So, is anybody counting the number of gaffes that Republicans are committing while talking about Katrina? It would be funny if it weren't an indication of how awful our "moral" leaders really are. Here are some entries:
* Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) pointed out that "Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: 'Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater...'" (for non-Americans, Lousiana is a State, not a city; the city in question would be New Orleans).
* Condy Rize was found attending Monty Python's Spamalot musical in New York (excellent show, by the way!), last Wednesday, rather than flying to "the city" of Louisiana. When a bystander pointed that out in the crowd outide the theater, he was removed by the police. Heck, this is a free country after all!
* House Majority Leader Tom Delay implied that the problem with the delayed response to the disaster was local, not at the level of the federal government. According to a CNN piece he said: "The emergency response system was set up to work from the bottom up." Right, so why did we spend billions of federal dollars to improve "homeland security"?
* Finally, Katrina's victims in Houston, Texas were "underprivileged anyway" and life in the Astrodome sports arena is "working very well for them," former first lady Barbara Bush says.
Hey, with compassionate feelings like these, who wants to see the Democrats back in power in '06 and '08? (That was a rhetorical question.)
Rationally Speaking: an archived blog about science & philosophy, by Massimo Pigliucci
Nothing about these Republican yahoos in power surprises me anymore.
ReplyDeleteExcept the fact that the people they screw over the worst keep voting for them. But maybe not for much longer.
Keep your fingers crossed for '06.
--Adrienne
So who all here that visits this blog is working directly with refugees anyway?
ReplyDeleteJust curious.
c
Hmmm, pretty good question, c. By the way, are you writing directly from the Astrodome or something?
ReplyDeleteJust curious as well.
And no, I myself am not working directly with refugees, because I'm lazy and accomodated, and have my own life to take care of.
But, just for the sake of pretending to actually be a nice guy and all, I resort to the following reasoning: I already do my part paying taxes and working as part of a society. The collectivity then should take care of the rest one way or the other. If you're American, it might sound like a weird concept, but not everybody believes in the radically individualistic life style where each person should fend for herself (if they have money) or hope for charity (if they have none, or lost it all in a catastrophe). Just a weird point of view, I know, but there are people who think things should be like that, and they're not even communists, mind you! Amazing indeed.
Now if my hard-earned and sorely missed tax money is not used for the collective well-being but is instead directed to kill brown-skinned people across the world to get their natural resources, what can I do? Refuse to pay said taxes? I can't even vote here, and even if I could, dumbocracy...
Cheers
J
" So who all here that visits this blog is working directly with refugees anyway? "
ReplyDeleteWhat are you trying to imply here? That nobody has the right to criticize the Republicans in power unless that person also happens to be working directly with New Orleans refugees?
Does not compute.
BTW - I've donated to the cause, even if I can't physically go to the Astrodome. Does that count? Can I call George W. a sorry excuse for a president now?
--Adrienne
libertariandefender-
ReplyDeleteI bet you have something really important to do on the first Tuesday in November 2006. Washing your hair, maybe? Whatever it is, I'm sure that it will take all day, right? You definitely won't be able to leave the house. I hope something even more shocking will come up two years later.
Don't mask your disdain! Come out of the closet!
Repeat after me. Red Ink Republicans... Red Ink Republicans... Red Ink Republicans...
Signed-
A Dem who hopes that all the "fiscal conservatives" out there will wake the fcuk up one of these days
mjrmjr
"Now if my hard-earned and sorely missed tax money is not used for the collective well-being but is instead directed to kill brown-skinned people across the world to get their natural resources, what can I do? Refuse to pay said taxes? I can't even vote here, and even if I could, dumbocracy..."
ReplyDeleteSo you feel that you have actually been victimized more than the 'brown skinned people across the world?
Interesting.
I guess if I thought that, I'd have been frozen into inaction too. And no, not the Astrodome, the Civic center NM.
Will be both terribly busy and gone for the next several weeks. One thing tho, J. If it's not too late, do try to take care for your heart, so it isn't rendered hard and unmoved by everything you see.
cal
"So you feel that you have actually been victimized more than the 'brown skinned people across the world?"
ReplyDeleteInteresting interpretation, I don't know where you got it though. Maybe it was the "hard earned and sorely missed", which my tax money is indeed (or do you think scientists make the big bucks?).
But obviously I didn't mean what you understood. I meant what I thought I had writen: that I do my part in constructing a society and hope that society will do its part towards its less fortunate, exploited members.
Take a look at this Newsweek article to see if you can begin to understand where this country might be headed, unfortunately (and dangerously):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287641/
While charity is fine as a crutch every now and then when a disaster occurs, it's not a solution. "Trickle down economy" is a laughable idea. Bread crumbles from the table of the wealthy is not exactly what I would call a dignified existence. Nor is it efficient to distribute wealth. Gotta change the culture, eliminate racism, ban the notion that you are the only responsible for what you are/have. Unless you think keeping a surplus of miserable people is good for society, that is. If that's the case, everything is going fine as paint, congrats. Just go live in the "Third World" to see how the future of the US could be. It's not pretty, take it from somebody who's from the 8th most "inequal" (difference between poorest and richest) place in the world.
Regarding the cheap self-help part of your commentary, I'll pass. Thanks anyway, I assume the intention was good.
J
It was all good.
ReplyDeleteI merely dislike to see when people are so inextricably connected to the apparent misdeeds of others, so that they turn out to become hard-hearted and excuse themselves for their own soft choices.
regardless of stated beliefs, anyone can do that.
cal