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Linda McQuaig says right may have met its match in hurricane crisis (BARF ALERT!!!)
Toronto Star ^ | 09/11/05 | Linda McQuaig

Posted on 09/11/2005 11:04:02 AM PDT by Heartofsong83

Linda McQuaig says right may have met its match in hurricane crisis

When terrorists struck the World Trade Center, George W. Bush and his handlers quickly adopted a muscular approach to the crisis. Not so with Katrina.

While 9/11 prompted the administration to unleash the full resources of America in response, the deadly Katrina crisis had trouble catching Bush's attention. But then 9/11 was quickly spotted as the perfect justification for what Republicans wanted to do anyway: mobilize the U.S. for war and enhance the power of the military-industrial complex.

The Katrina disaster offers no such opportunities. On the contrary, it cries out for massive aid that threatens to drain resources from Republican pet causes like war-making and tax-cutting for the rich.

Indeed, Katrina has the potential to finally alert the American people to the dangers of the right's ideology — an ideology that rejects the notion of the "common good" and instead promotes an unbridled free market where everyone looks out for himself.

For decades the right has been pumping money into think tanks where this "every man for himself" ideology is gussied up and presented as a beneficial force that will lift all mankind to the state of prosperity depicted on TV.

But the Katrina fiasco shows us what "every man for himself" really creates: a society of such rampant inequality that, even as a devastating hurricane rushes in from the sea and the affluent depart, tens of thousands who are too poor, too sick or too old are simply abandoned and left stranded on rooftops as water rises around them.

This immense tragedy has been years in the making, as the right's ideology — implemented with particular gusto by the Bush administration — has redirected national wealth to the rich, leaving public programs, infrastructure and millions of people badly in need.

Its imprint is clearly visible in the Katrina saga. Despite the well-documented danger of a major hurricane hitting low-lying New Orleans, the White House slashed federal funding for preventative flood control and lifted a ban on developers destroying the wetlands protecting city. It also downsized and privatized the federal disaster management agency, FEMA, handing it over to inexperienced cronies who cut funding for a nationwide program aimed at reducing the impact of disasters by properly preparing for them.

So minimal was FEMA's preparation for Katrina that, despite two days warning, the agency had developed no real plan for helping those trapped in New Orleans. As CNN's Anderson Cooper reported, 15,000 desperate people who fled to the convention centre were cared for for days by a single doctor who showed up on his own, equipped only with a stethoscope and some medicine he'd looted from a pharmacy on his way over. Who needs planning?

This could be a turning point — just as the Walkerton tragedy finally alerted the people of Ontario to the dangers of the program-slashing, right-wing ideology of the Mike Harris government.

In Katrina and its awesome horrors, the right may have finally met its match.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linda McQuaig is a Toronto-based author and commentator. lmcquaig@sympatico.ca.


TOPICS: Canada; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: Louisiana; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: barf; barfalert; barkingmoonbat; bush43; gwb; katrina; laughable; lindamcquaig; loonyleft; moron; socialism; spew; technicoloryawn; toilettango; vomit; whiners
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1 posted on 09/11/2005 11:04:07 AM PDT by Heartofsong83
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To: Heartofsong83

"So minimal was FEMA's preparation for Katrina that, despite two days warning, the agency had developed no real plan for helping those trapped in New Orleans."

Bold faced lie.


2 posted on 09/11/2005 11:06:53 AM PDT by Fenris6 (3 Purple Hearts in 4 months w/o missing a day of work? He's either John Rambo or a Fraud)
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To: Fenris6

While I certainly do not give FEMA top marks, that is going waaaaayyyy too far...


3 posted on 09/11/2005 11:07:28 AM PDT by Heartofsong83
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To: Heartofsong83

My turn to write allegations unsubstantiated by fact:

"Linda McQuaig, obviously suffering from Syphillis acquired from trolling truckers at rest stops, writes yet another mentally ill MSM propaganda piece. There is a growing perception that her editors feed her crack to keep her lucid".


