III. Hard Work
—
II. The Potemkin President Strikes Again
—
Will the speech help the disaster recovery? (Bush’s, I mean.) Perhaps — depending on whether or not the Rovians have correctly read the public mood as supporting a massive federal spending binge to get New Orleans, and the Republican Party, back on their feet.
Back to Main
September 16, 2005
WB: The Prattle of New Orleans ++
Comments
@Bernhard:
You seem to have the wrong link for the article—the one you gave goes to “Command & Control” instead.
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Sep 16 2005 6:43 utc | 1
I heard an anecdote a few months ago about Gorbatchev. (He was here in May to commemorate the Reagan – Gorby Summit of 20 years ago.)
He was sitting at his desk and was supposed to sign an order to buy some huge number of tanks for some stupendous sum. At the same time, some documents about buying consignements of goods (no doubt shoddy TVs, plastic shoes, etc.) from I think it was Ukraine.
He said no. I’m not doing it. Enough. And didn’t sign.
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 16 2005 8:14 utc | 3
It would be nice to think that Katrina blowback has rattled BushCo to the point where they will actually ‘do the right thing’ by the people of New Orleans but these guys don’t really believe they did anything wrong so they aren’t gonna be able to help themselves when it comes to sticking the hand in the honeypot.
After all hubris has taken them to the point where they believe all federal funds and assets are ‘theirs’ anyway.
From other posts in here recently when can safely deduce that they probably believe that all taxes are paid by the rich to keep the poor and have never even tried to get their heads around the data which shows that the US tax burden has been increasingly shifted from corporations to the working poor. Such ‘details’ particularly when they clash with cherished beliefs are ‘messy’.
I want to be wrong on this or at least if right, it would be great if what is likely to happen in NO was revealed to all and stopped by the outrage of US citizens. However like the 12 steppers say madness is doing the same thing over and expecting a different outcome. BushCo are already up to their old Halliburton tricks.
These guys are going to ‘tickle the peter’ for all it’s worth and the US electorate confronted with overwhelming evidence that a burn is on will turn away.
It appears that they just can’t deal with the reality of what their leaders have been up to.
So much bullshit is invested in the position of president that the office holder is seen by many as a god like figure that is both incorruptible and selfless.
Until the people of Amerika can allow themselves to accept that Bill’s penchant for headjobs and W’s cowardice and addictions should be celebrated as proof that their leaders are as human as the rest of us they are doomed to be constantly disappointed.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Sep 16 2005 11:21 utc | 4
Debs is dead – “Until the people of Amerika can allow themselves to accept that Bill’s penchant for headjobs…”
For many of us “Amerikans”, this was proof of his humanity but it wasn’t our business, it was his wife’s. I remember a woman in the midwest being interviewed at the time saying that, “Thanks to the republicans, my 8 year old now knows about oral sex.”
Posted by: beq | Sep 16 2005 11:44 utc | 5
Josh Marshall makes another good point.
Then there’s the president’s great line from the speech: “It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces.”
No, it’s not. Actually, every actual fact that’s surfaced in the last two weeks points to just the opposite conclusion. There was no lack of federal authority to handle the situation. There was faulty organization, poor coordination and incompetence.
Show me the instance where the federal government was prevented from doing anything that needed to be done because it lacked the requisite authority.
This is like what we were talking about a few days ago. This is how repressive governments operate — mixing inefficiency with authoritarian tendencies.
You don’t repair disorganized or incompetent government by granting it more power. You fix it by making it more organized and more competent. If conservatism can’t grasp that point, what is it good for?
Posted by: lonesomeG | Sep 16 2005 12:03 utc | 6
Good post from Billmon.
Such goings on though can also be seen as a response to a system that doesn’t work any longer. A kind of misguided attempt to at the same time control and go to the heart of the matter. I’m speaking in very general terms obviously.
As we have seen it only accelerates decay, corruption, inefficiency and leaves the door open for greed and evil.
An essential characteristic of Gvmt. Agencies who do, for example, Disaster Management and Relief, is that they should be autonomous, and know themselves what to do, take their own decisions. They must not be dependent on some “Higher Command” nor should they be suddenly and mysteriously obliged to coordinate or cooperate with other Agencies. Without autonomy, they cannot do the job. To be sure, internally there must be a clear command structure – but that command structure should not ‘bleed’, spread too far, be it down, up, or sideways. Bleeding command structures and a bloated bureaucracy can be seen as attempts to curb individualism – but they don’t work. When things finally fall completely apart, and the control mechanisms that existed previously simply collapse, there is only one solution: men with guns.
Another outcome of bureaucratic kidnapping is that the experts loose their voice. Techies and engineers, or doctors, instead of controlling, are put under control, and can no longer work freely. It is the structure itself that is at fault, in first place, not the competence of the controllers. For example, the Directorship of FEMA should be an administrative cum political post – the director should MANAGE the Agency (and not the Disaster!) and, vitally, fight tooth and nail for his or her agency on every appropriate platform.
So, expert knowledge is thrashed, and, I am afraid, very rapidly lost.
Survivors cannot be saved, trucks cannot be armored, the lights in Baghdad cannot be turned on. Reading scores can’t be upped, infants die, the water becomes dirty…science stutters and halts….
Ultimately the men with guns have to absorbed as well. The army becomes the Po-lice. I believe though the Gestapo was locally controlled, am I right? (Himmler at head.)
Just one side of things. There are many others.
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 16 2005 12:33 utc | 7
Debs wrote: So much bullshit is invested in the position of president that the office holder is seen by many as a god like figure that is both incorruptible and selfless.
Bush’s base (35%?) would still love him even if it was a proven fact that he had committed some terrible crime. I think the percentage would be lower for e.g. Gore. And that is one of the big problems for the ‘left’ in the US. It is not only that the Republicans seem to have more efficient political tactics (it is often argued that the Democrats should copy them!) but that the tactics are matched to their base. A more ‘democratic’ or ‘progressive’ base is less vulnerable to or accepting of these tactics.
In a country like CH, the right-wing populists tout values and principles that corrrespond to those dear to their electorate – patriotism, nationalism, isolationism, anti-Europeanism, covert xenophobia, closed borders, strong army – and a few others that their voters don’t care about or even oppose such as tax reduction, deficit reduction, both at once of course; their voters are for strong state, like to have money spent on them, and don’t pay taxes anyway. The latter suggestions simply provide a sort of respectable cover. They sometimes hint at Green-like stuff, saving mountain flowers and so on! (le Pen exploits this register well) but don’t dare go too far.
