Mr. President: Why Do You Criticize Republicans Only?

Bill Bennett helped win the election for you, Mr. Bush. He deserves better than a public rebuke from the White House when the Left and their media present his words without a shred of context.

Meanwhile, sir, you can't seem to muster a little righteous indignation for Clinton, Gore, Reid, Blanco, Kerry, Dean, Pelosi, Mfume, Kennedy, McCain, Rangel, Conyers, Durbin, Nagin, Chirac, Annan, Jackson, Carter, Byrd, Rather, Edwards, McAuliffe, Biden, Boxer, Feinstein, Harkin, Leahy, Schumer...?

With all due respect, you need to remember who your friends are.

PS: The Swift Boat Veterans are waiting for their "thank you" too.

Bush's Poll Numbers Improve as Democrats Grow More Hysterical

"Up 5 points in one week"



It's simply hard to understand why the public doesn't respond to shrill, patronizing demagoguery.

Bill Bennett Explains: What I meant to say was, "execute Liberals."

Former Education Secretary takes a beating from thought police who haven't read Freakonomics.



Irony meters registered record activity today as pro-abortion forces lecture pro-life advocates, including Bennett, about the sanctity of life.

In a related story, Harry Belafonte recommends amputating the legs of Conservatives. No film at 11:00.

NYT: Delay Indictment May Hinder GOP Pro-Landmine, Puppy Blending, Strip Mining and Whaling Initiatives

Conservatives worry that Delay's troubles will derail Replublican plans to "cash in" the Bill of Rights.

Media BS Advisory Escalated to Utter

Quote of the Day

"Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
-- From the Mudville Gazette

David of Third World County points out that this is George Orwell speaking above.

Levin on Delay Indictment: "I can't find a single sentence tying Tom DeLay to a crime"

Men in Black author, Mark Levin, today dismissed the charges against Delay as baseless and politically motivated:

"I honestly believe that unless there's more, this is an egregious abuse of prosecutorial power. It's a disgrace. I understand that not everything has to be contained in an indictment, but how about something!"

Peter Flaherty of The American Spectator details the long history of partisan smear from Prosecutor Ronnie Earle's office and how Travis County Democrats have perfected the art of character assasination:

"All roads in the CBS memo scandal traverse Travis County. Dan Rather was the special guest at a 2001 fundraiser for the Travis County Democratic Party, and his daughter is active in the organization. Former National Guardsman Bill Burkett, the unstable Bush-baiter, who now claims he was the source of the forged documents, is represented (and many believe directed) by David Van Os, the former Travis County Democratic Party chairman.

Now Travis County district attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat with a history of bringing politically motivated indictments, has indicted three DeLay aides who ran a political action committee called Texans for a Republican Majority PAC. Perhaps recognizing that indicting DeLay himself 41 days before an election would be just too transparent, Earle instead indicted the three underlings for allegedly directing corporate contributions to Texas legislative candidates in 2002."

Katrina Folklore vs. Fact: A Mainstream Media Disgrace

Gatewaypundit separates the fact from fiction.

Why can't our President do this too? Read the whole thing.

Plus, a must read from the L.A. Times and the NOLA Times Picayune (BTW, I HATE that word, "Picayune"). They provide a long overdue autopsy on the death of truth - found face down in the flood waters of New Orleans' 9th Ward.

Why would you believe anything they say?

"Everyone Knows it's Wendy Cindy!"

The smash hit from Paul Shanklin about Stalinist Anti-Semite Cindy Sheehan



Who's heading out in the ditch down in Crawford
Speaking her mind that's lighter than air
Used by the left to capture the moment
Everyone knows it's Cindy

Who said the terrorists are freedom fighters
Who blamed the Jews for starting the war
Who's under wraps and won't answer questions
Everyone knows it's Cindy

Dan Rather on Bush Guard Story: Bloggers Are to Blame

NewsBusters.org Exposing Liberal Media Bias: "'There are some strange, and to me, still mysterious things, certainly unexplained things that happened about how it got attacked and why, even before the program was over,' Rather said, adding that his network was derelict in not 'knowing enough of how quickly bloggers could strike.'"

