31-May-10 News -- Louisiana versus the United States - 31-May-2010 - Generational Dynamics

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is an enormous disaster, especially to the New Orleans region which is just recovering from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

There's a lot of anger these days directed at the oil company BP. But there's also a lot of anger directed at President Obama and his administration. Many people affected by the oil spill blame the administration for being incompetent in not moving faster with the cleanup. Administration supporters point out that there's little that the administration could have done, given that all the expertise is within BP and other oil companies.

But on Sunday I learned, much to my surprise, that many in Louisiana see a different reason: That the American people are discriminating against Lousiana in particular.

This whole story started on Wednesday, when Democratic party strategist James Carville appeared on ABC News Good Morning America (GMA). Now, Carville and Stephanopolous are good friends, and both are strongly partisan Democrats, having served together in the Clinton administration. So when Carville appears with Stephanopolous, it's usually pretty bland.

But this time it was different. (Click on the link above to see a video of the entire exchange.)

Carville was absolutely furious at President Obama, accusing him of "political stupidity," and rattling off a list of things that Obama should have been doing. The following is a rough transcript of what Carville said -- rather, what Carville SCREAMED: "He could have come down here. He could have commandeered the whole thing. He could have sent the Woods Hole people. He could have sent research vessels. He could have demanded a plan. He could be commandeering tankers and make BP bring tankers in and clean this up, as was done in Saudi Arabia. They could be deploying people to the coast. He could be with the Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard doing something about these regulations. The people are crying, they're begging for something down here, and it looks like he's just not involved. You've got to take control of this, put somebody in charge of this thing and get this thing moving! We're about to die down here!"

I didn't think that this rant was particularly important, since it seemed to be purely political, until I heard Carville on CNN on Sunday. Carville is furious at Obama and the nation because Obama and the nation are discriminating against Louisiana.

Here are some excerpts from the CNN transcript of the appearance moderator Candy Crowley and another Democratic operative, Donna Brazile:

"CARVILLE: I want the president to address the nation, to tell them how vital the Louisiana coast is to the country, and the amount of resources that have been extracted from us, and who he has in place and what's going to be our strategy, how much oil does he anticipate that is going to be dumped into the northern Gulf? What does he thinks the consequences are?

I want the best scientists, the best research, the best planners, the best everything. We need an utter long-term commitment.

People down here are fearful. We love our culture. You know, and maybe other people don't under that.

I've often invited on CNN for Mr. Axelrod to come down and see what it is and our emotional connection with each other, and with our marsh and with our land, and what it means to people here. And the fear that Louisianans fear very justifiably, that they've been abandoned in 1955.

The federal government has taken $165 billion of revenue out. The oil companies built canals that they never -- destroyed the wetlands. Our sediment has been dammed up on the northern Missouri River. Our levees were built shoddily. And our response to Katrina was not anything it should be.

Everybody in Louisiana knows for a fact if this would have happened off of Nantucket or Palm Beach, it would have been an entirely different reaction. And, you know, we've just had enough.

We're just not going to take it anymore. We're not going to be used. We're not going to be abused. We're going to stand on this one, and we're just going to stand in.

The people are very, very, very afraid, but they have a real sense that -- well, they know BP would abandon them, but a real sense that everybody would like to just get out of this mess. And we're going to keep in it, and we're not going to move, and we'll just resolve it."

I attempted to search the internet for the meaning of the reference to being abandoned in 1955, but couldn't find anything. If any reader knows what the 1955 reference is, please write to me.

But what's interesting is that Carville's accusations have nothing to do with politics, or with President Obama or with President Bush. Carville is saying that nation has abandoned Louisiana, except for its money.

Carville is certainly correct when he says that things would be different if this were Nantucket on Cape Cod. For years, it was impossible to do something as benign as erecting a few wind turbines off Cape Cod, because of opposition from Senator Ted Kennedy. Anything having to do with oil off Cape Cod would have been completely impossible.

So Carville's bitterness may well have a point. Crowley asked Donna Brazile what Carville meant:

"CROWLEY: James is in a semi-cease-fire mode. But he brings up something that I need you to explain to me, Donna, because I don't get it.

I don't understand why Louisiana thinks -- why James clearly thinks that had this happened in a different coast, up the East Coast, instead of New Orleans, that the response would have been different. We heard this in Katrina, too. And I just don't think that's true. I think I see government incompetence, not neglect of an area.

BRAZILE: No, Candy. I think the experience of many residents in the state of Louisiana was that people waited, that they waited for Louisianans to somehow or another walk off their roof into 10 feet of water into some dry land.

What we saw, the federal response and that of even the state response and the city as being not just incompetent, but that people didn't care. It is our feeling that the country does not understand."