But Bush? He seems to be a pure manifestation of The Great Hero Our Leader. By definition, he has nothing to say, and he can’t disappoint. He is a God like figure, as said. He has no authority (or little, even if he is officially invested with powers) except a growing mystical one. He is not called on to implement policies that would benefit his base. No amount of plastic turkeys will make a difference there!
That is why it is a mistake – or evidence of culpable complicity – for the Democrats to attack Bush when his ‘performance’ (which is in any case arbitrarily measured as whatever..) is, shall we say, judged not quite up to scratch. The only result is that it is argued that Bush needs more powers, needs to have a freerer hand, or be supported more strongly, or whatever, thus making the situation even worse.
The Democrats should work around the Republicans, not confront them – if they wanted to get anything done, that is.
The American love of Leaders and Authority has always somewhat mystified me – it seems at odds with their practical no BS stance which still exists here and there. I suppose it is one more manifestation of individualism.
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 16 2005 14:09 utc | 8
“Bush’s base (35%?) would still love him even if it was a proven fact that he had committed some terrible crime.”
Um, Noisette, it IS a proven fact that he’s committed some terrible crime. A number of them, in fact.
Posted by: Billmon | Sep 16 2005 14:14 utc | 9
Karl Rove is in charge of the Reconstruction effort???
…Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush’s chief political adviser, was in charge of the reconstruction effort…
Link to New York Times Article
As we suggested last night, and as President Bush has now put us on notice, the Gulf Coast reconstruction effort is going to be run as a patronage and political operation.
That’s not spin or hyperbole. They’re saying it themselves.
The president has put Karl Rove in charge of the reconstruction, with a budget of a couple hundred billion dollars.
Link to Talking Points Memo
Posted by: FeudalPress | Sep 16 2005 14:27 utc | 10
Josh Marshall, quoted by lonesome G, wrote:
You don’t repair disorganized or incompetent government by granting it more power. You fix it by making it more organized and more competent. If conservatism can’t grasp that point, what is it good for?
I brought up – agreeing with – JM’s first point.
In his second point, you see how mainstream commentators shy off from reality, or leaving the system of thought, and insiduously promote the ‘inefficiency, incompetency’ meme. It is accepted that lack of competence can be fixed. That sounds reasonable; lack of competence or skills or ability on an individual level can often be ‘fixed’ — just learn to manage that machine, drive that truck, make a flow chart! So, his pov flies.
He confuses and collapses several things.
1) Repair with a drive forward. Repairing mistakes is not the same thing as constructing a viable procedure for dealing with anything. They are quite different cases.
2) The individual with the collective.
Note, no one would dream of saying you can fix the Mafia, they are just not terribly competent at making money, and could do far bettter: They need to be trained in e.g. flow charts and have creative management seminars!
Another fallacy is that the US is somehow, opaquely, lacking in competence. For the moment the US is still packed with people who can manage machines, draw flow charts, and much more. Competence is not the problem.
The third point just reinforces the old mantra, the fake divisions between ‘conservatives’ and ‘progressives.’
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 16 2005 14:38 utc | 11
Billmon, yes.
Yet, the ‘base’ still loves, reveres, or just continues to staunchly support Bush.
When I was 13, I was infatuated with a pop singer. Had I heard that he cheated a friend out of money (a disgusting crime in my book at the time) or was someone who roasted babies and ate them with Ketchup, it would have made no difference to me. I either would not have heard, or would not have believed what I heard, or would have dismissed what was alleged as ugly, jealous rumors.
That is the kind of attitude I was trying to describe.
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 16 2005 14:54 utc | 12
on the admin’s “proposal to resettle poor folks on surplus federal property”:
Great White Father Announces New Poverty Reorganization Act. Officials to dust off old reservation policy plans.
Posted by: b real | Sep 16 2005 15:07 utc | 13
from fas’ secrecy news:
BUSH WAGE CUTS FOR RELIEF WORKERS MAY BE LEGAL ERROR
On September 8, President Bush issued a proclamation suspending the minimum wage requirements for relief workers engaged in Katrina recovery operations.
But in order to do so, he relied upon a statutory authority that has been dormant for thirty years and that appears to be legally inoperative.
“I find that the conditions caused by Hurricane Katrina constitute a ‘national emergency’ within the meaning of section 3147 of title 40, United States Code,” President Bush declared on September 8 as he removed the Davis Bacon Act wage supports for workers in Louisiana, and portions of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
But this emergency statute was one of numerous authorities that were rendered dormant by the National Emergencies Act of 1976, and that can only be activated by certain procedural formalities that were absent in this case.
In particular, the President must formally declare a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act, and he must specify which standby legal authorities he proposes to activate so as to permit congressional restraint of emergency powers.
Strangely, however, President Bush proceeded as if the National Emergencies Act did not exist.
Posted by: b real | Sep 16 2005 15:43 utc | 14
@Noisette, your post at:
8:33:46 AM | #
can be summed up in two words: ‘Entropy nation‘…
First Responders Urged Not to Respond
from Inter-activist Info Exchange
Here’s an interesting list that paints a very curious overall picture of government ineptitude, or worse…
[click for the nauseating list]
*I don’t buy the bureaucracy or the incompetence excuses.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 16 2005 16:19 utc | 15
Potemkin via Froomkin:
From Bush’s lonely walk to the podium, to the cathedral over his shoulder lit up like Disneyland, to his wooden delivery before an audience of none, there was something particularly off key about all the White House stagecraft imported into the ghostly center of a still half-drowned town.
The New York Times’s Elisabeth Bumiller, acting as pool reporter, informed colleagues yesterday that all the lights and generators needed to create the desired effect were flown in by the White House.
Reporters were not allowed out of their vans while the president spoke, but they demanded a quick tour of the area beforehand.
“Bobby DeServi and Scott Sforza were on hand as we drove up about 8 p.m. or so EDT handling last-minute details of the stagecraft,” Bumiller wrote. DeServi is the White House’s chief lighting designer; Sforza is in charge of visuals.
“Bush will be lit with warm tungsten lighting, but the statue [of Andrew Jackson] and cathedral will be illuminated with much brighter, brighter lights . . . like the candlepower that DeServi and Sforza used on Sept. 11, 2002, to light up the Statue of Liberty for Bush’s speech in New York Harbor,” she wrote.
See also ill man walking
regarding, billmons II. The Potemkin President Strikes Again, so what is the metanarative here?
So Bush can be associated w/the bringer of light and when his majestic presence exits so goes the light?
Some pantheons refer to that as you know the uh, anti-chrisp….lol
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 16 2005 17:01 utc | 17
E-mail suggests government seeking to blame [environmental] groups
Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.
The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys’ offices: “Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation.”
