Re: Republican Party--Mission Accomplished
- From: "BR Eagle" <goc313@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2005 18:37:40 -0500
"Jim Booth" <booth@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:431f6c22@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 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?
It Bush. It is always Bush's fault. Everything. You must not be listening
to AirAmerica! (is it still on the air?)
>
> 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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