stark ranting

Jon Stewart made some excellent points on the Daily Show a couple weeks ago that I find very salient. His guest was journalist Christopher Hitchens.

The people who say that we shouldn't fight in Iraq aren't saying it's our fault... [edit] There is reasonable dissent in this country about the way this war has been conducted that has nothing to do with people believing we should cut and run from the terrorists or we should show weakness in the face of terrorism or that we believe that we have in some way brought this upon ourselves. They believe that this war is being conducted without transparency, without credibility, and without competence.

[The president] refuses to answer questions from adults as though we were adults and falls back upon platitudes and phrases and talking points that does a disservice to the goals that he himself shares with the very people he needs to convince.

Jon Stewart is, as they say, spot on.

I was never a big fan of the president. Maybe it was the way he handled the ambiguous outcome of the 2000 election, or maybe it was his tone of voice, but I cringed every time I heard him speak. He had an uncanny ability to get under my skin. But it wasn't until around September of 2002 that I started to resent his politics. It was around that time that I can first recall hearing the phrase, "Weapons of mass destruction." From that point on I continued to hear that well-worn phrase over and over again, every single day, from every member of the administration. And that's when my bullshit detector went through the roof.

At that time in my life I had very few preconceived notions about what was right for America, politically. I went about my daily life with confidence that the people in charge - far more intelligent than I - would parse the difficult issues in a way that reflected the will of the people. But that confidence broke when I saw through the marketing campaign that was the buildup to the Iraq war. For the first time I realized that our government officials do not trust 'we the people' with the responsibility to decide what is right for ourselves. What other reason could there be for this marketing blitz? Why did they feel it necessary to sell us this product? And truly, there was no other choice given to us at the time, but to buy it. Sure, there were those among us who felt uneasy being sold this thing, this war. But we were marginalized by the gatekeepers of discourse. We were forced to share our views with each other out of public view, in the back alleys and the dark corners of the world. All we wanted back then was frank, open discussion with everything - the good, the bad, and the ugly - out in the open. It's the same thing we want now. It's a desire to know as much about what's going in the world as possible, so we can try to make informed decisions for ourselves. But that's not what we get from our president. We get platitudes and talking points, and we're left with no hope that anything we say will have any effect on the direction of this country. Jon Stewart understands this, and I can confidently say that he speaks for me.

Posted by stark at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wrote this a few days ago...

Two days after hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast I was, like all you, devastated by the images we saw and the stories we heard coming out of the affected areas. It was clear that the situation on the ground had devolved into worst case scenario. At the time I felt uncomfortable placing blame for the tragedy on the shoulders of president Bush, because we on the left do have a tendency to blame him for everything that ails our country. But as we get a clearer picture of the woefully inadequate emergency response by our government, the failure of George W. Bush to live up to his own reputation has become so glaringly obvious it cannot be ignored.

The conventional wisdom is that Bush won reelection in 2004 in part due to his image as a wartime president. He responded strongly to the attacks of September 11. He announced the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. He took us to war - not once, but twice - in the name of making America safer. All of this provided the people with some sense of comfort. Personally I thought the new Department of Homeland Security was a sham. Its main contribution to our security after countless months and hundreds of millions of dollars was a color coded terror alert system that had all the perceived significance of a walk down Sesame Street. And I never understood why it was so goddamn important that we rush into war in Iraq. Be that as it may, the people wanted to feel safe, and they honestly believed that George W. Bush was the one to do it. With the events of hurricane Katrina unfolding in front of us, it is painfully clear that our government was too slow to respond with aid and evacuation efforts. Every death in New Orleans from this day forward was preventable. With the proper government response, the majority of people would be safe right now, and we would all breath a collective sigh of relief. As it is, we have nothing but chaos and misery ahead. It's been almost exactly four years since September 11, 2001, and this is the best response we can get to an emergency that FEMA declared among the top three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America?

The challenges that we face on the ground are unprecedented. But there's no doubt in my mind we're gonna succeed. - George W. Bush, August 31, 2005

I'm sorry Mr. President, but you've already failed us.

Posted by stark at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The challenges that we face on the ground are unprecedented... But there's no doubt in my mind we're gonna succeed.

That was George W. Bush speaking today, not about Iraq, but about New Orleans. The man is optimistic, I'll give him that. If only he had the competence to back it up. I also saw the head of FEMA saying that they had done a simulation last year of the rescue efforts needed, were a category 5 hurricane to hit New Orleans. This is how FEMA responds when it's prepared for such an event? Christ, I don't want to know how poorly they'd respond if the disaster came as a complete surprise.

Posted by stark at 02:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)