Well I'll be darned, people can change over time, even George Bush. Three years ago as New Orleans drowned (thanks in part to our dilapidated infrastructure and the President's FEMA) Dubya merely flew over the extreme suffering Louisiana faced, and that was three days after he storm hit. Basically, he didn't give one iota to what those Americans were going through.
Now though, here in an election year 2008 George has redeemed himself. He made himself useful by speeding up the levee building process rebuilding New Orleans helping victims recover dropping by the FEMA office in D.C. over the weekend to shake a few hands and give them a thumbs up. Now that Gustav has weakened and thankfully missed New Orleans (planned by Republicans no less) Bush is being pro-active even as the storm is flooding areas to the north of NOLA. No, he isn't doing those things that are crossed out but for his oil buddies, this is way better.
From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“One thing is for certain, when Congress comes back, they’ve got to understand that we need more domestic energy, not less,” Bush said in the Roosevelt Room. “One place to find it is offshore America — lands that have been taken off the books, so to speak, by congressional law — and now they need to give us a chance to find more oil and gas here at home.”Bush, keeping a hands-on profile on the aftermath of the hurricane in contrast to the government’s poor response to Katrina, met in the Roosevelt Room with Vice President Dick Cheney and about 20 advisers, including the secretaries of Interior, Transportation and Energy.
Preliminary indications were that Gustav caused little damage to onshore and offshore facilities, though the full impact likely won’t be known for a couple of days. Some oil companies, rig owners and refiners were already putting equipment and people back in place to resume operations.
Clearly, putting more refineries in the Gulf of Mexico is smart because Hurricanes are becoming more intense as they reach the area, or something like that. Forget the disaster preparation and building defenses for the monster Hurricane that Gustav was thankfully not. It sure is comforting that our President has his priorities in line, whether that line is straight or crooked, that's up for debate.
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