http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8693

Rather than slinging insults back and forth along party lines why don't people concentrate on, you know, helping the victims?

pffft why would we wanna concentrate on the victims when we can argue over who's political out look is better

well i equally dont give a shit about this letter and its content, its definetly way funnier than the other and he doesnt really sling insults at anyone.

god helps those who help themselves.

retarded letter, obviously it's not just his fault, but he could have got some relief effort in motion rather than waiting like 2 days (cutting his vacation short) to even appear on tv.

Tom, it's not his responsibility to put all of that into motion as the letter stated. It's the city and the state that are to blame here. Great letter. Believe me, I trust Ben Stein's opinion is much more educated than that of Fatso Moore's.

how is it not PART of his responsibility, he's the friggen president. What is he doing now? discussing relief efforts with everyone else. HE SHOULD have got on that right away.

when september 11th happend, did it take 2 days for the president to even appear on tv to discuss his role in the effort and declare war? no.

if you cant tell the difference between a hurricane and 9/11....

dan_bloodblister said:

obviously douche, they are both disasters, natural or not.

actually, i would consider an attack different than a natural disaster

september 11th = tragedy
hurricane katrina = tragedy

maybe if nyc was underwater instead you'd understand.

RustedAngel said:

Tom, I'm not arguing with your ideas here. However, if a US President showed up to survey every single disaster...natural or not, he would spend his time touring the country and would essentially become the CEO of a disaster clean-up crew. Then who would worry about intelligence reports, national security, Nato relations, foreign wars, homeland security, the US budget, passing and vetoing proposed laws and amendments, keeping healthcare privatized, the environment, global warming, NASA...etc...etc...

Why bother with States Rights? If he has to babysit every state...we may as well have prayer back in school too. But, that's States Rights...not the Presidents responsibility. I know that you and a million others are eager to point your fingers at Bush for everything from Penile Warts to World Economy....but this simply had nothing to do with him. As FEMA is the responsible organization for all Federal Emergencies....let them take care of it. Whether Bush shows up 1 millisecond later or 8 years later...it still won't get food to those people any faster, it still won't dry up the water any faster. If we blame him for not getting there for 2 days...we may as well blame ourselves for not showing up at all.

On a side note: Even if Bush approves another $40 Billion for the clean-up....congress still has to ok that money before it goes anywhere!

"There is no overwhelming evidence that global warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. "

i'm starting to think that even i could win ben stein's money.

it just boggles my mind that people with no credentials to do so, can so regularly critique and dismantle the job of the president of the united states of america.

the_rooster said:

There is no hard evidence that global warming even exists.

http://www.ecobridge.org/content/g_evd.htm



Hoser, what is bush doing right now? He visited N.O. area for a day, and then got Bill Clinton and of course, his Dad involved in helping. He's doing what he should have done the day the hurricane happend not 2 days later.

Bush isn't alone, he has an administration too. Where was he when this happend? He was on a holiday the day after.

But you know what? You would be saying the same exact thing regardless of what was happening. He can only fill the wants and needs of so many. Quite frankly....the entire country is much more important than 1 state.

It's similar to when a Naval ship gets torpedoed. Do you run into the berth that is leaking billions of gallons of water to save the 25 guys trapped in there while the ship sinks?? OR...do you seal the hatch shut and let them die so as to save the whole ship from going down and drowning the other 2500 people on board??

Gotta put things in perspective, dude. The guy has a country to run...not 1 state. That doesn't mean that he doesn't care. It just means that he has a ship to run, and much to your chagrin, you aren't that important to him. He has bigger fish to fry. He gets there when he gets there.

dude, we're talking about a large city (along with other towns, ect) being completely destroyed. The last time I heard no other city in the U.S. is currently underwater.

