NYT's Bob Herbert: "Bush to New Orleans: Drop Dead":

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/opinion/05herbert.html

A Failure of Leadership
By BOB HERBERT
Published: September 5, 2005
"Bush to New Orleans: Drop Dead"

Neither the death of the chief justice nor the frantic efforts of panicked White House political advisers can conceal the magnitude of the president's failure of leadership last week. The catastrophe in New Orleans billowed up like the howling winds of hell and was carried live and in color on television screens across the U.S. and around the world.

The Big Easy had turned into the Big Hurt, and the colossal failure of George W. Bush to intervene powerfully and immediately to rescue tens of thousands of American citizens who were suffering horribly and dying in agony was there for all the world to see.

Hospitals with deathly ill patients were left without power, with ventilators that didn't work, with floodwaters rising on the lower floors and with corpses rotting in the corridors and stairwells. People unable to breathe on their own, or with cancer or heart disease or kidney failure, slipped into comas and sank into their final sleep in front of helpless doctors and relatives. These were Americans in desperate trouble.

The president didn't seem to notice.

more...

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. This whole thing was a major FLOP

A Failure to Lead On Purpose.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Kicking and nominating!

The repigs can try to spin the blame any way they want - the BOTTOM LINE is that the Federal Government (and its traditional role in natural disaster relief) dropped the ball when it needed to be in play the MOST.:grr:

[BiggJawn]

3. Seems as though the "Times" has fallen out of Love with Il Douche....

Didn't they used to be just another of the whore cheerleaders for the BFEE?

"The Times regrets the Error", it would seem....

[mcscajun]

6. Bob Herbert has never been in love with Bush

Despite some of the news content and the rantings of William Safire, many of their columnists have been bashing the BFEE right along (Herbert, Kristof, Krugman, Dowd, Rich).

[DemocracyInaction]

4. And why couldn't they see there was no leadership after 9/11 too??

Oh, that's right, the media where busy shoving propaganda down our throats to notice. Wonder when military families will realize that their dead loved ones are just another wad of dog poop on the bottom of Bush's loafers just like the poor dead in NO---same difference--just dead people of no consequence.

[bertha katzenengel]

5. I don't listen to or read *'s speeches because I have high blood pressure,

so I had not seen this POS:

"Mr. Bush flew south on Friday and proved (as if more proof were needed) that he didn't get it. Instead of urgently focusing on the people who were stranded, hungry, sick and dying, he engaged in small talk, reminiscing at one point about the days when he used to party in New Orleans, and mentioning that Trent Lott had lost one of his houses but that it would be replaced with 'a fantastic house - and I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch.'"

You motherfucker, George. What an incredible ass you are.

I wish I could say what I hope happens to this guy, and soon. But if I did, the SS would knock on my door before noon.

[crispini]

9. WRT your last sentence,

I am actually a little worried about that. If ordinary people like you and I are so upset and angry about this whole thing -- what about those out there who have less of a grasp on their mental stability?

[FizzFuzz]

15. no need to wonder; we can look at what's happening in NO

the degenerates come out (chaos is their natural state)--snipers shooting at emergency rescuers, attacks on the weak, killings and rapes, breaking the ankles and rape of 10 year old girls.....

NO MORE CHIMPSHIT

[peacetalksforall]

7. Nominate. Print off multiple copies and distribute.

There is probably going to be a lot of flak heading towards this guy Herbert - we need to support people who tell it like it is succinctly and with the arrows this regime deserves.

Nominate, print, distribute. When the books are written about this massacre - I hope they include this guy's entire column.

Thank you Bob Herbert. Thanks for posting, babylonsister.

And I guess I have to thank the NYT. That hurt.

[Sapphire Blue]

8. "The president didn't seem to notice." - says it all.

Another powerful column by Bob Herbert.

[ThingsGottaChange]

10. I just can't stand it anymore!!!

How much more out of touch with reality can this moran get?!?!? How can ANYONE with even the tiniest shred of a brain say the things that this fool says? I DO have high blood pressure and as sure as I'm sitting here, this total piece of shit is going to give me a stroke! I just want to slap the shit out of him so bad I can taste it.

[babylonsister]

11. Hey, TGC, welcome to DU. Glad you found a place

to read the truth and express yourself!

[ThingsGottaChange]

12. Sooooooooo glad I found DU

Thanks for the welcome. It's nice to be "home"!

[FizzFuzz]

13. I let a certain administrator have it last week...this will go in his mail

I'm pretty sure I have the nerve to do it.

He's a heavy fundy bushite, it started as small talk and grief for N.O. but when I revealed my disgust with chimpshit's budget cuts, etc., he started trying to tell me my facts weren't as good as his.

Or will he and the other "compassionate xtians" say NYT is that evil Satan spawn liberl media?

I don't know how I'm going to handle anyone who tries to defend the chimpshit now....I just don't know how much longer I can keep up the professional courtesy mask.

[eyepaddle]

14. That is tough, isn't it?

I have to struggle to control my loathing everytime I see chimpshit (I like that term) I don't know how I'll control myself when (or if) I bump into somebody who defends his indefensible actions after this tragedy.

Assuming we as a society survive chimpshit's reign, this will give historians fodder for centuries of the risks of having an incompetent and shallow weak king rule a superpower.

[goclark]

16. I know how you feel but,

you may not have a job soon.

Mail it to him with your friend doing the envelope.

Give a false return address.

I want you to keep your job.

[FizzFuzz]

17. thanks for the wisdom

I got another couple of fundies from work in mind too who need to see this article--the ones who worship the ethics of sean hackity and think Gawd told the prayer circle to vote JesusJr.

what to do, what to dooooo? ( fuming with rage :mad: )

[wryter2000]

18. Most e-mailed

This is the third most e-mailed piece, and it looks as if the other four of five are in the same vein. If anything, Frank Rich's is even more brutal on Chimperor Nero.