Third World America

There is a shocking contrast between Japan's response to an enormous catastrophe and the Bush Administration's response to the much lesser catastrophe of Katrina. Katrina was a catastrophe that had been anticipated for forty years, and was clearly on the radar screen for at least five days before landfall. If Japan's earthquake had happened in Bush's America, George would still be playing air guitar while his aides cowered at the prospect of interrupting his vacation - and Karl Rove gleefully rubbed his hands at the prospect of another Democratic stronghold drowning.

Seconds after the big quake in Japan, before the first Earthquake waves had reached Tokyo, alarms were going off all over Japan, trains were being brought atomatically to a stop, and people in harm's way had a few precious minutes to flee to higher ground. Nothing like that exists in the United States, and our Republican Congress is working diligently to dismantle the feeble and obsolete manual Tsunami warning system that we do have.

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