The ITT List
Friday Sep 9, 2005 7:23 am
Why Bush needs to go…
From the Baltimore Sun
After Katrina Fiasco, Time For Bush To Go
By Gordon Adams
September 8, 2005
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.
After Katrina Fiasco, Time For Bush To Go
By Gordon Adams
September 8, 2005
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.
22 comments ·
Please Login to Comment register a new account »
To participate in discussions, please register an account.
SAVE 53% OFF
Comments
I agree with everything that Gordon Adams wrote, with one exception. I am, apparently, not such a gentle person as Mr. Adams. I believe that after we tar and feather W and his cronies, we should make their ride out of town bumpy, jarring and painful rather than graceful.
Mr.Gordon Adams
I have no goddamn idea how people like you have a job while the real talented and needy are unemployed.
You say that Bush should go.
Is this article another joke played upon by asshole pseudo “intellectuals” like you on the gullible and the simple minded?
Bush should go?! Where the fuck is he going to go?
You don’t really mean he should quit his job as the president of the United States, do you?
Has THAT ever happened in America?
Even Brown, the FEMA director (you remember, Bush’s personal horse groomer)hasn’t been fired but simply ‘removed’ from the current Katrina related Louisiana area and you expect the president of the United States, even though he is illegally and illicitly in public office to what resign from office?
Or gee whiz! Should he be overthrown in a coup?
A hypocritical asshole like you probably even voted for him in November 2004. And you have the gall to suggest that Bush should go?
Maybe you should take him into your house and make him your bed-partner.
No American president has ever had the decency or dignity to EVER admit EVEN one mistake let alone leave office.
You are definitely a most fortunate man to be able to have the avenue to vent your ideas AND get paid for the useless and garbage work you do.
FUCK YOU!!!
You try to tar and feather President Bush, and we will stand in your way. Better yet, we will make you drink the tar and eat the feathers you brought. You refuse to acknowledge that this disaster started with an incompetent mayor and governor gumming up the entire operation. And if Bush had taken extraordinary measures (federalizing the troops, giving FEMA special powers), you would have screamed that he was enacting martial law. And we are going to soon find out how much of that levee money was wasted on Louisiana Democrat corruption and pork.
responding to the ignorant asshole that calls himself “anamika”. First of all bet your mother (if you even have one) is very proud of your wonderfully rude use of the english language (shows your great intelligence). As far as you saying that no president ever admitted wrong-doing or quit while in office, I guess you never heard of R.M. Nixon. Yes, I feel that G.Bush should be run out of office even if it is already way too late. He will go down in the history books as the worst leader this country has ever had, bar none.
its because of stupid fucking americans like anamika that the country is where it is with a mindless leader or should i say ass hole (bush) read the truth at http://www.floydswebdesign.net/REALNEWS.
html
thats my site and am fucking proud of it
Resigning ANY position requires integrity. Nixon, if nothing else, had integrity and understood that the needs of the country HAD to be put before his own needs. THAT is integrity.
George Bush has never been accused of having integrity.
While I do not agree entirely with the sentiment of this column I do agree with the fundanental facts presented. The government local, state and federal all failed the residents in Louisiana. Living in Florida I know better than most what needs to happen in these situations, so yep I can make an educated decision that everyone dropped the ball. Get off your soapboxes when your clueless and opinionated!!
I am a very liberal democrat who would love to see George W tared and feathered after he is no longer president. To do so now would insult our countries traditions and beliefs, and a resignation on his part would be lovely but remains impractical.
The only thing that can be done is as a country make a better choice next election and work to circumvent Georgies power and policies in the meantime.
Excellent article!
I agree completly.Bush is the worst nightmare to ever visit the
American People.If we ever wake up from this hellish dream,I hope it is not to late to pick up the pieces and put America back together again.I fear that if these freaks are allowed to fester much longer,we
will be too messed up to repair.God save us
from corporations,oil,political corruption
and Jesus freaks!
i guess it would be kinda unAmerican to confiscate their clubs…
anamika, you’re pretty sharp (just cause your head’s pointed), Da Mail, you’re really on to something (just remember, crack kills)...
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I believe Mr. Adams may be arguing in favor of impeachment. This proposal may shock right-wing, knuckle-draggers like anamika, but as I recall, the GOP tried to impeach a Democratic president for lying about his sex life. Real substantive reasoning there…
Mr. Adams proposal is a novel one, but not since Warren Harding have we had a chief executive who was at once, so corrupt and grossly incompetent. The saddest part is that the GOP faithful, having spent 40 years as the minority party, are now apparently willing to tolerate an incompetent and dysfunctional man in the White House, as long as he is “their” man.
That way of thinking is why the Founding Fathers were so opposed to political parties - they knew these false dichotomies could lead to the end of the Republic, as people put their “brand loyalty” ahead of the common good. And that is clearly what has happened with the rise of the Bush monarchy. The neofascists have coronated the dysfunctional eldest son twice (well, at least once in 2004) and look to try to coronate the chubby mamma’s boy, Jebby, in 2008.
