right wingers who refuse to blame the locals

[Irvine511]

i'd like to start a thread where we can archive all the traditionally right wing pundits/journalists/members of congress/etc. who are refusing to play along with the White House strategy of blaming the victims and the locals for the tragedy, like Robert Novak did today.

here's another shocker:



"The bottom line is that despite the fact the president was strapped with two governors who bungled this crisis badly, in the end it is the president who sends in the National Guard and FEMA relief. The president's suggestion that the size of this storm caught all by surprise just doesn't get it. His administration was 48 hours late sending in the National Guard and poor Americans got raped and killed because of those mistakes."

-- Joe Scarborough, MSNBC



please, post when you find them!

 

[Irvine511]

"Chertoff's miserable performance on the air [last Sunday on "Meet the Press"] reflected a fiasco at all levels of government. ''There'll be plenty of time,'' Chertoff told Russert, to ''do the after-action analysis.'' That bloodless dismissal made the human tragedy and physical mayhem on the Gulf Coast seem like a bureaucratic mistake. What Chertoff ''got down'' was the White House mantra, repeated endlessly, that the ''after-action analysis'' should not interfere with current recovery operations. It was similar to saying the Pearl Harbor attack should not have been investigated and nobody disciplined for failures until World War II was won. . . . Political deafness mixed with lawyerly evasion was shown on ''Meet the Press'' when Chertoff claimed the breaking of the New Orleans levees ''really caught everybody by surprise.'' Russert cited repeated forecasts of this disaster by the New Orleans Times-Picayune, but Chertoff insisted he did not say what he had just said."


http://www.suntimes.com/output/nova...dt-novak08.html

 

[kellyahern]

but they're just playing the political blame game! They can't actually believe what they're writing, can they?!

 

[pax]

Does Christopher Hitchens count?

The president could have seen that a major, historic American city was in danger of being lost and could have easily got there beforehand to ask all state and city officials if there was anything they might have overlooked. A few thousand pallets of bottled water, for example, might have come in handy for a moment when there would be too much water and also too little. And remember that some reliable predictions were that the disaster would be even worse than it was, or is. Remember, too, that the same president assumed a take-charge, back-from-vacation attitude when it was none of his business and when the already-dead Terri Schiavo was being hawked up and down the land by the religious wing-nuts, as if she had been resurrected on video. And then to get to the city late, after a casual fly-by, and to say that nobody had ever thought the levees might cave in …

So, George Bush has already paid, as he should, a weighty political price for his literally fatal insouciance.

http://www.slate.com/id/2125741/

 

[Irvine511]

Does Christopher Hitchens count?

hard to tell ... let's toss him in there anyway.

(just so long as he makes sure to remind us that Iraq is still a good idea)

 

[kellyahern]

hard to tell ... let's toss him in there anyway.

I can never figure him out (must be all those big words he uses ).


What about Shepard Smith and his "THIS IS PERSPECTIVE!" moment?

 

[kellyahern]

i'd like to start a thread where we can archive all the traditionally right wing pundits/journalists/members of congress/etc. who are refusing to play along with the White House strategy of blaming the victims and the locals for the tragedy, like Robert Novak did today.

here's another shocker:



"The bottom line is that despite the fact the president was strapped with two governors who bungled this crisis badly, in the end it is the president who sends in the National Guard and FEMA relief. The president's suggestion that the size of this storm caught all by surprise just doesn't get it. His administration was 48 hours late sending in the National Guard and poor Americans got raped and killed because of those mistakes."

-- Joe Scarborough, MSNBC



please, post when you find them!

More from Joe:

Joe: "I'm getting lectured from Republicans in Oregon, California, upstate New York, Arizona telling me I need to back off the President, I need to back off of FEMA, I need to back off these state leaders. You and I are on the Gulf Coast- we know how these things are supposed to be run. This has nothing to do with politics..."

 

[Irvine511]

^ i always suspected that, somewhere, deep down inside, Joe had a heart that wasn't completely black

 

[verte76]

Re: Re: right wingers who refuse to blame the locals

More from Joe:

Joe: "I'm getting lectured from Republicans in Oregon, California, upstate New York, Arizona telling me I need to back off the President, I need to back off of FEMA, I need to back off these state leaders. You and I are on the Gulf Coast- we know how these things are supposed to be run. This has nothing to do with politics..."

Indeed this has nothing to do with politics for me. Can you say "I'm from Hurricane Alley"?

 

[kellyahern]

Re: Re: Re: right wingers who refuse to blame the locals

Indeed this has nothing to do with politics for me. Can you say "I'm from Hurricane Alley"?

Yeah, me too. Isn't it fun this time of year?

Oh, Ophelia's a hurricane now. Sometimes I feel guilty, but I'm rooting for it to go north, go north .

 

[sharky]

I think this is really what is getting to the heart of the problem. There are no staged photo ops for the reporters. They can see all the details that are white-washed for the political photo-ops.

I think regardless of political affiliation, everyone has a heart and to see this kind of destruction is just horrible for any compassionate person to see. I think that's why I've been agreeing with Dreadsox on so many occasions this week.

But really, to hear these guys say "Oh, we didn't know about the convention center until Thursday." Wha? Don't you have a TV? Or "Oh, we didn't know the levees would break." Again, don't you have a TV? I saw a story on CNN about the potential for levee breaks on the FRIDAY before the hurricane and saw it repeated at least five times. Idiots.

I think that's the bigger issue. Things are so messed up that any rational person can see these people are lying to cover their asses. What's the new phrase for this administration. "We're not going to play the blame game." I am! Let's start with the top and work our way down.

