Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

RE: The buck stops here

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane

Katrina and

thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted.

Where on

earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need

help

finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that

a

drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could

really

use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like

helping

with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of

Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then

but it

was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still

homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on

its

way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you

didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like

to get

bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead

soldiers

to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying

to

Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps.

Don't

let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over

and

what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you

specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New

Orleans

this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even

if

you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to

be any

Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important

construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was

moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds

as

you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the

disaster.

Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some

rubble

and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to

use

it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond

to

nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen

because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter

making

a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming

Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so

wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New

York

to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30

percent

of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no

transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's

not

like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white

people

on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing --

NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army

helicopters

and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf

Coast

are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore

[email protected]

http://www.MichaelMoore.com

RE: The buck stops here

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane

Katrina and

thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted.

Where on

earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need

help

finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that

a

drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could

really

use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like

helping

with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of

Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then

but it

was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still

homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on

its

way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you

didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like

to get

bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead

soldiers

to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying

to

Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps.

Don't

let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over

and

what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you

specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New

Orleans

this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even

if

you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to

be any

Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important

construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was

moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds

as

you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the

disaster.

Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some

rubble

and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to

use

it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond

to

nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen

because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter

making

a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming

Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so

wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New

York

to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30

percent

of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no

transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's

not

like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white

people

on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing --

NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army

helicopters

and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf

Coast

are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore

[email protected]

http://www.MichaelMoore.com

RE: The buck stops here

Maureen Dowd nails it again today in the NY Times:

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?

RE: The buck stops here

And some more compassion:

When asked about the delay in mobiling the National Guard, Chertoff just said "...even when sending the National Guard overseas, we don't ask them to pack up and leave in 24 hours, unless there's some big emergency or something..."

A medal is sure on the way!

Brown pushed from last job: Horse group: FEMA chief had to be `asked to resign'

By Brett Arends

Saturday, September 3, 2005 - Updated: 02:01 PM EST

The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows.

And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position.

The Oklahoman got the job through an old college friend who at the time was heading up FEMA.

The agency, run by Brown since 2003, is now at the center of a growing fury over the handling of the New Orleans disaster.

``I look at FEMA and I shake my head,'' said a furious Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday, calling the response ``an embarrassment.''

President Bush, after touring the Big Easy, said he was ``not satisfied'' with the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina's devastation.

And U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch predicted there would be hearings on Capitol Hill over the mishandled operation.

Brown - formerly an estates and family lawyer - this week has has made several shocking public admissions, including interviews where he suggested FEMA was unaware of the misery and desperation of refugees stranded at the New Orleans convention center.

Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado.

``We do disciplinary actions, certification of (show trial) judges. We hold classes to train people to become judges and stewards. And we keep records,'' explained a spokeswoman for the IAHA commissioner's office. ``This was his full-time job . . . for 11 years,'' she added.

Brown was forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures.

``He was asked to resign,'' Bill Pennington, president of the IAHA at the time, confirmed last night.

Soon after, Brown was invited to join the administration by his old Oklahoma college roommate Joseph Allbaugh, the previous head of FEMA until he quit in 2003 to work for the president's re-election campaign.

It was disturbing to watch Bush speaking from Mississippi yesterday with that shit eatin grin on his face. What did he think was so amusing? I couldn't figure if the grin is just from nerves or he's thinking to himself "Way to go Georgie, they're buying this crap."

I wonder, too, what affect the news of the disaster and the inadequate response to it will have on the morale of the troops in Iraq, particularly those serving in the National Guard.

And FEMA continues

I just heard on FOX News that FEMA reps are visiting the numerous shelters. Are they taking claims info? No! Are they giving out claims forms? NO! They are giving the displaced an 800 number to call. (when they can get a phone)

When you call the 800 number AND get through, FEMA takes your name and address to send you claim forms. What address? What post office?

They reported that the evacuees are upset. Ya think?

Barry

The Jefferson Parish president, Aaron Broussard, told CBS news that government would have to be held accountable for what had happened.

"Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area and bureaucracy needs to stand trial before congress today," he said.

"Take whatever idiot they have at the top, give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1563650,00.html

FEMA continues, and Bush rocks!

George W. Bush Still Rocks!

