Home > A Failure of Leadership : "Bush to New Orleans: Drop Dead"
A Failure of Leadership : "Bush to New Orleans: Drop Dead"
by Open-Publishing - Monday 5 September 200535 comments
Edito Governments Catastrophes USA
by BOB HERBERT
Neither the death of the chief justice nor the frantic efforts of panicked White House political advisers can conceal the magnitude of the president’s failure of leadership last week. The catastrophe in New Orleans billowed up like the howling winds of hell and was carried live and in color on television screens across the U.S. and around the world.
The Big Easy had turned into the Big Hurt, and the colossal failure of George W. Bush to intervene powerfully and immediately to rescue tens of thousands of American citizens who were suffering horribly and dying in agony was there for all the world to see.
Hospitals with deathly ill patients were left without power, with ventilators that didn’t work, with floodwaters rising on the lower floors and with corpses rotting in the corridors and stairwells. People unable to breathe on their own, or with cancer or heart disease or kidney failure, slipped into comas and sank into their final sleep in front of helpless doctors and relatives. These were Americans in desperate trouble.
The president didn’t seem to notice.
Death and the stink of decay were all over the city. Corpses were propped up in wheelchairs and on lawn furniture, or left to decompose on sunbaked sidewalks. Some floated by in water fouled by human feces.
Degenerates roamed the city, shooting at rescue workers, beating and robbing distraught residents and tourists, raping women and girls. The president of the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world didn’t seem to notice.
Viewers could watch diabetics go into insulin shock on national television, and you could see babies with the pale, vacant look of hunger that we’re more used to seeing in dispatches from the third world. You could see their mothers, dirty and hungry themselves, weeping.
Old, critically ill people were left to soil themselves and in some cases die like stray animals on the floor of an airport triage center. For days the president of the United States didn’t seem to notice.
He would have noticed if the majority of these stricken folks had been white and prosperous. But they weren’t. Most were black and poor, and thus, to the George W. Bush administration, still invisible.
After days of withering criticism from white and black Americans, from conservatives as well as liberals, from Republicans and Democrats, the president finally felt compelled to act, however feebly. (The chorus of criticism from nearly all quarters demanding that the president do something tells me that the nation as a whole is so much better than this administration.)
Mr. Bush flew south on Friday and proved (as if more proof were needed) that he didn’t get it. Instead of urgently focusing on the people who were stranded, hungry, sick and dying, he engaged in small talk, reminiscing at one point about the days when he used to party in New Orleans, and mentioning that Trent Lott had lost one of his houses but that it would be replaced with "a fantastic house - and I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch."
Mr. Bush’s performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever by a president during a dire national emergency. What we witnessed, as clearly as the overwhelming agony of the city of New Orleans, was the dangerous incompetence and the staggering indifference to human suffering of the president and his administration.
And it is this incompetence and indifference to suffering (yes, the carnage continues to mount in Iraq) that makes it so hard to be optimistic about the prospects for the United States over the next few years. At a time when effective, innovative leadership is desperately needed to cope with matters of war and peace, terrorism and domestic security, the economic imperatives of globalization and the rising competition for oil, the United States is being led by a man who seems oblivious to the reality of his awesome responsibilities.
Like a boy being prepped for a second crack at a failed exam, Mr. Bush has been meeting with his handlers to see what steps can be taken to minimize the political fallout from this latest demonstration of his ineptitude. But this is not about politics. It’s about competence. And when the president is so obviously clueless about matters so obviously important, it means that the rest of us, like the people left stranded in New Orleans, are in deep, deep trouble.
E-mail: bobherb@nytimes.com
Forum posts
5 September 2005, 19:55
go to www.bushisantichrist.com this explains all.
6 September 2005, 09:32
The failure of leadership was on the city and local level. It just boggles the mind how incompetent Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans is. Blanco, the governor of Louisiana is also a boob. First of all how is it possible for Blanco to declare a state of emergency on Sunday, giving the state 24 hours to prepare for Katrina?! And she only did so because Bush practically begged her. Nagin is the one who really failed his own constituency. Nagin failed his own black people. There was an evacuation plan, but did he follow it? NO! Why did he not use the municipal and school buses to bring people out of New Orleans? If he was going to use the Superdome and the Convention Center as temporary refuge, how could he not have put water, food and port-a-potties in there? And the most stupid thing of all, if he was going to tell thousands of people to go those two places for refuge, why did he not have police there for crowd control? The man is an idiot. He had resources and he didn’t use them. All he did was yell that he wasn’t getting any help. Well DUH! How fast did he think the wheels of federal bureaucracy was going to run. He was responsible for the well being of those people and he failed them in a big way.
