Bush has failed

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous

No one is blaming Bush for Katrina. We are angry at him, being our leader, for not leading. If Roosevelt had acted the way Bush has during Pearl Harbor, he would have been crucified.

WORD

[Edan]

Barbara Bush: Things Working Out "Very Well" for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans

Accompanying her husband, former President George H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them."

The former First Lady's remarks were aired this evening on National Public Radio's "Marketplace" program.

She was part of a group in Houston today at the Astrodome that included her husband and former President Bill Clinton, who were chosen by her son, the current president, to head fundraising efforts for the recovery. Sen. Hilary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama were also present.

In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to Houston."

Then she added: "What I’m hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this [she chuckles slightly]is working very well for them."

[Barnabas]

well, she is an old woman

[Sava]

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this [she chuckles slightly]is working very well for them."

that racist old piece of garbage... somebody ought to@#@#$%@#$^@$^&# SMACK HER IN THE FACE#((*)@#*&(#*&(@#

[ixnay]

Oh FEMA, what won't you screw up?

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck

FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"

[Guynemer]

Terrific.

Here's an idea: let's put former horse association officials in charge of EVERY Federal agency! Then the whole government will operate on the same level of efficiency and competence as FEMA.

[DanS]

Barbara Bush said things in an unfortunate way, but I think she wasn't meaning to be disrespectful. Further, it shouldn't take away from the reality that Texas is really stepping up to the plate by willing to take in so many disadvantaged people. Texas is taking on all of New Orleans' many intractable problems with a smile and without hesitation.

[techumseh]

It's a weird little alliance that's emerging between the Bush's and the Clinton's. Did anyone see Bill Clinton on Letterman a couple of weeks ago? He's apparently a regular at the senior Bush's and Barbara calls him "son". :gag:

[Tingkai]

You people should be ashamed of yourselves for questioning your government. It's very un-Danish. Don't you know that George W. Bush is great. The real fault is the media for exaggerating the story. Everything is fine in New Orleans. Crisis? What crisis?

[Boris Godunov]

Keith Olbermann just delivered this editorial. Holy ****.

SECAUCUS — Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater..."

Well there's your problem right there.

If ever a slip-of-the-tongue defined a government's response to a crisis, this was it.

The seeming definition of our time and our leaders had been their insistence on slashing federal budgets for projects that might’ve saved New Orleans. The seeming characterization of our government that it was on vacation when the city was lost, and could barely tear itself away from commemorating V.J. Day and watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, to at least pretend to get back to work. The seeming identification of these hapless bureaucrats: their pathetic use of the future tense in terms of relief they could’ve brought last Monday and Tuesday — like the President, whose statements have looked like they’re being transmitted to us by some kind of four-day tape-delay.

But no. The incompetence and the ludicrous prioritization will forever be symbolized by one gaffe by of the head of what is ironically called “The Department of Homeland Security”: “Louisiana is a city…”

Politician after politician — Republican and Democrat alike — has paraded before us, unwilling or unable to shut off the "I-Me" switch in their heads, condescendingly telling us about how moved they were or how devastated they were — congenitally incapable of telling the difference between the destruction of a city and the opening of a supermarket.

And as that sorry recital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment. The focus needed to be on the efforts to save the stranded — even the internet's meager powers were correctly devoted to telling the stories of the twin disasters, natural... and government-made.

But now, at least, it is has stopped getting exponentially worse in Mississippi and Alabama and New Orleans and Louisiana (the state, not the city). And, having given our leaders what we know now is the week or so they need to get their act together, that period of editorial silence I mentioned, should come to an end.

No one is suggesting that mayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, should be able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we should ever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city, ahead of $454 million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska.

But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.

It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?

I don't know which 'we' Mr. Bush meant.

For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been — as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be — whether or not I voted for this President — he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government — our government — "New Orleans."

For him, it is a shame — in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st Century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was just a quick "I'm not satisfied with my government's response." Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have forseen," had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930's. "The responsibility," of government, Churchill told the British Parliament "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."

In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself — it damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.

As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitable for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found, or the last artifact of the levee break, dug up. Could be next March. Could be 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even find our government's credibility.

Somewhere, in the City of Louisiana.

"21st Century Marie Antioinette." Indeed.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Sava
Sandman speaks the truth.

I read an ABC poll yesterday.

46 percent APPROVE of Bush's handling of the hurricane.

That's higher than his approval rating before the hurricane.

I don't get it. And the media has been hammering him over it. What is wrong with this ****ing country?

Bush isn't going to lose too many points in the poll with images like this one coming out because sucking the least is actually an accomplishment.

[Bosh]

The buses that were on hand were largely used for getting people to the Superdome etc. not getting them out of the city, and most of the buses that weren't used were because most of the city's bus drivers had taken off. Should the city government have done a lot more than it did? Of course. But a disaster of this magnitude is way beyond the score of a city government and at least they were doing SOMETHING (however incompetantly) in the run-up to the storm, unlike the federal government which didn't even start doing much of anything until TUESDAY.

[Whoha]

No, According to the plan they were for getting people the hell out of there.

[DanS]

Drudge had been running this photo, which is heartbreaking...

An aerial view of flooded school buses in a lot, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005, in New Orleans, LA. The flood is a result of Hurricane Katrina that passed through the area last Monday.(AP Photo/Phil Coale)

[Sava]

Originally posted by Whoha


Bush isn't going to lose too many points in the poll with images like this one coming out because sucking the least is actually an accomplishment.

Actually, you have a point.

What I mean is, you are explaining why almost half the country is stupid. Because they are believing in this garbage. Yes, a picture of a few buses from the air. Nevermind the logistical fallacies of that argument, which I already pointed out.

Sorry Whoha, your propaganda doesn't work.

Bush is the one who has sucked the most in this whole disaster.

I'll quickly rehash the points about the buses...

not enough buses to move 100,000 in the time allotted... no drivers, no fuel, no effective plan for picking up and dropping off, no destination... they couldn't even have done it if they had a month to plan and rehearse it...

This little strawman about the buses doesn't even begin to excuse the massive failures of the Bush administration. FAILURE UPON FAILURE UPON FAILURE UPON FAILURE.

And probably tens of thousands of people are dead because of Bush's failure. That doesn't even take into account the despicable acts they perpetrated. The photo ops... the grounding of the rescue operations...

it's criminally negligent homicide.

And if America had any sense of moral justice, Bush would be hanging from a noose along Pennsylvania Ave... and every victim of this hurricane who lost a loved one because of his incompetence would be allowed to throw rocks at his flailing corpse.