Unfortunately for America, Katrina couldn't come at a worse time.  The low cost of consumer goods manufactured overseas with an over-inflated housing market buoyed by leveraged dollars continue to hide the rapidly deflating value of our dollar overseas, referred to as dollar dilution.  The war we chose to fight continues to drain us of monetary and human reserves. Katrina will do the same. However, if circumstances allowed, politicians and those who groom, elect and control the current class running our country, a.k.a the warmakers, would cause natural disasters akin to Katrina, making wars unnecessary. Politicians could respond to disasters and embrace photo-ops holding babies or passing out food.  Heroes, they would possess the political capital to be reelected for life. Wars cannot do this. Disasters spun correctly, can.

Politically, the complete destruction of a city ranks second only to a surprise attack by a foreign nation in value for the warmaker handlers controlling our President. Natural disasters trump pre-emptive war as a control mechanism; smiling faces bolstered by brave empathetic speeches hide the restrictions imposed and the rapid devaluation of our money. While gas prices spiked to as high as $6.00 per gallon and averaged just over three, the stock market held firm. Wall Street, licking its chops smells an opportunity, the impending injection of adrenaline on the way from Washington. Both disasters and wars have fans.

Money for the Chosen,
taxes for the rest

President Bush petitioned Congress for $62.3 billion to get the "clean up" started. Taxpayers and donors provide the contribution; most funds will land in the pockets of contractors. Halliburton gained contracts for the clean up as early as September 1, 2005, before the President visited the areas affected. Sixty-three billion dollars averages $210.00 collected from every American man, woman and child or $1000.00 from each dilution pressed family of five. The Superdome requires a cool $100 million solely to fix its roof. Guess who will pay for it. TOP

Overseas Drain

No one wants to deny the needs of the Asian tsunami or Katrina victims. What if it does cost the taxpayers a bit of dilution in lieu of taxes, who can object? But what of the results on our way of life? Survivors dragged from their homes, relocated to shelters to make way for the giant corporate occupation of New Orleans while Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) doles out huge contracts to their business contacts, many to foreign countries including desert nation Israel, without any experience rebuilding in a delta.  This defies reason.  TOP

Cross Purposes

The primary goal of American political leaders (or any politician) is to keep job levels up and to create the illusion of rising prosperity. When people believe life is good, politicians stay in office.  The perception usurps reality. Creating this illusion requires diluting the currency, a result of spending money on "vitally necessary" causes that manufacture an illusion of progress but are usually worthless and destructive. Examples include the occupations of Iraq and Palestine; both paid for and maintained by American taxpayers. Often referred to as "inflation," it is the act of paying for jobs, objectives and ideas that do not produce.

Producing a valuable product that does not exist, an innovation, something useful, requires tremendous skill, research and market data.  Governments are reactive; creating requires anticipation. Governments do not innovate; they propagate and manufacture reasons for their existence.

It is easy to pay broken people, like those in New Orleans, to pick up garbage or clean up flood-destroyed homes. Non-productive work is an art form perfected by the government. Spending deflationary dollars for questionable causes allows for the controlling people at every level, whether it's for war or for relief of suffering. TOP

Where the Money Goes

Ask yourself: of the billions donated to help the victims and refugees of Katrina, what percentage will be allocated to replace the victim's homes after the corporate contractors take their cut? The insurance companies are already seeking loopholes from this dual disaster, (hurricane-nature, levy breaks-government greed).  The fact is, the poor, those who stayed behind, probably don't have insurance.  A hundred dollars a month or more is a lot for a family living on less than a thousand.

See article: Insurers may be Katrina's next victims as credit ratings slide

The New Bankruptcy Laws

The aid goes for corporate welfare, for the Halliburton's of the world, just like in Baghdad resulting in cheap jobs, not cheap homes. When New Orleans is reclaimed years from now and the levies declared safe, most land will belong to different people. The current owners, unfortunately most will default on their mortgages or taxes to cover day-to-day expenses and new housing once the grants run out. The new bankruptcy laws going into effect in October assure this transfer.  These laws require the filer prove he or she is not a criminal or attempting to defraud the lenders. The courts assume guilt with the new laws, not innocence as today. Currently the lenders must prove a filer is attempting to defraud, placing the assumption of innocence on the filer. The new laws assume every filer is defrauding and force each applicant to prove he or she is not defrauding.

