-----------
"I did not have sex with that woman..."
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.
......................................
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.
I heard that speech - it was on a Monday night. I was speechless -- best monologue I've heard ANYONE give - and it was spontaneous.
By the way, here's a good that goes with your tagline: Cartoon: Two fleas were on a dog - dog hair all around them. One flea said to the other: "There is no dog."
Mississippi and Alabama were hard hit; their local and state people went to work, their respective governors called for federal assistance right away. Not the case in Louisiana. Nagin headed for the cameras. Blanco ....I don't know. Maybe she couldn't find the phone. It seems relief plans were delayed by CYA plans.
There are plenty of Bush hating radical kooks who would try to kill him, too. Just look at some of their websites sometime.
Ben Stein in 2008!
...
yeah, there ya go.
;)
"I did not have sex with that woman..."
If I had any management responsibility in the Homeland Security Department I would be worried about a concurrent terrorist attack elsewhere.
look at this way, used2BDem, it could have been any one of the DUmmies. Heck, he could be a troll, and it could have been him -- just trying to distract from Ben Stein's fantastic article!
"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."
Amen.
Is that the guy who used to run theforce.net? I know there was some freeper who did.
Oh, well, thats different. If you are a DUmbocrat and get to be president, it was by your own merits. Only Republicans get special priviliges. (sarc)
Stein/Rice '08 - even better!
It was Dan Rather, right?
See his post at 120.
Why doesn't he have the stones to come out with it on forum - get his @$$ kicked verbally - and go away with class and dignity?
You nailed it! We should be very afraid. Because we are only a Democrat in the White House away from this. The bible predicts it.
I guess, even if President Bush got a military sleeping cot, a pillow, a blanket and bunked out with the buried dead soldiers and the marble crosses at Arlington Virgina National cemetery for one week would still not be enough for the liberals, and their BS claims that he does not visit enough burial sights of the dead US troops.
with a 20 oz framing hammer
Jimmah Carter?
The American media undermines the very freedom it must have to exist.
well thank the Lord he had enough class to excrete himself from within our midst(and good riddance)
But by reading this drivel now I can see he has absolutely no class left at all...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.