What happened to this country? 9/11 vs. Now.

[Roland99]

I remember well the way the country became one right after 9/11. We were attacked by an unknown assailant and ~3,000 people were killed in an instant. An American icon (the WTC) and the heart of our military command center (the Pentagon) were attacked, as well.

We weren't Republican/Democrat, liberal/conservative, black/white, rich/poor. We were all Americans. I had respect for Bush when he got on TV and choked back tears to address the nation.


Fast forwarding to this week and our country has again suffered a brutal attack. This time the assailant wasn't some force we could retaliate against. Rather, it was Mother Nature and part of the tragedy is due to man's long-held belief that he can conquer the earth and build whatever, whereever, with the right technology. Mother Nature proved she can outdo some of our best engineering.

There certainly is blame to go around for the levee break and it goes back beyond this administration. That's not the important point, though.

What matters now is that people, human beings, fellow Americans, both young and old and both rich and poor were and still are in need of food and water simply to survive another day.

I am disgusted to see some of the utterly callous comments around the nation, dismissing human life like a rotted apple. I am even more disgusted by this administration's apparent willful negligence in responding as fast as possible to save lives.

I would hope that everyone who has said or spoken this despicable crap would be embarrassed to admit they did so in front of their parents and even their grandparents or even their minister or their kids. Maybe some were raised with little or no morals or little or no parental involvement. All I know is that hatred is a learned trait. Somewhere along the line these people made the conscious decision that to belittle those less fortunate than themselves makes them feel better about their own miserable, impotent lives.

Maybe Lee Greenwood will come out with a song called, I'm Sad To Be An American.

[Lindacooks]

1. Remember that the 9/11 FEMA was President Clinton's.

After downgrading it from a cabinet position, slashing its budget, and folding it into Homeland 'Security', the Katrina FEMA is Bush's. ALL Bush's.

[Roland99]

3. I'm talking beyond FEMA. I'm talking an entire change of mindset.

[Lindacooks]

5. Having incompetent heartless 'leaders' gives these people permission

to voice their sick opinions. Just like the fundies who have all of a sudden become even MORE emboldended in the past year, the cruel, selfish, bigoted, stupid assholes see a cruel, selfish, bigoted, stupid asshole in the position of leader of this country and they think they're right.

[Roland99]

6. Good point. They feel validated when the country is led by callous pricks

[doublethink]

7. And who's administration was responsible for the change in that mindset?

yes the world was behind us after 911, flowers on our doorstep from everywhere. So what does the Bush regiem do? Step all over our friends from throughout the world, take advantage of the sitituation ..... for his corupt policy's of the Neo-Cons and PNAC. Bigotry and all the rest, some call it 'evil' and it has been allowed to flourish in Bushies corupt regiem ever since. I have no sympathy for this administration ..... none. They don't give a shit. They are not Christians, they are not Americans, they do not represent truth, honor, righteousness or any 'moral values'. Period. Hold your head up. What we didn't see any of this coming? Just study their policy's. Peace and Hugs.

[Justice]

2. I (very sadly) agree with your post.

We were having lunch today on our way back from vacation, and the ladies at the table near ours were complaining about "our having to pay" for the recovery. These ladies were easily 60. I was shocked.

[doublethink]

4. Either way we were doomed .....

Bush was in office then, Bush is in office now. Till that changes ...... well you know, incompetence can't be ..... anyway his tears were crocodile tears. They still are. That's all I have to say on this subject .....Okay one more thing ... NO .... this failure is a DIRECT result of Bush cutting funding down there on the levee funding ... okay now I'm done. Peace. :)

[damntexdem]

8. Here's a guess: four years of Dubya and the Bushistas.

I mean, it did take them a while to degrade the nation's ability to respond down to this level.

After all, all those political appointees at FEMA, and its placement in the Department of Homeland Insecurity, took a while to destroy the capacity that Clinton had built up at FEMA.

[pretzel4gore]

9. what about the theft of the 2k election roland?

even with a legitimate mandate, running a democratic country is a tough job, and mistakes are painful lessons learned or the old career fizzles out to the guffaws of the goddam media whose job it is to 'afflict the comfortable' ...it truly is a 'stand the heat or stay out of kitchen' thing, and few would consider the 'powers' of a democratically elected political leader worth the 24/7 hassles they must, by necessity, put up with. it's public service at its harshest point, and even a man like clinton worked 18 hour days to do the job, and clinton was a genius of sorts (he was hated by those he helped most, and loved by those he hurt worst!)...why in hell did a guy like geebush jr WANT an office like US President anyway, unless it was not 'public service' he was after, and was something that was dreamed up by gangsters?
The rot is deeper then just incompetence:: holland has functioned very well indeed for hundreds of years though it is below sea level ...new orleans was caught up in something that would never have happened had the newsmedia called bush on his theft of the 2k election, and while geebush should hang, so should the pigmedia who saw dubia as another big free meal ticket, like reagan and bush sr...

[gemlake]

10. I guess I was a 10 percenter

because I remember being united with my fellow Americans in grief but believing bush was a horrible leader. He read a speech, big deal.

Has everyone forgotten, the bushistas were spinning on 9/11, saying there was a terrorist threat against Air Force One. It's always about image to them. Even now, their concern is not for the suffering, the dead and the dying, it's about how bush is perceived by the public.

[Roland99]

11. Wish I knew then what I know now.