Echo

Timeline of Katrina Response

George W. Bush should be tried as a war criminal, as much for what he’s done overseas, as what his carelessness and ineptitude have done to his own people.

(link courtesy of Nerd Island)

I had a whole commercial crew using my place as a location yesterday so that meant about 25 people in my place. But that also meant plenty of people for this Gemini to talk to, and of course, the conversation turned to our idiot president and his moronic responses in the media to Hurricane Katrina.

We had watched Cspan last Friday night when they showed the president touring the area and his press conference. My favorite was when he talked about New Orleans coming back to be a better city because (*smirk* *snicker*) he’d had a lot of fun in that city. “Sometimes too much fun,” he ribs the guy behind him. Um…thousands of people have died and even more are homeless and devastated. The American people are terrified and angry and he’s using a national press conference to make jokes about getting wasted in New Orleans? Good God, this is the president of the United States showing zero empathy or understanding of the grave situation. May I remind you, BILL CLINTON WOULD HAVE NEVER DONE THAT. And Bill Clinton would have flown in from wherever he was to visit the area and comfort the people as soon as he could. Not stay on vacation for 3 more days until his behavior became blatantly negligent.

So last night we’re watching The Daily Show which had some great clips of Bush talking about the Hurricane including the video clip of the aforementioned press conference. [Here’s the clip. Go to “Inarguable Failure”] Everything Bush says is so blase and shallow, it’s like you going up to him and saying, hey, my wife died. She was my world, man…I don’t know what I’m gonna do. And he slaps you on the back and says, “Shit, man, you know…uh…yeah…you’ll find a better girl. As they say back in Houston where I’m from, the limbs of the pussy tree hang heavy.” (*expression credit to Robert*) The man is not only socially inappropriate, but it’s not a joke anymore. This man is dangerous to the American people. People are dying here and overseas because of him, and the rest of the world is losing respect for us quickly at best, and downright hostile to us at worst.

Alan, one of the guys with the shoot put it best: What he’s doing is downright criminal. If we are willing to go through impeachment procedures because Clinton stuck a cigar up a fat chick’s cooter, then why are we not impeaching Bush when he lied about why we went to war (what fucking weapons of mass destruction?) and resulted in the deaths of so many? Because by turning on him it will make us look bad to other countries? But if we admitted a mistake and as a people, impeached the person we hold responsible, wouldn’t it make us look united and place the responsibility on the idiocy of one man and his administration? I feel like politically, that would have been a better strategy, rather than us staying in Iraq now because to pull out would be showing weakness in admitting that we had made a mistake. This needing to stand behind our country campaign they’re umbrella-ing our support under is bullshit. Yes, we need to unite. Yes, we need to stand behind our country. But they’re using this campaign as our need to stand behind our lying, thieving, negligent administration, and the biggest stance we could collectively make would be to admit that we the people made a mistake in electing this slob our leader (for TWO TERMS!) and that we are courageous and responsible enough to make things right.

Why is this man not impeached? I ask myself that every time I turn on the news and watch coverage of Katrina showing people sobbing over the family and homes they’ve lost. I ask myself that every time I read another report that more people (Americans and Iraqis) have been killed overseas. Natural disasters are inevitable and devastating. War is good for the economy. Blah blah blah blah. But overall, these don’t change the fact that Bush is a dangerously inept and bungling “leader” (I use that term loosely and spitefully), and that our country and our relationship with the rest of the world are deteriorating at a frightening speed. We still have years to go before this administration wraps up and we can begin the recovery. Can his supporters and his Republican cronies in Congress really call themselves patriots and sleep at night knowing the devastation he’s bringing upon this country? Shame on all of you.

In other news, here’s a transcript of what the New Orleans mayor had to say. I really like this guy. He’s a fighter and a leader.

And meanwhile in my home state…muuuuutherfucker.