It Took Katrina to Wake People Up to Bush's Character
Aug 28, 2006 08:16 Filed in: Bush
Administration
Today is the day when the nation's mind turns to
Katrina, the lives lost, the inconceivable
destruction--not only of people's homes but also
their hopes and dreams--and profound disappointment
and disgust at the response of the Bush
administration before and after the catastrophe. In
every single aspect, Bush failed. Even the
administration's spinmeisters were incompetent. The
usual CYA propaganda from Washington was not only
ineffective; it was infuriating.
Bush fooled a large part of this nation into believing that we could invade Iraq on the cheap, cut taxes for the wealthy and shrink government without having to endure the cost of a war, a burgeoning deficit, inadequate public services and decaying infrastructure.
Bush lied. Katrina exposed the lie and showed him to be a liar, along with the rest of his administration and the Republican majority in Congress. There is no truth in them.
When Bush became president, FEMA was a cabinet-level department, staffed with experienced and capable managers, and adequately funded to handle serious national disasters. When Katrina struck, some four and a half years after this nation entrusted itself to the care of George W. Bush, FEMA was a cash-starved shell of its previous self, staffed by political hacks, without access to the president, and as a consequence totally incompetent and unwilling to do what needed to be done before and after Katrina. By August 2005, the agency personnel who knew what to do had left in frustration, as life and death matters came to be decided on political grounds, rather than mission requirements.
The pattern has been repeated throughout the federal government. Bush has nothing but contempt for competence; loyalty to the administration is everything. Cabinet-level departments are being run by politically reliable appointees who know nothing about the organizations they are supposed to manage. It takes years and years to develop expertise within a government agency , but less than four years to destroy it. Whoever succeeds Bush, Republican or Democrat, will be faced with the almost impossible task of restoring these agencies to functioning.
To the folks in Mississippi who feel they must be loyal to the Republican Party: It's OK to be loyal to a football team that has losing seasons, because that kind of loyalty is harmless and enjoyable. It's OK to be loyal to your family and friends because we are bound to them by ties that make their welfare a part of our welfare.
A political party, however, is not a family; It's not a football team. Its actions have consequences far beyond family, friends and football team. Our loyalty to a political party ought to depend entirely on how competently and honestly it carries on the work of the people. There is no place for sentimentality or foolish loyalty to a den of thieves, and that is what the Republican Party has shown itself to be, time and time again since 1994 when it took control of both houses of Congress.
In 2000, FEMA was a cabinet-level functioning agency that would have made a huge difference before and after Katrina had struck. The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof. Bush destroyed FEMA and did not replace it with anything else that could have fulfilled its mission. One year after Katrina, New Orleans is unprepared for another major hurricane and the Mississippi Gulf Coast is still a shambles with little prospect of rapid recovery. The facts speak for themselves; New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast are not priorities for the Bush administration.
The resources that should have been devoted to rebuilding the devastation and preparing for future hurricanes were and are being poured down a rathole on the other side of the world, with nothing to show for it but high gas prices and body-bags being shipped into Dover AFB under cover of darkness. It is time to wake up and smell the latrine. George W. Bush, his administration, and his party are no friends of Mississippi.
Greg Palast reveals more of the corruption and criminal negligence of the Bush administration on Katrina.
Bush fooled a large part of this nation into believing that we could invade Iraq on the cheap, cut taxes for the wealthy and shrink government without having to endure the cost of a war, a burgeoning deficit, inadequate public services and decaying infrastructure.
Bush lied. Katrina exposed the lie and showed him to be a liar, along with the rest of his administration and the Republican majority in Congress. There is no truth in them.
When Bush became president, FEMA was a cabinet-level department, staffed with experienced and capable managers, and adequately funded to handle serious national disasters. When Katrina struck, some four and a half years after this nation entrusted itself to the care of George W. Bush, FEMA was a cash-starved shell of its previous self, staffed by political hacks, without access to the president, and as a consequence totally incompetent and unwilling to do what needed to be done before and after Katrina. By August 2005, the agency personnel who knew what to do had left in frustration, as life and death matters came to be decided on political grounds, rather than mission requirements.
The pattern has been repeated throughout the federal government. Bush has nothing but contempt for competence; loyalty to the administration is everything. Cabinet-level departments are being run by politically reliable appointees who know nothing about the organizations they are supposed to manage. It takes years and years to develop expertise within a government agency , but less than four years to destroy it. Whoever succeeds Bush, Republican or Democrat, will be faced with the almost impossible task of restoring these agencies to functioning.
To the folks in Mississippi who feel they must be loyal to the Republican Party: It's OK to be loyal to a football team that has losing seasons, because that kind of loyalty is harmless and enjoyable. It's OK to be loyal to your family and friends because we are bound to them by ties that make their welfare a part of our welfare.
A political party, however, is not a family; It's not a football team. Its actions have consequences far beyond family, friends and football team. Our loyalty to a political party ought to depend entirely on how competently and honestly it carries on the work of the people. There is no place for sentimentality or foolish loyalty to a den of thieves, and that is what the Republican Party has shown itself to be, time and time again since 1994 when it took control of both houses of Congress.
In 2000, FEMA was a cabinet-level functioning agency that would have made a huge difference before and after Katrina had struck. The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof. Bush destroyed FEMA and did not replace it with anything else that could have fulfilled its mission. One year after Katrina, New Orleans is unprepared for another major hurricane and the Mississippi Gulf Coast is still a shambles with little prospect of rapid recovery. The facts speak for themselves; New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast are not priorities for the Bush administration.
The resources that should have been devoted to rebuilding the devastation and preparing for future hurricanes were and are being poured down a rathole on the other side of the world, with nothing to show for it but high gas prices and body-bags being shipped into Dover AFB under cover of darkness. It is time to wake up and smell the latrine. George W. Bush, his administration, and his party are no friends of Mississippi.
Greg Palast reveals more of the corruption and criminal negligence of the Bush administration on Katrina.
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