Bush, Brown, Body Bags and Begging Bowls ...

This Old Brit had already begun today's blog when the news about Brown being booted - albeit belatedly - was beamed across the Atlantic.

God job Brownie. Bad job Brownie. You're booted Brownie.

But what's the difference really?

The dead didn't rise again. The lost remain unrecovered. America's still stuck with Bush. Cheney's still in charge. Halliburton's still set to make millions. And the entire globe goes on being gobsmacked.

Whenever Brits begin berating an awful organiser, one of the first things they're bound to claim of the culprit's complete incompetence is that "He couldn't organise a booze-up in a brewery."

And right now, in every English pub and indeed anywhere else where more than half a dozen ordinary working people meet and chat, the bumbling bubble-boy Bush, is invariably being described as the perfect example of just such a pathetic plonker.

Also right now, in all other recent US disaster related conversations across the globe, This Old Brit bets his bottom dollar that similar sayings are being repeated ad nauseum.

Not only did dumbo-dubya not have a damned clue about what to do when disaster first struck, but even after such a considerable time since, the lame brained cretin quite clearly still can't cope.

As evidenced for example via these excerpt from the UK's Mail.

Why Bush should be ashamed to ask for help

by ESTHER SWALES -- Mail online

Devastated: New Orleans

Mail online comment:

It is a humiliating admission that the world's richest nation cannot cope with a natural disaster.

The horror that we have watched unfold in New Orleans has been feared for years and could have been avoided on such a shocking scale.

But now the Bush administration has been forced to beg the rest of the world for help amid chaotic scenes.

And remember that this editorial comment comes from a conservative, compact broadsheet.

As does this.

America has already spent a staggering £186billion on the Iraq conflict, yet is now unashamedly turning to Europe and the UN with requests for anything from nappies [diapers] and baby milk to forklifts and veterinarian supplies.

And of course the world has been quick to offer help. Friends and foes have rallied to the cause, shocked, naturally, by the terrible images of desperation and grief beamed around the world.

The latter paragraph's pronouncement is perfectly proper; that's obviously as it should be. While the former rightly reminds readers of W's wanton waste of US taxpayers' hard earned personal dollars on completely avoidable, costly conflicts a world away from their once so happy, homeland.

Strong allies including Britain, Australia, Israel and Kuwait have leapt to help, but so have those nations demonised by the Bush administration.

Sworn US enemies such as Cuba and Venezuela - which have come under intense criticism from the Bush camp - have raced to assist with offers of doctors, aid kits and medicines. Even Iran, of Axis of Evil fame, has offered humanitarian aid.

Romania, not yet a member of the EU, is also sending two teams of medical experts.

Then there's this too, on taking aid from the poor.

But it is a disgrace that the US should accept offers of help from the poorest nations who are barely able to cope with their own disasters.

Heartbreakingly, tsunami-battered Sri Lanka and Thailand have been generous in coming forward with donations despite struggling to feed and house their own people.

Even Americans joining the debates on the Mail online message boards have voiced their disquiet at accepting aid from other nations.

It's important to note that none of this criticism is cast in the direction of the American people themselves, and nor should it ever be construed to be. Rather, it's a direct indictment of their once proud country's cannibalistic crew of criminals who five years ago commandeered the White House in what wasn't much short of a coup.

And such an indefensible indifference to their own citizens trials & tribulations ever since - in the minds of most - most deservedly merits such severe critical censure -- and maybe more.

Across the British political/press aisle, the Mirror makes no bones about offering it's two-penneth too.

9 September 2005

HURRICANE HELL 25,000 BODYBAGS

Finding all city's dead will take 90 days

From Aidan Mcgurran In New Orleans

A GRIM consignment of 25,000 bodybags has been sent to New Orleans as the task of recovering the dead gets under way.

The official death toll from Hurricane Katrina stands at 83 in the city, including 30 elderly people found in a flooded nursing home.

Officials estimate the final figure will top 10,000, but there are fears that it will be much higher.

The body count will only emerge when the long process of pumping out the stagnant floodwater is finished in about 90 days.

As well as the bodies in the water, many more people are thought to have died trapped in attics without enough fresh water.

A temporary morgue in St Gabriel, about 70 miles from New Orleans, has been set up to prepare to handle 5,000 corpses.

Small consolation then, that the bogus bastard Brown is finally flung out on his arrogant arse.

Meanwhile, criticism of the speed and scope of the Government's response has been growing.

The president of Oxfam America, Raymond Offeneiser, said the situation "amounts to a massive institutional failure".

He added: "Before Katrina, we reserved our emergency response for countries that lack the resources of the United States. If we've got this kind of failure at home, how can we expect poor countries to do better?"

President Bush's response to the crisis was rated "bad" or "terrible" by 42 per cent of Americans in a survey, compared with 35 per cent who said it was "good" or "great".

(snip)

The disaster is expected to cost American taxpayers £100billion.

It is estimated that 400,000 jobs could be lost and the nation's economic growth slashed by up to one per cent.

It also poses a huge problem for cities across southern America, which are struggling to cope with the large number of evacuees. The government has begun handing out £60million worth of debit cards to thousands of survivors.

At the Houston Astrodome, where 16,000 New Orleans evacuees are being housed, long queues formed for the £1,200 cards.

Meanwhile, conmen have been detected on some of the 2,300 websites set up to help the relief effort.

One wonders if Pat-the-rat-Robertson is included in the conman category. For surely he should be. However, you can bet the farm he won't be. It's equally certain that even if he were, he wouldn't be booted too.

Enough already. Methinks we doth digress too much.

Read how Blairbritain perceives Bushamerica's present predicament - via links to both The Mail and The Mirror below.

1./ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=361375&in_page_id=1770

2./ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15948511%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=hurricane%2dhell%2d25%2d000%2dbodybags-name_page.html