Jeezus. After Katrina, we cannot expect anything but more of the same from Bush.
Imagine — there you are, amidst devastation, your house blown away, you have nothing to your name, and the President of the United States parachutes in to offer his heartfelt support. However, we have a sociopath-in-chief who apparently doesn’t have anyone on his staff that can prepare some basic remarks that would at least give the impression that he gave a damn. The leader of the formerly free world to victims of the tornados that ripped through the South this week:
We’re sorry you’re going through what you’re going through.Raw Story has the video. I know where some of those poor folks probably wanted to shove that metaphorical deck of cards.You know, life sometimes is, uh, you know, is unfair, and you don’t get to play the hand that you wanted to play. But, the question is, when you get dealt the hand, how do you play it?
And I’ve come away with this impression of the folks of Macon County. One, you’re down-to-Earth, good, hard-workin’ people. They have a respect for the Almighty, and this community’s going to be as strong as ever. That’s what I think.
39 Responses to “Dear Leader to Tennessee tornado victims: ‘Life is unfair’”
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
I know it’s a screen grab, but I’d like to think that woman on the left-hand side is shaking her head in utter disbelief.
“They have a respect for the Almighty”
Yeah, I assume so, considering the Almighty just blew their whole county off the damn map. But hey, prayin’ worked in New Orleans, so why not here?
Hey, look on the bright side. At least he’s not doing photo ops with black schoolchildren any more.
(I think it was Molly Ivins who said that you always could tell when cuts in education funding were coming: more of those damn read-to-the-black-kids photo ops.)
Notice how the Bible Belt always goes GOP and gets their houses blown down. Maybe they need to rethink that praying and voting thing.
In this one respect (and ONLY this respect), the Cheney/Bush administration is the most honest Rethuglican administration is many years.
When Bush tells people he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about their problems, he’s completely sincere and honest. Plus he’s only giving them the actual Reichwing philosophy (Let them eat cake!…).
Let’s face it. Bush would be just as hollow inside as Cheney, if he wasn’t so full of self-righteous bullshit and unwarranted self-esteem.
Money, power, and worship of authority - those are the basic building blocks of the Reichwing way of life. No room in there for compassion, and they don’t even pretend there is any more…
Oh, but God killed a mother but not the baby!
Wingnuts gotta get onta that!
The saying that “life is unfair” gets to me. Sometimes it’s said by a good friend trying to remind you of reality and what you can and can’t change. Fine. But sometimes people who say it imply that the unfairness of life is an ok thing. Fairness is a synonym for Justice. And who on this planet is more capable of affecting how fair life is for an American than the President of the United States? Help make life a little more fair, Mr. President, and actually show some compassion.
“I mean, some of you are dead and all, but the real measure of a man is how he plays the hand he was dealt when he’s dead.”
It just cannot be said enough.
Fuck you, George W Bush. FUCK YOU.
At least he didn’t promise to find the folks who made these tornados, dead or alive, and bring ‘em to justice.
In this one respect (and ONLY this respect), the Cheney/Bush administration is the most honest Rethuglican administration is many years.
When Bush tells people he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about their problems, he’s completely sincere and honest. Plus he’s only giving them the actual Reichwing philosophy (Let them eat cake!…).
You must have missed his habit of conspiciously praising parts of the government or social services, and then defunding them a few weeks later.
Trust me, the librarians in your country noticed this…
Here is a site where you can donate to help the tornado victims:
http://www.churchworldservice.org/news/archives/2008/02/857.html
A noticeable chunk of the town my father-in-law lives in - a town we lived in for several years, is completely flattened. He’s up here with us this weekend, still not knowing if everyone he knows there is safe.
And we have a President who can’t even be bothered to pretend to care.
If he didn’t have too damned much power in this country, I wouldn’t give a fig in a hailstorm for anything W. thought in his whole screwed-up life.
As has been said: Shouldn’t God be attributed/blamed for this disaster? Or is that just when there are disasters in black/poor/gay neighborhoods? I want Falwell to explain to me just what these Almighty lovin’ good white Christians did to bring down this wrath upon themselves. /snark
You see, the problem is that they didn’t hate the black/poor/gay folks enough, so therefore they deserve the same wrath of God that the black/poor/gay folks get. If they would just hate them good and strong like proper Christians, God wouldn’t have to punish them.
