No Limit
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This was originally posted at the DU, sue me 
. Its a great read and makes a great case of Bush's **** ups that caused thousands upon thousands of lives.
"Fool me once, shame on... shame on... you. Fool me... you can't get fooled again." -- GW Bush, 9/17/02
Miserable Failure. The first hit after googling this phrase leads you to George W. Bush's bio page on the White House website and has for a very long time.
But I don't think that "miserable failure" can even begin to describe the ineptitude of this cabal. Over the past few years, it's been one miserable failure after another. So many, in fact, that one can't even list them all lest they're writing a novel that would take up more shelf space than a copy of War and Peace. So lets just examine a few, shall we?
MISERABLE FAILURE #1: 9/11
A summary of pre, during and post-9/11 failures for your reading pleasure
A couple of highlights that seem extremely relevant right now:
This administration claimed it had "no warning" whatsoever. Condoleezza Rice even said, "I don't think anyone could have predicted that these people... would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." However, the fact is that in addition to many warnings and intelligence information received prior to 9/11 - including evidence of using a plane as a missile - the Presidential Daily Briefing from August 6, 2001 titled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US" stated that Al Qaeda planned to hijack US planes and mentioned the World Trade Center specifically.
When calls for an independent commission investigation into 9/11 were made, the Bush administration did everything they could to stop it. Bush and Cheney went so far as to personally call Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle urging him not to conduct an investigation. When stonewalling was no longer affective and the Independent Commission finally began its work, Bush used Nixon's dictatorial doctrine of "Executive Privilege" to deny commissioners access to crucial documents. Condi Rice initially refused to testify under oath or in public, but finally relented under extreme public pressure. Bush insisted on testifying with Cheney at his side, in private, not under oath, and with no transcripts or recordings made.
They stalled, they lied about easily refutable facts, they hid under a veil of secrecy and attempted to point the finger at anyone possible but themselves - the ones in charge. A "blame game", if you will.
2,749 men, women and children lost their lives on 9/11.
MISERABLE FAILURE #2: THE WAR IN IRAQ
Oh man, where does one even begin with this debacle? We could start with how it was pre-planned, from evidence spanning from memos (1, 2) from their own right-wing thing tank The Project For A New American Century to the leaked British Downing Street Minutes, but the administration has emphatically insisted that Bush didn't decide to invade Iraq until the 11th hour when all other avenues had been exhausted.
Or perhaps we could examine some of the multitude of quotes from the administration about how the Iraq war was going to be a "cakewalk", that the Iraqi's would greet the US troops with "flowers", how Iraq's own oil would pay for this war, or how both Cheney and Rumsfeld insisted we would be in Iraq "weeks, not months".
Maybe we could delve into those infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction and the "imminent threat" that they posed to the United States. *cue nefarious-sounding doom music* We could talk about how they continued to lie and make claims they already knew were false, like that scary yellowcake from Niger. Fortunately, I think the whole WMD discussion can be simply summed up with the findings of the official commission: "We were dead wrong".
As of this writing, there have been 1892 US troops killed in Iraq and has spent nearly $200 billion dollars, with no end in sight.
Not only has nobody from this administration accepted any responsibility for any of the miserable failures in Iraq, but they have blamed everyone from Army Reserve Privates to the intelligence agencies instead. "Blame game" indeed.
MISERABLE FAILURE #3: HURRICANE KATRINA
This disaster and the failures surrounding this are still unfolding by the minute. There is so much information that it's hard to keep up (such is the case with this administration). Rest assured that there are journalists, bloggers and concerned citizens everywhere documenting this information carefully as it happens.
FEMA was a single, independent agency from it's inception in 1978 by Jimmy Carter. In 2003, it became part of the Department of Homeland Security, which federalized the agency under an executive cabinet. FEMA has basically been gutted since and partially privatized. To head the "new and improved FEMA", Bush appointed Michael D. Brown. Previously, Brown was the Commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association but was forced to resign amid allegations of incompetence and an onslaught of lawsuits. Of course, he DID have emergency response experience in his background - he was the assistant city manager with emergency services oversight in Edmond, Oklahoma in the 1970's. But cut the guy a break - he stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once.
Now that we have the who's who and what does what out of the way, let's get down to the nitty gritty.
First, let's just get this out of the way:
FRIDAY, AUGUST 26TH
GOVERNOR BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR LOUISIANA
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=...
SATURDAY, AUGUST 27TH
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=...
GOVERNOR BLANCO ASKS PRESIDENT BUSH TO DECLARE A FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR LOUISIANA
SUNDAY, AUGUST 28TH
MAYOR NAGIN DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND ORDERS THE LARGEST MANDATORY EVACUATION OF A MAJOR CITY IN HISTORY
BUSH ISSUES DISASTER DECLARATIONS FOR LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI
There are Bushbots out there that actually believe that local officials never declared a State of Emergency nor requested any federal help for days. As you can see, that is clearly horseshit. Of course, Bushbots are by nature functionally retarded when it comes to silly things like "facts", but there you have it.
