Dowd: United States of Shame

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html

<snip>

Why does this self-styled "can do" president always lapse into such lame "who could have known?" excuses.

Who on earth could have known that Osama bin Laden wanted to attack us by flying planes into buildings? Any official who bothered to read the trellis of pre-9/11 intelligence briefs.

Who on earth could have known that an American invasion of Iraq would spawn a brutal insurgency, terrorist recruiting boom and possible civil war? Any official who bothered to read the C.I.A.'s prewar reports.

Who on earth could have known that New Orleans's sinking levees were at risk from a strong hurricane? Anybody who bothered to read the endless warnings over the years about the Big Easy's uneasy fishbowl.

[Erika]

1. But Condi will appear in Alabama with her $1,000 shoes

Doesn't that uplift everyone?

[rodeodance]

8. Is she going to Alabama?

[Stuckinthebush]

14. This is her home

Birmingham

Her father is spinning in his grave right now. She is nothing more than a prop and shill for this evil administration.

She certainly doesn't do Birmingham proud.

[Pirate Smile]

2. More:

"Stuff happens.

And when you combine limited government with incompetent government, lethal stuff happens.

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.

W. drove his budget-cutting Chevy to the levee, and it wasn't dry. Bye, bye, American lives. "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," he told Diane Sawyer.

Shirt-sleeves rolled up, W. finally landed in Hell yesterday and chuckled about his wild boozing days in "the great city" of N'Awlins. He was clearly moved. "You know, I'm going to fly out of here in a minute," he said on the runway at the New Orleans International Airport, "but I want you to know that I'm not going to forget what I've seen." Out of the cameras' range, and avoided by W., was a convoy of thousands of sick and dying people, some sprawled on the floor or dumped on baggage carousels at a makeshift M*A*S*H unit inside the terminal."

[Jade Fox]

3. The shirt sleeves rolled up is what got me....

Bush's handlers going for the image thing again. Why did he need his
shirt sleeves rolled up to make a painfully bad speech?

[rodeodance]

5. "W. finally landed in Hell yesterday"---but not in the toxic waters of NO

....Shirt-sleeves rolled up, W. finally landed in Hell yesterday and chuckled about his wild boozing days in "the great city" of N'Awlins. He was clearly moved.

[Pirate Smile]

4. This paragraph literally made me flinch and cover me eyes .

Literally, not figuratively.

"Ron Fournier of The Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans last year. The White House carved it to about $40 million. But President Bush and Congress agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-filled highway bill with 6,000 pet projects, including a $231 million bridge for a small, uninhabited Alaskan island."

They asked for $105 million, the request was rejected and cut to $40 million but they appropriated $231 million for a bridge to literally nowhere for 10 people or so. I did hear a reporter or anchor mention this tonight. That is so un.f@#king.believable. That was immoral! That was a sin!

I realize that bill wouldn't have had time to honestly change the levee, but it wasn't the first time, and it shows so blatantly the criminal priorities.

[rodeodance]

6. saying $ depleted by the "Bush folly in Irag"--YES YES YES

Not only was the money depleted by the Bush folly in Iraq; 30 percent of the National Guard and about half its equipment are in Iraq.

[rodeodance]

7. recommend

[barbaraann]

12. I think I figured out why that bridge was built.

A GOP donor is probably planning to build a resort on the island.

[Pirate Smile]

13. That would certainly make sense. The National Treasury is another

bank account for the rich Republicans who are buddies with the WH and Congressional GOP. An entire city - well they can just fuck off and wait for the inevitable to happen - after all, they aren't Bush, Frist, Delay, or Hastert's "people". It is a red state but that isn't a red city so who cares.

[Catchawave]

15. Do we know what Dems voted "for" this bill ?

For that matter Repubs too? I'd like to make sure not one of them runs for President, ever. This also may be our biggest talking point in '06 and '08.

[bloom]

16. If they can't make better decisions than that....

:wtf:

[pippin]

9. Bush and Company must think governing is all a game

<snip>

"Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center.

Was he sacked instantly? No, our tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."<snip>


Dowd has hit it on the head with her last line:

"they (Bush et al) shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us ashamed.:cry:

[indepat]

10. After all this who could have know the MSM would still shill for and

idolatrous throngs would still chant: four more years, four more year; and the Congress would rubber-stamp everything wanted in virtual lockstep?

[sunnystarr]

11. "Who are we if we can't take care of our own?"

That's the most important question.

[Placebo]

17. bump

Fantastic article.

[kliljedahl]

18. I love Maureen dowd

[Raster]

19. Go Mo Go!

:kick: and nominated

[struggle4progress]

20. Who could have known that a stolen election would result in so ..

.. much grief?