Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: Katrina and World Support?

How is Cindy Sheenan innocent fodder?

Peter, I am serious. I am finally at a loss for words when it comes to you.

What a pleasant surprise.

Are we going a bit overboard here ? I think you would have to dig pretty deeply to brand Mrs. Bush as racist (or even elitist) based on that article. I think it would be fair to say that her comments were based on what she said seconds earlier -- that a lot of the people she spoke with were planning to move to Houston permanently :

"Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of
scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is
so overwhelmed by the hospitality."

If people are telling her this (ie they might have a ticket out of a chronically poor area to one with perhaps more opportunity for them) then I don't think it would be wrong (other than maybe a bit of over-generalization) to say that "things were working out well for them".

Flame away, I'm logging off now

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If people are telling her this (ie they might have a ticket out of a chronically poor area to one with perhaps more opportunity for them) then I don't think it would be wrong (other than maybe a bit of over-generalization) to say that "things were working out well for them".

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I have to agree with you. Even before Katrina, NO was so overrun with corruption, that maybe a change of scenery to a more thriving city might give them a new chance. She never mentions race in any part of that quote.

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any man slamming an 80 year old woman for being "elitist and racist" for what she supposedly said yesterday (and yes, this is assuming the press even got her words correct and complete) is a bully.

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So if, say, Eva Braun didn't decide to poison herself in 1945, and had lived to present day, and had once again exclaimed those famous words "Better that ten thousand others die than [Adolf Hitler] be lost to Germany" then she'd just be a kindly 92 year old lady that shouldn't be held accountable?

Wow, by your logic, we could arm the elderly as a kind of untouchable super war machine...
"Oh my god... old Missus Cranbottom from down the street has an M4... crazy old b***h!"
"You bully... she's an old lady, invite her in for tea... and stand still so she can shoot you, you know she's got Parkinsons!"

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If that was said about my 70 year old mother, I would knock whoever said it on his ass.

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Well, maybe Ken and Jeb can meet after school at the Washington Monument and duke it out.

Bren R.

Bren -

I just listened to the audio of this Houston affair, and former President Bill Clinton was with her when she was talking, and ADDED to what she had to say, after agreeing with her.

Mrs. Bush made these comments after dozens of people who were living in New Orleans last week, and are now in Houston as refugees, TOLD her that they wanted to stay in Houston. The reason they wanted to stay in Houston was they like the hospitality they have been shown, AND that they had come from a run down area (inner city New Orleans). In other words, they saw HOPE. The general feeling among the 15,000 in the Astrodome was that Houston was a LOT better place than the inner city New Orleans they knew from before the hurricane.

The concept that these people were underpriviledged was not one she pulled out of the air. She was TOLD this by the refugees in Houston.

Barbara Bush is a lady, and acts as a lady should. The word "underpriviledged" was her way of softening what she was told to her by those to whom she spoke.

There was not ONE racist term used, nor anything elitist.

Bill Clinton had this to say: "I feel pretty good about what I saw today." and "A lot of people want to stay here in Houston" ... and the discussion continued with how could the nation's 4th largest city (Houston) handle this many refugees wanting to relocate there.

So YES - Anyone wanting to slam an 80 year old woman for saying what she said is a bully.

As for your comparing her to Eva Braun, You managed to out do Peter.

See, now at least that's debating the topic at hand, which I have no problem with... what she said could be construed many different ways, and then partisan politics comes into play on how she meant it.

Saying that she has the right to not have her feet put to the fire because she's a woman and she's old, that's something that I can't relate to. Anyone in the public eye in a similar capacity will be, and should be, constantly checked and balanced.

"Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism," as Thomas Jefferson once said.

Bren R.

Bren - She was called a racist. That is not debate. There is little one can be called that is worse than "racist". It was stated as a fact. It was also said about her without her being able to defend herself. That is a tactic of a bully, Slamming a defenseless individual.

And yes, An 80 year old lady DOES deserve to be treated differently than, say, a 50 year old man. If you don't think so, it is a free country, but in my world, the elderly AND ladies are treated with some reverence.

As for your "debate" comment - I agree with debate. However, Peter does not debate, he links to yet another left wing blog as "proof" of his "point".

Finally, She was in Houston as a private citizen, not as an elected official. I am not sure what "Dissent" has to do with smearing a private citizen, but I am sure you and Peter can justify that, too.

I don't link to 'prove' anything. I do link to items that, at least to me, speak to an issue, bring in outside viewpoints, and encourage discussion. Sometimes my linked articles/opinions are actually discussed without being dismissed out-of-hand because they don't come from a major news source. Sometimes they don't. I'll be the first to admit some sources are more credible than others. I do get carried away in my attempts to process info from many sources.

I did not have the entire story about Mrs. Bush when I posted. You kindly provided a convincing rebuttal that contained the context of her statement which I was unable to find at the time. Please don't think I'm one who believes he is in the right all of the time. I'm a reasonable person trying to process an unreasonable world.