Standing Athwart Hurricanes, Yelling ‘Stop!’
Lousiana Governer Bobby Jindal has looked Gustav in the eyewall, and the hurricane has turned tail and fled.
The difference between rock-ribbed Republicans and weak-sister Democrats couldn’t be more stark:
Bobby jindel will take care of louisiana. He’s a good man and everybody should pray for them.
As for the lib. God is not on your side. He watching the people of louisiana and protecting them. You lib are sick i hope god will show the error of your ways.
Oh, He will, ‘jindel’ fans, He will. Michelle Herself has it on good authority that:
God is not on your side, gloating sleazeballs.
Brad adds: This is as good a time as any to pimp my new AlterNet piece on GOP efforts to turn the hurricane into an image makeover. Excerpt:
How the GOP Is Counting on Hurricane Gustav for an Image Makeover
By Brad Reed, AlterNet. Posted September 1, 2008.
[…]
To understand why the GOP has been so quick to cover all its bases on the current hurricane, we should consider the tremendous fallout that Hurricane Katrina had on the Bush presidency. The 2005 storm had a devastating political impact on George W. Bush and the Republican brand because it showed the American public what happens when a political party believes at its core that government should not be taken seriously.
Sound extreme? Consider Michael Brown, the woefully unqualified former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who became the public face of the disaster when Bush praised him against all evidence for doing a “heck of a job.” Prior to becoming head of the nation’s largest disaster relief agency, Brown worked for 11 years as “the chief rules enforcer of the Arabian Horse Association.” His only supposed experience in emergency management had been working for the emergency services division in the city of Edmond, Oklahoma for three years in the 1970s.
You would think that with such a thin résumé, Brown would have been laughed out of the FEMA offices. But under the rules of Bush governance, partisan loyalties and ideological zeal always trump talent, intelligence and experience. Consider some other classic Bush appointees who were not merely unqualified, but who were in some cases actively hostile toward the institutions they were chosen to lead. There’s George C. Deutsch, the former NASA press officer and college dropout who threatened NASA scientists with “dire consequences” for undermining the administration’s position on global warming and who harped upon agency web designers to not dismiss intelligent design creationism on the agency’s website. Or how about Monica Goodling, a religious zealot and former Justice Department political appointee who would screen candidates for career positions at the DOJ by asking them questions such as “What is it about President Bush that makes you want to serve him?” And who could forget notoriously unqualified Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers? Or John Bolton, the former United Nations ambassador who hates the United Nations? Or all the Heritage Foundation staffers who were sent over to rebuild Iraq?
Personally, I don’t think the GOP spin masters are talented enough to really turn this hurricane into an asset. I think the Dems’ strategy of staying out of the way and encouraging supporters to donate money for relief efforts is the right one.
Speaking of, you can donate to the Red Cross here. Be safe, all.
God is not on your side, gloating sleazeballs.
Fucker never shows up anyway so you can have HIM.
Umm, wait — so now they’re singing soliloquies to Governor Jindal’s government’s state of preparedness for an emergency showing how conservatives can govern well?
I thought that during Katrina the Malkinites were pointing out how people should all be rugged individuals and they shouldn’t have a nanny state government claiming to take care of everyone, and that it wasn’t the government’s job to save you in an emergency?
And his fuck-up son too!
This is just…well…
On August 31st, 2008 at 11:07 pm, ErinF said:
Palin/Jindal… that does have a nice ring to it.
Queue up the wingnutosphere denouncing Ray Nagin for overstating the dangers posed by Gustav in 3 … 2 … 1 …
I think the Dems’ strategy of staying out of the way and encouraging supporters to donate money for relief efforts is the right one.
One Malkin commenter (linked to above) complains that Obama staying away is ‘exactly what they condemned Bush for when Katrina hit …’
Because Obama is the pre-boss of FEMA, see!
If Obama stays away, he’s ignoring the problem. If he goes, he wants to use the hurricane as a prop to get elected. There’s no way to win. And when you apply the same rules to McCain, they squeal like stuck pigs.
I can’t even begin to express my disgust with these dirtbags; for these cretins it must be completely impossible that Katrina had, after happening only 3 years ago, imparted some kind of lesson on emergency planning. Yes, three years ago the local, state and federal governments were completely unprepared for the devastation (and on the part of the Bush Administration woefully indifferent), but to claim that Jindal is some kind of magical white knight with planning super-powers is beyond the pale: This is using a destructive force of nature, bending to no one’s and nothing’s will, as a political cheap shot.
