**KATRINA**the Aftermath 2.0

As the hours pass, and the scope and significance of the devastation wrought by Katrina becomes more evident, the more horrific the impact becomes.

So of course, the usual suspects are starting to pipe up with horsedookey such as this, where commentators in der Spiegel are blaming the Katrina disaster on us for failing to bow and scrape at the feet of the Kyoto prototcol. HT to Drudge. I'm certain that their US domestic counterparts are not far behind in this. Has anybody seen Cindy Sheehan? Michael Moore? Have they started blaming Bush and red state America for Hurricane Katrina like this fool Jurgen Trittin does below?

At this point I'm not so sure that the Marshall plan was money well spent. Can any of these leftist handwringers cite for this blogger ANY evidence of a mechanism by which the Kyoto protocol might have prevented this??

"...The toughest commentary of the day comes from Germany's Environmental Minister, Jürgen Trittin, a Green Party member, who takes space in the Frankfurter Rundschau, a paper owned by the Social Democrats, to bash US President George W. Bush's environmental laxity. He begins by likening the photos and videos of the hurricane stricken areas to scenes from a Roland Emmerich sci-fi film and insists that global warming and climate change are making it ever more likely that storms and floods will plague America and Europe. "There is only one possible route of action," he writes. "Greenhouse gases have to be radically reduced and it has to happen worldwide. Until now, the US has kept its eyes shut to this emergency. (Americans) make up a mere 4 percent of the population, but are responsible for close to a quarter of emissions." He adds that the average American is responsible for double as much carbon dioxide as the average European. "The Bush government rejects international climate protection goals by insisting that imposing them would negatively impact the American economy. The American president is closing his eyes to the economic and human costs his land and the world economy are suffering under natural catastrophes like Katrina and because of neglected environmental policies." As such, Trittin also calls for a reworking of the Kyoto Protocol -- dubbing it the uncreative title of "Kyoto 2" -- and insisting that the US be included..."

Insisting?!!

By what means do you propose to enforce such insistence Herr Trittin? Americans might only make up 4 percent of the population and may indeed be responsible for a quarter of the emissions; in exchange for that, we are, by an order of several magnitude, more productive than the average european who seems to split their time going to and coming from holiday, and striking because they do not have enough vacation time. In other words they are usually pissed off by Americas very existence and having to strike for more vacation time. All the while, resting under the protective umbrella of US military forces, at a cost of untold billions (trillions!?) since WWII.

Again Herr Trittin, by what mechanism do you suppose this so-called Kyoto2 agreement would prevent such an occurence?? The reason Katrina will stack up to be a much more devastating event in human and economic terms than Camille in 1969 (even though they are roughly the same meteorologically) is because after Camille we recovered in such vigorous fashion and the area has built back up even greater than before. It has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of American participation in the Kyoto protocols. Not one erg.

Jurgen; I have a news flash for you baby, the planet has been warming since the end of the last ICE AGE!!!! It has nothing whatsoever to do with SUVs or Kyoto!!

Fool.

Would Herr Trittin impose some sort of UN zoning laws to tell us where and how to develop here? Guess what Jurgen? We will recover and rebuild AGAIN. It is ingrained in the American psyche as much as it is in the socialist-pan-european psyche to sit around, smoke cigarettes and complain bitterly about how unfair it is to have to strike for more vacation time.

Perhaps a good way for us to begin to recover would be for us to husband our resources a bit by say pulling all American troops off European, and Korean soil. We could send 1/3 to the gulf coast, 1/3 to Iraq, and 1/3 to the border with Mexico. What do ya' say Jurgen? We can start tommorrow.

Oh yeah, Jurgen by the way when can we expect all those Lufthansa cargo planes to come swooping in loaded with European caring an compassion?!! The Memphis airport is open we could stage them all here, and truck the relief supplies down I-55.

Jurgen? ??

Hello; Jurgen??

Jurgen??

Anybody seen Jurgen? -SpinDaddy

Update 30AUG05 1647 hrs: Good thoughts here at the Below the Beltway Blog (cool blog handle by the way), re: oil prices and Katrina. -Spin

UpDate 30AUG05 2051 hrs: Katrina has blown out of Memphis now. She really just grazed us, we were very fortunate that she had diminshed significantly upon landfall. Our damage was mostly downed trees.

Also MLGW says about 75,000 are without power. We are so lucky compared to those to our south. This homeowner was not so fortunate, but again compared to where Katrina made landfall, this is very minor. -Spin