I am a crabby, pissy liberal, and I'm not afraid to show it.
This is probably a totally incomplete, incomprehensible entry because I needed to go to bed five hours ago. However, I'm so pissed off, I had to say SOMEthing. But if this post is completely rambling and incoherent, that's why. And really, it won't separate it that much from many of the political/current events-oriented blogs out there.
Oh, oh, first? The music? It's a tune from a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, "The Mikado." It is not a threat. It doesn't mean anything other than the fact that it's been stuck in my head since Tuesday. Nice tune. Don't know why it's there. But it isn't insidious in any way.
A friend of mine once called me a yellow dog Democrat. This is incorrect. I might call myself a yellow dog non-Republican, especially after this whole hurricane Katrina fiasco. I fully intend to vote for the candidate who is best suited to the job. But given the conduct of the Republicans in charge for the last five years-let ALONE the last five days-, I'm going to say that the odds of me finding a Republican I feel to be best suited to the job are pretty damn slim.
This has been bungled at every possible opportunity.
So today I read that, of course, thousands of people affected by the hurricane are unemployed. Thousands applied for unemployment. And apparently more would have applied, but they had to close the unemployment offices to evacuate, so people couldn't physically apply.
Celebrities and entertainers have been giving lots of money to hurricane survivors. Which, considering that many of them have more money than God, is only right. Hey, did Brittney Spears ever get off her ass and actually DO something for residents of her former state, or is she still just whining and praying about it? Praying is nice, but I think right now they'd rather have food, water, medicine... something to hold onto.
Anyway, Brittney (gag) could be an entry all to herself, but I'm not that pissed off about her just this minute.
Though I'll drift for a minute to BEG, can't SOMEone PLEASE put Ashlee Simpson out of my misery? Please?!
Right. Back to business.
One could say that the celebrities giving money to the hurricane relief effort have more money than the government (if they have more money than God, they MUST have more money than the Treasury Department), so they should give something. But I do submit that at least entertainers are making the effort. And not waiting five days to do it.
Heck, Sean Penn, nutty as he is (mostly he's just utterly humorless-makes sense now, but he's ALWAYS like that) was actually physically going around in a boat and helping out! Duh-bya? Went several days after the danger was over, got nowhere NEAR the heart of the problem, praised the idiot at FEMA who screwed everyone in the first place (the man was incompetent at running HORSE shows. He's supposed to manage national emergencies?!?!?!) and talked about how great it was that Trent Lott was going to have a better house out of the ashes of this. Sure. He didn't go into diabetic shock. And Trent Lott also has more money than God. He's probably keeping it to himself.
By the way, Duh-bya's approval rating is well under 50%, having "declined to 46 percent in a September 2 Washington Post/ABC News poll and has now sunk to 38 percent, with 54-55 percent disapproval, in the September 4-5 tracking polls conducted by SurveyUSA." The latest CBS news poll shows him at "41 percent, and his ratings on the economy and Iraq are 37 percent and 38 percent, respectively." (Quotes/figures from http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=1025417). So at least SOMEone is paying attention. It's about damn time. Oh, and he's down to TWENTY percent on gas prices. Damn straight.
I missed it when "Brownie," the head of FEMA got appointed. He must have given lots of money to the election campaign. Or is a close family friend. Because there is NO other way he should have gotten that. According to the Boston Herald, Mike Brown had to be ASKED to resign from International Arabian Horse Association "after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures" (my emphases). So, he was such a dipshit that he couldn't oversee pet shows, so we decided to hand over disaster relief to him? It's not as though this administration didn't know disasters happen. September 11, which they trot out at every opportunity to remind us of how WELL they're handling things, was a HELL of a disaster. So it's not as though they didn't know disasters still happen in this country (Brownie didn't take over until 2003. So it's hardly as though he has that huge success to point to. He did oversee it last year, which was apparently a record hurricane season. However, it wasn't a broken-levee-dead-bodies-in-the-street-for-over-a-week issue).
Oh, sorry, he got the job through his ex-college roommate. The old boys' network is alive and well and screwing over the American people-the VERY American people who need the help most, who have been screwed over by life and the environment already and don't need it from the government that's SUPPOSED to be caring for them.
Oh, and how did having FEMA become a part of Homeland Security help things? They actually used to be able to HELP during disasters. They USED to know things about disasters without hearing about it by watching the news.
I have GOT to find a clip of Ted Koppel handing Brownie's ass to him on a plate. The couple of clips I've seen have just been RIGHTEOUS.