Oh man, talk about giving Dubyah the reach around. I love how he tried to make it look like the entire nation blamed Bush for the hurricane. Seems like the only thing conservatives can do to combat the will of the people is fabricate lies projecting false motives and far fetched childish intellect. LEADERSHIP MOTHERFUCKER LEADERSHIP. Imagine what this administration would do with a nuclear attack? Proof that conservatives are retarded, dodging the facts and arguing inarguable evidence. It's more than 1 state involved too, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Florida are all feeling the weight of this. Leadership like this could proove to be fatal when leading a country into war. He fucking lied to us when he shoved down our throats that Clinton was inept to be a leader because of his character-maybe he Bubba wasn't an angel but at least he kept the USA UNITED. He's simply retared. He should have never hired an arabian horse judge who was "let go" from the job into critical position like FEMA/Homeland Security.

thanks for also bringing up the fact that this also has more than just one state involved, not that it matters.

of course it doesn't Tom!

BornSoVile said:

yeah that was pretty retarded. i kinda just took that to be the humor in the article, though. but yeah, that was the first thing that jumped out.




liberals do that, too. cough cough the daily show cough cough

ehhh, I don't know about that. Yes it's liberal, yes I watch everynight, yes they do all that shit you quoted me on. the thing is though, they show angels of actual press related material that simply sum up the quality of this administration. do they project it to lean towards their motives? yes. I'm not exactly sure how much is purely fabricated. it's definately liberal media (him and bill maher are the only pure acts that do so-cause they have no shame about it). Anaylitically(sp) though I think the show dissects THE MEDIA more than anything else, very effectively.

well, the thing is...this is a humorous article written by a politician/comedian. You cant really use this as the basis of the conservative movement. The motivation behind this article (in my opinion) was both a defense of the president and to make the reader laugh....which basicly is the same as the daily show except they are making fun of the president and making the viewer laugh. Ben Stein is almost an equal figurehead to his party as John Stewart is to the one he isnt such an active part of. The only difference is I put more stock into what Ben Stein says...even if I dont agree. Only because of his resume basicly.

Which goes back to people talking a whoooole lot of shit about things they know very little about....

"It's not George Bush's fault that there were sick people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. His job description does not include making sure every adult in America has a car, is in good health, has good sense, and is mobile."

Hate to break it to Ben Stein but insuring the safety and prosperity of the electorate is part of the president's job description. Why else would we have medicare, public education, medicaid, social security, and federal public transportation in the form of Amtrak? For shits and giggles?

Hate to break it to you, but if the president had a way of making sure every single person in this country was in good health, financialy stable and forever young....hed be ruling the world and wearing a cape.

.

why does every other level of government get skipped and it goes right to the president? this makes no fucking sense, other than its a bunch of people who really hate the president seizing the moment and calling him out on anything even remotely related to anything happening in or about the US

That's true. I've never really thought Stein was funny though, dry as fuck, get some visine on that shit! Allthough I do miss his gameshow in the afternoon now too. He worked for Nixon, right?

dan_bloodblister said:

Cause the President essentially has power over them? There definately isn't ANY attention on here about the supreme court-which most likely will effect us in the near future.

he was nixons speech writer and lawyer and then worked in the ford white house amongst a billion other things. i liked his show too, i wanted to get on that shit because im so full of useless bullshit trivia

BornSoVile said:


Yeah man, thats true...but do you write a letter to the president when theres a really bad snow storm and your power goes out and the electric company arent doing their job and you are freezing your ass off? i mean i know thats not comparable to a hurricane...but local government should take action before the president...and if it does get to an executive level...there are organizations and people whos job it is to deal with these things. how the fuck is the president supposed to personally take care of every major problem that arises?

that's a good point about local government...I think part of the problem is that nobody knows shit about it! fuck, how many people here know who their state rep is? some people don't even know who are senators are! I think most of the D's in the house and senate did a fair job with criticizing the administration in the past week, the problem is the public hasn't really seen any of that. all we get is a 5 second clip of a major impact statement for the 6 o clock news.

dan_bloodblister said:

he should not go on vacation before a major hurricane hits and try to at least provide some assistance to people curtosy of the federal government in preparation for this. prepartion = reasonable damage control.

that is not the responsibility of the president.

