ClassWarz
2005-09-07 08:42:35 UTC
<thanks for posting this, 'Abel Malcolm', all text below is from the Dowd
article - ClassWarz>
"Abel Malcolm" <***@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:***@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
September 3, 2005
United States of Shame
By MAUREEN DOWD
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.
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.
In June 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson
Parish, fretted to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans: "It appears that
the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland
security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay.
Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are
doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue
for us."
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.
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.
Just last year, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials practiced
how they would respond to a fake hurricane that caused floods and
stranded New Orleans residents. Imagine the feeble FEMA's response to
Katrina if they had not prepared.
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."
It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick
Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at
Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue and attended "Spamalot" before bloggers
chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked
empathy but could get the job done. But it is a chilling lack of
empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make
this administration implode.
When the president and vice president rashly shook off our allies and
our respect for international law to pursue a war built on lies, when
they sanctioned torture, they shook the faith of the world in American
ideals.
When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for
help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like
those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700
guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they
shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us
ashamed.
Who are we if we can't take care of our own?
E-mail: ***@nytimes.com
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html?8hpib
article - ClassWarz>
"Abel Malcolm" <***@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:***@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
September 3, 2005
United States of Shame
By MAUREEN DOWD
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.
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.
In June 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson
Parish, fretted to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans: "It appears that
the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland
security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay.
Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are
doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue
for us."
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.
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.
Just last year, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials practiced
how they would respond to a fake hurricane that caused floods and
stranded New Orleans residents. Imagine the feeble FEMA's response to
Katrina if they had not prepared.
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."
It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick
Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at
Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue and attended "Spamalot" before bloggers
chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked
empathy but could get the job done. But it is a chilling lack of
empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make
this administration implode.
When the president and vice president rashly shook off our allies and
our respect for international law to pursue a war built on lies, when
they sanctioned torture, they shook the faith of the world in American
ideals.
When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for
help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like
those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700
guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they
shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us
ashamed.
Who are we if we can't take care of our own?
E-mail: ***@nytimes.com
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html?8hpib