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Fri. Sep 16, 2005

Not Listening Anymore

I understand the President gave a speech last night. In fact, I saw a brief portion of it, enough to question their choice of shirt color for the President, and then I turned it off. I didn’t hear a word of it. I couldn’t come up with a single reason to listen.

Susan watched a portion (Republican roots go deep), and though I was in the same room, it sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher to me (“Blah blah-blah blah”). I’d already told her what I expected him to say. After a while, she asked me where I’d gotten an advance copy of the speech, and turned it off.

If you’ve read this site for any length of time, you know I’ve been a frequent critic of the Bush administration, but not in the self-degrading Bushitler/Chimp manner in which so many revel. No, when the President gave a speech in prime time, even on a topic where I’m pretty sure I’m going to disagree, I’d watch and listen. As if to say, “OK, sell me, if you can.”

On September 20, 2001, I sat there on my birthday watching his prime time speech and hung on his every word. Almost exactly four years later, I didn’t hear even one word.

I knew there’d be an effort to unveil a “grand gesture” last night, that there’d be talk of a commitment to spent billions we don’t have, to rebuild the city to be “better than ever.” Sorry, I’ve heard promises to spend billions rebuilding a huge and devastated area for the past 2.5 years … along with simultaneous tax cuts at home. I see the civilians you put in charge of that effort, the billions allocated that weren’t spent on reconstruction, the billions as yet completely unaccounted for, and the current state of that effort.

And I pray for the citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi.

The reservoir of willingness in this citizen is empty for Mr. Bush. And for Mr. Chertoff. And a host of other people I’m allegedly supposed to listen to in the event of an “Incident of National Significance.”

It’s like a lower than B-grade movie with a predictable ending. I’ve seen enough of those already, thanks.

Later: They turned the power on to light up Jackson Square as a backdrop for the President’s speech … but that’s all: “I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It’s enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it … jump to certain conclusions.”

And that doesn’t come from some stranded socialist. That link is to the blog of NBC anchor Brian Williams.