6 September 2005, 15:09
No, It was the federal level who is responsible. They needed to arrange to have envoys, planes and cruise ships arrive to evacuate those without vehicles, in elderly homes, etc.... How do you suppose a local official alone would arrange this transportation service to so many people? Federal intervention was needed days BEFORE the hurricane hit but was NOT there.
6 September 2005, 15:10
Hey Karl, Just keep repeating your transparent talking points.
I’m sure the frightened parrots over at FOX News will dutifully repeat them.
But we all know that you can have your own opinions but you can’t have your own facts.
Besides, the NYT article detailing the "blame it on the locals" plan blew your disinformation [lies] out of the water yesterday.
Governor Blanco declared a state of emergency that went into effect on Thursday August 26 asking for federal assistance. Tuesday, Mayor Nagin was calling for Martial Law. They got the cold shoulder from Dear Leader.
The Army Corps of Engineers knew by early Monday that the 17th Street Canal levee had broken. That means the full scope of the disaster was known almost immediately after Katrina hit New Orleans.
But, on Tuesday, the "Gentleman "C" student" President was still on vacation strumming his guitar while Americans in New Orleans were drowning.
I guess this should go on his report card just like on his transcript from Yale in the last term ’67-’68 with a row of "NP’s" [Not Present] AWOL
It’s shamefull that his psycophantic followers will probably still give him credits even when he didn’t show up.
They didn’t pay attention when it was pointed out to them that he failed to show for his last year and a half of his National Guard duty. AWOL
They were not even annoyed when he sat in a schoolroom for 25 minutes reading a book about a goat while people were hurling themselves from tall buildings in New York City on 9-11, and showed up four days late in Manhattan with a bullhorn to show his "leadership." Real leadership would have meant actually reading the Presidential Daily Briefings, especially the one from August 6th. AWOL
So now instead of quick action in the time of the greatest disaster of American history, he stayed on vacation playing the guitar. Oh, excuse me, TWO of the GREATEST DISASTERS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. He finally showed up 5 days late. AWOL
George W. Bush has consistently shown this same pattern of indifference and failure. I won’t even start to go into his failures as a businessman. And his Insider trading etc.
History will record that President George W. Bush "Failed to Show Up" when it really counted and he now has TWO OF AMERICA’S WORST DISASTERS on his record. How much longer can America take such incompetence from this miserable failure at the top?
Please, America stop him. We can’t afford any more of this AWOL President.
6 September 2005, 15:29
Wow! This Article from July 2001 after Tropical Storm Allison carries a prescient warning.
"While experts credited the White House for quick action, they also noted that the president was lucky to inherit a disaster-response agency that was substantially retooled and improved by his Democratic predecessor.
Jerry Ellig, a senior research fellow at George Mason University who has studied FEMA, said it was President Clinton’s FEMA director James Lee Witt who radically changed the agency and made it more responsive. Ellig said he doubted the Bush administration has had time "to shake up a lot of stuff" at the agency.
However, critics warn that the Bush administration may not be as committed to keeping FEMA working as well in the future."
6 September 2005, 15:34
And another Article from the past seems to indicate that Kanye West was right.
Quote:
"He showed pathological lying habits and was in denial when challenged on his prejudices and biases. He would even deny saying something he just said 30 seconds ago. He was famous for that. Students jumped on him; I challenged him." When asked to explain a particular comment, said Tsurumi, Bush would respond, "Oh, I never said that." A White House spokeswoman did not return a phone call seeking comment.
In 1973, as the oil and energy crisis raged, Tsurumi led a discussion on whether government should assist retirees and other people on fixed incomes with heating costs. Bush, he recalled, "made this ridiculous statement and when I asked him to explain, he said, ’The government doesn’t have to help poor people — because they are lazy.’ I said, ’Well, could you explain that assumption?’ Not only could he not explain it, he started backtracking on it, saying, ’No, I didn’t say that.’"
