From where I sit, it looks like the same people who think you can lose weight without diet and exercise are now in charge of defining what a disaster is and what the response should be.
Amen to that.
And while we’re on the subject, a note to FOXNews’ Shepard Smith: That officer who ignored you yesterday while you chased him around with your microphone reminding him that “people are thirsty”?—he already knows that. And I’m fairly certain that, should he suddenly, magically discover himself capable of pissing Dasani water, he’d be happy to share his gift with whatever parched onlooker was brave enough to stagger over and take a swallow.
In short: your exasperated surprise (punctuated with lots of made-for-tv pregnant pauses and histrionic shows of disbelief) that a city two days removed from an unprecedented natural disaster, one which has left it completely underwater, has not yet been able to get relief to every last stranded person—in the absence of electricity and phone lines and passable roads—is not helping.
So please, knock it off. You aren’t the only one who cares, no matter what your location producer might be telling you in your earpiece.
Jerk.
Shep Smith looks like he’s the sort to wear ladies underpants because he likes how they feel on his buttocks.
There. I said it.
Not only that, but if the officer did by chance have a case of spare water, he couldn’t hand it out.
Why?
Because people are so desperate, there would be a fucking riot. You have to have enough to sate, or at least address, everyone’s thirst before you give out any.
Really, people are out of fucking touch with reality.
This seems like the right time and place to remember the remarks of a passerby before Katrina hit. When asked by our man, Sheppard, why he was walking his dogs down the streets of New Orleans before a hurricaine, Mr. Smith recieved the answer that countless thousands of ordinary people have shouted at their televisions when they watched tee-vee reporters ask inane questons:
“None of your phucking business.”
Perfect.
Prepare yourself–about 10,000 armchair quarterbacks are currently being deployed at random locations around the Interweb to not deal with the disaster.
A couple of other equally worthless observations from yours truly before I turn my attention to more productive (read: lucrative) pursuits:
1. Watching those poor folks at the Superdome reinforces in my mind the absolute moral imperative, as a married man with two children, to never, ever, EVER make any conscious choice to place my welfare and theirs in the hands and control of any government agency. Don’t get me wrong, if you’ve got no choice, well, you’ve got no choice. But if there is a decision or option available to you, stay the phuck away from the government “help”. In this regard, pre-planning seems imperative.
2. Wasting time and effort decrying the government’s efforts to help when the disaster is only like 3 days old is morally repugnant and degenerate and deserves only the scorn of decent people. Pitch in and help, donate cash, whatever. But carping about the Bushitler, etc. is nauseating when people are gathered around the Superdome desperate for food and fresh water.
And no, those two positions are not contradictory.
Brilliant Hubris.
The association mechanism in my brain immediately tells me to log on to barbrastreisand to see this in action but I refuse the temptation.
Ooh, I’m contrarian today.
It’s a fair criticism that New Orlean’s hurricane preparedness was sub-par, given the well-known vulnerabilities of the town.
Also I lost about 40 pounds without diet or exercise. Got a kid out of the deal, too.
Water? Water? Screw that! Where the hell is Natalee Holloway?
I think there’s one thing that everyone here is failing to remember. The most important thing that anyone can do in a situation like this is to care. Oh sure, you can go on all you like about your humanitarian efforts, your generous giving of money, food, water, clothing, and volunteer work. If you don’t loudly proclaim how much you care, though, it means nothing. The simple fact that those efforts haven’t alleviated every last vestige of suffering and want of Katrina’s victims proves that you just DON’T CARE ENOUGH. I hope all you little Eichmanns remember that the next time you’re denying that Chimpleton McBu$hitlerburtonbloodforoil caused this hurricane with his Capitalistic, Zionist Voodoo.
“It’s a fair criticism that New Orlean’s hurricane preparedness was sub-par, given the well-known vulnerabilities of the town.”
Yup, that much seems obvious, most folks problem is who the criticism is directed at. I feel the pre-disaster responsibility should be borne by the governments of the city, state and people themselves. The idea that the executive branch is reponsible for mass evacuation plans for all American cities seems a tad ludricrous to me.
