New Orleans is The City that Care Forgot, dubbed so by American writer Mark Twain for the laissez-faire and carefree atmosphere that used to prevail there. Sadly, it has become the City a nation, or at least its governments, has forgotten.

Hurricane Gustav is ramping up to most likely a 4 and more storms may be on the way. It is Labor Day weekend and the annual Southern Decadence Weekend, aka “Gay Mardi Gras’, is going down in New Orleans but will be cut short. That was the event the fundies like Hagee blamed for “God’s punishment” three years ago.

We passed the three year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina a few days ago which coincided with John McCain’s 72nd birthday. When my favorite place in the world was being smacked by Katrina, ‘President’ George Bush was off in Arizona helping celebrate McCain’s 69th on an Air Force tarmac. Later he played a fool with a guitar at a military base with some second-rate country music ‘star’.

The fruit didn’t fall far from the tree. This shot is from Lee Atwater’s R&B inaugural ball in 1989 when Poppy B joined his main campaign man on stage where various Blues and R&B performers were entertaining to feign guitar playing and make ‘monkey lips’ as he called it. Nice.

Now with all of the cynicism of the Palin selection (can you say “Brownie” scout?), the same party and its leaders that ignored NOLa when it was drowning due to malfunctioning infrastructure and degraded wetlands that the federal government allowed to happen are now full of ‘compassion’. McCain and McQuaylin rush down to Mississippi to visit Haley Barbour and maybe check out Trent Lott’s porch. Barbour is the smug and smarmy repug party leader and lobbyist turned governor who was more than pleased with the recovery assistance his state received after Katrina. Chances are Mississippi may not take much of a hit from this one, God bless ’em. Bush and Cheney will use their ‘concern’ as an excuse to skip their visit tonight to the repug con in St. Paul. If you think that is the only reason they won’t be there, I have a collapsed bridge nearby to sell you. Most of the first night of the repug con has been abandoned for appearances’ sake. There are even some rumours that the acceptance speech may be delivered from the disaster zone. That might be the only way McCain can challenge O’Bama’s huge event of Thursday. It would also back memories of another cynical speech full of empty promises that Bush made from Jackson Square when he finally made it to NOLa two weeks after the fact or maybe his recent speech in New Orleans where he misrepresented gov’t involvement and accomplishments in the ‘recovery’ that was incompetent and corrupt and shortchanged at every level of government. Watching these bastards use the possibility of another disaster for politic posturing and advantage, as an excuse, a backdrop or an attempt to erase the memories of their previous unacknowledged failures is disgusting.

There have been concerted efforts to limit the return certain elements (race and class based) back in to NOLa and much of the intransigence about rebuilding the city and upgrading the levees and restoration of the wetlands has been part of that, a wait them out strategy. NOLa is prime real estate being historically one of America’s greatest cities. As every desirable destination in America is now being bought and sold to the interests of the upper-classes, Katrina’s aftermath has been used to facilitate a cleansing of ‘undesirables’ to that end. Unfortunately, what made NOLa great was not the party town thing about which GWB and his frat boys pals wax nostalgically. It was the unique blend of cultures and people and flavors that produced tremendous physical beauty, fantastic food, the best of music and arts and literature, and a welcoming almost European environment that was comfortable and rich in a very different way. The people who are being left behind were a very integral part of this mix. New Orleans will not be the same place if the dreams of some to make it a sanitized Disneyland/party town for adults kind of resort city become reality.

There still needs to be a national initiative to restore NOLa and the Gulf Coast and upgrade storm protection. Bake sale charity and faith based ‘initiatives’ and volunteerism and private donations and good will do not come anywhere near what needs to be done to fix this. For now, we can only hope Gustav takes a benign turn and the storms behind it either die or do little harm. Then after the current administration leaves the stage, hopefully a larger Democratic majority in Congress will be able to finally start to correct this national disgrace even if there is a McCain regime. It’s not too late, yet.

There is a new record from Dr. John and the Lower 911, “City That Care Forgot” that is worth checking out. Maybe you should just get it and skip the previous rant.