Wouldn't It Be Nice?
by pessimist
I'm SOOOOOOO jazzed! King George deigned to address his subjects last Friday for the second time in one week!
Allah Be Praised! Buddha Be Blessed! Christ Be Crowned! .... Zeus Be Exulted!
Hiz Hindi$$ told us a wondrous tale of how well things are going in Neo Orleans:
To hear Bush talk, we’re about to witness a Republican utopia in the hurricane zone. Children will go to school with vouchers. Wages will be lowered and regulations waived to accommodate the big contractors. The entire area will become a free-enterprise zone. And the GOP, under the guise of economic revival, will impose one of its favorite ideas, the flat tax. It’s reminiscent of the Jim Carrey movie “The Truman Show,” where Carrey lives in a picture-perfect town--except it turns out all the residents are actors. In Bush’s version, everybody’s a Republican.
Would that it were so for Hiz Sake.
But I digress.
I happened to be watching MSNBC today when they were interviewing a Salvation Army official in Biloxi. He was asked, point-blank, if there was any improvement in the situation there in Biloxi. Without batting an eye, this Salvation Army official retorted - without hesitation - that nothing has improved.
I'm sure you're all shocked by this revelation.
What does shock me is that MSNBC actually showed this interview. I'm hoping that they have re-shown it since. (Anyone who also saw this, please check in.)
But even if they didn't, there are other sources reporting that the reconstruction is not going well under Bu$hCo (mi$)management:
Lack of Cohesion Bedevils Recovery
Three weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck, red tape and poor planning have left thousands of evacuees without basic services, according to local and state officials, public policy experts and survivors themselves. With little guidance from federal and state governments -- and no single person or entity in charge of the overall operation -- cities and counties have been left on their own to find survivors homes, schools, jobs and health care. A patchwork of policies has resulted, causing relief agencies to sometimes work at cross-purposes.
And ...
FEMA, Slow to the Rescue, Now Stumbles in Aid Effort
While the agency has redoubled its efforts to get food, money and temporary shelter to the storm victims, serious problems remain throughout the affected region. Federal officials are often unable to give local governments permission to proceed with fundamental tasks to get their towns running again. Most areas in the region still lack federal help centers, the one-stop shopping sites for residents in need of aid for their homes or families.
And what of these shelter residents? Seems they are less-than-pleased as well - maybe with good reasons:
Some Katrina victims criticize L.A. center that's housing them
A group of Katrina victims claimed at a Thursday news conference that they've been required to consent to random drug tests, that promises of well-paying jobs never materialized and that donations streaming into the facility have not reached them. "You took me from disaster. Now you make it even worse," said Richard Perrin, a former New Orleans resident who lives at the Dream Center with his wife.
I'd be very surprised - considering the (di$)organization that took charge of this situation - if any assistance reached them.
But I digress.
One blogger puts it this way:
Georgie, You’re Doing a Heck of a Job
The last few weeks have been irrefutable proof that America is being wrecked and mismanaged by the most incompetent, dangerous and out of touch boobs ever to obtain power. Any American with even a tiny amount of conscience who watched those images from New Orleans shook their heads with disbelief and shame that something like this should happen within our own borders in these modern times. As pictures of floating corpses glared at us through our TV sets, we were treated to photo-ops of our supposed leader golfing, blithering about Social Security, eating cake and strumming a guitar. Meanwhile, our Secretary of State shopped for shoes and took in a show while the Vice President shopped for a house in a ritzy Maryland neighborhood.Just like the aftermath of 9/11, the Bush administration is more involved in damage control rather than correcting the damage. They don’t want any “independent” investigation into what happened (which strikes me as odd – why not just put Philip D. Zelikow in charge like they did with “independent” 9/11 commission? That way they could white-wash this investigation too?).
Now he’s looking for a bullhorn moment, but that time has come and gone. And the perfectly awful speech he gave on the 15th didn’t do much except to anger the extremists in the Republican party who just don’t feel like rebuilding New Orleans – as if Bush really meant what he said.
Because if the terrorists ever got their hands on a hurricane ...
Guess what? There just might be such a threat forming!
Tropical Storm Rita gained strength off the Bahamas late Sunday, triggering hurricane watches across the Bahamas, Cuba and southern Florida and prompting evacuations in the lower Florida Keys. With water temperatures in the Florida Straits in the high 80s, it has plenty of fuel. "Rita could become a Category 1 hurricane by late Monday," the center reported.
And that won't be the end of it:
Tourists told to leave parts of Florida Keys, Bahamas ahead of possible hurricane
Long-term forecasts also showed the system heading generally toward the west in the Gulf of Mexico.
As if that isn't bad enough, Rita is bringing friends:
Hard to believe that Hurricane Katrina slipped just west of here two weeks ago before she slammed Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Water temperatures hover near 90 degrees with Phillippe, Rita, Stan and Tammy waiting in the wings for a shot on the national weather spotlight.
NOTE: Stan and Tammy have not yet formed. If [when] they do, these links will still be good for information about them. They will look much like Rita's.
