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Katrina precipitates Bush's fall from grace : Comments
By Bede Moore, published 18/11/2005Bede Moore argues the Democrats have an opportunity to seize power from the US Republicans and President Bush.
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I used to look up to America as the epitome of democracy, but since the Nixon administration, I believe that the executive is rotten to the core. R I P democracy.
Posted by aspro, Friday, 18 November 2005 10:39:40 AM
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I couldn't believe it when the Americans re elected G W Bush for another term. But when towards the end of the electioneering,old Osama bin Laden was flashed on US TV screens , it was obvious that this was intended to shepherd the sheep into the correct pens. It was no coincidence. And it worked.
Unfortunately for the Yanks and the rest of the world. Posted by mickijo, Friday, 18 November 2005 1:04:44 PM
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I was astonished by George W Bush's first election, let alone the second. It really tests one's belief, apparently shared by those running political campaigns, that people vote according to rational criteria.
It was simply fortuitous that Hurricane Katrina exposed the inadequacy, not only of the Bush43 presidency, but of US national government. The Democrats? I recall a saying, used I think by Nye Bevan about the American parties:- "The same bottle with different labels and identical contents-- both empty". Note that John Kerry, like Bush, was at Yale and in the same (exclusive) undergraduate club. I saw Gen Wesley Clark as the Democrat who may have been a great force for change because he had genuine national security and economic credentials, and a measure of idealism. Rare in a career soldier but that was one case. We need a US political culture that sees world leadership as setting an agenda for a better world, not as an opportunity to throw one's weight around to keep others in their place. From a young age, most of us have been quite skilled at discerning the difference between leadership and bullying. Americans, exercise some discernment and act on it. The world is sick of your country's behaviour. Posted by Remote centreman, Friday, 18 November 2005 1:26:12 PM
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9/11 did indeed give Bush the opportunity to generate the popular leadership only possible by manufacturing an endless war (in Iraq). 3,000 dead in New York is a justification, but was Iraq a culprit and why stay there?
Afghanistan is a different case and its invasion was justified. Hurricane Katrina failed to provide Bush with a popular invasion and in that sense it is a political tragedy. I'll be sexist for a second in asserting that the Valerie Plame case has more to do with her obvious Beauty http://cryptome.org/plame-photos.htm and Rove's obvious Beastliness than any humanitarian or legal concern with protecting a CIA agent's identity. If Valerie had been old, balding, pugnacious and male like Rove I don't think people would have worried about her being outed. The only thing that may save Bush is another event justifying continuing occupation of Iraq or another invasion. Although the US Democrats and our ALP can be relied on to kick own goals if at all possible. Having written policy for politicians their cynicism is frequently as bad as the above - but it wins elections. Posted by plantagenet, Friday, 18 November 2005 3:41:38 PM
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And to think that our Prime Minister supports this bumbling, incompetant pile of [censored].
The slow reaction and flagrant apathy of the Republicans just goes to show how much right-wing governments give a cr*p about the lower classes of their societies. Or dare I say - how racist they are. The 2000 "election" was fixed and then the witch burning, gun crazy, imbred, psycho christians made sure that he was re-elected in the 2004 "elections". An episode that can be described as 'questionable' at best. Plantagent: While there was good cause to invade Afganistan and remove the Taliban, don't forget the main reason for invading - to finally build a gas pipeline through the country that the Taliban wouldn't allow. Don't ever be fooled into thinking that America enters wars without it's own selfish reasons. The Bush administration has demonstrated just how far the Republicans are willing to go to line the pockets of a few rich men. God bless conservatives. Posted by Mr Man, Friday, 18 November 2005 11:49:30 PM
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HOW COULD 50 MILLION PEOPLE BE SO DUMB?
Fleet Street headline follwing Bush's re-elction. Says it all, really. Posted by bennie, Saturday, 19 November 2005 2:03:47 PM
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