A team of political hoaxers fooled New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco, and a thousand construction-industry members today.
Posing as fictitious senior HUD official Rene Oswin, Andy Bichlbaum -- a member of the Group the Yes Men -- promised big (and unlikely) changes in New Orleans to a privately-organized conference in Kenner, Louisiana. Among his expansive promises, according to CNN:- Energy giants Exxon and Shell would spend $8.6 billion "to finance wetlands rebuilding from $60 billion in profits this year."HUD quickly confirmed Oswin wasn't part of their agency. "This announcement is totally false; it's totally bogus," spokeswoman Donna White told CNN, who said no one named "Rene Oswin" works for the department. "I'm like, who the heck is that?" ....
- Wal-Mart would withdraw its stores from poor neighborhoods and "help nurture local businesses to replace them."
- the federal government would spend $180 million to fund "at least one well-equipped public health clinic for every housing development."
- the feds would reverse plans to replace public schools with private and charter schools, and instead create a national tax base to supplement local taxes.
"It's really a sick, twisted -- I don't even want to refer to it as a joke," HUD spokeswoman White told CNN. "At this point, it's not funny."
Yeah, it's not funny at all. How dare anyone give people the idea that the president would actually keep his word about rebuilding the region? How dare they suggest that the giants of Big Oil might be good corporate citizens and return some of the money they've made in the region back to ensure its preservation?Now, enough with the jokes. The administration is really busy right now doing the important work in time to mark the first anniversary of the Katrina devastation. Don't bother them with suggestions about how they might actually help people.
P.S. Since the Bush administration only cares about one thing, and one thing only -- its precious, precious image -- maybe they should get a new spokeswoman for HUD. One who doesn't use the phrase "totally bogus" and sprinkle the word "like" into every other sentence? Because that would be, like, totally awesome.
7 comments:
Like, the, ya know, tragedy in New Orleans was sooooo, like, tragic and all. The sight of those, ya know, like dying people was totally saaaad. Like, really tragic.
Great post, OM.
Damned oil companies.
Mike's got a jarring pair of images regarding Katrina over at his place. Sums it up pretty well.
As I said in my own post, I am not at all surprised that the Bush Administration reacted to these suggestions with anger and insult. After all, they'd probably screw them up if they were true, and we've seen that they're actually not that interested in the first place in reconstruction. BUT...Nagan and Gov. Blanco would do well to take a serious look at them and see what they can make happen.
Great post, Smitty.
Thanks for the love over on my blog, OM. I take it as a compliment of the highest regard.
"Since the Bush administration only cares about one thing, and one thing only -- its precious, precious image . . ."
Which is fittingly divorced from reality. The Bush administration worrying about its image is a lot like Britney Spears worrying about her virginity.
I'll echo the great-post sentiments, O.M.
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