If you’ve read the book of Job, you know that isn’t how it works. What really happens is that Satan drops by to chew the fat with The Almighty, complaining that people are, by and large, in a miserable state. God counters that at least this one person is prosperous and worshipful. Sure, Satan says, he’s worshipful because he’s prosperous. Take that away from him and he’ll curse you to your face.
God, exhibiting his immense benevolence, tells Satan to do his worst. He does, killing all Job’s wives, kids, followers and flocks. Nevertheless, Job continues to praise God, proving his point.
So you do everything right, work hard, worship according to the rules, all the good stuff, and God might still toss you to the devil just for a barroom “mine’s Bigger” bet?
Yeah.
It’s easy to see where the Republicans and the other sociopaths get it.
If life was fair, W would not be pres.
Wouldn’t this be a worthy candidate for The Next Mission - call it The War On Bad Weather. Certainly al Qaeda, the Democrats and North Korea will be found to have their dirty hands in this tornado business. Oh, and of course all those NATO pseudo allies who refuse to send more troops…
There would be a new Axis Of Evil, another Coalition Of The Willing and heavy spending on the military, and bad weather will be eradicated by christmas. Hoo-bloody-ray for the cavalry.
This is how the story is usually summed up, but in the Bible it’s Job’s friends who say all the pious things: “God can’t make a mistake - bad things cannot happen to good people - disasters are a punishment for sin - ergo: you sinned. Repent.” Job tells them he’s done nothing wrong and that he’d very much like to have a word with God and ask Him what the FUCK He’s playing at. The friends are scandalized, etc etc. Then God speaks: the friends were wrong in what they said, and that Job will have to offer sacrifices to atone for their sins.
So the point is: bad things can happen to good people. Suffering isn’t automatically a sign that you’ve sinned*. Perhaps the God-vs-Satan wager is meant to drive this point home (not only isn’t Job suffering because he was sinful, he’s suffering because he was good)? No idea. I’m expecting it all will have looked different to people two or three millenia ago.
*…now if we can only get all Christians to RTFM…
Sorry. The only wat that you get that close to the supreme leader of the world is if you’ve sucked on the kool-aid so hard your eyes have turned colour.
The people that surround ‘der leader’ are always sycophant libertarians and ‘love’ Bush with all their dark hearts.
And on to that ‘university’ in Tennessee that was destroyed. I was about to throw a brick through our teevee with the way that the ‘main stream media’ was focused with the intensity of a plasma cutter on how devastating the story was and how it was that prayer and ‘the strength of the lord’ (who ironically, if ‘he’ exists, just destroyed your ‘university’) got them through and that they will survive. It must be ‘god’s will’ just sounds like ‘god’ telling the leaders of that fundie ‘university’ to give it up and close down. Oh, but no… They will go on.
Back to Bush: I know libertarians that tut-tut sick and paralyzed human beings for being a ‘drain on the public’ and that should be gathered together and ‘put somewhere’. They also lead lives of solitude as most of the people that I know would rather have nails from a Paslode nail gun shot into their eyes than have to actually hang out with them.
Bush as a republican is dead wrong. Bush as a radical libertarian is dead right. I’ve often wondered if ‘religion’ breeds libertarians. I’d also love to take in a bit of schadenfreude when these libertarians get to be in the category that they loathe so much. Can you see George Walker Bush, ex-Supreme leader of America, drooling on himself from a stroke, sitting in a nursing home in the south of Texas being treated by his caregivers the way that his government is treating the elderly now? The twins never visit, the heat is turned off, the food has ants and all of his money has gone into keeping his room there. He has to make a choice between eating and the drugs that keep him ‘alive’… Either that or Bush would be in a cell somewhere for his hideous war crimes. I hope being tortured and denied food and water (except up his nose).
Sorry. The only wat that you get that close to the supreme leader of the world is if you’ve sucked on the kool-aid so hard your eyes have turned colour.
The people that surround ‘der leader’ are always sycophant libertarians and ‘love’ Bush with all their dark hearts.
And on to that ‘university’ in Tennessee that was destroyed. I was about to throw a brick through our teevee with the way that the ‘main stream media’ was focused with the intensity of a plasma cutter on how devastating the story was and how it was that prayer and ‘the strength of the lord’ (who ironically, if ‘he’ exists, just destroyed your ‘university’) got them through and that they will survive. It must be ‘god’s will’ just sounds like ‘god’ telling the leaders of that fundie ‘university’ to give it up and close down. Oh, but no… They will go on.
