Pour out the vitriol…
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
40 Comments
for a long time.
The thing that’s driving me crazy is there are plenty of folks on the gulf pointing cameras in people’s faces…
How come no one is giving these news crews boxes of water to pass out… They’re finding the most miserable people and stories down there (that will later go into their reels) the least they could do is hand out a couple kit-kat bars.
Or as a woman said on CNN… You guys (the news) made it to the convention center okay, how come the military can’t come over here?
Called Sens Conrad and Dorgan and Rep Pomeroy’s offices minutes ago. I said, “… get those people some food and water!” (The staff says, “..we’ll convey your sentiments to …)
Next, I’ve a mind to visit the local offices here in Fargo. At least here they may recall my past involvement in their campaign efforts.
I feel a big headache coming on… a minor inconvenience relative to others problems.
I’m beginning to wonder WTF it’s going to take to get some action on this.
Past this pattern. Picture CNN.
Report by official: We have done everything, we are doing everything, and we have been inredibly efficient. It is all good.
Report by reporter in field: People are dying.
Report by official: We had resources in place. There has been no failing.
Report by reporter: We have not seen a single federal responder.
Report by official: Thousands of troops are available to handle things.
Report by reporter: Where the fuck are the troops?
Massive fucking disconnect.
So much death…
…this could’ve been avoided…
A part of me have died as well…
Chicken Little’s Vindication
FEMA guy is pulling a Rumsfeld and blaming the press for not covering the good news stories. OMG. What the hell is wrong with this administration??
Thought that by slipping this in among all the other filth it might not get noticed? No way.
Check this out via Raw Story:
The world as I used to know it has gone insane.
From a diary at dKos:
Don’t forget also that this is just the beginning of the hurricane season. There’s a pretty good chance that the area will get hit again some time in the next couple of months…
Here’s Peggy Noonan’s take on N.O. (via Digby):
There’s a subtext to this garbage: as is so often the case, the right cries that we shouldn’t politicize this tragedy, but then goes ahead and politicizes it anyway. Unfortunately, some in the “left” of the blogosphere who ought to know better are falling for these calls to rise above politics. But one doesn’t politicize life, life is political. There are deep political causes of the disaster in New Orleans. And as Noonan illustrates, responses to the disaster are also, necessarily, political. To silence ourselves about the political causes and consequences of this catastrophe out of some sort of vague concern for the sensibilities of its victims is only to sentence others in future unnecessary tragedies to similar destruction.
James Walcott has it about right. The blood of hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands, of New Orleanians is on this administration’s hands. One does no favors to the memories of the dead, nor does one address the needs of the living, by pretending otherwise.
I agree The Nation blog is filled with neocons acting like they are above all this then in the same breath crying about receiving aid from other countries. What the fuck are we supposed to do tell them we want to preserve our tax cut so we are short on cash and can’t save our own people. Our president is an incompetent idiot, could you lend a hand all our troops are in Iraq.
From America Blog, Condi Rice is in New York, right now, getting ready to take in a Broadway Show. But, she did find a little time to stop and buy several thousand dollar pairs of shoes. When one upstanding citizen saw her, she actually screamed at her to get back to work, and Condi had security physically remove her. Can’t have the peasantry interrupting members of the King’s Court, when they are out amongst the hoi polloi. I mean, how did one of the great unwashed even get into the boutique? Tsk.
So, after Bush says his entire administration is committed to overseeing this tragedy, the Secretary of State, who could be talking to other world governments to get us an assist in this still developing catastrophe, is shopping.
I just sent the link to that story to Bourque (Canada’s breaking news site) and he’s added it on his site.
.
To come in contact with this Repugnant administration, either go get yourself some $1,000 shoes or learn to ride a bike!
but never go out camping!
Cindy Sheehan
~~~
Last night I was reading the latest Via Magazine (a rag put out by AAA) and I noticed an article about The 5 US Cities Not To Miss This Fall. New Orleans was among them. How sad and it just brought home how much was lost.
Oh no. Another hurrican brewing?
A group of DSF workers (social workers) – is being evacuated from the Hyatt hotel to the airport. They are needed there, where injured people (white people) are slowly being evacuated – or maybe they’re getting the hell out of dodge… who knows?
I have seen them used in many world disasters. They could carry out greater numbers of people, faster. They can land and take off ‘on a dime.’
Oops,
I missed this part:
In April 2004, the US Marine Corps formally accepted the first KC-130J tanker/transport into service. The aircraft was first deployed in combat in April 2005 in Iraq.
Every piece of news gets worse as time goes on. It’s hard to put into words the incredible anger and frustration I’m feeling. It would probably be all swear words if I let myself get very worked up.
I’m wearing my Booman t-shirt which will have to tell people how I feel for right now.
