Well, I suppose I'll be unwelcome over at BradBlog from now on! Sorry, Brad, but I warned you -- I'm responsible only for my own views, which may not always be compatible with yours.
First, let me make one thing clear: My heart, and as much cash as my strapped wallet can spare, does indeed go out to Bush's victims in New Orleans. That city is -- was? -- an outpost of civilization in our ghastly Bible belt. Bush's response to this disaster has been unforgivable -- almost as unforgivable as the right-wing spinners who try to direct our attention away from his responsibility.
My first piece on Katrina was posted to Brad's site, and was picked up by the fellows over on "Little Green Footballs," who used it as the excuse for a hate campaign. (Their hope, apparently, is to create the impression that I speak for All Liberals Everywhere. Hardly!)
I sent Brad and "Winter Patriot" a response to the deluge of respondents. I'm not sure if that site will carry my words, but here they are:
* * *
I really do believe that there is a red/blue divide in this country, and as I said on one of my own blogs, things may have reached a point where the cultures are so divergent unity is no longer possible.
Bush caused this disaster. He ignored warnings of global warming. He decimated the budgets for agencies to provide relief and shore up the levees.
Southerners voted for him. Southerners should live, and die, with the consequences.
It's an inexact analogy for a number of reasons, but -- you know why I have no sympathy when people tell me about the firebombing of Dresden? Because I know that Hitler was ELECTED. And even when he assumed dictatorial powers, the people of Dresden did not rebel or even become measurably annoyed. They cheered for Hitler's war of aggression. They brought their misery upon themselves.
Yes, I do have sympathy ONLY for the people of New Orleans. They did not vote for Bush. Ironically, they are the ones hardest hit. I advocate donations to charity only because I feel so sorry for the poor people of New Orleans. As for the Bush-voters elsewhere -- my attitude toward them is pretty much the same as my attitude toward the "victims" in Dresden.
Those who summarize my attitude as "filled with hate" -- well, guys like me have been on the receiving of pure hatred for years, every time we turned on the radio. For years, I advocated a policy of turning the other cheek, of not sinking to the other side's level. But what has that stance ever accomplished?
From now on, I say, let us give as we get.
If the Bushites are going to call us elitists, then we should call them hillbillies. They don't like being called hillbillies? Then they must pledge never again to use the term elitist. It's that simple.
If they talk about us as though we aren't even human beings (and they have done just that, for well over a decade), then I will henceforth refuse to acknowledge THEIR humanity. The days when they felt free to fling insults at our side without fear of return fire are OVER.
New Yorkers and Californians, I must repeat, give far more to the federal government than we receive. So I will never allow any southern hillbilly to pretend that they have helped us in our hours of need. We can take care of ourselves. The hillibillies just take and take FROM us -- year after year, decade after decade -- and then they INSULT us. And then these whiners act wounded when a guy like me dares, finally, to hurl similar insults right back at 'em.
I'm not swayed by the argument that opinions like mine will serve only to make southerners angry. Southerners who grew up watching televangelists are beyond human reason. They are like the pod people in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." I think we are wasting time even attempting to talk with such people. One might as well try to speak to a member of Al Qaida.
You can post this if you want. As I warned you, the decision to post what I wrote is yours. As I warned you, my views may not reflect Brad's. I never made any secret of where I stood on any of these matters.
PS: I must offer apologies for the typo.
* * *
Thus endeth the message to Brad and Winter Patriot. Here is a personal response to the Alabaman who sent me a blistering email denouncing me as a "hater":
* * *
Do you have any idea how many times I have been on the receiving end of vitriol and insult issued by southerners and right-wingers?
For years, I advocated turning the other cheek. Let Coulter call for the assassination of the Clinton and the bombing of a major building in NYC. Let the other side refer to anyone who reads for fun as "elitist." Let Sean Hannity lump liberals together with terrorists and traitors. We should not stoop to that level.
That's the way I used to think.
But after years -- decades, arguably -- of withstanding this vituperation, my attitude has corsened. I have decided to fling shit back into the faces of those who have flung it at me.
You don't like being called a hillbilly? Then assure me that no rightist will ever again refer to me as an elitist. Assure me that no right-winger will ever again use terms of opprobrium to describe Californians. I'll be happy to stop when the other side stops. Your side started this insult-fest.