Stop criticizing! The rich man's CEO president is executing his job requirements perfectly

- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Friday, September 9, 2005

Everyone is slamming poor Dubya. Everyone is saying, oh my God, he's more inept than we ever imagined, he has no idea what's really going on, he's oblivious and in denial and he pretty much let all those poor black people die in filth and misery, and he basically ignored the massive Katrina disaster for days before finally being pressured into cutting his umpteenth vacation short and actually taking action.

This is what they're saying. Kanye West was right, Bush doesn't care about black people, or the poor, or anything that doesn't directly serve his handlers' agenda or flatter his monochromatic ego or anything that isn't spelled out for him in nice simplistic pie charts and reassuring matronly tones.

And lo, the darts are slinging in from around the world, according to SF Gate's own World Views column: "Maddening incompetence ... reminiscent of a drought-stricken African state," says Britain's Daily Mail. "Can't get it together," says a major paper in Italy. "A plethora of grim tales of disaster," says the Scotsman. "Superpower or Third World?" asks the Spanish daily Noticias de Álava. Why did BushCo fail its first great national-security test since Sept. 11, despite having two days' advance notice of Katrina's wrath? asks Le Monde. And on it goes, the world's powers looking on in one part shock and one part disgust and all parts repugnance for Bush's rampant ineptitude and America's apparent inability to take care of its own.

But it's so unfair, isn't it, to attack poor Dubya like this? Just a little misplaced? After all, Bush has always been the rich white man's president. He is the CEO president, the megacorporate businessman's friend, the thug of the religious right, a big reservoir-tipped condom for all energy magnates, protecting against the nasty STDs of humanitarianism and progress and social responsibility.

He has always been merely an entirely selective figurehead, out of touch and eternally dumbfounded, a hand puppet of the neoconservative machine built and fluffed up and carefully placed for the very specific job of protecting their interests, no matter what. Repeat: No. Matter. What. Flood hurricane disaster war social breakdown economic collapse? Doesn't matter. Corporate interests über alles, baby. Protect the core, reassure the base, screw everyone else unless it begins to affect the poll numbers and then finger-point, deflect, prevaricate. All of a piece, really. Because Bush, he was never actually meant to, you know, lead.

So maybe it's time to stop with the savaging of poor Dubya. He is, after all, doing a simply beautiful job of kowtowing to his wealthiest supporters while slamming the poor and running the nation into a deep hole and creating the largest deficit in American history, all while his cronies in oil and industry and military supply and Big Energy gain immense and staggering wealth and pay less and less tax on it. This is what he was hired to do. This is why he is in office. Hell, the day after Katrina, Bush flew right by Louisiana and headed straight to San Diego to party with his Greatest Generation cronies. Reassure the masters, first and foremost, eh Shrub? Understood.

Is this not what we all expected? Can you reasonably say you thought it would be different? Just look. All major social services are being gutted. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is a joke, second in line only to the ungodly useless Homeland Security Department, which has become about as reassuring and trustworthy and humane an organization as a prison in Guantánamo.

The Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans just last year. The White House hacked that down to about $40 million, even as it passed the most bloated and nauseatingly pork-filled $12.3 billion energy bill in recent history, one that guaranteed we'd be sucking at the tit of foreign oil and kneeling before Bush's pals in Big Energy for decades to come, even as more and more teenagers die in Iraq for Bush's inept and failed war. Yay politics.

Why didn't National Guardsmen from Louisiana and Mississippi march into New Orleans immediately after Katrina exited to take charge and keep the peace? Why, because most of them are serving in that same violent and brutally costly war in Iraq, silly. Fully 30 percent of the guard is stuck over there, along with 50 percent of their equipment. Yay Vietnam 2.0.

Why did FEMA chief Michael Brown wait hours after Katrina struck to timidly plead with his parent company, Homeland Security, for some backup, not to actually get their hands dirty but rather to help "convey a positive image" about the government's response to the victims? Why, because he's an incompetent lackey Bush appointee who was fired from his former job as head of something called the International Arabian Horse Association. Yay pathetic nepotism.