That anyone would be surprised Malkin and her contemptible ilk would still stoop to that level is unfathomable as well…
Brad, I liked your Alternet piece but it’s “toe the line” not “tow the line”. HULK SMASH
Agree on toe.
Line.
Put your toes agin’ it.
Did Jindal perform an exorcism on the hurricane then?
The Republican-macho approach to hurricanes is just like the approach to terrorism. Sure one foreseeable disaster happened on our watch and we did a shitty job handling it, but by God, we’ll posture and yell like hell about the next one!
Yes, because the alleged godless Dhimmicrats would actually pray to a god. Makes total sense.
It’s draggin’ the line.
Just sayin’.
*ahem*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_the_line
Toe the Line
FYWP
Obama staying away is ‘exactly what they condemned Bush for when Katrina hit …’
Oh, my. That’s so precious.
Toe.
As the nutroots wish ill on conservatives
May I just say that I do wish Michelle Malkin would go out in a storm and get a house dropped on her? I sure wouldn’t cry. She should go down to NO and see if she can get her face on TV, just before that house lands on her. Preferably a house with granite countertops.
Toe the line.
The eye hasn’t even passed over Houma yet. This shit is far from over. Right now water is overtopping the Orleans side of the Industrial Canal. It better fucking hold. I guess Jindal the Almighty is responsible for this, too. Idiots.
On its surface, this whole scheme by the Republicans to “make up for” Katrina by doing a passably competent job on Gustav seems counterintuitive to me. By and large, people aren’t impressed by politicians who say “Just give me another chance, I promise I’ll get it right this time!”.
But these are the Republicans, after all, and every time they do something completely counterintuitive (like claiming 9/11 only proves they’re the ones to keep us safe), damned if it doesn’t seem to work better than expected.
Should the Malkinites build a shit moat around their cities just in case?
I believe the Malkintents™ already live in shit-moated cities.
Quick, everybody to Malkin’s house- we’re building a shit levee.
…it’s “toe the line” not “tow the line”.
They’re the same, for all intensive purposes.
Oh, and it looks like the Republicans giant hurricane boner will stand unserviced. What a letdown for McCain to have to trudge back to crappy old St. Paul to give his crappy speech.
Well, you know, it’s great they learned a lesson – like anyone would – and good on Bobby Jindal for the job he’s doing. Let’s let him finish it before we start pinning the medals on though, shall we?
But what’s depressing – and totally predictable – is how the Malkinites are using this natural disaster as just another springboard to launch their invective. Well, there are no surprises with these folks anymore, are there?
Oh, and it looks like the Republicans giant hurricane boner will stand unserviced.
Oh, heavens, no! This just means they successfully diverted it through their prayers and will to power. It can only be good for the McCain/Palin/Jindal Triumvirate of GodPower.
God is not on your side, gloating sleazeballs.
and you know? I dare you to find a more heartfelt example of Malkin’s approach to Christianity than this.
acutally, it’s one toke over the line.
I told you all to stop using clichés like “toe the line” more than 60 years ago!
well at least our imaginary cloud being answers our prayers for rain unlike the one religious kooks and wingnuts pray to.
i don’t know about you guys, but I walk the line . . .
Next up: the ongoing debate over “bald faced liar” vs. “bold faced liar”.
(It’s the first one – I remember being in an office when I heard the second one for the first time, with everyone else there dead-set that it was the correct form of the expression. Nope.)
You know, maybe people should stop comparing Palin to Quayle, and start comparing her to Heckuvajob Brownie, resume-densitywise.
I remember being in an office when I heard the second one for the first time, with everyone else there dead-set that it was the correct form of the expression. Nope.)
How were these things ever settled before the advent of the Innert00bz?
That’s probably exactly how they phrase it at Malkin’s church.
Two of their weapons are invective launching and personal attacks. And an almost fanatical devotion to the pope…
mikey
Indeed. That feller don’t look a bit white to me neither. Looks more like a turrist. Has his birth certificate been kerned? How do we know he’s not a stealth Islamofascist just setting Louisiana up before he turns his magic hands in the opposite direction and reverses Gustav’s course and slams it into New Orleans? Irresponsible not to speculate. I’m surprised at the Malkin thing.
They’re the same, for all intensive purposes.
OK, whatever.
True, Jindal is browner than Malkin.
…this begs the question, “which is correct?”…hopefully, someone will answer it.
OK, whatever.
