Looting Hypocrisy
By on Aug 31st, 2005 at 10:21 am
Looting Hypocrisy
Michelle Malkin said at the time of the Baghdad lootings shortly after the invasion, “Peter Jennings and the New York Times couldn’t get enough of the looting stories out of Iraq.”
Her comments were echoed by Donald Rumsfeld:
Stuff happens… Freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.
Now Malkin can’t get enough of the looting stories out of Hurricane Katrina:
Things are spiraling completely out of control–and contrary to some naive observers, the crimes are not just being committed by people desperate for basic food and sustenance.
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The difference is that that the looting in Bagdad went against Malkins preconcieved notions (we will be greated as liberals) while the looting in New Orleans reinforces them (people who live in cities steal things).
August 31st, 2005 at 10:34 amWhat is her point? Is she trying to say any of us (or anyone for that matter) support looters?
She isn’t that far removed from Ann Coulter. Only a couple of brain cells imho.
August 31st, 2005 at 10:38 amher point is that Americans are scum at heart. It’s a form of compassionate conservatism
August 31st, 2005 at 10:46 amSo Ann Coulter hates NY, Malkin hates NO. Big deal.
August 31st, 2005 at 10:48 amI could tell by looking at them they were all “liberals” doing the looting. If Clinton would have been been doing his job back in the 90’s by keeping minorities in their place, this wouldn’t have happened.
August 31st, 2005 at 10:55 amDoes this mean Rumsfelt was wrong when he said the looters in Bagdad were only expressing their newfound freedom?
August 31st, 2005 at 11:00 amWhat did anyone ever do to Malkin? She’s such hateful baby Anne Coulter.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:08 amWhen Malkin writes about things spiralling out of control, I thought she was referring to the rising flood-waters and the unfolding human catastrophe in the wake of Katrina.
But no, it’s the looting that she’s mad about. What compassion. I bet the store-owners are just devastated by the looting; I mean when you’ve got a wrecked business you just go mental with the world when someone runs of with some diapers without paying.
Just further proof that people like Malkin DO NOT live in the real world. Never had a real job, never known what hardship really is. If she had anything helpful to contribute, she’d post a link to the Red Cross… but no, not even that.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:10 amHow to differ between “looting” and “finding supplies”
black = looting
white = finding supplies
http://www.wonkette.com/
August 31st, 2005 at 11:10 amLet me tell you about the current mindset of a National Guardsmen. Off topic but lends to the type of anger that is now America.
“John” is my next door neighbor. He has been in the Guard for 13 years. He’s married with 2 daughters. He works for the military as a helicopter mechanic.
Aug. 3rd he left for his agreed upon 2 weeks. He returned on Aug. 20th. On Aug. 26th he left for his one weekend a month and returned on Aug. 28th. The military “owned” him for the majority of August as they do every August.
When he arrived home on Sunday the 28th my husband and I were barbequing and invited “Johns” family over for dinner. “John” was pretty quiet and stated that he was very tired. He ate and left. The rest of the family stayed about another hour then went home.
The next day (this past Monday) “Johns” wife came over and apologized for her husbands quick departure. We stated that we understood that he was tired and it was okay. She stated that “John”always comes home tired, short tempered and agressive when the military owns him for a month but this year was different. We didn’t know this family last year so we had nothing to compare his behavior with. “Johns” wife stated that “John” wants to kill people and she is scared. She stated that she feels the military has brainwashed him to have the desire to kill as he may have to go to Iraq.
“John” took today off at his wifes suggestion to get some rest. He is outside this very moment yelling and screaming and throwing things. He did the same thing yesterday and the children have been told to stay away from daddy and don’t ask him for anything.
I’ve never seen this normally quiet man behave so violently. The military is destroying a beautiful family.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:14 amBy the end of the week the Superdome will be the Superdump.
great site
August 31st, 2005 at 11:23 amFormer mayor of New Orleans says Pres Bush needs to do something now, today, send in the military to evacuate the 30-40,000 people stranded in the city. Bush will be having a meeting this afternoon to coordinate task forces who will then meet to coordinate more task forces. On Friday Bush will visit New Orleans.
By then the 30,000 inside the SuperDome will be sick?, insane?, using the hallways as toilets cause the sewer system is overflowing, drinking wastewater cause their ain’t no water, eating dead animals that float by. But as long as the army protects the businesses along Canal street from looters, all is well.