Bill Maher Takes Gold at 2005 Snide Olympics

World class smartass wows Seoul spectators with jaded observational sarcasm routine

Air America: Send Money

The hits just keep on comin' as the home of Jerry Springer and Al Franken resorts to soliciting donations from membership -- just like the other Liberal non-profit NPR.

For $50 you get 3 bumper stickers!

DC War Protest: Socialist Hemp Activists Gather to Denounce Circumcision, Iraqi Liberation, Jews, Drug Laws, Age of Consent, and Meat

Liberals Unite to Demonstrate Why They Remain Out of Power

It's not often Marxist-Humanists can gather in groups larger than 5 outside the campus coffeehouse. So, when the opportunity presents itself to exchange conspiracy theories and weave hemp clothing, they awake at the crack of noon to check their stash, hop into the VW bus, put on American Beauty, and hit the road to DC.


image courtesy ProtestWarrior.com

Funny thing is that the MSM is portraying this as Cindy Sheehan's march joined by tens of thousands of like-minded average joe Americans who have simply had enough of Bush's lies. See Pic.



Ummm...yeah... Truth is, this was ANSWER's march on Washington. The so called coalition to "Act Now to Stop War and End Racism." However, ANSWER is not simply a progressive activist group. They are a Marxist organization staffed by openly Communist members - including many who supported the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China, and would side with the KGB in the failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991.


photo Kris from reflections of a Republican Libertarian

Of course, they can't come out and say this so they parade behind a variety of front groups like Code Pink or United for Peace and Justice, ANSWER, etc.. that the MSM prints instead of accurate labels such as Communist, Socialist, Stalinist, Marxist, Humanist, etc... Of course, our hard hitting investigative mainstream media can't be expected to uncover this double secret connection.

You might actually have to Google it.


photo Kris from reflections of a Republican Libertarian

Behind the placards stand Marxists so red they make Castro look like Zell Miller. Even Anarchists know that ANSWER is really the front for Workers of the World Party.

Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, sums it up best:

I recommend that readers google the names of people mentioned in the press accounts of this weekend's antiwar protests. I looked up Brian Becker, who's mentioned in this Washington Post story by Petula Dvorak. To be fair, Dvorak at least mentions the ANSWER connection, but a quick Google search of Becker's name finds that he's been praising the "Iraqi resistance" and denigrating U.S. troops since the beginning. It would appear that he's not so much "antiwar" as just on the other side.

As Reynolds himself says, "INDEED."

Fact is, the last major war protest was in 2003 before the blogosphere had yet to mature into a political force. Not so now. What the MSM fails to report, we pass along and fact check. We helped win the election for Bush and we've got ANSWER's number.

Caption This Contest at the Right Place

Another Caption Contest at The Right Place. Always Fun. Always infuriating to the Left.

This time it's with Al Gore. You can enter your comment here.



Here's mine: [Slurring] "And then, they called Florida for Bush, then me, then Bush, then...a SCOTCH dammit! A BIG SCOTCH! Whew, this Applebee's has really gone downhill..."

From the Tin Foil Hat Archives

"I think that people like the Howard Sterns, the Bill O'Reillys and to a lesser degree the bin Ladens of the world are making a horrible contribution."
-- "Captain" Sean Penn

Speaking of Air America

Franken Lies...

Liberals, Please Keep Talking

Air America's Randi Rhodes compares the evacuation of New Orleans to the Holocaust

CALLER (continuing): The thing that really killed me was the fact that when they bussed some of them out of the Dome. They loaded them on the bus, and they wouldn't tell them where they were going.

RANDI: Yeah. What is that?

CALLER: That is like when you transfer prisoners to one --

RANDI (interrupting): Actually, you know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of a little visit I made to the Holocaust Museum, and I saw these cattle cars.

CALLER: Yes!

RANDI: And they took people to go on them, but they didn't tell them where they were going.

