Centerfield

I missed the very first part (apparently he accepted that relief efforts were a f*** up, though not in those words). Frankly I was surprised by the speech. There's gonna be a helluva lot of money spent; I didn't hear where's its going to come from. It is not heartless to ask that question. However, I don't think GW nor most any Republican can say the "T" word.

"Tax and spend" is not good but "Cut and spend " will get you to the poor house a helluva lot faster.

Posted by: c3 at September 15, 2005 11:56 PM

$5000 for education, training, and child care... If child care only costs $50/week, then this will not even pay for two years of child care. That doesn't even include education. Let's say half could be spent toward education and training. Does anybody want to speculate how much education/training you will receive for $2500?

I have to admit that this is a somewhat confusing speech from the President. Is he speaking from the heart when discussing poverty issues in this country? I'd like to think so, but it runs somewhat contrary to the perceived conservative ethos of "personal responsibility". There were many people living in poverty last summer, during his father's presidency, during those wild youthful days when he spent time in NOLA. Is Katrina really his wake-up call, or was it his declining poll numbers? (Not that they would concern Bush, but they are all-important to men like Rove.)

And Bush, of course, can not speak for a few minutes without invoking terrah. This is the same administration that has all but guaranteed us that the terrorists are coming again, and next time it could be a devastating WMD/nuclear/homo attack. I have zero faith in this administration to fight terrorism or to respond to a serious terror attack. We can't even account for the money we're hemorrahging in Iraq, and now we're throwing even more taxpayer money into the hands of the same companies THAT ARE REBUILDING IRAQ.

I hope our President has woken up after his long vacation. Unfortunately, I just don't have anymore trust in his ability to follow through on the promises that he makes. I'm a Southerner from a Red State, and I desparately want to see the Gulf Coast transformed and rebuilt as a model for the 21st century. However, that's what I wanted to see in Iraq, and I gave Bush the benefit of the doubt and he squandered it. We have a saying in the South: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Bush would do well to actually learn what that means, explain the Iraq debacle, and then I might be willing to support his Iraq plans. Until then, I'm not buying.

Posted by: Tuna at September 16, 2005 12:57 AM

There's gonna be a helluva lot of money spent; I didn't hear where's its going to come from.

My favorite comment so far: "Someone should tell Bush that we paid for Louisiana once already." (Third response to this post.)

Posted by: David Fleck at September 16, 2005 07:51 AM

My favorite comment so far: "Someone should tell Bush that we paid for Louisiana once already."

Yeah well..we've paid for Florida 20 times over. I don't hear too many folks going on about that.

I live in a state where (knock on wood) we haven't had need for FEMA assistance in my lifetime. Even with major natural disasters in the form of fires burning down people's homes, our state has had relatively little FEMA assistance.

If people are going to start complaining about how many times we've "paid for Louisiana"...then they ought to be doing the same thing about Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas.

Or we could just to the decent thing and secede all those states from the Union. :)

Posted by: carla at September 16, 2005 12:51 PM

Tuna,

I think $5000 is a generous amount. Will only cover 2 years of childcare? How long should we cover it? Hopefully by then they've gotten on their feet enough to be able to pay for it themselves. And 2500 can get you some very good training, especially if they go to almost any school- which may be able to get them other scholarships/loans to cover the rest of the cost. Financial aid is a pretty big component of a lot of educational programs- and not just those that offer 4 year degrees. What do you think we should give? How long do you think we should give?

Posted by: stephanie at September 16, 2005 02:34 PM

Here is an interesting tidbit about the speech:

“The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions. “

And here is somethnig else to chew on.

Not to mention the fact that all air traffic had to be shut down while the president was in the area.
Can't let the rebuilding get in the way of a pretty picture.

Posted by: Bob J Young at September 16, 2005 02:50 PM

Quite frankly the best description of Bush's speech is that of a deadbeat dad
as written by Bob Cesca in Huffington post.

Empty promises and all - including the pledge to make sure the money is spent well without fraud - this from an administration that fires whistle blowers like Bunny Greenhouse and others.

Here's part of the column....

"Make no mistake; this is NOT the president suddenly feeling compassion for the poor. This is no more than an evil deadbeat Dad who skips out on his wife and kids, then shows up years later in the driveway with a handsome pony wrapped in a big red, white, and blue bow.

But in this case, the pony will be provided courtesy of Uncle Bechtel and Uncle KBR and Uncle Halliburton.

By the way, did you notice... No mention of exemptions from the Bankruptcy Bill. No mention of suspending the tax cuts. No mention of an independent commission. No mention of a new environmental policy to help prevent larger disasters as the result of global warming. Who will truly benefit from the Army of Compassion? The Army of Big Business and the Army of No Bid Contracts, to name a few."

Posted by: Marcus at September 17, 2005 05:01 PM

Not to mention the fact that all air traffic had to be shut down while the president was in the area. Can't let the rebuilding get in the way of a pretty picture.

And yet earlier in this crisis he was severely criticized for not showing up "Damned if you do..."

On a similar note I happend to see Tucker Carlson on MSNBC. He regularly has a liberal "foil", come on to comment hot news items. In this instance he had Rachel Maddow of Air America reply. Ms. Maddow as expected had plenty of criticism. Carlson pointed out she was "hard to please" and then asked what Bush could have said that would have pleased here. Her response: "I resign".

That's why I think this was a speech that will not please the left nor the right. "Damned if you do..."

Posted by: c3 at September 17, 2005 07:46 PM

Chris, that exchange just about sums it up. It's Bush Derangement Syndrome. Nothing short of Bush admitting he was in fact the anti-christ, and handing the reins over to Cindy Sheehan could have stopped those suffering BDS from reciting their litany, replete with corporate boogeymen raping the treasury and so on.

I'd love to see our next administration be much more moderate,sensible, intelligent, and numerate(literate with numbers) than Bush's. But we don't have a single regular democrat-defending visitor here that gives me any hope that such a person will come from the democratic party. The empty rhetoric of the BDS litany is no more than exhausting, quite frankly. The only effect it has on me to expect less and less and less in the way of insight from anyone on the left. I considered myself a liberal my whole life. I even homemade a t-shirt which displayed the dictionary definition of liberal when the GOP first began making it into a curse. But now?

Posted by: bk at September 17, 2005 10:35 PM

Brian;

...handing the reins over to Cindy Sheehan

Who's Cindy Sheehan? ;-)

Posted by: c3 at September 19, 2005 12:09 AM

Cindy Sheehan? Why she's Nancy Pelosi's astrologer, who has forecast 12 (more) years of roaming in the desert. I hear Barack Obama has been taking metal-shaping classes so that he can forge a Golden Kennedy when the roamers' spirits flag....

Posted by: bk at September 19, 2005 09:07 AM