Jonas Rushman – 3/12/06

This page was last updated on March 12, 2006.

Always apologizing for Bush; Jonas Rushman; Beaver County Times; March 12, 2006.

This is the fourth letter during the last couple of years I’ve noticed from Mr. Rushman. As in his previous letters, Mr. Rushman doesn’t let facts get in the way of a rant. In addition to being a consistent Bush basher, Mr. Rushman’s previous letters claimed there is no liberal bias in the media and that “Fahrenheit 9/11” is a good source of documented facts.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“In response to Wednesday letter-writer Dan Reeping’s supplication ‘Blame Democrats, not Bush,’ I would like to say it sickens me to see the number of people apologizing for this poor excuse of a president.”

[RWC] Mr. Reeping’s letter was pretty lame and I thought about critiquing it myself for using tactics usually employed by folks like Mr. Rushman.

“No, the Democrats are not suggesting he could have stopped Katrina or kept the levees from breaking. They are saying, and now the video footage has proven it, that he was warned days in advance by ‘Brownie,’ who, by the way, took the fall for him, that this was going to be ‘the big one’ and the levees could not withstand a Category 5 hurricane.”

[RWC] The first sentence is hiding from the record. Bush bashers blamed Katrina on man-made global warming and implied that if President Bush had signed the Kyoto Protocol, Katrina would not have happened. Bush bashers also blamed the Bush administration for not upgrading the levees to withstand a category five hurricane, despite the record showing more Corps of Engineer dollars had been spent in Louisiana than in any other state..

Next, by the time of landfall, Katrina was a category three storm, not category five.

Regarding what level hurricane the levees could withstand, that had to do with overtopping, not levee failure (breaching). Mr. Rushman appears not to have noticed the AP retracted its recent allegation that President Bush had been warned the levees could fail when its “evidence” (Mr. Rushman’s “video footage”) clearly showed that was not the case.

Regarding “Brownie,” this is hilarious. Until recently, the media – and I imagine folks like Mr. Rushman – bashed Michael Brown relentlessly, claiming he was incompetent, unqualified, et cetera. Suddenly, though, Mr. Brown has been relabeled as a scapegoat.

“So what did Bush do with this information? Did he send in the military, which was poised to move in, just waiting for the call? No.”

[RWC] The record clearly shows President Bush was the one who pushed state and local officials to declare a state of emergency, and the locals initially resisted. As you will read below, the “did he send in the military?” comment is BS as well.

“Did he mobilize the National Guard to assist the overwhelmed state and local personnel? No.”

[RWC] As mentioned in prior critiques, there are limited cases in which a president can “mobilize the National Guard.” Disaster relief is not one of them. The sole authority for calling up the Guard to provide disaster relief lies with the governors. Louisiana Governor Blanco herself was caught on tape admitting she waited too long to call up the Guard.

Despite the bumbling at all levels of government, Popular Mechanics (March 2006) reports the following. “The response to Hurricane Katrina was by far the largest – and fastest - rescue effort in U.S. history, with nearly 100,000 emergency personnel arriving on the scene within three days of the storm’s landfall. Dozens of National Guard and Coast Guard helicopters flew rescue operations that first day – some just 2 hours after Katrina hit the coast. Hoistless Army helicopters improvised rescues, carefully hovering on rooftops to pick up survivors. On the ground, ‘guardsmen had to chop their way through, moving trees and recreating roadways,’ says Jack Harrison of the National Guard. By the end of the week, 50,000 National Guard troops in the Gulf Coast region had saved 17,000 people; 4,000 Coast Guard personnel saved more than 33,000.”

As I noted above, Mr. Rushman never lets the facts get in the way of a good rant.

“He ignored the situation and went back to playing cowboy on his ranch.

“I am sick to death of the Bush apologists making excuses for him every time he screws up - and he has botched up everything he has touched.

“I cannot understand the lack of outrage at the total incompetence and arrogance of this administration.”

[RWC] These three paragraphs don’t deserve a response.

“So, please, turn off Rush Limbaugh, put down your glass of Republican Kool-Aid, take off the ‘Clinton hater’ blinders and open your eyes. What you will see does not resemble the United States of America. It more closely resembles a Third World banana republic.

[RWC] If Mr. Rushman believes the U.S. “closely resembles a Third World banana republic,” perhaps he needs to visit one. He may change his mind.

“I had better sign off before Dick Cheney comes and shoots me in the face. Then I will have to apologize to him. Unbelievable.”

[RWC] Unless Mr. Rushman hunts for quail with VP Cheney in south Texas, I don’t believe he has anything to worry about.