Our Fine President

[JoshK]

What the hell do we pay this guy for!??

 

From what I can tell, his sole duty seems to be constantly justfying his quagmire in Iraq. A national disaster of epic proportions hit and the best he can do is fly over a few days later. There is no federal leadership here and he claims the efforts are "satisfactory." Furthermore, it seems about 4 out of 5 of his comments deal with "stopping looting" rather than helping people. Does this pile of shit actually think the people down there care one damn bit about the looters?!?! They want food, water, shelter, medicine, a dry place to stand. Then he continues by making various comments on how private enterprise and state resources are the way to handle these problems. It's no wonder his approval rating is at 40%. It will drop further. He is a disgrace to our country and to his office.

 

If our federal government cannot respond to a disaster we knew was coming for days in advance how do we expect to respond to a biological or nuclear attack?

 

I await the amusement we will all enjoy when PP and crew try to find some way to justify how he is handling things just fine.

[Jim]

The guy is as bright as a tree stump. What a legacy he's leaving.

[ChrisT]

One thing's for sure, the GOP isn't winning any African American votes here...

[Stemalot]

his approval rating is at 40%? that's high for someone who has fucked up so many issues in the country...

[bunglehead]

Hey Josh:

He cut off his end of summer vacation early to fly over New Orleans! That's a huge sacrifice for him! Hell, they even took the plane down to 2500 feet so he could see the devestation! Maybe he even saw people!

Oh, wait a minute: They didn't vote for him so fuck those guys.

(Note: In case some of you humor impaired fuck heads out there don't get this, I'm KIDDING. I think the president has a duty to care for people even if they voted for the other guy)

[Dru]

what do you think his approval rating is in new orleans right now?

 

oh wait - "those people" don't vote.

[jon]

Those people wouldn't be needing the help if they had left like they had been told to. In New Orleans it was mandatory that they leave and they were provided with means to do so, and they had days and days to do it. For fucks sake I was on the other side of the world and I knew there was a mandatory evacuation.

 

I think Bush is a fucktard but he didn't create the hurricane and he didn't tell the people to stay.

[Lyger]

I just want to know how the hell he got elected...twice?!

[Jim]

Did I miss the part where they provided transportation for the 100,000 people or so that didn't have the resources to get themselves outta town?

[tivoli_mike]

Ah, yes, but you aren't poor or infirm. Florida at least sends in county buses to evacuate those without cars, here was a free-market evacuation

[jon]

Did I miss the part where they provided transportation for the 100,000 people or so that didn't have the resources to get themselves outta town?

 

Yes, you and 100,000 others

[griz]

Someone should tell him the rich are suffering down there too... maybe that will get him off his ass. I've got a friend down there who is wondering what he and his wife are going to do in about 5 days for water and food. He considers himself quite fortunate compared to others... and his home was trashed and left unusable.

[bunglehead]

Geez, I feel bad for him having to think and stuff.

Maybe he could take in a Broadway play with Ms. Rice,

or maybe he should go mountain biking in that closed to the public wildlife refuge he's fond of poaching the trails in.

I just hope that the possibly worst disaster in our history

didn't ruin his annual end of summer vacation to the ranch he bought when he was governor.

[Dru]

I feel bad for the rich people too

They are really suffering

The looters and poor people are stealing their food and water, dying in their hospitals, shitting on their stadium floors, and think of the water damage to their mansions.

On the plus side they will get a disproportionate share of the disaster relief.

Their shares in the insurance companies might go down, but the shares in construction companies will go up to compensate.

 

A disaster is such a bonanza for GDP!

[jmace]

they were provided with means to do so, and they had days and days to do it.

 

I dont think blaming people who stayed behind is correct, I think leaving the poor behind was poor form and I think the people who run Louisiana are to blame and not Bush.

 

According to Census only 37% of New Orleans population is black yet I have not seen one white person on TV. I thnk that is the sad part and i dont know how you can blame bush for that.

[ivan]

I just want to know how the hell he got elected...twice?!

well, 57% of the luisianians who actually got off their asses voted for him for starters

[griz]

ah, karma at it's best.

[mattp]

People of every political persuasion are prone to trying to capitalize off of any given news story and this one is no different. As much as I dislike Mr. Bush, I gotta say I wince every time my office mate goes into a rant about how maybe THIS TIME everybody in America will wake up and see how Bush policies led to the New Orleans disaster. It sometimes almost sounds like he's glad to see a disaster like this if it can in any way arguably be even remotely attributed to GWB and friends.

 

However, it is a fair question, is it not, whether Bush tax cuts and a completely optional War led to the diversion of funds and manpower elsewhere when the Army Corps of Engineers was saying they wanted to fix up the levees in New Orleans? Or might it be fair to ask whether, if so many of our National Guardsman were not busy elsewhere, we might have been able to have a quicker and stronger response ot the disaster in New Orleans? The answer may be that the tax cuts and the war were more important, or that the Army Corps' proposed repairs would not have been enough to prevent this disaster, or that the National Guard wouldn't have been any more available, or that one has to be wary of such "what if" scenario's, and those might be fair answers... but the questions are fair, too.

[TREETOAD]

Iraq=$1billion/day

[JayB]

 

A disaster is such a bonanza for GDP!

 

You are probably joking, but this is a common misconception. There's a bustle of activity to repair the damage, but the net affect on national wealth and long-term GDP growth is the same as destroying your home - which you work out of, then depleting your life savings to cover the loss of income and rebuild the house. Yeah - you've got a new house, and you depleting your savings provided temporary work for some people - but the net improvement in your lodgings/office equipment is zero, you lost a ton of income, your savings have been depleted in a massive way, and your capital that could have been deployed in a million other ways that would have increased your own output, or someone elses - has done nothing but get you back to square one.

 

All disasters result in a real depletion of and less-than-optimal allocation of resources, and I suspect there are very few people out there who will not feel the effects of this one in some way, as this hit core energy and transportation infrastructure in a way that no previous disaster in the country's history has.

[ChrisT]

I agree that it's easy to point fingers at a time like this and I keep thinking to myself "I wonder how Clinton would have handled this situation?" But I also keep thinking of Bush's slow reaction time on 9/11/01 when he sat in a classroom in Florida while the NY World Trade Center Towers crumbled to the ground. GW just doesn't impress me as a man of action IMO.

[Dru]

What is Michael Moore doing to help?

[tivoli_mike]

He sent out an email spewing his normal stuff

[murraysovereign]

You are probably joking, but this is a common misconception.

 

Agreed - there will be a short-term spike in economic activity due to the immediate rescue operations and the rebuilding, and that will happen in a comparitively compressed time span and will have an effect on GDP that can be directly attributed to hurricane Katrina. But the longer-term reduction in future investment (because all that money got spent today on rebuilding, rather than being invested tomorrow) and the resulting decrease in economic activity will be harder to track through the GDP figures. The effect will be there, but it will be almost impossible to identify and attribute to hurricane Katrina. So it's understandable that people only see the GDP increase in the aftermath, but they don't see the even greater decrease - because it manifests itself in the form of foregone potential future GDP increases, and even PP would have a hard time producing a graph that can clearly quantify that.

 

Gawd - will you listen to me? It's amazing the lengths to which I'll go to avoid working

[Stonehead]

Play it, Georgie!