Buchanan: Summer is over for America -- and George Bush

[quaoar]

He makes some good points in this excerpt, though the first part of the column is typical Buchanan. I especially like the notion that half the money we will spend on that stupid bridge in Alaska would have fixed the levees in New Orleans.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46188

Summer is over for America – and George Bush. That unifying image of Bush atop the pile of debris in lower Manhattan days after 9-11 has been displaced by ugly accusations and recriminations over who lost New Orleans. Katrina has exposed the limits of federal power and the absence of a serious set of national priorities.

In New Orleans, those who relied on government – the New Orleans police, the mayor, Gov. Blanco, FEMA – suffered most. Those who relied on themselves for food, water and safety from marauding mobs of rapists and looters, with guns in their homes, fared best. Ultimately, U.S. and Guard troops had to provide the security before government agencies and volunteers could do their rescue work.

But hour-by-hour coverage of the damage done by Katrina to an area of the South as large as Britain must bring home the truth: We are a self-indulgent nation and an overextended empire.

Before Bush went off on his five-week vacation, he signed a $286 billion highway bill containing $24 billion in pork – 6,300 earmarked projects, among which was a quarter-billion-dollar bridge from Ketchikan, Alaska, population 8,000, to Gravina Island, population 50. Had half that sum been spent fortifying the levees of Lake Pontchartrain, New Orleans would not be underwater today.

[babylonsister]

1. Yeah! a big hug and 'kuss' to you! That kuss is from my mom!

Truth can hurt. :hug:

[madmadmad]

2. if pat says bush is toast, bush should be worried.

still hate pat though.

[joemurphy]

3. Yeah, and how about this:

<http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/2606>

As levees burst and floods continued to spread across areas hit by Hurricane Katrina yesterday, a former chief of the Army Corps of Engineers disparaged senior White House officials for "not understanding" that key elements of the region's infrastructure needed repair and rebuilding.

Mike Parker, the former head of the Army Corps of Engineers, was forced to resign in 2002 over budget disagreements with the White House. He clashed with Mitch Daniels, former director of the Office of Management and Budget, which sets the administration's annual budget goals.

"One time I took two pieces of steel into Mitch Daniels' office," Parker recalled. "They were exactly the same pieces of steel, except one had been under water in a Mississippi lock for 30 years, and the other was new. The first piece was completely corroded and falling apart because of a lack of funding. I said, 'Mitch, it doesn't matter if a terrorist blows the lock up or if it falls down because it disintegrates -- either way it's the same effect, and if we let it fall down, we have only ourselves to blame.' It made no impact on him whatsoever."

Daniels, now governor of Indiana, did not respond to a request for comment.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

4. Jesus, someone on the right is finally saying it.

"We are a self-indulgent nation and an overextended empire".

[delhurgo]

5. 30 billion a month in Iraq.

Just a couple months of the money spent in Iraq would have fixed the levees to withstand a category 5 hurricane. Katrina I believe was a category 4.

I just heard that tonight on Charlie Rose; he interviewed former Louisiana Senator John Breaux.

[liberaliraqvet26]

6. When did I start to like Pat Buchanan???

this guy is on point so many times these days. On Iraq, on the tax cuts and on this issue. A few months ago I met him in a Delray beach publix (supermarket) and talked to him for abou 5 minutes. I told him I was a moderate to liberal dem and he told me how bad shrub is. How he is not a true conservative. It was a very enlightening conversation. While I differ with Pat on immigration and religious issues he makes a lot of sense on a lot of things.

[yorkiemommie1]

7. I thought I would die when I found myself agreeing w/ him

on Iraq. He HATES the neocons. I saw his face on tv the day * started the invasion. he has a website, American Conservative, and has written excellent articles re: the neocons and empire BUT then he went ahead and endorsed * in 2004. I cancelled my subscription then.

[Lecky]

8. Pat Buchanan has been going off on Bush lately...

I'm pretty sure he's almost as disgusted as we are...

I know there are a lot of Republican Conservatives who agree with him too.