(no subject)

[liptonrm_backup]

I'm getting very excited about The Fans' Reading Group. Three weeks till we start discussing our inagural book, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The more people who join the more excited I get. Come on, my friends, it'll be a lot of fun. And we'll have virtual punch and pie. You know you wanna join. *hint fansreading hint* < /wheedling>

New season of House starts tonight, ya'll. Most exciting. What is it with me and the sarcastic, intelligent, darkly attractive wounded type? It can't be healthy.

You know, I really shouldn't read Orson Scott Card's website, especially the political stuff. It only serves to aggravate me. But, since I did ...


The Right is beginning to fight back. They were fairly silent during the first week or so after Katrina, probably as shocked as the rest of us were. Now begins the refutations and 'explanations' of the disaster that unfolded in front of our eyes. Apparently it's not the administration's fault because Bush isn't God, he can't order the cosmos to his liking (thank goodness). And the governor of Mississipi doesn't blame him so certainly we shouldn't either. The news media is just a bunch of jackals who have latched onto a sensational story and are using it to make the poor, poor little president look bad. Of course its not his fault. It's the media, they're placing blame. It's Mayor Nagin, he didn't use the school buses to evacuate people. It's the LA governor, she didn't call for aid in time.

Granted, I am supremely biased. I've never voted for GW, I've never liked him or his policies. I didn't support his war and still don't. I'm jaded and cynical with regards to this administration. However, even I can see that in the aftermath of the hurricane Bush did everything wrong. I'm not even talking about who got aid and who fell asleep on the job, I'm saying that for a president who spent the last campaign posturing as some sort ideal leader he completely failed to lead the country.

Most of you who will read this already know his actions during the first few days. Now, I'm not a politician nor am I a leader but I know how important perception is and to be perceived as a leader you have to act like one, no matter how little you would be able to actually accomplish (and in the direct aftermath of the storm I have no idea how much any president would be able to personally do). Bush has not done so. He continued his vacation. He's visited the Gulfcoast but has largely left other people in charge of the situation, just peeking in whenever he feels the need to try and bolster his approval ratings. People have accused him of fiddling while New Orleans sunk and I can't say that they're entirely wrong, no matter how cliche the phrase might seem.

No matter what else comes out in the weeks and months and years of investigations that are likely to ensue there is one unequivocal truth, the disasterous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina can be considered a failure of leadership on all levels, including the top. A leader takes action and a leader takes responsibility and I have a bad feeling that this man in our White House will do neither.

I think Republicans should stop whining. There, I said it. Maybe it isn't completely fair to place all the blame at the president's door but the guy at the top takes the blame, that's what happens. Sorry. It wasn't fair that it took more then 2 days for the National Guard to mobilize. It wasn't fair that it took even longer for the regular military to get into the area. It wasn't fair that international help was turned away at the borders. It wasn't fair that women were raped in the Convention Center and the Superdome, that people died of dehydration and had to stand in lines in the blistering sun and devestating heat as the waters rose. None of its fair but a real leader, a real man, stands up, acknowledges the problems and goes to work.

But maybe that's only in the movies.

In other, less frustrating news, I saw a charming article last night in 'Detail' magazine on Matthew Fox. I think I'm a little bit in love. ;-) He seems to be one of those down to earth, man's man types. It's no wonder that Dom is so fond of him. The article's author compared him to George Clooney and Robert Redford, men who straight guys are unashamed to have crushes on. It was delightful.

And informative. Apparently the cast members felt a little like the "bastard step-children" (Fox's words) of the ABC family. The cast of Desperate Housewives get bonuses and swanky presents and all sorts of attention from the suits. It's bad for morale. Makes me want to fly to Hawaii and say, 'Don't worry, I love you.' Because I do.

ETA: Have been listening to the Roberts Supreme Court nomination hearings. Wow, he's smooth. He's a better politician then the guy who nominated him. Makes me wonder if ol' GW doesn't have a little bit of a crush. ;-)

Comments

[hjcallipygian.livejournal.com]

I read an article stating that while Bush couldn't do anything, it would've been nice to at least see some frustration over that inability to do nothing. He should've been railing about how long the National Guard took to mobilize, chewing out people for not getting aid there faster, and expressing some sort of anger or frustration or something over the fact that his citizens were dying. Instead: vacation, fly-overs, etc.

[liptonrm.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Americans are a funny people. We want to feel that we can trust our leaders. If Bush had spent those days even pretending to be concerned then many would have given him the benefit of the doubt. He didn't. He hasn't. You'd think that someone who won the White House on the power of his charm alone would understand that, if nothing else. It's mind boggling.