BobNOMAAMRooney nli said:

hhhahaha no shit, right.

dan_bloodblister said:

so what is? starting wars with countries, vetoing bills, vacation vacation vacation. maybe he just doesn't like to work! alot of other presidents have done so before, that's what made them great presidents, they went the extra mile for the people they served. I don't see this one doing that.

i just dont understand the mentality that says that the president of the United States should be responsible for preparing a state for a hurricane. That is so clearly the responsibility of the state. And this is so clearly a case of 'the president is a dumb retard who can go fuck himself'...not everything is the presidents fault.

i mean, right now hes pushing to get 52 billion for relief. what an asshole, eh?!?!

dan_bloodblister said:

Awesome and completely true.

BornSoVile said:

YES....he workred for Nixon. As his speechwriter.

Dan-O....this is a debate that we can't win, dude. It wouldn't matter who was in office...they'd still sling shit at him. Bottom line is the fact the President is probably the most over-worked man in this country. Take a look at how fast they age.....If he could handle everything, he WOULD be wearing the cape that you mentioned. If a snowstorm hit New England that crippled it in it's entirety, they'd bitch about how that was his fault too. Sounds to me more like a case of sour grapes than anything. Just sit back, let them bitch, and gaze through the MASSIVE holes in their complaints. If they were as smart as the opinions that they present, they would be in Ben Steins shoes. I am not in his shoes, which tells you that I too, am full of shit. So with that being said, let's all wax up our skis and await the coming storm....one thing I do know is that when it happens....I'll die trying to dig myself out and save others before I sit on my ass at the Whittemore Center and wait for a hand-out.

Oh and that $52 million that Bush is trying to convice congress to allocate....that's going to become part of the deficit that they'll bitch about later too....

52 billion actually. its just like, why the fuck should i take anyones opinion seriously whos main criticism of the president is 'hes a retard'. its annoying and reactionary and fucking stupid.
i went to this reform school type thing when i started high school. it sucked. one of the main thing i remember hating about it was they had a debate team and my teachers all told me i should join it because i was such a smart ass. so i went to one of the meetings and one of the requirements was you had to argue both sides. and at the time i was like, what the fuck. why would i argue something i dont believe in. but now i understand that to be able to see one side of the issue you have to be able to see it from the other side.
and i refuse to take anyones opinion seriously who cant see things from both sides.

also, im the farthest thing from a conservative...but its just like...sometimes you should just let common sense over ride your beliefs

I had math homework to do, sorry i couldn't keep the pace of this up!
I have no problem with 52 Bill going down there, liberals love taxes!!!
To sum everything up, this is basically a bunch of conservative hot air trying to disclose and reassure the populus that everything is fine and the president hasn't fucked up. Every administration has it. Conservitives need to toughen up though. Clinton had Paula and intern jokes everyday on him for 8 years-which is a far cry from several of the abominative errors Bush can be responsible for. Merely suggesting that Bush made the Hurricane hit there and publically spreading that notion is just another junk yard political tactic used to preserve their state of well being (they= the administration). That's something that this group of cronies have done effectively thoughout this decade and have shown no signs of stopping.
I don't see this debate with one side or the other winning. There is alot of basic information out there that proves that Bush has clearly fucked up and all I want to do is present that information. The problem starts when people deny that information and resort to poor excuses like "liberal media" and "bush deals with alot". To his credit he's dealt with alot of bullshit-this for once is one of a few events he fully couldn't prevent, but that doesn't change the fact that it's taken him quite sometime to deal with it effectently.
I'm curious to see what will result from this investigative committee. Maybe local government is to blame more than we think.

im going to launch an investigation into why born so vile considers himself an authority on political science when he clearly has no idea what hes talking about

All I have to say is that Bush DID have an effect on policies regarding FEMA that definitely crippled its reaction to the hurricane. Can't blame him for the weather or for not being on the scene pulling people out of buildings, but his policies definitely had a negative effect on the rescue/relief effort. And I'd certainly say that a tragedy costing the country thousands of people and hundreds of billions of dollars takes precedence over riding a horse around a ranch, there's no justification for Bush's slow reaction, no matter what side of the fence you're on.

