Evacuee Tim and Anonymous Speak Out on New Orleans Situation
My recent post, The Politics of the New Orleans Crisis, attracted some attention (my response to one post appears below). But my brother Tim, who is a displaced resident of New Orleans and may have nothing left but his business computer and car, was unable to post a comment using our parents' dial-up connection. So I'm reprinting his email below, which raises some of the charges that have been aired in recent days:
Ya, libertarian principles certainly helped in the evacuation of New Orleans.
It's important to clarify that I am a libertarian-leaning Republican. I believe in limited government. Saving citizens from an imminent catastrophe is a proper role of government. However, it's worth pointing out that Mayor Nagin remarked in an interview that Wal-Mart responded faster with providing aid than did the federal government.
You are an idiot, and so is every other f****** libertarian.
Way to preempt intellectual discussion with an ad hominem attack! Have you been keeping up with your NARAL-sponsored classes? By the way, I was tempted to delete this comment due to the profanity, but I am, after all, a libertarian kind of guy. I do, however, reserve the right to delete a posting. Here's a clue: the author undercut his argument by using profanity.
If you hate government so much, stop using f****** roads, don't send your kids to public schools, don't use the post office, don't go to public parks and beaches, etc.
This line of thought is totally off-topic, which is New Orleans, remember? I haven't declared my position on any of these matters. But government every year, every day takes money from everyone by force. I'm not going to stop using roads I helped fund, same with parks and schools. Not using roads would also reduce every strong proponent of very limited government to a hermit. But privitizing roads doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. Shouldn't the people who use the roads pay for them? Why should the public transportation user subsidize the gas-guzzling, environmentally-challenged SUV vehicle user? We already have toll roads in many places.
As for the public schools, in many areas they are a disgrace. That is why the school choice movement has taken so much hold that Democrats are jumping on board.
We should consider ending the Postal Service monopoly on common mail.
You are an idiot who feigns intelligence simply because they ad pictures on their blog. You are pathetic.
Nice ad hominem attack closing. I feel like I've been the subject of a 30-second attack ad. Thanks for the back-handed compliment on the pictures. Send me your mug shot and I'll post it here next to your commentary.
The blame lies squarely on [Louisiana Governor] Blanco and more importantly on [New Orleans Mayor] Nagin -- I do not think there has ever been a President, that if approached and told that thousands of the nation's citizens would perish, would not spring into action. NAGIN AND BLANCO DID NOT ASK FOR THE NEEDED EQUIPMENT/PERSONNEL -- Additionally, it is not a secret that a hurricane hitting NOLA is one of the top ten potential natural disasters... I guess that they forgot about the thousands of (black) indigent citizens that do not own cars or a means for evacuation...
More importantly, how in the hell do you get an already struggling, seasonally-dependant, leisure-ridden economy started again???
Meanwhile, a few Anonymous observers found their way to my blog and posted their rants, er, thoughts. Keep in mind that if you post something, you're fair game. Here's one particularly misguided individual.
Ya, libertarian principles certainly helped in the evacuation of New Orleans.Here's my response, which I admit I wrote while listening to music and standing on my head:
You are an idiot, and so is every other f****** libertarian. If you hate government so much, stop using f****** roads, don't send your kids to public schools, don't use the post office, don't go to public parks and beaches, etc. You are an idiot who feigns intelligence simply because they ad pictures on their blog. You are pathetic.
Ya, libertarian principles certainly helped in the evacuation of New Orleans.
It's important to clarify that I am a libertarian-leaning Republican. I believe in limited government. Saving citizens from an imminent catastrophe is a proper role of government. However, it's worth pointing out that Mayor Nagin remarked in an interview that Wal-Mart responded faster with providing aid than did the federal government.
You are an idiot, and so is every other f****** libertarian.
Way to preempt intellectual discussion with an ad hominem attack! Have you been keeping up with your NARAL-sponsored classes? By the way, I was tempted to delete this comment due to the profanity, but I am, after all, a libertarian kind of guy. I do, however, reserve the right to delete a posting. Here's a clue: the author undercut his argument by using profanity.
If you hate government so much, stop using f****** roads, don't send your kids to public schools, don't use the post office, don't go to public parks and beaches, etc.
This line of thought is totally off-topic, which is New Orleans, remember? I haven't declared my position on any of these matters. But government every year, every day takes money from everyone by force. I'm not going to stop using roads I helped fund, same with parks and schools. Not using roads would also reduce every strong proponent of very limited government to a hermit. But privitizing roads doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. Shouldn't the people who use the roads pay for them? Why should the public transportation user subsidize the gas-guzzling, environmentally-challenged SUV vehicle user? We already have toll roads in many places.
As for the public schools, in many areas they are a disgrace. That is why the school choice movement has taken so much hold that Democrats are jumping on board.
We should consider ending the Postal Service monopoly on common mail.
You are an idiot who feigns intelligence simply because they ad pictures on their blog. You are pathetic.
Nice ad hominem attack closing. I feel like I've been the subject of a 30-second attack ad. Thanks for the back-handed compliment on the pictures. Send me your mug shot and I'll post it here next to your commentary.
Well, I've written a lot tonight--
be sure to check out the other two posts.
posted by The Libertarian Republican at 1:59 AM
7 Comments:
Surfed in from Blox Explosion.
This whole NOLA situation is just crazy. It's being politicized (sp) and people are down there dying.
Of course, I can't understand why those who stayed behind did. I'm not talking about the sick-types, I mean the able bodied ones who had a chance to leave.
Looks like you get bashed a lot on here. LOL
~K
(http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,372455,00.html):
A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late.
Read: http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=100857
Background: Mr Brown is the director of FEMA, a Bush appointee (following the slashing of FEMAs budget and its reorganization as a homeland security sub-unit).
Quotes: "Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado."
"Brown was forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures."
"Soon after, Brown was invited to join the administration by his old Oklahoma college roommate Joseph Allbaugh, the previous head of FEMA until he quit in 2003 to work for the president's re-election campaign."
"The White House last night defended Brown's appointment."
This is the basic problem here. When positions are handed out based on allegiance to an old-boys-network, and even in cases where errors where clearly commited, loyalty is more important than accountability, then for every catastrophe that happens, a worse than optimal outcome is likely.
And, yes, the Bush administration and the President are personally responsible here, because this style of government (loyalty over qualification) is driven right from the top (or, more to the point - it is the responsibility of the highest level of administration to ensure that anyone in a position of power is qualified for the job).
In a case like this, the least they should do is demand accountability and fire Mr Brown with prejudice.
I particularly enjoy how anonymous will call you a liar but won't leave a name for you to quiz him.
Here's the crime: Mayor Nagin did not authorize the use of the city's school buses to evacuate thousands of people in a mandatory evacuation. He allowed thousands to die in the flooding, not Bush.
Anonymous, had Bush authorized funds for the levee system, you probably would have complained about money going to a state that voted for him. (I never could keep the red and blue state straight.)
I can't tell you how many times in the past few days I've heard people say things like- "Congress should make a law that.... (fill in the blank with your favorite solution-- such as-- "require mandatory evacuation and if you don't leave.. they force you out!")
It's hard for me to bite my tongue.
Do we really need a new crop of laws that assume people are irresponsible dunderheads who can't take care of themselves, and that place the federal govt in the position of jackbooted thug?
I sure hope not.
you sound like a conservative to me... and THAT is a COMPLIMENT. nice blog. I hope that your brother gets back on his feet quickly, I am certain that if his mindset is like yours he will take ACTION to bring that about rather than waiting for the government and complaining about his misfortune.
Howdy!
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