Gov.: Twister Damage 'Wrath Of God' (Phil Bredesen - Tennessee)

[sabra]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/04/national/main1467778.shtml

Gov.: Twister Damage 'Wrath Of God'

(CBS/AP) The death toll from swarms of violent thunderstorms and tornadoes that devastated communities across eight states rose to 28 with the discovery of the last unaccounted-for resident in Tennessee, the governor said Tuesday.

"The wrath of God is the only way I can describe it," Gov. Phil Bredesen said after a helicopter tour of the damaged region.

...

The Democratic governor said he had requested a federal disaster declaration for the two counties. He told Chen he hadn't heard back Tuesday morning but said, "I've been assured that it will be processed quickly, and we'll get some help down here."

...

Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher compared the destruction to "Sherman's march" through the South during the Civil War.

[gratuitous]

1. Well, if we have to blame somebody

Can we blame Bill Frist? I mean, it's the least we can do, considering how many times the religious loonies have bestowed the "honor" of blaming someone they don't like very much for a natural disaster.

[AX10]

2. Odd thing to say. Still, I support Phil's re-election bid.

[Pastiche423]

20. You support THIS Phil?

Governor Bredesen Issues Life Sentences to Vent Users.

Before and after a media event Governor Bredesen, of Tennessee, was
confronted about several issues surrounding the states TennCare cuts.
Under a special category of TennCare there are around one hundred
individuals who use ventilators that receive support services in there own homes. Governor Bredesens plan to cut TennCare includes cutting the
TennCare coverage that allows individuals that are vent dependent to live independent lives.

Some live in their own homes, some with family or friends but they are all free Americans. When asked directly by Randy Alexander what his plans were in relation to these specific cuts Governor Bredesen replied, Im not going to cut their services Im just going to put then in the nursing home.

So you are saying, you, will institutionalize people because they have a disability asked Randy Alexander? Yes, replied Bredesen, I care about
them, Im not cutting their services Im going to provide their services in a nursing home, the Governor continued.

Are you going to sentence them to prison for the crime of having a
disability? A nursing home is an institution, an institution is
imprisonment and you are saying today, right now, you are willing to
sentence them to prison for the crime of having a disability, asked
Alexander. Governor Bredesen began to step away as he said, the state
cannot afford to pay for the services of these one hundred people.

We are talking about basic human rights here, you have admitted today you, this state, is willing to imprison people simply because they have a disability, said Alexander before the Governor had a chance to walk away.

The Governors plan is to do just that, issue life sentences to those who use vents. He is willing to take away the freedoms of over one hundred people in this state simply because they have a disability.

Today Governor Bredesen was confronted by members of the Memphis Center for Independent Living, ADAPT of Tennessee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. More info will be made available tomorrow.


http://www.mcil.org

Please tell me you knew nothing about this.

[mitchtv]

3. It does seem like God is Angry, and the blue states are not

the only ones feeling his response to Pat Robertson's prayers
Too bad they didn't vote for Gore.

[XemaSab]

4. Why doesn't God ever punish Nevada for being a sinful place?

:shrug:

[Lautremont]

5. It has received its due punishment by being placed next to

the even more sinful California, that den of iniquitous cinema and heretical communistic behaviour.

[MadisonProgressive]

10. What about Wayne Newton?

[RandomKoolzip]

16. Do nuclear tests and permanent drought count?

:shrug:

[sui generis]

6. how sad

you're a god. You're pissed off. So you throw a tempertantrum stormfest. You coulda blowed up the moon. You coulda levitated an entire state into orbit and wrote your name on the underside in great big letters, but no, you have a bunch of boom boom thunderstorms and a frighten the superstitious natives. What kind of parlor trick is that?

If you you want to raise some hell god, just make all the gays straight!

There. Problem solved. Bad hair and mediocre parties for everyone. Yawn.

Maybe that's why we've been spared!

[xchrom]

19. even god has limits?

or we're designing parties in heaven.

''God -- would you STOP with the glitter already?

it's just an accent for the center piece on the fucking entry way table!''

[SoCalDem]

7. Guys, guys.. calm down.. It's not GOD or Sherman.. It;s WEATHER

it happens every year, and if governors were really concerned, they would see to it that every community has a shelter...

