The papers, today, report that Bush is to send the Vice-president, Dick Cheney, to the area to "assess recovery operations" and remove "...any bureaucratic obstacles that may be preventing us from achieving out goals". I do like that last phrase! What goals is he talking about? Presumably those that ensure that Halliburton can maximise profit from the disaster without restriction or criticism from "bureaucrats" charged with looking after all the people.Bush also announced that he would lead an investigation into what went wrong in the wake of Katrina! Well that's alright then! No cover-up here! Make sure the blame for this national disaster is laid at the feet of the correct people - local (presumably Democratic) politicians, who had been denied the resources to make any real difference.
"What I intend to do is to lead an investigation to find out what went right and what went wrong," says Mr Bush. "We want to make sure that we can respond properly if there's a WMD attack or another major storm." I thought that the Department of Homeland Security, which brought in FEMA, was set up after 9/11 for just that reason - ensuring that the most wealthy and resource rich country in the World can cope in an emergency.
Moreover, Republicans are now starting to see that nailing their flag to such a buffoon is not good for their future careers. Susan Collins, a Republican said "Government at all levels failed. It is difficult to understand the lack of preparedness and ineffective initial response to a disaster that had been predicted for years, and for which specific, dire warnings had been given for days." If she had been part of the real world for the past few years, she would have known what the rest of us have known for some time.
Finally, it is interesting to note that when a hurricane hit Florida the other year, Bush had set the wheels in motion within 2 hours, declaring a State of Emergency and initial relief package for all those white, Republican voting people who had suffered in the storm. How different this time.
P.S. Don't "Tricky" and "Dubya" have lovely smiles?
3 comments:
Cheny looks like he's thinking of all the money his company is going to be making. Bush looks like he thinking of that bottle of whiskey he's going to knock off once he gets home.
It's the thought of government dollars going into Halliburton's coffers that keeps Cheney alive.
I've never been more disappointed in my federal government than now (though i'm not old enough to have lived through many other govt. shortcomings).
the fox guarding the henhouse, comes to mind. One can almost see Cheney's hand up the puppets back working his mouth.
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