HI kids!
First of All I want to welcome James back from The Land of Leprechauns and werewolves. Hoorah!
Second...everybody needs to send some love to cricket she's fighting the good fight.
And third...because I love you... here's a repost of my latest blog (As seen on Myspace)
"First I wanna thank so many of you for the great response to these recent blogs. Because you not only raised your hand in solidarity and uh...waved it like you just Do care... but because you also put your two cents in and gave others something to DO instead of just wallowing in impotent anger. So.. Big Love yall!
NOW!... I also received some..uh.. not so positive responses... I didnt post many of them because...
a) This is my blog... its not a democracy. I make the law based on doctrine that I decide on and enforce it as I like. yknow... like the new Islamic republic of Iraq!
b) Most of the people who responded negatively clearly did not bother to read the blogs. They just skimmed it enough to gather that it didnt work for them and then fired off a sarcastic e-mail that offered no real solutions and blamed the victims for their plight. Yknow kinda how Bush reads a PDB.
So I thought Id write a little FAQ based on these peoples ...well they werent really questions...more like little sarcastic jabs in the form of a question.
1) So I guess Bush is to blame for the Hurricane hitting New Orleans?
Uh. No. Thats moronic. Neither I... nor anyone on the Left has blamed Bush for the weather. We blamed him for appointing idiots to head important government agencies. We blamed him for waiting 5 days before doing anything. We blamed him for looking the other way while children died of starvation. We never blamed him for causing the Hurricane... only an idiot blames a person for the weather. Ill give you an example. Pat Robertson blamed Ellen Degeneres. He said God is punishing us for letting a lesbian host the Emmys and to show us his anger, God drown a bunch of poor people and flooded some hospitals filled with the elderly and infirm. Pat Robertson blamed a person for the weather and Pat Robertson is an idiot.
2) The Governor didnt call for help when she was supposed to / Its all the Mayors fault
The following is an excerpt from a government report on Katrina...
The Governor must make a timely request for such assistance, which meets the requirements of federal law. The report states that "[e]xcept to the extent that an emergency involves primarily Federal interests, both declarations of major disaster and declarations of emergency must be triggered by a request to the President from the Governor of the affected state";
The Governor did indeed make such a request, which was both timely and in compliance with federal law. The report finds that "Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco requested by letter dated August 27, 2005...that the President declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period from August 26, 2005 and continuing pursuant to [applicable Federal statute]" and "Governor Blanco's August 27, 2005 request for an emergency declaration also included her determination...that `the incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of disaster."
Eat me.
3) You dont support the soldiers when you talk about Iraq and you give aid an comfort to the enemy when you disagree with the president..
Okay... if you are fighting an enemy that hates freedom and is fighting to establish a theocracy where citizens are not allowed to speak freely..then you cant exactly curtail freedom of debate and establish new limits on freedom and then say with a straight face that you are beating your enemy. You are becoming them. AND the more complex the moral face of America the more difficult it is to vilify and attack us as a monolithic monster. If you want to make the point that America is a great Evil that bombs people for no good reason and use that as justification to attack innocent civilians, what you want is Americans to stand lock-step with the administration. BUT if we have spirited and open debate about our military actions in plain view of the rest of the world in which you genuinely express a concern for innocent people it undermines the impact of their political message. Now some of these folks like to oversimplify the enemy and call them Evil and Animals, and these labels may be justified on a one to one basis, but you do yourself a disservice if you never get to look honestly at whom you are fighting. As a group these people are smart capable adversaries and they are masters of political and public manipulation. If you cant wrap your head around that you will always lose. You will be Bringing a knife to a gunfight politically speaking.
You wanna win the war on terror? First you have to take the bulls eye off your forehead. You do that my raising what I call your benevolence factor. You do that through massive aid to impoverished countries and by not breaking treaties on Nuclear and biological weapons and the environment. You take a highly visible and proactive role in benevolent issues like debt relief, environmental impact, anti-WMD and minefield weapons pacts. You do genuine outreach to Muslim groups and you pass anti-hate crime legislation so that Muslims who live here can feel safe and give a strong message to those that would attack us that they could not kill Americans with a clear conscience because they could not help but kill arab-americans as well. Arab-americans that love their country because their country loves them.
The cost of implementing these programs and establishing these systems would be a fraction of the cost of the Iraq war in absolute dollars and more importantly in human lives.
