BUSH AS MISTER SANDMAN

NYT editorial Revising 9/11:

Without realizing it, we had internalized what happened four years ago in a rather tidy story arc: Terrorists struck with brutal violence and the country responded. Everyone rose to the occasion - rallying around New York City, comforting the survivors and doing "whatever it takes" to make the country, if not totally safe, at least totally ready for whatever came next. Mistakes were made, but we would learn from them, and wind up stronger and better prepared.

Given the area it affected and its potential death toll, Katrina perfectly simulated a much larger terrorist attack than the one that hit New York. It was nearly nuclear in scale. Everyone did not behave well. Local first responders went missing, or failed to rise to the occasion, or were simply overwhelmed. Leaders did not lead, and on many counts the federal government was less prepared to respond than it had been when the World Trade Center towers still stood.

We felt that 9/11 had changed our lives in an instant, that we had been jerked out of a pleasant dream. The difference in the blow that Katrina struck was not merely that we could see it coming. It was that, as a nation, we thought we were already fully awake. [emphasis mine]

It is yet to be determined whether or not America is, even now, fully awake. Every time an incident occurs that progressives hope will shock the electorate into understanding that the VRWC is working diligently, and successfully, to advance an agenda that will effectively destroy the ability of the government to address the real needs of the people, I despair when evidence abounds that, in fact, Dubya and his party have once again made fools of Americans. BushCo is extraordinarily good at lulling.

Considering that at least a third of voters, and a vast segment of the media, are still demonstrating that they will swallow whatever obfuscation the Bush administration throws at us despite the "facts on the ground," I would argue that until Mister Sandman (Bush) disappears from the scene, America will not fully rise from its stuporous sleep.