And now that one man has decided to give as well as he gets, you whine. "But...but...WE are allowed to use insults! We have special privileges!"
Spare me the caterwauling about how Alabama has helped New York and California. The fact is, Californians give a lot more to the federal government than we receive. Alabamans are TAKERS. Leeches. We can do without you. You cannot do without us.
I'm sorry, but increasingly I am moving to the position that the cultural differences between southern fundamentalists and those outside the Bible belt have grown so wide that we must go our separate ways. If Alabamans disbelieve Darwin, as most apparently do, then I'm not sure I favor keeping Alabama in the union.
Similarly, if Alabama voted for Bush, who caused so many of our current problems, then they should live with the consequences of that decision.
By the way -- I live in a town which, for all its many (MANY) faults, boasts a fine symphony orchestra and the world's best-funded museum. And your town...?
If that last paragraph seemed like the work of a "hater" -- well, you reap what you have sown. We have been on the receiving end of so much hatred from southerners and rednecks, I no longer possess the ability to turn the other cheek.
In other words: From now on, right back atcha. Dig?
* * *
A final note: Yes, Californians did stupidly vote for Schwarzenegger. He wouldn't win an election now.
46 comments:
how do I make this font three feet tall?
BRAVO!
From what I see about you, it appears to me that you are a troubled person.
You are someone who sees a parade and wonders why everybody has to block traffic.
You see people waving the American flag and you are disgusted.
You pass a church and ridicule everyone who is inside, resenting their joyfulness.
You do not seem to be the person that anyone wants to spend time with. You probably have relationship problems.
If I were so unhappy, I would make changes. If you hate America so much, go somewhere else. There are over a hundred other countries, many of them with governments more to your liking.
I feel sorry for you. My suggestion is that you get down on your knees and beg God's forgiveness for your sinfulness and beg him to change your evil heart.
"The fact is, Californians give a lot more to the federal government than we receive. Alabamans are TAKERS. Leeches. We can do without you. You cannot do without us."
"The fact is, [rich people] give a lot more to the federal government than we receive. [Poor people] are TAKERS. Leeches. We can do without you. You cannot do without us."
The "elite" tag comes not because you are (allegedly) intelligent or because you choose to watch Charlie Rose instead of Jerry Springer. The "elite" tag gets hung on liberals because they think they are sure that they are more intelligent than the hillbillies and as a result they know what's best for everybody. It's some misguided maternal instinct that came out of some combination of The New Deal and The New Frontier in order for the Democratic party to position itself as the party of the proletariat.
Read it and weep, Bush Toadies! The "Reich" is crumbling. As for its alleged "leadership", the fault is not in their stars, but in themselves. The greedy, penny-pinching misers of the Bush cabal have truly screwed the pooch this time: Iraq War Splurge Hits Home at 230 kph, by Jim Lobe, IPS ---- With state, local, and federal officials still grappling with the extent of the devastation and human suffering inflicted by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and points east, suggestions that the already plunging political standing of Pres. George W. Bush could also be a major casualty of the disaster have begun taking hold. ---- While few observers underestimate the Bush team's proven ability to seize the political initiative, particularly in times of crisis, as in the aftermath of the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the fact that the kind of destruction wreaked by Katrina was both predictable -- and indeed actually predicted -- and avoidable gives the president's foes much more ammunition than they had after 9/11. ---- The soaring costs of the Iraq war, combined with Bush's huge tax cuts and a dangerously narrow definition of "homeland security", translated directly into sharp reductions in the amount of government money that was made available for the battered area's hurricane- and flood-control projects over the last several years, according to a series of articles published in 2004 and 2005 by New Orleans' largest-circulation newspaper, The Times-Picayune. ...
To the latest anonymous coward from Little Green Fool's Ball who wants to talk about "elitism" on the Left, here's a news flash for ya:
There are more millionaires in both Congress and the White House than at any other time in American history. You DO remember which party currently controls both, don't you? Its intials are "G," "O," and "P."
Which party is more in favor of deregulating corporate industries? Which one receives more campaign donations from corporate executives? Which one has given companies more sweetheart legislative deals at the expense of labor and the environment? Not the Democratic Party.
