"Fool me once, shame on... shame on... you. Fool me... you can't get fooled again." -- GW Bush, 9/17/02Miserable Failure. The first hit after googling this phrase leads you to George W. Bush's bio page on the White House website and has for a very long time.
But I don't think that "miserable failure" can even begin to describe the ineptitude of this cabal. Over the past few years, it's been one miserable failure after another. So many, in fact, that one can't even list them all lest they're writing a novel that would take up more shelf space than a copy of
War and Peace. So lets just examine a few, shall we?
MISERABLE FAILURE #1: 9/11A summary of pre, during and post-9/11 failures for your reading pleasureA couple of highlights that seem extremely relevant right now:
This administration claimed it had "no warning" whatsoever. Condoleezza Rice even said, "I don't think anyone could have predicted that these people... would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." However, the fact is that in addition to many warnings and intelligence information received prior to 9/11 - including evidence of using a plane as a missile - the Presidential Daily Briefing from August 6, 2001 titled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US" stated that Al Qaeda planned to hijack US planes and mentioned the World Trade Center specifically.
When calls for an independent commission investigation into 9/11 were made, the Bush administration did everything they could to stop it. Bush and Cheney went so far as to personally call Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle urging him not to conduct an investigation. When stonewalling was no longer affective and the Independent Commission finally began its work, Bush used Nixon's dictatorial doctrine of "Executive Privilege" to deny commissioners access to crucial documents. Condi Rice initially refused to testify under oath or in public, but finally relented under extreme public pressure. Bush insisted on testifying with Cheney at his side, in private, not under oath, and with no transcripts or recordings made.
They stalled, they lied about easily refutable facts, they hid under a veil of secrecy and attempted to point the finger at anyone possible but themselves - the ones in charge. A "blame game", if you will.
2,749 men, women and children lost their lives on 9/11.
MISERABLE FAILURE #2: THE WAR IN IRAQOh man, where does one even begin with this debacle? We could start with how it was pre-planned, from evidence spanning from memos (
1,
2) from their own right-wing thing tank The Project For A New American Century to the leaked British Downing Street Minutes, but the administration has emphatically insisted that Bush didn't decide to invade Iraq until the 11th hour when all other avenues had been exhausted.
Or perhaps we could examine some of the multitude of quotes from the administration about how the Iraq war was going to be a "cakewalk", that the Iraqi's would greet the US troops with "flowers", how Iraq's own oil would pay for this war, or how both Cheney and Rumsfeld insisted we would be in Iraq "weeks, not months".
Maybe we could delve into those infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction and the "imminent threat" that they posed to the United States. *cue nefarious-sounding doom music* We could talk about how they continued to lie and make claims they already knew were false, like that scary yellowcake from Niger. Fortunately, I think the whole WMD discussion can be simply summed up with the findings of the official commission:
"We were dead wrong".
As of this writing, there have been 1892 US troops killed in Iraq and has spent nearly $200 billion dollars, with no end in sight.
Not only has nobody from this administration accepted any responsibility for any of the miserable failures in Iraq, but they have blamed everyone from Army Reserve Privates to the intelligence agencies instead. "Blame game" indeed.
MISERABLE FAILURE #3: HURRICANE KATRINAThis disaster and the failures surrounding this are still unfolding by the minute. There is so much information that it's hard to keep up (such is the case with this administration). Rest assured that there are journalists, bloggers and concerned citizens everywhere documenting this information carefully as it happens.
However, some notable FYI facts:
State of Emergency Declarations:
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=16&content=353The Stafford Act (§401 and 501) requires that: "All requests for a declaration by the President that a major disaster or emergency exists shall be made by the Governor of the affected State." As part of the request, the Governor must note that the State's emergency plan has been implemented and
the situation is of such severity and magnitude that the response is beyond State and local capability and Stafford Act assistance is necessary. Based on the Governor's request, the President may declare that a major disaster or emergency exists, thus activating an array of Federal programs to assist in the response and recovery effort.
The DHS "mission statement", ie: the whole purpose of the new government cabinet created by the Bush administration:
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home2.jspDepartment of Homeland Security
Preparing America
In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort.
The purpose of FEMA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEMAThe Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA is an agency of the United States government dedicated to swift response in the event of disasters, both natural and man-made.
FEMA has responsibilities in what it defines as four domains of emergency management:
* Mitigation: Reducing the severity or likelihood of the hazard.
* Preparedness: Ensuring you have the capability to respond to the hazard.
* Response: Immediate actions taken to save lives, property, the environment, and the economy.
* Recovery: Subsequent actions taken to restore property, jobs, and services.
FEMA was a single, independent agency from it's inception in 1978 by Jimmy Carter. In 2003, it became part of the Department of Homeland Security, which federalized the agency under an executive cabinet. FEMA has basically been gutted since and partially privatized. To head the "new and improved FEMA", Bush appointed Michael D. Brown. Previously, Brown was the Commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association but was forced to resign amid allegations of incompetence and an onslaught of lawsuits. Of course, he DID have emergency response experience in his background - he was the assistant city manager with emergency services oversight in Edmond, Oklahoma in the 1970's. But cut the guy a break - he stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once.
Now that we have the who's who and what does what out of the way, let's get down to the nitty gritty.
First, let's just get this out of the way:
There are Bushbots out there that actually believe that local officials never declared a State of Emergency nor requested any federal help for days. As you can see, that is clearly horseshit. Of course, Bushbots are by nature functionally retarded when it comes to silly things like "facts", but there you have it.
