I give up!

[yotoc]

I am withdrawing myself from the Republican Party as of right now.  12:51pm on September 13, 2005.

I will join in on your 'Bush Sux' jokes and make fun of all Republicans (except for the 'True Conservatives').

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050913/ap_on_go_ot/katrina_washington

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks.
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"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq.

"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.

The president was asked whether people should be worried about the government's ability to handle another terrorist attack given failures in responding to Katrina.

"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack? That's a very important question and it's in the national interest that we find out what went on so we can better respond," Bush replied.

He said he wanted to know both what went wrong and what went right.

As for blunders in the federal response, "I'm not going to defend the process going in," Bush said. "I am going to defend the people saving lives."

He praised relief workers at all levels. "I want people in America to understand how hard people worked to save lives down there," he said.

Bush spoke after R. David Paulison, the new acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, pledged to intensify efforts to find more permanent housing for the tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina survivors now in shelters.

[monkey!]

He's going for the honesty sympathy-vote.

[Tyson]

My sarcasm radar has completely failed this week. Are you serious, Yotoc? Or do you jest us?

Whichever. I'm very surprised, as well.

What Monkey said. Yeah.

[yotoc]

I'm dead serious.

[Tyson]

Where'd I put my Alka Seltzer?

[nacho]

That'd be great if he was actually saying anything.  I take responsibility if there was anything wrong with response to katrina, which there wasn't, but if there was I might take responsibility.

[Tyson]

It sounds like he's trying to spin it in to this sort of "I'll be a big man and take the blame for other people!" kind of thing. I can't quite figure out what's going on here.

I mean, why would he suddenly own up to his own idiocy all of a sudden?

[nacho]

They have a plan.  This all leads to a third, lifetime term. Gotta turn those ratings around.  Only need to win over 5% more  to get back into the black.  This will do it.

[monkey!]

ZORD MUST DEFEAT BUSH!

[Tyson]

They have a plan.  This all leads to a third, lifetime term. Gotta turn those ratings around.  Only need to win over 5% more  to get back into the black.  This will do it.

That's exactly why I'm so weirded out by this. Maybe the Republican strategists are really worried about how all this Iraq/Katrina fallout will hurt their chances in the next several years.

It's... So odd. WTF, mate?

[Nubbins]

I don't really understand what the big deal is about this.  Why is this upsetting to Yotoc?

I think it's definitely an attempt to raise his approval numbers from a catastrophic low point, and it'll probably work.

It's just kind of hilarious to me that a man who's entire Presidency has been about protecting the homeland and homeland security and the fight against tyranny and trying to avoid another "failure of imagination" like we had on 9/11 failed to imagine that something like a natural disaster could cripple a city that's 10 feet below sea level.... right along the sea.

I'm pissed at him, but not because he's claimed responsibility (which was the right thing to do), but because this single event has shown that the past 4 years have taught the government of this country virtually nothing about disaster management whatsoever, esentially making over half of Bush's presidency an absolute joke... smoke and fucking mirrors.

I think he should have a storm color code scale drawn up that parallels the terror alert system, because color levels fix everything.

[nacho]

I don't really understand what the big deal is about this.  Why is this upsetting to yotoc?

He thinks Katrina is hype and the liberals are using it to piss on Bush in some sort of partisan frenzy.  Which could be true...

http://www.greatsociety.org/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=639

We beat the blizzard death count today, by the way.

[Nubbins]

He thinks Katrina is hype and the liberals are using it to piss on Bush in some sort of partisan frenzy.  Which could be true...

Although I don't think Katrina is really hype, I would agree with him that the liberals are using it to piss on Bush in a partisan frenzy.  It's only a matter of time before they're screaming for impeachment for this rather than what happened in Iraq.

I heard a pretty shocking thing on NPR on my way home tonight.  My stepdad openly mocks me for listening to NPR because he says it's the worst liberal media source in the country.  I was inclined not to believe him, but tonight they were interviewing a poet on Radio Times that made me falter a little bit.  He lived in New Orleans and was talking about his experiences there over his lifetime, especially the last couple of weeks.  This poet suggested that New Orleans was simply a government experiment.  He says they wanted to see how American humanity would fare in the face of apocalyptic disaster where all lines of authority and communication have broken down... as if the 4 days in Katrina's wake was some period where the government studied the citizens left in New Orleans under some perverse microscope.

[Tyson]

No, remember: God sent it in the shape of a fetus to punish the, like, 3 abortion centers in NOLA. Compared to the three billion in California or whatever.

I'll agree that the Katrina thing is beginning to get out of hand in the media. Then again, what doesn't? This is the industry that will spend stunning amounts of time on murdered pretty white women but will then subsequently ignore a murdered black pregnant woman. That's how the media is. It's what sells.

What's selling now is scandal, partisan hackery, and lame shit.

Nothing new here.

Reminds me of that Cake song, btw:

"i'll tell all about how you cheated.
i'd like for the whole world to hear.
i'd like to get even
with you cause you're leavin'.
but sad songs and waltzes aren't selling this year.

it's a good thing that i'm not a star.
you don't know how lucky you are.
though my record may say it,
no one will play it.
sad songs and waltzes aren't selling this year."

[nacho]

 This poet suggested that New Orleans was simply a government experiment.  

Calling Tyson -- remember how you were talking about blocked radio signals and suspicious activity of that nature?

On the Bush haters.  Hey, I don't care.  All I know is that the Republicans spend so much time centralizing authority, but when something comes around and a State can't handle it, they're awful quick to blame the local governments.  Can't have it both ways.  If you want a strong executive branch and federal laws creeping into the territory of state's rights then, yeah, you kinda gotta take the good with the bad.