For most Americans who may confront this issue in their lifetime due to job loss, hospitalizations or natural disasters, negatives cannot be proven. The average filer will need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to show he or she is not filing maliciously.  Most people filing for bankruptcy do not have access to an extra twenty-thousand.  If they did, they wouldn't be filing.  This means homes and assets will be forfeited because filers cannot afford to protect them and most people cannot prove they are not doing something.  Again, you cannot prove a negative, the primary principle in the new bankruptcy laws.  It's a catch-22 and the people of New Orleans are heading straight for this new disaster, dollar dilution making their money worth less and bankruptcy laws forcing you to prove your not a criminal to keep your assets.  All of this courtesy of our elected officials who voted in the new bankruptcy laws after heavy lobbying from the credit card industry.  TOP

See Articles: No Bankruptcy Relief for Katrina Victims • Katrina Victims Face Insurance Delays, Denials • Freelance Fund Raisers Can Hamper Relief Efforts • Spitzer: Fed Study Confirms Racial Lending Disparities • US jobless claims at 10-year high

To avoid bankruptcy, we have to pray we don't end up in a disaster, personal or otherwise. To avoid dollar dilution, something that has been occurring at a rate of 40-70% since September 11, 2001 we must become organized, educated and involved as citizens.   We must demand that the federal government stay out of administrating relief and allow the state and local governments of the stricken areas to administer to their own citizens, with their own citizens as our constitution intended. Katrina is succeeding Iraq as the preferred excuse in explaining a runaway government. And it's only been two weeks.

See Articles: Legal answers for New Orleans residents • Crazy loans: Is this how the boom ends? • Red Tape

Playing to the Press

President Bush, grim-faced and tight-fisted struggled with a response to Katrina as he ended his vacation and found a distraction to the three week onslaught by a grieving mother. America expected to see the polished resolute leader who brought the nation together following the surprise attacks of September 11.  After all, this is the President who came into his own upon disaster. The stark contrast between Terrorist attack Bush and Hurricane aftermath Bush didn't go unnoticed. The strong, resolute 'your either with us or against us' president never appeared. His handlers had yet to choreograph an adequate response to an event occurring with just two days warning and four days following. Perhaps he works better with no warning like on 9-11? Note: The implied insinuation is intentional here. 

Instead Bush focuses promoting wars, which requires him to swagger, sneer and strut. Not so with a rescuing operation. Saving 200,000 mostly lower class people requires the President to be humble, cry at times and to love the unlovable. Saving people, while taking their homes is a little different from saving them after you have bombed them. The transition can take a little time.

Our president was carefully coached by the neocons to be arrogantly defiant directly following 9-11 and through the ensuing adventures. "Bring them on" was his answer to resistance in Iraq; he is still defiant after 1800 Americans have died there and over 11,000 off the field he rarely counts. His handlers will fix his image post Katrina, but it takes a few weeks to teach the President anything as complex as humility. TOP

Deploying our Resources

Away in Iraq, our men and women, many of whom agreed to join the National Guard and protect America's borders and American people, men and women who should have been here, not there, are trained to kill Muslims, rather than save Americans as these troops were intended. For war, they're trained to control and jail  people, not to save and rebuild evident by the time delays when asked to save people from rooftops. Americans are being shot in New Orleans. Americans, our people, often by the very troops who are designated to defend them.  The psychological consequences for the victims and our National Guardsmen here and abroad watching this will be immense.  Has anyone budgeted for that?

See Articles: Homeland Disaster: Natl. Guard Watches Helplessly from Afar • Administration Refuses To Acknowledge Reality: The National Guard Is Stretched Thin • Police forcibly tackling elderly, confiscating firearms and dragging them out of their homes

Wal-Mart, not FEMA to the rescue

Most aid administered during the direct aftermath of Katrina arrived through private agencies and effort, not FEMA nor Homeland Security. Wal-Mart was first on the scene; having planned for such a disaster the corporation loaded the trucks and positioned them throughout areas prone to hurricanes because every year hurricanes come. Wal-Mart anticipate and prepare for this, at their own cost.  The government didn't.  Wal-Mart delivered life-saving supplies, water and food.  FEMA prevented the Red Cross and other relief agencies from getting in for several days. In the first days, only Wal-Mart due to its pre-planning and vast distribution network, (second only to the Federal Government) reached the needy. This is an example of why the framers of our constitution left social issues in the hands of states and private citizens rather than the federal government.  Private citizens and their interests move quickly.  Bureaucracy, especially the federal kind, never does.  In disaster, delay kills. The death toll in New Orleans, nearing five-hundred, testifies volumes. TOP

