The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Andrew

It's simpler than that. ${ANY_OBAMA_ACTION} will be immediately interpreted in the worst possible light, no matter what it is. Visiting foreign countries and assuring them that the Bush-era "we rule and you drool" policies are over = weakness. Addressing them in their own languages = pandering, if not outright treason. These are the same people who won't get off the birth certificate thing.

As long as they're an ineffective irrelevant minority I plan to simply ignore them.

And this is somehow different than the left portraying ${ANY_BUSH_ACTION} in the same way? Of course it is identical.

Believe me, I don't post everything that Obama does that bothers me. It would take far too long and no one would want to hear it. However, I found what I regard as insults to our allies as worthy of discussion.

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

And this is somehow different than the left portraying ${ANY_BUSH_ACTION} in the same way? Of course it is identical.

Believe me, I don't post everything that Obama does that bothers me. It would take far too long and no one would want to hear it. However, I found what I regard as insults to our allies as worthy of discussion.

Except we didn't need to make up things in order to paint Bush in the worst possible light. He gave us a steady supply of genuine outrages to work with.

[scaeagles]

Perhaps. It's all about perception and what you expect of a leader and whether you trust that leader and want that leader's agenda to be successful. It's called politics and spin. It's going to be spun in a certain way and the spin you listen to is largely based on where you fall in the political spectrum. I completely acknowledge that, but many don't.

As far as what I've found, Italy donated supplies after Katrina. This has a complete list of foreign aid after Katrina.

Italy: generators, water pumps and purifiers, tents, supplies

[Ghoulish Delight]

According to Wikipedia -

Italy offered to send two Hercules C130 cargo aircraft fitted with emergency aids, including 300 Adult camp beds, 300 blankets, 600 sheets, 1 suction pump, 6 lifecrafts, 11.200 chlorine tablets, 5 units of large first aid kits, baby food formula pumps, tents and power generators. Italy also offered to send some experts of the Protezione Civile to help coordinating relief efforts in the damaged area.[8]

That's what I get for taking my info from a conservative blog, it seems Italy didn't even actually SEND the choppers.

Where did you get the $3 million?

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Where did you get the $3 million?

An excellent question, and one to which I feel I must withdraw my statement....I heard that specific number on a local radio show I listen to (no, not Rush or Hannity, but local), and I cannot find a specific number to go along with the lists of stuff I got off the MSNBC link. I have no idea who valued it or how.

[Gemini Cricket]

Weak tea.

The Tea Parties here in Washington DC are off to a roaring start, right? Not really. Right now, the Tea Parties are contending with a number of terrible struggles, which this report from Fox News documents...

[Strangler Lewis]

Italy sent us old parts from some cannibalized Fiats, and we're supposed to send them how much?

One can also look at that list of Katrina donations and wonder how much of it reflected genuine humanitarianism/international cooperation and how much of the big donations were given to allow the countries to say that they had helped the United States when it was refusing to help its own people.

[Alex]

Hell, Obama is giving Chrysler to the Italians, how much do they want from us?!

To be fair, though, for a significant portion of the membership here, three months ago the operating principal was "${ANY_BUSH_ACTION} will be immediately interpreted in the worst possible light, no matter what it is." And a lot of the time it was as pointlessly kneejerk (in my opinion of course) as what I'm seeing for Obama. Of course, there was more history to back it up but that doesn't make it any more valid.

[Alex]

More seriously than my previous replies, it seems sensible to me that the amount would be relatively small.

1. Italy is not some third world country sent into complete collapse by this. This is further demonstrated by them saying they don't need our "boots on the ground" assistance.

2. Italy is already part of a larger economic support structure that, to the extent that Italy needs assistance should be the first and primary responder. That is, the European Union.

3. The announced money is from the Italy embassy's budget. This sounds like something that could be done with a very minimal amount of bureaucracy and could put the money into immediate circulation where it is needed. As per the reasons above, any true need for U.S. assistance is likely to be immediate while everybody is getting ramped up then the internal and EU support response should kick in.

4. I have no doubt if Italy says "we need more!!" that more will be forthcoming. Also, I have no doubt that private charitable giving will almost certainly be quite charitable (and which, certain political groups in the United States are often quite justifiably proud of and frequently say is the appropriate channel for assistance rather than federal dollars).

[scaeagles]

Yeah, that's reasonable, Alex.

And JW, outrage is in the eye of the beholder. I also don't make up the things that Obama does that angers me, I just don't post them.