3 years and 3 days ago John McCain and George W. Bush ate cake to celebrate McCain’s 69th birthday. At that very moment hurricane Katrina was bringing devastation to the gulf coast.
Now it’s election season, and almost exactly 3 years later the Republican National Convention was due to 
begin today, but another monster hurricane has disrupted the plan. I hope that Gustav is a more benevolent beast then Katrina was, but this new storm does bring a silver lining. It reminds us of Katrina and the way she was handled. Gustav shines a light once again on the Bush administration’s horrible bungling of the disaster. Not only before, during, and immediately after the event, but the continuing botches that have left FEMA-trailer-park 
refugee camps spread across the region to this day. And now those camps themselves have been evacuated as Gustav begins to bear down on the coast.
Coincidently my friend, filmmaker Lucia Small, was here in Chicago this weekend for the debut theatrical run of her new documentary “The Axe in the Attic“, a film about Katrina.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, two filmmakers, drawn together by outrage, take a sixty-day road trip from New England to New Orleans. Along the way they meet evacuees and witness the loss, dignity, perseverance and humor of people who have become exiles in their own country. The breakdown of trust between a government and its citizens, the influence of race, class, and gender — as well as the ethics of documentary filmmaking itself — form the backdrop for this universal story of the search for home.
Watch the trailer:
[youtube rFT6X7rkB3w]
The film not only brings that raw chapter of American history back to the surface, but most interestingly the filmmakers turn the cameras on themselves and expose the deeply uncomfortable situation they find themselves in as middle-class northerners coming to the deep south to document something beyond extreme poverty.
Let Them Eat Cake:
[youtube bRar6yKZE8g]
Remember this one? MP3 Download:
The Legendary K.O.;
George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People ->
[audio:https://archive.mashit.com/audio/George_Bush_Doesnt_Care_About_Black_People.mp3]
Cool story. Thanks!