Posted on 09/06/2005 7:09:45 PM PDT by Miss Marple
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Well, these ARE the times that try men's souls, aren't they? We have an ongoing war, a natural disaster uneclipsed in our nation's history, and a virulent press and opposition party determined to use the deaths of our fellow citizens for political gain. Our Commander-in-Chief is under attack by the low-class liberals and one would think that conservatives, who pride themselves on reason, and the GOP in general, who owe the man some loyalty for leading them to 3 victories in three succesive elections, would stand beside the man who has had more stuff thrown at him during his term in office than any other president in history.
One would think that, wouldn't you? I mean I, a novice in politics, simply assumed that one is loyal to the leader of the party. Ha! What do I, a Midwest housewife, know about the tides and fortunes in Washington, D.C? Apparently, not much.
I have spent three days fuming over an ever-increasing list of Republicans, conservative commentators, and general right-wing weasels who are either too cowardly to stand up for President Bush and his administration or they are determined to gain political advantage at the expense of the man to whom they owe so much.
I listened to Newt Gingrich pontificate about how President Bush was too slow out of the gate, and he should have as his goal opening New Orleans by Mardi Gras of 2006. That's 6 months, maximum. Thanks Newt...criticize the President unjustly and then set a lofty and unattainable goal. What an assinine comment and a cheap shot.
Bobby Jindal, supposed "rising star" in the Louisiana GOP, cannot bring himself to say one critical word about anyone but FEMA. NOT ONE WORD about that loser governor, or the psychotic mayor, or the criminals! No, all FEMA all the time. Jindal is not ready for the national stage, and may he find himself rerduced to dogcatcher of the parish where the locals raise pit bulls.
Laura Ingraham...sorry for your recent problems, but snipiing criticism and whining is NOT helpful.
Charles Krauthammer...get a book and READ the Constitution and the FEMA organizational rules and regulations. Please try to understand how the National Guard works before complaining that the President was too slow to get the Guard there.
Ted Stevens, Susan Collins....maybe there would have been more money to swirl down into the cesspool of levee funding if we hadn't given so much pork to YOUR states, so put a sock in it!
I will tell everyone on Free Republic what makes me the angriest: all of these people KNOW how FEMA is supposed to work, and how the National Guard is run by the governors, and I am certain by now they ALL know that the mayor and governor failed in their duties. Do they say one thing about this? Nope, just hand-wringing and mumbling about how FEMA and the Guard wre slow, and how we need to get Congressional investigations, and Krauthammer even said the second trip to LA was because the first one had gone badly, even though a whole bunch of us on Free Republic knew that the President said he would return the day he made the first trip.
These aren't the only conservatives I have heard with this cowardly Kowtowing to the media, There are plenty more.
Well, here is my reponse to these worthless sashweights that have been dragging the president down: NOT ONE DIME OR VOTE WILL YOU GET FROM ME. I will not support you, vote for you, buy your books, listen to your programs, or give you the time of day if I run into you at an airport. I MIGHT give you a piece of my mind.
You are low-class opportunists and I refuse to give you any support whatsoever. You cannot be loyal to a good and decent guy who is doing his best to help the victims of this disaster. You are sunshine soldiers, who shrink in the service of your country. You are ignorant and lazy at best; venal and shabby patriots, you are, who throw the President over the side rather than standing up to your cocktail party buddies.
The president has more character in his heart than all of you put together. You are nothing. I am done with you all.
It would be nice, but every time Bush gets mercilessly hammered by the left unnecessarily, many Republicans and FReepers high-tail it to the tall grass.
The POTUS declared an emergency and authorized FEMA to do whatever was necessary back on August 27th.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html
I don't buy the argument that they couldn't do anything because they weren't asked in time. Nor does it help to know that the dems carry at least as much of the blame. The response to Katrina was inept and criminal from the top down.