The Underbelly on the Prowl

We must also realize that in the carnage of Katrina, thieves, thugs and hate-filled racists, deprived drug addicts, and the criminal by nature are all mixed in with the hungry, sick, and homeless. Some of the latter are justifiably angry, feeling they were lured to spend their life savings to live in a swamp and are now forgotten by everyone when the long-predicted American tsunami finally arrived. Their insurance, non-existent. Most realize they will never be permitted to salvage a home in the swamp, even once the area is secure.

As for the looting, all companies affected by the flood will have to write off all inventory.  It cannot be sold again.  Most looting involved the acquisition of necessities: food, water, clothing.  As for those stealing flood damaged electronics and such, where are they going to plug them in, if in fact they are able to actually carry them through the flood? The focus on this issue serves one purpose: vilifying the victims and deflecting attention from the administration's response.

Baghdad vs. New Orleans

Administrations, including this, dilute the dollar for war and quickly adjust to the advantages of natural disasters. Our military and its commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush, have been trained for Baghdad, not New Orleans; but notice the similarity between Baghdad and New Orleans. From the standpoint of government, both destructions accomplish the same end. Both create miserable clean-up jobs, helpless people who have to be manipulated and controlled, and financial opportunities to be grabbed. TOP

War is only a substitute for a natural disaster in the eyes of the people who control presidents. In "War is a Racket", by Marine General Smedley Butler, Butler explains how war becomes a racket for businesses like Halliburton, Boeing and Hummer. For politicians, predicted war substitutes for unpredictable natural disasters. Following a path demanding full employment and unlimited spending-power, he with the position to spend holds the power.

See Article: FEMA, La. outsource Katrina body count to firm implicated in body-dumping scandals

Predictable Disaster

The flooding of New Orleans was predictable. The US Corps of Engineers indicated the levies and dikes securing New Orleans would not withstand a category 4 or 5 hurricane. One was quoted as saying it was not "cost effective" to plan for such an event. 

Not cost effective? Moving dirt defines the least expensive portion of construction.  What is the cost of over four-hundred men, women and children now dead in New Orleans alone?  Doubtful the families now mourning would consider raising the levies "not cost effective".   The President in his address of September 15, 2005 stated this was not a normal hurricane.  The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 killed 6000 and nearly wiped out the entire city. Camille, Hugo, Andrew, these hurricanes all destroyed billions and killed.  Storm surges, high winds, floods and rains come with all hurricanes.  Katrina was a normal hurricane.  Lacking in normalcy is the disregard for a city's safety by gambling its future on all hurricanes being below a category three. If the levies hadn't broken Katrina would pass into history as a killer storm but not the storm that killed a city.  The destruction of New Orleans was man made, aided by nature but not of nature.

Craig E. Colten thorougly covered the impending danger in his November 30, 2004 release: An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans From Nature. The danger threatening New Orleans was a checkable, government speak for an event they had information on. True politicians cannot anticipate when such a disaster will strike, but they can plan for it.  Wal-Mart did.  Why didn't the government?

Wars: Disaster Manufactured

In the absence of overwhelming disasters, governments manufacture their own disasters called "wars." Each war takes people out of the economy where they might actually producing something marketable, further strengthening the economy. In the case of Iraq, the President via war destroyed the producing capacity of the country commanding the second largest oil reserves in the world. Now that the production is gone, we are not supposed to notice the cost to fill a SUV's gas tank is up to $100.00--more if you have a Hummer. This hidden cost of war is what We Hold These Truths calls "dilution". It is the way in which we citizens are forced to pay for the war. It is the same method that will be used to replace New Orleans, spend and dilute.

War and natural disasters share another commonality: the reconstruction of Baghdad (which is a pretense) and the rebuilding of New Orleans both bypass competition with domestic business. Halliburton already has a contract and the ground isn't even dry. In New Orleans, floodwaters drowned competition, leaving the government free to grant, sublet, contract and hire at will. Who will complain? Most average Americans will lose their land; mortgages and tax bills continue despite facts on the ground. By cleaning up, FEMA creates jobs at pace with the mechanism organized to feed, employ and house the now homeless victims. Yet those dollar grants, including the $2000.00 vouchers given to refugees, buy less each day.

