Accountability Lite
Tweet
Can someone tell me what the deal is with this look? Starched shirt, but no tie and a loose collar for the rustic look, and rolled up sleeves that look like a stage hand had just done the work pre-airtime.
There’s an interesting article in the most recent AdAge that talks about the problem with these things.
IN BUSH’S WORLD, PR EQUALS ACTION
It s no surprise that Bush took this PR-trumps-action tack for Katrina. For much of his five years in office, he s seen that putting a faux-cheerful, faux-hopeful spin on even the worst calamities (see also: the war in Iraq) meant that a cheerful, hopeful spin would automatically float to the top of the memepool, at least momentarily. If he kept repeating these faux-cheerful, faux-hopeful things ad nauseum, he d have a great shot of at least partially obscuring all the actual rotting nastiness lurking below the surface.
Of course, the problem post-Katrina is that, unlike Iraq — where journalists are no longer in the thick of things (with most abandoning the idea of embedded reporting) — New Orleans had real journalists showing us the reality behind the rhetoric. And enough of them were sufficiently appalled at the government inaction that they basically ended up begging the feds, on the air, to come to the rescue. (Of course, that didn t stop FEMA from issuing an absurd directive last week that journalists avoid showing dead bodies during the recovery process. Anybody who d seen Oprah Winfrey s Sept. 6 show, which offered devastating close-ups of victims bodies being left to rot, will feel outrage at the agency s hapless, belated attempt at covering up just how murderous its glacial response was.)
They simply do not understand that being in power requires them to govern. A p.r. offensive does not leadership make.
30 Responses to “Accountability Lite”
GOP Rep. Spencer Bachus Facing House Ethics Probe For Insider Trading
Jennifer Aniston Reportedly Pregnant With Twins
PHOTOS: Tamara Ecclestone At The Langham Hotel
Red Front? “Center For American Freedom” Logo Echoes Communist Style
Romney Calls For Defunding Planned Parenthood, Wife Was A Donor
GOP Fundraising Email Asks Supporters To “Knock Out” Obama
Romney Comes Up Limp In Nevada
Obama Opens Lead On Romney In New Poll
Latest Entries
Why Do Liberals Support Drone Strikes?
Weekly Standard Rolls Out The Iraq Argument For Iran
Equal Polarization, My Ass
Some Crazy Stuff That Happened In World War II
Maryland Republican Campaign Funds Used To Defend Voter Suppression
The Obama Jobs Record In One Graph
Martin O’Malley All In For Marriage Equality
Newt Gingrich, Filled With More Excrement Than Your Average Politician
New Year, Powerline Still Stupid
Thanks Again
Meta
Blogroll
Disclaimer
The views on this site are mine and mine alone, and do not reflect the views of my employer, Media Matters for America
© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
Couldn’t he at least have gone with a button-down collar…?!
The Great Karnak didn’t see the speech, or read Oliver’s speech, but I predict he will say:
a) Too little. too late
b) Didn’t show leadership
c) Fumbling, uninspiring speech OR
d) All of the above
Optional:
a) If Clinton were Prseident, we’d have creamed in our jeans
b) If Kerry were President we’d have peed in our pants
c) If Gore were President, we’d have least have broken a sweat.
Now I’ll read some commentary. keft and right, and see how I did.
Oliver, you’re forgetting Option B- let the baby drown in the bathtub while Daddy plays cowboy.
And you can bet that right now the profit-meisters in the Rove apparatus are shouting whoopi-ti-yi-yi and hot-diggity-dawg. For them, every hour of delay in helping New Orleans meant another $100 million in contracts. Don’t believe it? Just watch what happens next.
Ka-ching!
I read Oliver’s post: I forget to add: d) Bush should have flagellated self, until bloody, but did not.
$200 billion? When did the smirking Chimp become such a socialist?
Did Halliburton start a new disaster recovery business?
I would think this is great if:
1. People were being asked to sacrifice to pay for this (stop the repeal of the estate tax).
2. If the money actually were being spent making things better for the poor victims, and not wealthy developers (campaign contributors)
Fortunately, the Reality Based Community (TM) has the opportunity to do something about this…
“Two weeks ago, millions of Americans watched in horror as the city of New Orleans was savaged by the relentless, pollution-fueled fury of Hurricane Katrina. Later, we witnessed the human rights atrocity as George Bush’s incompetent racist henchmen dynamited the levees, unleashing a tidal wave of contaminated Halliburton turdwater which forced thousands of our fellow citizens to flee into the dank slave ship-like bowels of the Superdome.
“Now, as the floodwaters recede, the survivors of Bush/Katrina face an even greater danger: the danger of complacency. Even as you read this, Chimpy’s pals in FEMA and the Red Cross are buying off evacuees with food and cheap blankets and debit cards, slowly robbing the survivors of God’s most precious gift — the gift of focused political rage.
