Re: Brownie's comic opera

See joker.

"trudogg" <trudogg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2l4oj11cg7bnk70fttif9mlnkdtd8k3q94@xxxxxxxxxx
: By Mike Whitney
:
: "I'm extremely concerned that the ability of our nation to prepare
: for and respond to disasters has been sharply eroded... It's like a
: stake has been driven in the heart of the emergency management of this
: nation."
: -- James Lee Witt, former FEMA Director
:
: Michael Brown's B-rated performance before the congressional
: investigative committee provided some welcome relief from an otherwise
: depressing week of bad news. It was like watching Suzanne Sommers try
: to play Lady Macbeth; poor Brownie was in way over his head. The
: ex-FEMA chief stuck close to his Karl Rove script and didn't give an
: inch to the blustery congressmen. He growled and snapped at the
: questions; bristling with indignation one minute and then faking
: compassion the next. All the while, he kept passing-the-buck to
: everyone within a 200 mile radius. It was a thoroughly pitiable
: presentation with Brown refusing to answer even the easiest questions
: without first consulting his army of greasy-looking lawyers.
:
: While Brown was testifying, the new casualty figures from Hurricane
: Katrina were pouring into the various news outlets, pushing the
: death-toll upwards to the 850 mark.
:
: "You killed a heck-of a lot of people, Brownie!"
:
: That should be worth something among the Bush cadres where such things
: normally earn one a place of honor at the country-club along-side the
: other homicidal maniacs.
:
: What's striking about Brown is his total inability to 'give a damn'
: about the many people who died because of his incompetence. Like so
: many others in the Bush administration, he bears his callousness like
: a badge of honor. When we talk about "the banality of evil", Brown's
: deadpan visage immediately comes to mind right behind that of ***
: Cheney.
:
: "You're a cold fish, Brownie."
:
: The congressional inquiry followed the predictable lines of a
: Washington whitewash; "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
: Brown, of course, was fitted with the leper's rattle as expected, but
: in many ways he defended himself quite admirably. He cleverly shifted
: the blame to Governor Kathleen Blanco and Mayor Ray Nagin for
: allegedly obstructing the relief effort and delaying the delivery of
: vital food and water to traumatized victims. In fact, the record shows
: that the administration intentionally withheld aid to coerce the
: Governor and mayor to surrender control of New Orleans to the Federal
: government. Brown, like Bush, doesn't mind fudging the truth if it
: saves his own hide.
:
: Brownie's scattershot accusations have played out in every newspaper
: across the country. However ridiculous, his claims have provided some
: cover for the negligence of the Bush team and put Governor Blanco and
: Mayor Nagin on the hot-seat.
:
: Brown's most revealing remarks came in response to questions about,
: "what would you have done differently?" Ironically, his biggest regret
: was not the loss of life or the abysmal failure to provide assistance
: to the people in his charge but, rather, that he "failed to set up
: media briefings".
:
: That's right, "media briefings!"
:
: Brown figured that if he'd taken control of the media-storyline, he
: would have been better able to manage public perceptions. In the
: Orwellian world of the Bush administration, shaping public opinion is
: the paramount duty of leadership. Even suffering and dying can be
: breezily overlooked if it doesn't appear on the TV or in the
: newspapers. As it happens, the media got carried away and actually
: printed the news for once. Will wonders never cease? No wonder Brownie
: was so distraught.
:
: The larger issues in Brown's testimony won't be explored by the
: mainstream media. In truth, FEMA is a phantom; a public relations
: hologram that conceals an empty-shell of an agency. It was dismantled
: under the Homeland Security Bill so that the money could be sluiced
: into projects for spying on American citizens and filling the pockets
: of Bush constituents. Nothing exists of FEMA except the name and a
: clever PR scheme to hide the facts from the American people. A careful
: look at what has taken place in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita proves
: that this is true.
:
: As for Brownie, his career-prospects have never looked brighter. The
: invitations are pouring in from Larry King, Jay Leno and countless
: others. There's even talk of him leading the upcoming Mardis Gras
: parade as the Grand-master. Just picture pasty-faced Brownie strapped
: to a float comprised of human excrement scraped from the floor of the
: Superdome winding his way down Bourbon Street, blowing kisses to his
: adoring fans.
:
: In Bush's topsy-turvy America even failure looks like triumph.


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