Sorry - not quite done tonight.

[tzikeh]

A beleaguered Mike Brown said Friday he DOESN'T KNOW why he was removed from his onsite command of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, but he does know the first thing he'll do when he returns to Washington.

"I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife, and maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep," Brown told The Associated Press. "And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help these victims."

-- from an article by Ron Fournier, Associated Press (link ASAP)

Republican congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee suggested today that the costs associated with Katrina were 'good reason to at least delay' expanding the Medicare prescription drug benefit. (more here)

Combine that with:

Monday, August 29, Katrina makes landfall and destroys New Orleans and much of the coast of three states. Friday, September 2nd, Republican Senator Bill Frist called for a vote to permanently repeal the estate tax ("death tax").

In order to pay for the inconceivable damage wrought by this storm, Republicans want to save *pennies* by making sure that the poor and elderly in our nation cannot get any more help, and at the same time want to be certain that Americans in the top one-half of one percent never have to pay a dime in tax. The war over the Estate tax is solely a fight for a massive tax break for the wealthiest one-half of one percent of estates. The cost to the rest of us: over $400 billion in the first ten years. You think capping Medicare prescription assistance will net us anywhere near that sum?

We are the wealthiest nation in the world when it comes to money. We are apparently the poorest when it comes to common sense or empathy.

Oh, and one last thing - Here is a clip of Bill O'Reilly explaining why schoolchildren need to see the devastation that Hurricane Katrina brought to our shore. Right-click and save. It's in QuickTime, it's all of thirty seconds long, and I guarantee you that you need to see it. Once you've seen it, if you have something to say to Fox News, you can email them at Comments@foxnews.com, or call them at 1-888-369-4762.

Comments

[lumenara.livejournal.com]

Is there any way we can send that last clip to Lewis Black? Because I got NOTHIN'.

*incredulous*

[ardent-muses.livejournal.com]

Brown's a real humanitarian, isn't he? Maybe he should give himself a trip to Disneyland, just for doing such a fine job. Poor guy.

And WTF with O'Reilly? I'd like to think that was a parody. I know it's not. WTF?

Borrowed your icon. Hope that's okay.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Totally okay.

[rachelmap.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think he might actually feel sincerely bad for the victims... But he's still an incompetent working for the ignorant and apathetic.

I'm fine with hime being fired or 'retiring,' but we have to keep our eyes on his higher-ups. They hired him, they told him what to do and how to do it rather than telling him what he should have done, and now that they need a scapegoat they are going to throw him to the wolves.

[rinoachan326.livejournal.com]

bill o'reilly should've quit after that drunken phone call

[debchan.livejournal.com]

Here's what I sent:

How proud Fox News must be to not only blame the victims for the tremendous suffering and hardship they went through, but to call each and ever one uneducated crack-addled gangsters as well.

"Don't rely on the government." Don't worry, I don't. I've seen exactly I can expect from the federal government in times of crisis; a guitar strumming president and a head of FEMA who didn't even know (supposedly) or care that people were dying. I've seen Tom DeLay asking refugee children if having lost everything they ever had was "fun." I've seen our president's mother commenting on the good fortune of these refugees, saying how lucky they are to live in the Astrodome. I've heard Rep. Baker of Baton Rouge telling lobbyists, "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did."

My government obviously doesn't give a damn about the victims of Katrina unless they're rich, white and named Trent Lott. In that case, they'll all get a new house with a nice porch. The other victims of get a cot in the Astrodome, but only IF they managed to survive for days without food, water or rescue. The rest of them weren't so lucky. But I guess they deserved it for being poor.

How is this compassionate? How is this fair and balanced? How do you people sleep at night? Aren't you sick at the sight of how badly our government bungled this? Aren't you furious at how we've been lied to, and continue to be lied to, by the very people who are supposed to work for us? When, God, WHEN will you stop trying to prop up the party line and start reporting the news?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

That's a magnificent email. I pray that one person, *just one* person, at FoxNews wakes up because of it.

Sample Letter

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

I watched a snippet of Bill O'Reilly discussing why children should be taught not to become "poor and powerless" in America. Because 'you will be left to die by America like the people in New Orleans. That's just the way it is.'

I was offended by this - Mr O'Reilly was suggesting that it is OK for American children to be taught that the "poor and powerless" will be allowed to die in our country. The poor and powerless are American citizens and are guaranteed by our Constitution a government that will not interfere with/and whose goal is to support "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness." For Bill to speak otherwise implies he does not believe that he - or any other American - should strive to uphold the Constitution. At worst, it argues that American citizens should not expect to see their government aspire to Constitutional ideals. It teaches apathy and indifference.

I will no longer allow anyone in my family to watch Fox - and will be asking that our teachers speak out against Bill O'Reilly.

Yo!

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

I'm still at work--is there a transcript of the O'Reilly piece?

Re: Yo!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Yo - not that I've found? I won't take the clip down, though.

Re: Yo!

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Re: Yo!

