I think this has been one of the most exciting and amazing Democratic Conventions in a long while.
Most of the speeches have been great to outstanding and the balance between talking about what we need to work towards and punching at the gasbags that brought us to this hellhole in which we now reside has been great.
I am very much looking forward to tonight and wondering how even Obama can top his wife's, both Clintons', and Biden's speeches.
But there's one thing I haven't really seen expressed in this venue, or much anywhere else for that matter.
For all the horror that the Bush Presidency has wrought in the last 8 years, one of the most stunning to me, the most visual and wrenching of things that epitomize the Republican's idea of leadership, is the gaping hole in the ground in New York City and the vast swathes of rubble in New Orleans.
What country in the world would allow this?
Seven years and we still have this? (Reuters June 25, 2008)
What kind of leadership is this? We have not captured Osama bin Laden nor have we routed the Taliban (previously known as my friends) from Afghanistan. We invaded a sovereign nation who was not attacking us, shocking and awe-ing our way to over a million? civilian deaths in a nation where 40% its population was under 14 years of age.
All we have is a big, distressing, visual exemplar of 8 years of Republican policy to show for it.
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What country in the world would not only allow its leaders to dance, sing, and eat cake as the storm of a century bore down on one of its greatest cities but not even take them to task for it?
As Roadkill Refugee puts it
Breaking news: McCain criticizes Bush’s slow response to Katrina! The MSM jumps on the story to heap praise on McCain. What a maverick! He actually criticized Bush! What political courage!
Three years later and we still have this?
From The Gazette :: Life After Katrina (which has some GREAT photos):
As part of a group of five Western students, I joined the Hillel trip of Greater Toronto on a mission to build houses. I did not understand why the city still needed my help. It had been over two and a half years; had New Orleans not recovered?
On my first day in New Orleans I went on a city tour. The first phenomenon I noticed was the silence. I walked along the abandoned streets of the Lower Ninth Ward, which had been under 18 feet of water.
Instead of new developments, I walked for miles and miles in vacant fields. The only glimpses of previous life left in the remains were staircases leading to nowhere and street signs.
"You could see that people had lived there. These were peoples’ homes. These had been peoples’ lives. I think the first reaction was one of shock and you kind of stood there gasping at the whole situation," Lauren Rakowski, a fourth-year psychology and philosophy student, said.
Now we have Gustav apparently on the way, pumps that don't work (please see this excellent diary by Jesselyn Raddack) and a Republican National Convention about to start.
These images should be everywhere. Ads by the campaign, ads by the party, ads by 527's, viral YouTubes, crayon drawings, I don't care!, should be everywhere.
Yes, I bemoan all the failures of this administration and am deathly afraid of what McCain stands waffles for.
But aside from the obvious horror of flag draped coffins and food stamp lines, I think these two atrocities are mental images that should be stamped onto the brain of every single voter this November.