essaysfromtheedge

The Poster Boy Of The American Left

Meet Sean Penn: actor, bon vivant, activist-about-town.

Sean has decided to lend his immeasurable help to the people of New Orleans. He flew down with his retinue – almost a week after the hurricane - commandeered a boat, and hit the water. What he intended to accomplish was not clear. “Whatever I can.”

The boat had a leak. Well, not a leak, really – a drain hole that wasn’t plugged. In his zeal to lend “whatever aid he could”, Sean didn’t check the boat for water worthiness. As soon as Sean’s party cast off, they took on water, leaving the chagrined actor with nothing to do but bail with a red, plastic cup (dressed in the height of hurricane relief fashion, a white flak jacket).

Sean didn’t do much that day – he couldn’t, really, because his boat was filled with his retinue of publicity men, photographers, and FOS (Friends Of Sean). There was no room for victims. One bystander asked Sean, “How are you going to get any people in that thing?”

Sean spent a few hours paddling around the streets of New Orleans – he had to paddle, because the boat’s motor didn’t work. When he was done he ran straight for the news cameras and complained.

Whined, really. Whined about the lack of boats with federal government people on them. This was proof enough for the brilliant actor that the feds – read, “Bush,” in Liberal-Speak - weren’t doing anything. Of course, had the feds known Sean was going to be paddling in a sinking boat with a red, plastic cup, I’m sure they would have pulled all 40,000+ troops from the tedious job of rescuing people, whisked them off to the vicinity of Mr. Penn’s party, just so they could have been witnessed “doing their job,” which, of course, is to massage the actor’s ego.

You see, getting people into the boat is not the intention of the American Left. The goal here is for the Left to appear as though they care. Sean is surrounded by his aides, his photographers, and his spin-masters. The boat is full to the brim with his propaganda machine – there is no room for the truly needy.

Based on this Oscar-caliber performance, I nominate Sean Penn for The Poster Boy of The American Left.

Consider:

The Boat is Liberal America. It is taking on water (losing both popular opinion and the intellectual debate), and the reason is clear to everyone involved (their unwillingness to correct their agenda to meet the facts). Yet, rather than fix the leak, the left is satisfied solely with bailing out the boat with a red, plastic cup (blaming George Bush, or any handy conservative Republican, for their problems). They proclaim immense interest in the welfare of average Americans, yet they have no room in their boat for those very same Americans. And when all is said and done, their only contribution to our politics and culture is to complain bitterly and to pass the blame on to someone else.

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.

Think I’m making it up?

Here is evidence to back up my claim, from the mouths of the very same Liberals we have been hearing from for months and years; those same people who offer no new ideas, just hatred.

Item 1: George Bush is responsible for the hurricane

“There is much to be said and done about the manmade annihilation of New Orleans, caused NOT by a hurricane but by the very specific decisions made by the Bush administration in the past four and a half years. Do not listen to anyone who says we can discuss all this later. No, we can't. Our country is in an immediate state of vulnerability. More hurricanes and other disasters are on the way, and a lazy bunch of self-satisfied lunatics are still running the show.” http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=184

This quote is from Michael “Farenheit 9/11” Moore. Despite the fact that Global Warming is not proven, and that George Bush has been president for only 4 1/2 years, Moore considers it an open-and-shut case that he and he alone bears the guilt of this act of nature.

Michael Moore isn’t satisfied being the only left Looney to blame the hurricane itself on George Bush. RFK, Jr. gets into the action on his Huffington Blog:

“On March 13, Bush reversed his previous position [on CO2 emissions], announcing he would not back a CO2 restriction using the language and rationale provided by [former Louisiana Governor] Barbour. Echoing Barbour’s memo, Bush said he opposed mandatory CO2 caps, due to “the incomplete state of scientific knowledge” about global climate change.

“Well, the science is clear. This month, a study published in the journal Nature by a renowned MIT climatologist linked the increasing prevalence of destructive hurricanes to human-induced global warming.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/afor-they-that-sow-the-_b_6396.html

Item 2: George Bush is responsible for ALL of the poor response by local, state, and federal officials in their respective relief efforts

The Mayor of New Orleans, Nagin, put it this way in an interview with WWL radio:

WWL: “What do you need right now to get control of this situation?”

NAGIN: “I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.

“I'm like, ‘You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans.’

“That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.

“I've got 15,000 to 20,000 people over at the convention center. It's bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish. ... We don't have anything, and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish.

