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archived: 11 - 17 Sep, 2005 Back Next UPDATED: September 13, 2005 THE FLOOD And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Genesis, 6:17 Hurricane Katrina lashed the gulf coast, but she did not cause the flood of New Orleans. The day after Katrina, the levees of New Orleans broke releasing a torrent of water flooding the city and killing untold hundreds and possibly thousands of the poorest, weakest and sickest of its people. The flood of Genesis was inspired by the wrath of a jealous god who demanded constant worship, absolute adoration and ceaseless, solemn meditations by the whole of humanity. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Genesis, 6:5-7. The Judaeo-Christian-Islamic god bitterly regretted his creation of mankind. He repented of his act of creation, because mankind ceaselessly imagined evil within his heart of hearts. In the mind of the lord god, mankind’s imagination was so utterly and irredeemably evil that the wrathful deity determined to blast and obliterates the whole of humanity in a genocidal holocaust. Neither would he spare his other creations even though they did not dwell on evil in their imaginations. His wrath was infinite, and he would consume and destroy every man, beast, insect, and songbird, for his depression with mankind was deeper than deep, and it knew no bounds. I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
Genesis, 7:4 Eventually, the infinitely hostile deity decided to spare Noah, and we have the story of the flood that consumed and destroyed the flesh of the earth. The parallel between the biblical flood and the Flood of New Orleans is inescapable. The levees burst. The flood destroyed the city and its people. They could not be rescued. Medical doctors mercifully killed their critically ill patients by giving them massive injections of morphine. The levees broke because there was no money to repair them. The flood roiled over the city destroying all flesh in its wake because there were no rescuers to save them. Where was the money that would have restored the levees? Where were the rescuers who could have saved the people of New Orleans? The answers are simple, for the money and the rescuers were both in the same place: Iraq. Why on earth were they in Iraq? Because the President and his Vice-President wanted them and needed them and compelled them to serve in their war to liberate the oil of that forlorn and pitiful nation we know as Iraq. That nation, Iraq, was the homeland of Noah and of the generations that came from the genes of Noah even unto Abraham, the founder of the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic faith. History has not turned a full circle, for history is a unique chain of events without repetitive pattern, but it is filled with wisdom for those who would study it. The cruelty and the evil of mankind that brought on the genocidal outburst by the god of Moses, Abraham and Noah has never ceased. Is it evil for Dick Cheney to covet the oil of the Iraqi people? Is it evil for Bush to covet the power of the Iraqi people to govern their own destinies? Both men are known to enjoy the comfort of their fundamentalist religious faith. What do they see as evil in their own minds and hearts? Do they feel any responsibility for the deaths and the sufferings and destruction of Iraq and New Orleans? One reads the book of Genesis and the daily reports streaming out of the two river valleys, the Mississippi and the Tigris, and one wonders, Why? There is no disputation. George Bush and Dick Cheney did voluntarily and with premeditation aforethought deny funds for the repair of the levees of New Orleans. George Bush and Dick Cheney did voluntarily and with premeditation aforethought deny protection to the people of New Orleans by the Louisiana National Guard. Were their imaginations filled with evil? Were their hearts filled with evil? Are they evil beings who deserve the wrath of their jealous and resentful deity? In the aftermath of the flood, Dick Cheney has led the charge for the rebuilding of New Orleans at great expense to the US taxpayer. Cheney’s plan for the rebuilding of the drowned city will result in mammoth profits for his erstwhile company, Halliburton and its subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root. Jesse Jackson calls this questionable practice, “white collar looting,” while others call it, “conflict of interest.” The calculators of Cheney’s increasingly notorious corporations are whirring and spinning and reeling in the potential of $100 billion in a new windfall for their shareholders. Halliburton stock is rising. For his part, Bush has imagined a new form of evil. The form of evil that is emerging in the mind of Bush is so monstrous and so grotesque that he wishes to plumb its depths personally. Bush has announced that he will lead an official