Just look. Senate majority leader Sen. Bill Frist, icon of hollow self-righteousness and the energy magnate's friend, has already leveraged the Katrina nightmare to argue for more drilling in Alaska, much in the way BushCo whored Sept. 11 to cram the Patriot Act down the nation's throat and make fear and xenophobia a national pastime. And let's not forget trusty profit-sucking sidekick Halliburton, which has already scored a sweet deal to help repair Katrina damage, thanks to the fact that the former director of FEMA is now a Halliburton lobbyist. Ah, war and death and tragedy. They are just so goddamn profitable, right, Dubya?

And then, the kicker. Then you read that Bush has actually ordered an official probe into the botched Katrina relief efforts, a formal federal investigation into what went wrong, which is a bit like a shark ordering an investigation into what happened to all the fish. Unless this probe starts and ends in the White House, unless it hangs Bush himself up by his monkey ears and dangles him over a river of toxic Louisiana sewage, it's merely useless and insulting and more than a little sad.

Let's say it outright. The truest measure of any president, of any leader, is how well he takes care of his own people. And Bush, well, Bush has done a simply spectacular job of taking care of exactly his own people -- the wealthy, the corporate, the extreme religious right, his core base of supporters -- while happily and fiercely ignoring, restricting, condemning, destroying the rest. Are you educated or progressive or liberal or alternative-minded or sexually open or homosexual or anti-war? This means you. Are you dirt poor and belong to a minority and don't drive an SUV and contribute six figures per annum to the RNC and maybe live in a flooded swamp in the Louisiana bayou? This means you, squared. Sucker.

Here, then, is the new American motto, as reimagined by BushCo: Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and we'll let them die in a filthy and decrepit storm-ravaged American football stadium while our president languishes on vacation and ponders his oil futures and fondly remembers his good ol' days of getting drunk at Mardi Gras before going AWOL from the military. God bless America.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thoughts for the author? E-mail him.

RE: FEMA continues, and Bush rocks!

Hold it, if 'Brownie' was doing such a 'heck of a job', why wqas he just relieved of command??

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4184/358/1600/whlogo.gif

We don't care.

We don't have to.

Gods among swine....

Can you hear that? That low scraping moan, that painful scream, that compressed hissing wail like the sound of an angry alligator caught in a vice?

Why, it's the GOP, and they're screaming, "No, no it can't be, oh my God, please no, this damnable Katrina thing is just an unstoppable PR disaster for us!"

After all (they wail), who woulda thought dissing all those poor black people and letting so many of them die in filth and misery in the Superdome while our pampered CEO president enjoyed yet another vacation would cause such an ugly backlash, such harsh criticism of the glorious, rich-über-alles GOP creed?

Who knew it would lay bare our deeply inbred agenda of social injustice and civil neglect, and our systematic abuse of the country? This storm thing is so not the thing we need right now because, oh my God look, just look! We've been so golden! We've had the run of the candy store! We have been gods among swine! ...

Read the rest:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/09/14/notes091405.DTL&nl=fix

Hell freezes over

http://www.newsobserver.com/images/xtq_photos/2005-1/xtq_20050914-images/powelled.GIF

RE: Hell freezes over

LMAO :+ This is precisely what I thought when I saw him finally taking a tid bit of responsibility for something.

RE: FEMA continues, and Bush rocks!

>

>This is what they're saying. Kanye West was right, Bush

>doesn't care about black people, or the poor, or anything that

>doesn't directly serve his handlers' agenda or flatter his

>monochromatic ego or anything that isn't spelled out for him

>in nice simplistic pie charts and reassuring matronly tones.

Kaybe West is a young artist and very much entitled to his own opinon. However let's take another artist whose been around and seen things in his lifetime, the legendary bluesman BB King. Recently he was asked if he felt that President Bush was prejudice against black people. His answer was no and as far as he was concerned the President is entitled to like whomever he wishes to.

>

>Why didn't National Guardsmen from Louisiana and Mississippi

>march into New Orleans immediately after Katrina exited to

>take charge and keep the peace? Why, because most of them are

>serving in that same violent and brutal

First of all why didn't the Governor instantly request the aid of the National Guard. Also why didn't the Governor allow the Federal Government to take over operations almost right away. The state certainly didn't have the resources to cope in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. By having the Federal Government take over, the national guard would be under Federal jurisdiction. They didn't and this something that the governor should be held accountable for.