Why, dear Lord, do we have to watch this dysfunctional, messed up family known as the Bushes, Oedipal play out their hideous neuroses on the world’s stage????
Bush is far more dangerous than he is incompetent. He is just showing his true colors more than most Ultra-conservative Republicans by making it clear that he has no interest in the individual unless, of course, that individual has lots of money and is willing to share with him. I am really more concerned with what the Bush Administration has done to erode and destroy so many of our basic freedoms here in America. It appears that people fail to realize now that Bush controls all 3 branches of the Government he has “carte blanche” to do whatever he wants. We are so close to becoming a Fascist Police State here and we fail to see or do anything about it. The Department of Homeland Security, if you really look at their charter and the truely repressive power they now have would make some of the old agencies like the Gestapo actually seem nice. The passing of the Patriot Act is one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation we have ever produced and virtually destroys most of the Rights and Freedoms we had under the now defunct Constitution. the possible rigging of the 2004 elections as a result of the use of “paperless” electronic voting, is downright scary as voting was the only means left for the American People to take back control of the United States. Even though the exit polls of voters leaving the polling booths,which have never been different than what the actual tally indicated, showed a clear win by the Democrats, the only areas where the exit polls matched what the official tally was were in the districts that required a paper trail of votes or didnot use electronic voting machines. Even heavily Democratic districts were shown by the “paperless” voting tally to have “elected” a Republican to office. by time the American People wake up and realize just what has happened to our country I fear it will be much too late to change it and we will have to wait until it kills itself as so many Repressive governments eventually do. At least I hope that it will only turn out to be a footnote in our history and not become a permanent force here. After all, in todays world, we have much less ability to change the Government once it actually gets set up in power than people did during the past. Especially if we continue to blindly believe and accept everything our government is telling us instead of finding out for ourselves what is actually the case.
Congrats & Thank You RedDragon. It is really refreshing to see someone else that is looking at this mess we have in this country with both eyes open and truly sees what is happening. I only hope that more people wake up and pull their heads out of the sand. Thank You again for telling it like it is. If there were more like you this country and the people in it wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in. I, like you, hope we can turn it all around for our own good and for the good of the rest of the world, but I’m not sure it isn’t already too late.
It is already too late for 2000 soldiers and contractors killed in Iraq. 10,000 killed by Katrina. 180,000 displaced and and unbankrupted from the combination of a hurricane and congress committed to corporate interests and 1.4 million newly arrived “poverty americans”.
If you think this whole 5 year roadtrip wasn’t planned from the get go, then you voted for bush and chaney, either directly because you are one of the ostrich idiots who would rather believe in the good christian lies than in the unpleasant truth laid bare before our eyes each day, or indirectly, because you let them Diebold your voting rights into the sewer.
I am disgusted and ashamed by the entire political sham in this country! This country needs an enema, but it isn’t about to get it. The corporations own our politicians because we let them, and worse we ignored the bill of sale lying on the table. The laws being passed by our “elected” officials are an insult to the intelligence of any person with an IQ higher than a cocktail napkin.
I am outraged by the slimeballs telling me that corporate interests need to be protected by Tort Reform. This is a crock, so blatant it makes the invented engine part names of a crooked mechanic believable. Every major corporation that has gotten into financial trouble in the past 25 years has been bailed out by the goverment.
I am awed by the twisted logic of college educated people who support the Bush Prescription Drug Plan, (which saves my 76 year old mother $1.28 on every 156.00 she spends on medications).
I am just plain shocked shitless everytime I hear a conservative republican defend an economic policy that sends billions of dollars into the hands of communist china, defend the interests of oppressive middle eastern dictators and simultanousely sling invective at Western Europe for daring to question the dog and pony show used to justify such outrageous behavior.
I am sickened to the depth of my soul by the venom and rancor of the “Christian Right” whose rabid defense of every Bush lie borders on the worship of false idols.
Who make excuses for a “man of faith” who prays for deaths on the supream court and advocates the assassination of heads of state, while hiding the fact that he accepts gifts for african dictators who consider their nations to be their private whores.
I guess you could say that I am unhappy with the whole situation and the lack of any real possibility that any positive change can be made, but every word I have said is true, and until we ALL can admit that nothing will change.
RMB- Very well said! I applaud you. If our political system learned nothing else out of the WWII era it was that the best way to control a people was through their children. The Government has been indoctrinating the children for two entire generations to always except government control while those of us who had a chance to stop it either did nothing or were so caught up in our own self-importance that we failed to recognize the true danger. Now these brainwashed children are our leaders and are more than willing to serve their true master the almighty dollar and corporate dominence.
