Is Katrina Bush’s Waterloo?
September 6, 2005
A lot has been said on the topic of Bush and the nation’s failure in New Orleans. I put some blame on the shoulders of America in general because we elected Bush, twice. Sure liberals claim they voted for the other guy (me included), but are we all sure we couldn’t have done something to prevent this loon from taking office and wrecking everything this country stands for? I do mean everything. Conservatives, look at what you believe in, fundamentally, does Bush really speak for you?
Anyway, instead of me rambling on further about how terrible this all is, I’ll simply state Bush should resign in shame and just quote other people who are more eloquent than me.
New Orleans Times-PicayuneAn Open Letter to the President
Dear Mr. President:
We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, “What is not working, we’re going to make it right.”
Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.
[...]
We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.
[...]
We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.
From A Failure of Leadership by Bob Herbert, NYTimes Op-Ed Columnist (9/5)
The catastrophe in New Orleans billowed up like the howling winds of hell and was carried live and in color on television screens across the U.S. and around the world.
The Big Easy had turned into the Big Hurt, and the colossal failure of George W. Bush to intervene powerfully and immediately to rescue tens of thousands of American citizens who were suffering horribly and dying in agony was there for all the world to see.
From A Can’t Do Government by Paul Krugman, NYTimes Op-Ed Columnist (9/2)
At a fundamental level, I’d argue, our current leaders just aren’t serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don’t like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.
Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.
So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can’t-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.
From United States of Shame by Maureen Dowd, NYTimes Op-Ed Columnist (9/5)
America is once more plunged into a snake pit of anarchy, death, looting, raping, marauding thugs, suffering innocents, a shattered infrastructure, a gutted police force, insufficient troop levels and criminally negligent government planning. But this time it’s happening in America. [...] it is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode.
From The Larger Shame by Nicholas D. Kristof, NYTimes Op-Ed Columnist (9/6)
It has also underscored the Bush administration’s ongoing reluctance or ineptitude in helping the poorest Americans. The scenes in New Orleans reminded me of the suffering I saw after a similar storm killed 130,000 people in Bangladesh in 1991 - except that Bangladesh’s government showed more urgency in trying to save its most vulnerable citizens.
If Bush does not take any blame for any of this, everyone liberal and conservative should finally give up on this administration. The failures keep adding up: weapons of mass destruction? abu ghraib? greeted as liberators? and have we caught Osama Bin Laden yet? So many failures… Katrina may not have been directly his fault, no one controls the weather, but the causality of the poor response is clear. I hope this can be Bush’s Waterloo.
How long before the AMA lists Bush as a leading cause of death in Americans?
More resources:
Concord Monitor: “Bush: Katrina response ‘not acceptable’ He’s under fire from both parties”
Blogcritics.org: George Bush Poll: Slightly More Popular Than Hurricane Katrina
Technorati Tags: bush, bush failure, conservative, failed leader, george bush, george w bush, hurricane, hurricane katrina, katrina, liberal, lousiana, new orleans, president, waterloo
Tags: Bush, bush failure, conservative, failed leader, george bush, george w bush, hurricane, hurricane katrina, katrina, liberal, lousiana, New Orleans, president, waterloo
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9 Responses to “Is Katrina Bush’s Waterloo?”
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[...] All over the net, people are talking about how the Bush Administration’s failure to respond to Hurricane Katrina might prove to be the downfall of his administration. Based on his failures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and the Gulf Coast, it is certainly clear Bush and his Neo-Conservative followers have become damaged goods, and some are even calling for him to “resign in shame“. [...]
I believe that if our so-called President (meaning George W.Bush) should be impeached. I am sure and I hope I am wrong, that he will never resign because he knows no shame. He, and Dick Chaney too, should be out of office. They have done nothing be be corrupt.
Not long ago the lunatic right wing fringe including the likes of Bill O’ Reilly called for the resignation of Dan Rather over the news anchor’s misrepresentation of Bush’s Vietnam service record. Such was the outcry and pressure even within his own CBS new team that the news man stepped down in humiliation. His journalistic ethics were questioned by reactionary commentators itching for a witch-hunt against a Bush critic on the airwaves. Mr. Rather faced the music over his failures and left as anchor of the CBS news after a long and distinguished career . Rather’s failure were human and his errors, may have embarrassed the President but Bush got reelected anyway. Rather did the right thing and left. However Rather’s mistakes did not result in a war fought for bogus reasons with no post invasion game plan, nor did it result in a Middle East debacle costing 20,000 thousands innocent lives being taken in the name of “freedomâ€?. The news anchor’s oversight did not cost nearly 2000 American soldiers poorly equipped to die in an ongoing foreign conflict the US cannot win… Rather’s error did not result in a massive inept federal bureaucracy from failing to respond in a timely and professional manner in order to save Americans who now live in a disaster zone called the Gulf coast. Well, Mr. President now it is your turn to face up to the consequences of your inactions or actions and for the same reason that Rather left then , it is high time you admitted to your failure , take responsibility for them by resigning from the presidency now! Your policy failures in Iraq, your inability to heed warnings about 9/11 attacks and to react quickly enough to the Katrina disaster, your failure to reduce the yawning US deficit which as has dug the American taxpayer to a bottomless pit for generations , your obsession with advancing corporate America and the expense of the poor buy cutting taxes for the rich, your failed China, Iran policy , your inept handling of transatlantic relations which have alienated America worldwide are all on the record for historians to see. You may wish to remain blind to this fact but for all these reason be a man at least and face up to all these failures and for the sake of America and its future generations do what a real man does when he realizes he is wrong and like Rather resign from your job.
The only thing to do now is put Bush and his cabinet in jail. Like in a cowboy picture. Because our voting system is so fucked and queered up, elections are so fraudulent, there’s no way to get these NAZIs out of power. How can Halliburton get EVERY government contract?
Suspend Davis-Bacon in a war zone so workers will get starvation wages?? Even Adolf had more finesse.
F**K THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
[...] I’m really interested to notice that for the last few days the search term “Impeach Bush” has been among the top searches on technorati.com. Somehow I doubt it’s a coincidence that “katrina” and “hurricane” are also among the top searches. It looks like the world is finally holding this administration accountable for its failures. Some sites are even posting alphabetical listings of the President’s screw ups. One thing is for sure, however, the President’s approval ratings are falling. [...]
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