As for not supporting the soldiers... How can anyone who allows soldiers to go into an elective war without a plan for winning the peace, without body armor, without an exit strategy say that they support the troops? Im always amazed at the reverse logic of this. I, because I dont want soldiers put in harms way without a clear mandate and without all the supplies and equipment they need and because I want them to only fight in situations where they can be proud of the mission because they have a clear and present danger they are addressing..I.. somehow dont support the troops. Whereas if someone doesnt question our leaders and allows them to deploy troops anywhere under any conditions with limited readiness and resources... they support the troops. Seriously? As if the President and the troops are one in the same. And believe me... after seeing Bushs National Guard file.. there is a big difference between him and the troops. They show up and do their duty. Big difference.
4) You are a dick
Yes. Yes I am. But that doesnt mean Im wrong. And it certainly doesnt add anything to your argument. As a matter of fact it makes you appear stupid and worse..more concerned for your point of view than the lives affected by the consequences of the policies and people you support.
5) Im a christian and... or Im a republican and...
Im always amazed at how often these to prefixes are followed by mean, inhuman, insensitive, morally reprehensible and often vicious statements. Let me be real clear that I have nothing against christians or republicans in general. But! I have huge problem with blindly selfish, mean spirited Gimme-gimmes who cloak themselves in Christianity or Conservatism because they do a disservice to both of those groups and to the political discourse in this country. These people belong to neither group. They are not Christian. You can find no trace of the beatitudes in their arguments or political ideals. And they are not conservative they are xenophobic libertarians who want more laws not less and have no interest in conserving anything.
So... Lets just be real clear about who I am so that you on the right can address me properly. I am not a liberal. That word died years ago. I am a Progressive Democrat. As in I want to Move things forward for all of us. Unlike Conservatives who would, in my opinion like to stop things somewhere in the 50s. I am not on the Left.. that is a designation used to associate Social programs with communism so as to assure their demise. I believe its meaningless to use words associated with physical position to describe or label political systems. Its cute. Its just not helpful. They just end up being passive curse words.
So If you have any other questions fire away. And go easy on the Sarcasm. remember...Sarcasm is what idiots have instead of a sense of humor. What you are shooting for is Irony which takes more work. Good luck with that."
Cheers,
Hal
First of All I want to welcome James back from The Land of Leprechauns and werewolves. Hoorah!
Second...everybody needs to send some love to cricket she's fighting the good fight.
And third...because I love you... here's a repost of my latest blog (As seen on Myspace)
"First I wanna thank so many of you for the great response to these recent blogs. Because you not only raised your hand in solidarity and uh...waved it like you just Do care... but because you also put your two cents in and gave others something to DO instead of just wallowing in impotent anger. So.. Big Love yall!
NOW!... I also received some..uh.. not so positive responses... I didnt post many of them because...
a) This is my blog... its not a democracy. I make the law based on doctrine that I decide on and enforce it as I like. yknow... like the new Islamic republic of Iraq!
b) Most of the people who responded negatively clearly did not bother to read the blogs. They just skimmed it enough to gather that it didnt work for them and then fired off a sarcastic e-mail that offered no real solutions and blamed the victims for their plight. Yknow kinda how Bush reads a PDB.
So I thought Id write a little FAQ based on these peoples ...well they werent really questions...more like little sarcastic jabs in the form of a question.
1) So I guess Bush is to blame for the Hurricane hitting New Orleans?
Uh. No. Thats moronic. Neither I... nor anyone on the Left has blamed Bush for the weather. We blamed him for appointing idiots to head important government agencies. We blamed him for waiting 5 days before doing anything. We blamed him for looking the other way while children died of starvation. We never blamed him for causing the Hurricane... only an idiot blames a person for the weather. Ill give you an example. Pat Robertson blamed Ellen Degeneres. He said God is punishing us for letting a lesbian host the Emmys and to show us his anger, God drown a bunch of poor people and flooded some hospitals filled with the elderly and infirm. Pat Robertson blamed a person for the weather and Pat Robertson is an idiot.
2) The Governor didnt call for help when she was supposed to / Its all the Mayors fault
The following is an excerpt from a government report on Katrina...
The Governor must make a timely request for such assistance, which meets the requirements of federal law. The report states that "[e]xcept to the extent that an emergency involves primarily Federal interests, both declarations of major disaster and declarations of emergency must be triggered by a request to the President from the Governor of the affected state";
The Governor did indeed make such a request, which was both timely and in compliance with federal law. The report finds that "Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco requested by letter dated August 27, 2005...that the President declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period from August 26, 2005 and continuing pursuant to [applicable Federal statute]" and "Governor Blanco's August 27, 2005 request for an emergency declaration also included her determination...that `the incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of disaster."
