Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the United States, offered to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers to the disaster area.
The State Department did not comment on Venezuela's offer but several officials smiled at the gesture from Mr Chavez, who yesterday called Mr Bush a "cowboy" who failed to manage the disaster.
Cuban President Fidel Castro, a close Chavez ally, led a minute of silence in remembrance of the victims of Katrina in parliament on today. The parliament then returned to normal business with a resolution attacking Mr Bush over the Iraq war.
Something about that makes me giggle. Heh.
I suppose it's good that even those nations with which our relationship is...strained can look past their animosity and feel empathy for those in pain. Not that I'm a huge fan of either Chavez or Castro. But credit (or in Castro's case, partial credit) where and when it's due.
Jack Grant at The Moderate Voice has more on the issue of foreign aid to the US in general.
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The Moderate Manifesto
We need to rise up and change the way our elected officials represent us and our interests in this country.
They preach that they’re the ones who serve us best, while they take money from companies and special interests in a promise of patronage while forgetting their duty to the people who elected them. And once elected they only care about one thing, and that isn’t representing their constituents’ interests, it is not changing this nation for the better, it is staying in office so their net worth can keep increasing. And they will do anything to keep their office. They forget all their values and morals, and will say whatever they’re told to say because they think it will get them re-elected.
Just like Rome, we’re letting the merchants take over. They pay our officials to turn a blind eye whilst they raise prices for needed goods among the people so they can sit atop their ivory towers and eat like kings. Rome fell because of this, Rome also fell because it drowned itself in it’s own political squabbles. Faction against Faction in Rome. We have two parties in this country and they have both made it the only two parties that matter. They also make it to where you have to have certain ideals and stances on issues, and be in a certain tax bracket to be elected to an office in this country. The rich only care about getting richer, what makes you think they care about you or any other person who elected them? Your elected officials only follow the small group that leads their political faction. The small group of leaders control votes, not the person you elected. Even though you didn’t elect those leaders, they still decide which way your elected official votes.
These two parties fight against one another to the point where it hurts the interests of the American people and hurts the greater good. This political squabbling causes our congress to produce benign legislation that does nothing for the betterment of this country, or the people of this nation. Pluralism has been replaced by Elitism. Aristocracy reigns over freedom today. We need moderation in the governing of this country.
Moderation- a not taking anything to an extreme. Moderates have no allegiances to parties that dictate their vote. The only allegiance they have is to the people who elected them. The only extreme moderates have is the extreme of representation. The first and foremost duty any elected official should have, and that is to serve all of your constituents, not just the ones who give you money, or the ones who agree with you, serve all of your constituency. Moderation is what a public servant should practice. Selflessness, pluralism, allegiance only to freedom, truth, and the greater good. We need to use common sense and stop letting our elected officials throw it away for us. We need to change before we too drown in our own faults just like Rome did.
Our elected officials should only worry about the people they represent, and not just the ones who fill their pockets with money. We need to stop letting them pat us on our backs and smile while they pretend to serve us. They let people take away our money, food and shelter. While they take away what we need to live, our officials blatantly disregard their duty to the people.
Their duty should be to protect our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. By protecting our life, they should protect our jobs so we can have money for food, shelter and water. and they should make sure we’re able to get those essentials. They should ensure that we can get needed healthcare so we can live healthy lives. They should ensure the best education for our children so they can get good jobs and good money to provide for their children. They should ensure our streets our safe and we can sleep in our beds and walk our streets in safety.
By protecting our liberty, they should do everything within their power that we have all of our rights as given by the constitution. And they should make sure those rights aren’t ever denied to us, or they’re never abridged or infringed upon in any way, shape or form. And by protecting our pursuit of happiness, they should make sure people can live their lives in peace, and can raise their children in a safe world, and that their children have the best we can give them.
Those should be the only things a representative is worried about, protecting those rights for all Americans.
Common sense is thrown to the wind to appease small groups, and things that help Americans get cut out by opposition in the wake of pitching common sense to the wind.
Service to their entire constituency should be our representatives’ credo. And Moderation and the use of common sense should be their style.
Our founders didn’t want this country to burn like Rome or other great nations they studied. And unless the people of this nation rise up and change the status quo, America will burn just like Rome, and our representatives will just be like Nero, and play while they watch the flames.
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