Friday, September 02, 2005

Oh, no, he didn't...

Yes, folks, he did.

Bush on CNN this morning:

"We got a lot of rebuilding to do.... the good news is and it's hard for some to see it now but out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic gulf coast... out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- the guy lost his entire house -- there's going to be fantastic house. I look forward to sitting on the porch. Out of New Orleans is going to come that great city again."

Hm. Just...Hm. Enough is enough. Let's can this jackass.

25 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't think that's what people feel like hearing at the moment, especially those without insurance and too poor to rebuild their houses. I will try to find the article, but there was a big flood in China recently and they evacuated 790,000 people. I just don't understand why they were not mass evacuations in New Orleans. Sure people were told to leave, but we're talking some very poor people here with no phones, no credit cards, no car. Katrina the ugly slut was obviously going to hit hard, it's just horrible when you can see an avoidable tragedy. I know it wasn't avoidable, I just mean that the scale of death and destruction could have been a little less.

One question. How?

02 September, 2005 13:50  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My comment has disappeared so here goes again. I am just beyond amazed that the news on New Orleans that I saw today can be happening in the richest land in the world. It's as if - if you are poor, old, black and disabled you don't count One reporter called it "the black under belly of America" and it is pretty disgusting. What do Americans think about it?

02 September, 2005 13:52  
Blogger Andraste said...

Up here in the comfy, dry, northeast, we're pretty disgusted. In 2001, FEMA told Dubya we have to worry about 3 specific things: A large-scale terrorist attack on US soil, specifically NY, a hurricane of this magnitude on the Gulf Coast, and a major earthquake in San Francisco. He ignored all three items. FEMA asked for money to upgrade the levies around NO, and better preparedness for something like this, but it clearly wasn't ready for this.

Most of America, even former Bush supporters, are completely disgusted. All this money for "homeland security" and the war in Iraq and we can't handle this. It looks like fucking Rwanda down there, and this is the richest country in the world. People are dying, and our president is making jokes about his buddies' porches. What an asshole.

And he's not going to spend a fucking penny to prepare SF for that potential earthquake. He'd probably be happy about the idea that that "town full of homos" could get wiped out. And he'll call it "God's justice" or some shit.

I'm just waiting for Pat Robertson to come out of his hole and say something stupid about NO getting its comeuppance for "all that sinning."

02 September, 2005 14:05  
Blogger Andraste said...

And Pat, you're absolutely right. The poor, black, and disabled don't count, because they DIDN'T vote for Bush. They don't exist in his WASP-centered world. IN fact, they didn't vote for anybody, because his right-wing machinery in the south made damn sure that they didn't get into the polling places. Ask Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush.

02 September, 2005 14:21  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know how these contraptions work, these "blogs". But here goes. I saw the girl in the cat ears and tail the other day. I thought of you.
2 words "Art fag". That's all it is. ( I should know)

02 September, 2005 15:58  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can't seem to get: "Walking on Sunshine" out of my head.
Does this make me a bad man?

02 September, 2005 16:15  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It most certainly doesn't make you a bad man. I remember a few years ago now when I was travelling on a bus in Germany on the way to visit the Dachau concentration camp (just outside of Munich) I fell asleep on the bus listening to my Walkman. And you know how you can never get out of your head the last song you heard? Well, it really sucked this day because I spent three hours at Dachau with none other than Monty Python's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" stuck in my head. I felt like I was evil or in some sort of black comedy. So no, thinking of that song certainly doesn't make you a bad man, and if it makes you a bad man then I am the devil incarnate

02 September, 2005 16:38  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

.....life's a piece of shit,
when you think of it....

I visited Dachau in 1973 on a school trip. The teacher remarked that you could still smell the gas. I said that was impossible, it's been almost 30 years. She replied: "You can still hear the sea from a sea shell, even the really old ones!"
She was serious!
She was a teacher
She was an American teacher
She was not my teacher

02 September, 2005 17:58  
Blogger Andraste said...

No, Not Muff Diver, you are not a bad man. I've had that fucking song in my head all week. I'm watching these news reports of death and destruction, feeling helpless, smug, stupid and safe, and at the same time going, "I'm walking on suuuuuunnnnnshiiinnnee, WAAAAAOOOOWWWW!" It's awful. I feel like shit. And I'm not evil. Well, I am, but...Hmmm.

And Welcome to you, and Growlingflowers! Welcome to my sick little world...enjoy!

Muff, my old pal, I'm really sorry. Your education has fucked you irreparably.

02 September, 2005 18:21  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pray tell, why?

02 September, 2005 18:30  
Blogger Andraste said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

02 September, 2005 18:37  
Blogger Andraste said...

I misspelled...therefore I'll re-post the comment. I have that power.

Muff, I think you had incompetent teachers, obviously. I can't get over the spelling thing. I admit it's a neurosis. Spelling & Grammar, they're my false comfort. Also, I worry about frat boys. That's a prejudice I should probably get over. Carry on...

Seriously.

02 September, 2005 18:39  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gosh muff diver, calm down... she was just saying!

(Refer to my blog for understanding of joke)

02 September, 2005 18:42  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am still trying to be funny!
All that I write, however, spelled, is meant to be funny!
I do not blame teachers for my bad spelling skills, I blame myself.
I just can't be arsed to look up words I am unsure about.
My frat experience took place in Canada. Frats are quite different there, really.
Thorazine is wonderful, innit?

