Part of My Ecydis’ blogburst of shoes virtually thrown at George Bush’s exit.
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Not a minute too soon. Indeed, 4-8 years too late.
W the Wrought Destruction on Iraq and on New Orleans
Gee, and all the media said something about a hurricane hitting New Orleans. And the local and state governments sticking their fingers in their ears and singing “LA LA LA LA LA” in denial while the Feds told them “Hey, you know, there’s this hurricane on it’s way – maybe you ought to implement your emergency plan.”
But I guess I’m wrong – Bush wrought the destruction in New Orleans. He sent bombers or something, I guess, to get all that water in downtown New Orleans – not to mention the entire Gulf coast, who seem forgotten. Maybe that’s because their local governments actually DID implement their emergency plans and so you didn’t have the same problems that made for such good BDS pictures on CNN and the rest.
Odd how that all got done in New Orleans the NEXT time a hurricane came through. By the state and local governments. You know – the people whose job it is to do it?
Now, I didn’t say anything about “Worst Bush Moments” with relation to Katrina because there was a time for the feds to do something and they didn’t. He was truly out to lunch both on the basis of what actually got done and on the basis of the symbolism of the flyover and all whatnot, and he’s due criticism.
But he didn’t cause the destruction, and he didn’t cause the loss of life. That belongs to an act of God and the locals not doing their jobs.
I’ve decided I like the image better without the text (not because of Ron’s objection — sorry, Ron — but because I think the dashed-off text distracted from the actually-took-a-bit-to-put-together image), so I’ve removed the text.
But, for posterity’s sake:
On a somewhat related note, check out these photos of revelers in Dupont Circle throwing shoes at a giant blow-up doll of George Bush. (Via Kip.)
Is this going to be the new thing? Is this an acceptable form of cultural appropriation? Are we going to start throwing shoes (virtually or otherwise) at politicians we don’t like?
I wouldn’t try throwing a real shoe at the President. Something tells me you risk getting shot. Or at least spending quite some time in jail.
Jesus Christ, Ron. Give me a fucking break. Posting a picture of a shoe is not the equivalent of assault, nor is it somehow inappropriate.
You need to back up a minute, take a look at the miserable failure of a president you’ve supported for eight years, and ask yourself just why exactly so many people cheered when the original shoes were thrown.
—Josh
Sure it is. It’s a racist and imperialist appropriation of Iraqi culture that trivializes the suffering of the Iraqi people. Which is totally inappropriate and just like assault.
Posting a picture of a shoe is not the equivalent of assault,
Quite true. Which is why I never said it was. Where the heck did you get that?
take a look at the miserable failure of a president you’ve supported for eight years,
Something else I haven’t done. I haven’t even been posting here for 8 years. For all I know, this blog hasn’t existed for 8 years. So how the hell do you know what I have and haven’t supported for the last 8 years?
Even from what I have posted here it’s pretty obvious there’s a great deal that President Bush did over his term in office that I haven’t supported.
and ask yourself just why exactly so many people cheered when the original shoes were thrown.
Oh, I already did. It’s always entertaining to see an authority figure discomfited. A lot fewer might have cheered if he’d actually gotten hit in the face with one of them, especially if his security forces then reacted as I think they might have.
But none of that was my question. I was wondering if we here in the U.S. are now going to adopt the cultural meme from the Middle East that is associated with them, as illustrated by this posting.
Because you asked, “Are we going to start throwing shoes (virtually or otherwise),” as if they were roughly the same category.
Certainly you voted for him when it mattered, and defended him plenty.
—Myca
Sorry – I don’t see how you get from that to me equating something like what Amp put up here to assault. Doesn’t make sense to me.
Yup, I voted for him. I just really couldn’t see Gore or Kerry as President. But my motivation was more a vote against those two than a vote for Bush. I found him the lesser of two evils. There’s much he did that I didn’t support and I certainly haven’t been out there beating the drums for him.
The bulk of your posting here related to this failure of a presidency indicates otherwise.
Heh.
come on, myca, this was a joke.
Eh, maybe you’re right.
I’m just very familiar with the weird fetishism of ‘civility’ you see a lot on the right, where ‘Torturing People = A-OK’, but ‘Booing = uncivil and you’re a big meanie, and how could you!’ Since I’ve seen that from RonF quite a bit, I was reading this in that light. I doubt I would have had the same response if you’d written it, for example.
—Myca
Since I’ve seen that from RonF quite a bit,
Bull. Both in holding that torturing people was A-OK, and in reacting along the lines of “‘Booing = uncivil and you’re a big meanie, and how could you!’ ” when confronted with uncivil discourse.
And yes, it was definitely tongue in cheek. I thought the concept was rather clever to pick up on that incident and take advantage of it. I’m just wondering how much more we’ll see of it. Or, come to think of it, whether we’ll see it from the President’s opposition now that the shoe’s on the other foot.
Nonsense, Jake. I’ve supported President Bush’s actions when I thought that the criticism of them was based more on attempting to score political points than on actual merit (such as blaming him for the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, for example), but I have criticized him for where I’ve thought his actual actions were wrong (such as immigration policy, nominating that woman whose name I can’t think of for Attorney General, etc.). Overall Bush was an example of how Republican != conservative. He expanded the deficit and the intrusiveness of the government.
Wow. Let’s go to the taped playback.
RonF Said:
My point here, as there, isn’t that booing kids is okay, but rather that . . . well, I put it better here anyhow:
In at least two of those situations (the first two), you have objected to the first example, but not the second . . . and before you object to the ‘fundamental human rights’ formation, the Supreme Court has ruled that marriage is a right.
This is what I’m talking about. The idea that endorsing discrimination is political, but throwing a fit about it is impolite. And that there’s nothing wrong with having a differing political opinion, but it’s out of bounds to be impolite.
I think it stems from the fact that you’re not in danger of anyone having a political opinion over whether you can marry the person you love or adopt children, but you are in danger of people being impolite to you over your opinions.
—Myca
Furthermore, I would note that as a child, I would much rather have had someone scream obscenities inches from my face than prevent the marriage of (or forcibly divorce!) my parents. Right now, I would much rather be punched in the face than be told I cannot be trusted to adopt a child because I prefer same-sex romantic partners
The first are impolite, uncivil, and I believe you would be aghast at the suggestion that you would do them. Of course you wouldn’t scream obscenities at a child! Of course you wouldn’t punch someone in the face unprovoked!
And yet, two months back, you voted for someone who supported the second two.
I’m just saying . . . I think you need to examine which ones actually do more violence, because I don’t think I’m alone in the preferences I expressed in my first paragraph.
I’d get over the screaming, and my nose would eventually heal.
—Myca
In case anyone thinks otherwise, my comment regarding RonF’s joke (which i thought might amuse Myca) was in no way meant to imply support for the political positions he holds.
Totally. I didn’t think that at all, for what it’s worth.
—Myca