Back to Bush: I know libertarians that tut-tut sick and paralyzed human beings for being a ‘drain on the public’ and that should be gathered together and ‘put somewhere’. They also lead lives of solitude as most of the people that I know would rather have nails from a Paslode nail gun shot into their eyes than have to actually hang out with them.
Bush as a republican is dead wrong. Bush as a radical libertarian is dead right. I’ve often wondered if ‘religion’ breeds libertarians. I’d also love to take in a bit of schadenfreude when these libertarians get to be in the category that they loathe so much. Can you see George Walker Bush, ex-Supreme leader of America, drooling on himself from a stroke, sitting in a nursing home in the south of Texas being treated by his caregivers the way that his government is treating the elderly now? The twins never visit, the heat is turned off, the food has ants and all of his money has gone into keeping his room there. He has to make a choice between eating and the drugs that keep him ‘alive’… Either that or Bush would be in a cell somewhere for his hideous war crimes. I hope being tortured and denied food and water (except up his nose).
I watched on CNN as a few men dug around at what once was a church to save the organ and of course, the “cutaway back to studio” shot was of a battered Bible.
There are still many people unaccounted for- yet they were digging away to save a musical instrument.
Incase people think that McCain (Saint McCain) would be any different:
A joke too bad to print?
HOW SEN. JOHN McCAIN’S TASTELESS TWO-LINER ABOUT CHELSEA CLINTON AND JANET RENO WAS CENSORED OUT OF THE NATION’S LEADING NEWSPAPERS.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
BY DAVID CORN
During the last few months, many established media outlets have decided to report innuendo and rumor about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, as long as they have a source they can cite (at least anonymously), or another media player has reported the same.
But this new standard in the practice of journalism seemingly does not extend to other political figures, at least not media darlings like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Earlier this month, at a Republican Senate fund-raiser, McCain told a downright nasty joke making fun of Janet Reno, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton.
The fact that McCain had made the tasteless joke was reported in major newspapers, as was the vain attempt by his press secretary to initially deny what McCain had done. But in several major newspapers, the joke itself was kept a secret. When McCain subsequently apologized to President Clinton, the Washington Post, in its personality section, noted the apology but said the joke “was too vicious to print.”
The Los Angeles Times, in its Life & Style section, provided an oblique rendering of the joke that did not fully convey its ugliness. When Maureen Dowd penned a column in the New York Times about the joke, she wrote that McCain “is so revered by the press that his disgusting jape was largely nudged under the rug.” But Dowd chose not to relay the joke, either.
The joke did appear in McCain’s hometown paper, the Arizona Republic, and the Associated Press did report the joke in full, so everyone in the press had access to McCain’s words. But by censoring themselves, the Post, the Times and others helped McCain deflect flak and preserved his status as a Republican presidential contender.
Salon feels its readers deserve the unadulterated truth. Though no tape of McCain’s quip has yet emerged, this is what he reportedly said:
“Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno.”
The joke may be crude, but it pales in comparison with the published details surrounding the presidential sex scandal. McCain’s two-liner conveys some interesting insights into what he considers humorous (lesbianism, a young woman’s physical appearance), particularly since it was delivered to a Republican crowd. Remember, this is the party that champions pro-family values.
McCain’s lapse in judgment — admittedly, not as big a lapse as having a sexual relationship with an intern — may be a significant clue into aspects of his “character,” and thus relevant to the voting public. But many voters have been spared this insight, thanks to the censors in the press.
Accordingly, McCain is well-positioned to ride out this messy little episode. Ever since he started championing the anti-tobacco bill (which was torpedoed by his GOP comrades), McCain has been the White House’s pet Republican on the Hill. Consequently, the White House played down his Chelsea remarks. McCain is also unusually popular with the media. He gives good quotes; he is outspoken. He takes positions that contradict the Republican leadership. When you talk to McCain, he converses in the manner of a real person, seemingly telling you what he thinks. That is rare among elected officials. Ask him a question and he does not shift into automatic-politician mode, as do most members of Congress.
The former Vietnam POW should escape this matter without serious political harm. In the inevitable magazine profiles of McCain that will be written, there will no doubt be the perfunctory line: “McCain’s tendency to speak too freely was proven when he made a distasteful joke at a fund-raiser about the first family and then had to apologize to the president.”
