Things People Have Forgotten About

Posted by Fraulein

Remember Hurricane Katrina? It's had some jaw-dropping lasting effects. That no one will talk about. Because they concern mostly black people. But it's not like people are still racist in America, right? Just avert your eyes and carry on...

Personally I still recall the raw horror, the literal nausea, I felt watching the Katrina disaster unfold on TV while King George the Inept ate birthday cake with John McCain. I vividly remember thinking: "We've lost an entire American city due to the Bush administration's ineptitude. NOW, now he's going to get impeached for sure."

So much for that. And today, all these years later, large swaths of New Orleans are evidently still a giant hellhole, and this NEVER makes it on the news. Awesome.

President Obama's Weekly Address - August 29, 2009

Lessons and Renewal Out of the Gulf Coast

Barbara Bush Has Heart Surgery...

... apparently to remove the black part.

Say It Ain't So, Piyush

Raise your hand if you guessed that Piyush "Bobby" Jindal's Sheriff Lee and The Katrina Rescue Boats story during his Republican response was a bunch of bullshit. Well, the part that Jindal was there, that is.

...Jindal spokeswoman Melissa Sellers told Smith, "It was days later .. Sheriff Lee was on the phone and the governor came down to visit him. It wasn't that they were standing right down there with the boats."

Jindal was on a foreign trip when Katrina made landfall on Aug 29 ,2005 - he inserted himself into the story for... we'll call it "dramatic purposes." Not a great way to make a your debut as the Republicans' Great Brown Hope.

And now it seems that the Jindal office is trying to revise their revision multiple times. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging, Piyush.

Douchebag of the Day: Greg Pollowitz

National Review's Greg Pollowitz has written a quick little item titled "While The Big Three Go Bankrupt..." with nothing other than three quoted paragraphs from an MSNBC article regarding Barack Obama's planned vacation for the holidays. He then adds his one line of commentary:

Let's see what the MSM's reaction is to the Obama vacation, but I bet it's slightly different than coverage of President Bush from 2005 and Katrina.

How many times are we going to go over this in the remaining six weeks before Inauguration Day? Considering that Barack Obama is the President-elect and is George W. Bush is still actually President, I think the MSM's "reaction" is going to be completely different in comparison to a sitting president who was clearing brush at his photo-op ranch while a U.S. city drowned. He then went ahead and had another photo-op with a certain Senator from Arizona before deciding to return to Washington.

The idea that Pollowitz would gripe about the media's treatment of Obama regarding vacation time is laughable at best and very sad at worst. Right now, the wingnuts are looking for anything to disparage the man for not doing something about our current economic crisis before taking office while the sitting Republican president actually had a complete day this week with nothing scheduled on his calendar. Nothing.

I will make a little wager with you, Mr. Pollowitz. I will bet you that from the time Obama actually takes office, he will spend less vacation time in his eight years (yes, I know I said eight years) than Bush took in his first two years.

National Review's Greg Pollowitz - Douchebag of the Day.

(H/T Bob Cesca)

Adding - As a New Year's resolution, I think I'll make "Douchebag of the Week" a recurring post.

The Bush Legacy Project

For an administration so adept at the Reverse Midas Touch, where everything they touch turns to shit, the one thing I give the Bushites credit for is their ability to spin. They are Rembrandts in the art of Flim-Flam. They were able to, for eight long years, fool enough of the people enough of the time to remain in power just long enough to fill their coffers and almost destroy the country in the process. And the P.T. Barnum of the political three-ring circus that is the White House? Karl Rove.

Ron Suskind, 2004: In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

We all now know that "the senior adviser" in Suskind's piece was Karl Rove. And Rove was right. Study we did. While everyone was flipping out over the latest Bush Administration outrage, the Bushites were creating another and another. And another. Until this endless avalanche of bullshit was so overwhelming, the focus of the "judicious students of history" Rove was talking about splintered apart. There was no consolidated front. There was no one particular story that would stick.

