Evil clowns

When people do not want to play the "blame game" they're to blame! Jon Stewart explaining the Bush administration's term for responsibility, accountability.

I didn't blog Tuesday. I couldn't. I was too goddamned disgusted with federal agencies set up to alleviate damages and death resulting from acts of terrorism or nature. Instead, reactions by our government did nothing to alleviate suffering. Instead they only exacerbated it. In fact, people died because of it!

Cronyism is common. Sometimes it's so blatant as to become the subject of jokes. But when cronies occupy positions as political payback and not because they possess the requisite qualifications for such jobs, things can get real serious, real fast. Katrina has gravely illustrated how thousands of people can be killed from incompetence, making cronyism deadly serious.

Take for example Bush's original FEMA director, Joe Albaugh. His credentials? He was Bush's 2000 campaign manager. I don't know what role he played in the theft of the 2000 election, but I'd bet that's his only background in crisis management.

And what of the current FEMA director--Michael Brown--and his experience to head up such an important agency? Well, he was hired by former director, Joe Albaugh. Brown's qualifications? He was Albaugh's old college roommate. Looking over his resumé, it's safe to conclude Brown's position as leader of an Arabian horse association had nothing to do towards qualifying him to lead FEMA, although he did spend a year investigating a breeder to determine if he'd liposuctioned an Arabian horse's hind quarters. And, as I heard someone comment this past week, not a single Arabian horse was lost in the ravages of Katrina.

And what became of Albaugh whom Brown replaced? Well, while it was mentioned this past week, I think it's worth reiterating: Albaugh departed for a job in private industry forming his own company, New Bridge Strategies, a lobbying group to take advantage of profit strategies after the outbreak of the Iraq war. More recently he is credited with helping Halliburton land contracts to clean up U.S. naval bases hit by Katrina.

I know most of we Americans have been distracted by images of Katrina's aftermath. Corpses lying around for days rotting in the streets; the stories of survivors left to manage with no food, water, or hope of rescue in sight; images of pets left to fend for themselves. Maybe that's why the administration, sensing our distraction, could be so audacious with Bush's inept cronies working their *magic* or, maybe its more. Maybe their blatant audacity can happen because, quite frankly, they don't give a shit what you think. Prime examples were plentiful before the storm, Katrina has made them more obvious. But does it take a disaster like New Orleans to get peoople pissed?

Maybe that's why Scott McClellan, the president's press secretary, is paid the most for telling us the least.

Maybe that's why one of Brown's FEMA directives was to spin Katrina positively while his agency sat with their collective thumbs up their collective asses as people died.

Maybe that's why our oil tanker Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, can spend time touring the damages she visited upon an expensive shoe store, Ferragamo's, in NYC after attending Monty Python's musical play "Spamalot!" the night before (where some in the audience booed her) as people in New Orleans were struggling to just keep their heads above the rising waters in their attics.

Were you reassured when Bush sent Rice to her home state of Alabama where she said, "Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race. I don't believe for a minute anybody allowed people to suffer because they are African-Americans. I just don't believe it for a minute." I do. Uncle Tom's say shit like that. What's even sadder is, they believe it! I'd seen how the Bush administration responded to those rich Florida white folks in a hurricane's path a year ago to win votes, passing out FEMA relief like candy to children.

Are you satisfied with Bush promising he'll investigate himself and his administration for all the inappropriate responses to Katrina. Do you think the results of his "investigation" will roll heads? I don't, especially when one of those heads would be his own.

How many of us are deeply offended that FEMA's website suggesting organizations which the public can donate to aid Katrina victims lists Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing" second on its list right after the Red Cross? I sure as hell am!

Did you take seriously the champion of scandal, house majority Tom DeLay and his explanation of no federal response to Katrina because in such disasters it's a bottoms-up model. That is, if FEMA and Homeland Security were seemingly slow to respond, it's because the democratic leadership of Louisiana and New Orleans broke down.

Keep in mind, in many other countries here on earth, DeLay's corruption would have seen him deposed--or worse--ages ago. But not here, not with this administration. Instead we get DeLay pouring salt in Louisiana's tragedy by heaping praise on Alabama and Mississippi (ahm, what color are these states?) for doing a much better job of responding quickly. That takes a lot of ass coming from the King of Scam.

And did you enjoy the president's mom's remarks while looking down on evacuees in Houston's Astrodome and saying with a callous chuckle, "so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them."

Or, how many of us were upset that 50 firefighters were "requisitioned" to stand next to the president during his photo-op tour of afflicted areas in Louisiana? Firefirghters who could have been deployed to aid people and save lives. Instead their efforts were diverted and deployed as stage props for our plastic turkey photo-op president.

I apologize if I'm a bit angry at these government officials. Their lack of response juxtaposed against images of people suffering horrifically illustrates the different universe these bastards inhabit.

If you love the circus, you probably love theses clowns. But if you are not amused by the buffoonery responsible for the deaths of thousands, you are probably among the growing majority of this country that prefer some real leadership. Evil clowns aren't funny, especially when they're killing people.

Perhaps an angry person best expressed the frustration of many of us when the Vice President, during a live TV interview today, was commanded to "Go fuck yourself, Cheney!"