You can get on the list with the rest of them. The President had to ARGUE with the governor on Friday to get her to ask people in. There have been numerous explanations of how this works, and I am not going to waste my time re-explaining what you have obviously either been too lazy or too willfully ignorant to understand.
You go, girl!!
EXCELLENT!
Nice. Thanks.
Thanks Miss Marple. If our side cannot stand up for the truth and cannot help this President when he needs it, we need to start sending them home in 2006 and insist on candidates with strong character. We should inform our Representatives and senators that we are tired of their inaction and the playing of politics when times are so serious, that if you intend to serve, you better be ready to take the job seriously. We are watchig and taking names.
Works like a charm.
I don't think Thomas Paine had loyalty to one particular political party in mind when he said that.
A rant worthy of the Grand Master of Rants Himself (who is pinged herein).
If you don't like the analogy, there is nothing I can do about it. It is MY opinion, you know; that is why I labeled this a vanity.
You sum up the essence of the media and our Congressional "leaders" beautifully.
Neither body investigates before they talk. They sit around in front of the cameras quoting each other and upping the spin ante. Congress and the media have become what George Carlin has always called them: ---- "a pile of clothes in a chair".
I, too, am at the point where all I want to do is wash my hands of all of them. Let the Media finally have the government they crave. I'd like to see them spin the results of that horror.
I will support President Bush when I feel he deserves my support, and will criticize him when I think criticism is due. While I agree that in comparison with the incompetence of the state and local officials in Louisiana FEMA comes out looking pretty good, it was still not that agency's shining moment. Having food facilities set up outside the Superdome just in time for the last people there to leave, or telling Charleston, South Carolina to stand by for a plane load of evacuees only to have them going to Charleston, West Virginia, or having the officials in Gulfport and Biloxi complaining days afterwards that they still haven't received assistance are not the hallmarks of a well-run operation. The FEMA director is deserving of his share of criticism and, since he's the boss, President Bush has some questions coming to him as well. It's not treasonous to point that out. Without bringing ALL errors and incompetence to light, regardless of the agency, then how can we ensure that it doesn't happen again?
Last weekend, I recall Rep. Jindal and Leader Tom Delay on WWL in NOLA. He was sucking up to the Hammer like a vacuum cleaner on a bowling ball. You could tell that Tom was not buying it. We need to inundate sunshine patriots like Jindal with the truth.
Good job, Miss Marple!
Thanks for the ping. A rant worth reading.
The problem is that this will happen again. No matter how efficiently an organization is run, mistakes WILL be made. But to say that the federal response was negligently slow is simply a gross mischaracterization, especially for conservatives who ought to understand our federalist division of authority between the local, state and federal levels of government.
"NOT ONE DIME OR VOTE WILL YOU GET FROM ME."
Pretty close to what I yelled at the Texas Republican Party caller last week. Before I hung up on him.
And regarding the plane being sent to Charleston, all I can say is that AIRLINES have made that mistake before. I don't think it is Mike Brown or George Bush's fault that one guy didn't know US geography.
At any rate, my anger is directed towards people who use the President when it is convenient, yet don't bother to put forward the facts and defend him when the flak starts to fly. Do you honestly think it is helpful to side with Nancy Pelosi? How does this solve anything? All it does is give ammunition to the left.
Go look up what happened. It's all over FR. Brown did a reasonable job within the constraints of his position. Congress (and the democrats) are responsible for placing FEMA in Homeland Security and adding bureaucratic levels to what was a department and position that reported directly to the President.
You can continue to carp about FEMA if you wish. I want the mayor and governor, who were in charge of the first response, to be held accountable.
This morning on Fox n Friends, E.D. the self=described democrat, is in the role of handling the failure of the mayor and the governor. While Brian and Steve are covering the FEMA angle.
DIsappointing that Steve and Brian are not thinking about what they are being told to say. But another two bite the dust.
And with Geraldo claiming to be a liberal Republican yesterday, I'm sensing a trend I don't like. AT ALL.
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