The right-wing continues to attack on Katrina, ignore profiteers.

Just a few hours after writing about misplaced neo-fascist outrage at citizens-- and a complete absence of outrage at the corporations stealing billions of our dollars-- I come across yet another phony attack based on Katrina.

The setup:

Nagin Defends Use of 'Phantom Police'

September 30, 2005

Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, lashed back at critics after the FBI discovered that up to 700 so-called members of the city police force simply did not exist. Funding for many of these officers was provided by the federal government.

The reality:

A story in the November 26, 2005 edition of the New Orleans Times-Picayune cast doubt on Snow's allegations. "No evidence has surfaced to back up the report," the authors noted, adding that "conversations with law enforcement sources suggest it's hard to fathom that one-fourth of the department would consist of 'fake cops' without the FBI or the public knowing about it." A spokesperson for Mayor Nagin characterized the accusations as "unfounded rumors."

Here's something I haven't done yet in my posts on this issue: talk about race. I know that one of my GOP friends has a racist streak, but generally I'm hesitant to apply that label to people who fall for stories like this. My thinking, as I mentioned before, is that it's easier to fill yourself with outrage when you can put a face on it, rather than thinking of abstractions like Halliburton spiriting away a few million here and a few million there. That sort of incident requires attention, investigation, and time. A story like this just demands your anger without requiring thought.

But there's undeniably a racist element (not to mention sheer stupidity) to the comparison of right-wing outrage over Katrina's alleged opportunists and the war profiteers who are, in essence, killing our troops by diverting funds from reconstruction to executive slush funds.

So whenever I hear a Republican complain about some would-be "welfare queen" (to borrow a piece of Reagan's rhetoric) allegedly stealing $2,000 dollars of Katrina relief aid, I don't hesitate to provide a laundry list of companies and individuals who've committed treason by stealing money from the war effort.