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| Tuesday, September 6, 2005 |
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What the button resets 
| | I wrote Dependence and Independence six days ago, on Wednesday, August 31, as a SuitWatch newsletter. It went out with the next morning's email. As I wrote later that morning, the piece opens with kind words about the first speech President Bush gave on the subject of Katrina relief. Today that seems like a year ago. But, as I said then, the President's speech is beside the points I wanted to make, which were about our two-sided relationships with each other, and our institutions. |
| | A lot of attention has been focused on the part of this video where Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard breaks down while telling a terribly tragic story about how the mother of the man in charge of Emergency Management in the parish drowned while waiting — days — for help. What Broussard says earlier in the video, however, is what matters most for the future of the country. He challenged the country to fix the problems that led to the country's de facto abandonment of New Orleans. He offers constructive suggestions. But those don't make great video, so nobody's paying much attention to them. |
| | Today I stopped watching and listening to the media, and even a lot of blogs, because such a huge pile of time and energy are wasted casting blame or protecting others (the President, the FEMA director) from it. This morning I saw Diane Sawyer try to get some official to take or spread blame; and not long after that I listened to Rush Limbaugh protect President Bush from liberals who were out to "destroy" the presidency. Great TV and radio, perhaps, but also useless bullshit. |
| | If Katrina has done one positive thing, it has put common ground underneath the left, right and center of the American democracy. We all want better, more responsible, more accountable and more responsive government. Even those of us who believe 'the government that governs best governs least' want government at all levels to at least do the jobs nobody else can do. Especially when the lives of an entire city are at stake. |
| | Thanks to the connected environment in which we now live, we will forge a new kind of relationship with governments at every level. In the future, politicians will no longer operate only with the consent of the governed, but with the participation of the governed as well. |
| | Of course, we've always had participation. But in the future it won't just be the lobbyists and political obsessives who participate. It will be every resourceful soul who knows they have a stake in the system, and knows they can leverage it. That changes things. |
Your dumpster as a porn lending library
Dick?
| | Anybody seen Dick Cheney? Nothing new on his page since 18 August. |
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