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Show this picture everywhere

By wiscmass

Tomorrow, the whole world will watch as John McCain introduces and appears with his running mate as the Republican ticket in public for the first time. The timing of the announcement is meant to achieve four key goals for the McCain campaign:

1) Keep Obama/Biden from getting the kajillion point bounce they need for the Democratic National Convention to be considered a success.

2) Dominate the weekend news cycle.

3) Generate a little excitement for the moribund Republican Party heading into their dirgefest national convention.

4) Distract us all from an important anniversary.
It's that last goal I want to focus on: distracting us all from an important anniversary. And as a corrolary to that, distracting us all from what McSame was doing when the crucial event occurred, and how that reflects on him as a man who wants to be our next president.

This is the picture in question I want you all to show everywhere:

If you're not sure why this picture is so important, here's one to provide a little more context:

Three years ago tomorrow, when Hurricane Katrina was devastating the Gulf Coast, killing thousands of Americans and leaving countless more homeless and otherwise traumatized, and while a major US city drowned, George W. Bush and John McCain were celebrating McCain's birthday with cake and music.

Today, New Orleans has yet to be fully rebuilt, and the same can be said for nearly every community along the Gulf Coast hit by Katrina. A very good friend of mine who spent a week volunteering in Biloxi, Mississippi, in March or April this year tells me that 2 1/2 years after the hurricane flooded Biloxi with 30 feet of water, he met dozens of people who are still living in houses that were destroyed and cannot be rebuilt, either because of a lack of personal funds or because of the noose of bureaucracy imposed by the federal and state governments that refuse to help survivors get the benefits owed to them. In his time in Mississippi, my friend also learned that Governor Haley Barbour, with the full knowledge and consent of BushCo, diverted tens of millions of dollars designated for housing relief for poor residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast in order to fund the expansion of the port of Gulfport, an expansion that had already been planned for years before Katrina hit. And that was hardly the only problem with the expansion of the port, but I digress.

While Americans died by the thousands, while Americans suffered by the millions, George W. Bush felt it was more important to eat cake -- we all know this. But the point of emphasis here is that John McCain, the man who would be president, the man who claims he is so different from his playmate of three years ago, also felt it was more important for the president to engage his sweet tooth than to work on anything that might help the people affected by the ongoing natural disaster.

So I want to see this picture everywhere.

I want to see this picture every time the McCain campaign questions Obama's judgment.

I want to see this picture every time the McCain campaign questions Obama's experience.

I want to see this picture every time the McCain campaign claims Obama isn't ready to lead.

I want to see this picture every time the lack of preparedness for the current hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast is mentioned.

I want to see this picture every time the McCain campaign questions how often Obama went to Iraq, for they didn't bother with New Orleans themselves except when doing so provided campaign photo ops. Further, McCain has an appallingly awful record on the issue.

I want to see this picture every time someone says there are higher budgetary priorities than rebuilding New Orleans and the other Gulf Coast communities, or any other underfunded initiative of crucial importance to the American people.

I want the whole world to be reminded that John McCain is running for George W. Bush's third term.

I want the whole world to know that if a President John McCain is ever faced with a disaster that threatens the lives of American citizens, he cannot be counted to set aside his confections and do his utmost to save lives.

I want to see this picture everywhere.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on August 28, 2008 (boomark / email).