home

Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It

By Jeralyn, Section Huricanes Katrina and Rita
Posted on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 07:55:09 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

Via Atrios, former first lady Barbara Bush on NPR:

Former First Lady Barbara Bush said Monday that living in the Astrodome in Houston was working out well for many of the 15,000 hurricane victims there because they were underprivileged anyway.

Her exact words:

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this -- this [she chuckles slightly] is working very well for them."

Crooks and Liars has the audio .

Update: Billmon.

< Another FEMA Failure: Not Deploying the USS Bataan | Al Qaeda Takes Over Iraq Town >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It | 29 comments (29 topical)
    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#23)
    by glanton on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:15 PM EST
    I've always thought 'Bar' was the most sensible member of the whole dynasty and even after these incredibly callow and ignorant comments, I have no reason to believe otherwise. Neil, for example, undoubtedky gets his strict sense of integrity and fair dealing from her. All told, these are some pretty scary people.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#24)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:15 PM EST
    We need a constitutional amendment banning any Bush from public office. They are worse than the mafia.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#1)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:18 PM EST
    She really puts the compassionut into compassionate conservative. Typical of her class, though.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#2)
    by Paralegal on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:18 PM EST
    All I can say is "wow". Others will articulate better I am sure.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#3)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:18 PM EST
    The unaltered quote is even worse. She describes the prospect of thousands of negroes displaced into Texas as "scary".

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#4)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    Along the same lines Helana Cobbain links Laura Rozan
    More from Knight-Ridder about the stage management of Bush's trip today: ...Bush and his wife, Laura, visited Louisiana and Mississippi three days after his first up-close look at the stricken region. The hastily arranged return trip came amid mounting criticism of the president's leadership in the aftermath of the natural disaster. Bush didn't venture into New Orleans, which he also skipped on his first visit. But after days of televised suffering by African Americans in the city, White House officials ensured that the television pictures of Bush's trip would include shots of the president with African-American survivors.
    link link

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    Excellent. We had Codoleezza Rice with her expensive shoes (for the survivors), a miserable photo-op with Runsfeld walking past the desperately ill as if they didn't exist (stuff happens), and now the compassionate conservatism of the First Lady herself. Another expression of contempt! She must be torn over how moving to the luxurious Astrodome these underprivileged people, whom she generously notes are accustomed to abject squalor, might verge on offering them something like upward mobility--a wholly unintended consequence!

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#6)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    Excellent royal portrait of the Lady at billmon Noblesse Oblige

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#7)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    "Let them eat... ...MRE's"

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#8)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    Jesus *&^%*)+&% Christ!

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#9)
    by desertswine on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    Somebody start sharpening up the Guillotine, it's 1795 again.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#10)
    by Darryl Pearce on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    Somebody start sharpening up the Guillotine, it's 1795 again. Oh, I hope not. After the Revolution came the Reign of Terror.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#11)
    by Andreas on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    The devastation in Louisiana and Mississippi in the wake of Hurricane Katrina will forever change the way broad masses of American working people look upon their government and society. The shock of the storm and the subsequent inundation of New Orleans have exposed the rottenness of the existing social order. It was not only the levees that failed, but the social and political institutions on which millions of people rely. It is now being reported that as many as ten thousand human beings, fellow citizens, or even more, may have perished during the past week. They are dead because of the incompetence, negligence, and indifference of the government. They are dead because the United States is a country in which millions of people live in or on the brink of poverty. They are dead because this is a capitalistic society where the accumulation of vast personal wealth for a small percentage of the population is deemed more important than the welfare of the people as a whole. With the full dimensions of the hurricane disaster still unclear, the Bush administration and the various state and local governments are engaged in an exercise in mutual finger-pointing, seeking to affix blame for the catastrophe. From the standpoint of the working class, however, they are all guilty: the Republican president, the Democratic governor and mayor, the legislators of both parties at every level. All of them uphold the profit system which is the root cause of the disaster.
    Hurricane Katrina disaster shows the failure of the profit system Statement of the World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board, 6 September 2005