The GOP cares more about millionaires than the middle class; the elitists are on YOUR side of the political aisle, not ours.
To the courageous "Anonymous" - we educated ones ARE more intelligent than you hillbillies. It's time you learned who actually made this country that you ignorant hayseeds think you own. Bumpkins that believe in fairy tales don't design and build civilizations, intellectuals do.
To the anonymous religious zealot:
From what I see about you, it appears to me that you are a troubled person.
You are someone who sees a gay-rights parade and wonders why gay people have a right to live.
You see anti-war protesters exercising their Constitutional rights and you are disgusted -- by the protesters AND the Constitution.
You pass a synagogue and wonder why "those Jews" can't "see the light" and convert to Christianity.
You do not seem to be a person that anyone wants to spend time with, so you troll left-wing blogs to pick fights and get some attention. You probably have relationship problems because you are a judgemental bigot.
Since you're so unhappy, instead of trolling blogs that have a POV opposed to yours and attacking those blogs' authors, you should make changes. You hate America so much, go somewhere else; there are plenty of theocracies out there for you to chose from -- and even though they're Muslim-based, the people of those countries are as patriarchal, chauvinistic, and intolerant as you.
I feel sorry for you. My suggestion is that you get up off your knees, call a therapist, and beg him or her to help you change your evil mind.
>If I were so unhappy, I would make changes. If you hate America so much, go somewhere else. There are over a hundred other countries, many of them with governments more to your liking.
This is the kind of perverse statement that arises when people genuinely start to believe that they can eat their cake and have it too. All Joseph has suggested is that those people who voted for Bush's HUGE tax cuts and cash-hole war fix their own problems. Joseph doesn't hate America; he's merely suggesting that people enjoy the system they voted for.
- Jon C.
Dear Joe,
my my my, that hot Irish-Italian temper has gotten the best of you on this Katrina disaster!
Of course Bush has had another reason for cutting funding for the important New Orleans levee projects: he wanted New Orleans to go under during the next big hurricane.
Why? this way he displaces a Kerry stronghold, can distract the public from his sinking approval ratings, and use MSM (that's main stream media for those red staters who were wondering what MSM is) for countless new photo ops of Bush looking concerned, compassionate about the terrible disaster and how he is going to help these poor homeless people.
But, the more sinister reason for "allowing" a category 4 hurricane like Katrina to strike New Orleans is that by destroying a major city with over 500,000 residents, there are grounds that he might just institute martial law in this country. Yes, Martha, I said it: the "M" word which stands for MARTIAL law. just like what the Philipines had under Marcos. If there are enough deaths and enough damage in 4 states, and horrific losses of oil production that threatens to shutdown the US economy, Bush has grounds with which to declare MARTIAL law.
this means Bush would get to do what he declared to an audience of Bush supporters in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" movie: "dictatorship is so much easier" .
Under MARTIAL law, Bush would suspend the constitution, suspend federal elections (at a minimum), institute a draft, recriminalize sodomy, abortion without having to bother with waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court.
As ridiculous as this sounds, this is where this country is headed.
Now, regarding the earlier comment from "anonymous" about:
"You see people waving the American flag and you are disgusted.
You pass a church and ridicule everyone who is inside, resenting their joyfulness.
You do not seem to be the person that anyone wants to spend time with. You probably have relationship problems."
I take offense about the flag waving. I myself, as liberal lefty as I am, have an American flag proudly displayed at all times in my garden! there!
I cannot stand going to Catholic church sunday mass but I don't look down upon those that do attend services of their choice. I simply can't stand to listen to the priest conducts service as my father snores beside me and I have to gently elbow him to stay awake the last time I actually attended.
I choose to honor a higher spirit in other ways: everyday trying to do something for someone else that makes a difference in their lives. Bringing a smile to someone's face, a small $$ donation, letting someone pass in front of me on a busy street.
No one enjoys being called a "hillbilly". Folks that voted for Bush thought they were doing the "right thing" since these folks liked Bush better as a person and liked Laura Bush better than Theresa Kerry who speaks with a slight accent than can seem disconcerting and isn't as attractive as Laura Bush. Plus Bush was against those freakin liberals.
what a shame that someone based their vote for President based on such personal attributes as George Bush being a "good old boy".
anyway, if MARTIAL law happens, then this blogsite will be a thing of the past, many internet sites will be simply shutdown, and disconnected.