I would also encourage the people here to hold those we love closer and tell them that we love them. As we are seeing in NO and elsewhere, life is fragile.
USCG is focusing on search and rescue. Trying to handle the 86 ships which are, or soon will be, stacking up offshore. No ports, no navigation up the Miss. R. due to debris, sunken barges, collapsed bridges, and destroyed aids to navigation.
No ports of NO, or of Biloxi, or of Gulfport. Nearest huge commercial port is Tampa, going E. and Galveston to the W.
Economic impact impossible to predict.
Beginning with Reagan, the neocons have in the last 20 years cut the Coast Guard’s budget by about 50 percent. Even before this, our coasts were nowhere near as safe as we are led to believe.
The polls can tell us something about the breadth of disapproval of George Watchthisdrive Bush but they don’t tell us much about its intensity. I propose the John Jay Index, recalling the reaction to the Jay Treaty of 1794 and adapting some 210 year old graffiti from Boston.
Question: Which of the following best describes how you feelings toward the president?
a. Damn George Bush!
b. Damn everyone who won’t damn George Bush!!
c. Damn everyone who won’t put lights in his window and sit up all night damning George Bush!!!
Jay himself remarked that he could travel from Boston to Philadelphia by the light of his burning effigies; which suggests another index.
Congressman Conyers has a recent diary posted over at dKos that just made me sick to my stomach yet again.
This is dealing with how the new bankruptcy law is going to affect all those who have already lost so much in this disaster.
In short, federal relief for these families is going to be directly funneled to credit card companies.
Read more here. I’m going to go throw up now.
Being int he midst of this myself, this ocurred to me a couple of days ago — part of that lovely legislating they are doing when they get back to DC had BETTER take care of this or there WILL be hell to pay.
(sending this to anyone I can think of.. Boxer, Wesley Clark, even) Just hitting ‘send’ – ‘send’
“National disgust.
Mere words can not express the disgust and pure venom I feel for this callous, lazy, greedy regime.
Today Bush gave a sputtering speech and it was mostly assurances about how he will fix the pipelines. It was about OIL. GAS. And what Daddy and Billy will ask for hand outs. Again Bush LIED about not knowing about the levees. We have tons of quotes from all over that show that as an absolute LIE.
The levees didn’t get the attention they deserved due to Homeland Security’s priorities. Even after several requests and pleas for funding to shore up the levees.
What you are seeing is the collapse of an entire area due to the Republican’s bloodthirst for oil. They have killed off every social service and now those services are needed and will be needed for years to come.
There is no plan. There is no help. There is no leadership.
We heard from Canada and Venezuela days before we heard from our own President who was eating cake, playing golf and strumming a guitar while a hurricane hit our borders. He doesn’t care. He never did.
Some can apologize for Bush, Inc and the Greedy War Profiteers all they want, but the entire world is shocked that we have done NOTHING. That Bush DELAYED help. Delayed services. And destroyed FEMA by replacing it with Homeland Security.
September 1st is the FIRST day of hurricane season, folks. Day FOUR of Americans drowning, starving, dying. We have premature babies dying, we have cancer patients without their treatment, diabetics without medicine, patients sitting in their own feces because there is no water to clean them.
And when did Bush return? He asks for patience!!!!!!???? But has time to explain to us all about refineries and pipelines…. that’s his priority. GAS & GREED!
Mission Accomplished Bush Co Kool Aid drinkers. Thanks for nothing but death, blood and heartache.
Today…it doesn’t even look like America does it?
Biggest FAILURE in our history. No plan. No preparedness. Monies drained from actual help to fight an elective illegal occupation for nothing noble whatsoever.
I saw a man and a women toss an American flag to the ground after waving it and waving it, on it was written “Help!”
Don’t impeach one man. Bring them ALL up on charges of War Crimes and Destroying America.”
Louisiana wants 40,000 troops
DC is sending National Guard (about 70 guardspeople – not enough).
Q. What’s the difference between Baghdad and New Orleans?
A. The Louisiana National Guard is protecting Baghdad.
So how many days before the price of gas and groceries in Pennsylvania or some other ‘crisis’ – and just plain fatigue leads the news and the country and 100 million Americans to focus on something else, and start viewing that ‘insurgency’ as if it were in another country, a foreign country – and those images have no more emotional impact than those of Darfur. If the ‘shelters’ in other states are locked up tight like immigrant facilities – it wouldn’t be hard to do…. I bet the Red Cross loses control of them because of the unique nature of US refugee camps – bet that Kellog, Brown $ Root already has the contracts, and the blueprints for Guantanamo are still handy…
I’m so fucking broken…
Hey I just called the White House as well as Feinstein’s office (couldn’t get through to Boxer) and left a scathing comment.
