Yet Another Installment in...
...a little segment I like to call, "What the Hell is Wrong with this Country??"
Exhibit A:
In March, after Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is removed, the US Congress races against the clock to pass unconstitutional legislation to have the tube reinserted. The "Palm Sunday Compromise" is passed on voice votes in the House and Senate less than 36 hours after her tube is removed. President Bush races back to the White House from his ranch in Texas and signs the bill into law at 1:11 in the morning. All to save one life, a life that was beyond saving, a life that was no longer being lived, in the true sense of the word.
Exhibit B:
Today, five days after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the disaster relief package has still not been passed by the Congress. The Senate approved it yesterday; the House is "expected to do so today." Meanwhile, hundreds or possibly even thousands of people have drowned or suffocated in their attics in New Orleans, or starved to death, or died from dehydration or lack of medical supplies. Many of them have died, I'm sure, between Monday and today.
What the fuck??? Congress cancels vacations, and the President races back to Washington to sign a bill to save one life? But hundreds or thousands of lives don't get the same consideration?????? Why is it taking five days to get a relief package put together for these poor, starving, dying people??
I hate to play the race card, I really do. But I think America, and this administration specifically, cares less about New Orleans because the afflicted residents are mostly poor and black. The President's actions, or specifically the lack thereof, lead me to this conclusion.
And, administration puppets like Mike Brown of FEMA and Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff have learned from the master. Like Bush has done for three years with Iraq, they continue to blow sunshine up our asses, insisting that everything is "under control" and "things are going well," even though that's complete bullshit. See this excellent CNN story on the big disconnect between what federal officials are saying versus the actual truth on the ground.
New Orleans is, by all accounts, still a dangerous place right now. The lion's share of the blame of course goes to the assholes who are looting and killing and raping in the city. But one has to wonder....would there be a different set of circumstances right now if, and only if, a full third of Louisiana's National Guard troops weren't in Iraq right now??
In Mississippi, it's even higher. 40% of that state's National Guard is deployed overseas.
And yes, Guard units from other states are coming in to help. But they don't know the areas. They don't have the natural knowledge that a home-grown Guard unit would have. They're going to need to spend more time looking at maps and less time saving lives and enforcing the rule of law.
An editorial in today's New York Times said it best:
"The National Guard must be treated as America's most essential homeland security force, not as some kind of military piggy bank for the Pentagon to raid for long-term overseas missions. America clearly needs a larger active-duty Army. It just as clearly needs a homeland-based National Guard that's fully prepared and ready for any domestic emergency."
If the US Army isn't of sufficient numbers to fight this war in Iraq, our idiot president has two choices:
(1) Give up this poor pathetic excuse for a war, which will never succeed in bringing democracy to the Arab World, and bring our soldiers home before more are killed and maimed; or
(2) Institute a draft, and see how the American people like that. Watch as Bush's horrendous approval rating (in the 40s and dropping), falls even further. See if Bush's hypocritical conservative WASP supporters remain behind him when "Biff" and "Chad" and "Mortimer" are sent off to die in the desert.
Sure, Republicans are all for this war as long as Hispanics and African-Americans are fighting it, and dying in it.
Exhibit A:
In March, after Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is removed, the US Congress races against the clock to pass unconstitutional legislation to have the tube reinserted. The "Palm Sunday Compromise" is passed on voice votes in the House and Senate less than 36 hours after her tube is removed. President Bush races back to the White House from his ranch in Texas and signs the bill into law at 1:11 in the morning. All to save one life, a life that was beyond saving, a life that was no longer being lived, in the true sense of the word.
Exhibit B:
Today, five days after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the disaster relief package has still not been passed by the Congress. The Senate approved it yesterday; the House is "expected to do so today." Meanwhile, hundreds or possibly even thousands of people have drowned or suffocated in their attics in New Orleans, or starved to death, or died from dehydration or lack of medical supplies. Many of them have died, I'm sure, between Monday and today.
What the fuck??? Congress cancels vacations, and the President races back to Washington to sign a bill to save one life? But hundreds or thousands of lives don't get the same consideration?????? Why is it taking five days to get a relief package put together for these poor, starving, dying people??
I hate to play the race card, I really do. But I think America, and this administration specifically, cares less about New Orleans because the afflicted residents are mostly poor and black. The President's actions, or specifically the lack thereof, lead me to this conclusion.
And, administration puppets like Mike Brown of FEMA and Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff have learned from the master. Like Bush has done for three years with Iraq, they continue to blow sunshine up our asses, insisting that everything is "under control" and "things are going well," even though that's complete bullshit. See this excellent CNN story on the big disconnect between what federal officials are saying versus the actual truth on the ground.
New Orleans is, by all accounts, still a dangerous place right now. The lion's share of the blame of course goes to the assholes who are looting and killing and raping in the city. But one has to wonder....would there be a different set of circumstances right now if, and only if, a full third of Louisiana's National Guard troops weren't in Iraq right now??
In Mississippi, it's even higher. 40% of that state's National Guard is deployed overseas.
And yes, Guard units from other states are coming in to help. But they don't know the areas. They don't have the natural knowledge that a home-grown Guard unit would have. They're going to need to spend more time looking at maps and less time saving lives and enforcing the rule of law.
An editorial in today's New York Times said it best:
"The National Guard must be treated as America's most essential homeland security force, not as some kind of military piggy bank for the Pentagon to raid for long-term overseas missions. America clearly needs a larger active-duty Army. It just as clearly needs a homeland-based National Guard that's fully prepared and ready for any domestic emergency."
If the US Army isn't of sufficient numbers to fight this war in Iraq, our idiot president has two choices:
(1) Give up this poor pathetic excuse for a war, which will never succeed in bringing democracy to the Arab World, and bring our soldiers home before more are killed and maimed; or
(2) Institute a draft, and see how the American people like that. Watch as Bush's horrendous approval rating (in the 40s and dropping), falls even further. See if Bush's hypocritical conservative WASP supporters remain behind him when "Biff" and "Chad" and "Mortimer" are sent off to die in the desert.
Sure, Republicans are all for this war as long as Hispanics and African-Americans are fighting it, and dying in it.
Labels: politics
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