[hjcallipygian.livejournal.com]

*shrugs*

He doesn't need to win another election. In fact, the more he fumbles around, teh more the Republicans can come in and say, "This potential leader cares! This potential leader will be more in touch with the common person than W was!" etc. etc. I'm not saying it's a deliberate strategy -- personally, I just think that he's not very empathetic in general -- but it could very well work. Of course, I have no idea who the most likely Republican 2008 candidate would be, either.

[liptonrm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. He doesn't have to worry about pandering to the people anymore. The whole thing just strikes me as idiotic. Plus, I don't know how effectively the Republican Party is going to be able to distance themselves from it. The movement away from the president would have to start now and I don't know if that is happening.

[lil-banik-slave.livejournal.com]

New series of House is starting already. The first series hasn't even FINISHED on terrestrial TV yet.

[liptonrm.livejournal.com]

That's crazy! There's some good stuff at the end of the season that I bet will be important in the new one.

I love my snarky medical crack.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

:) I had a long political rant in my other LJ yesterday.

The thing with Bush is, I do blame him. Do I give him 100% of the blame? No. He isn't the only person who screwed up - there is a huge amount of blame to go around to him, to the governor, to FEMA, to the mayor, etc.
But Bush is our ultimate leader. Whether or not we voted for him, he is the elected leader of this country. And in an organization, when a mistake is made, the leader owns a good part of the blame - even if he didn't make the actual screw-up. Because he is the leader. It is his job to appoint people to different roles and his fault if they screw up.

He is the leader. It is his responsibility to make sure this country works. If it works well he gets praise and if it fails, it is HIS FAULT.

And you're right, our response to this hurricane was a miserable failure on every level. The initial official responses to offerend foreign aid have been inexcusable, etc.

Um. Right. *steps away from ranting in your journal*

Enjoy the fandom! Best escape ever!

[liptonrm.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should have your other lj friended as well. ;-)

Exactly. There's lots of blame to sling around and some of it definitely lies at Bush's feet. He is a leader, and he obvioiusly wanted to be one since he went after it with such vim and vigor. It's like Harry Truman said, "The buck stops here."

Thank goodness for fandom. I swear it keeps me sane sometimes.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

You're welcome to. I mostly have the separate journal things to keep my real life friends from seeing how insane I am fandom-wise. It's like a one-way buffer.
And, well, in January the fandom journal is going on a 10-11 month hiatus (probably) and I was gonna friend you and a few people over there anyway so I can keep tabs.

Right. Being president is a ridiculously hard, nasty job and one of the nastinesses is that you have to take the blame when things go wrong. If you aren't willing to handle the responsibility, the nastiness, you shouldn't run. I still feel like Bush runs with the naiviety of a popular high school kid running for class president as a popularity contest without realizing how much work it is.

Fandom definitely creates sanity. Sometimes you need escape before the real world beats you down too badly.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I've been watching the right start to spin this thing just as I knew they would using their two favorite tactics: blaming the media and blaming the Democrats, in this case, the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans. The liberal media and those impotent, fumbling Democrats -- the whole thing can be laid at their door, not at the door of our Commander in Chief, who won the election last year in a great deal due to his macho "bring it on" posturing.

I think Bush was really exposed for being not just incompetent but also virtually devoid of empathy -- to the point that he can't even fake it. Time magazine pointed out that almost all of Bush's "A-Team" of advisors and PR experts were on vacation when this whole thing came down, so W. was left to fend for himself. And jeez, did he fall flat on his face. It was like you said, he couldn't even pretend that he was in charge, he couldn't even pretend that he gave a damn.

Well, now the A-Team is back on the job and the damage control is starting. I saw a headline on MSN today, "Bush Accepts Blame." I didn't read the article but you know what -- who cares? Who cares if he accepts the blame now when he knows that he more or less has to? Sadly, the American people will swallow this. They'll swallow it just like they'll swallow Bush's proposed "Day of Prayer" this Friday and they'll all forget. They'll forget that Bush flat-out LIED about those levees two weeks ago, lied with a grin on his face. They'll forget that his director of FEMA was a crony with no disaster management experience under his belt at all. They'll forget that he was cracking jokes about rebuilding Trent Lott's house while tens of thousands of people were still rotting in New Orleans. They'll forget. They'll pray and blame the media and the Democrats and they'll forget, because it's so much easier that way. I wish I could just say fuck 'em but sadly, we're the ones who are fucked.