Keith Olbermann : Labor Day 2005

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One section from KO's spoken rant today on MSNBC:

No one is suggesting that mayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, should be able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we should ever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city, ahead of $454 million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska.

But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe...this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection, or at least amelioration, against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

...Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?

For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been...as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be...whether or not I voted for this President...he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government...our government..."New Orleans."

For him, it is a shame...in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st Century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was just a quick "I'm not satisfied with my government's response." Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have forseen," had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930's. "The responsibility," of government, Churchill told the British Parliament "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."

In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself...it damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.


(Courtesy of Delware Dem from dKos.)

Comments

Unknown said…
I hope this makes the rounds and changes the minds of people who still insist on being apologists for this horrible misAdministration.
3:09 AM
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