Following The Storm Track
Let's think about this for a moment. If one storm - admittedly one of historic proportions - causes Bu$hCo to fall apart, what are they going to be like should another storm - however less wild than Katrina - hit anywhere populated? The view from the inside of FEMA isn't encouraging:
Worker: Decision-makers lack disaster experience
"We told these fellows that there was a killer hurricane heading right toward New Orleans," Leo Bosner, a 26-year FEMA employee and union leader told CNN. "We had done our job, but they didn't do theirs."(Watch video of the whistleblower - click on the first link on the page - it's javascript, or I'd link to it directly.)Bosner's storm warning came early Saturday, three days before Hurricane Katrina came ashore in eastern Louisiana.
Try blaming that faux pas on Gov. Blanco or Mayor Nagin!
It's clear that Bu$hCo FEMA is going to need assistance, and over at Pensito Review, they know of the perfect assistant - the Bu$h Family threat-minion Chang the Warrior!
Jeb Bush has an imaginary friend. (Gainesville Sun):Here are Bush’s words, spoken before hundreds of lawmakers and politicians: "Chang is a mystical warrior. Chang is somebody who believes in conservative principles, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism, believes in moral values that underpin a free society. I rely on Chang with great regularity in my public life. He has been by my side and sometimes I let him down.
"I rely on Chang with great regularity in my public life. He has been by my side and sometimes I let him down. But Chang, this mystical warrior, has never let me down."
It’s a scary place inside Jeb Bush’s head. This insight into his twisted psyche explains a lot.
In a 1989 Washington Post article on the politics of tennis, former President George Bush was quoted as threatening to ‘unleash Chang’ as a means of intimidating other players. The saying was apparently quite popular with Gov. Bush’s father, and referred to a legendary warrior named Chang who was called upon to settle political disputes in Chinese dynasties of yore.
Since there are two tropical storms (as of this writing), and two Bu$he$ that can channel Chang at will, ... if I were Rita or Phillippe, I'd be whirling about in frenzied torment!
The latest radar images tend to support that both storms are whirling, so maybe the Bu$hCo Curse of Chang is working. But if it should fail to have the desired effect, they could always call upon Barbara's newest son! He's VERY Influential, maybe more so than either George, pere et fils, and...
Oh, wait! He's disloyal? And not to be trusted with such an important and vital task? So it appears:
Clinton launches withering attack on Bush on Iraq, Katrina, budget
Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, .... Clinton faulted the authorities' failure to evacuate New Orleans ahead of the storm's strike on August 29. He agreed that some responsibility for this lay with the local and state authorities, but pointed the finger, without naming him, at the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)."When James Lee Witt ran FEMA, because he had been both a local official and a federal official, he was always there early, and we always thought about that," Clinton said, referring to FEMA's head during his 1993-2001 presidency.
OOOH! That had to hurt! How could her newest son repay her munificent generosity by thinking her beautiful mind doesn't understand what it's like to be poor! Didn't she express her compassionate understanding that New Orleans refugees being housed in the Houston Astrodome were "underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."???
THE NERVE!!!
You'd think that Bill Clinton-Bu$h didn't understand what it's like to have money!
And yet, maybe in reality he does:
On the US budget, Clinton warned that the federal deficit may be coming untenable, driven by foreign wars, the post-hurricane recovery programme, and tax cuts that benefitted just the richest one percent of the US population, himself included."What Americans need to understand is that ... every single day of the year, our government goes into the market and borrows money from other countries to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, and our tax cuts," he said.
"We have never done this before. Never in the history of our republic have we ever financed a conflict, military conflict, by borrowing money from somewhere else. I don't think it makes any sense."
Listen... Listen carefully... Hear that creaking sound?
QUIET, YOU WRONG-WINGERS!!!
Try again. Hear it now? That sound's coming from the ossified jaw joints of deficit hawk Republicans who are beginning to stir like Rip Van Winkle from the nap they began in January of 1981:
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., told ABC's This Week: "We simply cannot break the bank of the federal budget. We simply can't allow a catastrophe of nature to become a catastrophe of debt for our children and grandchildren."
NOW you think of this!
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said people should not take on faith that Republicans will make cuts in light of the high spending during the Bush administration. "We haven't been disciplined enough over the last 10 years. We need to do that, and we needed to do that before Katrina. We still need to do that over the medium and long term."
Better late than never, Vitter. Thanks for playing.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News Sunday: "We're failing when it comes to controlling spending. The idea that this government of $2.4 trillion is efficiently being spent I disagree with."
And, of course, you voted your conscience all these years, didn't you, Lindsey?
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., saying "there's a lot of fat in the current budget," proposed taking a fourth of the money allocated to the highway bill and redirecting it to the Gulf region.
That laughing is coming from your predecessor, Barry Goldwater - and it's at your expense.
To be fair, that grinding-gear sound actually came from Senate Democrats. They are trying to find their footing:
Sen. Barak Obama, D-Ill., told Face the Nation on CBS the country could not fight a war in Iraq, rebuild the Gulf region and deal with other domestic needs while cutting taxes for the wealthy. "We need some adult supervision of the budget process. And we need to take responsibility for this process. That's something that we need from the president as well as our congressional leaders."