Sorry, forgot the </grammarsnark>
And forgot the link.
“For all intensive purposes” is one of my pet peeves, so of course I haul it out all the time.
It’s also “cue up” the wingnutosphere to denounce, etc.
As in “get ready for the sound cue” in the production.
Queue up is, get in line.
Happy to help!
“You know, maybe people should stop comparing Palin to Quayle, and start comparing her to Heckuvajob Brownie, resume-densitywise.”
Cleter: Someone has:
http://tinyurl.com/5zhdy8
Happy to help!
Good of you to take the reigns there.
As long as I don’t see McCain and his soulmate standing on a pile of rubble with a bullhorn, this one goes in the win column.
It’s “all intents and purposes”, I believe
SamFromUtah said,
September 1, 2008 at 18:12
Happy to help!
Good of you to take the reigns there.
In that vain…
So… it just came out that Palin’s 17 year old daughter is indeed pregnant… as in right now. Apparently, they admitted that she’s five months pregnant and “plans to marry the father” (I guess with that M-16 pointed haphazardly at his head).
This just gets more and more interesting. This means that not only did Sarah indeed endanger her son with a known disability by flying for 8 hours while in labor… her teenaged daughter is pregnant. I can’t wait to hear the GOP spin machine start whirring faster than my clothes washer.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/01/1318541.aspx
What a letdown for McCain to have to trudge back to crappy old St. Paul to give his crappy speech.
Beg your pardon? St Paul is not the ‘crappy’ factor in this week’s news. It’s a nice town currently full of deluded creeps and fascist cops under the control of the feds and the Ramsey County
pigsheriff. In any given election, It may be a sleepy city, but St. Paul votes at least 2/3 for the democratic candidate on a regular basis. This week is a total infestation of fail and it sucks.It’s “all intents and purposes”, I believe
Thanks! I would hate to have a mistake like that on my conscious.
It’s the principal of the thing.
I am reminded of that Chris Rock line about not being in jail. You’re not supposed to go to jail. Governments are supposed to cope with natural disasters. Telling that they want credit for mediocrity.
thanks for speaking for me, brewer and shipley. Here’s the link that should have been linked to the words “total infestation of fail” in that comment:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Conventions/story?id=5699123&page=1
I can’t wait to hear the GOP spin machine start whirring faster than my clothes washer.
It will be interesting to see – because the abstinence-only / purity-ball crowd know very well that unplanned teenage pregnancy is very common among, well, teenagers who are clueless about sex. I imagine there’s a double standard between the public screeching about propriety and the unspoken understanding that this shit goes on all the time. Would that mean that Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy is a liability, since Palin is a public figure, or not?
So they’re giving Jindal credit for how well he, as a Republican, would have to have handled the hurricane, in contrast to some Democrat, who would have had to have fucked it up by now, had it happened?
They’ll have to invent some whole new tense to explain the possible future contrary-to-fact outcome that Republican expertise might have prevented.
I meant it was crappy for McCain and the rest of them, who obviously don’t want to be there. They’d rather be someplace with skeevier hookers, and where you don’t get arrested for sucking cock in the men’s room.
Personally I think the GOP should shut the fuck up about Katrina.
No matter what their response is to Gustav, it will not negate McBush’s “Let us eat cake,” moment, it won’t undo “Heckuva job Brownie,” it won’t make the people who died like rats rise up again.
As for the 101st fRightened Keyboardists, someone needs to rub their noses in the callous shit they spewed while NO turned into Hell on Earth until they choke.
With the exception of how Palin, and by extension the McCain campaign, discusses the daughter’s pregnancy with respect to values, women’s reproductive rights, contraception and education, it has no meaning whatsoever. The daughter is not the VP nominee. The mom, as all moms can tell you, has very limited control over the actions of the seventeen year old child.
So while teen pregnancy and it’s consequences are a worthwhile area of discussion between the campaigns, this little girls personal life is her own, and has absolutely no bearing on the election…
mikey
They’ll have to invent some whole new tense to explain the possible future contrary-to-fact outcome that Republican expertise might have prevented.
I’ll get right on it.
Eagle Forum Alaska’s 2006 Gubernatorial Questionnaire:
Here’s a good one:
I guess she ain’t too keen on teaching history either.
mikey – what you said, but I would add: Palin is an outspoken supporter of “abstinence-only” education.
Her daughter is the poster child for why it’s a stupid idea. Another stupid idea from McCain’s unqualified and unvetted VP pick.
