BUSH+Co. have repeatedly denied funding for hurricane preparation:
Editor & Publisher
Chicago Tribune
In fairness, Corps officials say funding levels aren't to blame for flooding. However, they may be attempting to avoid the fate of Michael Parker:
...a former Republican Mississippi congressman who headed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from October 2001 until March 2002, when he was ousted after publicly criticizing a Bush administration proposal to cut the corps' budget.
(quote from Chicago Tribune article linked in first section.)
Wouldn't it be ironic if there was another terrorist attack and we weren't equipped to deal with it due to our involvement in Iraq? This might happen now or later; while I know that extensive planning goes in to massive [9-11 scale or greater] attacks, now would be an opportune time to maximize impact if one were capable of implementing some large scale attack on the U.S. at this point. By the way, did anyone notice that BUSH+Co. have shifted to yet another reason/prime directive for our Iraq involvement?
President Bush on Tuesday answered growing anti-war protests with a fresh reason for American troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields that he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists...
(from an AP article by Jennifer Loven which can be found on many news sites.) It seems as though each of the reasons fall apart and their machine is forced to come closer to the truth at each turn...
Why was Bush playing golf on Tuesday? While I can't substantiate that with a reputable link - I've read it repeatedly in discussions of news coverage - I can pose the following question: how long did it take Bush to arrive at the World Trade Center site, or to mobilize in response to those attacks?
Bush brushed off criticism that he did not return to Washington from his month-long stay at his Texas ranch on Tuesday, in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, instead of Wednesday. "I hope people don't ... play politics during this period of time. This is a natural disaster - the likes of which our country may have never seen before - and it's a national emergency.
(from another widely published AP article.)
The military aid promised will arrive sometime next week. That's a nice gesture - but knowing the potential impact of the hurricane, why weren't additional forces mobilized before the storm hit? They should've arrived hours after Katrina made landfall... not days, much less even a single week. It seems to me that the response to the 9-11 attacks were, even if not as rapid as we'd have preferred, quicker than the response to this predicted and well known threat. Why have the BUSH+Co. actions and responses in the case of Katrina been so lackadaisical?!? How many more will die due to their impotence?
(Please note that while we know now, due to the investigations following 9-11, that many branches of our federal government knew of the threats posed in that attack previous to their enactment, the position of BUSH+Co. has been that of a post-event reaction in that case and as such is maintained here for comparison. However, their failure to prevent it might be construed as intentional, or even planned, when one considers what was known, when it was known, and the actions of the administration following the attacks.)
Finally, the waste that was sniping at the rescuers should be disemboweled, vertically, from the perineum to the esophagus. Very slowly.
There's much more to be written, but I've got to sleep. I hope this entry wasn't as scattered as it seems upon my re-reading it.
[k]
if your kidneys are hurting when you woke up. it's not because of the booze. it's from me punching you there.
you bastard.