Posted by: b real | Sep 16 2005 17:27 utc | 18
Don’t forget plastic turkey and
halos
Bagnews Notes has been working overtime dissecting the latest presidential theatrics.
mooncrow, over at metafilter writes, “While some are calling this criticism of BushCo stage craft as being “petty”, I’d suggest just the opposite. In fact, we MUST make these criticisms very public. Blow them up. MeFites seem to forget the huge divide between the “folk of the internets” and everyone else. NOBODY in the “regular USA” is paying attention to these things. They can’t distinguish this kind of stagecraft from their favorite “reality TV” shows like Survivor and Big Brother and so forth (which shows, surprise surprise, actually employ writers, set directors, art directors, etc. to create the “reality” they shoot from the hip). NOBODY else in America seems to give a shit about how contrived everything is that BushCo touches.
Maybe, just maybe, somebody in the MSM will notice the various blog discussions — may a thousand flowers bloom — and say “Hey, maybe we could point this out as well.” And surprise — you know that is actually happening.
It won’t happen overnight. It will take years. But it is becoming much more common knowledge that “President” Bush is much more like an anamatronic puppet than a leader. It is also becoming painfully obvious that we actually haven’t had a president since that night back in November 2000, when the last real president elected in America was defeated by a carefully stage-managed public relations campaign.
That is why this is important to ALWAYS point out this sort of shit from BushCo.
Finally, No mention of Andrew Jackson over his left shoulder? Don’t think for a second that the angle wasn’t determined with that in mind also.
Religion on one side, war on the other.
in other news,
Look what today brings from the feds: Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.
The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys’ offices: “Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation.”
Who sent out this email? And who was going to use it? Needed for analyzing new environmental law issues? Part of the ‘takings’ debate? Did we mention that Karl Rove has been put in charge of the reconstruction effort?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 16 2005 17:33 utc | 19
One would think that 6 years into his presidency, he would know how to properly button his shirt prior to going before a national television audience:
Bush’s shirt
Uncle Scam, I was trying to present a pov that seemingly illuminates the incompetency argument in part (bloated bureaucracy, and so on) – the ins ands outs of it, its various facets, its public use by pols, the Democrats adherence to these myths, and so on.
Inefficiency and failure have many causes.
Deliberate obstruction and stalling are one, but when that happens it is covered up. How and why it is covered up is interesting; how this state of affairs came about, or was presented to the public, ditto. It is even more striking when everyone seems to agree about the subsequent actions needed- give more power to Bush, to FEMA, etc.
FEMA will be the organisation that integrates, and finally commands, the internal military repressive apparatus. As you know.
All this blather about incompetence is fake; yet, on the ground it has proved to be correct – so many problems, so many fubars.
Everyone is distracted, I tried to sort part of it out, is all.
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 16 2005 17:59 utc | 21
From B Real’s Post:
on the admin’s “proposal to resettle poor folks on surplus federal property”:
Is this where they stowed the Japanese during WWII??
Posted by: jj | Sep 16 2005 18:14 utc | 22
If anyone’s keeping score, an important announcement after Katrina:
Of all my hard-core right-wing middle-age male executive friends:
3 have completely flipped over to conspiracy theory Red Bolshevism;
2 have gone radio silent and no longer send Rush:S&H:Robertson clips;
1 is still in state of denial, but no longer threatens to report me
to sysop for spamming him with Blue excerpts. (smile)
If Bush’s Magic 40 are what he’s counting on to keep him in chips,
he’s down to a Magic 20, and that’s a big maybe, by my poll count.
That means polls are HUGELY LYING, by any measure that I can see.
BTW, didn’t anyone else notice Bush’s Blue shirt, Blue background,
ode to Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy” at the so-called public speech.
And did Bush’s head look like two sizes bigger than his britches?
Anyway, I knew you’all would be super happy on the poll count.
Those guys stayed radical right, right through Iraq, fake WMD’s,
need an extra $40B, but Katrina, and the aftermath, whoa hossie!
Think they’deven consider changing horses in mid-stream!! Yahoo!
– – – – – – –
“I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me, that I no longer have a strong enough political base among the People to justify continuing that effort. . . . I would have preferred to carry through to the finish, whatever the personal agony it would have involved. . . . But the interest of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations. . . . Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Cheney will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office.”
– – – – – – –
*******Oh S–T!*******
Posted by: tante aime | Sep 16 2005 18:18 utc | 23
Billmon, we need your PhotoShop, Blue Boy Bush
speaking from Red Square, posted right away!!
Posted by: Carlyle Maxwell | Sep 16 2005 18:23 utc | 24
Based on to Nixon’s resignation speech, which set forth the
Blueprint of Compassionate Conservative Republicanist values,
George Bush has become a traitor to every single one of them:
Nixon’s resignation speech is really extraordinary … today:
Good evening.
This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this Nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter than I believe affected the national interest.
In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me.
In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the ***constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.***
But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.
I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. ***But the interest of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations.***
From the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders, I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter I might not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the Nation would require.
I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first. ***America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad.***
To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when *** our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.***
Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office.
As I recall the high hopes for America with which we began this second term, I feel a great sadness that I will not be here in this office working on your behalf to achieve those hopes in the next 2 1/2 years. But in turning over direction of the Government to Vice President Ford, I know, as I told the Nation when I nominated him for that office 10 months ago, that the leadership of America will be in good hands.
In passing this office to the Vice President, I also do so with the profound sense of the weight of responsibility that will fall on his shoulders tomorrow and, therefore, of the understanding, the patience, the cooperation he will need from all Americans.
As he assumes that responsibility, he will deserve the help and the support of all of us. As we look to the future, the first essential is to begin healing the wounds of this Nation, *** to put the bitterness and divisions of the recent past behind us, and to rediscover those shared ideals that lie at the heart of our strength and unity as a great and as a free people.***
By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.
I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong, ***and some were wrong,*** they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of the Nation.
To those who have stood with me during these past difficult months, to my family, my friends, to many others who joined in supporting my cause because they believed it was right, I will be eternally grateful for your support.
And to those who have not felt able to give me your support, let me say I leave with no bitterness toward those who have opposed me, because all of us, in the final analysis, have been concerned with the good of the country, however our judgments might differ.
So, let us all now join together in affirming that common commitment and in helping our new President succeed for the benefit of all Americans.
I shall leave this office with regret at not completing my term, but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as your President for the past 5 1/2 years. These years have been a momentous time in the history of our Nation and the world. They have been a time of achievement in which we can all be proud, achievements that represent the shared efforts of the Administration, the Congress, and the people.
But the challenges ahead are equally great, and they, too, will require the support and the efforts of the Congress and the people working in cooperation with the new Administration.