I don’t see why or how we should or could stop from making that part of it an issue.
[…] Blue Buddha in […]
Getting pregnant and married at seventeen, in that order, is a prescription for disaster.
I imagine this little family will have some support, both monetary and social, which is not always the case.
But how typically wingnutty. It’s best for Bristol to go ahead and get started on her Life’s Special Purpose at this age, because what else is she going to do? Oh, well, her mother is the Governor, but I thought wingnuts disapproved of women having careers.
There’s no point in trying to make sense of these people. Unless the lesson is that it’s okay to have a career, as long as you keep having babies.
I guess she ain’t too keen on teaching history either.
Heh. She might be thinking the founding fathers are Joe McCarthy and John Birch.
So while teen pregnancy and it’s consequences are a worthwhile area of discussion between the campaigns, this little girls personal life is her own, and has absolutely no bearing on the election…
mikey
I’m with you there, mikey.
But there’s one more thing:
John McCain is a fucking scumbag.
Curiouser and curiouser.
What kind of politician, let alone a newly recruited VP nominee, ANNOUNCES their teenage daughter’s pregnancy to the press? Particularly after a weekend of pregnancy rumors “swirling on liberal blogs”? Are “liberal blog” rumors frightening enough to the big bad GOP that they have to rush out yet more b.s. to try to mitigate against the b.s. that’s already piled up?
This whole scenario reeks to high heaven. WTF are these douchebags up to now?
this little girls personal life is her own, and has absolutely no bearing on the election…
Her parents apparently disagree with that assessment.
I don’t what’s better, Jindal raising his hands to the heavens and weakening Gustav down to a Category 2 or Talladega Pocono Watkins Glen Bristols big Fuck You to her mothers values.
Palin/Jindal 2012 !!11!1one!!
They probably want to get people agitated about the ill-mannered rumor-mongers on liberal blogs, so that the next Palin family story that hits the blogs will be treated as invasive and/or character assassination. That’s basically what they did with the Bush AWOL story.
Wouldn’t it be great if Hurricane Gustav suddenly went off course and hit the GOP convention in St Paul. Then maybe Obama can be declared President by default, because lets face it guys I’ve got a feeling we’re gonna get creamed this election. I certainly don’t hope so, just my intuition.
And while we’re airing pet grammar peeves:
Its! Its!! ITS!! NO APOSTROPHE!!! NO APOSTROPHE!!!!
Unless you’re forming the contraction of the two words “it” and “is,” there is
NO F**KING APOSTROPHE!!!!!!!11!!@@!#!@#
Thank you.
But, apparently not Brownier than Malkin? I’ll be pondering this…
Jeez, Buddah, what election campaign are YOU watching?
‘Cause I’m seeing one polished, professional near perfect campaign, flush with funds and an extensive fifty state organization on one side, and on the other a bunch of bumbling boobs stumbling around stepping on rake after rake after rake after rake.
Creamed? In no context, from polling to fundraising to messaging to personnel does that make the slightest bit of sense….
mikey
Forcing people to ask themselves that question seems to be their actual strategy for dominating every news cycle.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was like a nucular accident n’ stuff in Minnesota? Cuz lets face it, otherwise us democrat iz LUUUZERS!!!!
I’m still pondering how a Category 5 hurricane merits a Category 2 response while a Category 2 hurricane elicits a Category 5 response.
Is McCain going to stand out in the wind with a mike?
I’m just nervous is all guys. I really don’t think white racist xians in the south are going to vote for a progressive blackman. Lets face it, we need to win at least some red states in order for Obama to become President. And like I said, I don’t see any of those white racist xians in the south or the heartland voting for him.
Or how a Category 5 Hurricane can’t stop a Birthday celebration but a Category 2 Hurricane can stop a week long Republican Convention.
I forget where I saw this point, but won’t the overwhelming security needed for such a visit by McCain/Palin create problems for a such an area in the midst of an emergency?
I mean, they aren’t there to fill sandbags. I hope this is seen as the grandstanding play it is.
It’s the “once bitten, twice shy” school of governance.
One to measure, one to rake.
Give ’em two shots at anything and they’ll pretty much have their response figured out.
Of course, in a high-stakes game like governing a modern democracy of 300 million souls, this is not the best approach…
mikey
Blue Buddah/Buddha said:
…wait. Namestealer? The punctuation is always a giveaway, though this one does learn with spelling.
What kind of politician, let alone a newly recruited VP nominee, ANNOUNCES their teenage daughter’s pregnancy to the press? Particularly after a weekend of pregnancy rumors “swirling on liberal blogs”?