Oh! Here we go! http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/861 includes this paraphrased quote from Koppel: "We've been reporting on the crisis at the Convention Center for a lot longer than just today, but you say that you only heard about it today?" I can't open the movie clip from the site, though; I have to save it and then watch. I'll let you know if it's a good site after I watch it.
Ah. There we go. Yes. Go. Watch. A little more than halfway through the interview, first Koppel stuns him into silence (I'm reminded of the presidential debate where Duh-bya demanded to rebut, and then blinked in clueless desperation for about half of the time he was given TO rebut), and then it looks like the guy is going to cry. And not Celine-Dion-this-is-heartbreaking-crying. This is I'm-getting-my-ass-handed-to-me-on-a-plate almost-crying (yeah, sorry about the hyphens).
The interview also includes this exchange (quoted at http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/09/1764772.php):
"Brown: 'The people in the convention center are being fed; the people on the bridges are being provided with water. ...'
"Koppel: 'With all due respect, sir, the people, the people in the convention center are not being fed. Our reporters. ...'
"Brown: 'I misspoke. The people in the, the people in the Superdome. I'm sorry, you're absolutely correct. We're getting the supplies to the convention center now...'"
So now they're forming a committee to figure out what went wrong. Only they want it to be congressional or senatorial. Not independent, anyway. And democrats are boycotting it because it should be independent. Which it SHOULD be. But I'm afraid boycotting will just let the Republicans feel they have free rein to put all the blame they want somewhere else. I want to call my representatives and tell them to fight this, but all of the people who represent me are Democrats, and therefore already boycotting. Does anyone know if there's someone I can talk to who might GET me somewhere? And does calling the Republican congressman the next district over get me anywhere?
Oh, ALSO, I read the article Ben Stein wrote for American Spectator. Now, I love Ben Stein as an actor and funny guy (I wouldn't say he was a comedian, but he is funny). But when you find yourself publishing that Bush didn't cause a hurricane, I think you're Officially Done. I mean, he made some arguments that weren't stupid and/or insane (well, sort of stupid. Mostly just In Denial), but seriously, if you write down that Bush didn't create global warming or build levees, you've officially run out of steam. I know, I know, he was making a point, and I'll bet he was trying to be a little sardonic, but it mostly just came off as desperate.
Then again, the man wrote speeches for Nixon. He's probably gotten really good at making desperately insane arguments to make his bosses, literal or figurative, look good. Or at least less criminally incompetent (to paraphrase someone I know).
Also, and I know this isn't exactly about the hurricane directly, but I've NEVER understood it, and it does come up in Ben Stein's article, but what is the whole deal with the Kyoto protocol? Okay, so allegedly some of the world's biggest polluters aren't covered (although I really have a hard time believing that China or India individually pollute more than we do. Who knows, maybe they do. But considering the crap we spew out into the air and water every day, it does seem a little hard to fathom), but why, then, does that excuse US? If we were part of the treaty, that would still cut down a SUBSTANTIAL amount of pollution, thereby helping to reduce global warming, THEREBY making major weather disasters less common and less devastating. Why is it all or none? The state of Washington used to have a motto: "Every Litter Bit Helps." Think of pollution as HUGE litter. By committing to cut pollution, we would be helping substantially! Why is it if EVERYONE isn't involved, we can't be involved either-or WON'T get involved? The only answer is that "we" don't care and "we" don't want to take responsibility. Which we (no quotes) have known all along.
But, I've digressed. Again.
By the way, have we ever gotten around to accepting foreign aid? And is anyone going to say Screw FEMA and, like The Seattle Times did with the war coffins, publish photos that show how bad things really are? I don't particularly want to see the horror, but I think there's a certain amount of complacency from some members of the public because they can't imagine, can't CONCEIVE of what's really happening, and people need to get mad about this. Or they at least need to demand action and accountability. Facing the cold, hard truth, that things look as bad as they do in third world countries right in our own back yard might go a long way towards shaking people into action.
I've just spent all night unable to sleep, angry about the horrible mishandling of this, the heartbreaking incomprehensibility that this could happen to Americans in America-that this is STILL happening to Americans IN America. I'm outraged, and I'm depressed. Maybe I'm not the only one.
Now if I only knew what to do to help. I mean, yeah, give money. Done that. Hope to do it again after my next payday, when I'm sure my check won't bounce. But how do I, as one person with no real connections, how do I help to fix things? How do I demand accountability? What can I do to keep it from happening again? What can I do to help get people fed, into homes, get their medication?