***We have ended America’s longest war, but in the work of securing a lasting peace in the world, the goals ahead are even more far-reaching and more difficult. We must complete a structure of peace so that it will be said of this generation, our generation of Americans, by the people of all nations, not only that we ended one war but that we prevented future wars.***
We have unlocked the doors that for a quarter of a century stood between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.
***We must now ensure that the one quarter of the world’s people who live in the People’s Republic of China will be and remain not our enemies but our friends. ***
***In the Middle East, 100 million people in the Arab countries, many of whom have considered us their enemy for nearly 20 years, now look on us as their friends. We must continue to build on that friendship so that peace can settle at last over the Middle East and so that the cradle of civilization will not become its grave.***
Together with the Soviet Union we have made the crucial breakthroughs that have begun the process of limiting nuclear arms. ***But we must set as our goal not just limiting but reducing and finally destroying these terrible weapons so that they cannot destroy civilization and so that the threat of nuclear war will no longer hang over the world and the people.***
We have opened the new relation with the Soviet Union. We must continue to develop and expand that new relationship so that the two strongest nations of the world will live together in cooperation rather than confrontation.
Around the world, in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, in the Middle East, there are millions of people who live in terrible poverty, even starvation. ***We must keep as our goal turning away from production for war and expanding production for peace so that people everywhere on this earth can at last look forward in their children’s time, if not in our own time, to having the necessities for a decent life.***
Here in America, we are fortunate that most of our people have not only the blessings of liberty but also the means to live full and good and, by the world’s standards, even abundant lives. We must press on, however, toward a goal of not only more and better jobs but of full opportunity for every American and of what we are striving so hard right now to achieve, ***prosperity without inflation. ***
For more than a quarter of a century in public life I have shared in the turbulent history of this era. I have fought for what I believed in. I have tried to the best of my ability to discharge those duties and meet those responsibilities that were entrusted to me.
Sometimes I have succeeded and sometimes I have failed, but always I have taken heart from what Theodore Roosevelt once said about the man in the arena, “whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because there is not effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deed, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievements and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”
I pledge to you tonight that as long as I have a breath of life in my body, I shall continue in that spirit. I shall continue to work for the great causes to which I have been dedicated throughout my years as a Congressman, a Senator, a Vice President, and President, the cause of peace not just for America but among all nations, prosperity, justice, and opportunity for all of our people.
There is one cause above all to which I have been devoted and to which I shall always be devoted for as long as I live.
When I first took the oath of office as President 5 1/2 years ago, I made this sacred commitment, to “consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon to the cause of peace among nations.”
I have done my very best in all the days since to be true to that pledge. As a result of these efforts, I am confident that the world is a safer place today, not only for the people of America but for the people of all nations, and that all of our children have a better chance than before of living in peace rather than dying in war.
This, more than anything, is what I hoped to achieve when I sought the Presidency. This, more than anything, is what I hope will be my legacy to you, to our country, as I leave the Presidency.
To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God’s grace be with you in all the days ahead.
Posted by: Lash Marks | Sep 16 2005 18:33 utc | 25
Uncle sez Finally, No mention of Andrew Jackson over his left shoulder? Don’t think for a second that the angle wasn’t determined with that in mind also.
at least this prez isn’t forcing the “evacuees” to march to their new reservations (that’s Urban Homestead Act in civie-speak). yet.
Posted by: b real | Sep 16 2005 18:34 utc | 26
Pardon me Noisette, I wasn’t denigrating your post at all. Sorry if it come off that way. 0n the contrary, I think you were dead on in your analysis, further, we need more analysis,empirical -and otherwise- of the intracasies and nuances of these mad hatters; straight outta Herophilus of Chalcedon and Erasistratus of Ceos
this gang.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 16 2005 18:46 utc | 27
Conductor Karl Rove announces announces special Gravy Train excursion through Hurricane ravaged south. A special luxury coach, with 5 star dining will be provided as the train leaves Washington DC, in route to beautiful flood ravaged New Orleans now ripe with business opportunities. Passengers will be reassured, as they pass the long lines of homeless and helpless doe eyed refugees they pass along the way, that this train is exclusive and will not make any unschedualed stops that might waste resources. Yes friends, you can wash away those fears of excessive government spending and the dread of dependency, because with Karl at the throttle, you know this train is on a round trip back again to Washington DC. So quit complaining, and get in line for a ticket on Karls Roves Round Trip Polar Express Compassionate Conservative Luxury Dinner Train coming to a station near you.
Posted by: anna missed | Sep 16 2005 20:18 utc | 28
It’s obvious, but it needs to be done- the Karl the Karpetbagger Kartoon is
here.
@Noisette
While Marshall still operates within the false left/right dichotomy, I think he was arguing that Bush’s grab for even more federal power in Katrina’s wake shouldn’t make logical sense even to those who identify as conservatives within that mental framwork. Of course, Bush’s appeal has never been about making logical sense, which just strengthens the Cult of Personality points made in previous posts.
A couple interesting web sites with info on local efforts in NOLA:
Get Your Act On and Real Reports of Katrina Relieftext. From the latter, quoting the former:
COMMON GROUND IN THE 9TH WARD
Volunteers with Common Ground and Get Your Act On (http://www.getyouracton.com) are now cleaning and prepping a location within the highly publicized 9th Ward for a community wellness clinic. Mobile medic teams are already on the ground in the 9th serving the residents who braved the storm.
Downtown New Orleans still remains under tight military and law enforcement control. NOPD officers have expressed their displeasure with efforts to bring relief to this part of New Orleans.
“You can’t start a clinic here [the 9th Ward]. That would give people hope. My job is to make their lives as hopeless as possible so they will leave.” More good will from the “official” relief effort courtesy of New Orleans Police Department.
Riverbend goes to NOLA?
Posted by: lonesomeG | Sep 16 2005 21:15 utc | 30
I am suffering from outrage fatigue. Every day another assault upon the people of the united states by the cabal at the helm. I’ve stopped getting my news from CNN and PBS liars and spinners and started relying on the more independent Pacifica Radio for the facts. The more I listen the more it sounds less like incompetence more like intentional negligence. They know exactly what they are doing.
@ tainte aime
re a presidential resignation replay: for what its worth, his astrological chart predicted he’d win a second term but not complete it. Haven’t heard about the predicted astrological fortunes of VP Cheney, but that would be interesting to check out.
Posted by: gylangirl | Sep 16 2005 21:21 utc | 31
how come no diehard billmon fans have managed to make note of the Andrew Jackson background statuary. could a better post-hypnotic-suggestion for impeachment have possibly been compulsively picked?
.
