Welcome to khan.org

Committing Political (and Literal?) Suicide

It's not often that I start off a blog entry with a disclaimer, but just in case a few searchbots from the Secret Service pick up on this entry, allow me to disclaim:

1. I solemnly affirm that I support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. 2. I do not endorse violence as a way of redressing criminal negligence.

Having made this disclaimer, I feel I can now make my controversial prediction:

George W. Bush will be assassinated (or at least there will be an attempt on his life)... [99% certainty]

Before the end of his term... [80% certainty]
Before the end of the year... [50% certainty]
Before the end of the month... [20% certainty]

by someone who lost family in the aftermath of Katrina [99% certainty]

or by someone who lost a friend in the aftermath of Katrina [80% certainty]
or by a "Timothy McVeigh" who is disgusted by the response of the Federal Government [50% certainty]
or by someone for whom the Katrina response was the last straw (i.e. someone who lost a family member in Iraq) [20% certainty].

Now before you lambast me for making such an outrageous claim, imagine that you are poor, and already disenfranchised. Imagine that the appropriate agencies give you less than 24 hours to evacuate a city. Imagine that a natural disaster sweeps in and destroys all of your personal belongings, and sweeps away your loved ones. Imagine an aftermath where you have no clean water or food, or medicine, or sanitary conditions that literally threaten your own life. The smell of urine, feces, moaning elderly and crying children in sweltering heat oppressing practically every sense. Imagine watching people around you die of starvation, the lack of insulin, the lack of potable water. Imagine you're thrust into a situation where life has literally become nasty, brutish and short, and thugs with guns rule the streets. Then imagine that you were promised to be given help, but no help comes. If you try to leave, the people who are supposed to help, point guns at you.

Then imagine that when help does finally come (too little too late for those who already died around you), and you finally get to see a newspaper or a TV story, you hear of the documented failures of the agencies that were supposed to be equipped in a post 9/11 world to handle such a traumatic event. You hear public officials suggest that the victims need to own part of the blame. And you start to build a connection between the incompetence and failures of those in charge and the fact that your friends and family are no longer alive.

If you can imagine that, then it's not tough to imagine that someone who has already lost everything worth living for to eke out a little measure of revenge on those they perceive are responsible for an inadequate response in their greatest time of need in supposedly the greatest democracy in the world.

Again, I close with a disclaimer: The most appropriate outcome for those responsible for the incompetent response to this disaster (read: criminal negligence) is to suffer the disgrace of forced impeachment and removal from office, and to see a jury of their peers sentence them to an appropriate term in a federal penitentiary. Here's to hoping my prediction doesn't come true, but if it does, you read it here first.

Now, if you're still interested in lambasting me, you might want a small reality check, and read a dose of what real anger looks like.

DHS & FEMA were informed that levees were at risk, but didn't know until 36 hours later that they had failed
FEMA wasn't aware the Convention Center was being used as a shelter
Criminal Negligence
Bob Scheiffer on Katrina
Sen. Landrieu tours the damage
Sen. Landrieu frustrated by Bush's opportunistic Photo-Op
Bush cracks jokes at New Orleans Press Conference (source: whitehouse.gov)
Broussard: Been Abandoned by Our Own Country
Col. Ebbert: FEMA response criminal
FOX NEWS lambasts Federal rescue efforts
Brown says Katrina victimes bear some responsibility
Paula Zahn holds Brown accountable as Brown implies the reason why people are suffering is that they didn't leave
Why didn't they leave?
Koppel asks Brown "don't you watch television?"
Chetoff suggests National Guard isn't deployed unless it's "some huge emergency"
Your Red Cross donations aren't making it to New Orleans-- Thank DHS & FEMA!
White House says "zero tolerance" for "looting" food and water... because help is on the way!
False: The Feds didn't come to help because LA officials didn't declare an emergency.

---

Be generous, share: Digg This! | Add to Del.icio.us | Have you Reddit?| Stumble It!

---

---