News Coverage of Katrina - media slant defined.

For that part of America that has no concept of what a hurricane is, has never lived through one, does not live on or near a coast threatened by them and thinks that a "storm" is something like being snowed-in - or perhaps, a tornado - they can be easily sucked into the view that the media is presenting on Katrina and the aftermath.

They'd be wildly mistaken to do so, but its easy to understand how it can happen.

Let's take Newsweek - one of the liberal bastions of "reporting".

They have a number of stores in their latest edition on Katrina and the aftermath, including one that has as its subheading "If there’s an upside to Katrina, it’s that the Republican agenda of tax cuts, Social Security privatization and slashing government programs is over."

Excuse me, Elenor Clift?

If anything, this disaster has underlined precisely WHY self-reliance and changing the view of people that "the government is there to help them" is so critical - and in a time of natural (or manmade, as in a terrorist attack) disaster, it can be literally a matter of life and death!

First, let's define a few realities - realities that Dear Elenor just shoves aside - she's not unaware, as they actually get mention in her article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9271481/site/newsweek/ - she just chooses to ignore them.

Never mind that she points out her own bias within three paragraphs of the opening when she delineates the Iraq war as "unnecessary". There you have it - with one pronouncement, the tone is set.

Then, she proceeds to "define the problem" as Bush's disdain for government. Disdain? The President and former governor of Texas? Here is a man - and a family - that has lived government their entire lives! You simply do not become President by having a "disdain" for government - indeed, you damn sure must WANT that job pretty badly, as it is arguably the one job in America in which you WILL take the largest number of arrows in the back - no matter your political persuasion.

Elenor must have forgotten a few things during her "pop culture" research for this story, all of which must have been done on the back of a roll of used toilet paper. Like the fact that President Bush's administration has spent more money in five years on levee work in New Orleans than Clinton did in eight. Or that FEMA has as its third word "MANAGEMENT" - not "RELIEF". Or that primary responsibility for disaster management and recovery have always - always - been the purview of state and local officials, and with good reason.

What reason would that be? Its known as "limited government" and is not just a good idea - its the law of the land. I know that the left loves to ignore that pesky document called the Constitution, but that doesn't change the fact that these resources - indeed, even FEMA - are subject to the decisions of the Governor in times like this.

And let us not forget that the President has asked - multiple times - for the authority to coordinate and manage this disaster from Governor Blanco - and each time, has been turned down.

In addition to her willful blindness in this matter, Elenor has also ignored the very conditions under which New Orleans found itself with 100,000 people unable to leave the city during a major evacuation for lack of private conveyance. Ignoring the 10,000 who decided to stay behind of their own volition, knowing the risks, those 100,000 are certainly the product of thirty years of democrat - liberal - administrations in Lousians.

Why, if the correct prescription for social progress is higher taxes, more government spending, more government health care, education, social services and welfare programs, then New Orleans, with a thirty year uninterrupted spate of that fine leadership should have had not one poor, destitute, conveyance-lacking person to be found within its borders.

Of course we know the truth isn't quite that kind to Elenor Clift, nor to any of the other droolers who have not managed to break free of their own insanity The New Deal.

As for tax cuts, I have a prescription for you Elenor - and the rest of the leftists out there. Its called HR25, or more commonly "The Fair Tax". Boortz and John Linder wrote a book on it, which you can find at Amazon or in any bookstore - its on the NYT Best Seller List.

Why will the lefties love it? Because it is the only tax reform plan that levies zero federal tax burden on the poor. Zero.

Why should the rest of us love it? Because it is the only tax reform out there that does not punish achievement, and therefore, by providing incentives to achieve, is the only positive change that this government is likely to enact in the next 20 years that has a realistic chance of dramatically reducing the number of people in cities like New Orleans that believe the government is indeed their "patron".

As for Elenor, her willful blindness is likely beyond hope.