This is what "starving the beast" looks like.

[Emit]

Apologies if this has already been posted--looked but didn't see it:

RIP, GOP (An Exhortation)
by kingubu
Fri Sep 2nd, 2005 at 17:40:01 PDT
Daily Kos

I honestly believe that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the so-called conservative movement, and the Republican Party that it currently inhabits. The slow-motion horror that the nation is witnessing on the flooded streets of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is the final, irrefutable evidence that the GOP is not fit to govern this great nation. There is no amount of spin and slime that can erase what millions of Americans are seeing for themselves on the evening news.

<<snip>>

The litany of short-sighted GOP-authored legislation over the last several years-- the gutting of public works, tax cuts in the face of mounting debt, the single-minded redistribution of wealth to those with plenty, the blatant cronyism-- reveal the truth: the Republican Party has no plan and no vision for governing this nation. All they have is a strategy for getting elected-- and then redirecting public funds to campaign donors to get re-elected. It a strategy to snuff out our public institutions through attrition while making their supporters feel warm and fuzzy about being greedy, selfish, bigoted, cruel, and wasteful.

<<snip>>

Its not hard to aim for the lowest common denominator and that is exactly what the GOP has been doing. Rather than hatching a plan to make America a better place then convincing the public to support it, they have instead made a science of putting lipstick on a pig. They package greed and avarice and sell it as "sound market policy." They bind up cruelty and fear and slap on a label marked "national security." They take bigotry and hatred and push it out the door in a glossy package marked "traditional family values." There are no new ideas; only our darkest human frailties made bland with a double scoop of political weasel-words and sexed up with Madison Ave. sizzle.

<<snip>>

Make no mistake: as we watch our fellow citizens drown, starve, and die in the street in New Orleans, its not incompetence or lack of planning that is killing them. It is willful neglect. It is the direct result of reducing the government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." This is what "starving the beast" looks like.
<<snip>>

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/2/20401/46134

[drm604]

1. This is exactly what I've been thinking.

But I could never have said it so well.

"Rather than hatching a plan to make America a better place then convincing the public to support it, they have instead made a science of putting lipstick on a pig."

This is exactly what they've done. But there isn't enough lipstick in the whole damned universe to pretty up this big stinking bloated sow that has now been hoisted upon us by these evil bastards. :cry:

[AuntieM1957]

2. the mayor of New Orleans said something like this on 60 Minutes

reference to the real horror coming when the water is gone.

And the bodies are counted. Then they'll see how many died from dehydration/exposure, lack of treatment for injuries.

How will our government explain that? That Grandma and Grandpa were left to die in a pool of their own urine and feces?

I heard the tales from shelter residents this week here in Houston. How many had to leave people that were in the building with them because they couldn't get the old and infirm up to the roofs.

Dear God, I wake up at night thinking of those people. Are they still alive? I don't believe the government when they say everyone that wants out is out.

How can I ever believe a Republican official ever again about anything?

Republican't tell the truth.

[Lindacooks]

3. From your lips to god's ears.

[norml]

4. Recommended

Great Stuff!

[Emit]

5. A good read, for those who missed it. (i.e., shameless kick?)