Also just exactly who started the blame game within the press in the first place. When the media wanted answers as to who was to blame. Both the governor and the mayor almost straight away insisted that all answers would be provided in due time. Lo and behold, not heeding there own words, both liberal politicians went on the offensive and starting blaming the Bush Administration for the failings in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but so far they both have refused to take responsibility for their own failures.

Ironically earlier this week, didn't the Mayor insist upon having residents return to the French quarter insisting that it's safe to go back only to have the Federal Government talk him out of it in light of the pending storm system. Ah yes, Louisiana has a very smart mayor. He's been showing his true colours in the last few weeks for the nation to see and it's really a sight that's not terribly pretty at all

Ro

As LA burns, Dubya fiddles

Time to bring out the military Dear Leader?

RE: As LA burns, Dubya fiddles

>Time to bring out the military Dear Leader?

To make a very brief comment. So here goes, at the moment the state of California is really not in a position where the Governor needs to declare a state of emergency. Just like earthquakes, Santa Ana winds are part of California's weather patterns. Besides the current prediction is by the weekend an upper level of low pressure will move in off the west coast and temperatures will come down and bring some relief and in turn fire fighters will benefit from the change in weather.

The idea of requesting the aid of the military is a bit far fetched at this point in time. Afterall there are no reports of widespread looting and for the most part there is a level of civility amongst Californians.

As far as the subject matter goes, you chose " As LA burns, Dubya fiddles ". You just might want to rethink on this one.

Ro

RE: As LA burns, Dubya fiddles

Row Row, really... I don't think you understand my sarcasm.

Dear Leader has been out on the path of trying to find another 'bullhorn moment'. Call in the military and stand on the top of Topanga Canyon announcing "Mission Accomplished"??

I am sure it has crossed Rove's brain.

RE: As LA burns, Dubya fiddles

After 5 years of the most overweening hubris since, oh, Nero or Adolf Hitler or Idi Amin, reality has finally intruded big-time on the fantasy-land of the Bush Reich and terror is seeping into his soul. Out of nowhere, seemingly, the tame press has suddenly turned viciously on Shrubby-poo! Overnight, his opinion polls are in the toilet and somebody is about to flush! In just a few unbelievable days the scales finally seem to have fallen from the eyes of the American people and they can finally behold the monumental incompetence, sheer stupidity and unbridled venality of the fool they TWICE put into the White House!

A month after one of our most historic and culturally irreplaceable cities went under water and the Gulf Coast turned into an eternal supply of toothpicks, help and reconstruction has barely begun. The corrupt, crony contracts to companies like Halliburton have started to flow, though! Come next November's elections, several million people in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabana and Texas who've been voting for the G.O.P. will still be homeless and and frustrated and outraged at the lack of help from the federal government. Meanwhile, Iraq continues to go to hell in a handbasket, Osama bin-Laden continues to evade capture, and al-Qaeda has tapped into a seemingly bottomless well of people who so loathe us that they're willing to blow themselves up while blowing even more of US up! The fiscal conservatism of the Clinton years has been replaced by a runaway freight train of limitless deficit spending, indebtedness and squandered surpluses. The Clinton years are becoming a golden memory of better days. The dollar is plunging against currencies like the Brazilian real! The icecaps are melting! Tom deLay is indicted and Bill Frist is being investigated for insider trading! Homosexuals are getting married! The natives are muttering and growing angry! This isn't the way it was supposed to happen! Shrubby-poo's dream world is crumbling before his very eyes! Suddenly the Republican Reich is on shaky ground! The grand crusade to further enrich the obscenely wealthy and utterly screw everybody else into serfdom and debt is in mortal danger! Washington isn't fun any more! Shrubby is flying every other day to visit the devastated Gulf Coast, hiding in the lavatory of his 747, sucking his thumb and crying for Mommy before going out to strut for the cameras. It doesn't seem to working!

Shrubby doesn't get it, but Gotterdammerung has begun for the G.O.P. Their names will be reviled as long as American History continues to exist. So let him suffer down the years, never understanding how he went wrong, blaming everyone else, and being booed and jeered everytime he shows his face at the market or gas station in Crawford. Shrubby deserves a long and tortured ex-presidency before joining Ronald Reagan and Poppy at that eternally red-hot resort by the sea of burning asphalt, where the other guests all talk above their heads, the refreshments served by the horned and hostile wait-staff are salty snacks accompanied by non-alcoholic sulphuric beverages, and the only sports shows on the tube are grainy reruns of untranslated table tennis tournaments from Communist China and obscure Zimbabwean cricket matches narrated by mumbling commentators with strong accents. The alternative channel features an endless loop of "Faust" and "Mefistofele" by the third-rate Scheissberg Opera. The main character has mysteriously been renamed "George" and the tone-deaf singer playing "Faust" looks exactly like Shrubby! The Mefistofele singer uncannily resembles Dick Cheney and Margarethe is the spitting image of Laura Bush! They're sung in German! And there are no subtitles!!!

