<![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @BreeDMN: For reals, right? He did NOT sound like that back when he was governor. Also, I vaguely remember him sounding less dumb, but whatever, the Texas governorship is, like, the least influential office in the 50 states.

AdrienneEE

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @ArtfulSlinger: Stop watching non-news. I don't even watch CNN anymore. I don't watch network newscasts anymore. Fox just makes me ill. I've done a lot of drifting away from TV except to watch movies. I'm fed up with the "news machine" that has grown out of actual news. Now it's all about ratings, sponsors, the "face" of news (how often do we talk about how Anderson Cooper and Katie Couric look as opposed to their news credentials!); gone are the days of Edward R. Murrow, Walter Conkrite, Frank Reynolds.

Of course we get the news the bulk of America wants -- which in this day-and-age is titillating, sensational, and devoid of any content that makes them half to think or feel the plight of others in the world.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @AdrienneEE:

It's interesting how his affected Texas accent has intensified over the years. I try not to listen to him though 'cause it tends to make me want to vomit.

BreeDMN

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @BreeDMN: This is what I'm thinking. They love being all "See? SEE?? Look how homespun and Texan we are!" and all I can think is "Dude, you are from MAINE."

Seriously, he has peddled this "Yehaw! Texas!" horseshit all over the world and made it synonymous with his crappy presidency. And it makes me sad, because it's not actually like that in my home state and HOMEBODY IS FROM MAINE! GAH! Sorry, it bugs.

AdrienneEE

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Jamie Sommers:

Maybe they got their geography confused and that is actually a Kennebunkport custom...

BreeDMN

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @NefariousNewt: I think that's where the problem lies - with CNN - the news providers. Good for Jenna finding love, getting married and making it a fairly simple occasion given other previous models of political weddings. She is not the one boasting about it on TV for hours and this is truly not a new thing for a President's daughter to receive so much coverage on their wedding day. We are lucky the whole goddamn thing didn't preempt the entire day of TV. She is also not the one selling faux trinkets or other nonsense. This wedding is perfect symbolism with what is wrong with America. Our media are all gossip whores nowadays and most Americans are fine with making a cool buck off a nothing.

The same thing can be said about the Staten Islander Vito. When he was drunk driving, he was sort of a bad politician, but once we found out he had another family - off with his head. The same week that all the MSM was discussing Obama not wearing a flag pin and have Rev. Wright as a pastor, what else was going on in this country and around the world that received no or little coverage. What the hell can we do to change this nonsense?
/end of rant!

ArtfulSlingerBARACKED THE VOTE

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @BeachLover420: There's actually limited planning to start doing things like air-dropping food, to prevent ... well, god knows where the borderline is, but there's been talk of acting unilaterally if it reaches some point of "extreme humanitarian crisis" or whatever.

The reason that doesn't just happen immediately is that humanitarian and relief organizations make a point of being just relief organizations, and acting in a way that's apolitical; coordinating with any kind of unilateral U.S. food drop really threatens that position. I think there's also some desire to wait it out a little while to get a good read on the situation, because there's some small chance that going over the government's head that way could create total chaos -- the junta lashing out or cracking down even more, or chaos/fighting over disorganized dumps of food to nobody in particular, etc. (An airdrop is chaotic if you don't have someone on the ground to handle actual distribution.)

But I think some state department people have been talking to press about how it's a possibility ...

briardahl

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> Sanctions - The new breed of targeted sanctions seems to have some effect - by limiting the leaderships travel, freezing bank accounts, refusing to export luxury goods (Rice is ok, DVD players arent) changes can happen. These type of sanctions, even more than the old fashioned kind, require the whole world being on board. And China isn't.

Jenna's dress - awesome, and I don't like to say it.

Earthquake - Cross your fingers for three gorges everybody.

redheadedstepchild

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @BeachLover420: [www.dresdencodak.com]

Only because it reminded me, and I thought it was funny.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @kellsbells: Oscar de la Renta. Pretty sad that I know that, right?

ronaldpagan

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: "Like maybe it's impossible to really kill things like compassion and reason, and that even the cruelest-seeming people can, if they're approached just the right way, become better people."

There still are some peacemakers. Nelson Mandela did a tremendous job, as per what you wrote. Not only the worst of the Apartheid regime, but with the entire facist, racist, evil system and it's followers. South Africa is not perfect, but boy oh boy did one beautiful man bring that lesson and people welcomed it. Madiba!

BeachLover

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Megan Carpentier: all i've seen is the stuff the wa-po had on its front page. i hate to say it, but it looked nice. low key and (ack!) tasteful.

i wish them luck. esp jenna, b/c that hager boy seems icky.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @kellsbells: Oscar de la Renta. I like it, too. If you look at and of the press coverage, there are more photos and it's a really simple and flattering cut.

