November 14th, 2008 By SHAUN MULLEN, TMV Columnist
GEORGE WALKER BUSH: THEN AND NOW
I had long planned to post an abridged text of George Bush’s 2000 Republican National Convention acceptance speech closer to Inauguration Day and compare his words with his deeds, but the post-mortems already are flying fast and furious. This includes a lot of revisionist clap-trap from conservative bloggers whose heads remain firmly up their backsides, including drivel to the effect that because Bush “is a kind and decent man” the excesses and failures of the last eight years should be overlooked if not excused.
I happened to be in the hall when Bush accepted the nomination that steamy August night in Philadelphia and was horrified not just by the vacuity of his words but the knowledge that up on the podium was a resume without a man into which every neoconservative and other Republican with a burr in their saddle would pour their pet animosities, causes and policies.
It was going to be rocky four or eight years, but no one could have foreseen the scope and magnitude of the Bush administration’s epic failures, including its inability to confront every major crisis on its watch.
Following are excerpts from the speech in italics and what has transpired:
One of the most historic, gut wrenching and globally-important U.S. elections ever is finally drawing to a close, and along with Americans, the world, too, is summing up what it all means. And the one underlying and inescapable narrative is this: That the most powerful nation on earth appears ready to look past the issue of race and - on the merits of character and capability - elect Senator Barack Obama as President.
“Never in its recent history, has America been on the verge of electing a candidate as personally and intellectually exceptional as Barack Obama, a man who would be the most equipped to address the dual challenge of reconciling Americans with themselves - and America with the rest of the world. Never has the American dream been raised as high and embodied so spectacularly by a candidate who is in fact of mixed race, even if he is already improperly described as the future first Black president in the history of the United-States. … Is there another country in the world capable of surpassing prejudice, stereotypes and racism to hand power to the equivalent of what is represented in the United States by Barack Obama?”
Philippe Gelie of France’s Le Figaro ponders the unfortunate record of George W. Bush, and the way that today, at the end of his second term, he has been singularly abandoned by his own supporters, most of whom are up for election in November:
“A kind of curse must be following George W. Bush. The president, who began his first term under the shock of the September 11, 2001 attacks and inaugurated his second term with debacle of Hurricane Katrina, is now completing his time in the White House under the threat of a ‘Financial 9/11.’
“His reaction to the first crisis resulted in a ’sacred unity’ around him, which lasted until the first reversal of fortune in Iraq. The second [Hurricane Katrina] exposed the incompetence of an administration silenced by loyalty. The third should have corrected those bad memories: with the appointment in 2006 of Henry Paulson, former chief of Goldman Sachs, Bush put at the head of the American Treasury an expert on financial markets, who quickly assessed the situation and proposed a drastic remedy.”
Abandoned by the Republican minority in the House of Representatives, Bush has found himself in the unusual role of having to depend on the Democratic majority in Congress. ‘Don’t let this fail,’ he said to his conservative friends. In the hallway, Paulson even put his knee to the floor in front of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House: ‘Please don’t blow up this deal,’ he asked. ‘It’s not me blowing this up. It’s the Republicans,’ she said. ‘I know, I know,’ Paulson sighed. This unusual image symbolizes the little strength that remains for a president who has fallen to 26 percent in the opinion polls, confronting a Congress which faces election: the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be replaced on November 4.”
September 17th, 2008 By DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, Assistant Editor, TMV Columnist
This is Galveston in 1900 after a huge hurricane swept through. No telephone system, no television, no internet, no text messaging, no satellites, no weatherscopes. 8000 people died there.
More of Galveston after hurricane in the year 1900. No bulldozers, no cranes, no flatbed 18 wheelers, no huge roll-offs, no electricity. It took years to put the city back to a semblance of what it had once been.
This is the least of the flotsam left by Hurricane Ike 2008. As of yesterday, 45 deaths were attributed to the hurricane. 20,000 people in Galveston were reported to have refused to evacuate.
In Gilcrest, there was once an entire village…
Graves were flooded. Coffins floated out.
For all others, there is devastation for the people, their creatures, their livestock.
Contact your local Red Cross to help. Google Red Cross and your city’s name. Google ‘Feed the Children,’ for an alternative. I witnessed both organizations doing merciful, swift, careful, tireless work when 4000 Katrina survivors were suddenly sent into a forced migration and airlifted to Denver after the hurricane.
Pardon the snarky headline, but today I witnessed something which may well have me heading for the fainting couch. Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama actually came out with a decision which was completely in step with the choice made by President George W. Bush and I was nodding my head in agreement with both of them. President Bush announced today that not only would he not be at the convention on Monday as planned, but would not be in New Orleans either. Choosing to stay out of the way of the anticipated relief efforts, he is heading home to Texas to coordinate with FEMA executives, the military and the leadership in the various Gulf States which will likely be affected.
Senator Barack Obama said that he had talked to the Louisiana governor and other officials. He added that he was monitoring the storm, but was planning no tour of the coast because he wanted to stay out of the way.