As for the near mythic Corps of Engineers plan to fortify the levees that Bush gutted, this was a preliminary study that projected the completion date would be about 40 years. So the President who squandered our resources on a quagimire of a war while ignoring the problem of New Orleans would be John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, not Chimpy.
you are right on about mr smith. i kept thinking, “why don’t you try to tell people about what IS being done instead of encouraging them to complain” ugh.
Yeah, the press is amazing. The front page of the Merc this morning had the usual two-story setup, with the one on the right dealing with the actual crisis, and the one on the left all about how “former disaster officials” were saying what a cluster-fuck the rescue operation was, and how unprepared the gummint was, and it was all due to the Bush administration changing their focus from disaster management to terrorism, and instituting massive budget cuts so they could concentrate on those pesky terrorists. Disgusting.
Thirteen Things Bush Could Have Done to Proactively Help or Should Do But Didn’t because He Was On Vacation and Is Evil, and Stupid .. and Stupid, Evil Presidents on Vacation Don’t Do These Things :
1. Bush could have federalized GreyHound Bus and Ordered 500.. no, make that 1,000 Buses … to head towards Northern Louisiana or Mississippi or Alabama .. depending on where Hurricane Katrina ended up a day or two before landfall. These vehicles would be used to transport people in and out over the bridges which may or may not be there.
2. Bush could have ordered the local Wal-Marts to proactively allow themselves to be looted. This would ensure the safety of the local community by providing survival items to those who stayed along with guns, big screen televisions, and computers while the ground was still dry. Insurance monies would be paid anyway, so why wait a couple of days and make these people trudge hip deep through disease plagued waters? C’mon, where’s the compassion?
3. Bush could have diverted the hurricane. And he could have diverted it to a location where the US Active Duty Military could immediately begin helping without pesky Governors and Mayors getting in the way. Had Bush interrupted his vacation long enough to watch the Weather Channel, all Bush had to do was place his finger on the screen on the eye of Katrina, move his finger due East and Mexico would have borne the brunt of Nature’s fury. The US Military could roll right in to help and Mexico and the Mexicans would be grateful for the help.
4. Bush could have prevented the deployment of the Louisiana National Guard and their equipment – High water vehicles are not necessary in Iraq. It’s a desert. Those people who stampeded and drowned in the Tigris river. So what? Proves nothing. You can drown in as little as 4” of water. There’s no need for high water equipment there.
5. Bush failed to declare in 2001 that any construction activity involving levee or flood protection was exempt from litigation, thus decreasing the overall cost of the projects and shortening the time to complete them.
6. Bush drank an alcohol-free beer. That angered Gaia. He didn’t have to do that. God made RC Cola for a reason.
7. Bush failed to provide tax credit to low income families for their purchase of 12-14’ jonboats to assist in their own emergency evacuation.
8. Bush could have landed on top of the Superdome during the hurricane. Bush’s presence at the Superdome, along with the presence of 120 heavily armed, highly trained Secret Service Agents and cops, would have helped restore order. But he, Bush, didn’t do that.
9. You can only hug what you can reach. Bush supporters touted the healing effects of his embrace during the campaign – a pretty white girl was hugged and now she’s better – so far, Bush failed to hug everybody affected by this disaster. In any event, he could have flown there before the hurricane and hugged people to innoculate them against the bad times to come. But, no, he was clearing brush while biking and not meeting with Cindy.
10. Bush never met with Cindy. Therefore Bush is responsible for New Orleans because Hurricane Katrina actually was trying to reach Crawford, Texas to flood the bastard out for his refusal to meet with Cindy. A close look at the weather readings for the area show an unexpectedly strong high pressure cell forming above Crawford as Katrina headed into the Gulf. This newly formed system diverted Katrina from her intended target, Bush, to the less fortunate in New Orleans. New Orleans is Bush’s collateral damage from his damaged policy of damaging people, people like Cindy.
11. Bush didn’t arrange to have 50,000 XM satellite radios predelivered to New Orleans with a preactivated one, no make that three months service. This would have greatly enhanced the ability of FEMA to deliver instructions to those stranded, unless those stranded were listening to something else.
