Like John, I have seen these stupid posters about the Sep. 24 protest in D.C. I’m a Democrat, strongly against the war in Iraq, but this protest is idiotic. It’s a bag of flaming poop, a hodgepodge of issues for everyone to the left of Atilla the Hun to jump in an orgy of uselessness.
Instead of howling on end about freeing Mumia, how about going and donating some blood and working politically to get the people who let poor Americans die in the streets out of office?
Get off your asses and stop protesting.
I am going to spend the day at the protest in Seattle and register voters in the croud. I thnk actually getting off my ass and increasing the Democratic voter turn out is a good way to spend my day trying to take back my country instead of sitting on my ass and whining about protesting while sitting at a computer.
GET OFF YOUR ASS AND GET IN THE STREETS. Sitting on your ass at a computer is not going to throw the GOP bastards out of congress. Make the media pay attention and let your voice be heard.
So Oliver what are you going to do on Sep. 24 to get those bastards out of congress?
Rather than “stop protesting”, I think right now they need to pick one issue and just beat it and beat it and beat it. John’s concern seemed to be mostly one of too many issues being put into the same pot. The protest should have one single message: IMPEACH BUSH NOW! Everything else is just evidence for his trial and can be collected up presented later.
Yes Mike, there is plenty of blame to go around. Let’s punish everyone. Starting with the one the buck is supposed to stop with: The President of the United States. Work on down from there.
The Governor asked for Federal assistance on Aug 28, and got squat (This was before it fully struck).
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/state-of-louisiana-begged-for-help-on.html
The President must be held to account for that, don’t you think?
Oliver wrote, “how about going … and working politically to get the people who let poor Americans die in the streets out of office?”
Nice to see that you’ll be supporting an all-out Democratic party effort to dump Mayor Ray “Acres of Flooded Schoolbuses” Nagin and Governor Kathleen “I’m Supposed to Call In The National Guard? Really??” Blanco.
What a load of bunk, rhys!
Not to mention, Bush was the one who urged Blanco to declare a state of emergency, and to begin evacuating New Orleans – on Saturday (the 27th).
These facts prove that there was an open line of communication between the La Governor’s office and the Bush administration, for days before Blanco FINALLY decided to take action.
More right wing lies. George Bush can’t do anything wrong, he walks on water, you see.
Where’s the lie, Olliver? Blanco said herself, Bush urged her to begin evacuating New Orleans, on the 28th. She refused.
http://tinyurl.com/8w4c2
This fact, along with the Bush administration’s request, made on Friday the 27th, to assume control of the situation, belay any claim that Bush and the federal government were out to lunch, while Blanco was demanding aid.
The problem here, Oliver, is not that I think Bush can do no wrong, it’s that you are incapable of believing Bush can do no right, or that everything that did go wrong is the result of his doing.
I can only imagine what we would be talking about, today, had Blanco surrendered control of the imminent crisis, and things had gone much better. I’d be reading posts by you about the fascist Bush adminstration defying the constitution in order to usurp the power of the state.
That’s the problem with George Bush. He can do right, he has just chosen never to do so. This bullshit line from you guys that the President of the United States serves at the whims of mayors and governors is the most disingenous line in a mountain of bullshit we’ve been continually served.
rhys,
I read the document, and I have no problem believing its authenticity. The problem is that it proves absolutely nothing, as it makes no material request for anything. It’s a document officially declaring the state of emergency, and alludes to a coming crisis. The fact that this document is dated the 28th, and declaring an imminent disaster, why did Blanco wait until the next day to call for the evacuation of New Orleans? She clearly states that she is taking appropriate action, yet no action was taken until the 29th.
New Orleans has a disaster plan for dealing with hurricane evacuations, which states that public transportation and school buses will be used to evacuate the population that is unable to evacuate themselves. Yet, Mayor Nagin executed no such plan, as we see in the now famous aerial photos of all those empty and flooded buses that were never used.
It boggles the mind!
The federal government is mandated to support the local and state’s disaster plans. How can anyone be surprised that things didn’t run smoothly when both the local and state governments failed miserably to act, until far too late?
phile, exactly what is a load of bunk in what I posted? I supplied a copy of a letter from the Governor on official letterhead, dated Aug 28. Do you have some super-secret evidence that this was a forgery? Do you have any evidence that Bush responded to the letter by offering what was asked for at the time it was asked for?
You claim that she rebuffed the offer of help on Aug 26. Assuming that is true (which it isn’t as Oliver points out), two days later, still before the hurricane strike, she has changed her mind and is begging for help and Bush’s response is “well, we offered and you didn’t want it – have fun then!”. How exactly does that get Bush off the hook?
I won’t comment on the extent to which these Bush sycophants will go to try and make excuses for Dear Leader, because all they’re doing is following his lead. Accountability is for well-adjusted adults; excuses are for punks.
Anyway, back to the original point of this topic, OW. I think one of the biggest problems with right-wingers in this country (exemplified by Phile’s genuflecting around logic in this thread) is that they tend to turn off their critical thinking and mental independence for the sake of being loyal to ‘the message’. That is a dangerous and undemocratic habit that I don’t believe true progressives should emulate. I will leave you with a quote from Frank Bardacke, by way of Counterpunch:
In a mass movement against the war a lot of people
are going to do a lot of different things. That’s what a mass movement is. Some people are going to pass out mealy mouthed petitions; some people are going to go to weekly vigils; some people are going to go to big marches; some people are going to think about supporting anti-war candidates; some people are going to try to counter military recruiters at high schools; some people are going to try to stop military supplies from leaving the US for Iraq. All of it together is what makes “the political cost so high…” not just the radical action in the streets and schools. And it is the overall shift in opinion against the war which makes the more militant action powerful; otherwise the radicals are easily isolated and ignored…
(Much more here.)
Added to that mountain of bullshit are the ongoing lies:
a) to criticise Bush’s handling of Katrina is to “blame him for a natural disaster”
b) to criticise Bush’s handling of Katrina is to claim that “everything that did go wrong is the result of his doing”
Bush’s team is very good at lying in this manner. Unfortunately a large percentage of the populace falls for it.
Phile -
You may want to check the dateline on the WaPo story you quote (but conveniently do not provide a link to). The story is dated Saturday Sept. 3 which makes the Friday in question Friday, Sept 2. That kind of puts a crimp in your Bush to the Rescue chronology. I might also add that this is the article that the WaPo was forced to make a correction to on Sept. 4:
Correction to This Article
A Sept. 4 article on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina incorrectly said that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) had not declared a state of emergency. She declared an emergency on Aug. 26.
Come ON, Oliver. Don’t assume it’s gonna be like this just because UFPJ just happened to involve ANSWER. Your anti-protest bias is getting in the way of the fact that the higher-ups involved with the protest are trying to make this CRYSTAL CLEAR that this is about the war. The involvement of Cindy Sheehan only makes it more so. So blame all the Mumia-types all you want. I’ll be helping to get out the anti-war/accountability message on the 24th.