6 September 2005, 15:47
And now the greedy vultures are circling overhead with more inkling that Kanye West said on live TV what many already know.
This is from TBR News.org – September 2, 2005
"This afternoon, I was having lunch at the Cosmos Club out on Massachusetts Avenue. A good friend is a member of the posh club (that once was the elegant town home of Sumner Welles), and while at lunch, I was privy to a very vocal conversation at one of the big round center tables in the club dining room.
One man was giving an overview of the situation to a group of his friends. The speaker was an undersecretary of an important department, well-liked by Bush and often in the White House to consult. The others ranged from an academic economist whose writings can be seen in a right wing paper and a number of Washington-based businessmen, all of whom are active and heavy contributors to the Bush White House.
The loud one had obviously had a few drinks at the bar and this is probably why he was not more discreet. The gist of his comments was horrible to contemplate and it sounded like a top Nazi discussing Jews.
It is well known here that the Bush family and many of the top advisers at the White House are racists but instead of detesting Jews, in this case, they all detest blacks. Their rationale, aside from their view of racial superiority, is that blacks are all "welfare queens, unwed mothers and drug dealers." It was the very firmly stated view of the host that it was better for everyone that New Orleans was under water for the time being.
In that way, we were told (and I was not the only person in the dining room who heard all this), this served to "chase out the niggers" and permit Bush-supporting businessmen from buying up the soon-to-be condemned sodden houses for five cents on the dollar from friendly insurance companies (which one of them was a CEO of) and put up an enlarged and very profitable combination of industrial park and office building section. The money for this would, naturally, come from government grants which a terrified Congress (Mid Term elections are coming) had just voted for and the contracts to demolish the wrecked low-income slums would go, as a no-bid contract, to another stellar Bush supporter.
As for the refugees, our table of proto-fascists all commented on the fact that most of them were on welfare and probably all voted Democratic so they could all be shipped to California or Chicago at the public expense and allowed to occupy less valuable public housing there.
This conversation went on in a similar vein for some time and it was difficult for both myself and my host to refrain from making nasty comments or, for that matter, to enjoy our meal. These people are greedy and purely evil and I am <>positive<> from the overall conversations that Bush is conversant with this attitude and has no intentions of interfering with it.
6 September 2005, 21:26
How could you not expect the local officials to arrange transportation to their own people? They had over 200 buses in a damned parking lot—with gas!! The first respondents are the local municipalities. As for all those ships and planes, helloooooo! Why would you put them in the way of a hurricane?!
6 September 2005, 21:35
Hey Left Wing-Nut, should you really be surprised that the NY Slime would spin it that the Fed was blaming the locals? And as for transparent talking points, it’s obvious by your overly long-winded recitation of all the lefty blame Bush crowd talking points that you’ve swallowed that you’ve ceased thinking. Do you think New Orleans was the only who that needed help? Katrina affected four states directly. It is the local municipalities that are on the ground first hand that are responsible for preparing for disasters with FEMA working with these locals to help with national resources. If the locals aren’t competent, how much do you think that helps FEMA? You left wing nuts hate the army and george bush’s gov’t but you left wing-nuts are the first to start screaming when you need their help. DOH!
8 September 2005, 15:45
OK Right Wing nut,
Please tell me what American tax payers got from $100 Billion over the past 4 years in the biggest BIG GOVERNMENT boondoggle in history? I’m talking about George W. Bush’s Homeland Security Department. The most gigantic bureaucracy in history!
Four years and $100 Billion. What did we get for our money?
And I thought you "conservatives" were against BIG GOVERNMENT. Boy were we fooled.
8 September 2005, 15:47
Since FEMA was rolled over into the DHS, it’s pretty obvious to anybody with clear eyes that the security [and safety] of ordinary American citizens, here in the Homeland, especially the working-poor in New Orleans was not a priority. Levee projects were put on hold because the funds were cut by the Bush administration. Oh, but there was more than $400 Million for Republican run Alaska for bridges. Too bad for the poor people of Lake George that their Governor and Senators weren’t Republicans.
