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An interesting read - Bush Admin- handling of disaster
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| drgoodvibe |
I don't usually post articles or -- well anything anymore these days. But there's been a common theme in news articles the last few days -- here is just one of them. As a Canadian, I was outraged by Adscam ofcourse. But this -- well this just puts Adscam into perspective a little bit.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/new...id=azsOXoxyKwq0
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By Margaret Carlson
Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- As part of President George W. Bush's damage control over the weekend -- not of damage to the victims of Katrina but to himself -- he sent his staff to the Sunday talk shows and his parents to visit evacuees bused to Houston from New Orleans.
The administration officials fared poorly. On ``Meet the Press,'' Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff cited a headline no one else saw (``New Orleans Dodges a Bullet'') to explain why his department stood by for days as thousands in the New Orleans convention center were trapped in their own filth, without food, water, or medicine. He looked silly.
But he gave a boffo performance compared with the president's mother, who left her comfortable house in the West Oaks section of Houston to tour the emergency facility at the Astrodome, where she found a bunch of happy campers experiencing a step-up in their living conditions.
Vacation's Over
While I saw a teeming mass of displaced people standing in hour-long lines to wash encrusted grime off their children in a tiny restroom sink, Barbara Bush saw visitors ``overwhelmed with the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this is working (she laughed here) very well for them.''
Oh, really? The Bushes have always made fun of Bill Clinton's lip-biting, hands-on governing, but who wouldn't prefer that to the president's upbeat platitudes about how one day it will all be bigger and better?
Tanned and rested from a vacation so long it would embarrass the French, Bush initially flew over the devastation in Air Force One promising his prayers. When he actually touched down in the Delta a few days later, he reminisced about coming to New Orleans ``to enjoy myself, occasionally too much,'' apparently thinking he was at a fund-raiser.
He topped that in Mississippi, home of Republican Senator Trent Lott. ``Out of the rubble of Trent Lott's house,'' Bush said, ``there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch.''
Not Like Terri
Even to his detractors, the callous, puerile attitude and sheer ineptitude of Bush this past week is shocking. He got off to a slow start after Sept. 11, but quickly found his bullhorn and Rudy Giuliani. He's got neither here.
One reason for the dismal federal performance is Bush's disdain for government. It's bloated and for chumps who can't provide for themselves. Bush signed spending bills filled with pork, finding $454 million for his pal Senator Ted Stevens to build two bridges to nowhere in Alaska, but not for the levees everyone but he knew were cracking.
Bush rushed back from the ranch in March so the federal government could intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, but wasn't in any hurry to get to New Orleans. His folks tried to fob the whole thing off on local officials. As he repeatedly cut taxes to favor the wealthy and starve government programs, his mantra was, ``It's your money, not the government's.''
Praise for Brownie
Whose hurricane is it, I wonder? If Bush cared about governing, he would have never appointed Michael Brown, the failed director of a trade association that ran horse shows, to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
FEMA, which Bush folded into Homeland Security, has little to show for itself other than long lines at the airports as arthritic old ladies remove their shoes to prove they aren't terrorists. Besides that defunct color chart, of course.
If Bush's first priority were managing the real crisis and not the political one, he'd fire Brown, who ignored the pleas for help from the thousands of people herded like cattle into the convention center. To the contrary, Bush praised his point man for the recovery that hadn't happened. ``Brownie, you're doing one heck of a job,'' Bush told him.
If he keeps up the good work, Brownie may end up, like those other great public servants Paul Bremer and George Tenet, with a Medal of Freedom around his neck.
Affable Frat Boy
To paraphrase Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, we went to New Orleans with the government we've got. It's one replete with Chertoffs, Brownies, Cheneys and assorted other ideologues, cronies and schemers, who gorge on patronage, revel in politics, and brush off the mundane responsibilities of the offices they hold. They're Big Picture guys who have brought the same management skills to the Gulf States that they brought to that other Gulf.
The worrisome question is how much like them are we? In 2000, we shunned the long-winded Al Gore and his 10-point plans for an affable frat boy rescued by family and connections from a checkered career into running the Texas Rangers and then Texas itself.