CALLER: Yes! They do that to prisoners. If they're taking prisoners from one high-security prison to another, they do not --

RANDI: So, what are you supposed to do? Just do a "faith-based evacuation"? (Changing voice, as if an evacuee) "I'm sure he wouldn't send me to Auschwitz."

CALLER: Yeaaw! But why were these people patted down? There was an assumption of criminality made because they were poor and they were black --

RANDI: Check this out. Let's just -- Think about it this way. People were taken one place. Their children were taken another place. THIS IS SO MUCH LIKE THE HOLOCAUST. I can't even -- You know, it's like, you're not supposed to forget the Holocaust so that it can't happen again. And here you have people being loaded onto transportation vehicles, not being told where they're going, and their children are being taken someplace else ...

Do they know what the holocaust was? Do they know what actual oppression looks like? Hat Tip Newsbusters for taking note of this exchange. You can download audio here.

How Did George Bush Cause Global Warming on Mars?

Scientists notice that Mars is getting warmer.

Bush Braces As Cindy Sheehan's Other Son Drowns In New Orleans | from The Onion

From this week's Onion

Victor Davis Hanson :: Our Media Hurricane

Great Read from VDH. He has three names (like me) so you know it's good.

"Using its Iraqi template, the wired media's one constant is not amazing human resilience but hyped gloom. Later corrections and downgrades seldom make the headlines like their past blaring inaccuracies.

For all the media's efforts to turn the natural disaster of New Orleans into either a racist nightmare, a death knell for one or the other political parties or an indictment of American culture at large, it was none of that at all. What we did endure instead were slick but poorly educated journalists, worried not about truth but about preempting their rivals with an ever more hysterical story, all in a fuzzy context of political correctness about race, the environment and the war."

Also, don't miss Hanson DESTROY Arianna Huffington in last week's debate on "War and Empire" You'll need RealPlayer to view. Webcast courtesy of Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies.

After Strong Start, The Penis Monologues Posts Flaccid Ticket Sales

The much anticipated sequel to The Vagina Monologues is selling poorly


Vagina author, Eve Ensler, cites stiff competition among genitalia-themed entertainment, but believes the show must go on.

"The cast simply has a lot on their minds right now. Maybe after a while they can try again to put on the best show of their lives," explains the outspoken author.

Angry Yet?

From Cliff May in National Review:

579: That’s the current death toll in Louisiana from the hurricane and catastrophic flooding - Terrible for the victims, their family, their friends. But also much less than the 10,000 widely predicted. And, BTW, much less than the more than 35,000 killed by a heat wave in Europe two summers ago.

You recall the debate that set off about European heartlessness, racism and discrimination? No, neither do I.

Me neither. (Hat Tip Instapundit for original link.)

President Buttafucco Clinton Criticizes Bush on Everything

You know the drill...

The Poster Boy of the Left in His Own Words

What the fawning press doesn't tell you about George Galloway, British MP.



Outspoken critic of Blair and Bush, Galloway has made a legislative career of supporting terrorists and criticizing everything that does not embolden the dictators he calls friends. Here's a sample from a speech he made from Baghdad in 1994:

To Saddam Hussein: "Your Excellency, Mr President. I greet you in the name of the many thousands of people in Britain who stood against the tide and opposed the war and aggression against Iraq and continue to oppose the war by economic means which is [sic] aimed to strangle the life out of the great people of Iraq... I greet you too, in the name of the Palestinian people...

I thought the President would appreciate to know that even today, three years after the war, I still meet families who are calling their newborn sons Saddam. I salute your courage, your strength your indefatigability. And if I want you to know that we are with you until victory, until victory until Jerusalem!"

If you liked that, you'll love this - a collection of treason from the mouth of Galloway. (You'll need Adobe Reader to view}

The Left in America love him. Jane Fonda is riding across the country with him now to protest the Iraq war with Vagina Monologues author, Eve Ensler. Are they so desperate for leaders that they'll turn to Sheehan and Galloway for direction?

Christopher Hitchens debated this "man" in New York City last week on Iraq policy. It was called by some, the "Scrapple in the Big Apple." You can download the mp3 Podcast here courtesy of Democracy Now. Or, read the transcript here courtesy Seixon.com.

