-type presence on American soil. (We may have lost to the Rooskies after all.)"

The disillusioned Brit who reported on the BBC sounded as though he would not disagree. 

If all of that is too wearying to contemplate and too redolent of a whole nation's defeat -- not by Islamic terrorists but at its own hand -- then tune into the resilient population of New Orleans who are standing firm as Gustav's slowing winds reach their city.  A bunch of them are staying in touch via a forum at the Times-Picayune.

... Louisianna/St.chas area, all quiet & alls well. NOPD presence good. light rainfall.y'fi still up & incoming & outgoing calls good, but lines may be busy. Landlines are still the way to go."

Check out on-site photos and commentary here.

At some point, if we want to reclaim our souls, we're going to have to concede that it's not always good to look for personal profit in an natural disaster, whether you're in the news business or in the governing business.  Sometimes you just report the news or do the best job of governance you can -- is that so bad?  Paul Krugman writes:

"... Let’s hope that Mr. McCain doesn’t jet into the disaster area in Gustav’s aftermath. The candidate’s presence wouldn’t do anything to help the area recover. It would, however, tie up air traffic and disrupt relief efforts, just as Mr. Bush did when he flew into New Orleans to congratulate Brownie on the work he was doing. Remember the firefighters who volunteered to help Katrina’s victims, only to find that their first job was to stand next to Mr. Bush while the cameras rolled?

"To be fair, Republican plans to deal with Gustav by turning their convention into a 'service event,' perhaps a telethon to raise funds for victims, are a good idea. So is the Obama campaign’s plan to mobilize its e-mail list to send aid and volunteers. But personal, voluntary aid is no substitute for an effective public response to disaster.

"What we really need is a government that works, because it’s run by people who understand that sometimes government is the solution, after all. And that seems to be something undreamed of in either Mr. Bush’s or Mr. McCain’s philosophy."

Comments

[Dan]

Assholes.

[PW]

I heard the NOLA Brit on the BBC just before reading your early am post. Put 'em together. Glad you provided a second link. I thought the link to your Northcom bit might do the trick, but it's best to lay it out!

I hope you'll check out my next post on the Lemann article.

[Dan]

It will be extremely interesting to see what role Blackwater plays in all this. Their portfolio comes from the pages of Soldier of Fortune, not Red Cross Magazine.