Friday, September 09, 2005

Bush: One of the Worst Disasters to Hit the U.S.

The Cost of Cronyism



FEMA Director Michael Bown's 9 years as the Arabian Horse Show Czar (before being fired) apparently didn't prepare him for safeguarding the nation.

TIMELINES

Just like for 9/11 and the Iraq war, sourced timelines are key in cutting through the Bush Administrations efforts to obfuscate the TRUTH.  Here are some of the timelines that are beginning to take shape:

Very Brief Visual Timeline

More Detailed ThinkProgress Timeline

Very Detailed Wikipedia Timeline

Very Detailed Dkosopedia Timeline

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Watch this movie

The Flood of New Orleans

The unelected scoundrels are responding to the disaster. Not the disaster in the gulf states, the political disaster that occurred because this regime was on vacation during the first few days of the crisis. Chief of staff Andy Card was in Maine; Dick Cheney was in Wyoming hunting some protected species; Condoleezza Rice was shoe-shopping in Manhattan; Bush was playing golf in San Diego. And the American people saw it and were outraged!
In an embarrassing exchange, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan refused to answer a question about whether the chimp supported the inept head of FEMA. He refused to play the “blame game”. But the Rove right-wing spin machine is, after being knocked on its heals for a few days, responding to the disaster, using their tried and true tactic of hurling slime and seeing what sticks to divert attention away from what we all see is going on.
They’re blaming the victims; the poor who had no means to evacuate, and no where to go; those who complied with their government’s instructions to assemble in the Superdome, where the local officials were told by FEMA that everything was going to be handled. I’ve heard some suggest that one of America’s most culturally and historically significant cities shouldn’t have been there in the first place!
They’re blaming the local government. The state and local governments were told, “The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.
Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis.
But I want to thank Governor Blanco for all she's done and all her leadership. She sent in the National Guard. I just repaired a breach on my side of the 17th Street canal that the secretary didn't foresee, a 300-foot breach. I just completed it yesterday with convoys of National Guard and local parish workers and levee board people. It took us two and a half days working 24/7. I just closed it.
I'm telling you most importantly I want to thank my public employees that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses…
The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.
Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody. “
We are seeing exactly the sort of government we get under the current radical right-wing government. This catastrophe is the exact sort of consequence we’ve feared; the systematic assault on SUCCESSFUL government programs that help PEOPLE instead of shoveling resources, both taxes and publicly owned, at the rich and powerful corporations and individuals.
Programs like FEMA. And Social Security. Medicare and Medicaid. The Post Office. The National Weather Service. Even military functions are all being turned over to cronies for their profit. And who will be served? Not the people who need it most! Only those who can pay.
We saw the war profiteering in Iraq. Such as Dick Cheney’s corporation overcharging for service not rendered. Services previously provided by the military's own personnel. We saw private contractors adopting Rumsfield’s and Gonzolez’s torture doctrine in Abu Graib. But those were distant. They were afflicting somebody else’s families. The FLOOD OF NEW ORLEANS demonstrates clearly just how this christo-fascist ideology is affecting your family. Your nation. Demand change now!