Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

You’re letting your hard on for Bush cloud your judgement. Have you had the TV on the last week or do you just let your hate for George Bush run wild. I usually hate the media but in this case they told the true story. In fact they shot themselves in the foot by showing the whole story. They keep taking polls and are surprised at what they get. They’ve showed acres and acres of school buses that were supposed to take the poor and elderly to high ground under water. They’ve showed all the Police stations, hospitals, hotels, etc with no power because they put the generators and fuel on the first floor or worse in the basement. They’ve showed hundreds of people still refusing to leave their homes. I remind you the city is below sea level.
The American people are not going to blame anyone for the ignorance of these people and local officials. If 100,000 guardsmen were standing on the levees when the levee broke there would have still been thousands to die. Sure many people on high ground would have liked to have water and food, but they weren’t going to die in four or five days. The ones that did die were in bad shape before this all happened. FEMA and the guard had bigger fish to fry. I wish the levee had have been blown by terrorist so you’d really have someone to hate. I keep hearing the democrat’s cry, “What if it were a terrorist attack”. If it were it would have been easier to handle. We are talking 90,000 square miles. 90,000 guardsmen, FEMA, and volunteers are only 1 per square mile. Get a grip.
And don’t come back later today and cry, “I’ll be the first to lob off the head of who is responsible”, because you’re talking about God.
You’d better watch your party because they are all ready sinking. The crowd keeps getting bigger and bigger as they dog-pile the president. I always look at the lower left half of the screen when someone is bitching. If the President is Republican and the letter is (R) there may be something to what they are talking about, but if it’s a (D) it’s just part of the game. Watch that little letter and you can weed out all the crap that is not worth listening to. Y’all have a good day, ya here!
 

Rant on, Brother, rant on.

I couldn't get through the "Upon further review" blog. Anyone that can't say anything without peppering their speech with obscenities loses credibility in my book.

But Okay. you feel it's the right tome to start pointing fingers? point away.

Start with the incompetence of the Mayor of New Orleans, who had a total meltdown and couldn't handle the situation and because of thet, he let buses that could have helped save lives sit there and be flooded, and Governor of LA, who refused help from President Bush because she feared Federalizing the rescue process, something which Democrats have never been afraid of before.

Then when you're done blaming these people, blame Bush for not telling the Governor and Mayor to get off their duffs and do their job.
Then, when you feel better, come on back to reality.
 

There is so much blame to go around we all could take some of it.

But as Mark M said, what about accountability for Gov Blanco and the Mayor of New Orleans? And other LA past politicians who knew that if a storm were to come their city would not be protected.Why does every community need the federal government to wipe their butt every time they go to the bathroom. I'm sure I'll hear about the poor and elderly who could not escape blah blah blah blah blah blah. OK fine. Some need help. But why is Bush at fault for idiots who refused to leave and now are wasting federal money in "rescue" efforts when if they had left in the first there would be more for those who really need it. Sure FEMA and maybe Bush should have done better. But the local LA government is to blame also.
 

The point y'all are missing here, from me personally, is this:

For FIVE years I discouraged people from opposing the president, when my heart was blinded by anger stemming from 9/11. That shoved me to the right. The hurricane and aftermath shoved me back in place. The rest is just details.
 

You've been going on and on in several posts about accountablity and when people respond to it, you say they're missing the point of your posts. Oh, really. I think they got the point perfectly.

Instead of doing the right thing and agreeing that there are more questions here to be answered than how capable Bush was of governing from Crawford, you try to convince them they didn't get what you were talking about. Oh, please. They answered your questions and criticisms with specific details, poll results, statistics and you dismiss them by trying to play it off like THEY didn't understand you and with a flip, "the rest is just details." I'm flabbergasted. That's the best reply you can give to them? They're responses to you are "just details"? That's how you defend your position? You internalize a national disaster of biblical proportions and make it all about you? Amazing...
 

Um, I'm not defending my posiiton. That's probably what's making you crazy, Anon.

I mean, I swat at criticisms that strike me just right, but not all. Couldn't if I tried.

Let's do some math.

My thoughts.

My opinions.

My anguish, in reassessing my overal political orientation, s well as how best to put my faith to work at the ballot box.

Hmmm. My friends here, both bloggy and IRL, who agree with me, or don't agree with me, but rarely attack me personally.

My blog (with Blogger and Google's permission.)

My. My. My. My. My.

Adds up to "Me," it looks like.

Then there's You.

And You are just makin' me tired.

Attacking public officials and public figures when you're pissed off and feel duped is the American Way.

Yea and verily, I am a tolerant and benevolent blog host.

Keep firin' away, You. I suggest you read a bunch of what I've written here, if you haven't. Youll see that my thinking, and my anger, and myself, have evolved over the past year or so -- and you might notice that this place is a place where I think out loud, make mistakes, and own up to some.

Oh, wait. This isn't what you're after! I ALWAYS let asstrolls suck me into faux discussions when all they really want to do is try to put me in my place.

Never mind.
 

Damn, bet you're fun to live with.
 

Okau. ER. My previous comment was more of a overreaction than a reaction.

I think, since I like President Bush, that I vicariously feel insulted when someone, anyone attacks him. Even if the attack is deserved, it pains me to say.

That said, I have a legitimat question, and one that should open up a frank and honest discussion:

Assuming that all the accusations from the left are true, What would make you, as a Democrat, happy? How would you fix the problem? Impeachment? A resignation? By who? A termination?

