Tag: Impeachment

‘Why Did It Happen? Who Needs To Be Fired?’

Trish

Bayou Buzz has the transcript of the stirring appearance by the president of Jefferson Parish, La. on Meet the Press today.

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back. Jefferson Parish President Broussard, let me start with you. You just heard the director of Homeland Security’s explanation of what has happened this last week. What is your reaction?

MR. AARON BROUSSARD: We have been abandoned by our own country. Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst storms ever to hit an American coast, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history. I am personally asking our bipartisan congressional delegation here in Louisiana to immediately begin congressional hearings to find out just what happened here. Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired? And believe me, they need to be fired right away, because we still have weeks to go in this tragedy. We have months to go. We have years to go. And whoever is at the top of this totem pole, that totem pole needs to be chain-sawed off and we’ve got to start with some new leadership.

It’s not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. It’s so obvious. FEMA needs more congressional funding. It needs more presidential support. It needs to be a Cabinet-level director. It needs to be an independent agency that will be able to fulfill its mission to work in partnership with state and local governments around America. FEMA needs to be empowered to do the things it was created to do. It needs to come somewhere, like New Orleans, with all of its force immediately, without red tape, without bureaucracy, act immediately with common sense and leadership, and save lives. Forget about the property. We can rebuild the property. It’s got to be able to come in and save lives.

We need strong leadership at the top of America right now in order to accomplish this and to…reconstructing FEMA.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Broussard, let me ask–I want to ask–should…
[…]

Landrieu Implores President to ‘Relieve Unmitigated Suffering;’ End FEMA’s ‘Abject Failures’

Jon Ponder

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
09/03/2005

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., issued the following statement this afternoon regarding her call yesterday for President Bush to appoint a cabinet-level official to oversee Hurricane Katrina relief and recovery efforts within 24 hours.

Sen. Landrieu said:

“Yesterday, I was hoping President Bush would come away from his tour of the regional devastation triggered by Hurricane Katrina with a new understanding for the magnitude of the suffering and for the abject failures of the current Federal Emergency Management Agency. 24 hours later, the President has yet to answer my call for a cabinet-level official to lead our efforts. Meanwhile, FEMA, now a shell of what it once was, continues to be overwhelmed by the task at hand.

“I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims — far more efficiently than buses — FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.

“But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast — black and white, rich and poor, young and old — deserve far better from their national government.

“Mr. President, I’m imploring you once again to get a cabinet-level official stood up as soon as possible to get this entire operation moving forward regionwide with all the resources — military and otherwise — necessary to relieve the unmitigated suffering and economic damage that is unfolding.”

Today’s aerial tour of the 17th Street levee will be featured tomorrow on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Later, Sen. Landrieu will also appear on CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Katrina Ruins 9/11 Iraq Fest

Trish

It’s an ill wind that blows no good. Maybe the winds of Katrina will do what four years of our logic hasn’t done.

What a difference four years makes.

Republicans were all geared up to commemorate the four-year anniversary of 9/11, and Katrina went and spoiled it. Because what’s the point of showing shots of valiant rescues in New York from back then when the news is full of failed rescues in Louisiana and Mississippi now?

There goes a perfectly good opportunity to pump up the faithful by blurring the line between 9/11 and Iraq, something the Bush administration desperately needs to do. Damn, I hate it when that happens.

What else is different today? Well, Rudolph Guiliani isn’t around to show Georgie how to be stoic yet heroic, for one thing. What Bush really needs to do is send Rudi on a tour of the hurricane sites. He could attend funerals, once people are able to hold them, and be in weddings, once anyone can even think of such things.

Congress isn’t joining hands and singing feelings – I mean, the national anthem – either. Instead, partisanism is at an all-time high, at one-more-degree-and-we’ll-have-civil-war highs to be exact. No one can say or do anything, no matter how noble or innocent, without being accused of playing politics. Which everyone is.

How did we get here? What’s happened to our country? The answer, to me, is four years of George Bush, Karl Rove, Donald “It’s Not Torture If We Do It” Rumsfeld, and Dickface Cheney. It’s people like Colin Powell lying then leaving anyway and being replaced by people who continue to lie but stay on. And it’s all of us who have have failed to mount an effective counter-campaign against these miserable excuses.

It’s an ill wind that blows no good. Maybe the winds of Katrina will do what four years of our logic hasn’t done. Maybe the disaster of Katrina will breathe life into the loyal opposition. But first, we gotta get those folks some help. We are still that nation that stood together four years ago. We just need to remember that.

Flashback: Bush Cuts Vacation Short to Intervene in Schiavo Case

Jon Ponder

“Everyone recognizes that time is important here,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. “This is about defending life.”

If politics and ideology are at stake, President Bush will cut short his vacation – immediately, as he did on March 19, 2005:

President Bush is changing his schedule to return to the White House on Sunday to be in place to sign emergency legislation that would shift the case of a brain-damaged Florida woman to federal courts, the White House said Saturday.