Karma! Ain't it a bitch?

RE: As LA burns, Dubya fiddles

>Row Row, really... I don't think you understand my sarcasm.

>

>Dear Leader has been out on the path of trying to find another

>'bullhorn moment'. Call in the military and stand on the top

>of Topanga Canyon announcing "Mission Accomplished"??

>I am sure it has crossed Rove's brain.

>

>

I figured you were trying to be sarcastic, but then I really didn't care. I felt like responding and basically wanted to keep things legit.

As for Rove's brain, to approach from a different angle, well the guy is a genius. Regardless of what people say about Mr Rove, for the most he is a very clever political tactician. He contributed in helping Mr Bush achieve two terms in the White House and has helped Republicans gain seats in the House and Senate.

On a different note, there is all this criticism on how badly President Bush is doing in the polls these days. Every president goes through hiccups and Mr Bush is no different. Sooner or later the tide will turn and the President will bounce back in the polls.

Ro

RE: As LA burns, Dubya fiddles

Sometimes. Not always. Bush's polls have been artificially high for a long time now because of the after-effects of 9/11. That's finally wearing off. People no longer believe Bush or his gang of crooked cronies can protect them from terrorists, and they've now demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that after billions in spending on "Homeland Security" they're no safer than they were before 9/11. In some ways, they may be worse off, because it now appears that AFTER a disaster happens there will simply be chaos. That won't change quickly, because the damage from Rita and Katrina is SO vast and unprecedented that it'll be in the news for at least a year.

Meanwhile, there are no real indications that the carnage in Iraq will cease and an anti-war movement is finally gaining steam. If DeLay and Frist go on trial that will generate bad news for months to come. The administration is now accused of illegally paying for covert domestic propaganda. Indictments and trials could result from those charges. The truth is that Bush had a remarkably long run of political luck following 9/11. If that hadn't happened, his poll numbers would have been much lower long before now and it's highly unlikely he would have been re-elected in 2004. As it is, the electorate is badly divided and he barely squeaked in. Without 9/11 the opposition would have been capitalizing much more on the fact that Bush was, at best, a minority president and at worst an unelected one.

Also, Bush's numbers may not be all that relevant for the upcoming 2006 elections. His own coattails aren't that long, and he's a lame duck. The Congressional Republians themselves are starting to lose their lock-step unity, and that will accelerate now that their totalitarian leadership is under fire. The famous "base" isn't happy about John Roberts, and if Bush nominates another centrist judge to replace Sandra Day O'Connor there will be even more fallout. But what does Bush care? He's done. He's on the long downhill slide to a thrill-packed retirement clearing brush on his ranch in Crawford. And I'm willing to bet he doesn't give a flying fuck about the rest of the G.O.P. With this guy, it's all about HIM. So 2006 may be a debacle for God's Own Party/Greedy Old Plutocrats, even with DeLay's Republican gerrymander in Texas. Which I fervently pray he'll enjoy from the comfort of his prison cell by the time the 2006 elections roll around!

RE: As LA burns, Dubya fiddles

>On a different note, there is all this criticism on how badly

>President Bush is doing in the polls these days. Every

>president goes through hiccups and Mr Bush is no different.

>Sooner or later the tide will turn and the President will

>bounce back in the polls.

Looks like you didn't have to wait long to see your prediction proven right, Rohale - and to see that Trilingual is guilty, get again, of seeing the world exclusively through knee-jerk, highly emotional, "the-sky-is-falling" shrill hysteria:

From THE WASHINGTON POST, on Friday (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/09/30/BL2005093000669_2.html):

<<"All those trips down to the Gulf Coast appear to have had the desired effect.

Richard Benedetto writes in USA TODAY: "President Bush's response to Hurricane Rita won overwhelming approval in a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, a marked contrast to his low marks on handling Hurricane Katrina.