But the joke revealed more than a mean streak in a man who would be president. It also exposed how the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times play favorites when reporting the foibles of our leading politicians.
SALON | June 25, 1998
“I know it’s a screen grab, but I’d like to think that woman on the left-hand side is shaking her head in utter disbelief.”
Sorry. The only way that you get that close to the supreme leader of the world is if you’ve sucked on the kool-aid so hard your eyes have turned colour.
The people that surround ‘der leader’ are always sycophant libertarians and ‘love’ Bush with all their dark hearts.
And on to that ‘university’ in Tennessee that was destroyed. I was about to throw a brick through our teevee with the way that the ‘main stream media’ was focused with the intensity of a plasma cutter on how devastating the story was and how it was that prayer and ‘the strength of the lord’ (who ironically, if ‘he’ exists, just destroyed your ‘university’) got them through and that they will survive. It must be ‘god’s will’ just sounds like ‘god’ telling the leaders of that fundie ‘university’ to give it up and close down. Oh, but no… They will go on.
Back to Bush: I know libertarians that tut-tut sick and paralyzed human beings for being a ‘drain on the public’ and that should be gathered together and ‘put somewhere’. They also lead lives of solitude as most of the people that I know would rather have nails from a Paslode nail gun shot into their eyes than have to actually hang out with them.
Bush as a republican is dead wrong. Bush as a radical libertarian is dead right. I’ve often wondered if ‘religion’ breeds libertarians. I’d also love to take in a bit of schadenfreude when these libertarians get to be in the category that they loathe so much. Can you see George Walker Bush, ex-Supreme leader of America, drooling on himself from a stroke, sitting in a nursing home in the south of Texas being treated by his caregivers the way that his government is treating the elderly now? The twins never visit, the heat is turned off, the food has ants and all of his money has gone into keeping his room there. He has to make a choice between eating and the drugs that keep him ‘alive’… Either that or Bush would be in a cell somewhere for his hideous war crimes. I hope being tortured and denied food and water (except up his nose).
“This is how the story is usually summed up, but in the Bible it’s Job’s friends who say all the pious things”
Actually he does fall down and praise God right after his cattle, children and servants have croaked. Then he gets the the boils, apparently that(!) tips the scales and he goes off into depression, leaving praising God to his so-called friends.
“If life was fair, W would not be pres.”
This disaster is an example of bad things happening to good people; Bush being elected twice (and getting to be governor, and coasting through HBS, Yale, daddy’s oil, champagne brigade, etc. while being a bum before that) is an example of how good things happen to bad people.
His negligence of these people also remind me of another line of his: “This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores…Some people call you the elites; I call you my base.”
“This disaster is an example of bad things happening to good people”
You know that this is not a given in any way shape or form, of course, right? Unless we want to believe (like Fred Phelps does, apparently…) that tornadoes have some moral component, then tornadoes (or any disaster of this ilk) remain “things happening to people.”
Tornadoes do not exempt child molesters or tax evaders any more than they seek out cancer-cure researchers or volunteer firemen.
While I don’t hold out a lot of hope that it will actualize any change of perspective in him, I actually think Bush’s comment signals the potential for a transformation. The single biggest problem I have with conservative thought is its diehard fatalism and essentialism. Whether its the inductive self-justification of the “Gospel of Wealth” from the 19th century or the “they had it coming” mentality of many observers of the Katrina mess, there seems to be this holdover from Calvinism that people are fated to the events of their lives and our moral interpretations thereof would do well to correspond to this predestination.
His comment, whatever the context, is startlingly accurate in many ways, much more than the seemingly compassionate platitudes that often get trotted out (understandably, mind you) in times of recovery from trauma. Life *is* unfair. Cause and effect are localized phenomena in many instances, whereas being a saint in no way assures you exemption from being killed by a tornado. Learning how to “play the hand” one is dealt with more genuine compassion is important not just for those recovering from unfairly negative events (i.e., tornadoes) but also those dealing with unfairly positive events (i.e., being born into a life of luxury). We would *all* probably benefit from reminding ourselves of that, not just standing in judgment of our leaders’ continuing failures in those areas.
There are still many people unaccounted for- yet they were digging away to save a musical instrument.
But it’s God’s organ! …wait, that sounded dirty.