It’s good to know the President and military have their priorities in order.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:24 amAnd very soon, Susan’s neighbor “john’ will soon be focussed on stopping the “looters”(well the one’s of color and descendents of slaves) in the Gulf Coast region. Great training for the urban guerrilla warfare of Iraq i am sure. They are calling in guardsmen from around the country now, as they realize the problems are massively worse than first examined.
The focus of the media on portraying looting as a huge and hideous crime is nothing less than the desperate attempt to reinforce the private property is sacred meme. When this sort of chaos begins to happen across the US, and people who have suffered from the outrages of corporate capitalist greed(cutting of funds for services to the poor while stockpiling wealth for the superrich, much of it offshore and untaxed) the MSM wants to be sure they have told their minions that using deadly force to protect your material property(as if you could eat it or as if it is something that you pray to and worship each day) is an appropriate response. And when that message is supplied with images of african americans there is little room to equivocate about who to kill.
Then there is the sheer idiocy of suggesting that we feel especially sorry for those people of moderate to high wealth who used their economic resources, garnered through their Bush tax cuts, to build their dream houses on coastal alluvial planes that are only a few feet above sea level. Then i guess ignorance of the probable forecasted long term affects of increased ocean temperatures is their safe excuse, afterall it was their appointed president that told them it was okay.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:30 amThe comments on this thread already have proved the point that the Bushies expect to remain in control by promoting hate. Now even a national disaster has become the creation of the “Liberals” and the “Looters” for their own personal gain. They maximize their position by directing their hate to another group just as another similar party did in this world some seventy years ago. It is no wonder the Bushies are compared to the Hitler and the Nazis as their methods are the same–even down to their propaganda and “Columnists.”
August 31st, 2005 at 11:32 amMalkin is nothing but a pretty face.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:34 amIf she looked like Gretta van Frankenstein should wouldn’t get the time she does. It’s the Coulter formula.
Sex selling tabloid-grade news.
Yeah, what #14 said. Right on.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:36 amIs There Blame for Katrina?
My sister said to me the other day how captivated she was as Katrina was getting ready to roar ashore, how we build all these things and have all this technology, but are completely powerless to stop a force of nature. In 2005, our man-made power and…
August 31st, 2005 at 11:37 am#12 spyder, “John” is mostly likely on edge waiting for orders to go to Louisiana or Mississippi. It would be a mission of mercy by our standards but with his head so screwed up who knows how he will treat the victims. Being away from his family again will more than likely destroy his marriage.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:40 amI’m never surprised by the stupidity spewed by Malkin.
At least she and her friend-Coulter- are consistent.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:43 amSusan
Your neighbor John is acting out something dangerous. I would suggest that his wife seeks out help either through local counseling or through the VA (perhaps his unit). As a vet I have had experience with deployments, and this sounds above such “deployment issues” and more like another underlying problem. I urge you to approach his wife.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:49 amspyder in #12,
I think you’ve summed it up perfectly my friend. The state of this nation is rapidly deteriorating and incidents like Katrina only stand to exacerbate a country, an economy that has very little room for error. This economy, our debt, the war, fossil fuel demand and its increasing cost is creating a prefect storm for disaster and the “leadership” has left no wiggle room. Once the disaster starts to spread and the 90% of the population that can’t afford the drastic shift in cost of living, looting may become commonplace. The fraudulent mainstream media, the wealthy and the authorities (federal government) need to send a clear early signal that “shooting to kill” will be how the desperation of American citizens will be dealt with. One more major incident and martial law will be the law of the land. Cross your fingers people…it’s about to get ugly.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:59 amAs for Malkin, Michelle, Michelle, Michelle.
The right is starting to convulse. The thrashing is going to get much much worse. Dear Leader has spent all his capital on ice cream and is left with nothing. I believe we are witnessing a historical event. We are watching a political party self-destructing in a way never before seen (of course, our own is not stepping up either). Malkin and her ilk on the fringe are responding with the desperation of addiction, deny and attack. I don’t know if I should laugh and stand back, or just watch with cold detachment.
August 31st, 2005 at 12:02 pmThanks citizen. “Johns” wife wants to talk to me in private but her husband is home today. She seems extremely nervous. This guy is normally very quiet and I suspect he will say he can handle it on his own. I’m very worried about this family and if things sound too rough I don’t think I can call the cops on him or anything like that. What do you mean by underlying problem? Can you elaborate please. I know for a fact that he doesn’t want to go to Iraq and kill people, at least he didn’t at the beginning of the month.