12. Bush did not federalize the Mississippi River Queen, the Delta Queen, and all the other shallow draft paddle wheeler craft (Non-Swift Boats) to help evacuate people before or after the hurricane. This is because Bush has never read Mark Twain. He’s an Idiot.
13. Bush has secretly given the job of rebuiding the city of New Orleans to Halliburton on a no-bid contract. This is to punish New Orleans for its traditions of being French and historically Democratic. The worse New Orleans gets, the better off Halliburton and Dick Cheney and the rest of Bush’s plutocrat minders will be.
Would now be a good time to point out that if it wasn’t for the evil American (rethuglican only) jingoistic nature, we could have looked to the Dutch who know a thing or 2 about levees and loss. Do not be fooled by the fact that they had to learn the lesson the hard way too. We really are worse than the terrorists (excepting liberals).
I caught the Shep Smith bit too, what a dork. Although O’Reilly is in the running for constitantly harping on the looting while lives are still being saved. Hey Bill, life first, then property. Do it for the folks.
I heard that the Army Corps of Engineers has a plan to patch that levee. They’re going to shove my big fat cock in the breach, and that should plug ‘er but good. Once again, my wang comes to save the day.
When is the right wing media tools going to stop labilling them “looters” and acknowledge what they really are:
ANARCHIST FREEDOM FIGHTERS OF THE INSURGENCY!!!!!
Standing up to the man and taking from the rich to give to the oppressed.
THE REVOLUTION STARTS NOW!!!!!!!
Anybody else listening to the Laura Ingraham show? I’ve heard 2 people so far, lifelong Democrats, call in saying they’re not gonna vote Democrat ever again until they stop embracing the far left and those Dems politicizing this disaster. Gotta wonder who else feels that way.
Great job, CINDY! and RFKJr!
Mmmmm…let’s see…there’s a computer virus that has all of the computers in NYC inoperable. This is a TRAGEDY beyond compare and BY GOD Bill Gates better get off his ass and get to NYC pronto and get ALL of the computers fixed RIGHT NOW!!
So the CEO is supposed to PULL the order, LOAD the truck, DRIVE it to the destination, UNLOAD the truck and hand DISTRIBUTE the goods. Makes sense to me.
When are these assholes going understand that the reason you have qualified people in positions of authority and responsibility is so you can DELEGATE to them the authority to GET THINGS DONE!!! Shut up and let the people who have expertise in those areas do what they are supposed to do.
“Looters” = Minute Men
Who cares if the New Orleans insurgents pop a few National Guardsmen. All of them are mercanaries (they soldier for pay), so screw em.
WOULD YOU GO TO NEW ORLEANS YOU CHICKENHAWKS?
Isn’t the proper response to Shephard Smith or any other nuisance journalist, “Yes, I am aware of that, and every minute I spend here with you is one less minute I have to help them. Any more questions?”
This is a distaster of epic proportions, an the news (and news coverage) is only going to get worse.
During a local news break on the Laura Ingraham Show, it was reported that as many as 300,000 may have stayed behind in NO. Original reports were 100,000.
No rational agency could have planned to provide relief on the scale currently required.
TW: federal. When all else fails, blame the federal government, especially the Republicans.
The coverage has been so bad: use of video that’s days old, focus on the travails of the reporter rather than the residents (easier to interview yourself), and hectoring of officials by schoolmarms like Elizabeth Vargas. Thank goodness for the blogs.
As for the looters, no one wants to be tough on TV…except for Haley Barbour. Maybe we should put him in charge. I double if he cares that the Left will think of the insurgents. And where is Jesse Jackson? He usually shows up when there’s camera time available.
Shep was just trying to show a dead body by the side of the road and is implying that the authorities are ignoring the “refugees.” This is about as helpful as when he declared the Iraqi constitution “about as bad as it could be” as it was being delivered to parliament.
Don’t you wingnuts realize that the Clinton Administration had a secret levee-building plan all ready to go when they left office? There was a PowerPoint presentation and everything! The smirking chimp just ignored it. Because of the OOOOIIIILLLL! And the HYPOCRISY!
Fred: Don’t forget the real answer to that question: “Because otherwise he’ll shit on the rug, you Yankee moron.”