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Reality finally bites Bush (Major SP Times Barf Alert)
St. Petersburg Times ^ | 09/11/05 | Robin (ACLU) Blumner

Posted on 09/11/2005 11:52:33 AM PDT by shortstop

Reality has finally caught up to George W. Bush.

The bubble in which the president has been governing has finally burst, or, more aptly, has gotten so waterlogged it is too heavy to drag around.

Cindy couldn't do it, but Katrina did. Bush has been shoved awake from his long national daydream to find that, to his surprise, the country cannot be governed effectively by giving high-ranking officials cutesy nicknames and engaging in determined wishful thinking.

Welcome to the real world, Mr. President. Any ideas on what to do now?

I'm looking forward to seeing this investigation Bush intends to personally launch. But why go through the motions? Just put out the report now blaming every failure on Louisiana's Democrats.

Early on, Bush decided that his administration would adopt a "perception equals reality" approach to governance and stick to that playbook regardless of what America's lying eyes saw: a "Healthy Forests" initiative that opened federal forests to aggressive logging, a "Clear Skies" proposal that allowed more mercury emissions and air pollution from coal plants. It was an easy magician's trick, since only those pointy-headed poindexters would appreciate the implications.

But pictures of people - Americans - trapped atop flooded houses with bloated bodies floating by, while our secretary of state buys overpriced shoes on Fifth Avenue and the president stumps at a golf resort, can't be dissembled.

Remember how Bush's crew sneered at the process of understanding reality through the serious examination of known facts? How passe that all was, they said.

In 2004, journalist Ron Suskind recalled in the New York Times Magazine a conversation he had with a senior adviser to Bush in 2002. Suskind was pointedly told that guys like him were in "the reality-based community," which, the aide defined, as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality."

"That's not the way the world really works anymore," the aide continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality "judiciously, as you will' we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out."

Here are some of the "realities" of Team Bush that I've been judiciously studying:

* You can go to war without raising the revenues necessary to pay for it.

* You can win a war without drafting the troops needed for battle.

* You can put political cronies in charge of key government agencies, and they will be competent.

* You can help average Americans by giving tax breaks to the richest.

* You can keep up with "the people" by allowing only those who are already on board to be part of the conversation.

* And you can protect America best by sending its National Guard to fight in Mesopotamia.

I would say these "realities" have come crashing down, proving that gravity is a reality-based law of nature.

Katrina was a perfect storm for Bush. It was a natural disaster, which meant Bush couldn't don his flight suit and shake his fists at the "instruments of evil" who seek to destroy us. His flat-footedness - similar to his confused visage after the 9/11 attacks - could not be later be wiped from the public's mind by a pervasive fear that gripped the country. And his tendency to misdirect the public with untruths didn't work, because television images of people desperately awaiting help are more convincing than Bush's declaring that FEMA director Michael "Brownie" Brown is doing "a heck of a job."

So good, that he's now off the job.

At the same time, the horror laid bare Bush's willingness to starve our domestic needs and divert manpower and materiel to pursuing the man who "tried to kill my dad." The storm set in stark relief Bush's lack of interest in the consequences of global warming. (A 2004 study by an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that as the world's oceans and gulfs become superheated, more powerful hurricanes result.) And it demonstrated his unwillingness to make government spending a priority (slashing requests by the Army Corps of Engineers for funds to reinforce the levees around New Orleans). There is tax money to give back, after all.

Here is the Bush agenda come home to roost - on a roof. And it's caved in. Can't get much more real than that.


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blumner; katrina; neworleans; stpetersburgtimes
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To: publana

This is for Blumner's article: http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/11/Columns/Reality_finally_bites.shtml


21 posted on 09/11/2005 1:58:13 PM PDT by shortstop ( Win One For the Gipper)
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To: JoJo Gunn

How many "liberal" racists are in the media anyway?

Can anyone tell me any other logical, rational, intelligent reason for it to matter one iota where in the &^%$## Condi Rice is while there is a hurrican in Louisiana, or immediately after? When did the State Department become part of the domestic natural disaster response team?

The idiotic remarks about Condi can only come from racist liberals that think Condi should have been standing in line at the Superdome - with "her" people, as if that would make one %$%$#@@@ing difference, other than soothe the idiot "perception" requirements of the media.


22 posted on 09/11/2005 2:01:53 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: shortstop

Before long this whole thing will be just one more forgotten instance where the Dems threw mud at Bush and just couldn't make it stick. The truth about who REALLY screwed up (ie., Mayor, Gov) is slowly trickling out. The MSM can only prevent the truth from reaching the masses for only so long. This, too, shall pass.


23 posted on 09/11/2005 2:39:49 PM PDT by onevoter
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To: Zacs Mom

Hey, nice picture of John Kerry!


24 posted on 09/11/2005 3:40:52 PM PDT by Adiemus
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To: Zacs Mom; Neets; Darksheare; scott0347; timpad; Conspiracy Guy; NYC GOP Chick; MeekOneGOP; ...

This illo is perfect.

25 posted on 09/11/2005 5:08:23 PM PDT by King Prout (and the Clinton Legacy continues: like Herpes, it is a gift that keeps on giving.)
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To: Richard Axtell

26 posted on 09/11/2005 5:25:22 PM PDT by lowbridge
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To: Williams
The problem is, and always has been, that the Republican leadership is STILL trying to the nice guys and not lower themselves to the level of the loony left.
Well, I have EFFING HAD IT right up to here with this nice guy crap and in the immortal words of one of my favorite singers,

"I'm tired of being Johhny-Be-Good, and I'm gonna be Johnny Reb".
Hank Jr.

27 posted on 09/11/2005 5:28:24 PM PDT by concretebob (We will not stop until every a$$ is kicked and every name is taken.)
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To: Wuli
Racist and jealous, my FRiend.
And irritated that a Republican black woman can walk into a 5th Avenue store and buy anything.
28 posted on 09/11/2005 5:31:12 PM PDT by concretebob (We will not stop until every a$$ is kicked and every name is taken.)
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To: shortstop
* You can help average Americans by giving tax breaks to the richest.

Putting aside that percentage wise the biggest tax breaks went to the poorest with a full one third cut in federal taxes isn't our economy growing by leaps and bounds?

That even with an estimated 10 million illegals (I personally doubt that number but will let it stand for the sake of brevity) that we currently have 5% unemployment which is considered full employment?

Does this not put paid to this lie?

Or am I going to have to keep sounding like one of those blasted dolls with a string in it's back and keep on repeating this for the NEXT FOUR YEARS?

Cause quite frankly I am thinking of getting a rubber stamp made.

29 posted on 09/11/2005 5:57:08 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Vote for the Constipation Party! They will never pass anything)
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To: shortstop
But pictures of people - Americans - trapped atop flooded houses with bloated bodies floating by, while our secretary of state buys overpriced shoes on Fifth Avenue and the president stumps at a golf resort, can't be dissembled.

Too bad there weren't as many bodies as she hoped. The remainder is simply petty hatred by the Stone Age Press.

Pray for W, NO, MS and Our Freedom Fighters

30 posted on 09/11/2005 6:01:23 PM PDT by bray (Pray for the Freedom of the Iraqis from Islam)
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To: King Prout

LOL! What a great graphic!


31 posted on 09/11/2005 6:05:56 PM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: shortstop

Waterlogged bubbles? Do these guys even stop to think what they're saying?


32 posted on 09/11/2005 6:07:01 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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