August 31st, 2005 at 12:02 pmWhen someone in New Orleans takes a TV, they might watch it for years to come. Imagine the carnage.
When Bush and Cheney allowed the looting of the ammunition dumps and explosive sites, well… let’s cut this liberal media stuff anyway.
(When is the last time that catastrophic success freed up some time and resources, anyway? Uhh… I guess the greatest satellite reconnaissance system was uh.. er… turned off er… something… 300 tons of HMX? Didn’t see a thing.)
— Kitchen Tip of the Week :
Keep all that powdered HMX explosive a fresh as the day you looted it, by storing in Tupperware. It’s easy to smuggle, too! Not like a TV, or armor-piercing soviet shells.
August 31st, 2005 at 12:07 pmSusan
Without knowing John it is impossible to elaborate. However, guessing would be financial, loss of control over his life, or maybe just too close to the furnace of Iraq as a reserve. We all know that under stress we are capable of acting irrationally, as such I sure if events spiral John would want you to call the police if violence occurs. I really don’t that will be the case. It has to be his wife who seeks help, I’m sure he trusts her and respects her fears.
August 31st, 2005 at 12:14 pmNow should not be the time, as Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly has noted, for the politics of blame. In the wake of Katrina’s devastation along the Gulf Coast, Americans should be united in providing relief, resources and support to all in need.
But sadly, that massive relief effort will take place during a time of divisive and fundamental debate about the very meaning of national unity in the United States. As New Orleans struggles for survival, the President and his amen corner are waging a full scale assault on the Estate Tax, what they derisively (and effectively) term the “Death Tax.” They will continue to pursue this massive transfer of the U.S. treasury to America’s wealthiest, even as a mountain of evidence shows that successive Bush budget cuts devastated New Orleans’ disaster preparedness and levee maintenance…
For the full story, see:
“New Orleans Pays the Death Tax.”
August 31st, 2005 at 12:25 pmThe real question is; How will the Bush Regime use the hurricane devastation to scare the American people, into submission again?
Since his poll numbers have dropped the Neo-Cons have to turn this American tragedy against the American people.
August 31st, 2005 at 12:28 pmNow is the time to point out the massive failure on this one. I used to work in disaster management. This one was completely forseeable, they just didn’t focus. This was one of the 3 biggest disaster scenarios in the US, along with the new Madrid and CA Earthquakes. And the golden rule, was don’t let the levees get breached, and second make sure order is kept. They blew it on both counts.
If you want to get rid of incompetents you need to point out when the fail. Being polite and rallying around the flag might work if they people in charge know what they’re doing. They don’t. This is the third big thing they blew (along with 9-11 and Iraq).
The choice is being rude or enabling incompetence at the highest levels.
August 31st, 2005 at 12:37 pmI have all kinds of jokes about the Superdome and the “bowl” that NO sits in, but this is just too sad. I’ll just write a check to the RED CROSS today instead.
August 31st, 2005 at 1:05 pmPut that witch in an internment camp.
August 31st, 2005 at 1:18 pmIf the right wing focuses on looting, they can ignore that these giant storms are a part of global warming that they’ve ignored for 40 years. They can also ignore that Bush has cut funds on Hurricane preparedness, and that even though we’ve known for a good 30 years that this day would come, the federal government has done nothing significant to deal with this emminent event….
August 31st, 2005 at 3:20 pmSusan, I am sorry for your neighbor – and appreciate the comments by Citizen.
August 31st, 2005 at 6:21 pmI can only wonder how many more like him are going to appear.
Damn Bush! I blame him for all of this.
I don’t think I have heard anyone complaining about people breaking into places and taking food, clothing, water, diapers, formula, or necessities like that. That is definitely going on and I can not imagine any Cop or National Guardsman or Press person not turning a blind Eye to it. No reasonable person expects anyone to starve or go thirsty or unclothed in such a situation when there are supplies in the area that can be used.
What I have heard people complaining about is people breaking in and taking big screen TV’s, and diamond bracelets, and shooting a Cop in the head. None of those are actions required to satisfy needs. Taking food to feed yourself or others is perfectly justified. If you have time to go steel a big screen TV then you are hardly in a survival situation. I suppose they could be steeling it to barter for food, but right now food and water are much more valuable than big screen TV’s.