Eat me.
3) You dont support the soldiers when you talk about Iraq and you give aid an comfort to the enemy when you disagree with the president..
Okay... if you are fighting an enemy that hates freedom and is fighting to establish a theocracy where citizens are not allowed to speak freely..then you cant exactly curtail freedom of debate and establish new limits on freedom and then say with a straight face that you are beating your enemy. You are becoming them. AND the more complex the moral face of America the more difficult it is to vilify and attack us as a monolithic monster. If you want to make the point that America is a great Evil that bombs people for no good reason and use that as justification to attack innocent civilians, what you want is Americans to stand lock-step with the administration. BUT if we have spirited and open debate about our military actions in plain view of the rest of the world in which you genuinely express a concern for innocent people it undermines the impact of their political message. Now some of these folks like to oversimplify the enemy and call them Evil and Animals, and these labels may be justified on a one to one basis, but you do yourself a disservice if you never get to look honestly at whom you are fighting. As a group these people are smart capable adversaries and they are masters of political and public manipulation. If you cant wrap your head around that you will always lose. You will be Bringing a knife to a gunfight politically speaking.
You wanna win the war on terror? First you have to take the bulls eye off your forehead. You do that my raising what I call your benevolence factor. You do that through massive aid to impoverished countries and by not breaking treaties on Nuclear and biological weapons and the environment. You take a highly visible and proactive role in benevolent issues like debt relief, environmental impact, anti-WMD and minefield weapons pacts. You do genuine outreach to Muslim groups and you pass anti-hate crime legislation so that Muslims who live here can feel safe and give a strong message to those that would attack us that they could not kill Americans with a clear conscience because they could not help but kill arab-americans as well. Arab-americans that love their country because their country loves them.
The cost of implementing these programs and establishing these systems would be a fraction of the cost of the Iraq war in absolute dollars and more importantly in human lives.
As for not supporting the soldiers... How can anyone who allows soldiers to go into an elective war without a plan for winning the peace, without body armor, without an exit strategy say that they support the troops? Im always amazed at the reverse logic of this. I, because I dont want soldiers put in harms way without a clear mandate and without all the supplies and equipment they need and because I want them to only fight in situations where they can be proud of the mission because they have a clear and present danger they are addressing..I.. somehow dont support the troops. Whereas if someone doesnt question our leaders and allows them to deploy troops anywhere under any conditions with limited readiness and resources... they support the troops. Seriously? As if the President and the troops are one in the same. And believe me... after seeing Bushs National Guard file.. there is a big difference between him and the troops. They show up and do their duty. Big difference.
4) You are a dick
Yes. Yes I am. But that doesnt mean Im wrong. And it certainly doesnt add anything to your argument. As a matter of fact it makes you appear stupid and worse..more concerned for your point of view than the lives affected by the consequences of the policies and people you support.
5) Im a christian and... or Im a republican and...
Im always amazed at how often these to prefixes are followed by mean, inhuman, insensitive, morally reprehensible and often vicious statements. Let me be real clear that I have nothing against christians or republicans in general. But! I have huge problem with blindly selfish, mean spirited Gimme-gimmes who cloak themselves in Christianity or Conservatism because they do a disservice to both of those groups and to the political discourse in this country. These people belong to neither group. They are not Christian. You can find no trace of the beatitudes in their arguments or political ideals. And they are not conservative they are xenophobic libertarians who want more laws not less and have no interest in conserving anything.
So... Lets just be real clear about who I am so that you on the right can address me properly. I am not a liberal. That word died years ago. I am a Progressive Democrat. As in I want to Move things forward for all of us. Unlike Conservatives who would, in my opinion like to stop things somewhere in the 50s. I am not on the Left.. that is a designation used to associate Social programs with communism so as to assure their demise. I believe its meaningless to use words associated with physical position to describe or label political systems. Its cute. Its just not helpful. They just end up being passive curse words.
So If you have any other questions fire away. And go easy on the Sarcasm. remember...Sarcasm is what idiots have instead of a sense of humor. What you are shooting for is Irony which takes more work. Good luck with that."
Cheers,
Hal
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"We all hear you, man."
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"What was that again?"