Political Games - Where the fuck’s the reset button?

I think I can safely say that I speak for everyone on this one.

Hurricane Rita: Fuck you.

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Alright I’m going to make a shameless plug for the forum my friend just set up. I met her on another debate site, and she’s created her own and invited people she knows, and I think you, my 3 loyal readers, would appreciate the content and quality of the debates. We have something for everybody. Right now I’m moderating the Sports forums and “The Jello Shack”, which is just a social forum. Come on in, grab a drink, and have a good time!

Go! Now!

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Via a webcomic a friend linked me to, Queen of Wands [it’s NOT a sex thing, so no jokes about “wands”!], I found something inspirational that sums up my look on life. I’ll transcribe later. It’s in the yellow boxes starting with “People sometimes say…”.

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From Reuters, we have captured a photo of the important note the President of the United States wrote to his Secretary of State during a critical UN meeting. You gotta be shitting me…

“I think I may need a bathroom break?” Wow…

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This is not only for the 9/11 Anniversary… it’s for the victims of the Iraqi War… and Katrina… and it’s a hell of a lot better than that pathetic display of nationalistic propaganda they had in Washington 3 days ago.

Green Day: Wake Me Up When September Ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

like my fathers come to pass
seven years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends

summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

ring out the bells again
like we did when spring began
wake me up when september ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

like my father’s come to pass
twenty years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends
wake me up when september ends
wake me up when september ends

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I’m gonna shut this down for a while. No fucking point to it. I’ll post again when I god-damn feel like it.

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Working off my last three entries [links to previous 2 contained there], I have yet another update… not so much an update as a recap. Karen Wehrstein over at DKos has a diary post up summarizing most of the during- and post-hurricane fuck-ups of the federal government, and asks whether or not it appears intentional. My thinking is that it isn’t “intentional” in that they’re actively trying to kill people; I think that there is such a derth in real leadership that nobody knows what’s going on and nobody knows what to do. BushCo is just flat-out incompetent and doesn’t really care about those suffering. But the reason I link to this post is to show why them not allowing the relief agencies in makes no god-damn sense:

6) Private relief agencies (Red Cross, Salvation Army) are prevented from working in NO, by FEMA. Reason given — a) — this would keep people from leaving the city. The idea, apparently, was to make conditions so unbearable people would be forced to leave or face death. But at the same time, no transportation was being provided them. This came via Kossack SteveRose who writes that he was cagily asked by his source if he was a member of the media — b). Red Cross website confirms they aren’t allowed to go in.

7) The military is now disallowing people to leave the city on their own via the only way out, at the same time that no transportation is being provided (Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera — Fox News). In these situations the military is directed by FEMA. [emphasis mine]

That is fucked up beyond belief. Who is in charge of this?!

FIRST UPDATE: This is not simply incompetence: It is dereliction of duty.

This time, during a catastrophe, the president did not merely dither for seven minutes, but for three days, and his top advisors followed suit….

While a rising chorus in the press has taken the White House, FEMA and the Pentagon to task for performing miserably in their response to the human disaster on the Gulf Coast, few have focused on the most telling aspect of the entire failure. It’s not just incompetence. It’s a shameful lack of concern: The 9/11 “My Pet Goat� dithering on an administration-wide scale.

Simply stated, the president and his top advisers chose vacation over action.

[snip]

While the 9/11 “My Pet Goat� episode was certainly illuminating, it’s not certain what might have worked out better that day had the president dropped the book and taken action. But his failure to grab the reins in the hurricane catastrophe for three days this week probably doomed hundreds, or more, to death.

This is not mere incompetence, but dereliction of duty. The press should call it by its proper name. [emphasis mine]

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So as the level of incompetency of our Republican federal government becomes increasingly obvious, the right is pleading with the left to please, please stop pointing out how badly Bush fucked up in the past 4 years to prepare New Orleans for this. Oh, and how he continued his vacation for TWO WHOLE FUCKING DAYS after the worse disaster since 1906 hit the U.S. and one of its major cities was destroyed. And how the evacuation plan… well there was none, actually. And how our relief effort is late, slow, and uncoordinated. Because, you know, doing that would be partisan. No, that’d be telling the truth. You want to know what partisan is? This is what “playing politics” looks like at its worse:

We heard a convoy of those [relief] trucks on this online scanner feed last night. They were en route, and the drivers were asking about the parking situation at the Superdome, not long after midnight.

They held the trucks.

All so President Dickhead could look good, arriving with the aid. When you risk people’s lives, that is playing politics; when you delay needed help and food and water, that is being partisan. Pointing out how President Fucktard is making this disaster worse? That’s telling the fucking truth.

