"Life For Us Ain't Been No Crystal Stair"

Harry Shearer is right: Katrina is a replay of Iraq, in which both the GOP and the Democrats share equal blame. But except for Democracy Now!, I haven't heard anybody mention the House hearings on Katrina, held this past Tuesday.

This is one of those you have to listen to: reading it is simply not good enough. Listen to the passion in the voices of the witnesses; listen to the respect they are given; listen all the way through to what Cynthia McKinney says. Listen: because this is what government is supposed to sound like. Listen, and if you can't listen to the whole show, read the second half, about the children still missing after Katrina. It will remind you all over again of how completely screwed up the recovery process was, how completely inept "the mightiest superpower on the planet" proved itself to be.

Listen, and in this season of Advent pray for the missing and the still lost and the people in hotel rooms about to be expelled because they are no longer "convenient" for FEMA. And remember that people in Texas and elsewhere (I hear about Texas' efforts, in local news; Houston has absorbed 20,000 people from New Orleans and environs) are still working to help those who evacuated from the Gulf Coast. Listen, and at least realize: this story may be going on under the media radar; it may not be on NPR (I've yet to hear anything about it) or on the pages of the NYT or WaPo or the LATimes.

This is the story that is going to reshape American politics, and bring an end to the rule of the GOP. Listen to Amy Goodman's words, introducing the first report:

Today is the start of the Survivors General Assembly and Strategy Conference in Jackson, Mississippi. Katrina survivors are gathering at this conference and demanding the right to return to their homes and to take part in the reconstruction process. They are also calling for reparations for what they say is the government's criminal indifference and malicious actions towards the survivors before, during and after Katrina.

But survivors are not the only ones speaking out. Local reporters and politicians from both sides of the aisle have criticized the government's inaction.

On Wednesday, Mississippi Republican Governor Haley Barbour, a staunch Bush supporter and former chair of the Republican National Committee stated, "we are at a point where our recovery and renewal efforts are stalled because of inaction in Washington D.C." Barbour went on to say there was no money to rebuild highways and bridges and school districts were close to bankruptcy. And he was just referring to Mississippi.

The city of New Orleans remains in a state of emergency with most residents unable to return. Many say they have been abandoned by the federal government, the same way they were abandoned during the first days of the storm. The Times-Picayune carried an editorial on the front page recently pleading "Do Not Let the City Die." Local advocates say the government is not committed to rebuilding the city for all of its citizens. They point to the fact that few public housing units have been reopened and that landlords are being allowed to evict people in mass numbers.

80% of New Orleans residents have not returned. And those who have are mostly white and wealthy. African-Americans especially feel the government is not making an effort to ensure that they are able to return. A group of homeless evacuees are filing a lawsuit in Federal Court today contending that FEMA engaged in illegal practices by denying or delaying their requests for temporary housing. They are also demanding that the agency back off of its plan to kick people out of their hotels in the coming days. The FEMA deadline for evacuees to be out of their hotels is December 15th with evacuees in some states granted until January 7th to find new housing.

A recent poll conducted by the Washington Post found 61% of evacuees sampled in Houston said their experience since Katrina has made them think that the government doesn't care about them. 68% of those surveyed believed that the federal government would have responded more quickly if people trapped in the city were "wealthier and white rather than poorer and black."

Katrina is Iraq redux. Only this time, while again the government has committed fornication, it was not in a foreign country. And despite rumors to the contrary, the wench is not dead.

ADDENDUM: Remember people like Mr. and Mrs. William Hayes. Give the homeless faces whenever you can.