something bad, happening in OZ
After Katrina fiasco, time for Bush to go
> > By Gordon Adams
> > Originally published September 8, 2005
> > Baltimore Sun
> >
> > WASHINGTON - The disastrous federal response to Katrina exposes a
> > record of incompetence, misjudgment and ideological blinders that
> > should lead to serious doubts that the Bush administration should
> > be allowed to continue in office.
> >
> > When taxpayers have raised, borrowed and spent $40 billion to $50
> > billion a year for the past four years for homeland security but
> > the officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot
> > find their own hands in broad daylight for four days while New
> > Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast swelter, drown and die, it
> > is time for them to go.
> >
> > When funding for water works and levees in the gulf region is
> > repeatedly cut by an administration that seems determined to
> > undermine the public responsibility for infrastructure in America,
> > despite clear warnings that the infrastructure could not survive a
> > major storm, it seems clear someone is playing politics with the
> > public trust.
> >
> > When rescue and medical squads are sitting in Manassas and
> > elsewhere in northern Virginia and foreign assistance waits at
> > airports because the government can't figure out how to insure the
> > workers, how to use the assistance or which jurisdiction should be
> > in charge, it is time for the administration to leave town.
> >
> > When President Bush stays on vacation and attends social functions
> > for two days in the face of disaster before finally understanding
> > that people are starving, crying out and dying, it is time for him
> > to go.
> >
> > When FEMA officials cannot figure out that there are thousands
> > stranded at the New Orleans convention center - where people died
> > and were starving - and fussed ineffectively about the same
> > problems in the Superdome, they should be fired, not praised, as
> > the president praised FEMA Director Michael Brown in New Orleans
> > last week.
> >
> > When Mr. Bush states publicly that "nobody could anticipate a
> > breach of the levee" while New Orleans journalists, Scientific
> > American, National Geographic, academic researchers and Louisiana
> > politicians had been doing precisely that for decades, right up
> > through last year and even as Hurricane Katrina passed over, he
> > should be laughed out of town as an impostor.
> >
> > When repeated studies of New Orleans make it clear that tens of
> > thousands of people would be unable to evacuate the city in case of
> > a flood, lacking both money and transportation, but FEMA makes no
> > effort before the storm to commandeer buses and move them to
> > safety, it is time for someone to be given his walking papers.
> >
> > When the president makes Sen. Trent Lott's house in Pascagoula,
> > Miss., the poster child for rebuilding while hundreds of thousands
> > are bereft of housing, jobs, electricity and security, he betrays a
> > careless insensitivity that should banish him from office.
> >
> > When the president of the United States points the finger away from
> > the lame response of his administration to Katrina and tries to
> > finger local officials in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La., as the
> > culprits, he betrays the unwillingness of this administration to
> > speak truth and hold itself accountable. As in the case of the
> > miserable execution of policy in Iraq, Mr. Bush and Karl Rove
> > always have some excuse for failure other than their own
> > misjudgments.
> >
> > We have a president who is apparently ill-informed, lackadaisical
> > and narrow-minded, surrounded by oil baron cronies, religious
> > fundamentalist crazies and right-wing extremists and ideologues. He
> > has appointed officials who give incompetence new meaning, who
> > replace the positive role of government with expensive baloney.
> >
> > They rode into office in a highly contested election, spouting a
> > message of bipartisanship but determined to undermine the federal
> > government in every way but defense (and, after 9/11, one presumed,
> > homeland security). One with Grover Norquist, they were determined
> > to shrink Washington until it was "small enough to drown in a
> > bathtub." Katrina has stripped the veil from this mean-spirited
> > strategy, exposing the greed, mindlessness and sheer profiteering
> > behind it.
> >
> > It is time to hold them accountable - this ugly, troglodyte crowd
> > of Capital Beltway insiders, rich lawyers, ideologues, incompetents
> > and their strap-hangers should be tarred, feathered and ridden
> > gracefully and mindfully out of Washington and returned to their
> > caves, clubs in hand.
> >
> > Gordon Adams, director of security policy studies at the Elliott
> > School of International Affairs at George Washington University,
> > was senior White House budget official for national security in the
> > Clinton administration.