The original poster goes on, I suggest everyone reads it.
. Its a great read and makes a great case of Bush's **** ups that caused thousands upon thousands of lives."Fool me once, shame on... shame on... you. Fool me... you can't get fooled again." -- GW Bush, 9/17/02
Miserable Failure. The first hit after googling this phrase leads you to George W. Bush's bio page on the White House website and has for a very long time.
But I don't think that "miserable failure" can even begin to describe the ineptitude of this cabal. Over the past few years, it's been one miserable failure after another. So many, in fact, that one can't even list them all lest they're writing a novel that would take up more shelf space than a copy of War and Peace. So lets just examine a few, shall we?
MISERABLE FAILURE #1: 9/11
A summary of pre, during and post-9/11 failures for your reading pleasure
A couple of highlights that seem extremely relevant right now:
This administration claimed it had "no warning" whatsoever. Condoleezza Rice even said, "I don't think anyone could have predicted that these people... would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." However, the fact is that in addition to many warnings and intelligence information received prior to 9/11 - including evidence of using a plane as a missile - the Presidential Daily Briefing from August 6, 2001 titled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US" stated that Al Qaeda planned to hijack US planes and mentioned the World Trade Center specifically.
When calls for an independent commission investigation into 9/11 were made, the Bush administration did everything they could to stop it. Bush and Cheney went so far as to personally call Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle urging him not to conduct an investigation. When stonewalling was no longer affective and the Independent Commission finally began its work, Bush used Nixon's dictatorial doctrine of "Executive Privilege" to deny commissioners access to crucial documents. Condi Rice initially refused to testify under oath or in public, but finally relented under extreme public pressure. Bush insisted on testifying with Cheney at his side, in private, not under oath, and with no transcripts or recordings made.
They stalled, they lied about easily refutable facts, they hid under a veil of secrecy and attempted to point the finger at anyone possible but themselves - the ones in charge. A "blame game", if you will.
2,749 men, women and children lost their lives on 9/11.
MISERABLE FAILURE #2: THE WAR IN IRAQ
Oh man, where does one even begin with this debacle? We could start with how it was pre-planned, from evidence spanning from memos (1, 2) from their own right-wing thing tank The Project For A New American Century to the leaked British Downing Street Minutes, but the administration has emphatically insisted that Bush didn't decide to invade Iraq until the 11th hour when all other avenues had been exhausted.
Or perhaps we could examine some of the multitude of quotes from the administration about how the Iraq war was going to be a "cakewalk", that the Iraqi's would greet the US troops with "flowers", how Iraq's own oil would pay for this war, or how both Cheney and Rumsfeld insisted we would be in Iraq "weeks, not months".
Maybe we could delve into those infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction and the "imminent threat" that they posed to the United States. *cue nefarious-sounding doom music* We could talk about how they continued to lie and make claims they already knew were false, like that scary yellowcake from Niger. Fortunately, I think the whole WMD discussion can be simply summed up with the findings of the official commission: "We were dead wrong".
As of this writing, there have been 1892 US troops killed in Iraq and has spent nearly $200 billion dollars, with no end in sight.
Not only has nobody from this administration accepted any responsibility for any of the miserable failures in Iraq, but they have blamed everyone from Army Reserve Privates to the intelligence agencies instead. "Blame game" indeed.
MISERABLE FAILURE #3: HURRICANE KATRINA
This disaster and the failures surrounding this are still unfolding by the minute. There is so much information that it's hard to keep up (such is the case with this administration). Rest assured that there are journalists, bloggers and concerned citizens everywhere documenting this information carefully as it happens.
FEMA was a single, independent agency from it's inception in 1978 by Jimmy Carter. In 2003, it became part of the Department of Homeland Security, which federalized the agency under an executive cabinet. FEMA has basically been gutted since and partially privatized. To head the "new and improved FEMA", Bush appointed Michael D. Brown. Previously, Brown was the Commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association but was forced to resign amid allegations of incompetence and an onslaught of lawsuits. Of course, he DID have emergency response experience in his background - he was the assistant city manager with emergency services oversight in Edmond, Oklahoma in the 1970's. But cut the guy a break - he stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once.
Now that we have the who's who and what does what out of the way, let's get down to the nitty gritty.
First, let's just get this out of the way:
FRIDAY, AUGUST 26TH
GOVERNOR BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR LOUISIANA
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=...
SATURDAY, AUGUST 27TH
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=...
GOVERNOR BLANCO ASKS PRESIDENT BUSH TO DECLARE A FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR LOUISIANA
SUNDAY, AUGUST 28TH
MAYOR NAGIN DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND ORDERS THE LARGEST MANDATORY EVACUATION OF A MAJOR CITY IN HISTORY
BUSH ISSUES DISASTER DECLARATIONS FOR LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI
There are Bushbots out there that actually believe that local officials never declared a State of Emergency nor requested any federal help for days. As you can see, that is clearly horseshit. Of course, Bushbots are by nature functionally retarded when it comes to silly things like "facts", but there you have it.
The original poster goes on, I suggest everyone reads it.