Lastly, the comment about Joe having "relationship problems" is petty and meanminded but extremely typical of Bush supporters. I would never say to a Bush supporter: you must have sex once a year and lousy sex at that if you get so bent out of shape that same sex marriages are taking place in Boston or San Francisco.
That "W" obviously stands for Worst president ever. And what a total fuck-up this situation is! When all is said and done, our would-be "take charge" leader is worth about as much as a warm bucket of tainted New Orleans' flood water: Federal Government Wasn't Ready for Katrina, Disaster Experts Say, Knight-Ridder ---- The federal government so far has bungled the job of quickly helping the multitudes of hungry, thirsty and desperate victims of Hurricane Katrina, former top federal, state and local disaster chiefs said Wednesday. ---- The experts, including a former Bush administration disaster response manager, told Knight Ridder that the government wasn't prepared, scrimped on storm spending and shifted its attention from dealing with natural disasters to fighting the global war on terrorism. ---- The disaster preparedness agency at the center of the relief effort is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which was enveloped by the new Department of Homeland Security with a new mission aimed at responding to the attacks of al-Qaida. ---- "What you're seeing is revealing weaknesses in the state, local and federal levels," said Eric Tolbert, who until February was FEMA's disaster response chief. "All three levels have been weakened. They've been weakened by diversion into terrorism." ...
joseph you made your point,you dont
have to go over it again,i feel just
like yourself & we dont need to
apologize for not being politically
correct.i called ted koppel today and told him that the dead bodies
in NO were those of the wrong persons,thatwe should torch the wite house & lynch bush & the top administrations officials.
he asked me "are you calling for a
revolution?" do want go on the air?.
i told him, no i am calling for a
bloody armed rebellion & yes put
me on the air!, his response was
i cant it is too extreme.
I consider it time for a NONVIOLENT REVOLT in this country.
Do you want to lower gasoline prices? Do this.
BOYCOTT Exxon/Mobil gasoline stations. Do not buy gasoline nor get
your car repaired at Exxon and Mobil gasoline stations. Yes,
Exxon/Mobil corporation has donated heavily to the Republican Party.
Call several local Exxon/Mobil stations and demand they call the
company executives and demand they get the price of gas down to $1.50
a gallon and that you will not patronize them until gas goes to that
level. You can then at least buy somewhere else until the Exxon/Mobil
gasoline station owner operators get the financial pressure and put
pressure on the company executives.
I said the stations. This will pressure the station owner oprators to
call the company executives to lower the prices. It won't affect the
oil companies directly but when the owners of the stations begin to
lose money from getting no car repairs and gasoline sales, you will
see action taken.
SPREAD THE WORD.
If you want to help the New Orleans Jewish Community as a result of
the devastating Hurricane
You can send donations in the form of checks
made out to:
New Orleans Jewish Federation Katrina Fund
and send the check to:
North Louisiana Jewish Federation
4700 Line Avenue
Suite 117
Shreveport, Louisiana 71106
The North Louisiana Jewish Federation will collect funds for the New
Orleans Jewish Federation. The Jewish community of New Orleans has
gotten devastated. At least 10 or more synagogues have gotten
destroyed and more than 10,000 Jewish people of New Orleans have moved
to Texas, North Lousiana, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
The checks will not get cashed right away but will get cashed in about
2 weeks to a month when banking for New Orleans gets reactivated.
The North Louisiana Jewish Federation http://www.nljfed.org/
The director of the North Louisiana Jewish Federation: Howard Ross
318 868 1200
Call only for matters of donation and verifying the genuine existence
of this group for your own concern.
I'm starting an activist mailing list for those people who want to get
legislation passed now and who want to do more than wait until
elections and more than want to complain about Republicans. send email to
webmaster@boycott-republicans.com with the subject
ACTIVISM
I encourage you to get as many friends, fellow workers, and people you
will get to know to join my mailing list.
Create your own anti Bush stamp like labels.
Place them on your envelopes. Proudly state that Bush appears an
illegitimate fraud.