1) If she’s five months along, it’s gonna be pretty obvious pretty soon. If you believe the mantra that it’s the coverup that kills, then it’s good to get all this stuff out at the beginning.
2) If Bristol is five months pregnant, then it’s one hair short of impossible for Trig to be her son.
Fake Blue “Buddah” alert.
Get lost, loser douchebag trolls.
Also, I wonder what that neoconservative wackjob Lisa Schiffren will have to say about all this, given her reaction to the Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy.
Lisa?
Trilateral Chairman: It will be quite the tragedy when Bristol “miscarries” here in another month or so.
Well, I don’t want to tout my own horn but let me run this up the flagpole and see who sings “God Bless America”:
The R’s released the Palin baby mama information on the day Gustav hit New Orleans because they knew it would be pushed off the front pages by the hurricane.
An NBC commentator even went so far as to suggest that this would help Palin because it shows she faces the same issues as the rest of America.
Yeah, the rest of America that’s too stupid to teach their kids how to protect themselves.
I’m afraid the commentator is right. I just hope the Obama campaign has the balls to point out that this is where faith-based programs lead you. I’m not holding my breath though.
I just hope the Obama campaign has the balls to point out that this is where faith-based programs lead you. I’m not holding my breath though.
I think this’ll make the Obama campaign look like they’re attacking the kid. I hope some unaffiliated commentator will point this out as gently as possible.
Honestly, I’d love to see Biden ask Palin, right in the VP debate: “How has your position on abstinence-only sex education…er…evolved in light of your daughter’s situation?”
Ain’t gonna happen and maybe it shouldn’t. But boy would that be satisfying.
But yeah, the blogosphere ought to be abuzz with this.
Amid calls from McOhNoesAHurricanesAComing “Another Republican guest hid his face from cameras, wrapping a pink boa around his eyes and nose.”
I guess like a daughters pregnancy, you can’t stop all the partying.
So, the Repubs got their panties all in a bunch over a Cat 2 Gustav, but when Katrina was hitting it was all smiles and birthday cakes.
Dude, the guy who used to crash on my couch told me he was “putting out good vibes” (sort of like praying but for DFHs) in anticipation of Gustav. Obviously this is what did it.
Seriously, though, if you pray for something and then it happens do you really get to take credit for it? Seems kind of … I dunno, blasphemous or something.
Nothing says respect like dumb followers aping their religious leaders by saying “God is my obedient bitch and I am an asshole”.
Honestly, I’d love to see Biden ask Palin, right in the VP debate: “How has your position on abstinence-only sex education…er…evolved in light of your daughter’s situation?”
Nah. “Why, not at all, Senator Biden. Yes, kids who have gone through abstinence-only education may end up pregnant, but so do the kids who have gone through the explicit sex education that you favor. What’s important, of course, is accepting the baby and not rejecting a new human being as an inconvenience, etc., etc….”
Except Gustav is completely failing to be Katrina II.
On Yahoo! it is the third story in the news box.
Washington Post Online – First story under the special Gustav box.
Whoops.
Ditto the Grey Lady. Photo of IHNC filled to the brim top left. Right below that on the left:
Palin’s Teen Daughter Is Pregnant; New G.O.P. Tumult
Thank God Not Bobby Jindal turned Gustav aside.
CNN are doing a good job on their own of dragging the kid’s name through the mud. I’m just happy tthat it looks like McCain and Bush rushed down to look heroic bur ended up standing around holding their dicks.
What could be classier than rushing INTO a hurricane so you can use the devastation & misery of its lethal swath to pimp up a few extra votes? Shut up, that’s what!
They’ll have to invent some whole new tense to explain the possible future contrary-to-fact outcome that Republican expertise might have prevented.
That would be the
aoristaortist tense. As in, “Aorta have done this, Aorta have done that”.** Favourite joke of a friend, after his bypass surgery.
I’m all for absinthe-only sex education.
absinthe makes the _____________ grow __________.
Courtesy of MzNicky:
MzNicky: I knew I should have put “metaphorically speaking” when I mentioned the “white knight” thing. But why are you surprised by Malkin’s support of a non-white? As long as the star du jour toes the party line, she couldn’t care less if he was green.
It’s “all intents and purposes”, I believe
Thanks! I would hate to have a mistake like that on my conscious.
It’s the principal of the thing.
I’d just assume not quibble over correct usage this way.