If you need a reminder of who were fighting against at home and abroad, click on the links inside this post. (Note: Galloway has been implicated in the UN Oil for Food scandal. If anyone has updates, please leave in comments.)

Afghans Vote Despite Taliban Threat of Violence

From Yahoo News:

KABUL, Afghanistan - Trooping into schools, mosques and tents, millions of Afghans defied a Taliban boycott call and militant attacks to vote for a new parliament Sunday, taking the last formal step in starting a democracy aimed at ending decades of rule by the gun.

No comment from Cindy Sheehan and MoveOn.org who both opposed going to war in Afghanistan.

Photo: AP News

Fjärde sidan: Svenska journalister saknar yrkesheder

When the Swedes notice how hysterical, wrong, and biased the US mainstream media was about Katrina, you know something is seriously wrong.

We need an investigative commission, alright. Hat tip to Hugh Hewitt for this and other links detailing just how incorrect the MSM got it.

Don't believe the hype.

To ABC's Surprise, Katrina Victims Praise Bush and Blame Nagin

Watch the horror unfold as New Orleans residents fail to provide the Bush-bashing ABC reporters were looking for immediately following the President's speech Thursday night. You can see the video and full transcript here courtesy Newsbusters.

PRICELESS! I may have lower the BS Advisory level back down to "COMPLETE."

Air America Hosts: Farrakhan May Be Right about Levees

Chuck D and Rachel Maddow believe white people may have blown up the levees to flood black neighborhoods in New Orleans.


A reader on BoreAmerica.com sums it up best, "Loons - the entire lot."

For the life of me, I can't understand why this network isn't profitable...You don't think this is just an elaborate diversion from their loan $candal...do you?

John Kerry on the President: "Leadership isn't a speech or a toll-free number. "

"It's marrying wealthy, staging flattering documentaries of yourself, never having a real private sector job, and being on all sides of an issue," explains Massachusetts Senator.

We Must Stop Profiling Egyptian Students Impersonating Airline Pilots

What have we become when we single out illegal aliens who simply want to "look and act" like airline pilots?

Air Force Missiles Destroy Florida High School: Officials Blame Failure on Declining Bake Sale Revenue

Nation's Liberals rethink "Great Day" funding experiment


Jocelyn Elders High School in Daytona Beach ablaze after being repeatedly
hit with napalm "firejelly" missiles. Training and maintenance budget cutbacks are
thought to be the source of the mistake.

Medical Test Shows Hillary Can't Technically be First "Female" President

The First "Outrage a Liberal" Headline Contest Winner!



Congratulations to Jason from Generation Why for his iPod Winning first place "Hillary" entry!



While "Medical Test Shows Hillary Can't Technically be First 'Female' President" is not as patently offensive as our runners up, this combined just the right amounts of venom and humor to claim top billing. Plus, it's forward thinking. I like that.

There were so many great entries. It pained me to choose just one winner. Heck, there were over 80 - some with multiple headlines each. 109 comments total.

1st Runner Up:

Kirkpatrick said...

Evidence Found, "Vince Foster murdered," Claims Attorney General Chelsea Limbaugh

Bravo. Chelsea Clinton as Limbaugh's wife is about as horrifying as it gets to Liberals. I know because I asked several of them to help me judge this contest. They were not pleased with the Vince Foster/Clinton reference either.

2nd Runner Up:

Mr. Right said...

Worldwide Marijuana Crop Failure Promises Unprecedented Hemp Shortage

This would have hunger-striking undergraduates jumping from the rooftops nationwide. While not all Liberals shoot up marijuana, most potheads are Liberals. Someone make a Venn diagram of this.

3rd Runner Up:

CharliePhysics said...

Ralph Nader takes 15% of national vote.

Nuff said.

Thanks to all those who submitted. And congratulations to Jason. I've not laughed this hard since Kerry's DNC speech last year. Cheers!!