I uploaded two word .doc files. The first contains the silver stolen
election coin images for printing 50 labels. The second contains gold
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http://www.savefile.com/files/2826823
.91 megabytes
http://www.savefile.com/files/4381813
2.54 megabytes
You can print the images on this type of label seen at
http://www.onlinelabels.com/OL975.htm
I successfully printed out both the silver and gold stolen election
coin images in the OL975 label type.
Hello again from England.
You write:
"By the way -- I live in a town which, for all its many (MANY) faults, boasts a fine symphony orchestra and the world's best-funded museum. And your town...?"
Could you please explain why income disparities within a region appear to have little place in your analysis?
It's precisely on the robbery of the poor (North and South) by the rich (North and South) that capitalism is based. Capitalism is not based on region versus region or Republican versus Democrat.
As far as I am aware, you didn't answer my point in a comment elsewhere that Republicans and Democrats work together worldwide within something called the National Endowment for Democracy, an arm of US imperialism that has been used a lot recently in places such as the Ukraine.
I bet they don't spend their time insulting each other when they cooperate in NED psy-ops campaigns. They've already signed the 'truce' that you say you'd welcome.
And why didn't Gore and Kerry challenge the electoral cheating?
It must be because they don't want to upset the apple-cart. The apple-cart which deserves to be upset as much as possible. Bravo all the millions of people who choose not to register to vote in these stupid quadrennial charades. (Not forgetting that many are barred from registering anyway).
There are people living in shanty-town conditions in Los Angeles. Very similar conditions to what many endure in various 'red' towns. Meanwhile the film industry continues to churn out horrible films, and in a country such as the UK a person between the ages of 5-18 watches an average of 20 simulated murders per week. The centre of this industry? Well it's not Alabama.
Your line about 'stop calling me an elitist and I'll stop calling you a hillbilly' is very rhetoric-heavy. I think hate is necessary in this effed-up society, and I hate republicans too. No problems with the hate. It's the blurred and faulty definition of the targets I've a problem with.
If we are going to talk about New Orleans - let's not omit to mention that poor black people in that city are being murdered by the federal government in response to Katrina.
Those who are not among those 'chosen' for priority evacuation (and food has already run out) are being portrayed as manic animals, and being left to die. And guess what - almost all of them are black.
A government - based in the North, correct me if I'm wrong, surrounded with Northern-educated lawyers etc. - is treating the poor population (majority black) in New Orleans as if they deserve to die...when they loot shops because they are starving and not being rescued. And people's choices are even more restricted than they were in Watts 1992.
This is not a matter of opera-goers versus creationists. You are turning right-wing rhetoric on its head. But maybe it was fuller of lies, misdirections, hypocrisy, and false antinomies than you thought?
Voting figures don't tell you everything. If you think that's a naive remark, look at how New York elected a Republican mayor and California elected a Nazi Republican governor.
Republicans have contempt for most people in the South as well as in California, New York, Mexico, or Iraq.
Yes, Californians did stupidly vote for Schwarzenegger. He wouldn't win an election now.
That's pollster speak. What do opinion polls matter when there's no election?
Do you realise that directing help towards North Louisiana Jews rather than people of other ethnicities, or people who don't give a damn about ethnicity, puts you in the same camp as the KKK and supporters of 'racial' segregation, in the minds of consistent anti-racists?
The last comment was directed towards 'Anonymous', not towards JC.
Just wanted to make this clear.
The problem, Joseph,is that when you reminded everyone that the blue states economically support the red states, you reminded the Bush apologists of their innermost hear that they ARE inferior. Don't back down. For all their vitriol, those guys are cowards. They are gutsy only when they are in numbers, like lynch mobs. One on one, they wilt like pansies. When things get serious, as things are about to do in this country, these big-talkers will vanish so fast you won't know they existed.
To all those hundreds of foul-mouthed hate-spewers who posted at BB, and thought you won a great victory, refute this:
George Bush was a cheerleader in college. He jumped up and down waving pompoms.
That's "innermost FEAR."
JC,
you say Californian voters wouldn't elect Schwarzenegger now. You also say you don't cry tears for Dresden 1945 because Hitler was elected.
Hitler was elected in 1933! How do you know German voters in Dresden would have elected Hitler in 1945?
