Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Are the Democrats Joseph Pulitzer in the Newsies?

I have a question for congressional Democrats and liberals across the board - what the hell do you think you're saying?

Here are a few excerpts from what democrats are saying now:

Howard Dean: "We must ... come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived [in New Orleans] and who did not..."

Nancy Pelosi: "When I said to the president that he should fire Michael Brown [the director of FEMA] , he said 'Why should I do that?' recalled Rep. Pelosi. 'I said because of all that didn't go right last week. And he said, 'What didn't go right?' He is oblivious, in denial, dangerous."

Al Sharpton: "We've probably faced the greatest natural disaster that we have seen in the history of this country," Sharpton told about 60 people at a breakfast at the Hyatt hotel in downtown Rochester. "And in the middle of it, we have seen the discriminatory tenets of those that ignored what was going on in the New Orleans area until it was three or four days old."

Kanye West: "George Bush doesn't care about black people." The Grammy-winning rapper said, "I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food." West did acknowledge the efforts put forth by the American Red Cross but declared that government authorities are purposefully dragging their feet on aiding the ravaged Gulf Coast. "They've given them permission to go down and shoot us," West said without specifics.

And on and on and on. I was thinking about these recent totally insane rants by liberals, and I was reminded of a movie called Newsies. In this particular scene the hero of the movie (Jack) explains to Joseph Pulitzer (wonderfully played by Robert Duvall) that Pulitzer can no longer ignore the masses outside his window. (Imagine Pulitzer with his hands over his ears yelling)

JACK:
Look out here. Right out here is where the power is.
(Jack opens the window. All the kids are still yelling Pulitzer covers his ears)

PULITZER:
Close the window! Close the window! Go home! Go home! Go home!

JACK:
I can't hear you , Joe!

PULITZER:
Go home! Go home to your mothers and fathers! Go home!

JACK:
I don't hear ya!

PULITZER:
Now you listen to me!

JACK:
Maybe you should listen!

PULITZER:
No, no! You listen to me!

JACK:
No! You listen!

PULIZTER:
Close the window and shut up!

JACK:
There's a lot of people out there and they ain't just gonna go away. They got voices now and they're goin' be listened to!


Now replace Pulitzer with any liberal or Democrat of your choosing. Replace Jack with any conservative or Republican that you choose. Now replace the screaming masses outside the window with the American people.

It's time for liberals to stop loitering in their delusions and discover the real world for themselves.

It's time for them to shut up and listen.

3 comments:

slowpitch said...

In fact, we didn't miss his column, but it was certaionyl the worst I've ever seen of him. Here's what I posted yesterday on the NYTimes columnist forums page (search for "dichotomy" and it comes up) #33643:

fallacy of false dichotomy
"prepare for a hurricane or cut taxes"

I normally admire Mr. Freidman's work, but this column was truly crap.

Noone doubts that emergency and rescue efforts or water control projects are for government to either perform or contract out. These are collective action problems that noone is willing to pay for themselves and the shared benefit is more for each person than is contributed.

But does it have to be the federal government? IIt's difficult to properly assess this situation now when there are still human tragedies occuring in the region. But for the same reason New Yorkers don't see a need for the feds to pick up the cost of the Soil Tilth Research Lab in Iowa, it's hard to imagine forcing Alaskans to pay for levy improvements in a city that exists surrounded by water but below sea level.

More fundamentally, this article is a poor assessment of the last five years. Maybe Mr. Friedman is writing with a hot head out of anger at the situation. But if he criticizes Mr. Bush for using political capital from 9/11 to push through a social agenda, his column certainly exemplifes the effort to use Katrina to further whatever cursory priorities exist on the left.

radar said...

I actually read the column, too. Powerline had an excellent debunking of it that I enjoyed as well. I could have included Friedman in my list of people saying crazy things.

It's bizarre that columnists (especially for the times) can ignore facts and repeat distortions in order to make a point.

Indeed, for Friedman to claim that Bush took "a radically uncompassionate conservative agenda - on taxes, stem cells, the environment and foreign treaties - that was going nowhere before 9/11" would assume that the majority of Americans claimed a liberal political ideology. Also, as pointed out by Powerline, Bush's tax cuts were in place before 9/11.

Further, Friendman goes on to lie about the levees in New Orleans: "the New Orleans levee that was never properly finished because of a lack of tax dollars" is a completely bogus statement - the levees that broke were updated and finished years ago - they were the best they could be. Other unupdated levees held - I know this becuase my borther-in-law worked for the Corps of Engineers - he told me.

Finally, the whole premise of Freidman's article is that the federal governemtn is responsible for the Katrinia disaster. It's becoming quite clear that this is not the case. As it was in previous disasters it is up to local leadership to begin and prepare for disaster. Only the lack of ability by the governor of LA and the Mayor of NO are responsible for the initial 'nothing.'

For Friedman to blame Bush is just as silly as Howard Dean to claim that race had anything to do with the suffering of the people in New Orleans - it makes no sense.

Anonymous said...

Kanyne West Stated,"George W. Bush don't care about black people". I agree with Kanyne West just in a different point of view.The main reason why the Bush admistration response slowly, beacuse New Orleanse is a low income city.This situation is mostly about class not so much of race. The statistic shows New Orleanse is one of the pooriest cities in the United State and about 30 to 45 percent are African Americans.Three out of five people who where in Hurrican katrinia where African Americans.Many people critized and did not appreciate Mr. West statement about Mr. Bush on national television.But many people apppreciated went they showed black people on national televison looting and stealing food and protraying them as animals. In which they showed a white family stealing food from a store to priovide from their family.Went Mr West made that statment he awaking the nation.