Saturday, September 24, 2005

Who is Bush going to blame THIS time?


Remember how quick the Bush administration was to blame Louisiana state officials in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, them being obvious (political) targets what with being Democrats and all? Well, one wonders just how quickly Bush will heap the same kind of blame on Texas officials, given that that state was also clearly unprepared for Hurricane Rita:

With Rita closing in, the family of Albert Ruben Sr. drove here this morning to a high school basketball auditorium turned hurricane shelter of last resort -- after taking the most maddening journey of their lives.

In a caravan of 20 cars, the Ruben family and their neighbors in the coastal town of Texas City had tried to obey the state's mandatory hurricane evacuation order. With full gas tanks, food and water, they left on a designated evacuation highway on Wednesday at 11:30 p.m., hoping to beat the rush and avoid the heat.

Seventeen hours later, they had traveled just 60 miles and were stuck in traffic. They had driven most of that time -- in daytime temperatures of about 100 degrees -- without air conditioning to save fuel. All public services along the evacuation route -- for gasoline, food, water, bathrooms -- were closed.

Ruben, 50, a juvenile-detention officer in Galveston County, said he saw three ambulances carry away elderly people who had collapsed in the heat of their unmoving cars. His grandchildren, 4 and 7, had put on baby diapers to avoid soiling the car.

"It was like the end of the world," Ruben said. "You know what it makes you want to do? It makes you want to go home and die. The government done us wrong."

And will Bush lay a Katrina-sized smackdown on Texas officials the way he did to Louisiana, and infuriate his Texas GOP base? Sure, and Weasel Boy will suddenly start to respect other peoples' religious viewpoints. Yeah, that's gonna happen.

Read the entire article to appreciate how disorganized Texas officials were, then watch the news to see how lightly they get off. With this crowd, everything is political. Absolutely everything.

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