And in any event, many of the people in Dresden in 1945 were Russian and Polish refugees, who even a 'democratic' German regime wouldn't have allowed to vote. Please don't lose your edge!
Today, many black people aren't allowed to vote in the US, not to mention millions of immigrants.
You might as well say that since most registered US 'voters' vote (about 60%), and thereby can be thought to support the legitimacy of the US regime which slaughters people around the world, no tears should be cried if places in the US were to get bombed by an enemy.
Of course, the figure is below 60% when one takes non-registration into account.
I hope you answer my point about the Repubocrat NED and its role in 'colour revolutions' as part of the US imperialist effort in many countries.
I will try to get estimates of turnout figures in the US, state by state. Not the usual psephological turnout figures, but the proportions of those who are registered voters or who would be allowed to register who actually voted.
I wonder how many states have figures below 50% and how many above 50%? One could maybe refer to the latter as 'stripy' and the former as 'paisley-patterned'?
Spot the special pleading:
1) Germans elected Hitler in 1933. Dresden got bombed 12 years later. This served the German victims right. Meanwhile, the deaths of Russians and Poles in Dresden were 'collateral damage'
2) Californians elected Schwarzenegger in 2003, but they're the good guys because they pollster organisations report that they wouldn't elect him now.
Please get out of this corner fast, or risk turning into a Democrat version of Ann Coulter!
Joseph, I'm not sure I agree with your analogy to Nazi Germany because Dresden was bombed 12 years after Hitler was elected...
However, I applaud you for saying what many of us have been thinking. My heart goes out to the poor denizens of NO who could not evacuate, because they had no where to go and no way to get there. To this administration, these brown-skinned people are easily dismissed as expendable, especially when big oil is going to clean up for months to come because of this disaster.
I'm having a hard time, though, trying to conjur up much sympathy for those white southerners who cheer on their Dear Leader at every opportunity. Most of them really are pod people who would be the first to blame this on the gays or Clinton, if they weren't too busy at the moment drowning in their own filth.
Elections indeed to have consequences.
Kim in PA
With friends like you.........who needs enemies.
Blue in a Red State....
>>>George Bush was a cheerleader in college. He jumped up and down waving pompoms.
True. But he didn't wave pompons. He hefted cute little coeds into the air and caught by their ass on their way down. That takes a physical ability most of you skinny little Liberals don't have. And then he got a piece of that ass after the game-- something you skinny Libs only dream about in your regularly scheduled masturbatory sessions.
Whoa! Let's not lump all Southeners as backwater rednecks. This describes ME and I do not support BushCo. This type of forced stereotyping is the same as calling all blacks the N word. I'm sure you don't agree with this type of behavior.
When liberals desolve reason with hatred and mean attacks we start playing their game and they excel at this. Yep, these people are narrow minded because they are fearful and ill-informed. They may remain this way, move on to someone who will reason and are open to logic. These rabid supporters come from all social groups, not just REDNECKS!
Yes, there are assholes in the South. You need to be more concerned with the residents of priveleged neighborhoods like the Hamptons who drive and support this NeoCons ideology for personal gain and profit. Rednecks are not making a dime of profit, they are in Iraq. The demographic is often poor, white AND black who join the military for financial reasons. I was in the Army for 11 years and a combat veteran. I went to college after I left, I couldn't go before.
Some of those Freaks are victims of fraud and propoganda driven fear from the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity and O'Reilly. They are constantly being told their world is falling apart. It is, yet they are unaware it's their side destroying it. They blame it on "Liberals"
"Deny responsibility and shift the blame" game is working because the elected Democrats are as filthy as the Republicans!
The commentary here is just sad. So much divisiveness and so little logic.
All this hysteria.... Why not just remove the piety, and state the obvious:
1) the human capacity for empathy is limited, and no one far removed from this "tragedy" can be expected to have any real compassion for the loss -- not Bush, not Mother Teresa, not Hugo Chavez, not the Wall Street Journal editorial board, not Noam Chomsky -- so why not cut short the competition over who cares the most? Besides, if we're going to start weeping for the suffering of others, we have an obligation to look first to the suffering we *cause*, not simply endure.