TIME IS RUNNING OUT

The Outrage a Liberal Contest goes until Sep. 15th - Winner announced at 12:01 AM on the 16th! (or when I wake up on the 16th).

First prize: an Apple iPod Shuffle.

Jack Welch in WSJ: The Five Stages of Crisis Management

OpinionJournal - Featured Article

Shame-mongering: This is a period in which all stakeholders fight to get their side of the story told, with themselves as the heroes at the center. Katrina's shame-mongering had blasted into overdrive by Tuesday, about 48 hours after landfall. I would wager that never before has a storm become so politicized.

Very quickly, Katrina wasn't a hurricane--it was a test of George Bush's leadership, it was a reflection of race and poverty in America, it was a metaphor for Iraq. The Democrats used the event to define George Bush for their own purposes; the Republicans--after a delay and with markedly less gusto--used it to define them back.

The key word here is delay. Because in any crisis, effective leaders get their message out strongly, clearly--and early. George Bush and his team in Washington didn't do that, and they are paying for it.

A Weary Nation Cries, "BULLSH*T!"

BS Advisory Escalated to "TOTAL" After Two Weeks of Non-stop Journalistic Diarrhea



What's worse? Bureaucrats who cover their asses by shifting blame to the federal government or major media outlets who don't hesitate to parrot them?

Can't decide? I can't either. There's a scandal here, alright.

(Blame Bush? Of the 450+ dead [not 10,000] in Louisiana, nearly 25% were the elderly who simply died after being abandoned by their caretakers.)

Farrakhan: Levees Were "Blown Up"

Finally, a rational voice...



A little exercise involving two ministers:

Search Google News for the words "Farrakhan" and "blown up" to see how many media outlets carried this lunacy.

Now, search Google News for "Pat Robertson" and "assassination" to see how many carried that lunacy.

(Answer: 4 vs. 3390 respectively)

Update:
Surprise! Air America hosts support this conspiracy theory. It's hard to understand why AAR isn't profitable -- absolutely baffling.
Hat tip: Boreamerica.com

Nagin: "I remain optimistic we'll find 9,469 more dead bodies."

"I'm just a 'glass is half-full' kind of guy, I guess," claims modest and brave New Orleans Mayor.

Required Reading - Jack Kelly's "No Shame - The Federal Response to Katrina Was Not As Portrayed"

Landrieu: "The President's failure to plan for our incompetence is sheer incompetence."

Senator questions President's judgment and criticizes "his naive confidence in Louisiana state and local agencies."



From Sunday's Meet the Press:

"Let's face it, Tim. The entire country knows we couldn't pour piss out of a boot even if the instructions were on the heel. Well, not unless there's a crisp $50 bill inside....wink wink!"

Landrieu concluded, "This is just another example of how clueless this man is."

A nodding Russert agreed.

George Bush Cares About Black People. It's His Base He Neglects

Just a little red meat for the faithful. Discuss.

Nervous Bush Outlines Plan to Volcano-proof Hawaii

Administration races to prevent another New Orleans



HONOLULU - In response to charges of under-funding the New Orleans levee systems, the President today outlined his plan to cork Hawaii's 3 active volcanoes known locally as Kilauea, Mauna Loa, and Loihi.

The hour long speech included a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation of the President's own illustrations of how the plan works. "My administration stands opposed to violent volcanic activity favoring instead, safety."



In a move that is expected to please environmentalists, the plan will place giant hybrid technology engines atop the mouths of Hawaii's three volcanoes as early as mid-2006. The engines will capture kinetic energy from eruptions producing clean, abundant electricity instead of hot, dangerous lava.

The President concluded, "It'll be a lot of hard work, but it is our duty to protect the people from threats be they al-Qaeda or natural disasters."

Technorati Tags
[Katrina] [Bush] [Blame] [Volcano] [New Orleans] [Levee]

Do Democrats Really Want a Katrina Commission?

From the Washington Post:

In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times as large.

..the Bush administration's funding requests for the key New Orleans flood-control projects for the past five years were slightly higher than the Clinton administration's for its past five years.

