You are simply wrong about me.
Granted, for once I got a little over the top in claiming I didn't defend Bush in this matter, but you remain totally over the top in claiming I act like an apologist, and here's why.
I've responded to folks who've put all the responsibility on Bush. That is patently absurd on its face, given all we know. So I say so, which doesn't make me an apologist at all. I also can defend FEMA, the Mayor, and have some level of sympathy even for those decision makers who purposefully allowed help to be kept out (which includes Bush too, actually, I'd wager, he following the lead of others and sitting on his hands).
Just take the first link you posted from me as a for instance. I didn't "try" to absolve Bush as you suggest, I simply told the truth on him, i.e. he called and urged the Mayor to call a mandatory evacuation after the Mayor spent the night checking into legal ramifications, having said he'd "maybe" make that choice in the morning. The trouble with this is not only that the Mayor didn't utilize the busses nor declare a mandatory as soon as he perhaps should have, but that Bush didn't insist on such things earlier, either, and that later Bush sat by and allowed the Governor and FEMA and probably in some respects local for that matter, to hold out help for their various reported reasons. All their reasons were crap, IMHO, and when we soon needed a leader to get the job done, Bush wasn't there, FEMA wasn't there, the Governor wasn't there, and the Louisana Dept. of Homeland Sec. (a state agency, not federal) screwed up big time by keeping everyone out (and apparantly getting others to agree to it as though it were a good decision). The Mayor for a time became the closest thing to a hero, however powerless, by quite rightly crying for the missing help to damn well arrive. But he was already guilty of failing to be there for his people too.
Yin and Yang Orca, it's in each of them.
The difference between "trying" to absolve, and successfully reporting the truth, is vast, and I believe I've reported the truth concerning Bush, as when I noted that no one stepped up and took control and got the help in, including him, whom I implied shared the blame, big time, thickly, if you will. Yes, You KNOW if you've looked, that I've repeatedly included Bush among those to blame. Yet you claim I'm just all biased for him. Hogwash.
I might add that your second link from me actually contains no mention of Bush in regards to his performance in this matter, but rather notes that J.Chris Parsons link actually suggested that a Bush crony, had he been in the job still, might have saved the day. Oh, and I went on to tell the truth about a different matter Parsons mentioned, namely that the Supreme court blasted Gore 7-2 for asking for a plainly unfair form of counting, which Gore and his lawyers did throughout that fiasco (and that's a subject other than Katrina, thank-you, in any event.
Your third link from me contains A.S.'s charge that FEMA wasn't waiting the day after the hurricane, for which he blamed Bush.
Since his assertion is simply false, I told the truth on FEMA, namely that they WERE there the day after, but stayed off the job thanks to their apparent agreement with State and Local, to stupidly stay out with the water and food (idiots all!).
You say I "try" to absolve Bush, but in fact I successfully told truths about him which others here either refused to mention, or wrongly reported in their zeal to damn him. I don't have a zeal to damn him, I just blame him for failing to take the reigns and save the day. Ya'll act like anyone reporting anything at once true and good about the man, must be his lacky. It's silly. Far from acting like a Bush apologist on the Katrina matter, I've stated flatly that he failed (and that, my friend, is not what a Bush apologist does), flatly that the mayor failed, and Flatly that FEMA failed. I'm sure they are all guilty where Katrina is concerned, and as surely as I've been consistent about blaming everyone (which again, includes Bush AND all of them, as I've said AGAIN and AGAIN including right here right now, you must realize!), this isn't what a Bush apologist does.
Dan B. |
