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Bush
seen as doing too little, too late
By
Richard
Luscombe
Guardian -- Saturday September 3, 2005
The fallout from the Gulf coast disaster
could take a heavy political toll on President George Bush, who
has been accused by some of fiddling while New Orleans drowns.
His already plummeting popularity rating is likely to take
another big hit, according to experts who say the public largely
see his response to the tragedy as several days too late,
inadequate and insincere.
Visiting the storm-wrecked town of Biloxi, Mississippi, Mr Bush
hugged a sobbing survivor. The woman, Bronwynne Bassier, 23,
clutched a plastic bag containing all she had rescued from her
wrecked home. "We're going to get you some help," Mr
Bush said. "Hang in there. Help is on the way."
Later on the tour, Mr Bush was asked if the US could continue
spending billions of dollars in the war in Iraq amid the
hurricane crisis. He replied: "We've got plenty of
resources to do both. We'll secure our country from the
terrorists and we'll rebuild this area. We've got what it takes
to do more than one thing."
But even as the rescue operation continues, anger is growing
that the administration's focus on the war in Iraq diminished
its ability to respond adequately to a growing crisis at home.
"There's no doubt it has already led people to further
question the president's involvement in Iraq," said William
Stewart, professor emeritus of political science at the
University of Alabama. "If we didn't have so many resources
there, we might have been able to respond to the tragedy here at
home more quickly."
Public dissent over Mr Bush's reaction is reflected in newspaper
editorials, radio talk shows and weblogs. The New York Times
described the president's first public comments on the tragedy
on Wednesday, two days after the storm hit, as "one of the
worst speeches of his career".
Its columnist Paul Krugman wrote:
"America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a
can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job.
And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying."
Amanda Lang, a retired US army officer and
political commentator writing on the Opednews.com weblog,
attacked the president for staying on vacation at his Crawford
ranch for three days before returning to Washington.
"He treats his own citizens with the same contempt and
callousness as he does the Iraqi civilians, as 'collateral
damage'," Professor Lang said.
Referring to Mr Bush's address to citizens of the Gulf coast,
she added: "His heart and prayers may have been there, but
his ass sure wasn't."
Those directly involved in the tragedy have also spoken out. Ray
Nagin, the New Orleans mayor, reflected the anger of his
stranded citizens when he told a local radio station: "We
had an incredible crisis here and his flying over in Air Force
One does not do it justice. They flew down here one time two
days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP
reporters, all kind of goddamn - excuse my French, everybody in
America, but I am pissed [off]."
Prof Stewart said Mr Bush's early handling of the situation was
definitely "not a plus" but that he was always going
to receive criticism regardless of his actions. "It is easy
to say in retrospect that he should have done such and such but,
because of the scale of the problems, any administration would
have been underprepared."
Political enemies wasted little time in weighing in. President
Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, a long-time critic who refers to Mr
Bush as Mr Danger, said: "That man, the king of vacations,
said nothing but 'you have to flee', and did not say how. It's
cowboy mentality."
With a war in the Middle East, economic difficulties at home,
including soaring petrol prices, and now the nation's largest
natural disaster to deal with, Mr Bush is facing his biggest
challenge since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
"This is a supreme test of Bush's
leadership at a time when resources are thin and his approval
ratings are perilously low," poll expert John Zogby told
Reuters. "The president is going to have to do a lot more
than a 25-minute flyover."
Source: Guardian
posted 4 September 2005
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By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
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can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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