Brazile was much more guarded in her use of words, but it was clear that she agreed completely with Carville.

"You don't think they'll do that anywhere else. The country feels like it is entitled to abuse this state and forget about us, and we're sick of it. ...

And we're going to lose the mouth of the river. I'm almost certain of that because of this. And boy, the consequences of that are just breathtaking and staggering for the rest of the country.

And I'm sorry, Candy. But if this would have happened in Nantucket, their response would not have been, well, gee, we sent the deputy secretary of Interior up there. They would have moved the whole government.

I really believe that. And there's not a single person in Louisiana that doesn't."

This whole view is certainly a surprise to me, and it sounds very much like the kind of mutual blame we're seeing among the different states in Europe over the financial crisis.

As of Saturday, the latest attempt to block the flow of oil has failed, and it now appears that the flow won't be stopped until at least August, and possibly later. This means that the fury of Louisianans at the Obama administration and the rest of the country is going to increase substantially.

As I've said many times for several years, Generational Dynamics predicts that there will be a major political realignment occurring the in United States. Last year it became apparent that the "Tea Party movement" is going to play a signficant role in that realignment. As of today, my expectation is that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the resentment and fury of the people of Louisiana, are also going to play a significant role.

South Korea cancels planned propaganda campaign against the North

As we've been reporting (see "25-May-10 News -- Belligerent words between North and South Korea"), South Korea announced a number of "punitive measures," short of military action, to hold North Korea accountable for the torpedo sinking of the South's warship Cheonan on March 26, killing 46.

One of those measures was a program called "The Sound of Freedom," where South Korean lougspeakers on the border blast propaganda messages into the North.

Now South Korea has abandoned this plan, according to South Korea's JoongAng news service.

The reason given is that North Korea has threatened to shoot at the loudspeakers to destroy them. South Korea would then shoot back, and this could spiral into full scale war.

Actually, it appears that it's more complicated than that. North Korea has once again succeeded in using implied threats and intimidation to force South Korea to back down, according to Asia Times.

There is an industrial complex in Kaesong, just across the border to North Korea. This was a joint project by the two Koreas to develop closer relations. The businesses are owned by South Koreans, and there are about 1,000 South Korean employees working there, in addition to 40,000 North Korean employees.

North Korea has threatened to cut off South Korean access to the complex, and may hold the South Korean employees as hostages, if the South begins its propaganda program.

And so it appears that North Korea has forced the South to abandon even this mild "punitive measure."

As a separate matter, the article also mentions that June is the height of the crabbing season in the Yellow Sea, and the North is likely, once again, to militarily challenge the South's defense of the maritime line separating the countries.

An article in the NY Times lists five ways that the situation could lead to a new Korean war:

Every country is number one at something

Every country in the world is the best at something, according to the London Times. Here's a map that shows what that "something" is for each country:

Additional links

That "Freedom Flotilla" of humanitarian aid and political activists is now expected to reach the vicinity of the Gaza strip on Monday morning, at which time the Israeli navy will attempt to divert it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The flotilla was sponsored by Turkey, and a poll conducted on Sunday indicates that Israelis that formerly took vacations in Turkey are canceling them. Jerusalem Post.

Martin Wolf on the state of the euro zone: "It's also become increasingly clear as time has passed how deep the divisions are among the major European countries. So what you have is a weakening of the European economy, real doubts about the solvency of a number of countries, and an obvious perception of deep and profound disagreements between the two most important players [France and Germany]." CNN

Some Pakistani writers are claiming that the U.S. is considering a nuclear attack on Pakistan to take out the terrorists. Memri

A white pigeon has been detained by police in India under suspicion of being on a "spying mission" for Pakistan. The pigeon was found by a resident on the Indian side of the Indo-Pak border, carrying a message with a Pakistani phone number (303-6284620) and address on its body. After a recent killing of two Pakistan-based terrorists near the border, border residents have been asked to report anything suspicious, even pigeons. Express India

Humor for geeks: The Hollywood Operating System. I thought this was hilarious. "14. You cannot stop a destructive program or virus by unplugging the computer. Presumably the virus has it's own built-in power supply. ... 28. If a robot's eyes turn red, it becomes evil." Nand.net

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-May-2010
31-May-10 News -- Louisiana versus the United States

Louisiana versus the United States

South Korea cancels planned propaganda campaign against the North

Every country is number one at something

Additional links

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-May-2010 31-May-10 News -- Louisiana versus the United States

Louisiana versus the United States

South Korea cancels planned propaganda campaign against the North

Every country is number one at something

Additional links

Web Log Pages

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-May-2010
31-May-10 News -- Louisiana versus the United States