High points included Bush's jocular assurance that "we're going to rebuild Trent Lott's big home" (we've all been worried about that), and his congratulations to FEMA Director Michael Brown, who is undoubtedly the least popular man in New Orleans right now, that "You're doing a great job, Brownie!"  (Wonder who was in charge of the relief effort that Bush earlier today said was "unacceptable"?)

I didn't see the photo-op but...

WHAT?!?!?!  He praised FEMA's response and pledged to rebuild Lott's home?

Hey Mr. President...why don't you roll up your sleeves, help out, and if not just go back to DC and help Trent work on the plans for his new home.

I hope people don't play politics during this period of time... There'll be ample time for politics. But now's the time to focus attention, our compassion and our resources on helping people who need help" (President Bush, 9/1/05).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4204754.stm

"It gives us cover," said one House Republican strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the disaster. "Now everything is going to be about putting together a relief package quickly" (LA Times).
http://www.latimes.com/news/poli...ack=1&cset=true

...And now the RNC is pushing the Senate hard to kill the estate tax. We must hold their feet to the fire, every conservative, every Republican, every echo chamber gas bag, for all the fun they've had for so many years dishing the "liberal big government nanny state."

President:

We've got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we're going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we're going to help these communities rebuild. The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)

Fuck Trent Lott. And his new fucking porch.

Go ahead. Troll rate me.

Some things need to be said, and I don't mind taking the hit to say it.

Watch out for an upcoming photo-op as Bush arrives in New Orleans at the head of long convoys of supplies and buses (all of which seem to have been delayed for this opportunity).

Shades of a bullhorn on a pile of rubble!

I am embarassed and ashamed.  Talk about playing politics!  W has no integrity and is not a leader.

Reminder, Trent Lott's house in Pascagoula which was lost was a getaway house on the gulf.  His real home is in Jackson.

Does it strike anyone else as an amazing coincidence that Bush arrives in the area at the exact moment food and aid arrives in New Orleans?

Memo to Ed:

We know the Republicans are fucked up. This is the effect of Republican policies and philosophy coming together at once.

But what I want to know is where are the Democrats, Ed? Will your gutless party now get off its ass and actually do something about becoming a credible opposition party? So your party lacked the courage to criticize Bush for lying us into this horrible war. And so your party's best response to that quagmire is to be even more pro-war than Bush is. Fine. We can all debate tactics and strategies.

But, Ed, this is different. This administration is presiding over the mismanagement of a disaster that is causing needless deaths of Americans right here at home. I've not seen Americans so appalled at the Cheney/Rove Administration at any time since Dear Leader became president.

So, please Ed. It's great that you criticize Bush. I love it, and I can't get enough of it. But tell me now: Will the Democrats finally, finally get their heads out of their asses and begin to take this country back before it's too late?

Thanks for listening.

Just watch as things unfold in the months ahead. The Bush team and FEMA incompetent Michael Brown and this bunch have no idea what they are going to do. The Bush mantra is to do things on the cheap (the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq being prime examples), and this is one situation where that approach will blow up in their faces. This isn't just about getting food and supplies into the city. That's the easy part. We also must find housing for 100,000-300,000 American refugees. We must seal the levees and drain the city of New Orleans. The government must lead a MASSIVE cleanup and restoraton project to the get the city functional again.
And then, after all that, there will still be 250,000 people whose homes were destroyed or ruined by the flooding. Is the Bush team ready to call up massive construction teams to rebuild this city quickly, or will it be every man for himself? 
Even the best, most efficient government (as we had under Clinton) would be hard-pressed to face this challenge.  But with Bush and his cronies in charge, things are definitely going to get worse before they get better.

The Trent Lott comment was a bit tone-deaf and awkward, but the content wasn't fundamentally offensive. He was trying to make a rah-rah statement about rebuilding Mississippi, which is a great thing to say.  He just it badly.

A point of clarification, and with all due respect, Ed, we're not really dealing with a RELIEF effort in New Orleans.  We're dealing with a SEARCH AND RESCUE effort.  What relief there is has been established in alternate cities, my hometown Houston being the most visible.  I just returned from the Astrodome where the situtation is both one of hope and despair.  Hundreds of locals are streaming into the arena complex to donate food and clothing and volunteer.  But there are countless refugees wandering the grounds in a state of shock and confusion.  We need more volunteers.  And we need a lot more coordination.

In New Orleans, the Coast Guard and National Guard are still retrieving trapped survivors from flooded houses and buildings.  And we are poised for an unrelenting outbreak of disease.  Let's keep in mind that in addition to the thousands of displaced people, millions of disease-carrying rats have now come out of hiding.

If you're reading this and want to do something, please donote to the Red Cross immediately, and specify that your donation of food, clothing or money go directly to the victims of Katrina.

Hey Ed,

Where in the hell has the DLC and its most prominent members been on LEADING during the catastrophe.  I received email alerts from Howard Dean and John Kerry asking me to contribute to the Red Cross.  Wesley Clark rightly charged Bush with incompetence. Al Sharpton got off the couch and went to the Superdome. Hell, I even got an email from Expedia and United Airlines asking me to contribute.

What did I get from Hillary Clinton, Biden, Bayh, or Lieberman - ZERO.  The last time I checked they were all United States Senators who were elected to LEAD the United States.  Do you and they not understand that at a time when a major US city is getting wiped off the map it isn't enough to sit in Washington DC and take shots at Bush. 