"Overall, 71% of those polled said they approve of Bush's response to Rita, which included presidential trips to the region before, during and after the storm. . . .

"The approval of his handling of Rita also affected his overall job-approval rating.

"In the latest poll, that rating was 45%, up from 40% a week and a half ago. That was a low point he also hit shortly before Katrina, when bad news from Iraq intensified as he vacationed at his ranch in Texas.

"Bush's disapproval dropped from 58% a week and a half ago, the worst of his presidency, to 50%.">>

As usual, George Bush's greatest asset is the quality, character and intellect of his political enemies who, time and time again, save him from political destruction by showing every reasonable person that no matter how inept and misguided Bush might be at times, the alternative is 1,000 times worse.

RE: As LA burns, Dubya fiddles

Yeah. Uh-huh. Whatever. Let's revisit where Bush's numbers are next October and we'll see where things are going.

RE: As LA burns, Dubya fiddles

The effects of 9/11 will partly define the historical of events of the Bush presidency. There is a large portion of the electorate who still believe that President Bush is a decent guy, they may not like everything he does, he may not be flavor of the month right now on certain issues, but there is the general imgage that he has the American peoples best interests at heart. He is still Commander In Chief and has just over three years left to his presidency.

The bloodshed in Iraq will carry on with Sunni Muslims killing Shiite Muslims. The irony is that America's presence is that all that prevents the Shiites from committing mass genocide upon the Sunni population. America unlike ten years ago, is not prepared to have another Bosnia on its lap. As for the anti-war movement, these things come and go, again another flavor of the month type of situation. Also within foreign policy, the Bush doctrine primarily focuses around the idea of pre-emption which basically means stop the enemy before they have the chance to become a military threat on the world stage Not everyone likes the idea of pre-emption, but if the next President decides to carry on with the same policy. Then a part of the Bush foreign policy will be automatically vindicated.

All this talk about indictments and and trials involving the Bush White House. There is one fundamential difference between the Republican Party having power as opposed the Democratic Party having power. With a Republican in the White House and the GOP in charge of the legislative branch. The Republicans would be fools to have one of their own being under investigation, it's political suicide.

Unlike the Democrats of yesteryear. In 1993 both Speaker Tom Foley and House Majority Leader George Mitchell relented under pressure by the House Minority to hold investigations into President Clinton's involvement into Whitewater when he was governor of Arkansas. From a moral and ethical point of view, it might have been the right thing to do. From a political point of view, it was a recipe for distaster. The democrats were just plain stupid at that point in time when they controlled Congress.

As for Congressman Delay and Majority Leader Bill Frist being potential trouble in the months ahead. Tom Delay just stepped down as House Leader and Bill Frist may follow suit to avoid any complications for the Republican Party. We'll see how events play thenselves out over the next few months. As for 9/11, there is no doubt that President Bush benefited and the two policians who suffered the most were Former Vice President Al Gore and Senator John McCain. All of this is to Mr Bush's good fortunes. As for the presidential election of 2004, you're absolutely right that President Bush barely squeeked through for a second term from the perspective of the electorate college, which is where it counts. From the perspective of the popular vote, Mr Bush pretty much laid waste to Mr Kerry by 3 million votes. That's a pretty significant number. You can moan, you can groan, but you cant change history.

The issue of Mr Bush not being elected properly stemming from the 2000 presidential came up. Almost 45 years ago now, the 1960 presidential election was just as controversial. I'm sure to this day there are many conservatives who must and still feel that Vice President Nixon was robbed and cheated out of the Presidential Election of that year by the Kennedys and the crime bosses in Chicago. Although Mr Nixon did end up becoming President eight years later, but it doesn't change how history might have been different if it were he in the Oval Office as opposed to John F Kennedy. Mr Gore is in pretty good company.

As for Mr Bush, well he still has time to make significant history in the remaining three years left to his presidency. The issue of Social Security maybe dead, but he still has time to revamp the tax code, another domestic issue that he believes in. Also in foreign policy he may have a new political soul mate. Germany just had their election recently with no clear cut majority. So now both Chancellor Gerhardt Schroder and opposition leader Angela Merkel are both fighting to see who can unite a coalition first to form a new government. If Ms Merkel wins and becomes Germany's first female Chancellor, then she automatically will create closer ties with Washington. Just as President Clinton had a poltical soulmate in the form of Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr Bush could find himself with a new Conservative soulmate in the form of Mr Merkel.

