I Am De-Pressed
Posted on August 25th, 2006 by Brad
Ah, memories. A big thanks to Think Progress for creating this nifty timeline of the government’s “response” to Hurricane Katrina. Now I feel almost as pissed off as I was last year.
In happier news, my conservative friend Jon Swift has gleefully declared that science is dead. Make sure you give him a read.
Gavin adds: Quiddity has a super-excellent Katrina timeline as well.
Now that two of my least favorite subjects in school, science and history, are dead, I’m hoping that the Bush Administration will redouble its efforts to kill off two other subjects I didn’t much care for, Math and Geography.
Jon wi’ll be happy to learn that some state governments are taking the destruction of Geography into their own hands.
Hmm, not quite sure how that apostrophe get into “will”. The spelling of Mr. Swift’s first name must have made me long for Marie Jon’ again.
get
got. Fuckin’ A.
If it’ll help, Brad, I’ve got a big boxful of a couple hundred assorted antidepressant pills that didn’t do me much good. I’m kind of a freak, though, so they might work for you.
Really, I’m just saving them for my Vince Foster homage, but to be honest, I don’t know for certain that they aren’t all just placebos my doctor fobbed off on me.
If it’ll help, Brad, I’ve got a big boxful of a couple hundred assorted antidepressant pills that didn’t do me much good
I already got Zoloft to keep me runnin’.
Friends overseas saying, “We couldn’t beleive something like that happened in America.” The people on the roofs. Fucking Shep Smith showing more concern than the President. How we have fallen as a nation, as a people, these six years. It is really amazing.
It is really amazing.
Ehn. I hear they caught the guy who killed Jon Benet.
They’ve already started the ‘don’t dare politicize Hurricane Katrina’ since it maked the Bush’s look like supreme fuckups.
9/11, on the other hand…
Oh, how so delightfully ironic.
On the 106th anniversary of Nietzsche’s death, I get to read some fucking idiot trying to turn his famous “God is dead” statement on its head with this kind of shit: Why did science stray from the path of truth? I think it is because we ceased educating the men of science with a knowledge of religion – a knowledge, that is, of genuine truth, genuine reason, and the relationship of man to creation, and his Creator.
If science ever “strays from the path of truth”, I’m sure it will have nothing whatsoever to do with wingnut assholes trying to twist it into one more battleground in their insane culture war. Fucking star-spangled Lysenkoists.
gah, made not maked. Bad spelling in this thread.
I didn’t know science was from Iraq.
Ba
dum
dum
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11:13 AM CDT – WHITE HOUSE CIRCULATES INTERNAL MEMO ABOUT LEVEE BREACH
MORNING – BROWN WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE POTENTIAL DEVASTATION OF KATRINA
MORNING – MAYFIELD WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE TOPPING OF THE LEVEES
MORNING — BUSH CALLS SECRETARY CHERTOFF TO DISCUSS IMMIGRATION
MORNING – BUSH SHARES BIRTHDAY CAKE PHOTO-OP WITH SEN. JOHN MCCAIN
Heckuva job, Chimpie.
somebody told Bush that New Orleans was below sea level.
he was just ensuring that the laws of physics be obeyed.
‘Cause, you know, science, math, geography and history are really useless stuff. All you truly need to know is Jesus. Duh.
What are you blaming Bush for, exactly? That he didn’t shoot Katrina down from the sky?
Katrina was a hurricane that caused the largest natural disaster in our nation’s history.
Meanwhile, refugees from Katrina are causing Houston’s crime rate to skyrocket and their kids are either too dumb or too mean to be educated–IN TEXAS!
“…What are you blaming Bush for, exactly? That he didn’t shoot Katrina down from the sky? ”
did you bother to read the timeline?
the evasions, the lies, the lack of accountability, the refusal to take responsibility, the monumental disinterest?
a classic example of the “not in my job description” loser mentality.
Yeah, because Chimpy already destroyed the Texas school system, so an overload of new children with no homes and dead relatives would certainly cause no stress to the system.
