Shamelessness

Hurricane Katrina is a revelation, now more than ever before, that this Administration is full of shit. In time, we'll see if future administrations follow the same tack, so we can say that the Democrats are full of shit too. But that'll have to wait until the proof is in the pudding. It used to be in the past that we could at least agree on the facts and then argue about different courses of actions based on ideology, value systems, and reasoning. But now, you can't know what is the truth because so many "leaks" are being picked up by the media and then bloggers to spread misinformation. If it wasn't evident with Terri Schiavo's ordeal, it should be very clear now that politics as it stands today is so shameless that we can't even argue using the same set of facts. Liars abound, shamelessly spinning stories that paint President Bush and FEMA as some kind of victims in this matter, when the truth is that there is a dire lack of leadership at the highest levels of government. Instead of leadership, we get the kind of spin that just reeks of should-have-been-indicted-ages-ago Karl Rove. I'll say this: Karl Rove is certainly earning his pay. It's just disgusting that our tax dollars are footing the expense. Don't these Republicans have any shame? We need a transfusion of integrity, stat. On my highly conservative undergraduate alumni mailing list, I've had to mail out at least three posts correcting some of the shameless misinformation. Some of these folks are so deeply drunk with Bush Kool-Aid it's not funny. It's so hard to argue reason when they believe the "fair and balanced" shit from Fox News. So far, no responses as yet to this article correcting the myth about President Bush's alleged pleas to Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco prior to the storm, or this blog entry that debunks the myth that Governor Blanco acted too slowly in declaring an emergency, or this article that clarifies the details about state agencies asking the Red Cross to stay out of New Orleans, vice the spin that the Red Cross was willing and able to enter, but was denied by the state. [Read that last one to understand why it is policy for the Red Cross to be excluded from an evacuating city. I initially thought that the priorities were whacked, but I am less angry about it now.] It's so funny - on that mailing list, we have people crying about a "lack of decorum" from Democrats. Well hell, I'll take some integrity over lack of decorum any day. The thing is, these people are people of integrity, but they buy into Bush's bullshit and lies so easily. Some of them are really old - I'm talking people who graduated in the 40s and 50s. Most of the active folks are folks who graduated in the 60s and 70s - my parents' age. They just have more trust in our president than some of us younger ones (though there are plenty of know-it-alls from the 80s and 90s who can do nothing but spew fucking Republican talking points and then expect you to do research up and down to prove them wrong). I would trust any of them with my life, but not with my politics. Anyway, back on to my rant: Now we see more idiocy from our Republican electorate: Tom DeLay asking child victims of Katrina if this is "kind of fun"; Rick Santorum suggesting punishing people for staying in their homes, and also trying to smear NOAA so that he can pander to private businesses in his state; and one possibly misinterpreted quote from Rep. Baker from Baton Rouge about cleaning up the housing projects. The Republicans have been some very busy bees. Stupid, idiotic, insensitive bees with no shame. Where have all the statesmen gone? All that are left are bottom-feeding politicians.