Most Presidents become a lame duck in their final year in office. However I doubt that'll be the case with Mr Bush. If Republicans can still hang onto the House and Senate as the majority party then they will still go full steam ahead. As for Congressional Republicans whithering without Mr Delay in charge, think again, the temporary new leader is considered just as cunning and powerful as Mr Delay. As for John Roberts, well John Dobson maynot be too happy about the President's choice, but then there is absolutely nothing he nor others of the Christian faith can do about it. At the end of the day they will still rally behind the President in help electing Republicans who believe in the Christian message. As for Mr Bush not caring about the GOP and the congressional elections of 2006. I disagree wholeheartedly. He will be on the campaign trail, he'll still be raising money for congressional as well as Senate candidates. The only Senate race where he may end up avoiding any campaign appearances is Senator Hillary Clinton's re-election bid for a second term. He'll also be thinking of the elections in 2008. His objective is to try and get as many Republicans as possible across the political board. He'll also be looking to beyond 2008. His own post legacy will come into question, his staff are already looking at possible sites for a Presidential library. Unlike most former Presidents he still wants to be active on the world stage. There is talk that his Presidential library may end up being very similar to the Hoover Institute.

Let's not forget Mr Bush wants his place in history and also his rankings amongst past Republican Presidents. President Clinton is very fortunate in being the standard bearer of the Democratic Parry, especially since the only other to compete with is Jimmy Carter. To this day the Carter Presidency is still considered to be very much a failure. Within the Republican Party, it's a lot more tougher as the party itself is divided between Nixonites and the Reaganites. Somehow the Republicans will have to figure out where Mr Bush will rank amongst the party faithful.

Every President wants their place in the history books and at best like the Clinton Presidency, the Bush Presidency will be hard to judge for a lot of historians. Those of us who live in today's world have seen the Presidents of our lifetime, but it's the high school and college students of tomorrow's world who will have to study whether it be a Civics class in high school or a history course in college and they're the ones who will read the successes and failures of each presidency.

Rohale

RE: As LA burns, Dubya fiddles

>Yeah. Uh-huh. Whatever. Let's revisit where Bush's numbers

>are next October and we'll see where things are going.

>

>

Dont get your hopes up too high, or at least not yet. History is full of repletes at times. In 1998, President Clinton seemed pretty politically bruised and battered after the impeachment hearings. The democrats were very much in disarray and Republicans seemed pretty jubilant about their prospects in picking up seats in the House and the Senate.

On election night in November of 1998, Republicans were everwhere on the national news networks as well as the cable news outlets. Speaker Newt Gingrich, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Congressman Bill Archer and even former Senator Bob Dole made the network rounds and were quite self confident in their own predictions of gaining the political advantage. Not a single Democrat made any appearances on television. As election night progressed, the news networks began to notice something, it became clear that the Democrats weren't losing as many House and Senate seats as had been predicted weeks and months before. Instead the Dems were actually picking up seats in both Houses and from sheer jubilance for the Republicans, suddenly it was disbelief as to what they were seeing with their own eyes. By the end of the night, the Republicans were absolutely glum and mortified by the results. It came as a complete shock to the political system. At that point in time, the Republicans were pretty much barely hanging onto their majorities. It was considered a night of political upsets back in 1998.

That was then and this is now, remember the elections are still in just over a year from now and anything can happen. The only election of this year is ironically the Governors race in New Jersey. What appeared to be a virtual shoe in for the Democratic Senator has now become a race that is tightening. Earlier last week Former President Bill Clinton made a campaign stop to stump for the candidate. Not to be outdone, later next week Vice President Dick Cheney will be making a campaign appearance on behalf of the Republican candidate. Within the next fortnight, Senator John McCain, President Bush and offcourse Former Vice President Al Gore will be making campaign appearances.

As for congressional elections of 2006, dont ever think it's a foregone conclusion that Republicans will get a political hammering. Events could easily go the other way, only time will tell over the next few months as to how the individual races will heat up and who knows perhaps some potential presidential candidates may arise after 2006. History always has a habit of being a spoiler

Rohale