You know, I'm tired of the Bush bashing that is the media's favorite pasttime. All CNN does is show the devastation that is now New Orleans along with a running commentary about how it is all the fault of the Bush administration. This is just not accurate.
My heart goes out to the citizens of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Oh my gosh, the catastrophe and heartbreak is unbelievable. But it is not because of George Bush! Why must there always be blame associated with suffering? Why do we (thanks to the media) insist upon pointing the finger at somebody when things go wrong? Why not just roll up our sleeves and try to make things better? and that includes trying to improve everyone's morale.
Ben Stein says it so well:
A Few Truths
By: Ben Stein
Published 9/2/2005
A few truths, for those who care to know the truth:
1.) The hurricane that hit New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama was an astonishing tragedy. The suffering and loss of life and peace of mind of the residents of those areas is acutely horrifying.
2.) George Bush did not cause the hurricane. Hurricanes have been happening for as long as we can trace back. George Bush did not create them or unleash this one.
3.) George Bush did not make this one worse than others. There were far worse hurricanes than this one before George Bush was even born.
4.) There is no overwhelming evidence that global warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no clear-cut evidence that global warming even exists. There is no clear evidence that, if it does exist, it makes hurricanes more powerful or makes them aim at cities with large numbers of poor people. If global warming is a real phenomenon, which it may be, it started long before George Bush was inaugurated, and would not have been affected at all by the Kyoto treaty, considering that Kyoto does not cover the world's worst polluters -- China, India, and Brazil. In a word, George Bush had zero to do with causing this hurricane. To think otherwise is just plain ridiculous.
6.) George Bush had nothing to do with the hurricane contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up by New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans were perfectly good; mandatory evacuation. It is in no way at all George Bush's fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans' residences neglected to pay heed to the plan. It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too confused or ignorant to understand how dangerous the hurricane was going to be. They were certainly warned. It's not George Bush's fault that there were sick people. old people, and people without cars in New Orleans. Being president does not include the responsibility to make sure that every adult in America is in good health, has good sense, and has a car.
7.) George Bush was not responsible for gangsters shooting at rescue helicopters while they were trying to rescue people from rooftops. Nor is he responsible for the gang bangers raping young girls in the Superdome, nor for the looters who stole everything they could get their hands on; TV sets, clothes, jewelry, weapons, etc. It was these people, not George W. Bush, who helped turn New Orleans into a living hell.
8.) George Bush is not a racist either in mind or soul. This should be apparent (to anyone not totally biased against him) from the appointments he had made in his administration, over and over. To claim that he is a racist is just plain idiocy.
9.) George Bush is doing all he or anyone else could do to rush federal aid to New Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama. He is not a magician. It takes time to organize and mobilize the needed troops, convoys of food and water, medical supplies, and doctors. Now they are there and more is arriving, and considering the vastness of the tragedy and the lawlessness of the city it's a miracle of bravery and organization that they are there and able to do the job of rescuing survivors and helping those in need.
10.) There is not the slightest evidence at all that the war in Iraq has diminished the response of the government to the emergency. To say otherwise only shows a bias against the president and the desire to put him down.
11.) If the energy that the left wing, liberal news media is putting into blaming Bush for an Act of God -- worsened by the stupendous incompetence of Louisiana's state officials and New Orleans' city authorities, and the malevolence of the criminals of the city -- was directed toward helping the morale of the nation, the nation would all be a lot better off.
12.) New Orleans is a great city with many good people. It will recover and be greater than ever, but sticking pins into an effigy of George W. Bush, an effigy that does not resemble him in the slightest, will not speed the process of that by one day.
God bless all of the people who are suffering so much from this tragedy, and God bless those who are helping them, starting with George W. Bush.
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer who lives in Beverly Hills and Malibu, California. He also writes "Ben Stein's Diary" in every issue of The American Spectator.
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6 comments:
I couldn't have said it better Mr.Stein & O'Reilly. Sadly, the folks that need to 'read' your comments get their opinions right off the TV, without putting much thought into it...