Never Again

"We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail."
~George W. Bush



Thank you to the men and women of the American military who have made domestic peace a reality. And thank you, Mr. President for the courage to stand by your convictions.

We support you both.

First the Red Cross, Now the Salvation Army..?

Apparently both organizations were prevented from delivering relief to the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center by state agencies.

Someone please explain to me again -- this is Bush's fault because...?

Guess Who Said This...

Do the Democrats really want a full accounting of Katrina?

Anyone who cares about responsible budgeting and the health of America’s rivers and wetlands should pay attention to a bill now before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The bill would shovel $17 billion at the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control and other water-related projects – this at a time when President Bush is asking for major cuts in Medicaid and other important domestic programs. Among these projects is a $2.7 billion boondoggle on the Mississippi River that has twice flunked inspection by the National Academy of Sciences.

The Government Accountability Office and other watchdogs accuse the corps of routinely inflating the economic benefits of its projects. And environmentalists blame it for turning free-flowing rivers into lifeless canals and destroying millions of acres of wetlands – usually in the name of flood control and navigation but mostly to satisfy Congress’s appetite for pork.

This is a bad piece of legislation.

Give up? Answer here.

FEMA Chief's Resume Escapes: Massive National Manhunt Underway

Beleaguered Head of FEMA blamed for inexperience, bad font selections



Michael Brown's resume, believed to be responsible for the deaths of thousands hit by Hurricane Katrina, has escaped from federal authorities in Washington, DC in a daring pre-dawn breakout.

An unprecedented manhunt is now underway to track down Brown's summary of qualifications considered by law enforcement to be inadequate and "extremely dangerous."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) blasted the President for appointing Brown to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency considering his inexperience and his "bizarre and troubling" resume layout.



Pelosi continued, "It's bad enough that he's not a disaster expert, but this man [Brown] has created a disaster of his own on paper. This resume is capable of just about anything. Verdana fonts used only in the top half, his name is off center using italicized Arial characters, his job descriptions were done in Trebuchet with asterisks instead of bullet points...What's next, Mr. President, Comic Sans?"

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin echoed Ms. Pelosi's concern describing Brown as "ill prepared and unable to execute his agency's own disaster plan."

Volunteers by the hundreds have joined the effort since early this morning. Actor Sean Penn arrived with his entourage shortly after news broke of the escape to aid police and to "shame the President in any way I can."

Technorati Tags
[Katrina] [Brown] [Blame] [New Orleans] [FEMA]

"An Obsession to Blame"

"We live in a world where we can no longer accept that accidents or disasters are natural ."

Are we so enamored with litigation in the US that we believe all wrongs can be made right by blame?

BBC writer and professor of sociology at the University of Kent, Frank Furedi observes, "the view that disasters are caused by acts of nature is being gradually displaced by the idea that they are the outcome of acts of human beings."

He contends this relatively new trend creates new challenges for victims now "facing a double disaster. One that is about physical destruction and loss of life, and the other which is the legacy of bitterness, confusion and suspicion."

Amen.

Read the whole thing - easily the best essay so far on Katrina and its aftermath.

Symbolism over Substance

Sean Penn's Boat Sinks In Failed Katrina Rescue Attempt with Personal Photographer in Tow



What good is it to help if others can't see you do it?

Celine Dion Policy Statement: "Let 'em loot!"

No comment from Ms. Dion on her "Let 'em shoot rescue helicopters too," stance.

It's Time for Liberals to Sit Down and Let the Grown-Ups Talk

Katrina and its aftermath have proved what Conservatives have been saying all along about energy, the Second Amendment, and government inefficiency.

