I do not want to see George Bush’s face or hear his voice for the next few weeks. His reaction to Katrina sickens me. He cut his 5 WEEK vacation short by TWO WHOLE DAYS (what a gem) to come back to DC. Why not fly back the minute everyone knew NO was a target? Because he doesn’t care. Nothing that doesn’t impact him directly gets him to move his keister.
The relief workers/FEMA/National Guard should have been staging in Texas BEFORE Katrina made landfall. Everyone knew NO was in danger a day or two ahead of time. Yet W has the nerve to say that “Nobody could foresee the levees breaking.” Excuse me? There have been reports for years that a direct hit hurricane would devistate New Orleans. The weather guys were saying it before the storm hit. What color is the sky in W’s world?
Oh, and he defended himself by saying he told everyone to have reports ready for him when he got back to the white house, telling him what they planned to do. So basically, he is providing ZERO leadership. NONE. It’s up to the department heads to make all the decisions, and then he’ll rubberstamp them? This is so not the guy I want running the country. And he proves it more every day.
I have no facts to back this up (yet) but I hear the reason FEMA’s response has been so piss-poor is that guy leading it got one of those good-old-boy political favoritism appointments. [update: Here is a link to a Bloomberg article on how bad FEMA has been and why.]He has no disaster experience. None. He was a lawyer. Oh, and get this, he told reporter Brian Williams last nite that FEMA had just learned about the dire situation with the people at the [edited to correct the location] Convention Center that day. WHAT? GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES! [Update: He also said the same thing to two other reporters at different times, making it look very much like a CYA lie.] Anyone whose screw-ups and incompetence have caused people to suffer and die for lack of basics like medicine and water and food, should go to jail. Period. If you get paid to do the job and cannot do it, you have been stealing from this country and are now guilty of murder. If you cannot even figure out how to airlift in WATER, you are not fit to make my fries at McDonalds, never mind run FEMA.
Oh, and according to Metafilter, “While FEMA is slow to reach those in New Orleans, they were quick to promote Operation Blessing, Pat Robertson’s controversial faith-based “charity”, linking their website second only to the Red Cross. Hours after the federal agency was exposed by the blog Sploid today, they quickly tried to hide their support for the pastor’s organization by changing their web pages.” Unbefrickinglievable.
Can you tell how angry this makes me?
