Ben Stein: Wanker - A Rebuttal to "Get off his back"
http://www.americanprowler.com/util/print.asp?art_id=86... Ben Stein is out and about defending his god from the truth in his latest article, Get Off His Back which ran in smearzine, The American Spectator.
Let's look at Mr. Stein's defense of the indefensible.
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.
Beware NeoCons bearing sympathy. Whenever you hear an opening statement like this, prepare to bleed rectally.
2.) George Bush did not cause the hurricane. Hurricanes have been happening for eons. George Bush did not create them or unleash this one.
And just when has ANYONE accused Bush of causing the hurricane? Could you point to a single editorial in a mainstream newspaper or magazine that does this?
3.) George Bush did not make this one worse than others. There have been far worse hurricanes than this before George Bush was born.
No one has accused Bush of "making worse", they are accusing him of making the aftermath worse. Bush had no control over the hurricane, but he DID have control over preparations before and after the hurricane.
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.
Global warming does exist, and only idiots who believe in fairy tales like "intelligent design" believe otherwise.
No one ever claimed global warming makes hurricanes aim for cities with poor, black people. Ben is either drunk, high, or simply making shit up.
The only people who profess a belief in "sorcery" are those who claim to talk to an invisible man in the sky and that this invisible man will actually perform deeds which violate the laws of physics and causality. You know, people like George Bush.
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.
First, George Bush appointed the man at FEMA responsible for failing to properly implement these plans. Since George has not summarily fired this goofball, he is responsible for what happened. Also, the states lacked the resources to deal with a disaster of this magnitude, which is why we have a Federal government to step in. Also, the citizens of Louisiana pay FEDERAL taxes for just this reason.
George Bush WAS instrumental in the destruction of FEMA by appointing politcal hacks with NO experience in dealing with disasters. Bush was also responsible for the budgetary process which removed funds that were needed to shore up the levees protecting New Orleans. The money for these projects was given to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts.
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.
The vast majority of the people trapped in New Orleans did not "neglect" to follow orders. When you aren't rich like Ben Stein or George Bush, you may not have the money or resources to go some place else. I am sure that many of these people would have loved to jump on a jet and fly to their other home in Kennebunkport or Crawford, but for some reason they didn't.
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.
No, but it was his responsiblity as chief executive to look after these people with all of the resources we the people, placed at his disposal. He failed to do this and for that we hold him responsible.
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.
You love this specious reasoning, don't you?
Bush took an OATH to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, the preamble of which states:
We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare...
Strangely, the words "justice", "tranquility" and "welfare" are CAPITALIZED in the original document, as if the Founding Fathers wanted to EMPHASIZE those responsibilities.
Using the resources of the Federal government to help evacuate the poor, the sick, the elderly and the young from the path of a hurricane would fall under the heading "promote the general Welfare" in most people's book. It certainly would insure "domestic Tranquility".
I also note that the word "defense" in the phrase "provide for the common defense" is NOT capitalized. Again, it makes one wonder about the priorities of the Founding Fathers. It would seem that they placed a lesser emphasis on "defense" unless it threatened our "Welfare" and "Tranquility", a criteria that Bush's fiasco in Iraq fails to meet.
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.
Again, like most NeoCon dickheads with a poor grasp of science, you don't understand causality.
Had he deployed the National Guard when it was needed, rather than three of four days later, the Superdome would have been secured, looting would have been discouraged and "hundreds" of guns would not have been stolen.
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.
The Nazis had lots of Jews that worked for them in the Warsaw ghettos, so by your logic they were the soul of enlightenment. It is not that you hire them, it is how you treat them. George Bush's record of treatment of Black America is a study in how to screw a minority.
And to scandalize you a bit further, let me say that just because Bush has a black girlfriend and made her Secretary of State does not make him William Lloyd Garrison. Strom Thrumond had a black mistress and was one of the greatest racists of the 20th Century.
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.
A man doing all he can, would not have spent his time strumming guitars while a hurricane was threatening the lives of 1.3 million people. The work that he STARTED doing AFTER the disaster hit was what he should have been doing BEFORE the disaster.
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.
When you take men and equipment out of the state and move them 8,000 miles away, they cannot be used to rescue people or restore order. Only a bald-faced liar or a mental defective would dispute this reality.
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.
The fact that the media has finally woken up and stopped acting as the propoganda arm of the government is a happy occasion for the forces of liberty and justice. The fact that it pisses you off is rather telling.
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.
Well, as we can't get our hands on Bush and place him in the deepest, darkest, most rat-infested dungeon we can find for war crimes, and gross violations of the Constitution, we'll settle for effigies. We will try to make them look more like him if it makes you happy.
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.
If it was run with the efficiency that Bill Clinton ran FEMA, then it would have been quite a treat. But since you have asked for speculation, I try to imagine a world where lickspittles like you realize that the Clintons left Washington over four years ago.
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