Hurricane Katrina was really the first time they took a big hit, but how many people still talk about Bush and Cheney testifying together, not transcripted and not under oath during the 9/11 Commission investigations? How many of us are still thinking about Alberto Gonzales and the mockery he made of the Justice Department? And when one jamoke resigns, another is ready to take his place and condone torture while avoiding answering what torture is. Who talks about the devastation that still haunts New Orleans over three years later? Or even the slow recovery efforts of Hurricane Gustav's wake just a couple of months ago?

We all know the long, long list that George W. Bush leaves as his legacy: 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, The Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, illegal wiretapping, cherrypicking intelligence reports, the Iraq War, rendition, torture, waterboarding, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, economic meltdown, record foreclosure rates, and on and on. That's just scratching the surface. Amazing isn't it?

And here we sit, eight years after the first national Bush atrocity that no one could have anticipated would become the norm from the crooks residing in the White House. Yet we are now hearing that Karl "Bush's Brain" Rove, former Bush communications director Karen Hughes and other senior Bush advisers are brainstorming ways to salvage Bush's legacy. A Bush legacy project. And they're meeting in the White House with current officials. They're doing it on our dime! How does one wrap their mind around the dilemma of attempting to create a positive spin on Bush's "legacy"? And since when is a president's legacy part of a White House agenda? Legacies are made, not manufactured.

This think tank's plan is to rewrite history. Already we're seeing Bush's farewell tour, kicked off with a Charles Gibson/ABC interview in which the Chimp in Chief tries to pass the buck in a sad, Bart Simpson-like "it was like that when I got here" attempt.

GIBSON: Do you feel in any way responsible for what's happening?

BUSH: You know, I'm the President during this period of time, but I think when the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so, before I arrived in President, during I arrived in President.

"... before I arrived in President, during I arrived in President." What the fuck?! How does one turn that into anything positive? And isn't it ironic that Karl Rove, the man who only a short time ago was plotting a permanent Republican majority (possibly the last Republican majority for at least a generation), the man Bush nicknamed "Turdblossom," now has the dubious task of polishing a turd?

leg⋅a⋅cy  [leg-uh-see]noun, plural -cies.

1. Law. a gift of property, esp. personal property, as money, by will; a bequest.
2. anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor: the legacy of ancient Rome.
3. an applicant to or student at a school that was attended by his or her parent.
4. Obsolete. the office, function, or commission of a legate.

Hmmm.... Oh, here's one!

leg⋅a⋅cy - A gift of property by will, esp. of money or personal property; a bequest. Also Fig.; as, a legacy of dishonor or disease.

That last line nails it. Bush will be remembered for his indifference; for his lack of curiosity; for his ineptness; for his butchering of the English language; for his disregard of that "goddamned piece of paper," the United States Constitution; for his preference to be at his photo-op Crawford, Texas ranch; for the hubris of his crony appointments.

But most of all, the George W. Bush legacy will be one of dishonor to the office of the Presidency. His legacy is one of a parasitic disease that sucked our treasury dry, bled us of our moral standing in the world and crippled the last remaining superpower (if such a thing still existed). And no amount of revisionist history will scrub The Shrub's "legacy" clean.

T Minus 73 Days

"Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well."

- Happy 54th Birthday to former FEMA director Michael D. Brown. You're doin' a heckuva job, Brownie.

T Minus 140 Days

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

- To Michael Brown, the former director of FEMA who lied on his resumé when he applied for the position, September 2, 2005

McCain's Latest Stunt - May Deliver Speech From Gustav Disaster Area

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind at this point that John McCain has gone absolutely stark raving mad.

McCain was scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech Thursday but now may do so from the devastation zone if the storm hits the U.S. coast with the ferocity feared by forecasters.

“It just wouldn’t be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near-tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster,” McCain said in a taped interview for Fox News Sunday.

