seems to think that Bush and the Republicans are the sole reason so many have died/are dying in NOLA, I ran across some interesting photos over at the JunkYardBlog. First the analysis of the photo:
With the improved resolution we count 255 buses in that one lot. That means at a capacity of 66 on board, 16,830 New Orleans residents could have been evacced out in one trip. Even if you have a lower capacity per bus, say 50 per bus, you're still getting nearly 13,000 out in one run. In an emergency mandatory evacuation, you could probably get away with putting more than 66 on each of those buses.
And here's the photo:
Now, did Bush control those buses? No. The local government does and did. Now they're as waterlogged as the rest of New Orleans. Again I'll quote the JunkYard Blog, since it's late and I don't have time tonight to write too much:
Led by Jesse Jackson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr and a slew of other major leftists who can't win political power the legal way, a larger than reasonable number of Americans have been sniffing revolutionary airs since the crisis started. They have tried to turn hurricane Katrina into a race war. They have blamed the crisis on everything from Bush hating blacks to the Iraq war to irrelevant budget cuts to whatever canard they could dream up. We should ask ourselves, to what end? Bush isn't running for re-election in 2008. He'll leave office soon enough. So why stir up so much animosity in the midst of crisis? What is their end game, or are they just driven by pure hate?
...
If we let Ray Nagin, Jesse Jackson, RFK Jr and the rest of the leftist mob define Katrina and tell us what went wrong, the coming big bang will be dangerous. These are dangerous people. They taste the air and sense blood. They feed on misery. They must be answered, they must be pushed back, or they will win.
Ditto. It's time for the residents of New Orleans to start asking Mayor Nagin some hard questions instead of just asking them of the Federal Government. Read the
whole thing.
Now, did Bush control those buses? No. The local government does and did. Now they're as waterlogged as the rest of New Orleans. Again I'll quote the JunkYard Blog, since it's late and I don't have time tonight to write too much:
The question very few seem to be asking is, "why did anyone have to die in the first place?"
ReplyDeleteMost would say, "well, we can't control the weather can we?"
However, the truth is, Katrina is the aftermath that is inevitable within a system that disables the slave class from being able to afford safety and the upper class from caring enough to afford them preventive care. If they did, there wouldn't be a slave class in the first place and Katerina would have been a passing cloud, that, whilst laying waste to buildings, would have left the people intact and breathing.
Passing cloud?
ReplyDeleteMaybe. Or maybe, it is not the "upperclass" that failed the poor in NO, but their faux-savior Democratic masters. The same government that over taxes, and over regulates, and pushes socialism is the one that did not prepare, and indeed, overall, never even made a dent in poverty. Perhaps, their ineffective robin-hood logic merely keep the poor poor where those who demagogue against the "upper class" want no real change in their power base. What if what we need is not more of a move toward the failed left, but a radical shift to the right. Especially, in democrat controlled areas. Perhaps a revolution is in order.
The 'left' has 'failed' because it doesn't know its 'left' from its 'right'. We have to consider this fact before we deem it to have failed. When we look at the history of 'left' failure, we'll find that there was something 'right' about it that caused it to fail.
ReplyDeleteCommunist governments does not have much of a chance of suceeding in a world full of capitalist ones - Unless the former's state is able to produce all that it needs to provide for the people. An angel in hell is soon rendered flightless.
"Perhaps, their ineffective robin-hood logic merely keep the poor poor where those who demagogue against the "upper class" want no real change in their power base."
Then, it would be prudent of us to get the right administrators in who do want a real change in the power base and institute checks that insures this.
Robin-hood sought to take from the rich and give to the poor, he didn't seek to get rid of the system that produces these two classes. So, 'Robin-hood logic' is not applicable here.
I used to think like yourself once. Till i decided to play devil's advocate and test the truth-value of my position.
Inquisitor, here's an modified occam's razor test for your original post; which is a simpler solution:
ReplyDelete1) provide via public transportation an opportunity for poorer people to escape an impending disaster
2)Destroy and rebuild the system on a failed model of centralized command economy that, historically, is notoriously unresponsive to the people, whether the country was resource-laden or not.
Your marxian rhetoric fails to consider the decades of corruption in LA stemming from the civil war and modified by Huey "Kingfish" Long to include populist/communist appeals (such as yours) to consolidtate a popular support premised on wealth resditribution while using patronage and coercion to maintain power once it has been gained.
Meanwhile, your cold capitalist upper class is donating money, homes, and all kinds of material and spiritual support to the poorer classes who survived and were evacuated.
Communist governments don't fail because they are surrounded by non-communist ones. They fail because they lack the mechanisms (elections, markets) to gauge the meeds of the people. They fail because they are unresponsive systems of governing.
In response to inquisitor's reponse:
ReplyDeleteFirst off, thanks for dropping by the blog and posting a comment.
I want to point out that radical solutions are unlikely to be accepted because of thy are radical. Most people aren't going to get behind a solution that envolves reshaping the nature of man and such. That being said, I don't think the comments section is a good place for the debate on the somewhat suspect value of radical leftist ideas. I guess, I'll just deflect and point out that I too could say that the rise of us evil right-wingers has been had too much left in it. And I might have more grounds since a large majority of the last century was dominated by left of the American center politics. However, I think we both agree that the democrat pandering to radicalism is empty lip service meant to keep them in power. If you don't like this post you'll hate "sui juris" and "every slayer has a death wish" in the August achivies.
"Communist governments don't fail because they are surrounded by non-communist ones. They fail because they lack the mechanisms (elections, markets) to gauge the meeds of the people. They fail because they are unresponsive systems of governing."
ReplyDeleteYou forget that the above was equally applicable to the capitalist system at its outset. However, thanks to good ole totalitarianism, the people made the gradual spiritual and intellectual exodus from one form of slavery to another whilst the government, over more than a couple of centuries became a system that allegedly 'works' in your eyes. I wonder what you would have said if you were part of the working class in the late 1800s. All systems, at its outset, will lack all necessary mechanisms to gauge needs. However, capitalism is one that, no matter how 'perfect' it becomes, thrives on denying the limitless potential of all humans by maintaining a system that inevitably leads to the relegation of the majority of humanity to a psychological, spiritual and intellectual underclass. i.e. like the way women were once treated. And whilst it is being perfected, it necessarily and intentionally thrives on death and deprivation whereas its antithesis is desirous of doing away with it amongst all of the people all of the time.
Finally, the 'cold capitalist upper class' has to donate for 2 simple reasons. 1. lest they have to do the work themselves, 2. lest they are discovered to be what they truly are by the rest of the working class in the rest of america. That can only bring about their downfall. The true litmus test of the 'selflessness' of the capitalist class is not in what they did after but what they did before to prevent the 'after'.
to Genie Junkie,
Thank you for taking this discussion in good form, most 'right-wingers' usually confuse insults for arguments. By the way, radical solutions are rarely accepted once radical ideas have become the norm. You must remember that the 'natural' system we are encumbered with was once 'radical' as hell - literally.
One more thing. I am as much a 'marxian' as marx was a 'christian'. My stand comes from a variety of perspectives such as buddhism, christianity, islam, hinduism, marxism, liberalism, etc. On the basis of reason, without allegiance to any school is how i attempt to operate.
My disenchantment with the system lies in the fact that it appeals to the worst in us rather than the best which translates to system being bolstered by those who made it, those who want to make it and those who have failed to make it. All of them with their feet on each other's heads. A master race is best built on the shoulders of masters rather than on the crushed bones and corpses of slaves.
Best regards to all.