[NYC]

8. That may just be an expression,

not a religious remark.

[NashVegas]

17. I Agree

Read the texts of Phil's speeches or listen to them sometime. Anyone could make a comment like that.

[Lenore]

9. As a Christian, I would like to add...

This is a very effective argument to use with self proclaimed Christians, "Surely God controls the weather"... they would either have to agree (which then leads down the road of WHY God would be angry with our nation) or disagree, which then logically leads into a conversation about ::drum roll:: Global Warming!

Either God is responsible for the wicked weather or we humans are, by our abuse of the environment which has led to global warming which then causes devastating weather patterns.

Either way, it doesn't look good for Bush or those who support his awful policies.

[Ian David]

15. Global Warming is just a theory...

but gay marriage... that's a real threat.

:sarcasm:

[jus_the_facts]

11. No...it's the WRATH OF NATURE...don't expect FEMA to help either...

:eyes:

[sui generis]

25. maybe he's a gaeaist?

who knew? The wrath of goddess. :shrug:

[movonne]

12. Too me it is just a saying..I can remember hearing this for years and

years...everytime something happened big it was the wrath of God.It is just a saying, maybe we make too much of it since the Pat and Jerry's religious crap. It is the climate change and nature's way of hitting back.

[HereSince1628]

13. Good luck. The dem Gov requested national assitance for the worst

series of tornadoes in Wisconsin history (last summer, and I'm still finding pieces of houses from 20 miles away in my woods) and Wisconsin got denied.

Tell me there isn't a plan to screw democratic state officials and I'll laugh in your face.

[superconnected]

14. This is called global warming.

"The storms developed when a cold front approaching from the West slammed into a mass of warm, humid air, said Memphis meteorologist Jody Aaron. Preliminary reports indicated a swarm of 64 tornadoes touched down in seven of the eight states, the weather service's Storm Prediction Center said. Ohio had extensive wind damage but no confirmed tornadoes"

[Dem Agog]

18. There you have it. God hates Christians.

And I do too.

[splat@14]

21. What's the matter with him, only Robertson can make that call.

[hatrack]

22. Just ONCE - can I hear about the Wrath of the Coriolis Effect?

Just ONCE?!?

:eyes:

[Whoa_Nelly]

23. Does he think there's something "wrong" with his constituents, his state?

"Wrath of God" indeed! Bah! IMO, to make a statement like that indicates he considers there something to be wrong with the people in his state. It's too much akin to the statements made by those who vilified those who died in the Xmas 2004 tsunami.

Careless statement for this governor to make.

[autorank]

24. No, "the wrath of climate change." Get used to it, coming your way. n/t

[Bridget Burke]

26. Sounds like he was using a figure of speech....

Old Jehovah caused quite a bit of damage when miffed. So viewing massive destruction might remind someone raised on the Bible of the results of the Old Guy's wrath.

Nowhere does the Governor place any blame on "sinners." Did anyone read the linked article?

"Your heart just has to go out to these communities that have been hit in this way. It's been awful," the governor told CBS News'The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen.

"I have never seen anything like this, and I've been through several tornadoes. I'm used to seeing roofs off houses, houses blown over, these houses were down to their foundations, stripped clean," Bredesen said. "It really stripped the earth clean."

[jokerman93]

27. 'Wrath of God'

However blatantly cynical and opportunistic this kind of rhetoric is, I've noticed a more insidious pattern since the Rove machine's taken over: whenever a disaster occurs, this kind of self-righteous biblical framing always manages to find its way into the public discourse...by one monkey-in-a-business-suit or another. The owners of this country seem to know if a viewpoint keeps getting repeated, eventually it will be accepted and given latitude as a viable alternative view of things. Has anyone else here noticed there seems to be be an almost intentional attempt in the public media, these last few years, to cultivate an underclass of "ignorant working peasants"?

Does habitual "Wrath of God" thinking make a population more open to suggestion and susceptible to manipulation? If history is any guide, I'd guess probably so. Makes you wonder if any of the rising theocrats have actually thought this whole "dumbing down thing" through though. --All the way through, I mean.

It can't end well for them. There's always a peasant uprising in the end. And it's never pretty.