> > By Gordon Adams
> > Originally published September 8, 2005
> > Baltimore Sun
> >
> > WASHINGTON - The disastrous federal response to Katrina exposes a
> > record of incompetence, misjudgment and ideological blinders that
> > should lead to serious doubts that the Bush administration should
> > be allowed to continue in office.
> >
> > When taxpayers have raised, borrowed and spent $40 billion to $50
> > billion a year for the past four years for homeland security but
> > the officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot
> > find their own hands in broad daylight for four days while New
> > Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast swelter, drown and die, it
> > is time for them to go.
> >
> > When funding for water works and levees in the gulf region is
> > repeatedly cut by an administration that seems determined to
> > undermine the public responsibility for infrastructure in America,
> > despite clear warnings that the infrastructure could not survive a
> > major storm, it seems clear someone is playing politics with the
> > public trust.
> >
> > When rescue and medical squads are sitting in Manassas and
> > elsewhere in northern Virginia and foreign assistance waits at
> > airports because the government can't figure out how to insure the
> > workers, how to use the assistance or which jurisdiction should be
> > in charge, it is time for the administration to leave town.
> >
> > When President Bush stays on vacation and attends social functions
> > for two days in the face of disaster before finally understanding
> > that people are starving, crying out and dying, it is time for him
> > to go.
> >
> > When FEMA officials cannot figure out that there are thousands
> > stranded at the New Orleans convention center - where people died
> > and were starving - and fussed ineffectively about the same
> > problems in the Superdome, they should be fired, not praised, as
> > the president praised FEMA Director Michael Brown in New Orleans
> > last week.
> >
> > When Mr. Bush states publicly that "nobody could anticipate a
> > breach of the levee" while New Orleans journalists, Scientific
> > American, National Geographic, academic researchers and Louisiana
> > politicians had been doing precisely that for decades, right up
> > through last year and even as Hurricane Katrina passed over, he
> > should be laughed out of town as an impostor.
> >
> > When repeated studies of New Orleans make it clear that tens of
> > thousands of people would be unable to evacuate the city in case of
> > a flood, lacking both money and transportation, but FEMA makes no
> > effort before the storm to commandeer buses and move them to
> > safety, it is time for someone to be given his walking papers.
> >
> > When the president makes Sen. Trent Lott's house in Pascagoula,
> > Miss., the poster child for rebuilding while hundreds of thousands
> > are bereft of housing, jobs, electricity and security, he betrays a
> > careless insensitivity that should banish him from office.
> >
> > When the president of the United States points the finger away from
> > the lame response of his administration to Katrina and tries to
> > finger local officials in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La., as the
> > culprits, he betrays the unwillingness of this administration to
> > speak truth and hold itself accountable. As in the case of the
> > miserable execution of policy in Iraq, Mr. Bush and Karl Rove
> > always have some excuse for failure other than their own
> > misjudgments.
> >
> > We have a president who is apparently ill-informed, lackadaisical
> > and narrow-minded, surrounded by oil baron cronies, religious
> > fundamentalist crazies and right-wing extremists and ideologues. He
> > has appointed officials who give incompetence new meaning, who
> > replace the positive role of government with expensive baloney.
> >
> > They rode into office in a highly contested election, spouting a
> > message of bipartisanship but determined to undermine the federal
> > government in every way but defense (and, after 9/11, one presumed,
> > homeland security). One with Grover Norquist, they were determined
> > to shrink Washington until it was "small enough to drown in a
> > bathtub." Katrina has stripped the veil from this mean-spirited
> > strategy, exposing the greed, mindlessness and sheer profiteering
> > behind it.
> >
> > It is time to hold them accountable - this ugly, troglodyte crowd
> > of Capital Beltway insiders, rich lawyers, ideologues, incompetents
> > and their strap-hangers should be tarred, feathered and ridden
> > gracefully and mindfully out of Washington and returned to their
> > caves, clubs in hand.
> >
> > Gordon Adams, director of security policy studies at the Elliott
> > School of International Affairs at George Washington University,
> > was senior White House budget official for national security in the
> > Clinton administration.