Posted by: cb | Sep 16 2005 21:27 utc | 32
Scam, no matter, no apols. needed, I’m very edgy, the news is so bad, have a drink on me.
Bush says he needs more power in disasters:
The State
Senator urges Pentagon to review disaster role:
“ (…) Some believe rigid interpretations of the 1878 law, enacted during the post-Civil War reconstruction period, may have slowed down deployment of active-duty troops after the storm. Others argue there are exceptions to the law, and it can be waived by the president.”
Reuters
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 16 2005 21:33 utc | 33
how come no diehard billmon fans have managed to make note of the Andrew Jackson background statuary. could a better post-hypnotic-suggestion for impeachment have possibly been compulsively picked?
You’re thinking of Andrew JOHNSON. Different guy. Jackson wasn’t impeached, although he did make a lot of enemies.
Posted by: Billmon | Sep 16 2005 21:47 utc | 34
Gylangirl asked about Cheney:
re a presidential resignation replay: for what its worth, his astrological chart predicted he’d win a second term but not complete it. Haven’t heard about the predicted astrological fortunes of VP Cheney, but that would be interesting to check out.
The astrological indications for Dick Cheney are not good. He has restriction around the heart(ego), possible confinement and health problems.
He now has an aneurysm and is checking into the hospital for surgery. All indications point to congestive heart failure as far as I can see. I think he is very sick and defeated and experiencing the reality of his pathetic, miserable, tragic life. The trap he has set for himself.
The situation will worsen the next months for Cheney, Bush as well. Even though the illusion is desperately being foisted on the public now, I doubt that it will stick as the raw memory of the flood will remain in the public’s mind for some time and will probably even increase in power in the subconscious. Most of what happens in general is dominated by the subconscious because we are so unaware of its influence thereby increasing its effect exponentially. When the collective subconscious no longer desires this punishment, it will end.
Posted by: jm | Sep 16 2005 22:55 utc | 35
People are not entirely correct, I believe, in believing so much in propaganda and the big Spin. The brain is so complex and words and images from an outer source probably penetrate the subconscious of each individual in a different way to reinforce his own needs and beliefs. It’s selective and subjective. Stored memories and repeated automatic behaviors are probably more influential. The outer world we are perceiving comes through the conscious mind, but once the sensations are entered, most of us have no idea what is really happening. This could be one of the real problems. Not being aware of our deepest desires.
When we band together and reinforce our fear, hooking it on other people and events, we are merely reinforcing our individual internal fear that is not connected to these events. Until we confront that, we are doomed to repeat these horrors. Until we get to the root of fear.
Posted by: jm | Sep 16 2005 23:12 utc | 36
Jackson was responsible for the trail of tears for the Cherokees, so the migration of the “unwanted” from New Orleans might have some sort of resonance if you hate Bush as much as I do… those FEMA camp images might be equated with reservations…
Posted by: fauxreal | Sep 16 2005 23:25 utc | 37
Keep Hope Alive, Keep Hope Alive, Keep Hope Alive
If Bush’s antics and Rice’s antics and Rumsfeld’s
antics aren’t keeping you in a straight jacket, then
consider Chief Justice Roberts, Lord of Bugged Eyes
and Little Vision.
Under Chief Justice Roberts, the Right-to-Lifers
will rule. Abortions will cease, or go underground,
to clinics in Quebec and Vancouver, like we used
to have to do in the 60’s.
But Right-to-Lifers go far, far beyond that, as we
saw with Torres and Shiavo. They will keep you alive
long after you want to life. You will creep down the
halls of your living mausoleum, your wheelchair barely
denting the indoor-outdoor carpeting, until you can
no longer sit up, or protest.
Then, like poor Bob Hope, they will keep you alive
until your savings are gone, until your royalties
run out, until your family’s good will is exhausted,
until your MediCare is paid out.
Until every last nickel that can be extracted from your
living corpse can be dribbled into the Coffers of HMO.
Billions and billions and billions, as Sagan would say.
But … there’s hope. Everyone by now, here in the US,
and around the world, knows what they’re seeing, the
Bush Administration is brain dead. If not brain dead,
then surely, insane. Every one of them.
George Bush, you know the drill, INSANE
Richard Cheney, could there be anyone more, INSANE
Condi Rice buying $3,000 boots while New Orleans drowned!? INSANE
Alberto Gonzales teaching Bush how to avoid war criminal
status at home and abroad for disappearing and torture!? INSANE
Donald Rumsfeld running off to Iraq every few weeks, when
we’re paying $2,000,000,000 *a day* for hundreds of our
generals to sit on their asses and play war games?! INSANE
And what’s going to happen when Lord Roberts is made
Chief Justice, and the Right-to-Lifers take over the
clinics and nursing homes, and take away the right to
birth and to die in dignity, is a People’s Revolution
like the world hasn’t seen since the French.
So to our Mad Congress, and Justice Roberts? BRING IT ON!
Posted by: Terrence Michelson | Sep 16 2005 23:59 utc | 38
Now I’m sure it doesn’t matter in the least to MoA users what terminology one person at the bottom of the world uses to describe the people who live in the US. beq appears to see “Amerikans” as a pejorative. If that is not the case beq then I apologise.
We are all more interested in what someone says rather than how they say it. However I thought I might briefly explain why I have taken to calling people who live in the US “Amerikans”.
Firstly it is not intended as a pejorative. I needed a collective word which accurately described the people being discussed.
For a time I referred to the people living within the borders of USA as “US citizens” but then it occurred to me that left out millions of people who positively contribute towards that society.
Just because the corporatists want to see the ‘wage slaves’ at the bottom of the economy as non-people it doesn’t mean the rest of us should go along.
To me “Americans” refers to all people from Canada to Chile most of whom are vastly effected by BushCo but few of whom have input into BushCo’s continued survival.
I realise this is a really petty thing to get hung up on but I did spend some time pondering the best way to describe the people of the US and then remembered the old lefty term for the US “Amerika”. So I decided to use that word to encapsulate all of the people of the US. I did so because it was a word that most would understand, not that it carried any baggage.
In these ‘interesting times’ there are far more important things to concern ourselves with but the issue does raise some interest about whether there is an accurate word to describe the people of the US.
Even really whether such a word should be used given the diversity of the society.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Sep 17 2005 0:16 utc | 39
I’ve been reading Billmon’s blog (and other reality based community blogs) for some two years now. All I can say is…your country is seriously fucked up. You really gotta do something or this whole world will go up in flames and I sure as hell don’t want that. And I’m quite confident that I’m expressing the feelings of a lot of…shit…the majority of my fellow europeans here.
It’s really frustrating when all you can do is just watch and weep… You know…we Finns (and the rest of the world) don’t have a veto and stuff.
