Forget O'Rielly, Rush Has Spoken

[Dotson]

Anyone who takes pride in having a drug addict represent their views is an idiot. The fact that a drug addict is the voice of a significant section of the conservative movement is very sad.

[Exsubmariner]

[ QUOTE ]
Why isn't the lesson that with a little more forethought, a little more preperation, a little more common sense and a little more realistic evaluation of risk, circumstances such as the aftermath of HK could be handled alot better? Has it anything to do with people admitting some responsibility? Is it because then we can't blame the poor?

[/ QUOTE ]

That is the lesson. Exactly. We can't blame the poor because it was the responsibility of the people who THEY ELECTED to do all that planning and have all that foresight you are talking about. The lesson is that when it is most needed, the big we're gonna take care of you government will fail. People must be accountable for themselves and for helping each other. Not relying on corrupt and incompetitent LA Mayors and Governors who don't know how to read a Comprehensive Emergency Management Paln.

X

[tolbiny]

There isn't anything else in there.
Let me go paragraph by paragraph- and i will use small words so that you can understand, you warthog faced buffon (that last part is a joke btw).

Paragraph 1-
"What we have seen in New Orleans -- and we have not seen it in Mississippi, and we have not seen it in Alabama -- what we have seen in New Orleans is first and foremost the utter failure of generation after generation after generation of the entitlement mentality."

This is the meat of this paragraph- he ignores the fact that NO is the only big city to get a direct hit from the hurricane, and the only one below sea level with its prblems with levies ect- and he does not once state which entitlement programs specifically are to blame- and how they are to blame.

"We are also looking here at utter incompetence, total incompetence from the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana. We know this now. We know there was an utter failure to execute an evacuation plan that was long in place."

Nothing yet to back it up, just an attack.

Paragraph 2-
"We know that none of these people, the poor people of New Orleans who had no way out of there on their own, we know that no effort was made to move them before the storm happened. No effort whatsoever was made at the local and state level. You've all seen the pictures of the buses, the school buses and the municipal buses that are flooded and ruined"

No effort is made here to describe how 300,000 people were to be moved within 24 hrs on ~300 buses- and WHERE they were supposed to be moved to. REmember that there is a big ass hurricane coming- if you move people out of homes and buildings but don't put them somewhere that big ass hurricane will still hit them with winds over 100 mph, and heavy rains. They wouldn't have been any better off unless you moved them hundreds of miles inland and give them shelter. The logistical problems here would not be addressed by a bunch of buses. If Rush has a legitimate beef about the process he needs to lay out what should have been done as opposed to pointing at a few pictures and saying- "look incompetant corrupt democrats".

"20,000 people in one day."- here he talks about how the US military - the one organization with the capablility was able to evacuate 20,000 people in one day. These people were all in one place and the military had a days plainning before they moved in to start the evacuation- and it was still a massive effort ot evacuate 20,000 people inone day. clearly the military could have evacuated 300,000 people in a day and a half- while fighting the traffic of the 1.3 million people who were also fleeing athe area at the same time.


"It was the Democrats that proposed a new federal Department of Homeland Security, and I've got the sound bite. I want to go on record as saying this is not the way to handle this. Make this an even larger government, create an even bigger bureaucracy? Then they faulted FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, into the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans went along with the Democrat idea because that's the natural tendency of bureaucracies"

Its the democrat's fault, well and a little the republicans' as well, but mostly the deomcrats (who signed the bill into law... he forgets to mention- but if its a mistake shouldn't he be held accountable to some degree as well?)

"Nobody knows who's in charge."
Who is hte head of FEMA? Who appointed him? There was someone in charge, and he failed miserably. You did a heck of a job Brownie.

Paragraph 3-
"If it's a Republican president, he's going to get the blame. Why do you think there's no blame of the local incompetence from the mayor and the governor? Because they are Democrats. They have run that state. You know, Frist called for investigations. Bill Frist was the first to call for a congressional look-see into this, and guess who's not happy about that? Democrats. Democrats are not happy about this because any legitimate investigation is going to have to focus on what happened in Louisiana, which has been run by Democrats for all of these years, and it's been run, particularly New Orleans, not only with an entitlement mentality, it's corrupt."

No evidence for any of this, its called a talking point. My side is good, the other bad. Just trust me on this one, is all he says here- in other words its worthless posturing and no content.

Here's my favorite part
""You know, the funniest bumper sticker I've ever seen, David Duke was running against Edwin Edwards for governor, and the bumper stickers around town read: 'Vote for the Crook. It's important.'" Meaning Edwin Edwards."

Hmmm a crook- or a former member of the KKK. What a choice, but he laughs at those who would rather be lead by a crook than an open racist- haha, you dumb blacks, why wouldn't you vote for the guy who belonged to an organization that endorses the murder of blacks.

Paragraph 4-
"Now, I don't know if people are going to be willing to go this far and say, "Yeah, we've got a corrupt state and had a corrupt state for a long time, we have an entitlement mentality down there. How you can blame anything that happened there--"'

Ok- but again just a vague reference to "the entilement mentality" without naming why or how it was involved in this crisis.