To Bush (and the lady who picked up the phone actually told me to “have a nice night” I said,, WHAT??? People are dying tonight!!! I said to let Bush know that the world saw that he was eating cake, golfing and playing the guitar. We will not forget.
To Feinstein: I told the gentleman that democrats have failed us as well. He said that tomorrow Congress is going to pass a 10B relief effort… I said “THAT’S TOMORROW! PEOPLE ARE DYING TONIGHT”. I said that our ladies had better get ready to kick Bush’s butt because we are sick and tired of seeing him get off from Iraw, DSM, all the bs he seems to skate away from. NO MORE. That they ahve to get tough.
ACK! I am so mad!
Breathes…
That is the headline on the main page of WWLTV.com in New Orleans. Follow the link and you find something so vile and cruel that only a Republican leader like Hastert could spew.
05:17 PM EDT on Thursday, September 1, 2005
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that’s seven feet under sea level, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said of federal assistance for hurricane-devastated New Orleans.
“It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed,” the Illinois Republican said in an interview Wednesday with The Daily Herald of Arlington, Ill.
Hastert, in a transcript supplied by the newspaper, said there was no question that the people of New Orleans would rebuild their city, but noted that federal insurance and other federal aid was involved. “We ought to take a second look at it.
Gee, Denny Boy wants to bulldoze the place. Hey Denny, should we grab those people off the rooves first? And what about all those bodies, … just bulldoze ’em all, huh, Denny?
Dear Lord help us all. Hastert’s getting ready to cut aid while people are still dying in the streets with no help. I can think of a string of about 50 names to call him, but nothing could describe this waste product.
and all the other naysayers and rapturites should haul their worthless cadaver-like asses over to the Netherlands and see how it’s done. The Dutch have been working at it for @ 2000 yrs. and have pretty well figured it out. When you’ve got a problem you go where the answers are…a concept that’s proven foreign to the bushites. Over 27% of the Netherlands is below sea-level and this portion contains over 9.5 mil people…who’d a thunk. And it would probably cost less than the Iraqi adventure.
The incompetence and outright criminality of this administration, top to bottom, is nearly incomprehensible.
Peace
we can all move in with Oui 🙂
Wow, reading this diary made me feel physically ill. What a horrendous situation. Time to donate more to the Red Cross. I hope to god it makes a difference.
the past couple of days that I’m now feeling physically ill, actually faint and shakey with despair. I’m going to spill the final dregs of my vitriol by delivering the No-Consequence Curse upon George Bush and all his cronies:
May you get what you deserve and, Lords of Karma willing, may I be allowed to witness your accounting.
The way I project it, George should die a slow and painful death from dehydration, starvation and sun exposure preferably lying in his own feces while being consumed by fire ants and gnawed on by gators.
Cheney should be set adrift for a couple of days on a floating roof, hauled to a “refugee center” where he has a slow, painful heart attack in a lawn chair and goes unnoticed for a few days, i.e., until his corpse starts to stink.
Their wifes and daughters should be raped in the washroom of an sports dome and bleed to death while struggling against a tide of shit overflowing from the toilets.
Rumsfeld should be chained in an attic while flood waters rise to fill his ears, stifle his screams for help and drown in darkness.
Condi should be caught in a panicked mob of anorexic supermodels and filleted by a thousand stabs of stiletto heels.
Karl, Ken and Scott should be made to squeal like pigs while they’re being buggered to death by toothless rednecks with “I love Jesus” tattoos on their biceps.
And Delay and Hastert and all the rest should live for 20 years in cardboard boxes beneath highway underpasses before being pecked to death by a murder of crows.
Have I left out anyone? Can you think of more fitting demises for this evil crew?
It’s so bad to feel this much hatred but, O Ye Lords of Karma, make it so. Let Justice be done. At the very least, can you set the Wheel in motion so these people to be impeached, tried, convicted, imprisoned, gang raped and shamed into suicide?
I sent this off to the Editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram today, and he called back to verify that I had written it (a required step before publication.) It may be published.
—-
Dear Editor,
We don’t have any survey of the number of deaths and the damage to New Orleans yet, but both are going to be massive. Monday night Katrina had passed New Orleans and it looked like it was going to be surprisingly mild.
Then the levees collapsed.
This was not a surprise. In 2001 FEMA wrote that the three most likely and most devastating threats to America were a hurricane hitting New Orleans, a
terrorist attack on New York, and a massive earthquake in San Francisco. So far they have gotten two of the three correct.
The Corps of Engineers tried to get money to repair and strengthen the levees. The Bush administration cut those budget requests. They needed the money for the war on terror – and for repeated tax cuts for their wealthy supporters.
How many Americans have died this week so that Bush and the Republican Party could get those tax cuts?