FIRST UPDATE: This is also what real partisanship looks like. This is the face of those who would use this disaster to push their own agenda.

To the Bush apologists who think we’re using this as an excuse to bash Bush… no. He’s doing this to himself. Did we use 9/11 as an excuse to bash him? Hm? Within 12 hours he had responded quickly and leaderly enough to rally the country, at least to the cause of bringing the criminals to justice [what happened with that, by the way?]. He took 2 days before even doing anything. He didn’t even come back to the god-damn White House, to the Situation Room. Dick Cheney is in hiding. Condi Rice was in New York shoe shopping. What kind of President and Administration does that? Bush and his cabinet and agency heads and his Republican congressmen have no one to blame but themselves for this. If they had responded promptly, if they actually showed compassion instead of blaming the victims for being too poor to leave, then no I wouldn’t have written 3 link-ridden posts about it. But they haven’t done it. They’ve only perpetuated the anarchy and the death, and I cannot forgive, excuse, or condone that.

SECOND UPDATE: I don’t know if I linked to this already, but regardless, this is required reading. It’s heart-wrenching. Depressing. I don’t even know what to say anymore…

THIRD UPDATE: It looks like there will be an investigation. Bipartisan, too. And I’m going to echo Kos on this one: “No whitewashes. Find out who fucked up. Republicans, Democrats, I don’t care. Anyone who screwed up should be tarred and feathered.” Fuck yes. Let’s nail whoever allowed this already devastating catastrophe to become much, much worse…

FOURTH UPDATE: Oh btw, after Bush had his little photo-op today… he went and played golf. What an asshole. In the meantime, we had fireworks in the Capital tonight. Smart. Real fucking smart. Even if it is to commemorate the ending of World War II, you don’t suppose they could have, I don’t know, had a quiet candlelight vigil to honor those who lost their lives in that war and the dead, wounded, starving, and thirsty people in the Gulf.

FIFTH UPDATE: Regarding the truck story, apparently the trucks were ready to go MONDAY and were prevented from entering the city until President Cockbite was doing his photo-op. A trucker was on ABC News claiming this. We’re looking for a transcript/recording. I’ll update as this develops.

SIXTH UPDATE: Now I’m just fucking pissed. You think I was mad before? President Bush is fucking lucky he’s not here or he’d be deaf from me screaming at him the whole fucking night. This has been confirmed. Still waiting for the truck thing, but this is far, far worse. Don’t believe me? The Red Cross has been forbidden by Homeland Security to enter New Orleans. And other supplies and aid are being held back as well. Want to hear the reason for the Red Cross being blocked?

Homeland Security (her term, not mine) told the Red Cross DO NOT enter New Orleans and says this still now. And why, you may ask? Not Security. Not worker safety. Not lack of access. It was because people would be drawn to the Red Cross food and they wouldn’t want to go to be evacuated. So I asked: “The people starving and dying at the convention center yesterday couldn’t get Red Cross food and water because they would be drawn to the food at the convention center, where they were, and not want to be evacuated from the convention center where no evacuations were going on or planned and all the while they are dying“. (Actually, it was a couple questions.) She went back into her spiel about all of the other good work they were doing. When I asked again, she said yes, that was true. She seem relieved to admit it. [emphasis mine]

WHAT THE FUCK?!? And here’s what the woman [Andrea] who just got out of there has to say:

I have spoken to relief efforts and understand that there are plenty of supplies waiting for these people, BUT THEY ARE NOT BEING ALLOWED INTO THE CITY.The National Guard has the city surrounded and is not letting anyone in or out, except the buses being evacuated. The excuse that they can not bring supplies into New Orleans because of the looting and gun fire is not a valid excuse - if they are too afraid to enter the streets of New Orleans, they need to be air dropping supplies into the city. If the United States is capable of sending planes that can withstand enemy fire to drop bombs in Iraq, certainly they are capable of air dropping supplies into a city where the worst of the gunfire they could encouter would be from semi-automatics.

Our government is killing the people of New Orleans. By witholding supplies, they are ensuring more deaths, and I hold them complicit.Please bring this matter to the attention of the people of the United States. They need to know that New Orleans is deliberatly being denied food and water. [emphasis in original]

You fucking bastards. Go to fucking hell. How could you do this? How?! How in God’s name do you justify such a horrible, horrible act?! How in the name of all that is good in this universe can you do this to human beings?!