That is why the bush regime has been dismantling the Constitution before our very eyes. Bush recognizes that if he does not destroy our ability to change the government before we finally wake up and see what is happening we could put it back the way it was meant to be. It may already be too late to fix the damage as the corporate media only allows those who support the Bush Fascist Government to be publically heard. When Bush and his minions started telling dissenters how unpatriotic and traitorous we were for disagreeing with his policies, he could have been quoting Goebbels, Himmler and all the other figures of the “Great Nazi Propaganda Machine. As he quoted almost exactly what Hitler said to anyone who disagreed with his policies. The very fact that we have allowed Bush to set up our own form of concentration camp at Guantanamo Military Base in Cuba, follows exactly the first German camp set up in Dachau by the SS and Gestapo. We even use it for the same purpose to house those that are percieved to be a threat to the Bush War Machine. Hitler too used the Fanatical Religous Right to add a measure of legitimitcy to his illegal and morally corrupt government. One would think that we would have learned from Germany’s past what we are setting ourselves up for but it seems that we have always had a short attention span when it comes to misdeeds by our leaders.
In the interest of disclosure I am a true independent. I can truly say as a critic of both sides of the aisle that the reason mainstream america will never take the liberal argument seriously is because of your over the top, hateful, rhetoric which often times is factually inaccurate. Your passion is appreciated but, I would strongly recommend that you spend some of that energy studying the issues a little closer, and getting a stronger understanding of history. For example, reddragon you seem to be a well educated, passionate, young fellow, but the instant you compare the current U.S. administration to Nazi Germany you have lost any credibility that you may have, not even Dick Durbin would agree with that. And insulting those of faith is just plain ignorant, rhetoric like that will do nothing but continue to marginalize your interests…Just trying to help!
as a cynical bastard w/ no reason to shill for any professional sell-out politition, i find myself more & more at a loss to comprehend how we’ve given control of our country & increasingly, our lives, to this two-tone pack of fat-cat phonies & their cronies…it’s like they don’t even GOVERN anymore, just loud, spitefully partisan noises & misdirection involving the sensational non-issue of the week seem to be enough to drown out the grunting & squealing around the trough these days…the trough is our tax dollars, people, & all the rest of the shady money these pigs (elephants & donkeys) have at their disposal…it’s not quite Nazi Germany, it’s alot more insidiously subtle than that….non-eloquence aside, America, the greatest country in the history of the universe, is in DEEP shit, & if a plebeian piss-ant like me can sense it, you’d better believe any number of enemies abroad are gonna notice, & trouble-makers & oppronunists the world over would like a shot at looting through the rubble of America the Great…how’s THAT for grammer?
Demian D: I appreciate the constuctive critisism. It was not my intentions to insult anyone of faith. I harbor no contempt for religion per se. Only when religion forces itself upon another or suggests that a person is not quite equal if they disagree with a particular form of religion do I feel that it has gone to far. As for my comparing the Bush Administration with the Nazi Party, I am only trying to point out that the tecniques used by the Nazi Party and Fascism in general are fairly similar to the way that the Bush Adminstration has projected itself over the past 5 years. I suppose I could have used Italy, Spain or any one of several Fascist Regimes in existence during the WW2 era but chose Nazism because it was the most widely recognized and the one most likely for todays people to be able to relate to. I will say that while Bush’s group are not exactly like the Fascism of WW2, they are most definitely another form of the same type of political ideology. Just about everything from the “sleeping” with big corporations at the expense of the working class to the possible rigging of elections to put their on “like-minded” people in position of power are all tactics utilized by Fascist Governments to remain in control of a country.
“Why, dear Lord, do we have to watch this dysfunctional, messed up family known as the Bushes, Oedipal play out their hideous neuroses on the world?s stage????”
Free elections?
“10,000 killed by Katrina.”
All of which were Bush’s fault (even the >9000 who did not actually die!). :)
Fact is, this is just a time in the life of the US. Nothing particularly special, good or bad. Certainly much more liberated and free than much of our history. . .
I think yor all crazy. first of all, President Bush is a great leader. He respondded to the hericanne as best he could, givin thet the mayor and govener are democRats. Mike brown testefeyed today thet they were disfunkshunnal. in front of a congreshunnal panel. That proves we have the gratest President ever.
I think yor all crazy. first of all, President Bush is a great leader. He respondded to the hericanne as best he could, givin thet the mayor and govener are democRats. Mike brown testefeyed today thet they were disfunkshunnal. in front of a congreshunnal panel. That proves we have the gratest President ever.
posted by Earl on 9-27-05 at 11:12 AM
This is a preview of what your comment will look like. You
The more I read postings from Bush Supporters the more I have come to believe that they just can’t handle the truth about their incompetent and criminal leader bush. That is the only explanation I can come up with why they keep repeating the lies of bush and the Republican Party in the face of so many different independent & credible statements of the true facts surrounding the Katrina fiasco.
——-