Finding the Money

Where does the money come from, these billions for New Orleans? Look in the mirror. Diluted dollars and the new freshly printed are ear marked for the clean up. The Federal Reserve doesn't care.  As a private company the government pays it the same $0.10 (ten cents) per bill it prints be it a Washington (one dollar) or Benjamin (one hundred dollars). This lack of concrete value, as the gold standard once provided, expedites the dilution process. Coupled with an increasing trade deficit, exploding national debt and the rationalization of consumerism at the highest levels, buy now pay later, the dollar holds value only if we believe a piece of printed paper holds the value we assign. TOP

See Articles: Dumping of US dollar could trigger 'economic September 11' •  America Is Bankrupt • BRAZIL TO SHUN US DOLLARS IN NEW GLOBAL BOND ISSUE • Chinese less keen to hold US dollars • Gold at 17-year peak in Europe • The cost of Bush's WMD lie

Empathy overflows from both writers of this article for the people of New Orleans and the people of Iraq, two societies enduring similar conditions, though the causes drastically different; in both cases if homes stand, water, electricity, scant food and diminished personal freedom prevail. A U.S. military consisting of high-paid private mercenaries and conscripted guardsmen occupy Baghdad. News reports show the same now occupy New Orleans.  The wealthy now employ domestic and Israeli mercenaries to protect their standing property in absentia.

Unintended Consequences

It is important to acknowledge that as a nation makes decisions, unintended consequences, good or bad, must be accepted. Most called upon on to pay the half trillion dollars these writers estimates will be necessary over the next ten years to rebuild New Orleans, did not build their homes on a delta, equivalent in biblical imagery to sand. The story of the three pigs illustrates the foolhardy exploits of going against nature and physics: one built with straw, one with sticks and one in anticipation of contingencies chose bricks. The moral places responsibility on the owner for his home and the choices each pig made in building it. In a nation eager to help our own, does any citizen honestly believe the corporate welfare system led by FEMA will provide ownership of houses to the New Orleans' poor?

Economic Rape, status quo

In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins describes how rebuilding efforts actually occur, poignantly relating to Ecuador.  In this instance the Shell Oil Company contracts with the Ecuadorian Government.  The agreement includes adding infrastructure and social services to the country.  On paper, the appeal supplies the warm fuzzies Americans love.  In exchange for Ecuadorian oil, American industry is helping a third world nation.  TOP

The reality Perkins shows, is the opposite.  Seventy-three percent of each dollar made on Ecuadorian oil is returned to the US companies contracted: Halliburton, Bechtel and others.  Twenty-four percent is given to the wealthy business owners and government officials in Ecuador.  Just three percent of each dollar goes to the Ecuadorian people for schools, roads, social services and jobs.  In essence Ecuador's leaders squander its natural resources and country's future for three-cents on the dollar.  Its citizens pay dearly, mortgaging their future for three cents on the dollar. US contractors, padding contracts and overcharging for work that could be done for a fraction of the cost by local Ecuadorian firms, take most of the money elevating the term of economic rape to new heights.

This pattern already appears to be the route US agencies are taking in New Orleans.  Halliburton received a contract before the full extent of the damage was known, meaning no bids and no competition.  What type of homes will be rebuilt for New Orleans' poor?  Expect tenements and cheap jobs, inflated budgets and over expenditures. Most of the dollars will stick to the ribs of the corporate insiders, as it has in Iraq with the usual suspects including Dick Cheney's Halliburton and Blackwatch.

In Baghdad, our leaders have confiscated Iraq's oil, transferring the cost burden to the Iraqi people.  First we bomb them, then we make them pay for our destruction, further indebting them. Ironically Perkins speaks to this tactic, referencing Iraq in Economic Hitman.  If the US cannot or does not want to get the resources by legitimate means (paying a fair price) it sends in agents (Economic Hitmen) to bankrupt the nation via monetary contracts similar to the arrangement described for Ecuador. If this fails, we (the US) threaten the leaders or those standing in the way with assassination, via our hit squads known as jackals.  If the jackals fail, we invade clandestinely as in Haiti or overtly as in Iraq. Is it any wonder the Iraqis and half the world is angry at the US?  This is who we are. We've been doing this for over fifty years and now our own people in New Orleans are being primed by the same machinery we've used so well to enslave foreign nations and fatten up corporate interests at everyone's expense but those few profiting. Those promoting misery under the guise of rebuilding get richer while the rest of us pay more with the dollars their actions continue to devalue. TOP