I'm not going to attempt a detailed list of federal failures, because there are just SO MANY and it would take me hours to compile a comprehensive list. Fortunately, there are several places that are recording the immense failures by the federal government in response to Katrina. Here are a few:
DU'er Eloriel's ListPattern Emerges in Katrina Lack of Response StoriesFEMA FailuresOne of the most disturbing aspects of this situation is not just the lack of preparedness or response by the federal government - it's the systematic OBSTRUCTION of help and rescue efforts by FEMA that really boggles the mind. FEMA sending rescue teams away. FEMA not allowing the Red Cross to enter the city of New Orleans. FEMA cutting emergency phone lines. The list goes on and on and is being well documented.
There isn't anyone in the world that can deny that FEMA is fucking up six ways from Sunday. FEMA Director Micheal Brown, aka Baghdad Brown, and DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff have been caught in lie after repeated lie - some so blatant they're literally shocking.
And then you have the claims that "no one could have predicted that the levees would break in New Orleans". That is so blatantly, transparently false. The effects of a CAT 4 or 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans has been so widely studied and reported that even most American citizens knew of the dangers.
"In our judgment, we view this storm as a temporary disruption that is being addressed by the government and by the private sector." -- GW Bush, 9/01/05
The death toll from this monstrosity is widely believed to be in the tens of thousands. TENS OF THOUSANDS. But many, if not most of them survived the storm... they just couldn't survive the federal response.
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The whole purpose of government is to protect it's citizens. That's why we have a government in the first place. Ever since 9/11, and especially prior to the 2004 election, we have constantly heard that Republicans will protect us and keep us safe while any non neo-con wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire. They've used the fear of 9/11 to justify the new DHS and the federalizing and privatizing of FEMA, among other things. Four years later, we're not better equipped to handle a disaster. We're LESS equipped. Substantially less equipped. Someone needs to remind this cabal that they're not a goddamn royal family. They're public servants. They take our tax money and are supposed to spend it on things that improve and protect the lives of the American people. They live in OUR house, they hold congress in OUR building, they sign every piece of shitty legislation they pass with OUR pens. They work for US, and they have accountability to US. They have no right to tell us when and who we can question when they fuck up and they have no right to act like it's none of our business. We're the richest nation in the world with the most advanced and capable military in the world. We're supposed to believe that we put a FUCKING MAN ON THE MOON BUT CAN'T GET WATER TO DYING PEOPLE IN AN ACCESSIBLE AREA FOR DAYS. Anyone who can defend this shit, besides being a sociopath, has very, very low expectations from the world's last remaining superpower. Christiane Amanpour, who has witnessed practically every major world disaster first-hand for many years, stated that one of the things she found so incredible is that she has seen practically instantaneous American relief response to foreign disasters, such as emergency airlifts.
Yesterday, a reporter asked Scott McClellan "where does the buck stop with this administration?" He answered "with the president". The same president that when asked if he ever made a mistake couldn't think of a single one. The same president that said he would find out and punish the person(s) responsible for the Plame leak, but has protected Rove. The same president that allowed Army Privates to take the fall for carrying out orders to torture detainees in Iraq. The same president that hasn't uttered the words "weapons of mass destruction" in many moons. The same president that is going to investigate himself in relation to Katrina incompetency. It's so ludicrous it's almost unbelievable.
Now they're in spin mode. This administration puts more effort and thought into image, propaganda, well-timed photo-ops and political spin than they do serving the people. Dollars to donuts this administration has had more conversations on controlling the damage to their egos and careers than the damage left by Katrina. In their ultimate hypocrisy, they're attempting to lay the blame of this tragedy on the feet of local officials, while in the next breath are saying this isn't "the time" to demand accountability and capable people to handle this disaster. Unless Mayor Nagin is secretly the head of FEMA and Governor Blanco appointed him after gutting the agency and federalizing it, it doesn't wash. They declared they were not prepared to handle a disaster of this magnitude and repeatedly begged for federal help for a situation that was ALREADY supposed to be the responsibility of the feds. They're playing the bureaucratic red-tape formally-request-in-triplicate card. They're blaming local officials for not being emergency response experts when the people that are SUPPOSED to be emergency response experts are carrying on in such a deplorable way even the most die-hard Bushbots are flabbergasted.
How many more Miserable Failures is it going to take? How many more have to die? With each one, the death toll is larger and the expense is greater. It's really fascinating that this unfortunate barrage of "mistakes" of biblical proportions has befallen this poor administration but it's NEVER their fault. It's just a COINCIDENCE things starting going to complete shit in this country literally moments after they squatted in Al Gore's house. Blame someone else, so long as you don't blame us... ya know, the ones in charge making all the decisions and appointing unqualified persons to later be used as scapegoats and whatnot. Do you really want to sit around and wait for the next "mistake"? Maybe North Korea will drop a nuke on us and the administration will run around saying it could have never predicted such a thing and blame some data entry person at the Pentagon. Then their loyal followers will pass around pictures of the mushroom cloud saying that it looks exactly like a fetus having gay sex. Assuming we're not all dead, of course.
I leave you with a couple of quotes from the Republican Party Platform at the 2000 convention:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/conventions/republican/features/platform.00/"A Republican president will run the federal government much as the Republican governors run state agencies. Bureaucracy will be reduced and trimmed in size at its upper echelons. If public services can be delivered more efficiently and less expensively through the private sector, they will be privatized. A Republican president will establish accountability, reward performance, put civility back into the civil service, and restore dignity and ethics to the White House.""The United States must commit itself to doing more to assist refugees and displaced persons. A Republican administration will improve America’s longstanding practice of aiding the innocent victims of political repression, conflict, famine, and natural disasters, and we will lead other countries in responding similarly."Well they've failed at every single aspect of those promises. Miserably.
ACCOUNTABILITY NOW! IMPEACH NOW!
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