Here's What Gets Me

[Emit]

This gal really captured what, IMO, is at the heart of the matter, for me, at least.

What president, in their right mind, would sit back and watch, as all America-- heck, the entire world-- witnessed, for FIVE DAYS, men, women, and children dying, starving and suffering and NOT DO SOMETHING? Where was his urgency? His outrage?

What president?

Bush. Bush did.

Here's What Gets Me
People are going around and around about who should have done what at what time to get food and water to the victims of Katrina, and to get the buses there to evacuate people from the city who didn't get out on their own, and to get medical care to the elderly so they wouldn't die, and to get control of the shelter areas so that people wouldn't be beaten, raped, and murdered at the convention center and the Superdome. Let's assume we're not deciding who should have done what at what time.

My problem with Bush -- and here, I do indeed address Bush individually, as a guy -- is that during the time that the crisis was developing, from Monday to Friday, he never seemed to experience any actual sense of urgency as a result of the simple fact that people were, minute by minute and hour by hour, dying.

Let's give him the benefit of the doubt that he was being prevented from acting by bureaucracy and the sheer magnitude of the situation. Where are the stories of how he was in his office freaking the fuck out because there were tens of thousands of Americans trapped without food and water? Where's the story of how he ripped a strip off of somebody, demanding to know what the holy hell the holdup is getting water and food to those people?

I want to hear about how he was demanding that extraordinary steps be taken. I want to hear about how he sent his lawyers into a room -- he had four days, you know -- and demanded that they come back in an hour with a plan for him to send the Marines into New Orleans with 100 trucks of food and water, posse comitatus or not. I want to hear that he was panicked. Because I was panicked. Everyone I know was panicked. Everyone I know was gnashing their teeth with helpless rage because they couldn't get in a car, drive down there, and drive a load of homeless Louisiana residents back home with them for soup and a goddamn hot bath. I want to hear that he acted at some point out of genuine despondency about the fact that citizens of the country he is supposed to be running were being starved and dehydrated in a hellish, fetid prison. We are dancing around now about whether it is his failure or not his failure. Where is the decency that would tell him that he is the president, and FEMA is part of his administration, and this failure is his to own and apologize for, whether other people also were wrong or not?

~snip~

Cont'd:
http://www.thisisnotover.com/archives/2005/09/heres_what_gets.html

[texpatriot2004]

1. This is so true, * didn't have any sense of urgency

"My problem with Bush -- and here, I do indeed address Bush individually, as a guy -- is that during the time that the crisis was developing, from Monday to Friday, he never seemed to experience any actual sense of urgency as a result of the simple fact that people were, minute by minute and hour by hour, dying."

And where are those stories?
"Where are the stories of how he was in his office freaking the fuck out because there were tens of thousands of Americans trapped without food and water? Where's the story of how he ripped a strip off of somebody, demanding to know what the holy hell the holdup is getting water and food to those people?"


"I want to hear that he was panicked. Because I was panicked. Everyone I know was panicked. Everyone I know was gnashing their teeth with helpless rage because they couldn't get in a car, drive down there, and drive a load of homeless Louisiana residents back home with them for soup and a goddamn hot bath." Me too.

"Where is the decency that would tell him that he is the president, and FEMA is part of his administration, and this failure is his to own and apologize for, whether other people also were wrong or not?"

[texpatriot2004]

2. She's right. This is an awesome piece she's written. n/t

[texpatriot2004]

3. Not only did he NOT act like a President he didn't act like a

HUMAN either...not a caring, decent human.

[Emit]

4. YES! Very unsettling for me

And that's why I reposted this here, as this writer really captured what I was feeling all along about Bush's complacency.

How can you be a leader of a country and not react with urgency in the midst of a natural disaster. I just don't get it.

It's unconscionable.

[DELUSIONAL]

5. Great piece of writing - the comments are interesting

the GOPigs talking points are there -- ah gee why didn't they plan for this? By a rich half human female. Just no room for empathy for these rich half humanoids is there.

Point of fact -- their guy screwed up really really bad. He ate cake and kept on with his vacation while people died and he exhibited no URGENCY.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. So true. Here's a thought experiment:

Imagine you're a West Wing scriptwriter, and you have to write what the fictional (and admittedly impossibly admirable) President Bartlett would do. There isn't a single bit of similarity with what the antisocial arsehole occupying the White House has done. Or imagine what the second worst president the USA has had, Nixon, would have done. At least, being a control freak, he would have done something. He'd make sure we all knew about it, but it would be something. Reagan, for God's sake, would show proper empathy - and perhaps he'd mean some of it.

Remember how people said "the average American" preferred Bush to Gore, or Kerry, because they'd rather have a chat with him over a barbecue? If that were ever true (and I had a hard time believing it then), it can't be now. At a time when all normal people turn their thoughts constantly to Katrina, the Alfred E. Neuman president is only the representative of psychologically damaged, selfish, greedy, spoilt, rich tossers. Who could bear to talk to him?

[Emit]

8. Or...

"Remember how people said "the average American" preferred Bush to Gore, or Kerry, because they'd rather have a chat with him over a barbecue?"

What about Cheney et.al. saying pre-election, "Who do you trust more to protect you?"

muriel, I can identify with what your write, too, about the West Wing script. This past week, I have thought of various movie plots, too, comparing what Americans would expect and want in a leader vs. what they actually witnessed their leader do.

[CJCRANE]

7. What about on 9/11?

He didn't seem the least bit curious to get up and see what has happening when the two tallest buildings in America were on fire, putting at least 50,000 people at risk.

[texpatriot2004]

9. kick this awesome spot on piece. n/t

[LevelB]

10. Absolutely a kick

This line of reasoning won over my mother-in-law tonight.

She voted for Bush because he made her feel "safer"

Lot of folks are re-examining that assumption now, wondering if Bush might leave them in the lurch.

B