It's All About Politics, cont....

As much as the mouthbreathers on the Right want to make this about the immorality of the victims, what needs reiterating is that it was not the poor who broke the social contract in NOLA. Government in general, and American government in particular, has always been about protecting those with lotsa stuff from the people who make the rich's lotsa stuff possible. In exchange for not engaging in continuous revolution against those who benefit from the laborers' work, the wealthy promise those workers a level of comfortable living including, but not limited to, food, shelter, and protection from crime. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, it was the government that abrogated the contract first. It was the absense of government fulfilling its obligations that led to anarchy, not anarchy leading to the absense of government.

The friction between Conservatives and Liberals runs precisely on the fault line of the negotiations between what the powerful owe the broad majority of Americans who make their wealth and power possible. One end result of Katrina is that the fault line has been revealed as the fractious dividing line it always has been and always will be. When the powerful Conservatives in this country press for anti-bankruptcy laws, press for lowered minimum wages, lower safe workplace standards, lower regulations on polluters (it's not the rich that live near the toxic waste zones); press for less money for inner-city transportation, less money for Head Start, less money for public health clinics - when they cut funding for any and all programs that benefit the workers who make the rich rich and the powerful powerful so that the rich and powerful can become even richer and more powerful - they are negotiating the contract between the haves and have nots. This IS politics.

This is an administration who's first and primary goal is to further entrench, further enlarge the power of the richest and most powerful - who want to overturn all the gains negotiated for the not rich and not powerful by Liberals through New Deal and Great Society programs, through Civil Rights Acts, etc. Conservative ideologues believe, in Grover Norquist's suddenly obscene metaphor, that government needs to be shrunk to a size in which it can be drowned in a bathtub. It believes the rich and powerful owe NOTHING to those people who make them rich and powerful - worse, that the not-powerful should be grateful to be allowed to make the rich richer. George Bush, in this grotesque photo-op to the Gulf Coast yesterday, spent far more time bemoaning the looting than he did the loss of life. That wasn't scripted. Property IS more important to Conservatives than human life.

I'm not advocating Communism. I'm not advocating Socialism. I am asking, if now is not the time to reexamine the contract between the classes in America, when is? If now is not the time to question again what kind of country we want to live in, when is? And that's politics.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyer: And as to your question about political, I talked to a lot of people at the Pentagon today who were very frustrated about the fact that the perception was being created that the military didn't move fast enough. And they did it somewhat as political. They thought that part of the motivation was the critics of the administration to make the president look bad. And they seemed to question the motives of some of our reporters who were out there and hearing these stories from the victims about why they had so much sympathy for the victims, and not as much sympathy for the challenges that the government met in meeting this challenge.

Here's Michael Brown, head of FEMA, on who's to blame: "But, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. And to find people still there is just heart wrenching to me because the mayor did everything he could to get them out of there. And so we've got to figure out some way to convince people that when evacuation warnings go out, it's for their own good."

PHOTO OP!

Rich white President decides it's more important for Coast Guard helicopters and personnel to pose as background for photo op rather than help save poor black citizens!

And, didn't he say this morning that response to disaster was "unacceptable?" That must be why he's incredibly proud of the Coast Guard.

He has no shame.

If a total failure of government to meet its responsibilities and the related and subsequent descent of society into anarchy isn't the time for politics, I'd tell all the fools and tools screaming that no one should politicize the chaos in New Orleans: if you don't talk politics NOW you have no right to talk politics later. To tools and fools on my side: if you don't talk politics NOW, don't come asking for my vote later.

Baghdad



New Orleans

RANT!

This morning, on Good Morning America, Maximum Leader said: " I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Oh, really, you criminally incompetent and/or lying sack of shit?

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here (from 2001).

Not to mention the three days of 24 hour news cycle about the storm (in which the major cable networks tried to spike ratings by wallowing in worse case scenarios). You know, the three days of coverage Bushco welcomed because it took attention off the shitfarm Bushco's created in Iraq? Katrina must not seem quite the blessing the Rovepig hoped for, no?

(UPDATE: AmericaBlog catches Mississippi governor and GOPig Haley Barbour lying.)

Worse. President. Ever. Every thing he touches turns to shit.

But he's got the brain trust of the Democratic Party as opposition: no doubt he'll smirk his way out of this one too. Blood on his hands and all.

Whites Find, Blacks Loot

Via Wonkette.

Shoot the Looters

I've heard that Neil Boortz is an especially pig-ignorant Uberpatriot in service of Maximum Leader, but I'd never heard he was a race-baiter, though of course my not paying any attention to him prior to this doesn't discount the very real probability that he is. Because he is. Read this please. It's remarkable - one doesn't know whether to be more scared because he believes it or more scared because it's most likely to become a rightwing talking point.

Blaming the victims for being victimized is a timetested rightwing strategy - women aren't raped, they dressed that way and asked for it - and as the possibly thousands of deaths, many of them African-American, most poor, are going to be blamed for their own deaths. And you know what - Boortz thinks those people who are stealing diapers and food from stores in a time of emergency are equivalent to terrorists: "We should have learned this lesson in Baghdad. Immediately after Saddam was toppled the looting began. The coalition forces did little, and the violence continued to this day. Many think that if the liberating forces had taken out a few looting teams the history of the last few years might have been quite a bit different." There is so much in this column on so many levels that's wrong, it's stunning.

Meanwhile, Maximum Leader viewed the devastation in Louisiana and Mississippi - from Air Force One. ""It's devastating," Bush insightfully said as he watched, according to Scott McClellan. "It's got to be doubly devastating on the ground." What a stool. Bush further elaborated: ""It's totally wiped out," Bush said at this point, according to McClellan. What a goat. Flew over the scene in the world's most luxurious private jet and says that for the people affected by the hurricane it must be "doubly devastating" for them as it is for him.

Once Trolls were Happy, Now Trolls are Sad

I don't count our trolls for shit, but I'm hearing from friends on other blogs and from owners of other and, yes, bigger blogs than ours, that rightwing trollers are particularly agitated these days. Which means even they know, back somewhere in their pavlovian-trained brains, something's going wrong in Glorious Republicanstan - maybe America really doesn't want to live in a country run by unchristian goons and inbred billionaires. Maybe America doesn't really want to have a President with the mental acuity of, say, rightwing trolls.Now, let's wait for their witty retorts.

Go Figure

For fourth year in a row, percentage of Americans living in poverty increases. Highest rate since 1993.

Let's see, 1993 was year a Democrat was sworn in as president, Republicans holding White House from 1981 through 1992. Last four years, White House held by Republican.

Son of a bitch, I spot a trend.

Republican concerns: that's right, the richest fighting the merely rich over tax cut spoils.

Here's the kicker: "The South was the poorest region."

But the GOP is protecting you against fags. Vote Republican, and enjoy your dogfood cassaroles. You think we Liberals think you're stupid? You got that right.

President George Wombat Bush

Saturday: "Like our own nation's founders over two centuries ago, the Iraqis are grappling with difficult issues, such as the role of the federal government. What is important is that Iraqis are now addressing these issues through debate and discussion -- not at the barrel of a gun."

Sunday: "The negotiators and drafters of this document braved the intimidation of terrorists and they mourn the cowardly assassination of friends and colleagues involved in the process of drafting the constitution."

Which is it? Doesn't matter! It all sounds good to Crackerstanis in Crackerstan.