[rachelmap.livejournal.com]

It might turn up on http://www.crooksandliars.com/ http://mediamatters.org/ or http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/ but http://www.newshounds.us/ is probably the most likely.

Got it.

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

"Earlier this week I debated Newt Gingrich about my thesis that self-reliance, not reliance on government, is the key to self-protection. If you're poor, you're powerless. That's why the poor got smashed in the hurricane zone. Columnist Liz Smith wrote that I failed to 'give the poor any advice on how one finds a proper education or a job.' Liz Smith is extremely fair and accurate, so I am pleased to respond to her. The USA has mandatory education, but nobody can force you to learn. If you refuse to do the work, you're going to be ill-equipped, and all the government programs in the world are not going to change that. Every American kid should be required to watch video of the poor in New Orleans and how they suffered because they couldn't get out of town. And every teacher should tell the students that if you refuse to learn, you will be poor and powerless. One does not 'find' an education. Public education is free, libraries are free, and scholarships are everywhere. For centuries charlatans have been telling Americans that government will provide, and you deserve to be provided for. Bull! Depend on yourself - get educated, get smart, and get personal resources. That is the lesson of Katrina."

Re: Got it.

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Oh God. Sigh

That is *not* the lesson of Katrina, but I do agree that education is the thing. The student population I teach knows it, too. That's why they're not as complacent as the well-off suburban kids I used to teach.

If don't acquire an education, stupid jerks like Reilly have the upper hand.

Re: Got it.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Public education might be free but if you're living in NOLA it also SUCKS. When I was down there Louisiana was ranked 49 in education. It would've been 50 except thank God for Mississippi. Teachers were known to fake test scores just to try to bring the average up.

Sure, you can get free education, so long as you don't mind being told orange is a kind of planet.

What you said.

[loreleif.livejournal.com]

Not to mention a culture surrounding and permeating public education that devalues actual intelligence and learning, but that's a whole different rant.

Plus the fact that it is perfectly possible, especially given the current state of the economy, to be highly educated and still not have a job.

Re: Got it.

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

I admit to knowing absolutely nothing about educational opportunities in NOLA.

But I can tell you for many years in the past (and now currently) I have (and am) teaching what is euphemistically described up here as an 'urban' population of college students. A good portion of these students come from public school systems which, I dare say, are as underfunded and as negligent as those in Louisiana. Some of the schools are, quite frankly, a travesty.

Somehow, these bright, brave kids manage to get into college and when they do, we can throw them a metaphorical life preserver, develop their talents, and put them on a career path.

Again, I have absolutely no idea of the situation down there, nor of the determination of the local colleges.

But it *can* be done and I firmly believe that education combined with perseverance on everyone's part is the key. Considering where I started myself, it certainly worked in my own life.

Re: Got it.

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

I should add here, however, that O'Reilly's equating of "the gangsta life" with what happend in New Orleans is abominable.

Re: Got it.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but the exception's not the rule. And it seems to be catagorically unfair to give those kids an underfunded, understaffed, undereducated public school system and then blame them for not coming out of it smart enough.

Re: Got it.

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Oh I agree. And O'Reilly was being abominably unfair.

But in general, there is a sort of anti-education atmosphere that runs through American culture, both white and black. Beind the smart kid, the different kid, the "geek" kid is not cool, except on an occasional tv show.

Re: Got it.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Very true. It makes you wonder how much of poor school budgets come from people not valuing education enough.

Re: Got it.

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

I think that's part of it. But then, if one group wishes to stay on top of another, the first group keeps the other uneducated, whether deliberately or neglectfully.

In countries that oppress women, girls are not schooled or even taught to read. And then the women grow to think that's the way things should be and it becomes a 'fact' of culture. Women don't need to read, they don't have the capacity to read, and even the women believe it themselves.

Education is not a cure-all. As we all know, one can have a PH.D. and be out of work or in a low paying job.

But I'm talking about teaching folks *to think* ---to reason, to consider, to debate. Elsewhere on LJ I've been discussing faith and reason, religion and science (I do not believe the two are diametrically opposed.) It's ironic that the portion of the culture represented by folks like O'Reilly is not pro-knowledge either and are fighting to send us all back to a time pre-Renaissance.

It's getting to be a scary world. New Orleans is a wake up call in more ways than one.

Re: Got it.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Actually - this isn't what he says in the clip - you should watch it.

Re: Got it.

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

I'm home, I've seen it-my god, you could bottle the smug.

Re: Got it.

[loreleif.livejournal.com]

And if you study and work hard and get an education and you still can't afford to put food on the table?

Oh, right. You don't exist; sorry, forgot all the poor are lazy and uneducated. I just want to know when being smart and educated earns me those resources, instead of just a shitload of debt to the government.

(Thanks for the transcript, <lj user="tazlet"!)

Re: Got it.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Actually - the clip isn't that transcript. Give it a look.

Re: Got it.

[loreleif.livejournal.com]

Well, poo. Can't look just now; too many memory-intensive things running already!