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The Entire Bush Administration In One Picture
March 2nd, 2006
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Oliver Willis
Like Kryptonite To Stupid
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Caption: Insulated, Unfocused, and in the Dark–The Clueless incompetence of George W. Bush
My BushHate compels me to slap his hamster hands
One picture is worth 1.000 lives.
The perfect caption to go with that picture:
Bush didn t ask a single question during the final government-wide briefing the day before Katrina struck on Aug. 29 but assured state officials: We are fully prepared.
Funny, I thought Bush was “on vacation,” “out of touch,” “clueless,” etc. during the days before Katrina hit.
Now we have video of him participating in numerous daily teleconferences with state and federal government officials and meteorologists. So much for the “out of touch” talking point. Nice try, though.
(And just like Abu Graib story, the details of Bush’s meetings were released months before this new sudden outpouring of concern. For some reason, Democrats can’t seem to understand stories unless they have pictures.)
Poor George W. Bush. How dare our “dear leader” assume that state and federal government officials were actually doing their jobs!
Who knows? Maybe part of Bush’s “lack of concern” was because Louisiana Democrats felt the levees were safe, and even went so far as to misinform him that no levees had been breached after the storm.
Makes as much sense as anything else I’ve read here.
Guess he wasn’t on vacation after all.
Near End.
We can only hope…
I find the ‘Near End’ the most hopeful of two words to ever come together. I wish it truly was – but it appears that this nightmare will continue for a little while longer.
Funny, I thought Bush was on vacation, out of touch, clueless, etc. during the days before Katrina hit.
Now we have video of him participating in numerous daily teleconferences with state and federal government officials and meteorologists
That’s the sad part, Mike: even when he does participate in numerous daily teleconferences he’s still out of touch, clueless and, so to speak, on permanent vaction.
Hey la, hey la.
“Participating”? For the sake of the people of New Orleans I wish the president of my country had been “participating” in this conference call – “Are you sure we have enough supplies? Do we have a plan if the levees don’t hold? Are our lines of communication clear with the governors in question?” No, he sat there like a dumbass, spouted a couple of platitudes and jetted off to a photo op.
Here is the bottom line.
The City of New Orleans had a population of 1.5 million people. The President of the United States knew of the danger in advance and acted on it, ordering the evacuation of the city in advance of any state or local official. He then engaged in multiple daily briefings from the team in place including the directors of FEMA, Homeland Security, the National Weather Service, and State and local officials
1.2 million people were evacuated before the storm hit.
Of those who weren’t evacuated (because the city’s emergency plans were not executed as they were supposed to be) 70,000 had to be rescued after the storm passed (36,000 of those by the Coast Guard, within the first 24 hours.) 1077 died in the state of Louisiana.
There is no way of telling how many of those who died were people who heard the evacuation order and decided to ride out the storm. We do know that local officials failed to evacuate nursing homes, hospitals, prisons, etc. and moved people to the Superdome (part of the plan) and the Convention Center (not part of the plan.) But even the local officials were doing the best they could with such a chaotic situation. Could they have done better? Of course. Hindsight is always 20/20.
Despite all of the false news reports, a vast majority of those people in the Superdome and the Convention Center, though enduring severe discomfort for way too long while they waited for the bureaucracies hash it out, were among the 70,000 evacuated. (In fact, I can only recall two confirmed deaths in either of those places- a heart attack and a suicide. If anyone here can give me more information on the supposed thousands that were dying in either the Superdome or the Convention Center please let me know.)
We know that there were warnings that the levees at the Lake in north New Orleans might spillover because of rising waters and agitation, but no predictions that the levees to the south would break open.
If you have something that shows the contrary, feel free to supply it. Nothing in the “smoking gun” tape indicates otherwise, although the AP’s story seems to confuse the term breach (i.e. break) with overtopping (i.e. spillover). There is a big difference between your bathtub spilling over and the side breaking out.
We also know that the President was assured by the Governor of the State that the levees were not breached (almost three hours after they already had been) and that the Director of FEMA told the President that they had everything that they needed.
Considering that FEMA handled the aftermath of 9/11 and the California wildfires just fine it isn’t too hard to understand why the President might have confidence in the people on the ground who are telling him what is happening. The news reports were really of little help, considering how wrong many of them were.
Was it all perfect? Hell no. It proved that a lot more planning needs to be done in cities like New Orleans and other areas of the Gulf Coast.
But was it a miracle that more people didn’t die? No to that either.
It was because action was taken that more people didn’t die in one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in U.S. history.
So your little BS talking point about Bush letting a major US city drown is taken for the heaping pile of steamy crap that it is Oliver. A talking point. If you think it will get Democrats elected in 2006 and 2008, feel free to dwell on it all you want.
But just be sure Democrats have an actual platform this time, and not just “We’re Anti-Bush.” That platform doesn’t seem to work so well. (Especially since Bush isn’t running.)
What aftermath of 9/11? 3,000 people had already been killed on President Bush’s watch. I cease to understand how you folks on the right can consistently absolve Bush of any culpability. At first, Bush was on message, claiming that the disaster response was on point (”Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”) then he realized that in fact people were stranded in NO in a teeming mass of garbage and death – and acted as he always does: paralyzed and clueless.
You ‘wingers have GOT to be kidding, right?
Bush sits there like a bored middle school student during study hall and you’re ready to crow about it?
Tell me again about that “soft bigotry” thing, willya?
Farris – he went on vacation AFTER the storm hit and he’d been told how bad things could get.
Rainlion, are you making a joke? Bush ended his vacation (early) on Tuesday after Katrina hit Monday.
Is that Rove sitting on Bush’s right?
Godamighty.
Marty revises history:
Considering that FEMA handled the aftermath of 9/11 and the California wildfires just fine it isn t too hard to understand why the President might have confidence in the people on the ground who are telling him what is happening.
Actually, FEMA’s own internal reports were highly critical of FEMA’s response to the aftermath of 9/11.
Jeebus, will you Bush Cultists ever quit making things up?
“You’re doing a heck uv a job, Bush,” Love, Farris, Frank, Wilbur and Harriet.
If that is your only criticism, then you must agree with the rest I wrote. OR is the Cult of Bush Hate too strong in you? Or maybe the Willisism Talking Points are just too compelling to abandon.
Gotta elect those Democrats!
It’s this kind of shit that will be excused by Bush Apologists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/femacriticsshirtgetshimtangledupinticket
[...] photo for the President. It was nothing but a photo op. Two pictures = 2,000 words. HT Oliver Willis
This entry w [...]
Uh, Marty?
It’s probably not the best idea to accuse someone of relying on talking points immediately after you whip out the “Cult of Bush Hate” talking point!
However, feel free to keep contradicting yourself.