• We can’t afford to be one or two disasters away from economic collapse due to oil demand surpassing supply.
• Our energy supply is a national security matter.
• ANWR was needed years ago - begin drilling now.
• Obstructionist Democrats opposing ANWR drilling are not just stonewalling the President, they are jeopardizing national security.
• Global warming did not cause Katrina nor the thousands of hurricanes preceding her.
• Hybrid technology is a solution to our dependence on oil – for our children, perhaps.
• Hybrid technology solves our energy problems now in undergraduate position papers only.
• Gun control laws don't make you safer.
• Gun control laws give armed thugs the upper hand when they walk through your front door.
• When 911 can't help you, you'd better have a gun.
• Your family can’t be made safe solely by a local, state, or federal agency.
• Not all tragedy can be legislated out of existence. It's demagoguery to suggest otherwise.
• From Karl Marx to Nancy Pelosi, Liberals make great critics.
• Critics make lousy leaders.
• After witnessing state, local, and federal boondoggle, Liberals now understand why Conservatives don’t look to government for efficient solutions.

Technorati Tags
[Katrina] [Gun Control] [Blame] [Conservative][Liberal]

Katrina, Race, and the Blame Game

[Updated with related links below]
Blame is not the hallmark of leadership. It is the adolescent response to tragedy.

I have very little to offer the victims of Katrina except for prayer, donations through Red Cross and my .02 on this site. I'm stunned by the devastation, yet equally stunned by the blame emanating from all quarters - Left and Right.

This blog will not attempt to single out one person who deserves blame - Liberal or Conservative. Not only is this incredibly mean-spirited, it's dangerous and shortsighted to believe this was a failure of one bad bureaucrat.

It may make you sleep better at night to think the next catastrophe can be averted with the right people in jail. But, expending energies to determine who dropped what ball is simply unproductive and not what leaders do in times of crisis. I urge Conservatives to rise above and concentrate on more constructive activities designed to identify and fix the source of failures - not rail against their symptoms.

However, I do expect Conservatives to fight back against the steady onslaught of demagoguery from the Left. My main criticism of the President is that he can't or won't defend his own decisions and actions. This makes him vulnerable on the issue of race in particular. "Why wasn't more done to help those who remained in New Orleans? Was it apathy (or blatant racism) because the majority affected was black?"

This is a valid question, but it is the wrong question. After much sifting through the images of suffering the past couple days, I arrived at a possible culprit and a question of my own, "Why did anyone choose to remain in New Orleans?"

For the last 40 years, poor blacks have heard the same message over and over again from Liberalism in that their success, security, safety, progress, education, and general well-being is beyond their means to control. The deck is stacked and without state assistance there is no use to try. Is it any wonder that many of the Gulf Coast's poor look to government first and to themselves last? It's not racial issue, it's an ideological matter.

I won't patronize blacks by listing the countless African-American success stories in the United States achieved by those who transcend the Liberal paradigm. However, as a philosophy, Conservatism teaches exactly the opposite. It champions self-reliance whereas Liberalism emphasizes dependence upon state solutions. What else explains why so many in New Orleans expected rescue quickly despite repeated warnings to evacuate up to 3 days before Katrina hit?

History shows us this time and time again whether it's New Orleans 2005, the Warsaw Ghetto 1942, or Bosnia 1993, the government is often incapable of doing much in response to tragedy - natural or man made. As such, Republicans reject gun control and distrust the government to provide efficient solutions to much of anything.

Implicit in Liberalism is this belief when tragedy happens, call 911. Explicit in Conservatism is the understanding that civil society will break down, and when it does, you better have a gun.

Technorati Tags
[Katrina] [Racism] [Race] [Gun Control] [Blame] [Conservative][Liberal]

UPDATED:
Bob Krumm has an outstanding piece on root causes. As does Nicole Gelinas.

Anthrax Drummer Releases Policy Statement on Katrina - NOT SATIRE

http://anthrax.com/nfws/pages/050903CharliePost.asp

New Orleans Gun Owners Make Generous Donation of Lead to City's Looting Community

Satire helps make the absurd more obvious and the People's Cube are among the best at it on-line today. This site is put together by the same group who did the notorious Communists for Kerry site last year. Below is a sampling of their handiwork:



Weatherman: Bush knew about Katrina back in 2000

GOP weather-control device ensured Katrina would disproportionately target minorities

Anarchy not as cool as previously thought

Looters, rapists: more gun control, please!

