Can you handle the truth?

Like many long suffering Americans, Steve Giliard has had it with Bush and his disasterous lack of leadership. He writes an open letter to Bush supporters which is required reading. Read it and share your thoughts.

We can all thank those valiant "less government" conservatives for being directly responsible for the inadequacy of the life-saving efforts in N.O. One could only wish that all those who have labored so long and hard to slash government agencies could be put to work filling sandbags for the rest of their lives.

But Billmon at Whiskey Bar points out that the right actually isn't against big government, as they've actually squandered record amounts of tax dollars, bloating government spending beyond record levels and far surpassing anything the "tax and spend" Democrats have every done. It's just WHAT they think is worth spending on and what they don't that is the difference. And one of the things they don't want to spend money on is programs to protect and help people who make less than, say, $350,000 a year.

Read his excellent post.

I've been meaning to note, but haven't had the chance, that when Bill Clinton came into office, FEMA was a backwater of the federal government, inefficient, underfunded, and beset with low morale. He ordered James Lee Witt to reorganize and reinvigorate the agency, and by all accounts across the board, Witt was amazingly sucessful. The times it was called on to provide relief efforts went smoothly and efficiently. FEMA went from being a joke to one of the most respected agencies in government.

But right after Bush got in, they started letting it fall apart, cutting funding and giving it almost zero priority. After all, the very wealthy can take care of themselves, why spend money on protecting poor people?

We are now reaping the effects of that neglect and attitude.

Even the always judicious Bill Clinton couldn't avoid mentioning today that he'd increased funding and attention to FEMA, but, he said, since then, he didn't know what had happened to it. Of course, he had Bush Sr. standing right next to him, but even so, he had to point out that Junior has made a mess of it as gently as he could.

And why wouldn't Clinton be pissed? Bush has decimated the agency he'd built up to a well-functioning and effective force for good. Bush's agenda for his entire first term was simply to undo everything and anything Clinton had achieved. Now we see the results.

And one other thought. A person doesn't have to know all the facts about Bush's incompetency. Even if they only saw or read all the Bush-friendly press and all the other crap out there all they'd have to do is have even a rudimentary capability to judge character to see the man is inept, doesn't care, and is an elitist, shallow, immoral, and weak person.

I've often wondered how people could be so incredibly bad at judging people.

We all develop this ability. We have to. We meet people on the street, we deal with people daily in business, etc. Even when we're trying to meet a special someone, we have to use our ability to size up others based on what we see and hear. It's essential to our life and our well-being.

Then how can ANYONE look at and listen to Bush and come away thinking he's competent? And he's been showing us he's an idiot for YEARS. So how do people manage to keep telling their inner voice, "No, no, no, no, NO! He's really a great, warm, compassionate leader" in the face of such blatant evidence?

For instance, one can tell that despite his goofiness, and his being committed to serving the world's elite and a host of other views I find repugnant, Bush Sr. has a part of him that is a very decent man. You can just tell. He's human and has a human concern for other people.

You can tell that despite their views, Bob Dole, Pat Buchannon, Bill Kristol, to name a few on the right, still have a part of them that is appealing and human, and their hearts are in the right place, so to speak.

But how can people look at Bush, listen to him struggle to remember the lies he's supposed to say, tortuously laboring to say things he doesn't feel, watch his extreme discomfort and inability to fake that he cares about anything but his elite supporters and killing people, and still think he's a man of high character? It's as plain as the nose on your face that he's faking his way through everything. I mean, just listen to and watch the man, and you can tell all you need to know.

If by some miracle someone had been spared the massive amounts of pro-Bush propaganda and then watched Bush on TV over any length of time, I can't imagine any but a few not coming away saying, "What's with this guy? I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him."

And Dick Cheney? HA! How can ANYONE listen to his diabolical hiss of a voice, see the cruel sneer, and feel he's a decent guy? He voted AGAINST freeing Nelson Mandela, for God's sake!

How did Rove get so many to ignore their basic, inate ability to judge character?

And as an aside, I've opened up comments to anyone again. We'll see how it goes.