Violence Here. Violence There

We hear of suicides in New Orleans caused by the bleakness of a situation where all material is lost, loved ones are gone and the future looks hopeless. Why are we surprised by human bombers in Iraq where all material is lost, loved ones are gone and the future looks hopeless? We see violence among the Katrina victims being forced to leave and not come back. Being forced to leave family members, forced to leave pets, forced to leave their lives.  Homeland Security moves in.  In New Orleans we have domestic occupation. In Iraq we have foreign occupation.  Similar situations.  Similar outcomes.  Let us pray our citizens are not treated as we treat the Iraqis we claim to liberate.

See Article: New Orleans Begins Confiscating Firearms as Water Recedes

Closing Comments by Laura Dawn Lewis:
September 15, 2005: 6:30 PM

This commentary already ninety percent finished by the time President Bush addressed the nation this evening tying the aspiration of war with the realities of disaster.  Comically President Bush attempted the same parallels, though his focus harkened to rebuilding the dust bowl during the 1930's and other iconic events in American history.  This writer chuckled upon realizing what he was doing. Evan Cornog explores this use of tying previous triumphs to current situations in an effort to create a presidential narrative thus deflecting attention through romanticized nostalgia in his book The Power and The Story: How the crafted Presidential narrative has determined political success from Washington to Bush.  The tactic is an effort to tie previous hardships overcome with current catastrophes in an effort to cloud judgment.  Bush, or rather Rove through Bush did this with Pearl Harbor and September 11th as well. The Dust Bowl, a prolonged multi-year drought and the drowning of New Orleans a major flood have very little in common other than both began with weather related events. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 had very little in common other than both were surprise attacks that history shows could have been prevented or at least anticipated and minimized. TOP

As for his speech, he attempts to look strong and promises all sorts of aid.  Unfortunately for the President, I and others have been paying attention.  The situations described above show why I give scant credence to his promises.  I've seen him in action before. Lots of talk while his friends make money and the people suffer.  We've seen what he's done to the Afghanis.  We've seen what he's done to the Iraqi's.  Why should we expect any difference here?

The President's problem is credibility. Like many Americans, I stopped believing him several years ago. For me it began when he started invoking God and Christ without following the values and teachings of both. Hypocrisy the Bible impresses is God's number one pet peeve.  Bush's behavior since 2000 defines hypocrisy.  Amazingly most of his firm supporters state their reason for supporting him unconditionally as, "He's a good Christian".  My response is always "By who's standard?  According to the Gospels and Christ's teachings, he's not." 

Bush's "good Christian" image is the presidential narrative Cornog speaks of capitalized on by Rove and his team that sold him to America. Consider it his advertising slogan. This writer's observations of his behavior remind me of a dry drunk, an alcoholic no longer drinking but still exhibiting the same characteristics of a man caught in the throws of addiction.

Befuddled these "good Christian" believers stare and stammer, eyes widening like a rabbit caught in the high beams of a government requisitioned Hummer screaming across the desert at midnight.  Knowing I'm a Christian they expect me to reassure them.  When I do not, they reassert, "He's a good Christian!" again before shuffling away.  Last time I looked, practicing Christians didn't invade countries pre-emptively, support apartheid regimes unconditionally or refuse to listen to grieving mothers of soldiers who died for the President's wars.  Nor do Christians keep telling lies once lies are exposed as such. 

Will President Bush keep the promises he's given to the people of New Orleans and other affected areas? My mind keeps returning to the story by our military correspondent, the late Colonel David Hackworth he broke in July 2004: The Biggest Heist in American History detailing the nearly $9 billion dollars missing in Iraq.  American taxpayer money meant to rebuild Iraq that vanished into the system of corporate contracts.  A theft via accounting far greater than any scandal visited upon by the oil for food program.  His promise of help and restoration only carries weight if the American people bypass the fleecing so common by this administration. All we know for sure is that his favorite corporations will get a lot fatter.  How much of that help actually gets to the American people, the citizens affected by Katrina, only time will tell. TOP

Chuck Carlson is the Founder of We Hold These Truths. His free weekly newsletter "The Right Point of View" covers political, economic and foreign policy issues the mainstream media overlooks collected from articles around the world.

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