“It's awful down here, man.” http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/

Now one would think from the Mayor’s response that he had exhausted all of his options in rescuing his fellow city dwellers from Katrina’s deadly waters. Yet, one only needs to look under the media’s wrappings to find this picture of New Orleans school buses:



Before Katrina struck federal officials were on the phone to Nagin, begging him to evacuate people, and to declare a State of Emergency. The mayor refused, letting his bus fleet drown in filthy water, rather than use it to evacuate the people of his city. His incompetence resulted in hundreds of deaths.

The Mayor also turned down an offer by Amtrak to evacuate hundreds of people before the hurricane struck:

http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/12/103905.shtml

In an intense exchange with NBC’s Tim Russert, Nagin again peddles his excuses, all the while laying the entirety of blame on the federal government, despite Russert’s quoting the New Orleans' comprehensive emergency plan, which directly contradicts Nagin’s statements:

RUSSERT: “But, Mr. Mayor, if you read the city of New Orleans' comprehensive emergency plan-- and I've read it and I'll show it to you and our viewers--it says very clearly, ‘Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the mayor of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life-saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedure as needed. Approximately 100,000 citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation.’

“It was your responsibility. Where was the planning? Where was the preparation? Where was the execution?”

MAYOR NAGIN: “The planning was always in getting people to higher ground, getting them to safety. That's what we meant by evacuation. Get them out of their homes, which – most people are under sea level. Get them to a higher ground and then depending upon our state and federal officials to move them out of harm's way after the storm has hit.” http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46269

Here’s a complete transcript of the Meet The Press interview: http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46271

In the face of these accusations, the fact remains that the federal response to Katrina was faster than for hurricanes Hugo, Andrew, Iniki, Francine, and Jeanne. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05254/568876.stm

And, in a final embarrassing blow, the past few days has seen the breaking of the story of how Red Cross was not allowed in to New Orleans by State Officials before the levees broke:

http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46224

http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/9/105455.shtml

Item 3: George Bush let New Orleans go to hell in a handcart because Bush Hates Blacks

Kanye West breathlessly proclaimed this before live TV:

West: “I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, ‘They're looting.’ You see a white family, it says, ‘They're looking for food.’ And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!”

“George Bush doesn't care about black people!” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090300165_pf.html

Kanye repeated this on Ellen DeGeneres’ show:

"They have been trying to sweep us (African-Americans) under the kitchen sink and it was so in people's faces and so on TV... that they couldn't even hide it any more.” http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/kanye%20fires%20off%20again

West was shown how his words were received by America during his performance spot on the NFL Kickoff show Thursday night:

“The chart topping hip hop rapper star who used a network hurricane fundraiser to charge ‘George Bush doesn't care about black people’ was loudly and lustily booed during last night's NFL kickoff show.

“The appearance of Kanye West, who was beamed into the Boston stadium via remote from Los Angeles, received a strongly negative response from the crowd.

“’The boos were thunderous and lasted for much of his number,’ reports the BOSTON GLOBE.” http://drudgereport.com/flash9nfl.htm

And lest one think that these sentiments are only expressed by black rappers, the DNC’s Howard Dean said, "We must ... come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not.” http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/07/D8CFNMPG0.html

Item 4: The left used the tragedy to score both money and political points

Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, issued an appeal Thursday urging people to sign an online petition to fire the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency over his handling of the Katrina response. The same web page also called for donations to the DSCC – money that would be used for political campaigns, not for hurricane relief.

After an inquiry from the Associated Press, the DSCC quickly pulled down the page and said they would donate to charity any money raised by the anti-FEMA petition.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--katrina-democrats0908sep08,0,3588467,print.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/27913.htm

Even Al Gore got into the act:

"When the corpses of American citizens are floating in toxic flood waters five days after a hurricane struck, it is time not only to respond directly to the victims of the catastrophe, but to hold ... the leaders of our nation accountable," Gore told environmentalists at the Sierra Club's national convention. http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=3830037

Just as Cindy Sheehan used the tragedy of her son Casey’s death to propel her political agenda, so the American Left is using the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to propel their political agenda.

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So, the template is established, the boat continues to sink, and the little red cups flail. Left-wing politicians are demanding accountability, and an investigation. They want Bush to come out looking bad. But they had better be careful what they wish for: as in times past, those investigations may reveal Bush as the only principled man in this whole sorry affair. He has taken full responsibility for the slowness of the government’s response. Has New Orleans’ Mayor, or Louisiana’s Governor, taken responsibility for their own failed actions?

No. And they won’t. Not because they can’t see the truth – I believe they can. They see their boat filling with water, but they would rather bail with red, plastic cups, and blame others for their own mistakes, and hope that Americans don’t notice their own culpability.

It’s the only paradigm the American Left knows.


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posted by Tomás @ 9/15/2005 01:04:00 AM