Excellent piece at Digby's blog on the true lack of compassion

[Nothing Without Hope]

of some neocons and their apologists, just made more apparent in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tragedies. There are some revealing interview excerpts as well. As Digby comments, These people really don't give a shit. And they can't quite cover their lack of basic human decency. It's just too fundamental to who they are.

CNN (which by the way has seen a huge boost in ratings over Fox during the past week, proving once again that FOX is not a news channel, it's a partisan political channel) has been on the disaster 24/7 letting the story unfold naturally with footage and stories and tales of heroism and horror. That our president was unable to grasp the significance of these pictures and these stories and feel empathy for the victims is bad enough. That he didn't see the opportunity to mend some of the wounds he has created and allowed to fester is a failure of leadership so profound that I wonder if it may not define his presidency.
(snip)

Digby's blog ("Hullabaloo") home page is here:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com
And the post I am referring to is the most recent one, dated Jan 1, titled "Waves of Despair."

[alcuno]

1. CNN's coverage has been terrific.

FAUX immediately began whining about the mean UN official calling western governments stingy.

[Nothing Without Hope]

3. Yes, from everything I've heard, CNN has managed to

earn back some respect for the way they have handled these tragedies. There is a remnant of the spirit of journalism there yet. Although I don't have cable and so cannot watch directly, it has been easy to note how often the attributions of the web clips and articles are CNN. Haven't seen many attributed to FOX, which is no surprise. Their interests and cameras are elsewhere.

The rest of Digby's article is good as well. He gives interview quotes from people like Robert Novak and Jim Gilmore, and you can see that he's right -- like Bush himself, these people just don't have a clue about human compassion. Even when the audience makes it clear that they disagree, these guys just don't get it.

[MSgt213]

2. Bunch of little trolls aren't they

[s-cubed]

4. It's not just that they don't care, they have not a clue

of what statesmanship means , they are unable to understand the implications of a situation, they throw away opportunities to build bridges to others, and, well, they're just plain incompent as well.

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. Yes, I think these disabilities are related

The lack of compassion is a symptom more profound, a lack of humanity. They cannot comprehend because they don't feel what most human beings feel. They can pretend, fake it, but that really doesn't work very well and also tells them nothing about how to connect with other people and understand their reactions, whether they are potential allies or enemies. Thus, statemanship is utterly beyond them and disastrous failure of their plans is just a matter of time. Digby is right, it defines *'s presidency. I hadn't thought of it this way before, but it is central to what is wrong with this administration.