Woman groped during air rescue, files suit

Katrina upgraded from hurricane to hate crime

Scientists: at least one-third of hurricanes are racist

Federal government failing to provide enough to loot, pillage

Technorati Tags
[Katrina] [Racism] [Race] [Gun Control] [Blame] [Conservative][Liberal]

WHYGRR Technical Difficulties:
You may encounter missing images on this site currently in what appears to be a compatibility issue with certain versions of Internet Explorer and Flickr.com image hosting service. The behavior is that a handful (4-5) images will not display when the page is loaded. Firefox (all versions) appear to be unaffected.

I'm shopping other blogging and image hosting services. If you have any recommendations, please leave a comment. (PS: I'm working with a trial "pro account" of Typepad. Anyone know how to import comments?)

WHYGRR's New Look: 59% Less Infuriating to Author

I'm playing with some new templates and as a result, WHYGRR may look to have a personality crisis for the next few days.

I am having a hard time with some aspects of Blogger and am shopping new templates. I may consider moving to Wordpress because of a couple quirks with Blogger - specifically, my atom feed stopped working about 5 days ago, the template I was using (Minima) was very stubborn on fonts, offers no trackback, some images stopped appearing in I.E. only while Firefox was fine, and the sidebar would move all the way....well, don't even get me started.

If anyone has a recommendation on Wordpress vs. Blogger, please let me know. Or, if you know of other less picky Blogger templates, please pass along. Wordpress Pro is not free, but it does appear to offer more options. More time to rant - less time on repair...

In the meantime, DONATE!

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"Outrage a Liberal" Headline Contest in Full Swing!

Click here for your chance to win an Apple iPod Shuffle. Also, don't forget to add the brand new, WHYGRR "Wars Prevented by the UN" counter to your site!

"I say to conservatives, you have blood on your hands today."

Air America is still on the air somehow and wrong as ever. AAR producer Dan Pashman:

Hurricane Katrina may have been an act of God. But the level of death and destruction it caused was not. That was an act of conservatism. It is conservative policies that made this natural disaster unnaturally catastrophic. I say to conservatives, you have blood on your hands today.

I point the finger in your face and say, "You helped this happen."

I would appeal Pashman's sense of history, fairness, logic, and even meteorology so he could relax and take this statement back. But that would be asking a bit much, wouldn't it?

Hat tip - Bore America

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If Bush Won't Articulate A Plan, Hillary Will

You've got to wonder why the Bush Administration is doing such a bad job at getting its message out that it has to rely on [Chrenkoff] to pick up its slack" - Instapundit

My patience is at an end. This is (almost) a vote of no confidence.

It's becoming clear that the President and his press office are going to stand by (yet again) and allow the Left define the terms of success or failure, good or evil, up or down, enough or not enough -- this time with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Mr. President, we've seen this movie before. And now, Katrina has made your silence before the destruction in New Orleans even more deafening. It's not your decisiveness we question, it is your ability to clarify and to inspire that has been so sorely lacking.

Frankly, I'm not the only Conservative who is a little tired of making your points for you.

And Mr. President, some righteous indignation is appropriate when our enemies repeatedly lie about you and Conservatism in general. Your inability to mount a defense almost gave John Kerry the White House.

Ronald Reagan would have citizens DEMANDING to pay more at the pumps as part of a national war effort led by the Gipper himself. Americans under a Reagan administration would be holding Democrats accountable for their obstructionist energy policies that have led to this shortage.

Fire Scott McClellan, hire Arthur Chrenkoff and let's roll. I

f you won't tell the country what YOUR STRATEGY is for New Orleans, gasoline prices, (and illegal immigration for that matter) Clinton/Obama will...

ACLU Sues City of New Orleans for Failure to Provide Wheelchair Access to Looters

OSHA files amicus brief in support of looters' right to safe workplace conditions



ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero: "It's shameful that in the year 2005 disabled looters were prevented from practicing their trade simply because of the bigotry of store owners. If you've been hurt in accident, or injured during looting, you need a lawyer."

Find out more about ACLU hijinx at StoptheACLU.com