Posted on 09/03/2005 10:16:01 AM PDT by smoothsailing
Get Off His Back
By Ben Stein
Published 9/2/2005 11:59:59 PM
A few truths, for those who have ears and eyes and care to know the truth:
1.) The hurricane that hit New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama was an astonishing tragedy. The suffering and loss of life and peace of mind of the residents of those areas is acutely horrifying.
2.) George Bush did not cause the hurricane. Hurricanes have been happening for eons. George Bush did not create them or unleash this one.
3.) George Bush did not make this one worse than others. There have been far worse hurricanes than this before George Bush was born.
4.) There is no overwhelming evidence that global warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no clear-cut evidence that global warming even exists. There is no clear evidence that if it does exist it makes hurricanes more powerful or makes them aim at cities with large numbers of poor people. If global warming is a real phenomenon, which it may well be, it started long before George Bush was inaugurated, and would not have been affected at all by the Kyoto treaty, considering that Kyoto does not cover the world's worst polluters -- China, India, and Brazil. In a word, George Bush had zero to do with causing this hurricane. To speculate otherwise is belief in sorcery.
6.) George Bush had nothing to do with the hurricane contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up by New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans were perfectly good: mandatory evacuation. It is in no way at all George Bush's fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans neglected to follow the plan. It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would be. They were certainly warned. 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.
7.) George Bush did not cause gangsters to shoot at rescue helicopters taking people from rooftops, did not make gang bangers rape young girls in the Superdome, did not make looters steal hundreds of weapons, in short make New Orleans into a living hell.
8.) George Bush is the least racist President in mind and soul there has ever been and this is shown in his appointments over and over. To say otherwise is scandalously untrue.
9.) George Bush is rushing every bit of help he can to New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama as soon as he can. He is not a magician. It takes time to organize huge convoys of food and now they are starting to arrive. That they get in at all considering the lawlessness of the city is a miracle of bravery and organization.
10.) There is not the slightest evidence at all that the war in Iraq has diminished the response of the government to the emergency. To say otherwise is pure slander.
11.) If the energy the news media puts into blaming Bush for an Act of God worsened by stupendous incompetence by the New Orleans city authorities and the malevolence of the criminals of the city were directed to helping the morale of the nation, we would all be a lot better off.
12.) New Orleans is a great city with many great people. It will recover and be greater than ever. Sticking pins into an effigy of George Bush that does not resemble him in the slightest will not speed the process by one day.
13.) The entire episode is a dramatic lesson in the breathtaking callousness of government officials at the ground level. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had gotten her way and they were in charge of your health care.
God bless all of those dear people who are suffering so much, and God bless those helping them, starting with George Bush.
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Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He also writes "Ben Stein's Diary" in every issue of The American Spectator.
Even if he did the limit, which judging my his 110 MPH ticket in Texas is an assumtion that's a liberal leap of logic at best, he could have made it to Memphis and back 3 times.
The events from Friday morning to present are due to Federal response and mobilization.
I would like to tack this to a few foreheads!
A breath pf sanity, to balance insanity of the MSM, most liberals and assorted race pimps.
Not sure you are correct. Think about how an area with millions of people (90,000 square miles), and how they are evacuated out in less than a week.
That's very amazing!
George Bush does NOT hate black people.
Thanks. That would explain part of the chaos. It's tragically reminiscent of the NYC Emergency Response center location in Tower 7 of the WTC. But imagine if the levees were breached by terrorists instead of a hurricane. Surely the federal government had contingency plans for that scenario. Why did they wait until Friday when in was clear that the local authorities were clueless?
Sorry oh Great Learned One, but I have other things to do than spend my afternoon searching through every posting. Thanks for the links.
My guess is that is the work of a Freeper.
Disclaimer: I didn't read past this post before replying, so if you reveal the source down thread I don't know it yet. Didn't want to ruin the game.
Looks like some of the people posting about your post.. are PROVING the comments(in the quote or post) ARE TRUE...
i.e. The RNC is GOD and whatever God(and its emmisarys) DOES is GOOD.. LoL..
You are right, even though the evacuation was the responsibility of the state and local governments (as noted in other posts here) I'm sure the feds helped out in some way. But I'm really referring to the aftermath. Imagine terrorists breached the levees instead of a hurricane. Surely DHS should have a plan in place for that scenario and how to quickly deal with the aftermath. Where's the plan?
idiot, ignorant fool. DUmmie drivel. Talk about sheep.
Thanks for the ping! I just discovered this article and was about to ping you and big guy when I noticed you'd beat me to it. This is a very refreshing bit of sanity...
Ding-Ding-Ding!
Self exiled FReeper Darth Sidious. He posts on a local newspaper blog. The boy has lost his mind, IMO.
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