Bush should have been down in the stink

[El Fuego]

Dear Chimpy,

It’s just not as much fun this time, is it? After all, 9-11 was such a total blast. After you managed to get over the deer-in-the-headlights thing, it was one big party. Your presidency had predictably started out as the dim bulb cipher everyone thought it would be, but then you found what you thought was your real talent – stewarding the Nation through Disaster. You were so good with that megaphone, it seems like your time spent as a Yale cheerleader really paid off! And Daddy said cheer leading was sissy girl stuff! Ha!

9-11 was so exciting, the perfect lead-in to let you bang the drums of war and bang them so loudly you could drown out all voices of reason. You probably had that whole monkey in a flight suit stunt planned before you even took office. And then you could work the 9-11 angle all through your re-election campaign!

Now you’ve got another disaster on your hands, but it’s not the same. Your signature kickass bravado act isn’t going to work here. For one thing, the dead weren’t conveniently vaporized, they’re laying in the street bloated and decaying and adding to the public health hazards. Back then you got to declare war on Iraq even though we were attacked by a group of Saudi nationals. Hurricane Katrina was an act of God, so what will you do now? I do believe this would be the very same God you once said put you into office. It doesn’t make sense, but it never does.

They say you’re not one for details, but now I’m hearing little details like the fact that you gutted the Army Corp of Engineers budget so you could give your tax cut to the rich. That reaganesque mantra of “limited government” left the ACE without the resources to shore up and maintain those levees. Details, details.

You flew over New Orleans, and then I think your advance team must have gone out and found some white people for you to hug for the photo ops. These victims of Katrina, they’re not really “your people” are they? Just not your Folks. Maybe New Yorkers are more “your people” since you embraced them after 9-11, which is kind of ironic seeing as how you blasted them on the campaign trail as not being Real Americans.

When you went to New Orleans, you should have gone down in the stink, down in the stench of rotting bodies and feces and urine and teaming masses of hot sweaty starving thirsty desperation so you could get a dose of real life. This is the America you helped to foster. The poor uneducated masses unable to help themselves that you’d prefer to just not see.

You’re supposed to be all about the “culture of life,” but Life is a little messier when it isn’t in the womb where you can romanticize it. After Life is born, it gets a little more complicated. Life after its born needs to eat and drink and defecate and have a roof over its head.

And if these basic needs are not met, sometimes Life gets violent. And eventually we have the breakdown of civilization.

Welcome to Bush’s America. Welcome to the Third World.

[bahrbearian]

1. Very good letter!

[Virginian]

2. Betcha the next visit will be in jeans with rolled up shirtsleeves.

But this is the man who's shoes couldn't touch the dirt at the NJ memorial to 9/11 victims. He won't do any work, he won't go to the smelly areas. But he will dress like he came to help.