So going into a disaster area and utilizing resources that would be put to better use for evacuation, rescue and safety is a better idea?! And now I'm reading some comments on left wing leaning blogs that this can work to McCain's advantage if recovery efforts go swiftly - as if he would have anything to do with those efforts except delaying them due to his presence. Has everyone gone insane thinking that McCain using a hurricane disaster as a backdrop for his acceptance speech is a good thing?

Actually, it's a great thing - FOR DEMOCRATS! Let the motherfucker go make that speech in the aftermath of a hurricane. How can it look like anything other than the mother of all political stunts?! With any luck, McPander will get washed away by the Hurricane Gods for daring to mock them.

Three years after Katrina, the Republicans will prove that they have learned absolutely nothing if they make the decision to speechify in a disaster area. In fact, they've already proven their lack of understanding by even considering such an option. The idea that a presidential candidate would go to a dangerous area for a political speech, taking countless resources away from those in need is mindboggling to me. And what would the McCainstream Media say if it were Obama who decided to make this demented decision?

The only logical reason to make a decision like this if I were working for the McCain camp is to avoid the disgrace of a sad sack convention punctuated by an awful acceptance speech in front of a sleepy, "we have no other choice" crowd. It also shows how McCain is being run by his campaign and not the other way around, for surely it was some nitwit on his staff who made this suggestion. If not, if it was actually McCain's idea, then it's only a matter of time before his head explodes with lunacy... I'm guessing sometime around the debates.

(H/T Cesca)

T Minus 143 Days

"It's totally wiped out... It's devastating - it's got to be doubly devastating on the ground."

- From Air Force One above New Orleans, August 31, 2005

Be Careful What You Pray For

Remember Stuart Shepard? Think back to just a couple of weeks ago before the world changed when that fuckwad from Focus on the Family made a video asking Evangelicals to pray for rain in Denver on the night of Barack Obama's historic nomination. Yeah, that Stuart Shepard. He didn't want to just make it uncomfortable, he was looking for biblical rain. "I'm talking 'umbrella-ain't-going-to-help-you rain," said the douche.

Now mind you that this day was also going to be the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in New Orleans. But I suppose these kinds of people can only think of doing one thing at a time, like taking methamphetamine and then having sex with a male prostitute.

Well, the God of Rain was not amused with such frivolous, petty, infantile requests, what with all the busy work currently scheduled in the Caribbean at that time, however the God of Irony has a motherfuckin' mean streak.

The Washington Post is reporting this morning that the Republicans are considering delaying the start of their convention because of Tropical Storm Gustav, which is expected to become a hurricane before making landfall on Tuesday. The White House is also debating whether Bush should cancel his speech or not.

Gustav is not the only problem Mother Nature is throwing at our country. Tropical Storm Hannah is out there strengthening also, and expected to become a hurricane in the next couple of days and could hit the U.S. towards the end of next week.

Good thing Shepard didn't pray for locusts. By the way, the weather in Denver was lovely. Mother Nature must be a Democrat.

Fear and Loathing in Pennsylvania

I haven't had much time to blog lately as my two days off were spent starting a major project at home followed by a 15 hour day at work. However, I couldn't let the day go by without acknowledging Hillary Clinton's Pennsylvania primary win yesterday.

It looks like fear mongering works and Hillary's sticking to it. Here's her latest campaign ad released the day before the votes were cast in the Keystone State and you'll understand what I mean.



Nice touch, huh? In 30 seconds, Clinton manages to squeeze in the Stock Market crash of 1929 leading to the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, the Cuban missile crisis, the 70's gas shortage, Osama bin Laden and New Orleans drowning under Hurricane Katrina. It's like a fear monger jambalaya! Mmmm... tastes like scary!

I'll just leave you with a quote from a certain Democratic political figure from 2004:

"If one candidate's trying to scare you, and the other one's trying to get you to think; if one candidate's appealing to your fears, and the other one's appealing to your hopes; you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope."

The politician who said that: Bill Clinton. I wonder if he remembers saying that considering he called it "one of Clinton's laws of politics."

