Today in Iraq

Open Thread and Rant of the Day for Saturday, September 3, 2005 Wiz Kids Hurricane Katrina was show time for the Bush administration and they bombed on Broadway. For the last four years, the Bushies have mindlessly blathered about “not forgetting the lessons of 9/11" whenever they could politically exploit that tragedy to distract the public, gain political advantage, or slime and smear ordinary American citizens who question their policies. The Republican Congress gave the Bush administration tremendous authority and resources to deal with the aftermath of a disaster like 9/11, including the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. Presumably, contingency planning for dealing with a surprise attack on a major American city falls within the purview of that Cabinet official and his Department. Katrina wasn’t a surprise attack. Twenty-four hours before Katrina made landfall, NOAA predicted a greater than 50% probability that Katrina would make a direct hit on New Orleans, a scenario FEMA long-ago described as one of the two worst natural disasters facing America. That warning should have provoked an immediate response from an administration that loves to brag about how they’ve made America safer, and made a calculated risk when they made the budgetary decision to reduce funds for New Orleans levee repairs. (Here I’m giving the Bushies the benefit of the doubt. I don’t know if they made a calculated risk or if they cut funding just to administer a political fucking to a Democratic district, or if they just plain had their heads up their asses.) Despite the NOAA warning, the Bushies did nothing. Bush issued a State of Emergency declaration for Louisiana on August 27th, congratulated the Iraqis on their draft constitution on August 28th, attended a fund-raiser in Arizona (where he spoke on Medicare) on the 29th, and gave a V-J Day commemoration speech in San Diego on August 30th, where e also attended another fund-raiser. Bush declared the region a disaster area on August 29, the same day the hurricane made landfall. Bush ended is vacation two days later. The first relief convoy arrived in New Orleans yesterday morning. Wiz Kids never tire of defending the incompetence of the Bush administration. In the past few days, I’ve seen Wiz Kids blame the victims of Katrina, blame the mayor of New Orleans (as if a mayor has the municipal resources to deal with a disaster like Katrina) and blame the old standby straw man, “liberals.” Katrina was show time for Bush. Lieutenant AWOL just showed us how he'll deal with the next 9/11. Six days late, with thousands of dead Americans and hundreds of thousands more Americans transformed into homeless, jobless wandering refugees, Lieutenant AWOL turns up, tanned, rested and relaxed, just to tell everybody he really, really gives a rich-boy Yale and Harvard MBA shit about plain folks. Shame on Bush. Shame on Homeland Security, and shame on their lobotomized step-child FEMA. Shame on the Republican Congress. Shame on the Wiz Kids. Meanwhile the purple-pissing Wiz Kids tell the victims to eat cake, while the shameless Bush-pimpimg bastards spin the tall tale that compassionate Lieutenant AWOL is on the case. Wiz Kids can blow me - when they're not blowing their hero, Lieutenant AWOL. When will the Wiz Kids awaken to the fact that their president is an incompetent dunce who doesn’t give a flying fuck about them, their families or their futures? I suspect a lot of Wiz Kids on the Gulf Coast are waking up after Commander Bunnypants turned up on their demolished thresholds for grinning photo ops and media sound-bites while offering empty pabulum, empty promises and an empty mind. (I imagine young Georgie left his full wiz-and-shit soaked 9/11 boxer shorts back at the White House along with the rest of the wiz-and-shit soaked lessons he learned on 9/11.) On another note: I will instantly and remorselessly ban any poster who questions my patriotism or the patriotism of any other poster on this site. YD CWO, USA (Ret.) P.S. Wiz: Why ain't you in uniform or volunteering to help out in New Orleans? Just asking. YD