FEMA chief Michael Brown, now being referred to on the net as "Drownie," waited till after the Hurricane had passed before he gave an order to do something, and that order included deliberate efforts to portray the agency as doing a good job.
If the agency was actually doing a good job, that order would not be necessary. It was essentially an order to spin in favor of the Bush administration.
"You’re doing a heck of a job, Drownie." - Der Leader
8 September 2005, 15:54
I see a pattern.
Bush strums the guitar [Tuesday] while Lake George [formerly known as New Orleans] fills with water from Ponchetrain. Army Corps of Engineers knew of the levee break early Monday. And Tuesday Junior was still on vacation, golfing, going to birthday parties, and strumming the guitar. While Americans were dying.
I remember Junior sitting in a classroom more than an hour after the first plane hit the WTC reading a book about a goat [he was on vacation then too] as people hurled themselves out of tall buildings on 9-11.
It took him 4 days to get to Manhattan.
This time it took him 5 days to finally get to Lake George.
And when he finally did get to the Gulf States, he had 40 or so Firefighters who had volunteered to go save ordinary American citizens’ lives, at his disposal to use as photo props. While people were dying.
And thanks to the German reporters and their TV broadcast, we know that the little photo-op of Junior handing out sandwiches to those poor folks was just that - a photo op. They reported that as soon as Bush left, they tore down the food - aid station and took it with them. The whole thing was just a prop.
What leadership!
P.S. It was a german reporter who told us what Junior said when questioned why he was flying all around the country on 9-11 instead of hurrying back to his job. "I was just trying to get out of harm’s way."
What leadership!
8 September 2005, 15:56
Hey Loony Lefty, guess whose idea was Homeland Security - Chuck Schumer, a democrat SENATOR from New York that was supported immediately by the other dems to create the biggest bureaucracy in history. DUH! And guess whose idea it was to put FEMA into Homeland Security, that’s right a dem. DOH!
8 September 2005, 17:26
I think that you see very little. The Army Corps of Engineers have asked for more funding but have seen their budgets being cut; this was due to past presidents and past legislative bodies who formed and approved budgets. In addition, the Corps has been hamstrung by a bunch of nazi environmentalists who stopped them from installing floodgates to prevent Lake P from going into New Orleans and funneling them to the Gulf. It seems as if the environazis were more concerned about the lake’s ecosystem than New Orleanians.
As for those stupid Germans sources you have, the reason that Bush couldn’t come to Manhattan earlier was because the Security people kept flying him from one place to another on Air Force One until Bush finally put a stop to it. This was well known fact. Dude, you should give your brain a rest and stop taking drugs.
8 September 2005, 18:23
So the Republican House passed it, and the Republican Senate passed it and a Republican President signed it.
It’s all you Dem’s fault.
8 September 2005, 18:49
Republicans can’t seem to take any responsibility for their actions. It’s always someone elses fault.
"I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." - George W. Bush
Someone please get Condi a copy of July 10, 2000 Time Magazine so she can read it to him.
Oooops... Too Late
Jul. 10, 2000
The Pulse Of America
The Big Easy On the Brink
If it doesn’t act fast, the city could become the next Atlantis
By Adam Cohen
If a flood of Biblical proportions were to lay waste to New Orleans, Joe Suhayda has a good idea how it would happen. A Category 5 hurricane would come barreling out of the Gulf of Mexico. It would cause Lake Pontchartrain, north of New Orleans, to overflow, pouring down millions of gallons of water on the city. Then things would really get ugly. Evacuation routes would be blocked. Buildings would collapse. Chemicals and hazardous waste would dissolve, turning the floodwaters into a lethal soup.
"I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." - George W. Bush
It’s all the Dem’s fault!
8 September 2005, 19:41
"I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." - George W. Bush
What Bush meant was that he didn’t think "anyone" of his unqualified political campaign cronies whom he appointed to positions of responsibility in FEMA and DHS anticipated the breach of the levees.
In early 2001, FEMA issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. Drownie must have not seen that report.
In 2002, the New Orleans Times Picayune published a five-part series on "The Big One"
A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken.
In June,2004 Pleasant Mann, a 16-year FEMA veteran wrote members of Congress to warn of the agency’s decay. "Over the past three-and-one-half years, FEMA has gone from being a model agency to being one where funds are being misspent, employee morale has fallen, and our nation’s emergency management capability is being eroded," he wrote. "Our professional staff are being systematically replaced by politically connected novices and contractors." Otherwise known as Cronies.
