Wolcott: New Orleans Died for Bush's Sins

(snip)

Over at DailyKos, Armando is cautioning liberal lefties to holster the fickle fingers of blame.

(snip)

Armando again: "Yes Bush and his administration have much to answer for. But what of the government of the State of Louisiana? The government of the City of New Orleans? I for one believe all have to answer for this. But not now. Maybe next week. But not today."

I don't mean to pick on Armando, but has he learned nothing under Bush? There is no "next week" when it comes to getting answers and fixing accountability for failure under this president. Next week never comes.

Look at 9/11. There were tough questions about the breakdown of communications at Ground Zero, the lateness in scrambling fighter jets once the hijacked planes were heading toward NY and DC, Bush's strange behavior on that day, etc., and in the aftermath those questions were considered inappropriate, "divisive." We needed to grieve first, heal; and then the tough questions could be raised.

But they weren't. As months passed, the focus was on overthrowing the Taliban and avenging 9/11, and tough questions were taken off the table as the drumbeat was about the Nation Moving Forward. The media fell into zombie lockstep behind the invigorated Bush agenda. It took the 9/11 widows and esp the "Jersey Girls" to push and shame the Congress, the media, and the administration into launching a proper investigation, otherwise it would have all slid into the memory hole apart from the iconic images of the smoking towers before their collapse.

more…
http://jameswolcott.com/

Next week there will be a new disaster, and then another, and another.

LA State government, N.O,'s local government and Louisiana's Congressional delegation of whatever party were surely not to blame for the defunding of the maintenance program necessary to inspect and raise the levees to standards. It's absurd to suggest they bear responsibility even shared responsibility for the malicious neglect of the vital flood control infrastructure. Not saying Wolcott suggested it, but he did propose blame sharing and frankly I can't accept letting Bush escape the full ownership of this disaster.

Just look at the tool that Bush appointed to head FEMA; a frigging lawyer for an Arabian Horse association. It would appear that the man has no relevant experience at all. This is the guy that shows up to help and advise local and State officials that are completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of the disaster.

Bush owns this. He rolled the dice (funding cuts) with the city and people of NO, and they came up snake eyes. I don't blame him for being worried about finger pointing.

And then, the right wing media proceeds to, yes, try to blame Clinton or somebody else.

Thanks to the experience of 8/11 and the Iraq war, DU had predicted this meme for NOLA two days ago.

I am so freakin' tired of having to remind people that if anyone wants to come back to this thread next week or next month, your link won't be worth shit.

http://jameswolcott.com/archives/2005/09/new_orleans_die.php

It's the difference between sending a friend the DU homepage versus a link to a specific discussion thread.

You FIND the permalink at the bottom of most blog entries. This one's called "link." On some, it's the timestamp, or something similar.

Shees

What is Pick's Disease? (or presenile dementia)

Pick's disease is a form of dementia characterized by a slowly progressive deterioration of social skills and changes in personality, along with impairment of intellect, memory, and language.

Although the disease varies greatly in the way it affects individuals, there is a common core of symptoms among patients which may be present at different stages of the disease.

These symptoms include loss of memory, lack of spontaneity, difficulty in thinking or concentrating, and disturbances of speech. Other symptoms include gradual emotional dullness, loss of moral judgment, and progressive dementia.

Although the disease usually affects individuals between the ages of 40 and 60, the age of onset may range from 20 to 80. Patients typically have atrophy of the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. Some nerve cells have characteristic abnormalities when viewed under a microscope. The cause of the disease is unknown.

------------------

Does any of the above sound familiar?