The Tide is High

Despite the spin of the White House and it’s cronies, here’s more proof that FEMA was run in a horrible fashion. It would appear that Brownie did not in fact do a heck of a job. At least at anything other than making people wait for him. Who had the idea to blame the locals? Because, like so many other things (WaPo, registration may be required) in regard to the current administration, it just keeps getting worse. Especially when your own people turn on you. For all of the post 9/11 talk of Bush leadership, it’s getting very hard to see any credibility where the words “leader” and “George W. Bush” are linked.

george bush and the soldiers, one of whom appears to be a military PR flak
(link to Village Voice story)

This all seems so similar to the Watergate era of the Nixon administration in so many ways. Unpopular war, inflation, high energy costs and growing dissatisfaction with the way things are going. I remember being perplexed as a child by Watergate. All the players, the constant news and the hearings interrupting my afternoon TV were too much for my young head. When Nixon resigned, my family was pretty upset and I wanted to know why. One of my sisters explained that the President lied and that for a person in that position to lie meant that he needed to leave.

What about this President and his players? It will be interesting to see who, if anybody falls in the next few weeks.

All of the links in this blurb were found via Talking Points Memo. Crazy times, man.

  • http://www.chrisholmesonline.com Chris

    “Just that President Bush appointed the wrong person for the job.”

    And therein lies the problem: these positions are appointed. The Federal Government drives me nuts in the way they handle positions and decisions. They appoint people. Forget about a lengthy job interview, forget about getting the most qualified person with the most background and experience. Let’s just appoint our buddies and run a country.

    I wonder what the business world would look like if it was run like the US Gov? Enron maybe?

  • http://www.canyonjam.net erat

    Who would want to be president after 9/11?

    Let’s see, how many folks ran in the 2004 elections? How many folks are bucking for a spot on the ballot in 2008?

    I’d say there is no shortage of people who want the job. Keep in mind, Bush didn’t HAVE TO run for a second term. He asked for it. Don’t cry for him if you can avoid it.

    And how many presidents have dealt with the “shit” that Dubya has? Plenty. Rather than go into a history lesson, pop open any US history book and look up wartime and near-wartime presidents. Kennedy, for instance, was president at a time when the world was on the brink of WWIII. Bush’s “shit” pales in comparison to all out nuclear (sorry, “nucular”) war.

  • http://www.skowronek.org skowronek

    Had Kennedy been president now! Tell me, had Kennedy been president after 9/11, what do you feel he would have done? I’m curious, in light of what happened at the Bay of Pigs, you tell me, just what would Kennedy have done? Thank you for the excellent comparison.

  • urs

    honestly, i think if Bush wasn’t elected president in the first place 9/11 and everything to follow wouldn’t have happened. there are too many reports that clearly point to his lack of jugement when he had the evidence!

  • http://www.canyonjam.net erat

    I believe Kennedy would have invaded Afghanistan just like we did (and then probably would have brought everyone home instead of making up excuses to invade Iraq because, y’know, we were in the neighborhood and stuff).

    The world changes, people change with it. That’s how life is supposed to work. Having screwed up at Bay of Pigs, I believe Kennedy would know better than to wimp out twice.

    You can surgically select one incident here or one incident there and make someone look good or bad. However, you didn’t ask about that; you asked who’s had to deal with the kind of “shit” Bush has dealt with since 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, etc. So I gave an example.

    Are you saying botching a hurricane relief effort and having to deal with terrorists in the US compares to complete annihilation of Cuba, Russia, the US, etc.?

  • http://www.skowronek.org skowronek

    Agreed, trying to compare brain pans between Kennedy and Bush isn’t going to work. I was more trying to point out that we all have our faults. Can’t we all just get along? =) I think I’m done with my rant now. Have a nice day!

  • VTOL

    Kennedy would have found a small insignificant South-East Asian country to send ‘advisors’ to in preparation for some major domino falling prevention. Either that or just find another quick lay in order to be one up on Bobby.

  • http://silentgoddess.squarespace.com Lane Meyer

    I have considered moving to another country…if only I could find one that doesn’t hate Americans. My son deserves to live a life where he isn’t hated by the world. Anyone have any suggestions?

  • http://www.canyonjam.net erat

    I’ve considered moving to Canada (Vancouver, B.C. actually). The process of changing citizenship and the $thousand+ per person for the paperwork seemed excessive. I believe it also takes many, many years to push the paperwork through the proper channels, and even then you may not be given citizenship. I haven’t encountered anti-American sentiment from Canadians I’ve encountered other than the usual “no, we DON’T want to be like you” stuff that I more or less expect from non-US countries.

    My wife and I still haven’t ruled out V, B.C., though. Or at least I haven’t. (If they give me crap, I’ll tell them that my mom’s side of the family is Canadian. They’ll have to let me in then. [cough])

  • VTOL

    The prospect of 50% of your earnings going to a central government and living within a short drive of the Arctic Circle probably seemed a little excessive as well.

    Ouch, I’m being hated. Stop. It hurts.

  • http://www.canyonjam.net erat

    Almost 50% of my earnings already go to a central government so I don’t think it would be much of a change.

  • http://www.patatomic.com patatomic

    What really bothers me about Bush is how he took a golden oppertunity (9/11) to unite our country and the world against terror. But for some reason, which is still very unclear to me, our troops are in Iraq. Why are we not focusing on getting those responsible for 9/11? How many billions of dollars have been spent on Iraq? and for what? I just don’t get it.