And positions in the Nixon and Ford administrations don't exactly a good resume make! I imagine Clear Eyes commercials and Ferris Bueller's Day Off prepared Ben Stein as well for political analysis as anything he did in the 70's!

you are so wrong!...what kind of message would it send if after these people were told to evacuate and didnt george bush pesonally flew down there 5 minutes later in air force 1 to rescue all these people who if they did what they were told wouldnt need rescuing? the next time people are told to evacuate i bet they will .i dont like george bush but i am so tired of him being blamed for everything i wish he didnt send anyone down there at all then atleast people would have something to complain about

hoser said:

if the goverment/bush reacted slow for a relief effort, yes we'd fucking complain, but there hasn't been a snow storm that crippled New England in it's entirety EVER. We have snow storms and noreasters all the time and the only thing that happens is you lose power for a few hours if that. Oh, and you can't really drive anywhere unless you're really crazy. An entire city that is pretty well known is underwater as well as many towns. Bush is from Texas and all the people are going there, obviously he's not going to sit back and let the 'state' handle everything. We're talking about hillbilly states that voted him into office and he still slacked off with his people getting shit going down there.

I was simply making a point, dude. I didn'y actually mean that I thought that a storm of that magnitude would ever hit here. My point is that even if it did, I wouldn't be looking for any hand-outs, I wouldn't be expecting help. Hell, I wouldn't wait for help. And upon not receiving any help, the VERY LAST thing that I would ever do is bitch about my Commander in Chief. You don't realize that if the country was taken over by militants or a foreign army of any sort.....your hated Commander in Chief may be your only saving grace. I would dig my ass outta that hole...swallow my pride and continue to look to save those that would whine about their elected Commander in Chief. Injured, half-dead....doesn't matter....I would still look to help others instead of bitching about the help. Tom, I'd even venture to save your ass. THAT is the difference between someone who takes action, and someone who spends more time running their jib. So with that being said....you all can keep up your whiny philosophy and let the real men get the task done.

BTW....my dick is bigger than yours.

I just can't argue anymore.....Hoser out.

Last winter I was stuck in my house, after a blizzard. For a day and a half I could not get out of my house because of all the snow. Power was out for more than a couple hours, in some towns on Cape it was a day or two. Some elderly people died from the cold. The roads, major and minor, took days to clear. While this in no way compares to NOLA it was the states problem to get power restored and plow the roads. And they took responsibility and got the job done.

nate nli said:

you didn't die, it took only a day to get out, you didn't go a week without food and water.

no state is prepared enough for a city to be destroyed by any disaster of t his magnitude, I'm sure NY would be prepared for the entire city to be wiped out............uhh no.

The state had a plan if something like that happened. Obviously the plan that Louisiana had wasn't prepared for a disaster like Katrina. Yet they should have seeing as they knew they were below sea level and that the things couldn't hold back impending disaster. Whoever the blame is to be placed upon the point is, we know now that no matter what plan you've got Mother Nature is stronger and more powerful than any liberal or conservative.

I like the anti ACLU t-shirt add. That chick has some bigguns.

So lemme get this straight hoser... We're supposed to rely on our "Commander In Chief" in the extremely unlikely event that a foreign army or a rebellion threatened the country, but not in the fairly realistic event that a major metropolis is demolished by a natural disaster? Basically the president only needs to be on the job when it's a military affair?

Commander In Chief is but one of many hats the president wears, and he really isn't every person's Commander In Chief, that's just his military rank. Civilians are not expected to line up and salute him because the kind of duty you suggest we all have to him is one that is NOT required of the people, but only of the military. This is still sort of a democracy after all...

The job comes with many other hats, and the Executive Branch IS responsible for crises of all varieties, not just those where a brown person blows some white people up.

Anyway, if for some lunatic reason, the country was invaded or something, I don't see how some overprivileged incomptent moron shuttled away to some undisclosed location is going to be ANYONE's saving grace. That goes for almost any president, but in this case, looking at how the New Orleans situation was handled, I'd say if we faced a military threat right now, Washington is in no shape to handle it at all.