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#12)
    by aw on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    I love Billmon, and this is nitpicking, but that portrait looks more like the lovely Dolly Madison than Marie Antoinette.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    aw, Here's a Babs Antoinette I did this evening while thinking of that wretched woman's revealing comments. Not so sweet as Billmon's.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#14)
    by aw on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    lea-p: Perfectly wicked.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    Maybe babs should read this blog about conditions there. I think we should put her and her family there for a week, see how they survive! I'm betting they wouldn't stand a chance. Escape from New Orleans - An Aussies Story.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#16)
    by cpinva on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    capitalism is not inherently good or evil, it just is. totally unfettered capitalism, which adam smith did not condone, is the problem. why should mama bush's comments be a surprise to anyone? she's made similar comments in the past, underreported by the MSM, providing great insight to where her head is at. this is where jr. got his attitude from.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#17)
    by jen on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    We have already had the rain of terror. We could stand a little revolution, or at least some change in how we treat our nation's poorest.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#18)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    how long does america have to be cursed with the bush morons- mediocre at best morons

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#19)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    Now we know where George Jr. gets his "compassion". What a first class beatch. I'd stay away from the Astrodome if I were you Barb.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#20)
    by john horse on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:19 PM EST
    This reminds me of the story in Al Franken's book about his encounter with Barbara Bush. He tries to make small talk with her, but she rebuffed his attempts at conversation with an aristocratic "I'm through with you." I think that is what she was trying to say to these hurricane victims. "I'm through with you."

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#21)
    by SeeEmDee on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:20 PM EST
    Given the Bush Family's connections to the Eugenics movement of the early 20th Century, should this statement be any surprise? Google Search String for Bush Family + Eugenics The fruit never falls far from the branch...

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#22)
    by aw on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:20 PM EST
    Eugenics? They should have practiced it on themselves.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#25)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:20 PM EST
    The 'zipping' should have extended to Bush sr's pants 50 years ago. In 2003, W went at the last minute to the Martin Luther King Jr. annual celebration in Atlanta. His suddenly-announced visit allowed the Atlanta cops (with SS and HMS assistance) to CANCEL the long-scheduled memorial services, on the spot, as they forced the attendees, mostly Black, behind a row of city buses parked on the other side of the highway. Their view of the shrine blocked by being in BACK OF THE BUSES, W then dragged King's widow to the shrine, dumped off a wreath, and then departed to a KKK fundraiser (Haley Barbour's Concerned Citizens Council), where GREAT LAUGHTER and HIGH FIVES accompanied that latest evidence of W's bitter hatred of MLK Jr., Blacks (especially poor, idealistic Blacks), and civil rights. This event was undercovered by the Muffled Media, but now with Hurricane Unconscious, W has again produced footage he can use at his private Nazi fundraisers.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#26)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:21 PM EST
    The next day, W put Pickering on the 2nd circuit, by recess appointment. When W smirks and grins at the refugees of the catastrophe in LA/AL, don't think it's because he's a cheerful guy. It's because he don't give a damn, and loves to let it show.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#27)
    by ding7777 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:21 PM EST
    Maybe Mrs Bush is trained to only see the silver lining. Her life in politics surely required her to state positive aspects of events even when none were apparent. I'm not condoning her remarks just offering a reason for her insensitivity

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#28)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:21 PM EST
    I'm not condoning her remarks just offering a reason for her insensitivity
    It doesn't wash. She was concerned that perhaps the Astrodome accomodations were too luxurious, despite the lack of privacy, for people who were "disadvantaged anyway." She was most likely thinking that this was another expensive Government screw up: if the Government had planned this correctly, the survivors would have been given their own ditch, instead of a mat with a couple shopping bags on the floor of the Astrodome. Now these people, most of whom ere "disadvantaged anyway" were inadvertently given false hope of a better life. That's more like it.

    Re: Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It (none / 0) (#30)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:46 PM EST
    Not to sound like a cliche, but it will, this apple did not fall far from the tree.
    Nor does the pile fall far from the elephant.

    Memo to Barbara Bush: Zip It | 29 comments (29 topical)