The retribution is coming, and it will be swift. I will not give up until each and every last person responsible for these heinous crimes, be they Republican, Democrat, Green, Purple, or anything, will be held to account for their actions. No more. Enough is enough.

SEVENTH UPDATE: The word now is that FEMA held the supplies. Does it matter who at this point? Find them, slap them with a few hundred counts of criminal negligence resulting in death. 25-life should be enough for whatever bastard made the decision. The only thing that matters in the next 24-48 hours is getting these people food and water. But we can’t do that while NOLA is closed off to the aid workers. What the hell is going on at this point? When will the adults take charge?

EIGHTH UPDATE: They’ve locked everyone in the Convention Center and they have checkpoints stopping people from leaving the city. This is a disgrace. I have never been ashamed to be an American [ashamed of acts by my government, yes], but I am now.

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Ahh, I love PZ Myers. He’s hilarious, just at a time when I need some humor… here’s his post on why he got into science:

You’d have to be a freakin’ idiot to do this work for the salary. Fortunately, I’m not doing it for the money—it’s all about the groupies and the esteem of the general public, who respect science so much.

Haha! So very, very true…

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The most sickening part of all this has been the way the Bush officials have been patting themselves on the back for how well they’ve responded to the disaster.

Patrick Rhode, FEMA’s deputy director, defended its performance as “probably one of the most efficient and effective responses in the country’s history.”

You fucking pig. You god-damn self-righteous ass-covering pig. You call this efficient? You call this effective? You bastard.

Fire them. Now. Fire them all

SECOND UPDATE: Just to remind everyone - yes, the aid offers have been pouring in, Bush initially refused them, but the changed his mind [flip-flopped if you will] and is now accepting them [thank goodness]. Also, watching the conservative blogosphere devour itself over this has been interesting. Even General Chickenhawk admitted that Bush and the republicans fucked up. Politics are going to be seriously whacked in the coming months.

THIRD UPDATE: Pentagon says media showing too much sympathy for victims, not enough sympathy for government. No, I’m not making this shit up. This is fucking ridiculous. These people have no hearts. President Fucktard:

We’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we’re going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we’re going to help these communities rebuild. The good news is — and it’s hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)

Cockbiter. And what pearls of wisdom did he have for a women with a little girl who lost her bf in Mississippi?

“All right. Hang in there.”

Heartless bastard.

FOURTH UPDATE: The media is pissed. I have never, ever seen them this riled up before. They’re actually fact-checking the Assministration instead of simply giving us the he said-she said bullshit we’ve been getting for the past 4 and a half years. About fucking time, even if it is 5 years too late.

FIFTH UPDATE: I think someone needs to beat President Clueless about the head. Does the man actually know anything?!

Bush to women: “There’s a Salvation Army center that I want to, that I’ll tell you where it is, and they’ll get you some help. I’m sorry…. They’ll help you…..

Woman 1: “I came here looking for clothes…”

Bush: “They’ll get you some clothes, at the Salvation Army center…”

Woman 1: “We don’t have anything…”

Bush: “I understand…. Do you know where the center is, that I’m talking to you about?”

Guy with shades: “There’s no center there, sir, it’s a truck.”

Bush: “There’s trucks?”

Guy: “There’s a school, a school about two miles away…..”

Bush: “But isn’t there a Salvation center down there?”

Guy: “No that’s wiped out….”

Bush: “A temporary center? ”

Guy: “No sir they’ve got a truck there, for food.”

Bush: “That’s what I’m saying, for food and water.”

Bush turns to the sister who’s been saying how she needs clothes.

Bush to sister: “You need food and water.”

Kos is right… it does read like an SNL skit… jebus…

And this doesn’t make a lick of sense: Asked later how the richest country on Earth could not meet the needs of its people, Bush said “I am satisfied with the response. I am not satisfied with all the results.” So he’s blaming the people on the ground, in other words. Way to go yet again, Mr. Return Integrity and Accountability to the White House, you god-damned son of a bitch.

SIXTH UPDATE: And while our incompetent leadership pats itself on the back, the rest of the world is in complete and absolute shock at the total ineptitude of our government’s response.

“A modern metropolis sinking in water and into anarchy — it is a really cruel spectacle for a champion of security like Bush,” France’s left-leaning Liberation newspaper said.

“(Al Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden, nice and dry in his hideaway, must be killing himself laughing.”

Yep… we can’t leave Iraq cause that’d be “empowering the terrorists”, but letting one of our major cities get destroyed? IOKIYAR!

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So I’m sitting here with tears on my face reading story after story after story after story after story about the horrors going on in New Orleans at the moment… and then I’m reading all these stories about the Bush Assministration and some conservatives being absolute fucktards. Even I can’t believe what’s being said and done by these heartless bastards. What the hell is wrong with you people?!

Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!� Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman.

Angry Lady, whoever you are, we love you. You are a true American, and we’ll go shoe shopping with you anytime.

Again, Please Donate!!

UPDATE: Oh, and by the way… multiple nations have offered aid to the U.S., but Bush has refused it. What a fucking moron.

SECOND UPDATE: This is heartwrenching.

“Why aren’t they helping us? We are the forgotten,” said Rachel Carey, 23, a clerk at Charity Hospital, tending to her 4-year-old daughter.

“We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten,” Compass said. “Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon.”

. . . “A lot of people weren’t able to evacuate,” said John Murray, 52. “It’s like they’re punishing us for not being able to evacuate.”

“All I want to say to Mayor Ray Nagin is thank you for helping us,” Yolanda McZeal, 43, said calmly, sarcastically and bitterly. “Governor Blanco, thank you for helping us. President Bush, thank you for helping us.” [Emphasis Mine]

Thanks a lot, political leaders. Way to be total abject failures. You’re not forgotten, people of New Orleans; the people of America remember you, the people of America [and the whole world] care about you, and we’re trying to do the best damn job we can. It’s our indifferent, heartless, elitist, inept political leadership that wants to forget you. We won’t let them.

THIRD UPDATE: Wow, these assholes really are oblivious aren’t they?

Robert Siegel: But Mr. Secretary when you say we shouldn’t listen to rumors. These are things coming from reporters who have not only covered many many other hurricanes, they’ve covered wars and refugee camps. These aren’t rumors, they are saying there are thousands of people there.

[Homeland “Security” Secretary] Chertoff: I would be–I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don’t have food and water.

Really? You fucking jackass. Impeach them all, now! Bush should not be president anymore. For God’s sake you could find reports about people without food and water on MY blog, let alone the real blogs on the internets. Fucktards. I don’t believe in a hell [certainly not one where one suffers eternally], but if there is one they’re gonna be in it for a long ass fucking time. Cockbiting fucktards.

FOURTH UPDATE: Things just keep getting worse:

[A]rmed thugs have taken control of the secondary makeshift shelter at the convention center. Superintendent Compass said that the thugs repelled eight squads of 11 officers each he had sent to secure the place and that rapes and assaults were occurring unimpeded in the neighboring streets as criminals “preyed upon” passers-by, including stranded tourists.

Mr. Compass said the federal government had taken too long to send in the thousands of troops - as well as the supplies, fuel, vehicles, water and food - needed to stabilize his now “very, very tenuous” city.

Col. Terry Ebbert, director of homeland security for New Orleans, concurred and he was particularly pungent in his criticism. Asserting that the whole recovery operation had been “carried on the backs of the little guys for four goddamn days,” he said “the rest of the goddamn nation can’t get us any resources for security.”

“We are like little birds with our mouths open and you don’t have to be very smart to know where to drop the worm,” Colonel Ebbert said. “It’s criminal within the confines of the United States that within one hour of the hurricane they weren’t force-feeding us. It’s like FEMA has never been to a hurricane.”

I’m sorry Col. Ebbert. My government stopped being accountable to me in March 2003. Otherwise I’d have had them there 10 minutes after the hurricane was gone. I’m sorry. Which is more than I can say for Mr. George Fucktard Bush.

FIFTH UPDATE: Looks like President Stupid realized that international aid might not be so bad after all. Yeh, we’ve been getting shitloads of aid offers from around the world, but were initially not accepting them. So any fucking wingnut who bitches about the world being hypocrites and not helping us in our time of need, sit down and shut the fuck up, because you’re the god-damn hypocrites who supported our fucktard of a president when he offered barely ANYTHING after the tsunami. The world is helping us, despite the pricks we’ve been to them. Shocking.

SIXTH UPDATE: President Fucktard said today that so far the rescue and relief efforts have been “unacceptable”. Well no shit, really?! This is Day 5 you jackass! Want to know why it’s unacceptable? Because people have predicted this exact catastrophe for more than 4 years, you had 2 days advance notice that the storm would hit New Orleans, and you did fucking nothing. You delivered a cake and played your guitar. Fuck you. You are an incompetent moron, and the rest of your uncaring assministration, who always gets credit for being “so intelligent” [a common wingnut argument: sure, Bush isn’t smart, but he surrounds himself with smart people!], is either (a.) waaaay over-rated in the smarts department, or worse, (b.), a bunch of apathetic nonchalant fuckjobs. Fuck you.

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