Bush apparently has learned his lesson from both Katrina and the 2004 Florida hurricane season. During Katrina, the president took mild criticism for flying over the affected areas in Air Force One, because any such air travel shuts down air lanes, no matter how pressing the need may be. In 2004, Bush took a photo op handing out food and water in the Sunshine State. The resulting chaos from his Secret Service entourage shut down traffic for hours and hindered relief efforts more than it helped.
By way of contrast, Senator John McCain and his presumptive running mate flew down to Mississippi to meet with various officials and hold press conferences highlighting everything they were doing in the face of this disaster. (One can only assume that the normal contingent of Secret Service and the throngs of press members were in tow.) We live in the era of the interwebs, cell phones, conference calls, teleconferences and 24 hour cable news services which will provide live video of everything happening on the ground 24/7. You lose nothing by not being there other than missing an opportunity for a press conference and photo opportunity.
I would also remind both Senators Obama and McCain that neither of you are currently the President. Nor are Palin or Biden the Vice President at this time. Louisiana and Mississippi both have fully-functional Governors and Senators in place to handle the impending possible crisis. It appears, at least at this time, that President Bush is on top of the situation, coordinating preparations and bracing for the storm as best as can be managed. Perhaps candidates for an election which is still over two months off should just get out of the way and let them do their jobs rather than turning this into a sideshow.
Mayor Ray Nagin is ordering the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, turning informal advice to flee from the approaching Hurricane Gustav into an official order to get out.
Mayor Ray Nagin late Saturday warned that Gustav is the “mother of all storms” and ordered a mandatory evacuation for the West Bank of New Orleans for 8 a.m. Sunday and noon for the East Bank.
“We want 100 percent evacuation,” said Nagin. “It has the potential to impact every area of this metropolitan.
Katrina had a footprint of about 400 miles, he said. Gustav is about 900 miles and growing, Nagin said.
“This is worse than a Betsy, worse than a Katrina,” Nagin said.
The mayor speculated that Gustav is so fierce Baton Rouge likely will experience 100 mph winds.
“You need to be scared and you need to get your butts out of New Orleans right now,” Nagin said.
“I am strongly, strongly encouraging everyone in this city to evacuate,” New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said at a news conference Saturday. “Start the process now.”
Sometimes you don’t know whether to cry or scream. There are many forms of corruption and waste in the government’s fulfillment of its functions, and most just make me furious. But the story of Katrina’s aftermath is one long chronicle of incompetence piled upon a degree of bureaucratic cluelessness that just boggles the mind. The waste here is of money and goods designed to alleviate the misery of our own people.
First, let’s review recent events. These illustrate one kind of problem: a tragic failure of communication between federal agencies and state agencies, and between state agencies and relief organizations that actually do the work of getting supplies to victims.
This Guest Voice post is by journalism professor and author Walter Brasch who is also a syndicated newspaper columnist and radio commentator, and president of the Pennsylvania Press Club. Guest Voice posts do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Moderate Voice or its writers.
The Politics of Humanitarian Aid
by Walter Brasch
President Bush was justifiably upset. A cyclone four days earlier had destroyed a large portion of Myanmar, and the country’s military junta was still refusing humanitarian aid. “Let the United States come to help you, help the people,” Bush pleaded with the junta. “We’re prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who’ve lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation,” said the President, “but in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country.”
With more than 20,000 dead, possibly 40,000 missing, and close to one million homeless, the junta made it clear that it, not the international community, would provide whatever humanitarian aid was necessary.
A week before the cyclone hit, President Bush extended sanctions against Myanmar by another year because of what he called that junta’s “large-scale repression of the democratic opposition.” Paranoid about anything that could threaten its power, the junta was frightened that the United States would use the cyclone as a reason to invade the country.
The junta’s response the first week of May was little different than the international concern almost three years earlier. It wasn’t the destruction of villages and the rice farming industry, but the destruction of cities and the shrimp industry. It wasn’t a cyclone named Nargis, but a hurricane named Katrina.
It’s been well documented that the Bush–Cheney Administration, with its head in Iraq, wasn’t prepared for a natural disaster. Like the leaders in Myanmar, the Bush–Cheney Administration was slow to inform the people, and slow to act during the crisis. Less known is that President Bush refused innumerable offers of assistance to the people of the Gulf Coast.
More than 20 countries—including Israel, Mexico, China, England, and the Dominican Republic—quickly offered humanitarian and financial assistance. President Bush’s first response was to tell the audience of ABC-TV’s “Good Morning, America”:
“I’m not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn’t asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country’s going to rise up and take care of it. . . . You know, we would love help, but we’re going to take care of our own business as well, and there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll succeed.”
Cuba, which has one of the best health care and disaster response systems in the world, offered substantial medical supplies and 1,600 physicians, most of them specialists. Rejected.
Venezuela offered $1 million, in addition to oil and humanitarian supplies. Rejected.
Russia offered medical supplies, evacuation equipment, a water cleansing system, a rescue helicopter, and 60 persons specially trained in search and rescue operations. Rejected.
Germany sent a military plane carrying 15 tons of emergency provisions. The United States denied it landing rights.
Not only did the federal government reject humanitarian offers from other countries, it either rejected or ignored offers by the American people and its own governmental agencies. Read the rest of this entry »