4 posted on 09/11/2005 11:09:57 AM PDT by Fenris6 (3 Purple Hearts in 4 months w/o missing a day of work? He's either John Rambo or a Fraud)
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To: Fenris6

She's well known to be on the far left of even Canadian media...


5 posted on 09/11/2005 11:11:30 AM PDT by Heartofsong83
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To: Heartofsong83

Explain to me why our foolish GOP leaders in Washington are letting the media conduct the only "independent" investigation of this situation. We need a panel of independent NONPOLITICIAN/NON-DCSTAFFER investigators to look at this IMMEDIATELY, before the damage is done by the leftwing media.

I suggest that the panelists should be former military, private auditors, consultants, and engineers with no apparent political affiliation.


6 posted on 09/11/2005 11:11:44 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Heartofsong83

Here's a clue for our Commie "friends" to the North... You take care of your problems and let us take care of ours.


7 posted on 09/11/2005 11:11:51 AM PDT by Accygirl
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To: Heartofsong83

8 posted on 09/11/2005 11:15:22 AM PDT by RightWingAtheist (Creationism is not conservative!)
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To: RightWingAtheist

If she believes this crap she just spewed, she needs
to check herself into the hospital that has doctors
tha5t treat people like Bob Jones, Kazinski, & Charles
Manson.


9 posted on 09/11/2005 11:18:36 AM PDT by NickatNite2003
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To: Heartofsong83
Do lecture us more, Linda. My day belongs to YOU.


10 posted on 09/11/2005 11:18:46 AM PDT by SteveMcKing ("I was born a Democrat. I expect I'll be a Democrat the day I leave this earth." -Zell Miller '04)
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To: Heartofsong83

So...we should give the federal governent even more power and authority, thus leaving the states and people with less responsibility...and resources, over their own lives? Isn't this part of problem, already?


11 posted on 09/11/2005 11:21:29 AM PDT by cwb (Liberalism is the opiate of the *asses)
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To: Heartofsong83
As CNN's Anderson Cooper reported, 15,000 desperate people who fled to the convention centre were cared for for days by a single doctor who showed up on his own, equipped only with a stethoscope and some medicine he'd looted from a pharmacy on his way over.

Although I would not believe a word Anderson Pooper reports, was this Doctor a government employee, or a good American concerned about his fellow citizens?

12 posted on 09/11/2005 11:27:02 AM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: SteveMcKing
Her agenda is attacking the "program-slashing, right-wing ideology of the Mike Harris government."

Bush is only incidental.

13 posted on 09/11/2005 11:36:38 AM PDT by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: Heartofsong83

I have a match for Linda Quaig .

Barney Frank ...


14 posted on 09/11/2005 11:41:54 AM PDT by lionheart 247365 (( I.S.L.A.M. stands for - Islams Spiritual Leaders Advocate Murder .. .. .. ))
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To: Heartofsong83

Karl Marx, Mao Tse Tung and Fidel Castro couldn't have put it any better Linda! Good job! Flatulence is a terrible thing to waste.


15 posted on 09/11/2005 11:56:17 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (We Gave Peace A Chance. It Didn't Work Out. Search keyword: 09-11-01.)
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To: ncountylee

She links the two together as well...typical socialist. She's on the left wing of even the liberal mainstream media - in Canada!


16 posted on 09/11/2005 12:02:16 PM PDT by Heartofsong83
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To: Heartofsong83

You know what linda? We have enough skunks in our own ratmedia to be insulted by and lied about, so just shut up.


17 posted on 09/11/2005 12:03:01 PM PDT by jmaroneps37 (The quisling ratmedia: always eager to remind us of why we hate them.)
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To: Heartofsong83

She'a a true communist believer not even close to liberal.


18 posted on 09/11/2005 12:04:54 PM PDT by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: ncountylee

Very true. She considers the Liberal Party of Canada "right-wing"! What do you expect from a card-carrying NDP (socialist) member???


19 posted on 09/11/2005 12:08:31 PM PDT by Heartofsong83
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To: Heartofsong83

Linda McQuaig has absolutely no idea what she's talking about.


20 posted on 09/11/2005 3:26:34 PM PDT by TaxRelief (follow the money...)
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