To the compassionate right-wingers among us, I suggest they direct their prayers and checks to civilians in Afghanthan and Iraq, whose suffering can't be explained as an act of God. When BushCo supporters are finished relieving suffering in those countries, they can start on New Orleans.
2) collective punishment is today a discredited (if not disgraced) notion. Civilians should not be asked to suffer for the sins of their "leaders", even when those civilians are seeming supporters of the offending policies. We need only look at our own country to see how political decision-making and the public discourse is corrupted by power, money and corporate media control. In no sense, then, did the people of New Orleans "deserve" this loss. And those hit the worst are least likely to be Bush bankrollers or even nominal supporters.
3) there are huge numbers of staggeringly ignorant people in this country, and they reside in disproportionately high numbers in the American south. If it's "elitist" to assert that life didn't begin 6000 years ago in the Garden of Eden, or that millions of Americans routinely vote against their own economic interests, then no discourse is possible at all, or that right-wingers, not leftists, control all major American institutions, then life looks to be very bleak in the U.S. of A., on the downward path to economic bankruptcy and a violent extremist society.
4) BushCo doesn't give a damn about people, freedom or American institutions. Need I really point out that it's all about power and money? The more honest right-wingers among us privately admit as much, as does the business press. When are the rest going to remove the blanket of piety and follow suit?
Hatred directed at the same right wingers who have been proudly, violently vicious for a quarter century (since Reagan started rending the social fabric of this country) is long overdue. Right wingers deserve to be destroyed, ground into the dust, the breath driven from them. Especially now that we can see in New Orleans, with crystal clarity, what their anti-government, every-man-for-himself, anti-environmental, RACIST policies lead to. Right-wingers need to be made uncomfortable and unwelcome wherever they go. And, coming from a right-wing Southern family, I know whereof I speak.
I hope that this hurricane and the abominably poor government preparation and response to it will serve as many Red Bushites' awakening. Just as Saul was knocked off his ass and shown the light, maybe this horrible fiasco will wash the eyes clean of many people, and they will see exactly what kind of administration they helped to vote in. As these refugees are scattered throughout the country, many of them will wind up in Blue areas, and they will get to see and understand that "liberals" are merely using common sense and compassion. I can hope that this diaspora leads to such enlightenment. In fact, I will pray for it, according to my fashion.
I understand Joseph's rage. It's sickening to see all this devestation. It's a simple fact that the problem would not be anywhere near this bad if Bush hadn't cut funding for the delta and its levees or if he hadn't sent off so many National Guard troops over to fight his trumped up war. How come he could dash back to the White House in his jammies to sign legislation for Terri Shiavo but it's taking him so long to do anything useful now? It just makes me sick to think about how he and his administration will try to spin this all to make him look like the noble leader. BTW, did anyone else think that the president's appearances this afternoon seemed overly staged? It made me want to puke.
Overall, I understand Joseph's rage, and I hope he understands that this fellow "liberal" wishes him peace. Please breathe. Change really is afoot.
.R.S.E.
If anyone wants to send money to help, but wants it clear that it's coming from a supporter of liberal blogs, like Joseph's, please consider this link:
http://www.dropcash.com/campaign/hurricanerelief/liberal_blogs_for_hurricane_relief
.R.S.E.
Good for you Joe, as always, I
can turn to your blog for an
articulate point of view when
I feel like screaming. I think
this could and should be the
end of Bush and co.
Fantastic Blog, keep it up!
IMPEACH BUSH NOW
The hatred here is terribly frightening. What makes people so angry, on both poles of the political spectrum, that they lose any semblance of common sense? The generalizations are woefully short-sighted and despicable.
Drew, I'll tell you -- again -- why I'm so angry. Since the red state have inherent political advantages (because this country stupidly maintains both a senate and the electoral college), the people in those states dicate, to a large degree, national policy.
As a result, red state voters keep electing politicians who routinely toss tons of pork back home. The red state citizens receive far more from the federal government than they give in taxes. Californians and New Yorkers and other blue staters pay the difference.
Yet -- obscenely -- the red staters have felt free to insult and mock the Californians and New Yorkers who pay for all that pork. They've done so for years.
Yes, that is a generalization. Nevada and Colorado are two red states which get rogered every year, just as we Californians get rogered. The conservatives in those two states deserve our respect. Texas leeches do not.
