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The times have not been kind to the state of Louisiana as multiple disasters have hit the state over the past few months. In August it was Katrina. In the following month came Rita. And now in October, the Reverend Jesse Jackson has paid the Pelican State a visit. Have mercy!

While rescue teams from around North America have tirelessly worked to save the lives of victims from the two powerful storms that hit Louisiana, Jackson has expended equal energy doing everything within his power to somehow make the hurricane that first flooded New Orleans into "Ku Klux Katrina."

The reason behind Jackson's efforts to make a natural disaster into a racial tempest has to do with his need for a cause to harrumph about, since if there is no ethnic outrage, then there is no purpose for the reverend in this world.

Without a doubt, tens of thousands of black people suffered from Hurricane Katrina; after all New Orleans is an overwhelmingly black city and thus residents in the below sea-level city are going to feel the brunt of a Category 5 storm going over it.

What Jackson ignores is that predominantly white St. Bernard Parish, with a black population of less than 8%, was the most battered community in the state, in which 99% of the parish's 30,000 houses were damaged and are not currently fit for living.

The fatality list from Katrina has been more hodgepodge than homogenous. And finally Jackson has reserved his finger wagging exclusively for the White House, giving the Democratic governor of Louisiana and the black Democratic mayor of New Orleans, which has not had a white mayor since the seventies, a free pass.

But when it comes to taking issue with Reverend Jesse, I suppose we shouldn't let facts get in the way of his vitriol.

However, Jackson's latest publicity stunt involving the return of exiled laborers is perhaps the biggest publicity sham he has tried to pull. And that says a lot.

Decrying the need for locals to return home and work in the rebuilding efforts, Jackson orchestrated a caravan of 200 "native sons," with a slight wrinkle: there were only 50 natives on the trip.

When asked why Louisianans were in the vast minority of the "homecoming convoy", Jackson's people tried to spin around the charge by stating that it was an important symbolic step forward in bringing New Orleanians back to the city.

In a way, Jackson's magical, mystery bus tour is symbolic, as it was nearly as big of a sham as its coordinator. The people who came down to New Orleans were not looking for work, but were props used in a publicity stunt.

That Jackson would send "carpetbaggers" into a city where thousands of government employees have just been laid off should enrage even natives who hold him in esteem.

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