    Did anyone else catch Bill O’Riley on The Daily Show on Monday? Uncomfortable, but hilarious.

  • Neesja

    has anyone tried typing failure in google and clicking “I’m feeling lucky”? Pretty interesting…

  • http://www.travellocker.com Michael

    Nice

  • Marcus

    Well, President Bush will be gone at of 2008 so get your whining/complaining/bitvching/moaning in while y’all can!!! (he says tongue-in-cheek) :-)

    Granted (yes I’m a conservative republican for all of the labelers out there) his second term isn’t going quite as well as his first. I’m not sure a liberal/democratic type of candidate would be doing any better. In fact I think a democratic president would have handled a 9/11 type disaster in a completetly (and probably ineffectual) diferent manner.

  • http://www.patatomic.com patatomic

    Ummmm.…I’d like to know just how Bush handled 9/11 well. From what I gather he hasn’t done much in the way of serving justice to those responsible.

    Come to think of it…what HAS he done well? Somehow I think that I’ll be whining about BUsh WAY after 2008.

  • http://introverteddeviate.blogspot.com/ Walking Contradiction

    OKAY.
    Say it with me now.…

    “Osama Bin who?????”

  • Emily
  • http://annepirlot.blogspot.com Anne

    Dude, Nixon got us OUT of Vietnam.

    Vietnam and Watergate aren’t exactly contemporaneous, either. But you used the word “era,” which eeks you through.

  • Marcus

    The people directly responsible for 9/11 went up in flames when the planes flew into the towers. The goal (then and now) was to get the scumbag m*therf*ckers who financed/planned 9/11 and gave the oreders for it to happen. I think he started off well and I don’t have a problem with us being in Iraq. Saddam Hussein NEEDED to go!

  • http://www.canyonjam.net erat

    Getting the folks who financed/planned/whatever 9/11 would be like swatting one mosquito and thinking there won’t be any more mosquito problems, or taking down the Pope and considering the Catholic church dead. It’s a tremendous waste of money, time and (as our track record has shown) innocent lives, and in the end it won’t mean squat to terrorists who I gather don’t operate in a top-down corporate manner, but instead more like a peer-to-peer Bittorrent manner with nothing centralized to “take down”.

    Catching the folks who made it all happen — even capturing Bin Laden himself — wouldn’t be anything more than a very expensive symbolic “win.”

    Want to deal with terrorism? Figure out a way to make attacks less likely to happen. We (the US) claim to have stopped multiple terrorist attacks from happening just by using our own intelligence. Take all those billions that we’re wasting chasing ghosts in the middle east and do more with intelligence.

    (Do I have a plan that would work for my suggestion above? Nope. That’s why I hire folks like Presidents: it’s their job, not mine. However, we could start by paying attention to our own intelligence information and not punishing people for blowing whistles.)

  • m.

    I haven’t been reading this blog long because I only found it through recently. I have sent your wife maybe 3 emails (see my email address for reference) regarding something else, but, I did bring this up in the last one. I’m very offended at some of the comments, not the ones above. I know that you have “trolls” and I’m not sure about what that means exactly. Is it someone who disagrees with you or someone that harrasses you. There’s a difference and I sincerely want to know the answer. I’m not trying to be mean in the comment. I’m trying to express what I think. What I find offensive is that when someone disagrees with you, they are attacked by your regular readers. “Attacked” is a huge understatement. Some people are obviously disrespectful. Some of your readers attack them for being nasty but they attack them back in a much more vicious way. A lot of people read your’s and Heather’s blogs and you have a lot of traffic which helps you sell advertising. People may agree with some things but not others. I don’t agree with everything that Heather says but I still think she’s a good writer. I read some of your posts but not others. Some of your posts have really pissed me off. If you only have “yes men” around you then you lose your perspective. I get very hurt sometimes even though I have never commented on your site before at the way some people are attacked. I’m afraid to even say what I think here if it’s even slightly in disagreement with you.

  • m.

    I forgot to proof my comments above. I hope no one is offended if I spelled something wrong or something was grammatically incorrect. I did forget one thing. I did read in one post about people giving you advice and what you said wasn’t so nasty but you basically fed this person/persons to the “sharks.” The things in the comments directed at them were really abusive, not all of course, and had to be way worse that whatever the advice was. I was offended because of one of the topics of that conversation. I won’t bring it up here so that I’m not opening a can of worms. It’s your blog obviously and you have a right to let people comment as you see fit. Sometimes the comments section is really nasty. I know that you have a lot of “fans” and sometimes I’m not sure if someone is saying what they think or just defending you because they’re fans. I’m posting this in comments instead of an email because it relates to comments. I’m sorry that it has nothing to do with the post.

  • m.

    Last thing. As a parent of a child with a developmental disability, I’m especially offended when ANYONE, however big an ass they are, is called a fucktard. I assume that is short for fucking retarded.

  • http://www.meanderings.ca Mitch

    It astounds me at the amateurish job the Dubya crew does at just about everything. The attempts to spin bad things and their own screws up are laughable. It may sell to the domestic crowd, part of them anyway, but the rest of us are laughing under our breath at the clown-filled car you call an administration. As bad as any other President has been this one wins for worst.
    A lot of people up here are holding their breath for the day Furious George and his mob are marched out of office. One can only hope that they will be held accountable for the messes they have made.