And how the hell does this happen HERE?
Oh, oh, first? The music? It's a tune from a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, "The Mikado." It is not a threat. It doesn't mean anything other than the fact that it's been stuck in my head since Tuesday. Nice tune. Don't know why it's there. But it isn't insidious in any way.
A friend of mine once called me a yellow dog Democrat. This is incorrect. I might call myself a yellow dog non-Republican, especially after this whole hurricane Katrina fiasco. I fully intend to vote for the candidate who is best suited to the job. But given the conduct of the Republicans in charge for the last five years-let ALONE the last five days-, I'm going to say that the odds of me finding a Republican I feel to be best suited to the job are pretty damn slim.
This has been bungled at every possible opportunity.
So today I read that, of course, thousands of people affected by the hurricane are unemployed. Thousands applied for unemployment. And apparently more would have applied, but they had to close the unemployment offices to evacuate, so people couldn't physically apply.
Celebrities and entertainers have been giving lots of money to hurricane survivors. Which, considering that many of them have more money than God, is only right. Hey, did Brittney Spears ever get off her ass and actually DO something for residents of her former state, or is she still just whining and praying about it? Praying is nice, but I think right now they'd rather have food, water, medicine... something to hold onto.
Anyway, Brittney (gag) could be an entry all to herself, but I'm not that pissed off about her just this minute.
Though I'll drift for a minute to BEG, can't SOMEone PLEASE put Ashlee Simpson out of my misery? Please?!
Right. Back to business.
One could say that the celebrities giving money to the hurricane relief effort have more money than the government (if they have more money than God, they MUST have more money than the Treasury Department), so they should give something. But I do submit that at least entertainers are making the effort. And not waiting five days to do it.
Heck, Sean Penn, nutty as he is (mostly he's just utterly humorless-makes sense now, but he's ALWAYS like that) was actually physically going around in a boat and helping out! Duh-bya? Went several days after the danger was over, got nowhere NEAR the heart of the problem, praised the idiot at FEMA who screwed everyone in the first place (the man was incompetent at running HORSE shows. He's supposed to manage national emergencies?!?!?!) and talked about how great it was that Trent Lott was going to have a better house out of the ashes of this. Sure. He didn't go into diabetic shock. And Trent Lott also has more money than God. He's probably keeping it to himself.
By the way, Duh-bya's approval rating is well under 50%, having "declined to 46 percent in a September 2 Washington Post/ABC News poll and has now sunk to 38 percent, with 54-55 percent disapproval, in the September 4-5 tracking polls conducted by SurveyUSA." The latest CBS news poll shows him at "41 percent, and his ratings on the economy and Iraq are 37 percent and 38 percent, respectively." (Quotes/figures from http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=1025417). So at least SOMEone is paying attention. It's about damn time. Oh, and he's down to TWENTY percent on gas prices. Damn straight.
I missed it when "Brownie," the head of FEMA got appointed. He must have given lots of money to the election campaign. Or is a close family friend. Because there is NO other way he should have gotten that. According to the Boston Herald, Mike Brown had to be ASKED to resign from International Arabian Horse Association "after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures" (my emphases). So, he was such a dipshit that he couldn't oversee pet shows, so we decided to hand over disaster relief to him? It's not as though this administration didn't know disasters happen. September 11, which they trot out at every opportunity to remind us of how WELL they're handling things, was a HELL of a disaster. So it's not as though they didn't know disasters still happen in this country (Brownie didn't take over until 2003. So it's hardly as though he has that huge success to point to. He did oversee it last year, which was apparently a record hurricane season. However, it wasn't a broken-levee-dead-bodies-in-the-street-for-over-a-week issue).
Oh, sorry, he got the job through his ex-college roommate. The old boys' network is alive and well and screwing over the American people-the VERY American people who need the help most, who have been screwed over by life and the environment already and don't need it from the government that's SUPPOSED to be caring for them.
Oh, and how did having FEMA become a part of Homeland Security help things? They actually used to be able to HELP during disasters. They USED to know things about disasters without hearing about it by watching the news.
I have GOT to find a clip of Ted Koppel handing Brownie's ass to him on a plate. The couple of clips I've seen have just been RIGHTEOUS.