I heard the line about how these people are all so freakin’ pious on a report from NPR. They left out the part about how he doesn’t give a fucking damn. (and now I have a Garbage song stuck in my head). I’ve had arguments over and over with my mom and her husband about how most christians (certainly all outspoken ones) act as if being christian automatically makes you a better person than anyone else. Being christian means nothing. Some people are good, caring, honest people and others aren’t. So far I haven’t seen any evidence that it’s religion that makes a difference.
Don’t forget the scientists and meterologists!!! Bush refused to believe their LIES about global warming, so they ATTACKED the good Christian people of Tennessee b/c they are atheists!!
Of course, in a year he’ll be distracted by the war on endangered species, and soon he’ll say “I don’t really think about where the tornadoes are anymore. They don’t register on my radar.”
He’s a piece of shit. It cannot be said enough. The fact that he believe somehow he’s earned his place in society is just a sign of how very sick he is.
Tornadoes are scary as hell. I watched one form over our house about 10 years ago. That cell and storm knocked out a power station and then devastated St. Peter. Two years ago, one hit the town my folks live in–scoring a direct hit on my dad’s clinic. The house across the street was destroyed–the poor family had lost their previous house in the tornado 9 years earlier. The news media finally found the home owner in a local bar.
If you, like me, prefer not to give to religious charities (link above), you can also contribute to the Red Cross.
(Longtime lurker here, finally posting.) gnaddrig and Caren: re the War on Bad Weather, I’d be a little surprised, but not terribly surprised. I remember during the Reagan administration, growing up in a semi-Fundy household, it being bruited about on Christian radio stations that the Russians had some sort of weather control raygun satellite device that they were using to engineer the downfall of Godfearing Americans. My dear, darling mom unfortunately bought it (in that semi-hemi-demi skeptical “Well, of course it *could* be wrong, but it certainly sounds plausible” sort of way that is well nigh impossible to talk people out of. I can’t figure out if it’s pure, unadulterated cuckoobird nutbaggery, or a diabolical, cynical scheme designed to spread the cuckoobird nutbaggery to the pliable true believing cannon fodder base (sort of like WMD more recently, which the mum also still adheres to, probably like a lot of fundy heartland salt’o'the earth types). I lean towards ‘B.’
Being Christian should mean something, and very often does. But then, too often it doesn’t. I must admit that quite often non-Christians are more caring, compassionate and helpful people, unprejudiced friends and more fun to be with than many Christians I know. I don’t think it is always religion that makes the difference. Some people change for the better when they catch religion, some change for the worse. The latter are noticed much more than the former.
Thanks for link, MA Jeff…
I have had vivid nightmares about tornadoes my entire life- they terrify me more than any other kind of natural disaster. Yet I have only seen one in my life and that only an F-1 in our back field when I was a kid. My heart goes out to all of those involved and their families.
Now what did Bush leave out?
“Life is unfair, teehee!”
That storm, seriously, almost killed my across the street neighbor’s little boy, and by “almost killed” I mean “picked him up and threw him 200 feet”.
It didn’t fucking ask him where he went to church first.
When his daddy came to tell me about it, he looked like he was still ready to have a heart attack. Fuck you, Gee-Dub.
Yet I have only seen one in my life and that only an F-1 in our back field when I was a kid.
The one I watched form over our house ended up being part of a cluster of F-3 twisters, as I recall. Not sure what the one that hit dad’s clinic was. I’m just glad that he and the staff didn’t end up with glass embedded in them like the walls of the office did.
The way he told it was kind of funny. Once the building stopped shaking, they went out of the med room (no windows). Someone asked where it was, and someone else replied “right there.” They saw it through the window making its way through a cornfield.
They are terrifying.
Gee, I should have thought of those words as I frikkin’ HUDDLED IN AN INTERIOR BATHROOM WITH MY HUSBAND, DOG, AND CAT while SIRENS went off for two hours and at least six tornadoes flattened the town north of route 40.
Thanks, Georgie-Porgie. We really needed that.
All I can say is, thank goodness that the people who got hit in our town were the people who could afford it, including the richest university in the area (Union Baptist). The last major tornadoes took out the public housing and much of the poorer sections of town.
Sigh.
Oh, and thank you all for all of your comments and support. We really do appreciate everything that people have done to help. It’s times like this that we realize that we’re all human, and differences like religious/non-religious, LBGT/straight, color, etc. mean pretty much nothing after all.