Bush Taps Father, Clinton for Relief Help

Note:Many old comments were lost in a database crash in 2008. Some conversations may seem to make less sense than they would have. A few will make more sense now.

1. 
   Space Kitty 2005 09 01 at 11:41:44 pm

   Thank you for helping me laugh through tears.  Sometimes gallows humor is better than none.

2. 
   tost 2005 09 02 at 2:34:11 am

   Damn, Chris, I head to Alaska for a little jaunt north of the Arctic Circle, and the country goes to hell in a handbasket. 

   So let me see if I’ve got this right.  A half million people, or more, live in a city below sea level right next to the Gulf of Mexico.  There’s a big lake nearby, and the only thing that keeps the whole damn city from drowning when a big hurricane blows ashore is a levee who’s maintenance funds have been slashed from the Federal budget.  I don’t know what anyone else thinks, but it sounds a little like the Sword of Damocles to me. 

    

   Then the big storm hits, the levee breaks — didn’t Robert Plant sing about this scenario back in the 70s? — and Bush, irked that he has to cut his vacation short by a few days, says something along the lines of “Who could have predicted such a catastrophe?”

    

   Meanwhile, the folks that Bush doesn’t care about — hell, he probably figures that since they’re mostly poor & black, they aren’t big donors to the GOP — are perched on rooftops or floating face down in a fetid, excrement-laced pool of flood water.  The lucky ones are in the Super Dome, where the AC is off and the toilets are overflowing.  The unlucky ones are tied to light posts and stop signs, waiting for a coroner who’s likely weeks or months away.  The head of FEMA is getting battered by journalists who’ve finally found a backbone, albeit four and a half years too late, while local officials are calling the Administration’s lackadaisical response “disgraceful.”  Bush, of course, decides to address the situation by turning to Bill and his pop for help. 

    

   Oh, and a fair number of the local National Guard units who could have really helped out are off in Iraq protecting our recent investment in Saddam’s oil wells.

    

   Does that about cover it?

    

   It may be bad form to point this out, but by any rational standard, we — and I don’t mean you and I individually, but rather our materialistic, unsustainable culture — are totally fucking insane.

    

3. 
   Kevin 2005 09 02 at 3:50:21 am

   Hey, Chris, I know this is off-topic, but Kepler’s closed.  I hope you know what I’m talking about.

4. 
   Chris Clarke 2005 09 02 at 11:11:48 am

   I do, Kevin, and though I only went into the place once, I’m saddened. We can’t afford to lose any more good bookstores.

5. 
   craig 2005 09 02 at 1:55:50 pm

   Isn’t it interesting that George I looks like a statesman compared to George II?