Politically connected novices and cronies... Like Allbaugh’s college buddie Mike Drownie who got fired from his last job for incompetence? Who didn’t even know there were people using the Convention Center as a refuge from the storm.
Like Reynold Hoover and Mark Wallace, whom Bush appointed to important FEMA posts in 2001. Neither had any experience at all. What were their qualifications? They were two major players in the 2000 recount fight.
Patrick Rhode and Scott Morris, FEMA’s number 2 and 3 men under Drownie were also campaign aides with no experience whatsoever in disaster management or planning.
That’s what we got with the Bush administration. Unqualified cronies in important positions of responsibility.
And what is Drownie’s latest? No pictures of the dead, banned the media from reporting events in a major American city. Press blackout. Nothing that shall reflect poorly on this administration will be allowed.
8 September 2005, 19:46
Exactly, the Repubs crossed the aisle and agreed with the Dems. Who messed it up by not following their own evacuation plan? That exactly right the dem mayor and governor. You finally got it right, IT IS THE DEMS’ FAULT.
8 September 2005, 20:20
FEMA won’t accept Amtrak’s help in evacuations
FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
FEMA won’t let Red Cross deliver food
FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
FEMA cuts emergency communication lines in Jefferson Parrish
FEMA flies evacuees to wrong city [Charleston VW, instead of Charleston, SC]
"Drownie, you’re doing a heck of a job."
8 September 2005, 22:02
Monday August 29, 2005 >
Birthday Celebration
Monday August 29, 2005
Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast Monday with heavy winds and sheets of rain, slamming Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
Monday August 29, 2005
Cheney Family Anniversary Celebration
Monday August 29, 2005
No Celebration Here
Tuesday August 30, 2005
More Vacation Fun
Tuesday August 30, 2005
No Fun Here
Tuesday August 30, 2005
Or Here
Or Here
Bush cuts his vacation two days early
Gulfport, Mississippi Wednesday August 31, 2005
Bush Uses Firefighters as Photo Props
Now That’s Making the Best Use of First Responders! Real Leadership
9 September 2005, 00:09
Wednesday, August 24: Tropical Depression Katrina passes the Bahamas and becomes a Hurricane
Thursday, August 25: Hurricane Katrina Cat 1 hits Florida and kills at least 11 people.
Friday, August 26: Hurricane Katrina comes to the Gulf and strengthens to Cat 2. and veers toward the Louisiana and Missippi coast. Louis Gov Blanco declares a state of emergency. Pres. Bush also declares state of emergency and directs FEMA to coordinate disaster relief efforts.
Saturday, August 27: Hurricane Katrina strengthens to Cat 3. and approaches Gulf Coast. Nagin declares state of emergency and voluntary evacuation to residents in low lying areas around 5PM. Miss Gov Barbour declares state of emergency and mandatory evacuation for Miss gulf coast residents. Mayfield from the Hurricane Center calls Nagin to tell him that mandatory evacuation is needed in NO.
Sunday, August 28: Hurricane Katrina strengthens to Cat 5 and heads for North Gulf Coast. Nagin orders mandatory evacuation for New Orleans and opens Superdome. Superdome is supposed to be shelter of last resort for people with special needs. Nagin urges people to leave and not stay in NO. Alabama Gov Riley declares state of emergency. Nagin gives the NO police force the day off and to come back on Monday.
Monday, August 29: Hurricane Katrina at Cat 4 hits coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Levee breaks in New Orleans. Airport in NO closed. Reports of looting starts. Katrina passes Gulf coast by midnight. Search and rescue teams from LA Fish and Wildlife and Coast Guard start bringing stranded people to safety.
Tuesday, August 30: Two more levees break putting 80% of NO under water. Blanco says everyone in NO must evacuate. Looting increases. City officials start telling people to go to the Convention Center (the Convention Center was not originally designated as shelter). It is not clear that city officials told FEMA that the Convention Center was opened for shelter. BLANCO DOES NOT PROVIDE FOOD, WATER, OR HYGIENE KITS BECAUSE THEIR PRESENCE WOULD KEEP PEOPLE FROM EVACUATING AND ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO COME INTO THE CITY. BLANCO deploys over 4700 Louisiana National guards in NO. 350 boats doing search and rescue. FEMA directs military to move ships and helicopters to the Gulf region. Corps starts trying to deal with breaks in the levees. Because the Superdome was full, search and rescue teams drop people off at an underpass where there was no food or water.
