← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Hivemindgammahydra7
Thread ID: 19923 | Posts: 6 | Started: 2005-09-01
2005-09-01 04:42 | User Profile
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Seems to me that our poor guys getting maimed, blinded, and killed in Iraq for Mr. Shrub's insane war have fallen right off of the proverbial radar (so to speak). I can't help but feel that this hurricane disaster was a lucky break for the Chimp-in-Chief, whose poll numbers were headed just south of my stormdrain before the Big Easy became the Big Swamp.
Now, the Shrub has a made-for-TV opportunity to appear as the great savior of the starving and disheveled masses in the Gulf (of Mexico, I mean), throwing worthless Federal script at them in a vain and shallow effort at "solving the problem." All to be heralded by Laurie Dupe and the other assorted parrots on the Pox News Channel, no doubt.
Makes me wonder if our brave boys in uniform overseas will simply be forgotten now... [/size][/font]
2005-09-01 05:17 | User Profile
The Smirking Chimp had a great opportunity to provide leadership with this disaster, but he failed miserably.
2005-09-01 05:18 | User Profile
Dare him to send Condi...
2005-09-01 14:42 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Hivemindgammahydra7][font=Times New Roman][size=3].
Makes me wonder if our brave boys in uniform overseas will simply be forgotten now... [/size][/font][/QUOTE] Not likely. Presidents have to multi task. However, when you consider the scope of the human disaster in New Orleans, and the immense impact on our Gulf Oil refining and producing capacity, gettting off the old arse and getting focused on a major league disaster makes sense. Also, consider the penlight field of view provided by the general media.
They are all over the natural disaster story. It's their flavor of the month. :dry:
AE
2005-09-01 15:03 | User Profile
[I]It's seems the NYT isn't so optimistic about Shrub's leadership. Neither should we.[/I]
[B]Waiting for a Leader[/B]
[I]The New York Times[/I]
Thursday 01 September 2005
[U]George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday,[/U] especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.
We will, of course, endure, and the city of New Orleans must come back. But looking at the pictures on television yesterday of a place abandoned to the forces of flood, fire and looting, it was hard not to wonder exactly how that is going to come to pass. Right now, hundreds of thousands of American refugees need our national concern and care. Thousands of people still need to be rescued from imminent peril. Public health threats must be controlled in New Orleans and throughout southern Mississippi. Drivers must be given confidence that gasoline will be available, and profiteering must be brought under control at a moment when television has been showing long lines at some pumps and spot prices approaching $4 a gallon have been reported.
Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen in an orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been one to counsel sacrifice. And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.
While our attention must now be on the Gulf Coast's most immediate needs, the nation will soon ask why New Orleans's levees remained so inadequate. Publications from the local newspaper to National Geographic have fulminated about the bad state of flood protection in this beloved city, which is below sea level. Why were developers permitted to destroy wetlands and barrier islands that could have held back the hurricane's surge? Why was Congress, before it wandered off to vacation, engaged in slashing the budget for correcting some of the gaping holes in the area's flood protection?
It would be some comfort to think that, as Mr. Bush cheerily announced, America "will be a stronger place" for enduring this crisis. Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since this administration won't acknowledge that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem minimal.
[url]http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105Z.shtml[/url]
2005-09-01 15:19 | User Profile
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]
From: Waiting for a Leader
The New York Times
Thursday 01 September 2005
[u]George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday,[/u] especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. ==snip== It would be some comfort to think that, as Mr. Bush cheerily announced, America "will be a stronger place" for enduring this crisis. Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since [u]this administration won't acknowledge that global warming exists[/u], the chances of leadership seem minimal. [/QUOTE] Point 1. Pres Bush has never been a very good public speaker. Anyone looking for Reagan quality, or for that matter JFK or FDR quality, eloquence is going to be disappointed.
Point 2. Uh, what the F is the global warming non sequitur tossed in for? Global warming did not cause the Galveston Hurricane that killed over 6,000. Don't these people ever do their homework before writing anymore? Oh, sorry, some German says global warming caused Katrina, and the disaster, when in fact hurricanes happen all the time (remember what Gilbert did to Cozumel in 88?) and the poor state of the levee around Lake Ponchetrain is the root cause of New Orleans' current woe.
Point 3. If anyone is looking for leadership to steer Louisiana out of this mess, I suggest they look in Louisiana, not Washington. I bet a leader will arise there, tough times tend to force that sort of thing. There are some very good folk in Louisiana, folk with the kind of grit that tough tmes tests.
AE