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Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech

I did happen to catch President Bush's hum-drum live speech yesterday. Leading editorials in today's papers are far more critical. The New York Times writes in Waiting for a Leader:

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

The Los Angeles Times:

The dilatory performance of George Bush during the past week has been outrageous. Almost as unbelievable as Katrina itself is the fact that the leader of the free world has been outshone by the elected leaders of a region renowned for governmental ineptitude.

....This president who flew away Monday to fundraisers in the West while the hurricane blew away entire towns in coastal Mississippi is very much his father's son. George H.W. Bush couldn't quite connect to the victims of Hurricane Andrew, nor did he mind being photographed tooling his golf cart around Kennebunkport while American troops died in the first Iraq war. After preemptively declaring a state of emergency, the younger Bush seemed equally determined to show his successors how to vacation through an apocalypse.

RenaRF at Daily Kos has several more.

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    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 09:21:26 AM EST
    It is now official. President George W. Bush, Mr. Compassionate Conservative, has a Compassion Deficit. And as I predicted yesterday, he is turning to conservative uber-villain Bill Clinton to save him from it. For the full story, see: "Bush's Compassion Deficit: Clinton to the Rescue."

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 09:25:12 AM EST
    BUSH needs to get our entire federal resources in gear, two days ago. People are dying due to: - Lack of planning, - Lack of pre-deployed resources - Lack of transportation and resources to evacuate citizens - Lack of funds for emergency response (Bush cut 'em) - Lack of fast action - Congressional PORK, that took my federal tax dollars from critical federal services and sent them to projects like the "road to nowhere" in Alaska that will cost $250 million to build a bridge that services 50 people on an island). Bush's hands are not clean. He's not a president of ALL the people. His budgets and policies help connected friends, businesses, and lobbiests rather than do the right thing. Congress's hands are not clean. They signed off on a discretionary war that depleted our treasury, will likely cost near a trillion dollars before its over, and put the nation in a financial black hole.

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 09:44:07 AM EST
    RenaRF is @ DailyKos or MyDD? (Or both?!)

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 10:22:17 AM EST
    I think the war in Iraq and Afghan pretty much prove that we are great at blowing stuff to smithereens and HORRIBLE at planning. He should be in meetings 12 hours a day until the gov't can figure out a way to rescue everyone and at least let the people know where to go and what to do. Not one news program in several hours talked about plans for those homeless and where they should go or what they should do. Piss poor planning and evacuation. President air strumming a guitar while thousands of americans are walking around in sewage infested waters aimlessly. Leadership by this administration in crisis is ABSENT.

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#6)
    by DawesFred60 on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 10:32:45 AM EST
    TalkLeft. Bush is not a real president only a tool. my brother called me from moscow and in moscow people are watching this sad joke called new orleans emergency its sad real sad, people stop my brother and ask him if the USA Is going to fall-apart now? if i was bin laden i would order some kind of attack bacause bush has done nothing but make a joke of a speech, right now you got people yelling about help in the streets in new orleans and gang shootout with the cops and total cowardly politicians who don't know what to do. what would happen if one a-bomb was toss into the mix of madness? if our non government couldn't help 100,000 living people what would happen if we had 1,000,000 people to help?..its sad real sad, but maybe bush can help with getting out of office, oh well the world is looking. Bush do the right thing and get-out now and let someone who may know how to handle a real Emergency, but one good thing is this emergency is pointing out how many poor we really have in this non nation. by the way i just paid $2.98 per gal by monday it will be $3.20 per gal, of good old american gas. third world we are here.

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 10:56:26 AM EST
    When will people realize we have elected the AntiChrist to be President of the USA?

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#8)
    by Edger on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 11:03:02 AM EST
    When will people realize we have elected the AntiChrist to be President of the USA?
    You're giving the man too much credit, I think... It would have to be one of his puppeteers if anyone... You don't seriously believe that Bush is intelligent enough to be the antichrist do you?

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#9)
    by roger on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 11:03:30 AM EST
    First, it was "My Pet Goat". Many gave W a pass, who could believe such a disaster? Now W has shown his "leadership" for the second time. I Like Fred, but I get scared when he makes sense.

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#10)
    by desertswine on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 11:08:33 AM EST
    Bush will be touring the area tomorrow. I wonder what kind of "mouse that roared" costume he'll be wearing. Something nice from the "Prisoner of Zenda" wardrobe I suspect.

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 11:22:49 AM EST
    You don't seriously believe that Bush is intelligent enough to be the antichrist do you? The devil comes in many guises.

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#3)
    by desertswine on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 11:56:01 AM EST
    Bush... warned gasoline sellers against charging artificially high prices.
    Devilish irony?

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#12)
    by Edger on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 01:14:36 PM EST
    The devil comes in many guises.
    "...some people say I swagger. In texas we call that walkin'..." "Christ... where the f**k is Karl when we need him! Jesus... will somebody get Karl in here!" "Rover! Get in here and fix this mess for me..."

    Re: Editorials Blast Bush's Katrina Speech (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 02:20:09 PM EST
    Posted by uhoh: "When will people realize we have elected the AntiChrist" Nevermind the religion, WE DID NOT ELECT BUSH, in either election. With 30 states having no recount rights since they were DIEBOLDED in 1999, we haven't had a legal federal election, or an election in those states, since. Bush lost Ohio in 2004, and thereby the electoral college, quite apart from whatever states he also lost that were Diebolded into wins. WORK at your state level to get your voting rights back, to stop your state from investing in Diebold (et al.) for-profit, secret-software, no-paper-trail, INCREDIBLY expensive voting machines, and to stop your state from allowing PARTISANS to run the elections. Help us DESTROY Diebold and ES&S, two Bush-backing companies that have betrayed the public to the level of TREASON.