The fact is, Jose Ruppert, that if the billions of reconstruction dollars had been spent in ways other than lining the pockets of profiteers, maybe we wouldn’t be talking about refugees a frickin year after the event.
Was Katrina, then, more of a man-made tragedy than a natural disaster, in your opinion?
Katrina was a natural disaster made even worse by the pathetic response by our government and an administration that really doesn’t give a damn about the quality of life of most Americans. Thought that was pretty obvious by now.
If it’ll help, Brad, I’ve got a big boxful of a couple hundred assorted antidepressant pills that didn’t do me much good
If’n ya want, you can send the valium – like substances this way! I always found it to be fun.
Meanwhile, refugees from Katrina are causing Houston’s crime rate to skyrocket and their kids are either too dumb or too mean to be educated–IN TEXAS!
Man, there is no topic where a true-blue wingnut won’t find an opportunity to get in a racial barb. No empathy, no understanding, no concern. Just “the goddam brown people left homeless by this administration’s incompetence have come to my town and are SCARING me”. Jose, you and your kind are the most contemptable pieces of human excrement I have ever encountered, and that includes homicidal CIA operators, Civil Affairs Officers, Civilian Contractors and Nevada Prosecutors. You make me wish there WAS a god, ’cause I’d like to see you get what he’d give you. But alas…
mikey
“administration that really doesn’t give a damn about the quality of life of most Americans”
_____________
Here, I must admit, you have lost me. My quality of life has never been better. What are you talking about?
Nothing you’d understand, dirtbag. Brother mikey’s right. No sympathy, no empathy, no compassion, no love, no understand, just “Hey, I’m doing okay, fuck everyone else”.
Funny enough, it was Katrina and the loathesome way the right responded to it was what made me give up trying to communicate with you scumbags. People had their homes wiped away and their lives forever disrupted, and all you can bitch about is how the black people scare you. Whole towns in Mississippi and Lousiana were flattened, and all that bothers you is that some people are mean to Bush. But it’s just poor crackers and coons, so what the hell do you care, huh? Long as you got yours.
Disgusting.
The point is New Orleans was dysfunctional long before Katrina hit, if you want to know the truth. It was infamous for its graft, crime, and corruption as long as I can remember. Now, it has exported that dysfunction to Houston.
The good people of Houston have paid in spades for their “empathy,” their “understanding,” and their “concern,” not to mention their money. Eighty-five percent of Houstonians gave time, money or goods to assist the hurricane refugees.
How was that largess repaid? Of 381 murders in Houston since Sept. 1, 74 involved displaced Louisianans as perpetrators, victims or both.
How was that largess repaid? Of 381 murders in Houston since Sept. 1, 74 involved displaced Louisianans as perpetrators, victims or both.
So at least some of that 74 was Louisianans being murdered by Houstonians? The nerve of those people, repaying the largess of Houstonians by being murdered by them.
Whatever helps you sleep at night, man. Whatever you have to think to justify you outlook on life. Just don’t be surprised I and anyone with a smidgen of conscience will do anything but sneer in your direction.
I understand. Believe me, I understand . The Left is obsessed with making Katrina about race.
How was that largess repaid? Of 381 murders in Houston since Sept. 1, 74 involved displaced Louisianans as perpetrators, victims or both.
Goddamn that proportion of those 74 New Orleanean who were only the victim for having the temerity to come to your fine city and get killed.
The Bastards.
Damn, Tigismus beat me to it.
Hey, chung, sounds to me like you got it figured out. Let’s take a page out of the bush playbook and not help anybody who’s circumstances are poorer than ours. Hey, our largesse won’t be rewarded, right? Those poor bastards are never gonna have anything I want, so fuck ’em. Right, dood? No need to offer a hand, I won’t make a profit out of it. You represent the best that america can do anymore. Sad. WWJD? Take the wallets out of the dead guys pockets…
mikey
Republicans have no conscious? You people ARE funny! You take yourselves so very seriously. Be careful not to fall off your high moral perch.