Wed, August 31:Looting grows exponentially. Nagin directs 1500 NO police officers from search and rescue to law enforcement regarding looters. Buses start to evacuate people from Superdome to the Astrodome. Blanco calls for total evacuation of the Superdome
Thur. Sept 1: Crowd swells to 30,000 at Superdome and 25,000 at Convention Center. Evacuation from Superdome continues. Additional 6500 National Guardsmen from various states deployed in Louisiana. Chertoff and Brown only heard about stranded people in Convention Center that day. Food and water comes to Convention Center in the evening. Evacuees from Superdome arrive at Astrodome.
Fri. Sept 2: Bush visits NO and rest of Gulf Coast. Evacuation of Convention Center and underpass starts and continues throughout the day.
In my opinion blame can be spread among all levels of gov’ts but in my opinion, the local and state officials were too hesitant to act. They should have started coordinating on Thursday and evacuating as soon as Friday. As for all those pictures on Monday and Tuesday showing Bush and Cheny having a good time. What did you expect them to do? What could they have personally done? They couldn’t stop a hurricane and they still have 47 other states to attend to. It only goes to show that the hate bush crowd are out to get Bush no matter what. The rational american knows whose at fault according to the CNN poll and only 13% blame bush. That 13% must be you lefty morons.
9 September 2005, 00:47
The bucks stop in Bush’s bank account only.....
9 September 2005, 15:29
"Drownie, You’re doing a heck of a job."
FEMA’s top three leaders — Director Michael D. Brown, Chief of Staff Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler — arrived with ties to President Bush’s 2000 campaign or to the White House advance operation, according to the agency. Two other senior operational jobs are filled by a former Republican lieutenant governor of Nebraska anda U.S. Chamber of Commerce official who was once a political operative.
From today’s Washington Post
Hiring political cronies for positions in areas which they have no qualifications.
That’s Leadership - Republican Style.
And America is paying the price.
9 September 2005, 15:38
Bush lifts wage rules for Katrina
President signs executive order allowing contractors to pay below prevailing wage in affected areas.
We can’t have those poor people getting a decent paycheck. Must make sure the lion’s share of the loot goes into the right pockets at Halliburton.
11 September 2005, 16:07
"Drownie, You’re doing a heck of a job." - George W. Bush
"I don’t want to alarm anyone that New Orleans is filling up like a bowl.
That isn’t happening" - Michael D. Brown
11 September 2005, 16:43
Former FEMA Chief Joe Allbaugh, college roomie of Drownie Brown, is now working as a lobbyist for FUNERALGATE contractor to handle mortuary duties in NOLA.
FEMA just hired Kenyon Worldwide Disaster Management. A subsidiary of Funeralgate contractor Service Corporation International,SCI, partners up again with their old buddy, Joe Allbaugh, who as Bush’s Chief of Staff in Texas was a central figure in the Funeralgate scandal. He was tasked to make it go away.
Lobbyist Allbaugh is in Lousiana "helping coordinate the private-sector response to the storm."
In other words, capitalizing on gimme contracts to dispose of the bodies that Bush doesn’t want Americans to see.
I wonder how long Kenyon has been in business. Did they just create this company with a nice-sounding name to rake in the federal bux for their politicasl cronies?
That’s what it looks like.
Quack, Quack, waddle waddle, it must be a duck!
More taxpayer millions into bush’s friends’ pockets.
Government, Republican style.
15 September 2005, 13:47
Who is paying you for this kind of lying defense? How much are you getting to defend this slime hole administration? Believe me, little man, you won’t see any of the $300 billion that is slated to go Halliburton after they have reconstructed New Orleans. Who is your master, little boy?
Americans who still believe that Bush is a good and moral man after Katrina and the continuing hellish nightmare of Iraq are either brainwashed or intellectually deficient.