It’s weird to see a nation that you once admired for it’s freedom to fall slowly but surely in to fascism. I never understood how it was possible that Germany (a nation of science and civilization) fall to fascism, but now I see it happening in front of my eyes. And it makes me sad. Do we not learn from history at all?!
“Fear is the root of all evil.”
Posted by: Funky Buddha | Sep 17 2005 0:26 utc | 40
doh! this diary over at kos made me spit my tea on the screen…
Bush Agency Blasts President For Appointing Unqualified Political Loyalists
It is truly great news that the Bush Administration recognizes that cronyism in the service of political patronage is irresponsible and dangerous. To actually hear them criticize the president for doing so is encouraging.
Oh, did I mention they are criticizing the president of Venezuela?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 17 2005 0:39 utc | 41
DNC NATIONAL VIDEO ADVERTISEMENT
[Voice over]
“This is George Bush” [Super: What-me-worry Bush 2000 campaign photo]
“This is George Bush on New Orleans” [Super: Katrina disaster medley]
“Any questions?” [Super: Edgy jump-cut B&W collage, spinning odometer US deficit, Iraq explosion scene, New Orleans flood scene, mug shots of BushCo, re-enactments of Fitzgerald grand jury, gas pumps $6.00’s]
[SFX of sirens wailing, flood victims screaming, extended fade-out]
IMPEACH BUSH! [Super: George Bush head shot, now he looks worried!]
Cripes, don’t the DNC’s have any media savvy!
Posted by: Larry Ellison | Sep 17 2005 0:45 utc | 42
Is it class war yet?
“Super Rich” Hide $11.5 Trillion in Tax Free Havens
Meanwhile, I’d recommend that everyone check out This American Life’s recent radio show . The show is a series of stories from those who survived not only Hurricane Katrina but the gross negligence of our government.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 17 2005 1:30 utc | 43
Debs is dead: “beq appears to see ‘Amerikans’ as a pejorative.” Not at all. I agree with you wholeheartedly. And as Funky Buddha says, my country is “seriously fucked up” Hey! I have a front row seat. When I went to the Soviet Union in ’75 and we were called Americanski, I got along. Maybe it’s clearer face-to-face than in print…
Posted by: beq | Sep 17 2005 1:51 utc | 44
Thanks for the link to “This Americ/kan Life”, Uncle $cam.
Posted by: beq | Sep 17 2005 2:54 utc | 45
OK, perhaps I didn’t have it quite right a few days ago re: Mr. Allbaugh and entitlements because this latest bit of Roving Cheneyburtonian tomfoolery might best be described as…..
…..Trickle-Down Cronyism
It appears the $50 billion is already well on it’s way into the pockets of corporate America’s bagmen.
As someone posited in here the other day the long suffering taxpayers’ primary role is going to be to bail out the insurance industry.
eg “The difference between types of damage is important. Damaged caused by wind or water falling into a structure, like through a hole, typically is covered. Damage from rising water, however, usually would be covered only by the National Flood Insurance Program, which is run by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
The next step will be that in order to get FEMA compensation, claimants will have to have all repairs undertaken by “approved contractors” who will be the gang in disguise and without the tiresome requirement to pay acceptable wages or hire the African Amerikan people who formerly lived in New Orleans.
You know since BushCo appears to see Amerikans solely as a source of revenue for them and their mates, one can’t help but wonder if a tax strike would be the best way of getting their attention.
It’s not as if they use the taxes for anything useful like health or education now is it?
Posted by: Debs is dead | Sep 17 2005 4:08 utc | 48
The very fact that we don’t have a few cranks trying to do this right now is a source of wonder. But maybe we do and we’re not told. Who knows?
Posted by: Lupin | Sep 17 2005 5:44 utc | 49
A FEMA Professional Speaks out on NPR today.
Didn’t Admin. insist they gee shucks didn’t know things would get so bad in NO?? Oops, there went another one into the slop.
Leo Bosner, an emergency management specialist at FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C., is in charge of the unit that alerts officials of impending crises and manages the response. As early as Friday, Aug. 26, Bosner knew that Katrina could turn into a major emergency.
In daily e-mails — known as National Situation Updates — sent to Chertoff, Brown and others in the days before Katrina made landfall in the Gulf Coast, Bosner warned of its growing strength — and of the particular danger the hurricane posed to New Orleans, much of which lies below sea level.
But Bosner says FEMA failed to organize the massive mobilization of National Guard troops and evacuation buses needed for a quick and effective relief response when Katrina struck. He says he and his colleagues at FEMA’s D.C. headquarters were shocked by the lack of response.
Did WH told them to do Nothing?
Posted by: jj | Sep 17 2005 6:25 utc | 50
FEMA City
Bop news predicts the future by reviewing the present. In this case it’s a city of 1500 in FL put together after Hurricane Charley in 2004. The residents are stuck there b/c they are too poor to get out. This is just the begining. It will make Gretna look like a cake walk.
Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 17 2005 6:25 utc | 51
@ FunkyBuddha: I never understood how it was possible that Germany (a nation of science and civilization) fall to fascism, but now I see it happening in front of my eyes.
I have been thinking the same thing for quite a while now and I am not the only one who has come to this conclusion. Many of my friends think this too.
Posted by: Fran | Sep 17 2005 6:40 utc | 53
Jackson was responsible for the trail of tears for the Cherokees, so the migration of the “unwanted” from New Orleans might have some sort of resonance
the image of jackson actually holds a lot more resonance than just his presidential indian removal act, the continuation of jefferson’s policies, which saw the expulsion of majority populations of not only cherokee, but also chocktaw, chickasaw, creek & seminole peoples from land east of the mississippi, in order that their lands could be settled by whites. jackson was a popular general & indian killer prior to his ascendancy to office, and it was upon this record and his platform to clear the southern states of indians w/ which his presidency was sealed.
the baton rouge, a faction of the creek nation spurred on by the call of tecumseh & armed by the british to drive out the invading settlers, had just scored what would be the last major victory by native peoples east of the mississippi on august 30, 1813, when they destroyed fort mimms north of mobile on the alabama river. in retaliation for the slaughter of the creek in the war of 1812, along w/ the increasing crimes against native populations by the encroaching colonists, the red sticks wiped out all but the enslaved africans inside the fort, a sign not unnoticed by the whites. that november, general jackson, coming off his smashing victory in the war of 1812, and reknown prior to his military career as a notorious commissioner of indian treaty negotiations, led the largest militia yet assembled on a march through baton rouge territory, leveling everything in their path. at horseshoe bend on the tallapoosa river, again in alabama, 5 months later, jackson’s reinforced troops closed in on a baton rouge stronghold & massacred all but 150 of the warriors, and killing many of the children, women & elderly w/ them. numbers of them were shot while trying to swim across the river to escape the slaughter. more than 800 indian corpses were then mutilated under general jackson’s command, their noses cut off to record the number of kills, w/ others additionally skinned for long strips of flesh that were then tanned & turned into bridle reins. in 1814 bridle reins were more in demand than lamp shades, i suppose. the red sticks who escaped surrender fled & blended in w/ the seminole in florida.
