Don't Be A Fucking Idiot!
Tragedy For Profit And Gain
August 30, 2005
Written By: Eliminator
If you haven’t heard by now there was a devastating hurricane that ripped through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama leaving death and destruction in its wake. The images on TV and articles in the paper are heartbreaking. There are portions of New Orleans that are submerged in up to 20 feet of water. It’s been really heartbreaking to watch. No less than four times in the last two days have I looked out my window and thought to myself “Well it would be up to here.” While looking upward about 5 feet and visualizing what the neighborhood would look like submerged in contaminated water. Then I turn away from the window and say to myself, “That’s fucked up.”
Natural disasters supposedly bring the best out of people. People come together more. I’ve temporarily suspended most of my anti-social thinking towards people by empathizing with the many people who have lost homes, or even their lives in the events of the past few days.
With that said, there are of course the opportunists. Those looking for political or monetary gain from all of this. It has started already with looting and alleged price gouging. Both showing the darker side of humanity. Oh, who am I kidding? That is humanity. The “better” side of humanity is the true minority.
Aside from the overtly offensive looters and gougers are the political opportunists. I decided to go looking today to see if any anti-Bush rhetoric was up in regards to the hurricane. Surely someone had something to say about global warming and the environment and how Bush not being very supportive of environmental efforts in some indirect way caused Hurricane Katrina.
Found It!
That didn’t take long. I immediately went to HuffingtonPost.com. The new blog/news site of Arianna Huffington. She’s a former right-winger slowly moving towards becoming a left-winger. Right now I guess she is somewhere in the middle. Anyway, her website features blog entries from many celebrities and political commentators. Most of which represent liberal views.
Since we are in an era of liberal discontent due to President Bush I knew they would be the first to start using the disaster to make some stretch of a point. As I look at the site now Harry Shearer (the voice of Mr. Burns, Smithers, Flanders, and whole bunch of others on The Simpsons) is presenting an article exposing some new controversy over why a sandbag mission was aborted that could potential save the dry parts of New Orleans from getting wet.
That’s not the kicker though. Some random reader to Shearer’s post commented, “Sadly, this disaster represents another failure to lead provided by President Bush.”
Ah yes. It’s true. The really bad hurricanes only happen when republicans are in the white house. You know why? Because bad-ass Clinton fended them off himself. That’s right.
In 1995 Hurricane Jerome was all set to completely wipe out Southern Florida. Bad-ass Clinton went down there with a large fan and an extension cord and bravely blew that fucking hurricane right over to Cuba. You know why you never heard about it? Conservative media bias.
Hopefully that last statement on the fictional Hurricane Jerome puts things into perspective. It’s not the president who is screwing up the rescue efforts; I’d bet most people will be claiming he didn’t do enough in the next few days. The bottom line is: This is a disaster. There’s really no one to blame for the weather.
More Huffington Blog Fodder
Oh wait. That whole weather statement. Disregard that too. Robert Kennedy Jr. has something to say about that. He was the first anti-Bush anti-conservative thing I found today when I decided to see what the media had to offer up in the form of opportunist dissent.
Mr. Kennedy Jr. cites Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s stance against the Kyoto Protocol (an international treaty meant to get countries to reduce pollution) and claims, “Perhaps it was Barbour’s memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi coast.”
He compares this to Pat Robertson’s equally absurd claim that devastating Hurricanes are punishment from God. In his comparison he isn’t facetiously making the claim in an attempt at irony or as a prod against Robertson. He’s making the claim as a sort of “that’s what you get” type of claim.
The effects global warming has on weather patterns is well documented. Unfortunately Governor Barbour’s three year-old memo would have done little to prevent Hurricane Katrina or any other hurricane that may hit the U.S. in the next 20 years.
The Other Side Of The Coin
If I were handing out an award for being the first self back-patting political pundit trying to gain from this tragedy I believe Rush Limbaugh would be at the head of the pack. While surfing HuffingtonPost.com I came across a blog post from Katrina Vanden Huevel (no, Elimination Dept. faithful, I didn’t make that name up, she’s the editor of the liberal rag The Nation) who states:
I started praying some rightwing idiot wouldn't stoop so low as to personalize or politicize all of this human suffering.
But wouldn't you know, the biggest dittohead on the block, Rush Limbaugh, is calling the storm Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel and warning that the left is going to use this tragedy against the right.
Well. Leave it up to old Rush to start the liberal-bashing.
The Days To Come
War has been declared. Apparently Rush has fire the first shot in the political circus game. Let the cashing in begin!
In the weeks to come there will be all kinds of blame on the table. Much like after September 11th. Bill Maher was the first to open his mouth and proclaim the terrorists were “brave” and now Rush is taking the initiative to start the war of words regarding this tragedy.
It strikes me as odd that as a nation we claim to have all this compassion for our fellow man. We claim to be sympathetic to those who suffer due to circumstances out of their control (like hurricanes and terrorism). But at the end of the day true human nature rears its head and the blame game begins. September 11th was our fault because we meddle in the world’s affairs and try to impose our will. Hurricane Katrina will be our fault because we didn’t pay enough attention to global warming.
The True Tragedy (The “Don’t Be A Fucking Idiot” part)
Remember the uber-patriotism following September 11th? Remember how quickly that went south once partisanship began to rear its ugly head again? Four years ago American Flags were waving from practically every house in the country. Today the country is severely divided. With each side blaming the other side and calling them “unpatriotic.” Does this not sound ridiculous? The president and his decisions are blamed for this huge rift. No matter what, it would have happened. We would have either done too little or too much to fight terrorism. Even without the war in Iraq people would have been pissed.
The same will happen here. Humanitarianism will turn to the blame game. Bush’s long vacation will become the new “My Pet Goat” controversy to start off the Michael Moore movie about global warming. Footage of looters and aerial shots of flooded neighborhoods will become etched in our minds due to endless repetitive showings on television. If the talking heads are effective enough a congressional report on changes in weather patterns and global warming will be commissioned and the findings published and sold at Borders.
And in the end millions of Americans will quote facts they heard second hand from their favorite television journalist or internet blogger as “proof” to back up their cause without doing any actually research themselves.
I would simply ask that people educate themselves on what is really going on. And that doesn’t mean read one or two articles. That means read three or four articles, pick up a book, then sit down and think. That’s right. Have a relevant thought about what is going on. Put all the sensationalism on hold and really think about what happened, what truly caused it, and decide whether you think it was preventable.
Don’t let a random internet blog comment like “Sadly, this disaster represents another failure to lead provided by President Bush” lead you to believe that president Bush is somehow to blame for a natural disaster. No president has ever wanted an act of terrorism or a tragic storm to happen. It seems like the only people who truly benefit from a terrible event of this caliber are the political pundits who see it as another talking point for their agenda.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore are
sitting in front of their televisions salivating. Don’t be like
them. Continue the compassionate thoughts towards the people affected
by this storm. Continue to feel like a victim for September 11th instead
of a cause. These “quick fix” answers are truly the bane of
our society. Not the actions of our political leaders. President Bush
is probably devastated over what has happened and hopes to find some way
to help. Any president, whether they were liberal, conservative, or Nader
would be. I can’t honestly say that I would believe the same in
regards to the opportunistic media or celebrities who are just out to
make a name for themselves.
Further Reading, Sources, etc:
Huffington Post: “For They That Sow the Wind Shall Reap the Whirlwind” (Robert F. Kennedy Jr.)
Huffington Post: Messing With Mother Nature (Katrina Van Heuvel)
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©2010 The Elimination Dept.