2nd Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Can you believe it has been two years already? I wonder how many Bush photo ops we'll see of Chimpy and his wife, Bubbles, in New Orleans today? Perhaps sitting in Jackson Square having a bignette at Cafe DuMonde or maybe they'll go visit a school! You know, it's all about the children, isn't it?

He can sit there and tell them how he's fucked up so badly, that the students and their own children someday will still be footing the bill for the War in Iraq. But don't worry, I'm sure the Bushies will pray for them.

Guardian Unlimited:

There are residents who want the city rebuilt as it was, but there are many others - city officials, engineers and environmentalists - who argue that there needs to be a more compact city, built on higher ground, more easily protected. Many of the areas to be abandoned would be the poor, black ones.

The Army Corps of Engineers, a mainly civilian organisation, has rebuilt the levees, pumps and locks over the last two years but admits that is not enough. There was nervousness in the city last week as the residents watched Hurricane Dean cross the Caribbean, and the hurricane season is not over yet.

Jeffrey Buchanan, Huffington Post:

When confronted with the failing Katrina recovery, President Bush and his various spokespeople continue to insist the federal government has done its job. The proof, they say, is "the big check" Washington has allegedly signed for the Gulf Coast, allegedly more than $114 billion.

Chris Kromm, executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies and I just issued a report to get to the truth and weed our way through the White House talking point on Gulf Coast rebuilding and why alleged federal funds had not made a greater impact.

You can read it as part of the report Blueprint for Gulf Renewal. We found less than $35 billion in federal funds actually available to rebuild the region. Most of the $114 billion Bush administration officials refer to was for the emergency response, not to help rebuild the region. Still the White House continues to mislead the public about our country's investment in rebuilding the Gulf Coast and New Orleans to avoid its obligations to aid in recovery and help families and communities rebuild.

The region suffered $150 billion in damages, more damage than the September 11th attacks, Hurricane Andrew and the Northridge Earthquake combined, and displaced over 400,000 people (the largest displacement in U.S. history) yet our federal government has relied on old systems and paradigms meant to repair damage from much smaller disasters.

Even more shocking: less than 42% of the money set aside for rebuilding has even been spent, much less gotten to those most in need.

Incompetence Knows No Bounds

As many of you know, when the tsunami that hit Indonesia in December of 2004 devastated that country, many in the world contributed with supplies for relief as well as monetarily help for the ravaged communities affected.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the US southern coast, causing devastation to New Orleans as well as parts of Mississippi and Alabama, the world again responded. Unfortunately, the incompetence is so rampant in the current criminal administration, that most of the helping hands were met with a "thanks but no thanks" response, or the assistance that was accepted has been sitting idle for the past 20 months while communities in New Orleans rot away.

As reported in the Washington Post on Sunday, April 29th, the U.S. government was turning down many allies' offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina's victims.

Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.

...In one exchange, State Department officials anguished over whether to tell Italy that its shipments of medicine, gauze and other medical supplies spoiled in the elements for weeks after Katrina's landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, and were destroyed. "Tell them we blew it," one disgusted official wrote. But she hedged: "The flip side is just to dispose of it and not come clean. I could be persuaded."

...Overall, the United States declined 54 of 77 recorded aid offers from three of its staunchest allies: Canada, Britain and Israel, according to a 40-page State Department table of the offers that had been received as of January 2006.

...In another instance, the Department of Homeland Security accepted an offer from Greece on Sept. 3, 2005, to dispatch two cruise ships that could be used free as hotels or hospitals for displaced residents. The deal was rescinded Sept. 15 after it became clear a ship would not arrive before Oct. 10. The U.S. eventually paid $249 million to use Carnival Cruise Lines vessels.

Not coming clean has all too often been the modus operandi of the Bush Administration and its hapless cronies running government departments for which they have absolutely no qualifications. Just another example of the sad state of affairs that we've come to expect from our pathetic leaders in the West Wing.