jackson himself embodied the physical portion of president jefferson’s “indian problem”, namely, how to obtain land under the premise of national security & white settler expansion.
the seminole went on to be a thorn in the side of the u.s., jackson & slaveholders across the south. following the first major incursion by u.s. troops, again it was general jackson & his men who laid waste to seminole villages & villagers in 1917, on a mission to either remove them from their lands forcefully or exterminate them, women & children included. richard drinnon provides some insight into jackson during this period
Like John Mason [of notorious Pequot barbecue fame] and others before him, he saw himself in Old Testament terms as the instrument of an avenging God: “The hand of heaven has been pointed against the exciters of this war, every principle villian has been either killed or taken.” And this New Israelite could boast to his wife: “I think I may say that the Indian war is at an end for the present, the enemy is scattered over the whole face of the Earth, and at least one half must starve and die with disease.”
the seminole proved resilient though and, despite the cession of florida to the u.s. from spain in 1819, still held tenaciously to their grounds, w/ large numbers refusing then-president jackson’s enforcement of the 1830 indian removal act. subsequent incursions also proved unable to remove the seminole, who retreated further into the everglades.
now, aside from the indian removal & land theft angle (and there right now indian nations throughout the gulf area who have been impacted by katrina), there is another perspective w/ which to place this iconography of jackson’s statue in the current frame. the archeologist joe opala makes the case that the so-called seminole wars are in actuality part of the larger anti-slavery war waged by the southern colonists against an african resistance, identified here as the black seminole, comprised of escaped slaves & vigilant freedmen, who communed w/ the indigenous seminole bands.
As American settlement moved south, there was a series of skirmishes with the Seminoles, culminating in a full-scale war from 1835 to 1842. This ‘Second Seminole War’ has been misinterpreted by US historians as the longest and hardest of America’s ‘Indian Wars’. But the blacks were the backbone of Seminole resistance in Florida, and the US Army commander, General Jesup, called the conflict, “a Negro and not an Indian war.” A US congressman of the period said the black Seminoles were “contending against the whole military power of the United States.” In a tropical environment similar to that of West Africa the black Seminoles were able to live a free and prosperous life for generations, and to resist slavery on a massive scale without parallel in American history.
during the second war, lasting from 1835-1848, the u.s. army was defeated repeatedly, engaging half of all u.s. army troops, and costing the lives of 1500 u.s. soldiers & some $40 million.
General Jesup was unable to defeat the Seminoles, who subjected his troops to punishing hit-and-run attacks, before disappearing into the wilderness. He negotiated an agreement whereby the blacks and Indians would emigrate west voluntarily, keeping their property and their weapons. But when the US government sold the black Seminoles, who had come in freely under the agreement, as slaves in order to pay off the war debt, Jesup and his troops refused, turning away the slave buyers at gun point, and defying their superiors. The soldiers feared that the black Seminoles would escape back into the wilderness and renew the fighting or, if enslaved, foment insurrections on the plantations.
eventually, about 500 black seminoles & all but 500 other members of the seminole nation (who escaped further into the glades) were escorted to oklahoma to join the other relocated tribes. this series of wars ranks second only to the vietnam war as the longest in u.s. history. some say that the anti-slavery war is still going on. others say that new battles are on the horizon.
interesting sidebar:
The Black Seminoles were upset in 1849, when the U.S. attorney general decided that Black Seminoles were still slaves. The final straw came when whites demanded that the Black Seminoles, who were living in separate towns, surrender their guns. Under the leadership of Wild Cat and John Horse, they left the U.S. for Mexico in 1850. The Mexican government provided the Seminoles with a home in exchange for protection of the border from marauders. After the Civil War, many of these Seminoles moved to Texas and again found work protecting the border. However, prejudice encountered in the formerly confederate state along with broken promises about the ownership of land eventually drove a band of them return to Mexico in 1914. Sadly, the Black Seminoles never owned land anywhere after they left Florida. [source]
jackson suceeded in delivering his campaign promises to turn over other people’s land in the south to the white invaders. bush will fail.
Posted by: b real | Sep 17 2005 7:08 utc | 54
Dowd: Disney on Parade
isn’t it rather tasteless, not to mention a waste of energy, to haul in White House generators just to give the president a burnished skin tone and a prettified background?
The slick White House TV production team was trying to salvage W.’s “High Noon” snap with some snazzy Hollywood-style lighting – the same Reaganesque stagecraft they had provided when W. made a prime-time television address from Ellis Island on the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. On that occasion, Scott Sforza, a former ABC producer, and Bob DeServi, a former NBC cameraman and a lighting expert, rented three barges of giant Musco lights, the kind used for “Monday Night Football” and Rolling Stones concerts, floated them across New York Harbor and illuminated the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop for Mr. Bush.
Before the presidential address, Mr. DeServi was surveying his handiwork in Jackson Square, crowing to reporters about his cathedral: “Oh, it’s heated up. It’s going to print loud.”
As Elisabeth Bumiller, the White House reporter for The Times, noted in a pool report, the image wizards had put up a large swath of military camouflage netting, held in place by bags of rocks and strung on poles, to hide the president from the deserted and desolate streets of the French Quarter ghost town.
@b real
You make important points about the role of native Americans in the other culture of the South. By that I mean the culture of people who have survived despite all odds and in the process provided much of the US with it’s depth and resonance.
James Marshall Hendrix was the first African American/Native American artist that I became aware of down here, but he was by no means the first such person to achieve acclaim for his abilities.
Although the fact that he only achieved the respect he deserved once he moved to the UK is germane to the way in which his art was appreciated one could probably argue that it was this seperation from his cultural heritage that was at the root of his addictions.
This is why histories such as those that you have shown us are vital because they are tales of successful resistance. The amalgam of cultures that developed throughout the South as African Amerikans and Native Amerikans found commonality in their conflict with the expanding European culture has always been far more about celebration than victimhood.
I am sad to think that New Orleans may never really be the same post Katrina but we shouldn’t despair. We need to remember that the migration of former slaves North assisted in the expansion of the black Amerikan culture (eg Chicago blues). The net result of this new diaspora is likely to be the spread of an extremely robust and resiliant form throughout the US.