Let's get it on. Offer real possible solutions, not talking points. Legitimate suggestions, not personal attacks and name calling. Let's dialogue.

Anyone? Anyone?
 

Dude.

A nice middle-of-the-road president like Bubba would suit me fine. Slight triangulation, from just left of center, is about right.

I'd also like for the Right Wing of the Repub part to collapse and cannibalize itself.

And since this is a Happy Happy, Joy Joy day, don't expect me to say much more about this today.

As always, however, I reserve the right to revise and extend my remarks.
 

Oh, and Mark, if you had not yourself spent blog after blog after blog, as long as I've known you, attacking the left for the sake of attacking the left, purposefully perpetuating the right-wing myth that virtually all Democrasts are enemies of the state, blindly DEFENDING your president, and insisting, agains plain common sense that all moderates are liberals wearing masks, I might take your challenge to "get it on" seriously.

As it is, NOT. Which is it you're being, BTW? Pot or kettle.

As for thre asstrolls (note I do not count you among them, Mark), go bark up somebody else's tree.
 

ER, the question was not exclusively for you. It was for anybody, and I am reaching out here. I really want to know if anyone has anything better to suggest.
 

OK. You have my answer. (How do you drive a blog at the same time???)
 

lol. I blog before I go to work, and I have 2-2 1/2 hours at home for lunch when I blog, and I blog when I get home and stay up real late.

And I don't confuse Democrats with Liberals. that's those other guys. There are, as you know conservative democrats and liberal Republicans.

I disagree vehemently with Liberals (usually)whether they are Republicans or Democrats.
 

And i have yet to see someone (besides you) who calls himself moderate who isn't liberal. You were truly moderate yourself before Katrina, , but Katrina pushe3d you away from the muddle, but you were the only one I ever knew of that was truly moderate in my opinion.
 

More.

--ER

Blame Game, Race Card
By Molly Ivins
The Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)

Friday 09 September 2005

George W. Bush has come up with his worst idea since he decided to have the military investigate torture by the military at Abu Ghraib prison. He, George W. personally, plans to investigate to "find out what went right and what went wrong" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

It's hard to guess where Bush will look first, but maybe he should start with the appointment of "Brownie" to head FEMA, the federal disaster relief agency. "Brownie" is Michael Brown, who was appointed by some president.

At the time, Brownie was deputy director of the agency under Joe Allbaugh - because he was Joe Allbaugh's college roommate, you see, and Allbaugh was Bush's campaign manager in 2000, you see, which made both of them qualified to manage disasters.

The FEMA press release announcing Brownie's appointment started with his other obvious qualification, "From 1991 to 2001, Brown was the commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association." It's unclear whether "Brownie" was fired or resigned from the organization in the wake of financial mismanagement and lawsuits.

Hours after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Brown wrote his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, to ask permission to send 1,000 FEMA employees to the scene to support rescuers and to "convey a positive image" about the government's response. Brownie said he expected the workers to be there two days later. This apparently inspired Bush's comment, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."

FEMA was once considered one of our better federal agencies (those in the government-is-the-enemy camp may not believe this, but some government agencies are actually known for effective performance). Exactly why the right-wing Republicans chose to make FEMA a political football was never clear - but at any rate, going back to the Reagan administration, conservatives have been hacking away at FEMA. They mostly just under-funded it, one of their favorite tactics, unless a hurricane hit Florida just before an election. Sorry to sound boringly partisan, but that is the record, and the Clinton administration did work hard at rebuilding the agency.

So now those on the liberal side are saying: "See, that's what happens when you starve government in order to give rich folks tax cuts. Government agencies can't do the jobs they were set up to do."

Silly liberals see this as vindication that they have been right all along. But the Bush administration officials are in full blame-shifting mode: First, they announced repeatedly they don't want to "play the blame game." Then, they start blaming everybody else.

According to The New York Times, Karl Rove and Dan Bartlett, White House communications director, began a campaign this weekend to blame local and state officials. The "woefully inadequate response," said "sources close to the White House," was the fault of "bureaucratic obstacles from state and local officials."

The bottom line is they're playing the race card. As many of you have noted, it IS a racial issue that poor people suffer most in any natural or economic disaster. Because Katrina hit the Deep South, a great many of the poor people affected are black, especially in New Orleans - both hit hardest and majority black to begin with.

I'm not sure what to say about a cable news station that plays a "loop" of black looters over and over - about 20 seconds of actual footage, replayed for four minutes, while the voiceover dwells on the looting problem. Obviously, there are some looters in New Orleans and elsewhere, and equally obviously, there are lots of people who were without food or water for days.

The exhausted and desperate black mayor of New Orleans begged for help in an interview late last week. "They're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning, and people are dying down here," Mayor Ray Nagin said, talking about the feds. "It's politics, man, and they are playing games. ...

"Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here! They're not here! It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamned crisis in the history of this country. People are dying."

The mayor was in tears. I heard two nice, white American "ladies" deploring this interview. "Well! He should remember there might be children listening!" Children still without food and water. What happens to people when they talk about race? Of course, most of us don't actually talk about race any more, we refer to it only indirectly, we talk "those people."

Watch carefully, listen carefully - minority groups have always been blamed after natural disasters, since the days when the Hungarians were supposed to have cut the fingers off bodies to get the gold rings in the wake of the Johnstown Flood. Dirty Bohunks.