I think more likely they are buying into the entire obscene consumerism society that we have going here. No one needs these things. There are people all over the world for who the price of the big screen TV represents several years worth of wages.
They are behaving entirely American though. Thousands of us are spending more than we earn to purchase just the same kind of crap.
August 31st, 2005 at 9:03 pmLooting is an ugly thing. It’s something our social fabric is loath to condone. Yet, it’s clearly symptomatic of a larger issue. The majority of citizens in this country have been “legally” looted for decades by a privileged class that perpetuates its own wealth at the expense of all others. This group bobbles itself off our backbone while slicing away our flesh for consumption. They systematically culture an environment of non-recourse where they declare and we can’t object. They declare what our options should be with respect to what energy, what medicines, what laws, what food, what news, what morality, what jobs, etc., and restrict our access and remedy to all alternatives in every manner, not unlike the culturing of barnyard animals. In summation, they declare war but we fight it. Most of these folks have never achieved anything on their own. They have been given everything for nothing. Most of these folks have never done any real work as we know it. Instead they use things like calculators to add up their booty and policemen to bash heads and maintain “civility.†They are all talking heads. They have absolutely no sweat equity in the foundation of America as we know it. Our backyards have become their outhouses. They are as lazy and demented as they are thoughtless and arrogant. Looters, like children, are only displaying the same lack of human respect they have been shown by sham parenting. Looting, is after all, a frenzied and opportunistic form of disobedience that imbues the offenders with a transient equality, thus capitalizing on any breach in the levee to do unto those that which has been done to them.
September 1st, 2005 at 8:47 am“I am beginning to believe that black people, no matter where in the world they are, are cursed with a genetic predisposition to steal, murder, and create mayhem.”
I didn’t say that, this guy did.
http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20050902/cleisure/cleisure1.html
September 6th, 2005 at 10:49 am“Looting is an ugly thing. It’s something our social fabric is loath to condone. Yet, it’s clearly symptomatic of a larger issue. The majority of citizens in this country have been “legally†looted for decades by a privileged class that perpetuates its own wealth at the expense of all others.”
Nonsense Nilitos, that’s pure unadulterated and unsupportable Marxist BS. But it does make the natives feel better about themselves. But that’s one of your tricks, shift blame and enable. It’s one of the reasons the Filthy Left can’t get anyone elected. Keep up the good work.
September 6th, 2005 at 10:53 amNeighbor John signed up for the National Guard. What did he think when he joined? They’d teach him to play tiddly winks so he could represent his county in the Silly Game Olympics?? There’s a reason you go through weapons training when you join any branch of the military even if you plan on being just a mechanic.
He knew that each summer he’d be away from his family. He knew there was a chance he’d be deployed here in the States in time of emergency. He knew there was a possibility he’d be deployed overseas.
John got his GI bill, college tuition, extra pay and whatever other incentives he was given to join up but how dare the govt. come knocking to use his expertise now that it’s time to pay up.
For anyone to blame his state of mind, actions or reluctance to repay his dues on the govt. is just idiotic and naive. #31 has got to be one of the most uneducated, non-thought out, dumbest things I have ever read.
September 6th, 2005 at 3:52 pmI don’t mean to sound ugly, but Michelle Malkin will do or say anything to please a Neo-Con. She appears on Fox News often and I am willing to bet if she applies for an anchor job at FNC, the human resource staff will roll over laughing. Of course, if she promise to die her hair blond and mimic Ann Coulter, it’s prime time for her.
September 11th, 2005 at 8:08 pm“Nonsense Nilitos, that’s pure unadulterated and unsupportable Marxist BS. But it does make the natives feel better about themselves.â€
Not to sound derisive, but does the phrase “Jane, you ignorant slut†ring a bell?
This grab bag of alliterative terms you’ve used sounds as if you’re reciting an ad campaign for any one of a number of products that simply can’t hold it’s own weight in water without a constant mind washing of mistruth set to a gratuitous jingle. Your choice of words describes the arrogant contempt of a prejudicial mind indigenous to a class of “native” bashers.
You live in a world that still believes a Twinkie is a wholesome snack. A world where you brand palatable labels to your existence that magically transmigrates a bloody piece of flesh into a juicy piece of meat. You are quite smug in your cocoon having achieved the anonymity of being self knighted into the world of average notions. And one day you’ll come to the realization that average cholesterol levels hold absolutely no truth other than predisposing you to a greater than 50% chance of death by heart disease.
