"The president should stop haunting New Orleans"

[dajoki]

NYThttp://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/14/opinion/14dowd.html?th&emc=th

A Fatal Incuriosity

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: September 14, 2005
I hate spending time in hospitals and nursing homes. I find them to be some of the most depressing places on earth.

Maybe that's why the stories of the sick and elderly who died, 45 in a New Orleans hospital and 34 in St. Rita's nursing home in the devastated St. Bernard Parish outside New Orleans, haunt me so.



At St. Rita's, 34 seniors fought to live with what little strength they had as the lights went out and the water rose over their legs, over their shoulders, over their mouths. As Gardiner Harris wrote in The Times, the failed defenses included a table nailed against a window and a couch pushed against a door.

<<snip>>

As Louisiana's death toll spiked to 423 yesterday, the state charged St. Rita's owners with multiple counts of negligent homicide, accusing them of not responding to warnings about the hurricane. "In effect," State Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. said, "I think that their inactions resulted in the death of these people."

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[China_cat]

1. Why can't someone get it through to him

that every time he goes there, the important work has to stop in order to 'protect' him and make it look like he's doing more than getting his picture taken?

STAY HOME, asshole. Let the people who are actually working get on with it.

[dajoki]

3. They're all afraid...

The aides were scared to tell the isolated president that he should cut short his vacation by a couple of days, Newsweek said, because he can be "cold and snappish in private." Mike Allen wrote in Time about one "youngish aide" who was so terrified about telling Mr. Bush he was wrong about something during the first term, he "had dry heaves" afterward.

[gratuitous]

5. You're describing the behavior of a normal human being

But Mr. Bush is far from normal when it comes to notions of his own self importance. He gets off on everything having to stop when he comes around. He likes it when an aide is so afraid to give him bad news that the aide gets the dry heaves. Like Charles Manson, fear turns Georgie on.

[Lisa]

10. so much for being a warm-hearted "people person" ...

... who doesn't stand on protocol. The kind of guy you'd want to have a drink with, indeed.

If I were in a supervisory position and found out that my staff were that scared of me -- I would want to make things right.

If it's the position they're intimidated by -- people who are frightened and hesitant, besides bumming out everyone else, can be more prone to making mistakes. A pleasant reassuring chat, just to give them more confidence and encourage them to do a good job, would go a long way. (Can you imagine President Bartlet doing that?)

If it's ME they're scared of ... I would go to extra lengths to make sure I wasn't coming across as an ogre. I'm not exactly known for being the most sociable of people, but I would be embarrassed and upset if things got this out of hand. (And I'm a college instructor, so I routinely get some pretty harsh evaluations, some of them posted online for all to see ... so I always try to be fair.)

Why is Bush's cozy, compassionate image still intact, with revelations like this? There have been reports for years that he is mean-spirited, and unkind to his staff.

[pushycat]

11. Hold on - you speak from where

Bush is not my man, but are you speaking from some kind of first-hand knowledge or what. Smugness or relaxation from the suffering of others is weird. Is my pres weird you say?

[gratuitous]

16. Speaking from first-hand observation

Bush couldn't seem to care less about events he attends where he's not the white-hot center of everyone's attention. Check the pictures of him listening to other folks speak today (Wednesday the 14th) at the UN.

But whenever he gives a speech, Bush starts getting really animated and his body language shows him real eager (leaning forward, eyes wider, smile bigger) when he's talking about death and destruction.

Keep an eye on him. Yes, Mr. Bush IS weird, to say the least. I don't think his brain functions the way most folks would consider "normal." Whether it's congenital, a result of years of substance abuse, his upbringing, or what, I have no idea. I just calls it like I sees it.

[dajoki]

18. he acts bored and childish...

when he must listen to someone else speak.

[tonkatoy57]

2. Ouch!

I think I detect a smidgen of real, unadulterated, anger in Ms. Dowd's voice. This seems to be different than her usual snarkiness. This is a pretty rough smack-down, not just the usual sniping around the edges. Will wonders never cease.