Gotta go guys….bye.
So long, dirtbag. Try not to go blind stroking your own smug, self-assurred superiority. I honestly hope if you ever find yourself in need of a helping hand, whoever you ask for help isn’t a scumbag like you.
Jose, well done. That’s a hell of a Bushism, even if he didn’t say it.
“…Here, I must admit, you have lost me. My quality of life has never been better. What are you talking about?”
“…whatevah could you mean?
here at the club, everything is just duckey.
another round of drink of drinks here, Rastus.
that’s a good boy. (he’s such a credit to his race.)”
You take yourselves so very seriously. Be careful not to fall off your high moral perch.
Hilarious. If you clucked your tongue any harder at the multitudinous moral failings of the Katrina refugees and the Left, you’d sprain it.
And, actually, I know a number of lifelong Republicans and conservatives who were both horrified at the destruction caused by Katrina and sickened by the administration’s lack of conern or competence in dealing with the resulting crisis. More than a few of whom went down to New Orleans and South Mississippi to help out or, at the very least, donated money, goods and living space. Quite a number of them lost what little hope they had in the Bush government – most of which was “well, we’re at war and we must support the president, no matter what” at best – as well as the disgusting things said by their fellow conservatives and Republicans.
Because, see…it ain’t really a matter of political ideology. They may be conservatives and Republicans; they just ain’t dirtbags. Makes all the difference in the world.
You’re still ruining my favorite X-Files episode.
And can I blame Bush for deciding that FEMA wasn’t important enough to put anyone competent into the head position there, but only some little party favor to be handed out at random? FEMA fucking *worked* under James Lee Witt.
My policy, strange as it may be, is to put people who are qualified and hopefully skilled or at least interested into any position where they may tend to have some influence over the lives of other people. Couldn’t he have stuffed Heckuva Job into Weights and Measures or something?
Really, if you want to pretend you’re the party of small government, it helps to not have to find government jobs or contracts for every asshole and idiot who’s ever done you a favor. No wonder government and debt grows under our fab new conservatives.
If you are unaware of what kind of mentality would produce the callous, ignorant, incompetent and predjudical responses to the Katrina disaster, then look no further that Jose Chung’s comments.
Because, see…it ain’t really a matter of political ideology. They may be conservatives and Republicans; they just ain’t dirtbags. Makes all the difference in the world.
Yep. I was thinking about this thread over the Sausage Sandwich of the Day at Armadillo Willies in Los Altos. And what I was thinking was that I would be just as critical of the federal response to Katrina if it had been Clinton in the White House rather than bush. You can’t just dick around with people dying. That’s for Kazakhstan, not America. But then I was thinking that, at least in this era, the difference between a true liberal and whatever bush is (they can use the “C” word ’til they’re blue in the face, whatever they are, they ain’t conservative) is that a liberal president would actually care about the people, not just about helping his corporate cronies make money off the disaster…
mikey
Thanks for posting the timeline. I was going to write something about this on Monday morning.
Jose! So nice to see you again. I think the only reason your comments aren’t getting a warmer reception here is that they have yet to be translated:
TRANSLATION: Reckon it’s getting’ kinda dusky ‘round these parts fer my taste. Yep. Sherrrr is dusky.
TRANSLATION: I think if you hypocritical lib’ruls were honest with yourselves, you’d see the proper answer to my rhetorical question of whether Katrina was more a man made disaster than a natural one – and you’d be sure to pin the blame on the correct people.
TRANSLATION: Stoopid evacuees. Smart people plan ahead: I, for example, have an insurance policy that covers my goods, property, job, and healthcare in the event of any catastrophic disaster – up to and including nuclear war and squirrel infestations.
TRANSLATION: I’ve heard all kinds of stories, on the internet and off, of how Katrina evacuees have trashed apartments and abused the generosity of my neighbors. It doesn’t matter that a good lot of these tales have been proven for urban legends; it’s the thought that counts.