“Everyone recognizes that time is important here,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. “This is about defending life.”

But when tens of thousands of Americans are homeless and millions are without power, water, sewage and emergency services, he makes a few stops in California, goofs around with a guitar, heads back to his second home in Texas to get a good night’s sleep and then returns to work.

And keep in mind, these are Red staters who are in crisis. They are fools for supporting this president and his party – but they still have our heartfelt sympathy for what they’re living right now, and the horrors to come.

Hat tip to West Coast

Bush in California – President and Schwarzenegger Too Busy (and Unpopular) to Meet

Jon Ponder
San Diego is a longtime Republican bastion that is reeling from a series of scandals for which a GOP mayor was booted out in mid-term, two GOP city councilmembers are in jail and a GOP US Congressman is facing federal indictments.

Last night, protesters turned out for a candlelight vigil in San Diego near the Hotel del Coronado, where President and Mrs. Bush were staying. The demonstrators held signs that read, “Send your daughters,” “Mission accomplished?” and “Impeach Bush.”

But one significant no-show in the schedule for the Republican president’s two-day visit to California is the state’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

According to Chuck Todd of The Hotline, reporting on C-SPAN’s Wasthington Journal, a spokesperson for the president said that Mr. Bush’s schedule in California was very tight and that the White House team was sure the governor was also very busy.

Right. It has nothing to do with the fact that both these pols are polling in the 30’s here in California.

San Diego is a longtime Republican bastion that is reeling from a series of scandals for which a GOP mayor was booted out in mid-term, two GOP city councilmembers are in jail and a GOP US Congressman is facing federal indictments. The president is in the city for a commemoration today of the 60th anniversary of the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II.

Pat Buchanan Calls for Bush’s Impeachment – Over Laspes on Immigration

Jon Ponder

Thousands of people have died because President George W. Bush either a) lied about the reasons for going to war or b) acted so incompetently as to be criminally negligent or c) both. But that’s not why rightwing idealogue Pat Buchanan believes Mr. Bush should be impeached:

Buchanan [has] quietly suggested House Republicans mull impeaching President Bush … for what he sees as Bush’s “criminal” failure to stem the tide of illegal immigrants…

“We are being invaded,” the reactionary Republican declared in his column Monday, “and the president of the United States is not doing his duty to protect the states against that invasion.”

“Some courageous Republican, to get the attention of this White House, should drop into the hopper a bill of impeachment,” he added, “charging Bush with a conscious refusal to uphold his oath and defend the states of the Union against ‘invasion.'”

On the face of it, there’s a much better case for going after Bush over the lies and/or criminal negligence, but if the Gops want to go after the President on immigration, they’re more than welcome to.

Rangel: Cheney Is Ill So Rumsfeld Is Running the Country

Jon Ponder

“…I don’t even think Cheney is awake enough to know what’s going on. Rumsfeld is the guy in Washington to watch. He’s running the country. [Cheney is] a sick man you know.He’s got heart disease, but the disease is not restricted to that part of his body. He grunts a lot, so you never really know what he’s thinking. But the guy that talks a lot is Rumsfeld. And that’s where our nation is getting involved in trillion dollar deficits. “

— Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

Impeachment Charges Prepared against Tony Blair

Jon Ponder

A new website tracks efforts in Britain to impeach Prime Minister Tony Blair:

A group of MPs declared their intention to bring a motion of impeachment against the Prime Minister for High Crimes and Misdemeanours in relation to the invasion of Iraq. The charges are based on evidence presented in a report commissioned by Adam Price MP entitled A Case to Answer.

The report … presents evidence that the Prime Minister deliberately distorted the intelligence assessments available to him in order to deceive the public and Parliament over the case for war, and recommends that impeachment procedures are begun against the Prime Minister for this misconduct. In addition, the report maintains that the Prime Minister’s actions have destroyed the British government’s reputation for honesty around the world; it has damaged and discredited the intelligence services; it has undermined the constitution by weakening cabinet government and has made a mockery of Parliament as representative of the people.

Poll: Bush’s Approval Drops Again

Jon Ponder

American Research Group:

George W. Bush’s overall job approval ratings have dropped from a month ago even as Americans who approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president are turning more optimistic about their personal financial situations according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among all Americans, 36% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 58% disapprove. When it comes to Bush’s handling of the economy, 33% approve and 62% disapprove.

Among Americans registered to vote, 38% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 56% disapprove, and 36% approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 60% disapprove.

War in Iraq ‘Has Broken the Back of Our Counterterrorism Effort’

Jon Ponder

“The war in Iraq has broken the back of our counterterrorism effort. I‘m not an expert on the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, but the invasion of Iraq has made sure this war will last decades ahead and it has transferred bin Laden and al Qaeda from being man and an organization into being a philosophy and a movement. We‘ve really made sure that the war against us is going to be a long and very bloody one. Iraq was an absolutely disastrous decision.”

— Mike Scheuer, retired CIA counterterrorism officer, author of “Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror” and “Through Our Enemies’ Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America.”