Look at this picture. Its the spot where da Shrub had his "press conference" in the gulf region yesterday. Notice the house, the tree..it looks idyllic and reborn doesn't it? Why, of course it does..read the words our Decider-in-Chief spoke in front of this house:“For a fellow who was here and now a year later comes back, things have changed.”“It’s amazing, isn’t?” he told a gathering under a sweltering sun. “It’s amazing what the world looked like then and what it looks like now.”
Just a few feet away..there was the "real" Biloxi. As the NYT reports:
"Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass."
Now, for my dear reader, this is what's called a "Photo-op"..its a ruse invented to show life as you want it to appear..not as it really is. Toilet seats laying on the ground are not in any sense of the word a normal thing. Neither is the city of Biloxi. Nothing is normal about Biloxi, but if you just watched the 7 second soundbite on your evening news..you would think..hey, its looks ok there, its coming around.
Another soundbite from the Shrub: “The truth of the matter is, we can work together and will, but when disaster strikes, the first people that you rely upon, the people that matter most, are your friends,” Mr. Bush said at another point. “It’s friends helping friends that turns out to make an enormous difference in saving lives and helping to get by the trauma of the first days.”
Now another visual the camera's won't be showing: "Nearby, along the ocean, ravaged antebellum homes and churches still dotted the waterfront. The beach, stretching from Gulfport to Biloxi, was deserted. Debris hung from craggy trees and motels stood shuttered. Blue tarp still patched the roofs of more dwellings than not. At the Biloxi Community Center, which Laura Bush had visited during her shooting of an “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” episode last September following the storm, workers unloaded trays of packaged foods into a dusty space with no air conditioning."
Biloxi is a middle class neighborhood. If they haven't overcome the death and destruction a year later, with most residents having insurance, and a decent income prior to Katrina..what does that say about the plight of the lower-class areas? The carpetbaggers will make a killing however..as witnessed by this snippet from a Biloxi resident: "Three couples gathered on the porch of a destroyed bungalow said costs to rebuild had soared, and they hoped to sell their plots as a package to a developer looking for waterfront views -- a feature they now had since Katrina washed away the single row of houses that had stood between them and the Gulf of Mexico."Put the money in front of me and I'm gone. I don't think it will ever be like it was before," said Wayne McClendon."
Oh, and the casinos are open..of course there is no where to house the majority of the workers..but they are open for business..ain't that just grand? And guess what..they plan on expanding! With all those folks that can't afford to rebuild now..it works well for the casinos..just not too well for the residents who will sell a plot of land for next to nothing to a developer just to get something out their property and move on, trying to restart their shattered lives...but hey..you can come down and gamble!
Tags; Politics, Bush, Katrina, Biloxi