[dajoki]

4. very desevered n/t

[LittleClarkie]

8. Her mom spent time in a nursing home

so did my dad. This nursing home story hits just a tad bit too close to home for both of us and many others, I reckon.

Not that Bush acting would have saved those people. But having to practically shove his face in the news and shout LOOK is just heinous beyond words. Yeah, Mr. Decisive. I feel SO safe.

[calimary]

12. Yeah, I do, too. Welcome to DU!

She sure was smirking and hooting and full of herself when she was having Al Gore on a fork during the 2000 campaign. SO deliriously happy about her own cleverness, skewering him for dressing in earth tones and such. Oh my my my wasn't she just the wittiest one?!?!?

I wrote her an email, that I may copy off and send via snail mail, too:

My email to Maureen Dowd, 9/14/05:

Dear Ms. Dowd,

I am glad to see that another member of the mainstream media has seen the light. Your commentaries, especially lately, have been spot-on. I hope other people are listening, and I thank you for writing these things. I thank you more for feeling the motivation and outrage that it takes to put these thoughts into words.

But my appreciation is, at best, bittersweet. The rest of me, after saying "thank you" wants to yell - "HAPPY NOW?" After all, you certainly had your fun with Al Gore, so smug in your mocking of his earth-toned wardrobe adjustments, his invoking "lockboxes," his wooden personality, and your (and many others') misrepresentation that he "invented the Internet." It was that ridicule and mockery and high-handed but oh-so-impossibly-clever sneering - by YOU and the rest of the mainstream media - that helped the Bush gang get close enough in 2000 to steal the election, and to hold power ever since.

It's because YOU AND THE REST OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA were NOT vigilant, and gave the Bush machinery so many free passes for so long. YOUR failure to hold them accountable and question their actions and motives has led to this.

How many places will be in shambles by the time the Bush crew leaves office? We might not be fearful of that, at this moment, if folks like you had looked into this selfish, arrogant fraud of a man, and the weasels and idiots and toadies who surround him, a little further, and had exposed him for who and what he was. And it's THOUSANDS, by now, who would still be alive.

Better late than never, I guess...

[Booster]

17. Very well written and spot on. I guess we have to look beyond

that though and be somewhat pleased that Ms.Down has finally awaken and come to the party. As you say, "better late than never, I guess..." It really is the media's blind eyes that have gotten us in the mess, but since Katrina, at least we have seen that some of them do have a soul and care about simple humanity. Good letter to Dowd.

[Catchawave]

6. The Tango Maureen !

http://www.metrolyrics.com/lyrics/20005/RENT/Tango:_Maureen

[tinfoilinfor2005]

9. Love Rent, looking forward to the movie

and to see the film version of The Tango Maureen. :)

[Poiuyt]

7. "...looking for that bullhorn moment."

Great quote. That's exactly what he's doing.

[dajoki]

13. and like she said...

it's too late.

[cliss]

14. George go home?

At this point, George is likely to say, "Are you kidding me? After all I've spent down here**, I OWN the place".

**$52 billion at the most recent count. Well deserved, I'd say. But he'd better not expect anything for that.

[dajoki]

15. too littlte...

too late.

[bluedawg12]

19. New Play from the Book of Karl 9:14:05

< the new Geo-Geo>

He Da Man!

POTUS wid a 9 mm.

I be capping the asses of the looters ferschizell

We bee kleening up the big sleazy...easy!

With his hot, hot lady by his side ..they will kick it and law and order will be the ticket!

POTUS MAN and CONDI GIRL...OUT NEXT fRIDAY.

[Moderator]

20. dajoki

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[dajoki]

23. ok

[0007]

21. Once a spook always a spook. Good article.

[Imagevision]

22. BUSH/ROVE: clever though, using NO> for a backdrop 4 tonites speech

Too bad we don't have a "Rove" - that's what it's going to take,

http://downingstreetmemo.com/

[dajoki]

24. we need to find one...

i'm sure some dem somwhere could stand up to rove.

[FormerDittoHead]

25. They DO say that the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime. nt

[dajoki]

26. three times LOL n/t