The rest of the paragraph simply says- GW is good, those liberals can't bring him down. Then he attacks cindy sheehan for no apparent reason.


Paragraphs 5 and 6 are more of the same - the local government failed, the bureacracy failed, its all their fault (he also throws in a hilary bashing). Without pointing out what should have been done, without ever- not once- addressing the inability of the head of FEMA to coordinate activities when he was given control- the turning away of donations of water from Wal mart.
what exactly am i supposed to take away from this crap? Please tell me what i am missing?

[Exsubmariner]

That's cute. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[adios]

Let's attack the messenger instead of his message. C'mon if Limbaugh's arguments are so weak then point them out. Tobiny and Superleeds have pointed out where they feel his arguments are weak why don't you?

[newfant]

Are you also concerned about corporate welfare? Does the fact that Haliburton is awarded government contracts without a bidding process bother you? Do you think that repeal of the estate tax is a good thing because then children of the rich will never have to work? Or, do you ignore these issues because Rush never mentions them?

[Cyrus]

[ QUOTE ]
The lesson is that when it is most needed, the big we're-gonna-take-care-of-you government will fail. People must be accountable for themselves and for helping each other.

[/ QUOTE ]

Emergencies such a hurricane 5 require organised and concerted efforts which can only come about collectively, through the community and its elected or appointed leadership.

Therefore, the choice is clear : Americans must

A - take better care of the government and its agencies (fund 'em, man 'em, organize 'em, etc) and accept that corruption and waste * goes with the territory when you have big organisations (eg mayor's office, governor's office, police, Nat'l Guard, FEMA, etc),

or

B. - make it the United States' official public policy that it's everyone out for himself!

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* Absolutist or maximalist objectives are usually utopian, if not moronic : Total elinination of waste or corruption is impossible, in general. The objective should be to minimize them as much as possible. So, sack its leaders and re-organize the agencies that failed you. Don't dimantle them altogether! Not unless you are ready to go with option B.

[superleeds]

[ QUOTE ]
That is the lesson

[/ QUOTE ]

It won't be learnt.

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We can't blame the poor because it was the responsibility of the people who THEY ELECTED to do all that planning and have all that foresight you are talking about.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you believe the poor elect anyone your 5.

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Not relying on corrupt and incompetitent LA Mayors and Governors who don't know how to read a Comprehensive Emergency Management Paln.

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OK. Explain to me why smaller government, less centralised planners will read it. Are they less susceptable to corruption? Will they not steal from Peter to pay Paul?

[Exsubmariner]

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Nothing yet to back it up, just an attack

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that the thousands of bodies rotting in the flood water of NO pretty much back it up.

[ QUOTE ]
No effort is made here to describe how 300,000 people were to be moved within 24 hrs on ~300 buses- and WHERE they were supposed to be moved to. REmember that there is a big ass hurricane coming- if you move people out of homes and buildings but don't put them somewhere that big ass hurricane will still hit them with winds over 100 mph, and heavy rains. They wouldn't have been any better off unless you moved them hundreds of miles inland and give them shelter. The logistical problems here would not be addressed by a bunch of buses. If Rush has a legitimate beef about the process he needs to lay out what should have been done as opposed to pointing at a few pictures and saying- "look incompetant corrupt democrats".


[/ QUOTE ]

There were DAYS. Not 24 hours. People knew this hurricane was headed straight for NO days in advance. I submit those busses could have moved people if they were used days in advance. You're right, it couldn't be done in 24 hours. Nothing was even attempted.

[ QUOTE ]
Its the democrat's fault, well and a little the republicans' as well, but mostly the deomcrats (who signed the bill into law... he forgets to mention- but if its a mistake shouldn't he be held accountable to some degree as well?)


[/ QUOTE ]

I have to agree on this point. It wasn't the failure of one party or another, but the whole apparatus of government. I can't assign any blame to the US military at all because they are subordiante to the civilian authority. If the civilian authority waits until way too late to give them marching orders, there is nothing they can do.

[ QUOTE ]
turning away of donations of water from Wal mart

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This is something I have a hard time with, as well. I think FEMA did this because they are essentially bureaucrats who are jealous of their power and turned away a private operation because they felt it would make them look bad.

Lay the partisanship aside. The core problem is the failure of all the agencies that had jurisdiction to act here. Why did they fail? Because the heads of the agencies are political appointees, placed there by elected officials who are at best in office for dubious reasons, not out of a sense of duty or because they are qualified (that statement includes the CIC, BTW).

This is a shining example of what is wrong with our government and why the voters need to exercise the rights given to them in the Constitution of the United States and VOTE to CHANGE things. Not just in one party, but in both. I hope for the sake of the country and the things that do make it great, this will happen.

X

[adios]

[ QUOTE ]
He also briefly goes of on a tangent blaming entitlement programs (without explaining how they are to blame at all, only stating that they are to blame).

[/ QUOTE ]

I think Limbaugh's reasoning (I don't necessarily agree with it) is that the entitlement legacy that got Louisianna politicians (including New Orleans) elected to serve the impoverished citizens of New Orleans, failed these same people at a time when they were dependent on government the most. If Republicans would have been in charge this would have never happened according to Limbaugh.