Little lover of neocons, here are the facts:1] Neither the Governor of a State nor the mayor of a City need to declare a state emergency first, a President can do this without their permission. It was done before in Florida after Hurricane Andrew. Bush failed to do this simply because he was paryting the night away, like the overgrown frat boy that he will always be. Bush failed to do this because he does not possess one iota of what it takes to be a real leader. He does not possess the integrity or the mental competence to lead a Neighborhood Watch, let alone the nation that once was the leader of the free world. One cannot state with honesty that the US is still the beacon of liberty anymore. Through his actions in the Middle East and at home, Bush has defecated on this nation’s legacy as the world’s foremost defender of democracy and decency.
2] FEMA after 9/11 was assimilitated into another Federal Government joke, the Department of Homeland Security, and now has less than 20% of the budget it had prior to 2001. 3] Most of Louisiana’s National Guard was in Iraq, only 35% were still in the state when Katrina struck, fighting a more and more defenseless position in an immoral war. These facts you cannot bury, small minded retart of a neocon lover.
The ’game’ is all about one’s images as a competent, on the ball leader. Showing up four days after the Katrina catastrophe just to make a media circus out of the misery of thousands, displays callous political maneuvering, and damage control, not real moral leadership.
Directly because of Katrina and Iraq, the world no longer sees this country as the richest, the most powerful and the most protected country, led by decent upstanding men. It sees this country as the biggest joke, incapable of taking care of its own, led by used-car salesmen and pimps. It now sees this country as the nation with the largest number of hypocrites and idiots in history. Try reading some foreign news outlets for once to see that what I’m telling you is the truth, that this is how the rest of the world sees us.
Oh, but you can’t read foreign news can you? You hate foreigners so much. So much to having an open mind.
You and the other fascists who continue to worship this failure of a man, this walking joke of a leader, still have no clue as what is really going on in the world. Thank God more and more Americans are turning a deaf ear to your ridiculous and utterly false entreaties. You and your dwindling neocon friends will be no longer in the big picture, as Americans will turn to voices that speak with reason and with the truth. Your lot can only speak of half-truths, and irrelevancies. Why do you spend your time protecting a leader who doesn’t deserve your defense, nor your admiration? So, what is the going rate for an intellectual prostitute these days, little man?
15 September 2005, 14:49
"So, what is the going rate for an intellectual prostitute these days, little man?"
You should know, you’re the intellectual prostitute. You read all the foreign newspapers and you assume that the foreign newspapers, the majority which are leftist and communist, are all correct. They rarely have a deep and varied opinion. How long have they said essentially the same thing? That the US is a horrible country run by horrible men. It’s amazing how they’ve all kept printing the same garbage over and over again. Take some prozac, it’s obvious you can’t tolerate opinions other than your own.
15 September 2005, 15:40
This is a foreign website, numbnuts. The vast majority of foreign websites are not communists either. Typical of so many of you neocon prostitutes: you don’t refute the facts, or even try to have a critical analysis of what’s going on in this country. All you do is character assassinate and propagate lies and half-truths. Anyone who disagrees with you is automatically labeled a leftist or a communist, and that’s the end of your discussion. You must be a corporate lawyer.
The Federal Government is a horrible mess, and fake Americans like yourself, who continue to support this Federal Government and this failure of a President are traitors to both our heritage and our way of life.
Go take a thousand prozac tablets, yourself. You’ll find them right there at your desk. I don’t need any medication, coward. But you definitely are dire need of a brain.
15 September 2005, 20:38
It’s very apparent that this is a foreign website, it is also very apparent that this is at the very least a leftist website (I had stated leftist/communist) so at the very least you need to go back to school for remedial reading comprehension. It is also very apparent to me by the quality of most of the articles that it’s all about blaming the federal gov’t/bush isn’t the real president, etc. and as I said before, the articles haven’t been that varied in terms of opinion so therefore there is very little critical analysis. So take a hike buttbreath.
15 September 2005, 23:45
If you already knew this was a ’leftist/commie/pinko/fag’ website, filled with people you’d rather see dead, why do you waste so much of your time reading any of it? I don’t waste any of my time reading any of your fascist-family’s trash. Why bother us? Could it be that you really are a paid goon, out to find out who isn’t towing the line? My advise to you is to stick to reading only items you can understand, such as, National Enquirer or the NASCAR website.
