What the President Could Do
Aug. 31st, 2005 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomikritzerI've seen a couple of conversations now that went kind of like this:
"Oh! And days after the most destructive hurricane in U.S. history made landfall, President Bush cut short his vacation by a whole two days and headed back to Washington!"
"Well, really, what was he supposed to do?"
That this question would even be asked is a really good example of what a completely useless twit the Shrub is.
I really think I could end this post right there, so I'll put in a cut tag before getting into some thoughts about things he bloody well could have done.
1. Just for starters, he could have properly funded levee maintenance and the other "help, we're a sitting duck for the next catastrophic hurricane!" engineering feats that New Orleans requested from the Feds. He was busy funding a war and a tax cut.
2. More could have been done during the evacuation to get people out. Someone posted somewhere that the Greyhound station was closed on Saturday. If Bush had demanded that Greyhound load their buses with the carless and get them the hell out, it would have happened. If he had demanded that every school bus in the New Orleans metro area be loaded with carless evacuees to get the hell out, that would have happened, too.
3. He could have called up the governors of the neighboring states on Sunday to ask about sites for the secondary evacuation, should it prove necessary (as it has).
4. We closed down a bunch of army bases some time back, didn't we? Are they vacant but basically intact? Where are they? Could they be used as temporary housing for NO refugees? I know that near the Wisconsin Dells is a huge munitions plant which does not operate, but is kept in "could be activated at any time" condition (it's more or less a relic of the Cold War). It includes extensive barracks; you can see them from the highway. Anything like that near New Orleans?
5. Not being a dictator, Bush can't simply nationalize all cruise ships and send them to NO to help with evacuation, but he could call up the CEOs of the cruise lines and politely request that they volunteer some ships to help out. They are unlikely to tell him to take a hike.
6. He could have asked that the National Guards of the neighboring states be sent in to help out. Seeing as apparently almost all of the Louisiana National Guard is currently in Iraq. This is happening now, I think; if Bush had taken steps to make it happen right away, it would have happened a lot sooner.
7. He could appear on TV to talk about the disaster and to call on Americans to help: to donate to the Red Cross or other disaster relief charities, to volunteer to go down there and help out if they have useful skills, to welcome and extend a helping hand to the evacuees in their community. Collect clothes for them; bring them home for a real meal; for those who won't be able to go home for months, help them find apartments and other long-term living situations.
8. In short, he could act like a leader. He could act Presidential. Not that I want to see him as president (and I know he's got his eye on the job, blech) but what would Rudy Giuliani do if he were president right now?
Bush is such a worthless twit.
"Oh! And days after the most destructive hurricane in U.S. history made landfall, President Bush cut short his vacation by a whole two days and headed back to Washington!"
"Well, really, what was he supposed to do?"
That this question would even be asked is a really good example of what a completely useless twit the Shrub is.
I really think I could end this post right there, so I'll put in a cut tag before getting into some thoughts about things he bloody well could have done.
1. Just for starters, he could have properly funded levee maintenance and the other "help, we're a sitting duck for the next catastrophic hurricane!" engineering feats that New Orleans requested from the Feds. He was busy funding a war and a tax cut.
2. More could have been done during the evacuation to get people out. Someone posted somewhere that the Greyhound station was closed on Saturday. If Bush had demanded that Greyhound load their buses with the carless and get them the hell out, it would have happened. If he had demanded that every school bus in the New Orleans metro area be loaded with carless evacuees to get the hell out, that would have happened, too.
3. He could have called up the governors of the neighboring states on Sunday to ask about sites for the secondary evacuation, should it prove necessary (as it has).
4. We closed down a bunch of army bases some time back, didn't we? Are they vacant but basically intact? Where are they? Could they be used as temporary housing for NO refugees? I know that near the Wisconsin Dells is a huge munitions plant which does not operate, but is kept in "could be activated at any time" condition (it's more or less a relic of the Cold War). It includes extensive barracks; you can see them from the highway. Anything like that near New Orleans?
5. Not being a dictator, Bush can't simply nationalize all cruise ships and send them to NO to help with evacuation, but he could call up the CEOs of the cruise lines and politely request that they volunteer some ships to help out. They are unlikely to tell him to take a hike.
6. He could have asked that the National Guards of the neighboring states be sent in to help out. Seeing as apparently almost all of the Louisiana National Guard is currently in Iraq. This is happening now, I think; if Bush had taken steps to make it happen right away, it would have happened a lot sooner.
7. He could appear on TV to talk about the disaster and to call on Americans to help: to donate to the Red Cross or other disaster relief charities, to volunteer to go down there and help out if they have useful skills, to welcome and extend a helping hand to the evacuees in their community. Collect clothes for them; bring them home for a real meal; for those who won't be able to go home for months, help them find apartments and other long-term living situations.
8. In short, he could act like a leader. He could act Presidential. Not that I want to see him as president (and I know he's got his eye on the job, blech) but what would Rudy Giuliani do if he were president right now?
Bush is such a worthless twit.
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Date: 2005-08-31 10:08 pm (UTC)"President George Bush's approval rating has slipped to an all-time low, according to the latest poll.
Fading support for the Iraq war and soaring petrol prices have their taken their toll with Bush's job approval rating plummeting to 45 per cent, down 7 per cent since January." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/31/ubush.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/08/31/ixportaltop.html