In the end, though, Dread, it IS all about race.
The simple fact is, when you get down to the nitty gritty, I seriously doubt that ANYBODY in a position of power in this country would have left 25,000 white people (rich, middle, or working class) in a sweltering stadium for 5 days and let them die in the stands and get beaten and raped and going mad with thirst.
And as much as this is aobut exposing the flaws of local officals as opposed to the Federal Govt, all these TV appearances and cover stories on incompetent black Democratic officials are being done for politcal ends. It's all been advertised, both Time and Newsweek have mapped out Bush's "plan." The Republicans are desperate to keep the new black voters they had in 2004, sense from polls and conversations that after this month they are in danger of losing them for good, and are going overtime (now that Karl Rove is back from his gallstones surgery) to fill the airwaves with reasons for black people to abandon their traditional allegieance to Demcorats. And as welcoming as Texas has been, genuinely, I'm sure the Governor also can smell some political opportunity down the road..turning all those Blue LA black Dem voters into Red Texas voters. This would strengthen the Red vote in Texas while potentially turning LA into a totally Red state--not the least just out of local anger over the local govt but b/c of possible gentrification in the rebuildimg that would keep the poorest black residents from coming back (let;s see how long the 60,000 Feds stay around and who gets to move back in, we'lls ee if I'm right.) Again: read LA history in the early 30s after a major hurricane took over. it led to the rise of Huey Long. He was an Dem. I hope we don't see a Rep version of him.
The latter is just politcs, though. IF the show were on the other foot, this stuff would play out the same way.