16 September 2005, 01:56
Good grief, you need more than prozac, you need a lobotomy. No one is forcing you to read or respond to anyone’s posts. I’m also not aware that bellaciao said that only a certain type of person of political persuasion could visit here. What is obvious to me, is that you are a loony leftie who can’t stand opinions other than your own. Why? Calm down, take a deep breath. We’re all here just to exchange ideas and pull each other’s chain every so often. You are taking this thing way too serious.
16 September 2005, 05:01
24...113
Don’t bother with the Bu$hco trolls....they can’t find any intelligent thoughts on their Republipuke sites so they come trolling here to find someone to argue with. The Puke sites are just one big echo chamber all speaking in unison...talking points all memorized like good little robots.
Wind them up and turn them loose and they all say the exact same things (not intelligent enough to have any independent thoughts), they know nothing of history, economics, class warfare, corporate welfare, geography, what is really going on, etc. they just spew Bu$hco creamed corn at everyone. Their heros are ANY other Puke who says they go to church (doesn’t have to be a real Christian in fact the fake ones are the ones they idolize), stands in front of the flag for a photo-ops, hates black people or anyone of any other race, thinks women and foreigners are to be feared and reviled at every chance and to be discriminated against always, worst of all they are NOT capable of any critical thought where their hero is concerned, he could screw them every way into the future and steal their last buck, but they think its all just a big jock football game to be WON like some retard...you get the picture, in other words not worth the air they breathe or the space they take up. How stupid are they? Too stupid to see what has happened to their country under Bu$hco.
17 September 2005, 17:02
That right wing-nut maroon probably doesn’t even know what BellaCiao means... nor ever heard it, much less ever sung it.
For her benefit ---
It’s about overthrowing the fascists
The world is waking outside my window
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
Drags my senses into the sunlight
For there are things that I must do
Wish me luck now, I have to leave you
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
With my friends now up to the City
We’re going to shake the Gates of Hell
And I will tell them - we will tell them
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
That our sunlight is not for franchise
And wish the bastards drop down dead
Next time you see me I may be smiling
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
I’ll be in prison or on the tv
I’ll say “The sunlight dragged me here!”
Since Genoa 2001, this song, "Bella Ciao", has became an unofficial hymn at anti-fascist events.
At the final session of the European Social Forum in Florence in November 2002, this song marked the end of a day of discussions and arguments amongst the social movements, which resulted with the call for a general strike and demonstrations on the day that the war in Iraq started, and an all European wide demonstration on February 15th 2003.
That spawned the largest World-Wide mass demonstration for Peace in the history of the World.
More than 60 million people demonstrated for Peace on February 15, 2003. May our movement for Peace utimately bear good fruit.
"Bella Ciao" represents this spirit and hope.
Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao
17 September 2005, 18:25
I think the original version was sung by the women who worked in the Piedmontese rice fields during the 1930’s, while the men in the hills around them fought the invading fascists and nazi armies.
My Italian is not so good...
Una mattina mi sono alzato, One Morning rises for me
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,
Una mattina mi sono alzato, One Morning rises for me
E ho trovato l’invasor... And I found the Invaders
O partigiano portami via, O partisan take me away
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,
O partigiano portami via,
Che mi sento di morir. I feel myself to die
E se io muoio da partigiano, And if I die a partisan
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,
E se io muoio da partigiano,
Tu mi devi seppellir. You must bury me
E seppellire sulla montagna, And bury me on the mountain
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,
E seppellire sulla montagna,
Sotto l’ombra d’un bel fior. under a beautiful flower
E le genti che passeranno, And the people that pass by
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,
E le genti che passeranno,
Mi diranno che bel fior! They will say to me, what a beautiful flower
E questo è il fiore del partigiano, And ask is this the flower of a partisan
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,
E questo è il fiore del partigiano,
Morto per la Libertà!   Died for Liberty!
Ed era rossa la sua bandiera, And it was red, their flag
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,
Ed era rossa la sua bandiera,
C’era scritto Libertà! It was written, LIBERTY!
And you’re right. These right-wingnuts wouldn’t know about Liberty, or standing up against fascists.
They’re too busy defending them!