I can't believe this hasn't been discussed yet! So, what is the general opinion of Bush's speech last night from Jackson Square? For those who may have missed it, here is a link!

My thoughts...

It was a lovely speech, I wasn't horrified that he was representing our country for a change. A little too much religion for my taste, but that's me.

Great ideas put forth, sounds like he's got a much better grip on the reality of the situation than he did last week. For those who are yelling that it's too late, I'd just like to say that you can't change what's happened, all you can do is move forward and make sure it doesn't happen again. It sounds like that's the way Bush is headed, and I'm willing to give him credit for that. It's a sin and a shame (to quote my mama) that it played out the way it did, and that the people who died had to die, but now we have to work on helping the living.

I did have a couple of concerns. I'm quite pleased with most of the ideas put forth. I was really impressed with the $5000 mentioned for people to use as a "college fund", more or less.

I propose the creation of Worker Recovery Accounts to help those evacuees who need extra help finding work. Under this plan, the federal government would provide accounts of up to $5,000, which these evacuees could draw upon for job training and education to help them get a good job, and for child care expenses during their job search
And I thought that the land lottery they mentioned was a bit of an innovative way to progress.

And to help lower-income citizens in the hurricane region build new and better lives, I also propose that Congress pass an Urban Homesteading Act. Under this approach, we will identify property in the region owned by the federal government, and provide building sites to low-income citizens free of charge, through a lottery. In return, they would pledge to build on the lot, with either a mortgage or help from a charitable organization like Habitat for Humanity.
This part was great too...I've already been to the site and found several volunteer positions I've "applied" for, and a list of schools that have needs.

I've asked USA Freedom Corps to create an information *************, available at usafreedomcorps.gov, so that families anywhere in the country can find opportunities to help families in the region, or a school can support a school.
However, this part makes me a bit nervous!

It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces -- the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice.
As someone who lives in a "hurricane zone", I'm not really sure that loads of military and government officials landing on us everytime the wind blows is a great idea. I want to see some specifics, specific conditions and specific answers to when/where/why/how this will take place.

My other concern with the speech is Who exactly is going to pay for all of this? What programs are going to be cut to pay for it? Are we going to pay more taxes? I sincerely doubt Bush is going to raise taxes. So who's going to lose, while all of these people 'win'?

In a summary after the speech last night, it was pointed out that never since FDR's New Deal has this country undertaken such a sweeping Federal Plan for recovery. There were a lot of winners in the New Deal Plan. There were also a lot of losers.