Re: Republican Party--Mission Accomplished
- From: "Jim Booth" <booth@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2005 14:46:25 -0800
Time out....time out!
It was a DEMOCRAT governor *that*
1. Being in charge of the National Guard did NOTHING!
2. Did not follow the plans that were practiced less than a year before!
3. Would *NOT* allow the feds to be in charge of all troops and relief for
days!
It was a DEMOCRAT mayor *that*
1. Cut and run when the things got tough.
2. Did *NOT* request the governor to do anything.
3. Did *not* follow the plans for evacuation of New Orleans that were
practiced less than a year before the storm.
Now then, just how in the world are you trying to blame the republicans for
this problem?
JIM
"john" <z2345678998765432y@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:78ush11213er0d8c7459knr81lt4fk9mm2@xxxxxxxxxx
>
> The right wing has never grasped the idea of preventive maintainence
> just short term profits.
>
> Don't confuse it as a "failure"
>
> It's what the Republicans promised us all along.
>
> Sure, it looks like a colossal failure: bodies floating down the
> flooded
> streets of New Orleans; five full days before the Federal Emergency
> Management Agency could get water and food to survivors of a
> devastating
> natural disaster; an all-out public relations campaign designed to fix
> the
> blame (rather than fix the problems) on anyone and everyone except the
> stewardship of George WMD Bush. But as it turns out, there wasn't
> much that
> was "natural" about the disaster, and the aftermath of Hurricane
> Katrina
> represents a resounding success of the Republican Party agenda.
>
>
>
> At its core, the Republican philosophy opposes government. Its
> all-but-sainted spiritual head, Ronald Reagan said it first and best
> and
> just the thought of his words send shivers of ecstasy up and down the
> spines
> of Republican Party faithful: "Government can't solve the problem," he
> preached, "government is the problem."
>
>
>
> Some of us apostates felt otherwise; that, perhaps, matters such as
> emergency planning constitutes a legitimate responsibility of
> government.
> Alas, we were shouted down, out-voted, and over-ruled by the
> Republican
> Party. And, despite our protestations, the Republicans have spent the
> past
> quarter century or so systematically building toward the events of the
> past
> week or so.
>
>
>
> The conscience (such as it is) of the Republican Party has long been
> one
> Grover Norquist who, when I interviewed him on the radio a few years
> ago,
> repeated his vision to "starve government so it was small enough to
> drown in
> a bathtub." Prophetic word, there, Grover: "drown." And with slim
> majorities in the House and Senate, and with Bush in the White House,
> Republicans have succeeded time and again at slashing taxes and
> cutting back
> on program after program, including FEMA.
>
>
>
> After 9/11, the Republicans folded FEMA into 21 other agencies in a
> new
> Homeland Security Department, stripping it of the Cabinet-rank that
> had
> allowed it to report directly to the president. In a further
> department
> shuffle in July, FEMA lost its historic mission of working with state
> and
> local governments on preparedness plans before disaster strikes. FEMA
> lost
> people, money, power, and authority. In financial terms, it took a
> bath.
>
>
>
> One inherently corporation-friendly (and, so, intrinsically
> Republican)
> tactic is privatization: outsourcing the rightful duties of government
> and
> dealing out the spoils of politics to private industry. Early in
> Bush's
> first term, FEMA was designated as an agency that would be privatized,
> downsized, and almost dismantled in the name of "homeland security."
> In
> June 2004, FEMA privatized its hurricane disaster plan for New
> Orleans,
> contracting the work to the lowest bidder: a Baton Rouge, La., firm
> called
> Innovative Emergency Management (IEM). One can safely assume despite
> the
> low bid, IEM executives have enough cash on hand to donate to the GOP.
>
>
>
> Mike Parker, the former head of the Army Corps of Engineers, was
> forced to
> resign in 2002 after he clashed with Mitch Daniels, former director of
> the
> Office of Management and Budget, which sets the administration's
> annual
> budget goals
>
>
>
> "One time I took two pieces of steel into Mitch Daniels' office,"
> Parker
> recalls. "They were exactly the same pieces of steel, except one had
> been
> under water in a Mississippi lock for 30 years, and the other was new.
> The
> first piece was completely corroded and falling apart because of a
> lack of
> funding. I said, 'Mitch, it doesn't matter if a terrorist blows the
> lock up
> or if it falls down because it disintegrates - either way it's the
> same
> effect, and if we let it fall down, we have only ourselves to blame.'
> It
> made no impact on him whatsoever." The Bush White House had other
> priorities.
>
>
>
> Business, for example. Pro-business Republicans boosted excessive
> development of land surrounding New Orleans that historically acted as
> a
> protective barrier to storm surges and flooding. Land development
> weakened
> this natural protection. To justify their exploitation of Mississippi
> River
> delta marshlands, Republicans argued that supporting business leads to
> jobs.
> Today, however, there are no businesses left in New Orleans. Instead
> there
> are hundreds of thousands of unemployed people and the second-most
> important
> seaport in America is desolate, which not only will contribute to
> higher
> gasoline prices for you, but also higher prices of everything you
> purchase
> that's delivered by a truck. The Republicans wholeheartedly backed a
> couple
> of oil industry executives to run the Executive Branch of the United
> States
> Government. Oil companies are enjoying record profits and windfall
> tax cuts
> from the federal treasury.
>
>
>
> Pork barrel dollars: "Bring 'em on!"
>
>
>
> With all-but-unanimous support of Republicans, George WMD Bush
> detoured from
> his post-9/11 quest to bring Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan to
> justice.
> With avid GOP backing, National Guard troops were sent from their Gulf
> Coast
> communities (along with countless amphibious personnel carriers -
> woefully
> inappropriate materiel for a desert war) to conquer Iraq, which had
> nothing
> to do with the World Trade Center disaster.
>
>
>
> Before Congress a couple of years ago, Condoleezza Rice contended, "I
> don't
> think anyone could have predicted that these people would take an
> airplane
> and slam it into the World Trade Center." Turns out, that precise
> scenario
> had been predicted. Then, this week, George WMD Bush said to Dianne
> Sawyer
> on ABC's "Good Morning America," I don't think anyone anticipated the
> breech
> of the levees." Turns out that, too, was foreseen.
>
>
>
> It all has been.
>
>
>
> The Republicans have been telling us their plans for years.
>
>
>
> "Mission Accomplished," indeed.
>
>
>
.
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