Bush in Space

The wierd video of Bush being briefed on the impending Katrina disaster before it happened is odder than just another Bush lie ("I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." ) The oddest part is not that he was explicitly briefed on just this likelyhood but sat impassively asking not a single question. There is clueless and there is lost in space, and Bush was out there on Omega Centauri.

Peter Baker and Spencer F Hsu's WP article has the story and a link to the video.
The video leaves little doubt that key people in government did anticipate that the levees might not hold.

In combination with the earlier revelations that White House aides were afraid to interupt the President's vacation to tell him how bad the disaster was, this adds to the image of a remote, clueless, and disengaged executive whose response to bad news is to shoot the messenger.

The continuing revelations that he responded in the same fashion when reports of trouble in Iraq began coming in reinforce the impression that this is a man living in his own alternate reality. Unfortunately, the rest of us are stuck in this one.

Except of course for Rush Limbaugh and a few Faux News deadenders, who also seem to be living on Bush's brane.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anti-Libertarian: re-post

The most pointed critique of social security and liberalism in general is the libertarian critique. The problem with libertarians, for a liberal, is that we have too much in common. We both believe in individual rights, tolerance of individual differences, and dislike government prescription of religion. The basic difference, it seems to me, is the different answers we give to Cain's (with thanks to the Captain - my original version had the corpse asking the question!) famous question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" That's not really my basic bitch against the libertarians though. My real complaint is the same as my complaint against most religion - its premise is a fraud. For those who can't stand to wait for the punchline, I believe that trying to implement libertarian principles leads to tyranny or social disintegration. Demonstrating that takes some historical (and pre-historical) context. For all but the last 15,000 or so of the 100,000 years the human spec
Read more

Uneasy Lies The Head

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown ........... Shakespeare Henry IV, Part II. So it is with us and our slightly distant primate cousins , so it seems. A 9-year study of wild baboons in Kenya by Princeton University and the Institute of Primate Research may turn conventional assumptions of alphas males upside down. The study found that alpha males have high testosterone levels, which allows them to dominate other baboons, get access to more food, and attract better mates. This is expected. Surprisingly, though, the alpha males also have high levels of stress hormone glucocorticoid, which scientists measured from their feces samples. In fact, the stress of alpha baboons was on par with low-ranking baboons. The convention wisdom is that access to food and females provides life security and thus less stress for dominant males. Conversely, weak males who are constantly threatened by starvation and physical violence from stronger males are thought to be more stressed. The st
Read more

We Call it Soccer

The US played its best, and maybe only good game of World Cup, but lost thanks to brilliant goalkeeping by the Swedish keeper and the bizarre method soccer uses to settle ties when three US stars could not put the ball on frame from the 12 yard spot.  At the end it came down to a blocked shot that spun in by maybe a couple of centimeters. Well, that's football - too much like life.   Which brings me to a modest proposal.  Replace the thirty minute overtimes with as many 7-player 15 minute periods as needed to settle it.  Scoring should be much easier with fewer players.
Read more