INTERPRETATION: Notice how I put scare quotes around every contribution except money – because money is the only one of those things I listed that is real and has value.
ADDENDUM: And that’s our job! But we’re not all racists: some of us are other kinds of bigots. Our ranks also include people who thought Katrina was God’s punishment for abortion, and even for the US supporting Israel’s pullout from Gaza.
So no, it’s not always about race!
Jose this is my fifth attempt to respond to you. Everyone already said it and better, but I want you to know this–people on the left are not obsessed with race, but injustice, and until you get that through your head you won’t know the meaning of Katrina much less anything else. Katrina put the unexamined American character on display, it is ignorant, brutal and predatory. You say we’re obsessed with race, I say you don’t know the meaning of discrimination or supremacy, neither of which are about race, but sick fucks who think they are gods, and who project their human frailty onto others in order to exploit them.
People are equal in the eyes of God and the law, but supremacists need inferiors, and so you invent them–children, the elderly, infirm, minorities, and the one out of five Americans living with a diagnosable mental illness. Yeah, my kind of Depressive, who didn’t fare too well for being so completely white, ya dick.
NCD Report:
A. In Violation of Federal Policy and Law, People with Psychiatric Disabilities were Discriminated Against During Evacuation, Rescue and Relief Phases.
B. Mismanaged Evacuations Resulted in the Loss, Mistreatment, and Inappropriate Institutionalization of People with Psychiatric Disabilities
C. People with Psychiatric Disabilities Were Not Included in Disaster Planning or Relief and Recovery Efforts
D. Disaster Management Efforts Often Failed Because No Individual or Office Had Responsibility, Accountability, and Authority for Disability Related Issues
Shit, looks like he left hours ago, I was pacing the floor just trying to figure out where to start.
Jose Chung said,
Republicans have no conscious?
No, genius, Republicans were fully conscious of how bad Katrina was going to be, as the briefing tapes of Republicans talking to the Oval Office Occupant make perfectly clear. Having been made aware in advance that Katrina was going to overstress the aging and inadequate infrastrastructure, the Republicans were supposed to do their taxpayer-supported JOBS, and be ready with some assistance after the storm for their fellow citizens. The Republicans failed to do the JOBS that we paid them to do, not because they didn’t get told about it in advance, not because they didn’t know how bad things were afterwards (everyone in America within range of a television had a pretty good idea), not because they didn’t have the resources (which they were quick to start handing out to their corporate pals, or should that be overseers?), but because they just didn’t give a flying fart. In other words, these Republicans had no conscience.
Unless you’re trying to tell me that King Chimp at the head of the table couldn’t figure out what all those multisyllabic word meant — he’s your idol, not mine — you should save up your Cheetos change and go buy yourself a dictionary. And while you’re at the store, see if they have any “clues” they’ll sell you, because you need one badly.
Anne Laurie. I promise to exercise restraint and not stalk you. But I love you. You write so well, on the fly and extemporaneously, with elegant sentence AND paragraph structure and an almost poetic, lyrical sense of language. Can I just say Jonathan Hemlock? Anyway, if you write other stuff elsewhere or under a different name, hit the link to my crappy blog and tell me where to find it….
mikeey
Wait. How does 9/11 not make Shrub look like a supreme fuckup? “Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside USA”? Um, yeah, boy fucking howdy, Shrub fucking ruled on 9/11!
Are you sure he didn’t?
Devil’s Advocate, you forgot one group that was blamed by a certain segment, Pastor Swank for instance, for Katrina. Yes, teh gheyz. In fact, Swank claimed that Ghod laid waste to that entire region to prevent a couple of thousand queers from throwing “Southern Decadance,” a stupid Circuit party. No, really. Of course, there weren’t any particular excess gays in NO when Katrna hit, so I guess the formula is: “If God is mad at the queers, he smites innocent black people.” Swank is a cretin.