Such is the useless lament of those laid bare by equal footing.
The shame is, you are blind to the suffering of others only until you suffer in-kind. You condemn Marxism because your Capitalist bank account is flush. The truth is, no one can take the personal element out of any system, be it Marxism or Capitalism. The nature of average humanitarianism is that you will leverage any system to your advantage if given the opportunity, regardless of the cost to others. Especially one that glorifies it. You no sooner leave the church parking lot, having “gone in peaceâ€, before you’re back to asserting your license by cutting people off with your SUV.
Okay, that’s how I view you.
Now let’s see how you view me.
A few years back I was part owner of a townhouse in Tempe, AZ, that was left to me and my siblings as an inheritance. The property was not what you would call a money making rental, by any stretch of the imagination, but it held a sentimental value that exceeded any fiscal rationale. One day, during the changeover from one lease to another (an eight day gap), my real estate agent called to inform me that Wells Fargo had seized the property. They had pulled up the rental sign, plastered large red impound stickers on all the windows, forced entry into the townhouse by breaking down the front door, changed the locks, and posted warnings all over the property stating that by order of law, the property was impounded, and that any entry would result in prosecution. This had the affect of pouring poison over an already marginal rental unit. Yet, no foreclosure proceedings were in effect as the mortgage was in good standing.
I contacted the local police, the AZ Banking Commission, the AZ Real Estate Commission, the AZ Attorney General, and finally, by suggestion of the latter, the Federal Comptroller in Houston. Each agency had two things to say, “it’s not our jurisdiction, and have you tried contacting a lawyer.†Every lawyer then afforded me the truth about our system. Apparently I was in a real “fix†since this was Wells Fargo, you know, the big guns. It would take at least a $10,000 retainer to initiate any legal remedy.
Somehow, I had stumbled into a gapping hole that defied all previous notions about the strength and beauty of our system. I had broken no laws and yet the forces against me were systematically stacked in support of a lawless seizure of my property.
Wells Fargo finally admitted to me that the break-in was done by a contractor of theirs that was only trying to protect the bank’s investment. They seized the townhouse fearing that it had been abandoned and would be ransacked. Yet this somehow applied only to my townhouse, one of more than 200, of which some 80% percent were also managed by absentee ownership, mine included. This was a stable housing development in good repair with a solid management association. Indeed, anyone familiar with Tempe, AZ knows there is no such thing as a bad real estate demographic within its borders.
Now for the ugly truth. Wells Fargo had targeted my property knowing it was a rental property and that my name has a Latin ring to it. They were well aware of the gapping hole that afforded them a likely upside with virtually no risk or exposure. If they could put additional economic pressure on me then perhaps the property would collapse into foreclosure. After all, what was to stop them from this kind of real estate speculation? Certainly not the police, the Banking Commission, the Real Estate Commission, the AZ Attorney General, nor the Federal Comptroller. Simply put, it’s what now passes in this country for good business practices. What separates us is I have had my taste of it and apparently you have not. But this is just one example of the many that I have personally been subjected to, and the untold millions that are perpetrated every year against a broad class of, well you know, those pesky natives.
Ultimately I was lucky to recover the property, although the expense was borne entirely by me. I was not reimbursed a single nickel for the damage to the unit or the loss of rental income. Indeed, not even a half-hearted apology was received. It was a classic gang bang attempt. Without shame or conscience, it was every bit as nauseating as hunting buffalo in the old west. Others are not so fortunate. Once legal remedy is removed from the people they are merely machine milked animals slated for an eventual harvest. Open and unmitigated access to the law is what truly defines the line separating the classes in this country. Where are your eyes when the statistics are published each year showing a humiliating and indictable disparity between that which is given as sentence for the same crime to perpetrators on opposite sides of this line?
And yet you use words like “unadulterated†and “unsupportable.†Such shallowness is inevitable from a monkey that sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil, especially one that is conveniently kept fat off the nuts stolen from others. You have classic symptoms of heart disease, both physically and spiritually, and yet you don’t know it.
September 13th, 2005 at 1:03 pmBUSH WASN’T SUPPOSE TO WN THE ELECTION EITHER. THE ELDERLY PEOPLE IN FLORIDA WAS DRUG UP AND THE PEOPLE TOLD THEM TO VOTE FOR BUSH
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