Most can imagine that the movement of New Orleans survivors to Salt Lake City Utah, for example will be far more likely to impact on the lifestyles of the prevailing culture there than Utah will impact on the refugees.
The Gretna sheriffs were small minded and mean spirited but they did understand that they were dealing with a far more vigorous lifestyle than their own, hence the shotguns.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Sep 17 2005 11:04 utc | 56
I mean, what did Shrub think he was supposed to do? Raise his hand and ask the teacher?
Um…
Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 17 2005 12:28 utc | 57
re. Debs at 8;16
I too am often stuck on how to refer to people from a particular country, living in a certain place, belonging to a certain group, etc. ‘Iraqis’ works, as Iraq is far away, and we all interpret the expression to mean ‘people living in the territory of Iraq’ even if many Iraqis have fled, some of the Gvmt. lives in London, etc. I sometimes use ‘residents’ and in an EU context that flies – ‘Swiss residents’ is OK. ‘Citizens’ is no good, as said. ‘The people of / from etc..’ sounds ridiculous in some contexts, though it will sometimes do for regions, etc.
One has to use lengthy, careful descriptions, it is a bore.
Then there are the traps and pitfalls. I was once banned for three days on an international board for calling another poster “a bloody minded Paki” – intended as a friendly dig. A flame war ensued – ‘Paki’ is an insult. A lazy typist gets death threats .. lunacy. Recently, an editor forbade me to use the term Middle East as the expression rests on an ethnocentric perspective, seen from Europe. This pissed me off so bad I simply deleted the passages.
Overall, what all this shows is that referring to any group that is regionally, nationally, ethnically, culturally, etc. defined is dangerous. On the one hand, people tend to define themselves in these ways more and more (capitulating to the Divide to Rule concept that is being foisted on us) and on the other, all (most?) of the definitions carry negative stereotypes along with them, as there is always someone about who denigrates that group.
Therefore, new words have to be invented all the time … we go from ‘Negroes,’ no longer permitted, to ‘Afro-Americans,’ jarringly politically correct. I use ‘Blacks’ and am just waiting for someone to tell me that Blacks aren’t .. well.. black ..so calling them that is demeaning.
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 17 2005 13:04 utc | 58
“Therefore, new words have to be invented all the time … we go from ‘Negroes,’ no longer permitted, to ‘Afro-Americans,’ jarringly politically correct. I use ‘Blacks’ and am just waiting for someone to tell me that Blacks aren’t .. well.. black ..so calling them that is demeaning.”
Story. In the summer of ’69 I got a job in the sociology department of my university doing clerical work between terms. One day one of the professors told me how a student had confronted him about his choice of words in class. I don’t remember now whether he used Negro or not. In my town (capitol of the former confederacy) I’m sure there were many who thought that ‘colored’ was still proper. He told me proudly that he got back in her face and said that “unless she looked carefully in the mirror that morning, she wasn’t black either”. Sociology.
Aside: One of his fellow musicians once said to Davis, “Miles, I wish I was as black as you.”
Posted by: beq | Sep 17 2005 13:47 utc | 59
“Funny, I always used the term “Amerikkklan”…”
OW!!! Right in the Red Neck.
Posted by: pb | Sep 17 2005 15:45 utc | 60
Funky Buddha:
A relative in Eastern Europe who lived through both World Wars held Naziism against the Germans all the more because she and many of her countrymen had always seen Germany as the most civilized of countries.
Posted by: ab | Sep 18 2005 1:41 utc | 61
a couple more relevant bits on andrew jackson –
the late, great francis jennings fills in a bit more perspective wrt jackson, the war of 1812, and how the more things change, the more they stay the same. these passages are from his book the founders of america: how indians discovered the land, pioneered in it, and created great classical civilizations, how they were plunged into a dark age by invasion and conquest, and how they are reviving.
Jackson had been puffed unrecognizably into an icon of Frontier Democracy. In actuality he had little feeling and less sentiment for common people. Jackson identified himself as a gentleman of substance and status above the common ruck. As a young lawyer he sided with creditors and against debtors, with property against the poor. He soon acquired slaves. He allied with the richest man in Tennessee politics, Governor William Blount, who had acquired a million acres of land by speculation, and it was Blount who had appointed Jackson commander of the Creek War troops.
…
The War of 1812 guaranteed security to colonizers of the vast Mississippi Valley. What must be stressed now is that the Valley was not a wilderness. Before the Anglo-Americans flooded in, a mixed population inhabited and organized the region for their own purposes. “Frontier history” has choosen to ignore their presence and the culture they had created and lived by for more than a century, primarily because those facts are completely at odds with the assumptions and theories underlying racist Frontier history…
…
Far from being the haunts of wilderness, the lower Mississippi Valley of the eighteenth century began to reassert the function it had perfomed as “main street” of trade under Mexico’s earlier Toltec colonists, but only up to the point (geographically) where trading networks fo the Great Lakes commercial system took over. (Competition was keen between merchants of Montreal and those of New Orleans.) By the nineteenth century, the southern system had acquired a maturity fully equal (at least) to the culture of backwoodsmen thrusting west from Tennessee. (Young Andrew Jackson did business at Natchez.) Interspersed among a multitude of small holdings were a few large plantations which became more dominating after the export market increased for cotton. Farms were fully agricultural including poultry, swine, cattle, and horses, many of which were imported from New Mexico. Entreprenuers descended from every ethnic stock and used every traditional commercial device, including pilfering and much smuggling.
In short, when Anglo-Americans broke into the lower Mississippi in the nineteenth century, contrary to Frontier mythology, they brought neither “civilization” nor “democracy” to the region. What they brought must be recognized as conquest and domination which they exerted through imposition of their own system of economics, politics, and government. They strengthened and added to what [historian] Daniel Uster describes as a “colonial elite” which “worked steadily to enforce bondage upon black Louisianians and West Floridians, dependency upon Indians, and subordination upon a mixed lot of white settlers.” The Anglo-American new social hierarchy and institutions acted to diminish instead of increasing personal freedom while introducing political democracy that functioned as such only for the herrenvolk. For lower castes and classes the new systems functioned as colonialism with increased emphasis on chattel slavery.
so there’s some more context to throw into the symbolism of jackson’s statue.
also, haven’t seen anyone mention that the color blue has a calming, soothing psychological affect on the viewer. i’m sure i’ve just overlooked any discussion pointing this out, but i find it very telling just how much psychology & behavioral science goes into their productions. so many levels. chill out viewer. don’t get mad at the preznit. disneyworld is coming to new orleans. relax, sit back & let us do things the american way.
Posted by: b real | Sep 18 2005 2:25 utc | 62