President Bush, on post-Katrina looting and lawlessness:
“I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this - whether it be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud.”
Oh you mean like how you took advantage of the nation’s fear after 9/11? Or how you committed fraud to legitimize an illegal war in Iraq? Or how you looted the budgets of essential government agencies like FEMA to pay for it all? Try leading by example, hypocrite.
[UPDATE] This was prompted by a New York Times editorial called “Waiting for a Leader,” that described Bush’s speech in response to Hurricane Katrina as, “one of the worst speeches of his life.” His whole “I sympathize with you, but I don’t fully grasp the extent of your situation” attitude reminds me of a former employer (”I know you guys are upset that your friends got let go. But we did that so that your jobs would be secure. But you have to stay focused and keep working, because I’ve got a stack of resumes on my desk from people who would love step in anytime.”) who also didn’t have a very good handle on how to motivate people in times of stress.
[UPDATE 2] Ok, so Bush just got beat in the gigantic, flaming dick-wad stakes by Illinois’ own Dennis “Denny” Hastert, who’s busy “questioning” whether New Orleans should be re-built! And I quote:
“It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed,” the Illinois Republican said in an interview Wednesday with the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill.
Ok fine, so this quote is taken out of context, and he was in the middle of talking about how troublesome it is to protect a city below sea-level from flooding, but Jesus dude, is that whole “fuck your dumb town anyway” attitude really going to win you any friends, Denny?
Or how you are turning the Super Dome into your own personal concentration camp!
I think we can assume the motives in sending people who couldn’t evacuate to the Superdome were good, and there were warnings from the start that the conditions there might grow “uncomfortable” if people were confined for very long, but it’s a shame that even with this foresight, the situation has been allowed to degrade so quickly. Again, I think it has to do with the lack of any decisive leadership in this crisis. Bush can tell people “help is coming” all he wants, but unless they really believe it, then what’s to stop them from taking the law into their own hands?
…and of course by “decisive” I really meant “credible.” Decisive leadership, we’ve got plenty of that. The hard part is making good decisions!
oh when the saints/go marching in…
over here there is a bit of incredulity re: the lack of a rapid evacuation. on the radio, after a hospital confirmed that they’d allowed the most ill to die due to lack of electricity, supplies, and so on, the brits reported that 40,000 national guard were needed to keep the peace, evacuate, sandbag, etc….
boy, wonder where those extra guards are?