I do not believe that the circumstances along the coast would have been any different under another administration. I feel as if our great nation is so divided that we as a nation are vulnerable for any catastrophe. The democrats and republicans are both so busy pointing fingers that there are alot of people and issues caught in the middle. An act of nature occurs and everyone starts blaming the other as to who is at fault or who did not move quickly enough.
The government has shown this with the 911 investigation. It, too, was a major catastrophe that had to have been the fault of a fellow American's. Many people were not happy to see that it was the fault of Al-Quaida or Bin Lauden and we needed to pull together as a nation to fight terrorism.
Now, in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, there is as much chaos in blame as there is in the stricken areas! Why are those complaining not going down there to pick up people themselves? Why with supposedly great leaders on both sides of politics did they not deliver water and take control of the Convention Center and Superdome themselves? Why was the media going on these overpasses where people were trapped trying to get to safety and not taking water or helping them get out of there? Let's show the world these people stranded on their rooftops and leave them there to die so we can blame the federal and local government.
As you can probably tell, I have looked in dismay at all who dare to be critical. I live close enough that pretty much everyone knows someone who lost everything! My children are in schools that have opened the doors for victims of the hurricane to come learn and feel safe until they have a home again. That is the America that I know and love and want to remember, not the community of back biters who use the appearance of compassion to keep the already contaminated waters of the Gulf Coast region stirring for their own personal gain.
The results could have been much better if the actual head of FEMA had emergency/disaster experience. Brown has NONE. Who put him in that job? Bush. One incompetent putting another incompetent in charge.
I'm a bit surprised that ya'll would assume that things wouldn't be different under the Clinton administration. Under Clinton FEMA had the pre-emptive mitigation plan which basically meant that we should prepare for disasters. Under Bush in April 2001 that program was cut. FEMA was reduced in importance at every turn in the road, because the Bush administration thought it wasn't important. In fact, Michael Brown had no emergency response qualifications, and under Bush people who did were routinely replaced by those who were political cronies of the Bush campaign. FEMA was taken apart slowly and steadily under the Bush administration.
Now, if that is what you want, that's great. But to say that things would have been the same under the Clinton administration is just looking at the world with rose colored glasses on...
Defending Bush is even more flawed. It's bad enough that he doesn't know how to run a country, it's worse when his fanatical constituents defend him as if he deserved it. No wonder Dubya has a god complex.
I think it should be made clear that a lot of the current "Bush Bashing" has come about by/from his own actions and is now underway by Democrats and Republicans, Liberals and Conservatives alike.
Naturally he retains supporters and those who respect him and his positions across the political spectrum, but you should not be surprised that given current events that detractors have come out.
Events happened. President Bush is in the Public Eye. He made decisions that did bear on the handling of the outcome of the crisis. What is impossible to determine in hindsight is to what degree those decisions mattered.
In the case of the matter of the appointment of Michael Brown, rightly of wrongly the court of public appeal has decided that he was not up to the job, qualified or no.
This is in sharp contrast to Mayor Gulliani whose image was in tatters before 9/11 and remolded himself in only a few days.
Had Brown Gulliani's savy, leadership skill and charisma, he would be a hero and this would have rubbed off on the president as would have been his due.
But such was not the case.
Another reason for Bush bashing was the war. Not that we were at war at war per se, but that we were not whole heartedly in persuit of Osama Bin Ladin and his minions.
Instead we were thrust into a war we did not want through lies and deceit. A war which was planned, clearly in advance and which, many staffers were causght by surprise when it becan clear that they them selves had been lied to, even then Sec of State Powell whose political and international career was ruined by the incident.
So don't blame a few of us if we look at the former cocaine using drunkard a little askew when he appoints friends and cronies to the supreme court, Fema and other high offices; when he rolls the dice in budgeting for disasters as he did in New Orleans and lost, and when he thinks thinks that a few nails will make up for failing to shore up levies that cost billions to a city and thousands of lives including I am afraid, some friends of mine.
So, do people have good reason to be upset at Mr. Bush, you bet your tail they do. And they don't have to be a whining liberal to do it.
Peter, the Peter Files Blog
Cousin to many Republicans Including a U.S. Senator and a Presidential Candidate!
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