 

[Teta040]

I think I'll pos tthis in another Katrina thread too but here is one for you Irvine.

From my favorite site for international news:

11 Republicans who actually voted yesterday AGAINST hurricane relief

Link: http://comebackalive.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12609

Wonder if any Dems did? If anyone finds this out please post the list so we can stake out these people's offices and mark them for politcal death. Too bad we can't put them thought some of what the Convention center people went through--or what someof them may have to go through in the coming weeks.

 

[Teta040]

Sharky, the other big mantra of this Adminstration is ; DON"T ASK QUESTIONS." Which happnes to be U2's unspoken mantra, BTW.

 

[kellyahern]

Which happnes to be U2's unspoken mantra, BTW.

I hate to even ask, but "huh?"

 

[Carmelu2fan]

I hate to even ask, but "huh?"

Make that two

 

[Teta040]

Sorry about typos. But in the 80's they used to talk a lot in interviews about how we are not supposed to ask questions about the world around us...how politicans, authority figures, society, etc there is kind of this unspoken conspiracy to keep you bound and gagged and silent..not rock the boat, and stir up things...you'd have to be a very old fan to remember what a big topic this was back then. what was the Radiohead song from OK Computer to this effect? this was back in Bono's "I'm more interested in what happens under bridges" days. He used to say, "I've used my own music to wake myself up, b/c sometimes I'm guilty too." And I don't think they've changed.

 

[kellyahern]

"The illusion that only the left wing media are blaming Mr. Bush is not only ludicrous but factually incorrect." - Keith Oberman

From the New Hampshire Union Leader (a conservative paper, who counts Mr. Novak and George Will as contributors).
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=59785

The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty.

 

[Iskra]

Can you imagine if we blamed the 911 victims?
Does anyone else find it odd that we have a National Crisis 4 years almost to the date ?
Not counting the self inflicted one in the White House.

 

[kellyahern]

The thing about 9/11 is that it had never happened before in the history of our country. The closest event I can think of to compare it to would be Pearl Harbor.

Hurricanes, they happen every year. Maybe not this bad, but we know that they are going to happen. We've already addressed the "no one knew that the levees would break" issue.

The fact that in 2005 we can have a storm that will be costlier in lives than Camille 26 years ago is just mind boggling to me.

 

[Dreadsox]

Glad to see we have moved beyond the partisan bullshit....no sarcasm applied.

 

[Dreadsox]

The locals screwed up the feds screwed up......and here in FYM the blame game continues....

Irvine...I do not get it....sincerely....

Time for an FYM vacation.....

Someone PM me when the dust has settled.

 

[kellyahern]

While the use of the phrase "right wingers" in the title is baiting, the articles are valid. This reaches across party lines. This is too important to use that stupid phrase "blame game." That's a talking point and it doesn't actually mean anything.

''There'll be plenty of time,'' Chertoff told Russert, to ''do the after-action analysis.'' That bloodless dismissal made the human tragedy and physical mayhem on the Gulf Coast seem like a bureaucratic mistake.

.

That's why the excuse "oh, everyone's playing the blame game" is infuriating to me. Novak said it better than I could, and I disagree with him about almost everything. I'm sorry if it seems that I'm glad that other republicans think the administration's behavior is as awful as I do.

I don't see how anyone can watch the news at night and not think the administrations's reaction to all of this is total bullshit.

 

[Dreadsox]

If I saw any attempt at looking at this from more than one point of view, I would agree with you that the "blame game" is a cover.

I was complaining about playing the "blame game" long before we heard it from the white houes.

AS a former republican...I think it was wrong to put FEMA unde Homeland Security.

There were mistakes made LONG LONG before that and there are according to what I read today, still stupid ass political games being played by the governor...who is in conflict with the Mayor of NO.

Enough said...I am taking a break... peace

 

[U2Bama]

I don't as much think that the "right wingers" reference is baiting as much as I think that it's deceptive to say that they "refuse" to blame the locals. Scarborough does seem to reference two governors for "bungling" the crisis. He's obviously referring to Blanco and Barbour; Riley here in Alabama has handled it quite well considering the recent practice we've had with Ivan and Dennis.

~U2Alabama

 

[kellyahern]

If I saw any attempt at looking at this from more than one point of view, I would agree with you that the "blame game" is a cover.

I was complaining about playing the "blame game" long before we heard it from the white houes.

AS a former republican...I think it was wrong to put FEMA unde Homeland Security.

There were mistakes made LONG LONG before that and there are according to what I read today, still stupid ass political games being played by the governor...who is in conflict with the Mayor of NO.

Enough said...I am taking a break... peace

I'm sorry. I'm new to all this here at FYM. I'm trying to see it from more than one point of view. Like I've said repeatedly, I don't think the local officials are innocent. But I haven't seen them on television giving press conferences as ridiculous as the White House spokesman did. They probably are. It's just that, too me, it seems like the federal administration is blatanly trying to get away from this by saying, "Let's not talk about this now." And a lot of people, including the conservative columnists who I thought would be the last people to point this out, don't want to let them get away from this.

 

[kellyahern]

I don't as much think that the "right wingers" reference is baiting as much as I think that it's deceptive to say that they "refuse" to blame the locals. Scarborough does seem to reference two governors for "bungling" the crisis. He's obviously referring to Blanco and Barbour; Riley here in Alabama has handled it quite well considering the recent practice we've had with Ivan and Dennis.

~U2Alabama

Yes. Good point .