“The statistics are staggering. If we do not act soon, tens of thousands of Katrina victims will soon succumb to false hope. Many will return to Louisiana and begin rebuilding, lacking even the most basic idea of BushCo’s culpability. Worse, many other poor and minority survivors will remain where they are, anonymously absorbed into the overwhelmingly Repugnican districts that were suspiciously ready to “set up” evacuee “help” “centers.”
“That’s why we in the online progressive community have teamed up to form the Angels of Indignation, a new charity dedicated to getting the survivors of Bush/Katrina disaster back off their feet and on the road to class action. Angels of Indignation is proudly supported by a coalition of some of the top reality-based political sites — sites like FrenzyBloc, RetardedChimp, Don’t Bogart That Truth, BushTard, ConspiraScream, Puke Uprising, Dubyacide, Sanity Underground, Zit Popper, ScreamPukeRageScream, Screamette, and my own online community diary, The Daily Shriek.
Together, we represent the “can-do” sites that millions of progressives like you turn to for clear, level-headed political insight and activism to help you survive the coming holocaust schemes of the Rupugnican Xtian Jihadis in Washington. And now, we are asking for your financial help on behalf of the needy people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. ”
Visit IowaHawk’s Typepad blog for more information on how you can help.
Considering the environmental hazards down there right now, I think he’d be better off in something more like this:
I guess your powers only work one way, Frank–there’s nothing more predictable than a Bush speech:
-recite meaningless statistics
-employ ‘folksy’ manner
-show them your ‘steely resolve’
-put Karl Rove in charge
-vow to ‘stay the course’
Oh, I do love the new preview-less comments system.
Did Blanco and Nagins announced their resignation dates yet? Haven’t heard. Nagins promised me a gift of $10,000, but I understand its only worth about $200.
Dugger
This speech was the typical republican response when they realize their horseshit isn’t selling, create the illusion of large amounts of federal money being spent to supposedly solve a problem that they tried to ignore but didn’t go away. And the “compassionate” word came up again – just like Americans are going to buy that line again.
This speech was all PR. Why else would they try to create the image of Bush standing in Jackson Square “speaking his heart to the American people.”
What a crock!
A lot of the so-called conservatives, while tossing flowers to the monkey for his performance are also whining about the cost, even though they dont think twice about blowing $200 billion for the misadventure in Iraq. So are saying there are going to have to be budget cuts. So where are the cuts going to be? Social Security? Medicare?
“Can someone tell me what the deal is with this look?”
Why, it’s called “Blue Steel”.
http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/z/zoolander.html
The lighting gave it away!
No doubt, Oliver, the president had a Bullhorn Moment yesterday, and failed miserably. What’s more, his image-is-everything approach belied little to no actual content:
Al, unfortunately the conservative base is an easy sell. Randi Rhodes is right, anyone could make a fortune if they had a mailing list for the “conservative” base- they are so gullible that they will buy any bit of garbage.
Ironic how Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell make their money from the same people who put neocons in office- they are selling to the same gullible base.
I know most of us have known this since 1999, but it really hit home for me last night. Watching the President speak last night, I got the sense that he is in way over his head. He is, simply put, not a very intelligent man. And it comes through in the way he reads off the teleprompter; he spends all his concentration on reading, so that a viewer doesn’t get the sense that he actually understands what he’s saying, they’re just words devoid of any purpose.
I know the response is that Bush is folksy, down to earth, whatever. Since when have those been good qualities to look for in a leader, especially in perilous times? Given a choice, shouldn’t the President be competent rather than folksy. I’ll have beer with my city alderman.
Oh yeah? Well, take this…
On a lighter note, Oliver Willis is worked up about Bush’s appearance at last nights speech…
But BGA,
“He is, simply put, not a very intelligent man.”
Didn’t we do the intelligence thing back during the last election and determine W actually outperformed Kerry in the Ivy league schools? And the response from Bush supporters would be not that Bush is folksy etc, but rather that he is a strong on the WOT and is otherwise a decent man and a moderate. For me, he is a less disagreeable alternative than the last two Dem guys. He will do less damage. He is, though, truly a poor speaker, ranking down with Carter, Ford and LBJ.
Dugger
http://newsbusters.org/node/1201
Looks like all the po’ black folk in NOLA seem to know the score…
“He will do less damage.”
Go tell that to the 17 percent more people who slipped into poverty over the last five years.
The look is called “the clueless frat boy trying to blend in with regular folks” look.
broD,
“The look is called the clueless frat boy trying to blend in with regular folks look.”
Actually its called “cluless frat boy, who twice defeated the very best candidate Democrats and progressives could put against him, trying to blend in with regular folks, “.
Not a catchy slogan but captures reality better than yours.
Dugger
Dugger –
The reality of the 2000 election is a little less cut and dry than your slogan captures. Also, was Kerry the best candidate we could have put forward? Remember, the Republicans put Dole up against Clinton. The best Republicans had? I think not.