Oh! Here we go! http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/861 includes this paraphrased quote from Koppel: "We've been reporting on the crisis at the Convention Center for a lot longer than just today, but you say that you only heard about it today?" I can't open the movie clip from the site, though; I have to save it and then watch. I'll let you know if it's a good site after I watch it.
Ah. There we go. Yes. Go. Watch. A little more than halfway through the interview, first Koppel stuns him into silence (I'm reminded of the presidential debate where Duh-bya demanded to rebut, and then blinked in clueless desperation for about half of the time he was given TO rebut), and then it looks like the guy is going to cry. And not Celine-Dion-this-is-heartbreaking-crying. This is I'm-getting-my-ass-handed-to-me-on-a-plate almost-crying (yeah, sorry about the hyphens).
The interview also includes this exchange (quoted at http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/09/1764772.php):
"Brown: 'The people in the convention center are being fed; the people on the bridges are being provided with water. ...'
"Koppel: 'With all due respect, sir, the people, the people in the convention center are not being fed. Our reporters. ...'
"Brown: 'I misspoke. The people in the, the people in the Superdome. I'm sorry, you're absolutely correct. We're getting the supplies to the convention center now...'"
So now they're forming a committee to figure out what went wrong. Only they want it to be congressional or senatorial. Not independent, anyway. And democrats are boycotting it because it should be independent. Which it SHOULD be. But I'm afraid boycotting will just let the Republicans feel they have free rein to put all the blame they want somewhere else. I want to call my representatives and tell them to fight this, but all of the people who represent me are Democrats, and therefore already boycotting. Does anyone know if there's someone I can talk to who might GET me somewhere? And does calling the Republican congressman the next district over get me anywhere?
Oh, ALSO, I read the article Ben Stein wrote for American Spectator. Now, I love Ben Stein as an actor and funny guy (I wouldn't say he was a comedian, but he is funny). But when you find yourself publishing that Bush didn't cause a hurricane, I think you're Officially Done. I mean, he made some arguments that weren't stupid and/or insane (well, sort of stupid. Mostly just In Denial), but seriously, if you write down that Bush didn't create global warming or build levees, you've officially run out of steam. I know, I know, he was making a point, and I'll bet he was trying to be a little sardonic, but it mostly just came off as desperate.
Then again, the man wrote speeches for Nixon. He's probably gotten really good at making desperately insane arguments to make his bosses, literal or figurative, look good. Or at least less criminally incompetent (to paraphrase someone I know).
Also, and I know this isn't exactly about the hurricane directly, but I've NEVER understood it, and it does come up in Ben Stein's article, but what is the whole deal with the Kyoto protocol? Okay, so allegedly some of the world's biggest polluters aren't covered (although I really have a hard time believing that China or India individually pollute more than we do. Who knows, maybe they do. But considering the crap we spew out into the air and water every day, it does seem a little hard to fathom), but why, then, does that excuse US? If we were part of the treaty, that would still cut down a SUBSTANTIAL amount of pollution, thereby helping to reduce global warming, THEREBY making major weather disasters less common and less devastating. Why is it all or none? The state of Washington used to have a motto: "Every Litter Bit Helps." Think of pollution as HUGE litter. By committing to cut pollution, we would be helping substantially! Why is it if EVERYONE isn't involved, we can't be involved either-or WON'T get involved? The only answer is that "we" don't care and "we" don't want to take responsibility. Which we (no quotes) have known all along.
But, I've digressed. Again.
By the way, have we ever gotten around to accepting foreign aid? And is anyone going to say Screw FEMA and, like The Seattle Times did with the war coffins, publish photos that show how bad things really are? I don't particularly want to see the horror, but I think there's a certain amount of complacency from some members of the public because they can't imagine, can't CONCEIVE of what's really happening, and people need to get mad about this. Or they at least need to demand action and accountability. Facing the cold, hard truth, that things look as bad as they do in third world countries right in our own back yard might go a long way towards shaking people into action.
I've just spent all night unable to sleep, angry about the horrible mishandling of this, the heartbreaking incomprehensibility that this could happen to Americans in America-that this is STILL happening to Americans IN America. I'm outraged, and I'm depressed. Maybe I'm not the only one.
Now if I only knew what to do to help. I mean, yeah, give money. Done that. Hope to do it again after my next payday, when I'm sure my check won't bounce. But how do I, as one person with no real connections, how do I help to fix things? How do I demand accountability? What can I do to keep it from happening again? What can I do to help get people fed, into homes, get their medication?
And how the hell does this happen HERE?