02 September, 2005 19:01  
Blogger Andraste said...

Ooooohhhhhhhh......


Carry on.

02 September, 2005 19:09  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Carry on Columbus, we await your ship...

02 September, 2005 21:22  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

and what's Thorazine? Is it like Ritalin or something?

02 September, 2005 21:23  
Blogger Andraste said...

It's some sort of ritalin-like drug, I think. I'm blessed that I have no first-hand knowledge of what it is. Though that hasn't stopped me from making some rather tasteless jokes in which it is part of the punchline.

03 September, 2005 17:37  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sssshhhhhh. Tom Cruise might hear you.

04 September, 2005 10:41  
Blogger Andraste said...

If he were close enough to hear me, I'd knee him in the junk. What a loathsome little man.

04 September, 2005 10:54  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

it looks like the Bush administration asked four days before the hurricane hit if they could have some sort of state of emergency declared so as to evacuate as many citizens as possible, but it looks like the Governor of Louisiana refused because she said "that means we'll have martial law". I would prefer martial law than a massive freaking death toll. The Mayor of New Orleans fucked up big time as well, some photo of something like 255 buses which could have evacuated up to 20,000 people went to waste, an avoidable tragedy for which the local authorities in New Orleans and Louisiana must bear some responsibility. If I came across the Mayor of New Orleans I would kick him in the dick, and as for the weakassed governor of Louisiana a right hook straight to the freaking nose. And then I would move on to belt the crap out of Sean Penn, the bleeding heart fucking self aggrandising liberal that he is. He rocked up to New Orleans in a small boat with his personal photographer and a few other people because he "wanted to save all of the people on the streets that he saw on the news". Well, how about you give one or two of your millions to organisations that are trained in doing such things, fucktard? And Penn's rescue mission? A fucking joke. The boat sprung a leak after five minutes, and there was only not room in it to save about three to five people. Oh, and if I hear the racist conspiracy theories again I will screen... it was predominantly the failure of the local authorities to come up with a decent contingency or evacuation plan which made this bad hurricane worse, and there are a lot of "blacks" in positions of power in Louisiana. Also, it's very divisive. I would prefer to say that there are lots of Americans hurting down south who need everyone's help, who cares if they are black or white? They are American dammit, and they need our help.

Phew. There's my rant, just imagine it being said all in one breath.

05 September, 2005 01:52  
Blogger Andraste said...

Rachy, Amazing what different news reports I'm getting than yours! I haven't heard a thing about what you're saying here, I've had CNN on all morning and I've been searching the web, this is the first time I've heard a word about Sean Penn and his wee boat. I missed most of the reports yesterday, took my own advice and got the hell outside. Though it's interesting that it's provided fodder for more "liberal bashing," something I'm heartily sick of as well. It saddens me that "liberal" has become a bad word. Personally, I don't care about what Sean Penn tried to do, or how successful or unsuccessful he was. I don't know if he's given any money, likely we wouldn't hear about it if he did, as it strikes me that he would do it anonymously. And either way, going down in a little boat and trying to get a few people out of that mess is more than I've done with my little donation to the Red Cross, so I can't slam the guy for trying to do even that much, even if he failed.

(My politics veer from conservative to liberal, depending on the issue, and I hate little boxes and hard and fast categories, especially when words like that are used in a sneering, spitting tone.)

I do see from some BBC reports that opinion on the Bush response is extremely divided. As for a racist "conspiracy," I'm not necessarily buying that it was...only it just seems pretty clear to me that most of the people affected are poor and black, and have been historically overlooked as a group. And anyone who isn't in the disaster zone itself is at the mercy of whatever news service is reporting, and what angle they care to take.

05 September, 2005 10:28  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am also a mixture of liberal and Conservative, I prefer to call myself a libertarian because I don't really care what people do as long as no one gets hurt. It's just that Sean Penn gives liberals a bad name. He spent however much money getting down to New Orleans to climb into a pissy little dinghy which would only have been able to hold about two people. And he brought his personal photographer with him... bleeding heart or opportunist?

and you are right about the media reporting on the scene, which is why I am making sure to read everything from the farthest left to the most right media.

This is also why I am still in the process of formulating an opinion, it's too hard to say what went on now and I am sick and tired of journalists from both sides attempting political pointscoring. There are people dying in the streets and all some journos care about is pointing the finger. Can't that wait until afterwards?

06 September, 2005 10:52  
Blogger Andraste said...

Well said. For a few minutes there I got caught up in finger pointing myself, which is an all-too-human reaction to the powerlessness that comes from watching events like this take place.

I still stand by the post, though. The original post was really about Bush making stupid, insensitive remarks, which clearly show the cluelessness with which his presidency is marked. The fact that I think he's the worst president the US has ever had, for various reasons having nothing to do with the current crisis...that's another post for another day.

By the way, I did finally search out the Sean Penn story. Truly pathetic. And bringing a photographer along is suspicious. But I'm still not going to slam the guy for being a shitty sailor.

06 September, 2005 11:16  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Those remarks were absolutely stupid and totally insensitive. We don't want people breaking down and crying, but the whole la de da upbeat thing is a little in your face coming from someone who hasn't directly experienced the agony of the hurricane.

And just think how much money Sean Penn spent getting himself and his photographer to New Orleans, that same money would have been better spent by the Red Cross or something.

By the way, you have succeeded in getting more than 20 comments on one post... now that's a milestone :-)

06 September, 2005 13:05  

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