We all KNOW that his policies are literally killing the citizens of the United States.  What I want to know is why the Democrats didn't rent buses and trucks in Virginia, fill them with water and food, and drive them to New Orleans. I want to know why every single Democrat in congress isn't going on the air right now to ask their constituents to help. 

I want to know what the Democrats and stood by silently while the Republicans and lead our country to the brink of disaster. I want to know why every Democrat isn't raising holy hell about Iraq.  I want to know that the Democrats are voting for pork barrel travesties like the Highway Bill that had millions for a bridge to know where in Alaska, but underfunded the levees in New Orleans. In a similar vein, I want to know why Seattle can't get adequate funding for a major highway running through downtown that the engineers say will definitely collapse with the next earthquake.

Don't tell me that you can't do anything because you don't control any branch of government.  That is pure BS.  I want to know what the Democratic leadership is actually going to do to take back control and set this country on the right course.  And given the complete silence and lack of leadership of Clinton, Biden, Bayh, Vilsack and the rest of the DLC, how in the world will they find the nerve to ask for my vote in the primaries. 

It isn't enough to point out Bush's failings.  We KNOW he is a failure.  What are  the Democrats going to do about it is the question.  So far, on issues ranging from Iraq to Katrina, the only person worthy of my vote is Wes Clark.  The rest of the Dems, especially Clinton(s) are simply embarassments to a party that I hold dear.

wow, let me just second cscs' recommendation to READ THIS TRANSCRIPT. just make sure you have some kleenex handy.

I totally agree that his comment about Lott's house went way beyong "tone deaf". It was sick. Tasteless, given the emergency that is still going on. I'm sure he intended the comment to be a humorous part of his "Rah rah! Rebuild Mississippi" speech, but it really illustrates that he is clueless as to how such statements come across to the average person.

There is something pathologically wrong with the Bush family and the crowd they surround themselves with. The 5-week vacations, the "beautiful mind" comment by Bar, Poppy's golfing during Desert Storm, Condi's shoe shopping...these are Marie Antoinettes of the highest order. Their sense of aristocratic entitlement is disgusting; their flippant comments during national disasters tells you all you need to know about the way they see the world and their priveleged position in it.

It's bad enough that they view themselves as a special class, but it's utterly inexcusable that they are totally oblivious to how their attitude comes across to others.

Um hello...these aren't your typical refugees.

You really think these city councils are going to just open their doors to a bunch of poor black urbanites?

Right now they'd be more embraced if they were African, without the full rights (theoretically) of citizenship.

Lets talk real here.

I'm sorry, did you say that he visted a "golf course" in Alabama?

You know after yesterday, I didn't think that Bush could sink any lower. I was wrong.

Senate Democrats need to lead and the only way to do it is force the Republicans into action. Rally the American people to hold these idiots to account. Until this mess is fixed, and these idiots are held accountable nothing gets through. For example. No John Roberts hearings. Instead hearings into FEMA incompentance. Hold hearings for DHS mismannagement before John Roberts. No hearings of any sort until there is accountability and action. NOTHING! No legislation on any matter that does not bring help to the gulf or accountability to the people on what happened.

I think this is an excellent idea. A coalition of legislators (probably mostly Democrats, but Republicans would be welcome, too) should draw up a list of a few clear, critical accountability issues that need to be dealt with, and then paralyze all government actions unrelated to the rescue and relief efforts on the Gulf Coast or the situation in Iraq, until their demands are met.  If this administration won't hold themselves accountable for anything, then we have to do it -- it's way past being a partisan issue at this point; it's for the security of our nation.

vmckimmey,
I also think this post would be a good one to move to one of the main discussion tables. Maybe a moderator could do this, or maybe you could re-post this as a discussion post?

thanks, but I don't know how to do that.

vern

I received email from Hillary about the Hurricane.

Hi Vern,
Yeah, it's not the most intuitive thing... If you look at that little "MyTPMCafe" thing on the right sidebar, there's a link that says "Discuss". When you click on that, you get to the screen where you can submit a discussion post. First you choose the "table" that you want to post to -- I'm thinking the Democrats or Misc. Politics tables might be good for this one -- then you give your post a title, and then enter the "intro" and "body" text. The "intro" is the summary, "above the fold" stuff, and the "body" is the stuff that readers see when they click on "Continue reading." If you don't want to separate the post into two sections, you can just put everything in the "intro".

I hope you'll submit it -- I know I'll be voting for it!

I ain't wasting my time waiting to hear the "pop".

"No John Roberts hearings. Instead hearings into FEMA incompentance"

Be carefull.  The R's will see to it that the Mayor of NO and the Governor of LA are invited to the party and the proceedings may not go as you would like, politically.

Well, at least there were no bullhorns in sight yesterday.

I'm sure Bush was hoping that this visit would give him the kind of poll results which he got for his visit to the rubble of the WTC after 3/11.

Why else would Karl Rove accompany him?   My wife used the term 'artistic director' to describe Rove's credit in today's drama to help the Bush image.

If you noted the coverage carefully, it was clear that the encounters with people were well stage managed with the 'ordinary citizens' having been carefully selected.  Except for the visit to the Salvation Army field service truck, you saw no other victims of Katrina in the background.  The area had, as usual, been swept clean of people who might say or do something contrary to the desired image.

You'll also notice that even with the massive infusion of troops in the morning Bush didn't meet any of Katrina's victims in New Orleans.  He only was on the ground at the airport which is relatively easy to secure.   The Secret Service must have said that the risk was too great in the city or at either the Convention Center or the Superdome.

I still have symptoms of apoplexy.