Send in the Clown

"It may be hard for you to see, but from when I first came here to today, New Orleans is reminding me of the city I used to come to visit. It's a heck of a place to bring your family. It's a great place to find some of the greatest food in the world and some wonderful fun. And I'm glad you got your infrastructure back on its feet. I know you're beginning to welcome citizens from all around the country here to New Orleans. And for folks around the country who are looking for a great place to have a convention, or a great place to visit, I'd suggest coming here to the great New Orleans."

- George W. Bush, Court Jester in Chief

"When you talk about the president saying that he's seeing pretty dramatic change, it's hard for people who are not back in their homes to think anything is pretty dramatic down here, other than the fact that they're not back in their homes. A lot of people still just trying to get back into the city, trying to figure out exactly what's going on with insurance, trying to figure out what's going on with any kind of grants, just trying to figure out the master plan of the city. Right now people are not getting a lot of answers. So when they hear the president saying that he's seen a pretty dramatic change, a lot of folks who want to come back here and that are here right now just don't see it that way."

- Ed Reams, WDSU reporter

There's more from The Rude Pundit (who took the NOLA picture above on a recent visit to the city):

So, just fer the record here, hundreds of thousands of people who used to live in New Orleans have been scattered to the American wind and those who wanna rebuild not only don't know if they can because of a lack of public services, not only don't know if FEMA or insurance is gonna come through, not only don't even know if their neighborhoods will be allowed to be rebuilt, but, even if they overcome those hurdles, don't know that a year after rebuilding if they're neighborhoods will have reached a kind of critical mass that allows the resurrection of a neighborhood to continue or be halted, according to the new rebuilding plan...

But that ain't gonna stop Bush from encouraging everyone, like a pathetic refugee from a Wayne's World video festival, to "Party on." But it's par for the course, is it not? For, as we fondly remember, Bush told us after 9/11 to go shopping. So, like, basically, Bush's solution to major disasters is not unlike the reaction of the members of Deltas in Animal House who, when facing failure or expulsion, responded with "Road trip" or "Toga party."