We watched as Bush ignored Osama in favor of capturing Saddam, and then created and compounded the tragedy in Iraq. We rehired him anyway, and he proceeded to cut services even further. Even Bush may wish for a little more government now.
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| drgoodvibe |
| and wouldnt you know it, they removed this article from Bloombergs site. Minutes after it was posted. :rolleyes: |
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| muzzybear |
Here's what Michael Moore had to say:
Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Dear Mr. Bush:
Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.
Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?
Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?
And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!
On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.
There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.
No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!
You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.
Yours,
Michael Moore
[email protected]
www.MichaelMoore.com
P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st. |
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| maxtuh |
^^ haha:D
Anyhow all i see is bush is a idoit. |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by drgoodvibe
and wouldnt you know it, they removed this article from Bloombergs site. Minutes after it was posted. :rolleyes: |
This quote says it all:
"As he repeatedly cut taxes to favor the wealthy and starve government programs, his mantra was, ``It's your money, not the government's.'' "
Sorry, but only the loony left believes that tax cuts favour the wealthy. They probably removed the article because it was a load of crap. I can't even make out how one sentence or paragraph ties into the next, none of it fits together! Whenever you see a bunch of disconnected quotes and figures, you know they've been taken out of context and twisted to sound sinister.
When will people realize that there's no right-wing conspiracy?
As for the latest steaming nugget shat out by that half-wit Michael Moore, do we really need to be posting that? |
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| drgoodvibe |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
This quote says it all:
"As he repeatedly cut taxes to favor the wealthy and starve government programs, his mantra was, ``It's your money, not the government's.'' "
Sorry, but only the loony left believes that tax cuts favour the wealthy. They probably removed the article because it was a load of crap. I can't even make out how one sentence or paragraph ties into the next, none of it fits together! Whenever you see a bunch of disconnected quotes and figures, you know they've been taken out of context and twisted to sound sinister.
When will people realize that there's no right-wing conspiracy?
As for the latest steaming nugget shat out by that half-wit Michael Moore, do we really need to be posting that? |
Surely you at least admit that the government programs funding in question were slashed a great deal. And surely to pay for tax cuts the money has to come from somewhere? |
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| disko-kandi |
the finest case of RACE and CLASS discrimination!
this selfishly ignorant negligence will have some major repercussions! this will not be the last the US has heard from the people around the world. the whole world is watching with utter dsigust & disbelief ... AMERICAN REFUGEES! (what an oxymoron! LOL!!!)
the glorious Empire of the United States of America is a S(T)INKING ship that is rotting from the inside, and Bush and his henchmen are the bad 'apple'.
It is no wonder that our dear "His Excellency" Powell didn't turn up himself nor a US delegation of some sort at the World Conference against Racism (the first of its kind in history!!) in Durban/ S-Africa literally days before the 9/11 attacks ... not one Amercian politician showed up to discuss Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia and Zionism. ...and they are one of the 5 primary veto members of the UN Security Council. .......................................
...my 2 cents |
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| rabbitjoker |
IMO - People are pointing blame at the wrong people here.
Keep in mind that there are 4 levels of gov't involved in delivering emergency services: Federal, State, Parish, City. |
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| Tordan |
| quote: | Originally posted by maxtuh
^^ haha:D
Anyhow all i see is bush is a idoit. |
I don't know if he's an idiot but when I think Bush the word 'ignorance' comes to mind. |
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| bass drive |
I am sure this incident has changed the way alot of people around the world view America . It surely didn't appear like the wolrd's leading country in the past few days. Not only there was bad managment from the government, but also bad citizens.
blamming the gov alone is wrong imo
on a side note, I saw on the BBC today that the sales of weapens has increased greatly in that region for people to protect them selves and property. |
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| disko-kandi |
| quote: | Originally posted by bass drive
on a side note, I saw on the BBC today that the sales of weapens has increased greatly in that region for people to protect them selves and property. |
it's called ANARCHY! |
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| drgoodvibe |
| quote: | Originally posted by disko-kandi
it's called ANARCHY! |
This discussion reminds me of one I had with Brunette a long long time ago, eh Dea, I guess Anarchy doesn't work! :p |
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