Smirk's visit to NOLA and the Gulf Coast, why did he bother?

[deminks]

http://www.sunherald.com/218/story/760686.html

NEW ORLEANS -- Deborah Harris didn't get to meet President Bush on Wednesday, and she didn't care. His visit to this city, not far from where she's living in a trailer in the hurricane-devastated Lower 9th Ward, didn't help her in any way, as far as she could tell.

"So what if the president's here?" she said from the shell of a house she's struggling to build three years after Hurricane Katrina left the neighborhood in ruins. "Where's the stores? Where are the schools for our children? Where are our homes?"

Bush was scheduled to speak at Jackson Barracks, a storm-damaged National Guard installation whose reconstruction is one of the biggest and the most visible signs of progress on the main street connecting the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish.

Another high point is the elevated homes being built as part of the actor Brad Pitt's Make It Right project.

Steering away from the thoroughfare, though, reveals side streets lined by lots overrun by tall weeds and grass. At one intersection, a traffic light flashes, but there are no cars on the street. Forsaken homes and businesses recall images from an apocalyptic movie.

(end snip)

I can't believe this AP article got printed, but at least another view is presented.

[ThatsMyBarack]

1. I wish I could find THIS picture:

It was of a NOLA lady holding a sign that said:

NO IRAQI EVER LEFT ME STRANDED ON A ROOF!

[jobycom]

2. Notice that it's a minor story on the Sunherald and the wwltv websites.

I checked this morning, and neither site even mentioned he was coming. You think maybe no one wanted him to feel welcome?

[dkofos]

3. Nothing better to do. Might as well visit past disasters (as long as they're safe) heh, heh,heh

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Bush: "Live like a real person"? She knows that will never happen.