Lowering Poverty in Louisiana

Shaker Wally, Shameless Inflamer of Blog-Related Narcissism, pointed me in the direction of David Rees' latest Get Your War On strips (must-reads, but be prepared for the ensuing laughweep, with which I imagine we’ve all become well familiar, especially lately), and noted that the fifth one down seems to raise an interesting point.

The question is; do the pictures we've seen of dead bodies floating in flooded New Orleans streets actually prove that Bush's tax cuts for his rich buddies work to end poverty? Follow me here.

- Action: Bush cuts taxes for the rich by $ (insert obscene amount here). Result: No slack in the budget to pay for strictly optional wars.

- Action: Money pulled from other "lower priority" sources (like NO levee improvements) to pay for (insert inane "Noble Cause" here). Result: Levees compromised, overtopped, broken; water 10 to 20 feet deep in NO streets.

- Action: Impoverished NO residents faced with ugly reality of their socio-economic condition, to wit; unable to flee rising waters. Result: Hundreds fail the ultimate acid test of "Keepin' our heads above water" (insert "Good Times" theme song here, only played much slower and in a minor key).

But here's the kicker; corpses have no economic status. Thus, as a direct result of Bush's tax policy, hundreds of (late) New Orleans residents are no longer living in poverty. The fact that they're no longer living, period, is just the cherry on top, if you're a Bush supporter.

So, is this simply a chain of teeth-grindingly avoidable circumstances, or are we actually looking at long-awaited, deeply-suppressed evidence of Dear Leader's true genius? To steal a phrase from one of my favorite bloggers, I just threw up a little in my mouth. (At least it got rid of the taste left by using "Bush" and "genius" in the same sentence...) Don't you think the wingnuts would just brown themselves with excitement if someone explained this to them, speaking veeeeeeery slowly and using only three- and four-letter words? Can't you just hear them crowing in triumph, "Oh yeah, retarded like a FOX!"

All sassypantsity aside, Shaker Wally, Shameless Inflamer of Blog-Related Narcissism, is onto something akin to the change in political demographics that has been discussed, as a largely Democratic population has been displaced and its associated bloc influence diluted as its carved segments are relocated around the country. If, as is (quite wisely, no doubt) expected, New Orleans is rebuilt in a way that fails to accommodate many or most of the poorest of its displaced residents, stealing the opportunity of return and forcing them to remain scattered, a lower poverty level for the area is inevitable.

It will, of course, be reflective of the tragic loss of life, as the poor are disproportionately represented in the casualty counts (even inaccurate as they are likely to be), and the heartbreaking circumstance many survivors will face of being financially unable to return to the place they called home. But nonetheless, the lower regional poverty numbers will be quite real, and I fear that such statistics, lacking the appropriate context, will be pointed to as proof of a truly and thoroughly undeserved success after rebuilding is complete.

It’s something to keep in mind lest the asinine comments of monstrous excuses for humanity like Richard Baker or Babs Bush end up being regarded as astutely prescient, instead of the dour representations of typical rightwing hooey that they are.