investigation into his government’s failure to rescue the people of New Orleans or to save them and their city from the flood. In many ways, this is one of the most diabolically evil imaginings in the history of mankind. Bush is the one responsible for the flood, and his arrogance is now expanding to infinite proportions as he appoints himself to be judge, jury, prosecutor and defendant at his own Kafkaesque trial. Is this an outrage or what? Did we appoint Lee Harvey Oswald to investigate the assassination of JFK? Did we appoint James Earl Ray to investigate the murder of Martin Luther King? Did we appoint Sirhan Sirhan to investigate the killing of Robert Francis Kennedy? Did we appoint Richard Nixon to investigate the Watergate breakin? Did we appoint Ronald Reagan or George H. W. Bush to investigate Iran-Contra. Did we appoint Bill Clinton to investigate the case of Monica Lewinsky? I ask you: can we afford to allow Bush to investigate himself? If the Republican-dominated Congress acquiesces to this ultimate perversion of justice, it will surely be the end of an era. In the wake of the flood, Halliburton is licking its chops over the spectacle of devastation in New Orleans. Cheney has visited the area and is now in the midst of launching the first of what will become $100 billion in reconstruction contracts. Elsewhere, there is growing talk that Halliburton and its Kellogg, Brown & Root subsidiary should be either broken up or nationalized. At the same time, Naomi Klein and Jesse Jackson are leading a public outcry against the corporate takeover and rebuilding of New Orleans. Jackson has proposed that contracts for the cleanup and rebuilding of New Orleans should go to local contractors in a program designed to re-launch the shattered economy. But, we are barely into the hurricane season. More winds, torrential downpours, tempests, vortices and floods may be on the way. At the time of this writing, Hurricane Ophelia is meandering towards the Carolina coast. Two hundred detainees in Guantanamo are on hunger strike. Thirteen of them are now on some form of life support. Blackwater mercenaries are stalking the streets of New Orleans hunting down survivors. Dick Cheney’s millions in Halliburton stock are growing steadily grander in his blind trust. George Bush is sweating bullets, grenades and nuclear bombs as he awaits the judgment of the court of history for his crimes against the people of New Orleans and Iraq. Sources
The Independent / Rupert
Cornwell in Washington, Bush launches inquiry and puts himself in charge
of it
The Associated Press /
Will Lester, President's Approval Rating Dips Below 40
The Observer / Beleaguered
Bush tries to evoke spirit of 9/11 (as he sinks lower in the polls)
The Sunday Times / Andrew
Sullivan, The more you look the worse everything gets: Government in
America is bloated and broken at the same time. A true conservative
would be cutting and prioritising it. George W Bush isn’t that person.
If that isn’t clear by now, you have blinkers on. And, ultimately, he’s
the one responsible. He campaigned fundamentally on his ability to run
the country in wartime, on emergency management, on protecting Americans
from physical harm. That was his promise. It was swept away as the
waters flooded New Orleans. And Al-Qaeda was watching every minute of
it.
The Mail on Sunday /
Caroline Graham and Jo Knowsley, We had to kill our patients
The Independent on Sunday
/ Andrew Buncombe in Washington, 'Racist' police blocked bridge and
forced evacuees back at gunpoint
Truthout / Jeremy Scahill
and Daniela Crespo, Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans
The Independent on Sunday
/ Geoffrey Lean, Environment Correspondent, Cover-up: toxic waters 'will
make New Orleans unsafe for a decade'
Reuters / Firms with
Bush-Cheney ties clinching Katrina deals
The Guardian / Naomi
Klein, Power to the victims of New Orleans: With the poor gone,
developers are planning to gentrify the city
The Guardian UK / Audrey
Gillan, Hunger Strikers Pledge to Die in Guantánamo __________________ Since 1968, Michael Carmichael has been a professional political consultant. Beginning as a Student Coordinator for Robert F. Kennedy, he has worked in five US presidential campaigns as well as over 100 major American political campaigns for federal and state offices. In 1985, he founded The Oxford Centre for Public Affairs in the United Kingdom. In 2003, he founded The Planetary Movement Limited, a global public affairs organization based in the United Kingdom. He has appeared as a public affairs expert on the BBC, European Business News, NPR and many European television broadcasts examining American politics and culture. In addition to his column for The Political Junkies, he is a regular contributor to the Moving Planet weblog. See: www.planetarymovement.org and http://planetmove.blogspot.com/
Last Update: 03/23/2006 |