And how much of that did you show when Condi's confirmation came up? Does the sum total 'none' ring your register?
Back to school, Obama!
The last word concerning this linked post goes to one of the worst examples of a Democrat in the Senate:
"Where is he going to find roughly half a trillion dollars over the next several years for Iraq and for Katrina?" Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., asked on Late Edition on CNN. "I think we're not leveling with the American people."
YA THUNK??? You picked a fine time deceit to reveal!
But then, like your mentors the GOP, leading from the rear should be second-nature to all of the Congress Critters who have spent (almost) the last five years meekly eating out of King George's Compassionate Right-wing Claw instead of doing their Constitutionally-mandated jobs that we pay them far too much money and too little attention to their actions.
However, the good news is that the American people seem to be ahead of you.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAY Ahead!
Iraq's Costs Worry Americans, Poll Indicates
With Hurricane Katrina already costing the federal government tens of billions of dollars, more than 8 in 10 Americans are very or somewhat concerned that the $5 billion being spent each month on the war in Iraq is draining away money that could be used in the United States, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
Nearly two-thirds of people surveyed said the war was having an impact in their communities. Of those, 39 percent said it was a negative impact and 19 percent said it was a positive impact. Here especially, the poll showed a stark racial divide. Fifty-eight percent of blacks said the war was having a negative impact, compared to only 36 percent of whites.The poll also found that nearly 60 percent now disapprove of the way Mr. Bush is handling the situation in Iraq. And nearly half of those surveyed said that they were not proud of what the United States was doing in that country.
The poll also suggests that there is a widespread reluctance among Americans to make any further financial sacrifices to continue waging the war, particularly in the wake of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina.
Ninety percent of people surveyed, including a majority of Republicans, said they would disapprove of cutting expenditures on domestic programs, like education and health care, to continue paying for the war.
"We've spent too much time and effort over there," said Jean Stubbs, 53, of Kentucky, who agreed to be interviewed after taking part in the poll and who identified herself as an independent. "We need to get out of there. There are just too many other things going on here at home. The biggest thing right now is the people who were hit by Katrina."
Joshua Rose, 25, an independent from Arcanum, Ohio, echoed those concerns. "I don't know what he's going to do to deal with Katrina," he said, referring to President Bush. "Where is the money coming from? I hope he cuts back on Iraq. I hope he's worrying about us in the U.S. today."
Certainly Yore C-Average Sovereign is worrying about you! You just might decide you've had enough of Hiz Leedur-chip and overthrow his carefully crony-crafted monarchy!
Republicans worry about reelection as voters get testy
When Mark Foley pumps $3.29-a-gallon gasoline these days, he sees the irritation that is building among voters, and he is worried. "People are ripping mad," said the six-term Republican congressman from Jupiter. "People want someone to blame." And that someone, Foley is warning his GOP colleagues, is likely to be the Republican Party in next year's elections.Gas prices are just one part of the problem. Republican strategists worry about the Iraq war, growing deficits, the failure to do anything about Social Security, the increasing cost of homeowners insurance, the expected spike in home heating and cooling costs and, now, the government's failure to be prepared for the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Some Republicans say voters are becoming so disillusioned that incumbents could pay a dear price in the 2006 election. And that means the GOP could pay the heaviest price. As the party in power in Florida, it holds the governor's mansion and the vast majority of Florida's congressional delegation, along with the state House and Senate.
What seemed like a nearly sure thing to the GOP just a few months ago — a successful continuation of more than a decade of power — now is less certain. And some wonder whether the GOP will lose its hold on Washington. "We are as vulnerable as we have been in a number of years," said Tom Slade, former chairman of the Florida Republican Party. "It is not a pretty picture."
Foley agrees: "These are the kind of tipping-point moments that have the potential to derail us," Foley said. "Incumbents suffer more when people believe there is a failure of leadership."
Despite all the evidence, some Republicans still choose to ignore reality:
Rep. E. Clay Shaw, who is likely to face Democratic state Sen. Ron Klein of Delray Beach in next year's election, believes "it would be a mistake for the GOP to panic at this point."Klein doesn't see it that way. "Republicans are the ones who said, 'We know how to balance the budget. We're fiscally responsible. We're going to run government like a business.' Now we see people who don't know how to balance the budget. Who don't care how much they are spending. And who don't know how to run government.
The New York Times/CBS News Poll cited above gets the last word in support of this contention of GOP fiscal ineptitude:
Americans do not see an end to the war soon, according to the poll. Thirty-eight percent said they expected American troops to be in Iraq for two to five years, while 28 percent said it would be longer. Only 26 percent said they expected the troops to be withdrawn within two years.
About the only things that WILL be withdrawn will be the funding of their Social Security, their Medicare, their pensions, their retirements, ...
That's what we get for allowing our government to be run 'like a business' - just like Enron, and Worldcom, and ...
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