And just remember, Bush is not regular folks. Never has been, never will be. He’s the son of priviledge, the very sort of person that inspired CCR’s Fortunate Son. The Dems should have sent a sound truck around after Bush in the campaigns playing it at every stop. Everyone who holds on to the folksy notion that they could have a beer with Bush forgets the fact that he is a self-confessed alcoholic. At the same time, he is no moderate.
Undermining evolution, privitizing social security, pushing tax cuts for the wealthy in a time of war, opening public lands to logging and mining interests are all radical positions in the American mind. Bush’s foreign policy team is largely made up of self-professed radicals with a radical vision for American power in the world. Bottom line, Bush is no moderate. The poll numbers we are seeing now, I woudl argue, are what happens when the Bush/Rove stops running 24/7 to spin the meaning and impact of its radical policies. When the PR machine slows down even one iota, the radical fact of Bush’s policies becomes all too clear to the average American.
Jeb Bush’s 21 year old son was arrested for DUI Thurs nite. I just wonder if he supports the war in Iraq. If he does support the war, what in the hell is he doing running around partying while other men younger than he, are dying over in Iraq for their country. The least he could do is join the military and volunteer for duty in Iraq. That is what all young men should do who support the war. A lot of young people voted for Bush because he promised not to bring back the draft. A lot of young people support the president and agree with everything he does.
That is what all young men should do who support the war Says who? You?
Why? Because people who oppose the war don’t have to go? Makes no sense to me…
It’s volunteer army, Frank. No one has to go any where. But consider this: By not volunteering to join the currently stretched thin Army, those who support the war in Iraq are actually increasing the likelihood that our mission there will fail, not because of the insrugency, but from sheer institutional exhaustion. To support the war in Iraq but not to volunteer, then, is kind of self-defeating, isn’t it?
No, wrong. I refuse to involve myself in your essentially stupid argument.
Must we all become policemen until crime is eliminated, or firemen until there are no more fires?
Um, Frank, you’re comparing apples and oranges. Our war in Iraq was unprovoked, preemptive and ultimately based on false or wrong intelligence. When the fire department comes down to soak my house after receiving an anonymous tip that it may, one day, catch fire, we can take up your question. Until then, you’re living in denial.
You’re wrong, frameone, for two reasons.
First, you’re argument is totally unrelated to my denial (or lack of same).
Second, and more importantly, you’re equating the nature of the war’s origins, with war itself. Soldiers don’t choose wars, anymore than firemen choose fires to fight, or policemen choose crimes to fight.
You argued that “By not volunteering to join the currently stretched thin Army, those who support the war in Iraq are actually increasing the likelihood that our mission there will fail.” That is incorrect.
No one in the Armed Forces or the Department of Defence has suggested any such thing. You are saying that — that doesn’t make it true.
You can’t create an “if – then” syllogism out of an opinion and a fact.
This is way off topic for this post but Frank you expose the bubble you live in with every comment.
Army commanders are definitely saying that the Army is approaching a crisi point and will be facing serious operational challenges around the world by next summer because of the troop commitments we have in Iraq. At the same time, they are saying, as they have been for awhile, that we do not have enough troops in Iraq to control the insurgency.
Second, you’re right. The men and women who were already in the Army had no decision in the war they were sent to fight. Which is why it’s so tragic that that this administration decided to send them into an elective, preemptive war based on faulty intelligence. Once the occupation proved more of a strain than expected, the Army’s stop loss policies removed what choice many of these soldiers had available to them. These men and women are now fighting a war that didn’t need to be fought. This is why the origins of the Iraq war — and not war in the abstract — are primary to the question at hand.
It’s disgusting that you would envoke the social contract that underpins the existence of police, fire and military service when this administration has so flagrantly betrayed the faith and trust of the men and women in the military with their preemptive, elective war. They promise to fight for and protect us, expecting only in return that the leaders we elect will be responsible and faithful in their duties. The invasion of Iraq was a violation of the fundamental principles of the social contract that underpins a volunteer army.
Men and women join the police and fire departments to servce the public with the full faith and trust that vast majority of the public will not abuse that faith and trust by committing crimes or setting fires. At the same time, you and I both have a civic responsibility to them in the form of reporting crimes, taking safety precautions to prevent crime and fires and to pay our taxes and push for public policies that support the work that police and firemen do. The Bush administration has proven itself, with its invasion of Iraq to be a fire starter. Now, many of its supporters are content to sit back and watch a whole country burn.
“No one in the Armed Forces or the Department of Defence has suggested any such thing.” That means the leadership. A smattering of disgruntled and / or ill – informed commanders was not who I meant.
And don’t throw buzz words around like “social contract”, and then follow it with a DU driven editorial. And you need not remind me of my civic responsibility.
frameone: I’m tired and I’m tired of you.