Why have we spent as much as $1 billion per week to build a "New Iraq," yet our compassionate government, headed by George Bush and his boys and girls, cannot find a billion a week to spend on New Orleans and those wiped out by Hurricane Katrina?

What kind of a country is this anyway? What kind of people are running this show? Immediate expenditures totaling billions of taxpayer dollars to rebuild a country we intentionally destroyed, but four months after the worst catastrophe in this country our government has hardly moved to take care of its own.

Yes, our eyes have been opened to several realities since the hurricanes hit the gulf coast, most of which we knew all along but were afraid or ashamed to admit, but this is ridiculous. Now we must face our deepest fears; Black and poor people must look at this country in a different light now; and we must respond, because we cannot like what we see. We cannot turn deaf ears to what is being screamed at us: "You don't count!"

Yes, it took a hurricane, but as Eric Benet says on his latest CD, Hurricane, released, by the way, prior to Katrina: Sometimes what you fear the most is what you need, to find that road, right around that curve a lesson learned, now that I have the eyes to see. A hurricane is sometimes the only way to wash way the pain. How prophetic.

The president is touting his "plan" for victory in Iraq, now that the oil wells are secured and the petrodollar is back in full swing in that country. He is spending our money like a drunken sailor, urinating on us and telling us it's a spring rain. His attention is always on the New Iraq and seldom on a New Orleans. Victims of Katrina are testifying at congressional hearings, while Bush is busy justifying a war that he started under false pretenses.

Bush and his ilk try to instill guilt in those who want to withdraw from Iraq by saying if we leave the 2000-plus who have died, would have died in vain. Two questions: Won't those killed in Iraq, no matter when the war ends or how it ends, have died in vain anyway since they were there because of lies and deceit?

And what about the folks in New Orleans who died as a result of mismanagement by FEMA's "Brownie" (the guy George Bush said was doing a fine job). Did they die in vain? Did the 911 victims die in vain, since we have not caught Osama Bin Laden? Hmmm.

We cut and ran from New Orleans, but in New Iraq we will stay until the people put their lives back together, until they are back on their feet, until they have a stable government. We can't have a timetable for leaving Iraq, but we certainly came up with a timetable for putting New Orleans evacuees out of their hotel room shelters. George Bush says, We have $62 billion on the table for New Orleans (that's the problem, George; it's on the table); but, we have about $250 billion on the ground (and in the pockets of corporate raiders) in New Iraq.

What hypocrisy! What disdain is being shown for the people of New Orleans by Mr. Compassion himself. Why so much concern for the New Iraq and little or no concern for New Orleans? Could it be economics?

In an interview, Bush said, Call me anything, but don't call me a racist. Well, here goes. Bush is arrogant, vindictive, egomaniacal, and aloof; he's disconnected, discombobulated, befuddled, entrenched, recalcitrant, obstinate; he's corny, spoiled, ignorant, scornful, disrespectful, phony, condescending, and just plain weird. (Maybe it would be better if he were just a racist.) I am sure there is some good stuff somewhere inside this guy – I just haven't seen it.

Bush spends billions for the New Iraq, while he emphatically brags about asking congress to allocate a measly $1.2 billion to stockpile bird flu vaccine, which by the way will only buy enough to vaccinate 20 million citizens. I wonder which 20 million they will be.

Bush's Secretary of Defense should be happy with that decision. According to an article I read, Rumsfeld stands to make a fortune on royalties as a panicked world population scrambles to buy a drug worthless in curing effects of alleged Avian Flu. Another article stated, among the beneficiaries of the run on Tamiflu is Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who was chairman of Gilead [Sciences] and owns at least $5 million of the stock, which has jumped from $35 in April [2005] to $47. Can you say, Cheney and Halliburton?

Finally, Bush says the New Iraq is comparable to the nascent years of the United States. Oh, really? What if a "coalition of the willing" had come to this country during the Revolutionary War to liberate enslaved Black people from the tyranny under which they suffered? Too bad there was no coalition back then  with cowboy George W. leading the charge.

Instead, George W. is leading the charge to build a New Iraq but has little time for and will not allocate adequate resources to build a New Orleans. Hey George. Be sure to close the door to the bank vault behind you when you and the guys finally get as much money as you can carry, Okay?

James E. Clingman, an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati's African American Studies department, is former editor of the Cincinnati Herald newspaper and founder of the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce. He hosts the radio program, 'Blackonomics,' and has written several books, including Black-o-Knowledge-Stuff. To book Clingman for a speech or purchase his books, go to his Web site, www.blackonomics.com.

is published every Thursday.