Because red-staters have a disproportionate amount of power, they can force the election of southerners to the presidency. And so we have Bush -- a man who empties our national treasury (filled with California money, not Texas money) for his misbegotten war. And because he would not pay a relatively nominal sum to shore up the levees in New Orleans, we blue staters now have to pony up at least $25 billion to rebuild that city.
Again: The money ain't coming from Texas. Texans are leeches. They already receive more from the federal government than they give. No, that extra $25 million will come from California and New York and other blue states.
And before someone says "Actually, the money will be borrowed from Asia..." let me remind you: Borrowed money is simply deferred spending. Blue staters will still have to pick up the bill. With interest.
Angry? You bet I'm angry! Justifiably! It is obscene to ask a blue stater to refrain from anger.
"New Orleans. That city is -- was? -- an outpost of civilization in our ghastly Bible belt."
How true, how true. New Orleans was a burning lamp of enlightenment in a dark, Jesus infested world. Off in hickbilly Mississippi they can't shut up about Jesus, they're always quoting him, saying things like 'Love your neighbor as yourself'. But once you ascend from that filth and enter the golden land of New Orleans they shoot their neighbor so they can drink his water and rape his daughter. Yeah, New Orleans, a beacon of society...
Don't make the mistake of calling Christianity a political party. Christ never even delt with politics and if he were on earth today he still wouldn't. Politics is what happens when idiots think they know it all. Christianity (in it's true form) is when people attempt to live as Christ lived, I don't think anyone (hillbilly or eliteist) in their right mind can say that this would be a detriment to society.
At least TRY to peace out...
342
To the most recent commentator:
Would you like to compare the murder rate in Jesus-addled Mississippi with the rates in (largely) post-Christian Britain, France, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark and Germany?
Fundamentalism is the problem, not the solution.
Without regards to what people have done to Christianity, can you dissagree with any of Christ's teachings? Is there anything which Christ (the reason for CHRISTianity) did which would lead you to believe that he thinks that killing people in Mississippi is a good thing? No, I think not.
What many fail to realize is that European countries (like...oh, lets say; the entire world) have their share of problems. Try talking to an honest European. Brits will tell you of the shocking amount of unemployment and alchoholism. Germans have their nationalists and French people have child prostitution rings. The world, as a whole, is a cesspool of trouble. Honestly, no amount of calm discussion or screaming libel is going to fix that. Civilization has been around for thousands of years; if there was a solution to all of the world's problems, don't you think we would have found it by now? But what we fail to realize is that there is no solution. We like to gloss this over in our minds and attach catchphrases and titles to the wild stabs in the dark which we brand 'solutions' but that doesn't change the fact that everything falls short. We were born into a world of chaos and we will die in one. It's up to you what happens after that.
A reader asked:
"Without regards to what people have done to Christianity, can you dissagree with any of Christ's teachings?"
Yes. The one about no man coming to the Father save through him.
I will never agree with a faith founded upon a comsim exclusion principle -- a faith which, taken to its logical conclusion, places Gandhi among the damned and Pat Robertson among the elect.
Maybe if Jesus had spent more time talking about mercy and toleration and love and less time squawking about "Me Me Me," the world would have been a better place.
I DO agree with the bit about judging a tree by its fruit. No more damning accusation could be leveled against the entire length and breadth of orthodox religion.
It is important to judge all trees by their fruit. But I would not be so hasty to decry 'all orthodox religion' because you think (somewhat erroneously) that their fruit is rotten. Look at those who rushed down to help after Katrina, or the Tsunami, or 9-11. Who were they? And what motivated them to act the way they did? I would not call their fruit rotten.
And with regards to Hitler. I notice that you use him often in your illustrations. It works, shock value should never be under-rated. But I must note that Hitler was very big on condemning people to die based upon their beliefes or locality. You, doubtless, revile Hitler and all he stood for. Yet when I read things like "DROWN AND DIE, YOU ARROGANT HILLBILLY SOUTHERN-FRIED LEECHES!!"
I begin to wonder if you are not inadvertantly standing on the same podium as your enemy, spewing the same hatred with eloquent gusto. So I ask: What fruit is your non-religion growing?
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