Exceeding Tolerance

From a Wall Street Journal article on the Doha trade talks:

The administration's fresh focus on Doha hasn't necessarily won the same level of attention from its chief executive. Joining visiting South African President Mbeki in the Oval Office Friday, President Bush told reporters that the two talked about "the necessity of trade."

"We talked about, interestingly enough, the Darfur round," Mr. Bush said, apparently confusing the Qatar city with the Sudanese region beset by violence.

I realize that President Bush is a *ahem* self proclaimed plain spoken man. To dilute venom a bit more, former President Bill Clinton has even said that he doesn't consider Bush to be a stupid man. Fine. However, for someone to confuse Doha with Darfur given what is going on in Darfur is the height of negligence. Careless mistakes are not an option when you are the President of the United States.

This is the man who is the "Decider" when it comes to the lives of our men and women in uniform. Is it any wonder, with examples like this, that the the "War on Terror" is going the way it is.

Fareed Zakaria had it right when Jon Stewart asked him about Bush on the Daily show a few days back... He just doesn't appreciate the true gravity of reality.

The Tower View

Yesterday, I posted a little bit on how the Commander and Thief chastised the Clinton Administration for not being tough enough on terror. I called this hooey. I still think it is hooey. Now, in this time of post disaster we see this bit from the Knight-Ridder group:

Being prepared for a disaster is basic emergency management, disaster experts say.

For example, in the 1990s, in planning for a New Orleans nightmare scenario, the federal government figured it would pre-deploy nearby ships with pumps to remove water from the below-sea-level city and have hospital ships nearby, said James Lee Witt, who was FEMA director under President Clinton.

Federal officials said a hospital ship would leave from Baltimore on Friday.

"These things need to be planned and prepared for; it just doesn't look like it was," said Witt, a former Arkansas disaster chief who won bipartisan praise on Capitol Hill during his tenure.

FEMA said some of its response teams were prepared. (TPM)

Clinton actually did something right? Clearly, Bush wasn’t tough enough on our home front. Isn’t the President the guy who is supposed to keep the nation safe? It would seem that the gulf coast part of our country isn’t safe at all. Looting is rampant and there are stories of rape in the Super Dome. (Tom) Security isn’t just taking the fight abroad. It is making sure that we are ready at home, too. FEMA’s ball drop aside, how are we doing on airline security? And what of the tsunami warning system plan? Is the nation so distractible and its POTUS so myopic that we are doomed to get completely broadsided by any other disaster or calamity that my happen our way?

Again, here is a tremendous opportunity for the President to show some civil humanity and admit some error. Can this buck please stop with him? My bet is that he will just stay in his vacation ivory tower and talk about how things must be twice as bad on the ground. How apt. I am sure he could say the same for our fighting men and women in Iraq.

So help me, if he or any of his flunkies try to dismiss this lack of preparedness on the prior administration… well, I don’t know what I will do. I am open to suggestions. Until I can think of something better to do I shall regard the Bush Administration's actions and invective as, by default, hooey.

Douche and the Future of the DNC

Last week I, perhaps foolishly, thanked George Allen for being a duplicitous Republican in actually criticizing the President. Well, allow me to retract that. Yes it is cool when the President’s own party shallowly criticizes him on a point of common decency, but here we see George Allan’s complete detachment from reality. All cool points withdrawn. He’s back to being a first class hypocrite. Thank you TPM!

I nominate George Allen as douche bag of the week.

In other news, I watched Meet the Press yesterday and Russ Feingold was on. In his introduction, he was mentioned as a possible contender for the Democratic Presidential nomination. The only things I know about the guy are that he is from Wisconsin (go Packers!) and that he and John McCain (one of the few Republicans I genuinely respect) teamed up to reform campaign finance.

For as much press as the McCain Feingold bill got, this is the first time I have seen Russ’s face. This to me is, initially, encouraging. Here is my reasoning: There are two types of politicians, those who want the limelight and are out amidst the press constantly promoting their agenda and ideas. Then there are those who work diligently on legislation and actually do most of the leg work that makes the legislative world turn. My impression is that Senator Feingold is the latter type of elected official.

So, perhaps Russ Feingold is humble. This would be an asset that would set him apart from Hillary Clinton or John Edwards. I am not against either of those two seeking the nomination, nor do I think they are arrogant, but baggage and disenchantment linger from years and elections past. Senator Clinton has a lot of bad blood with the Republicans from when she was First Lady. And, she has Bubba in tow (both a massive target and a killer advisor all in one)! Edwards is still Mr. Charm and has good ideas, but the sore memory of a losing ticket combined with his general relative lack of legislative experience might be a an Achilles heel.

It is both my hope and my sincere worry that Senator Feingold might be another Bill Bradley candidate. In the 2000 election, Gore blew it, without question or doubt. Bradley would have blown Bush out of the water. That is pure conjecture, but I feel that it would have been the likely outcome. So, I hope that Feingold is as substantive as Bradley was. My worry is that the Democrats will make a similar “go with what we know” kind of choice and select Hillary or Edwards. However, with Dean as the DNC chair, all establishment bets are off. I entreat you, the reader, to share your thoughts on the Democratic hopefuls.