Megan

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> Umm...I <3 Jenna's dress. Does anyone know who made it?

kellsbells

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @NefariousNewt: Ha! I would like to see that happen in the most literal way possible, Palfrey style.

ronaldpagan

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Agrado: jesus, be careful! hope you are sleeping on a low-level and no after shocks come your way.

whyknot

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @NefariousNewt: I cannot listen to Daniel Schorr. I'm sorry, but he slurrs his speech so god-awfully it's like listening to fingernails on a chalkboard. He should do print instead of radio.

distractedbyshinyobjects

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: Sometimes, I feel like there's a point where if you let a person's humanity get occluded by these big ideas about faith and strength and pride, that it just withers away until there's nothing left.

I'm not sure the individual members of the Junta can be reasoned with.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: "so, why not just start bombing burma with food?"

Exactly! The BF and I had the WTF Burma discussion and let's just say that I was screaming the same thing. We can drop bombs to kill people, but we can drop food!!!!!!!!!!!AGGGGGGGGHHGHHHHHHHHHHH

BeachLover

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: i think the individual can be reasoned with, but the junta, for example, cannot. not without a rather large and punitive stick to go with the carrot.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @ronaldpagan: See? You give McCain enough time, he will hang himself, no Ron Paul required.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: Like maybe it's impossible to really kill things like compassion and reason, and that even the cruelest-seeming people can, if they're approached just the right way, become better people.

I'd prefer to believe that, if I could.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]>

[www.newsweek.com]

Feast your eyes on this! I guess after casting a positive light on Burma's junta, making John McCain look credible is a cakewalk.

ronaldpagan

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: like?

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @AdrienneEE: Sixth generation Texan here. I never heard of that.

Jamie Sommers

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @NefariousNewt: I know, for fuck's sake. We've got plenty of guns and bullets.

Here's a country that wants to overthrow it's evil leaders, that needs resources more than anything else, and all we can do is just wag our fingers.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @katastic: The PR people literally talked up the Burmese junta's outstanding accomplishments in the war on drugs, and played down the fact that they were murdering rapists. I'll find the Newsweek article in a second if someone didn't just beat me to it.

ronaldpagan

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: As tot heir names, just take a roll call... I'm sure there are honest politicians on Capitol Hill (Pat Leahy might be one), but we don't have time to sort it all out. I'm going to assume their all on the take.

As to invading Burma, hey, why doesn't NATO help out? They've got some guys around somewhere, don't they? And if that doesn't work, send over the food with boxes of rifles and ammunition, while the Air Force bombs the crap out of Myanmar's military sites.

I mean, I'm not the kind of guy who advocates invading other countries for sport, but PEOPLE ARE DYING HERE AND THEIR GOVERNMENT IS USING IT TO SOLIDIFY POWER!!!! Shades of the 1930's?!?!?

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: Yeah, there's a lot of things I'd prefer to think.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: that is genuinely fascinating. i guess i'd prefer to think of people as more evolved than tumours, but...

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Megan Carpentier: yeah. i quit being a lawyer.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: I once read a story about scientists who were isolating a chemical produced by large tumors that they discovered was a carcinosuppresant.

It turns out, sometimes when you take out a large tumor, a whole bunch of other tumors grow up in its place, because the big one was keeping the other ones down.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> in semi-unrelated news it pained me to admit that i loved jena bush's wedding dress

awinoforever

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: rebuild new orleans? they're leaving that to private companies, poorly funded non-profits, and college students on spring break.

southernbitch

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: what's even more crazy is, he's using the death squads to exile and murder a wide variety of iraqis-- including other shi'a. it's not just about the sunni-shi'a divide, but also about the tribal factor, many tribes are both sunni and shi'a.

i get the impression if you're not al sadr all the time, you're on a list.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: Plus, I'm cool. But I did quit lobbying.

Megan

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> I work on the 41st floor of an office building in Beijing and we felt the earthquake (or i guess, technically, the smaller one in Tongzhou). I thought I was getting majorly sick but then we realized our building was swaying. I can't even imagine how fucked it is in Chengdu. And it's really all the smaller towns around it that are the worst. BBC says somewhere around 80% of the buildings in Beichuan County have been destroyed. Xinhua says that there will be no devastating earthquakes in Beijing for the Olympics. I was talking to some coworkers and we were wondering how this would spin into a 'don't worry the Olympics will be fine' thing and of course, Xinhua always delivers. This coupled with the Myanmar disaster... Happy fuckin Monday. I'm going to sleep. :(

Agrado

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: Technically, the campaign didn't succeed in changing the US policy on Burma. I assume, though I don't feel like digging, that the people at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control had to approve the financial transaction. Given the year, Paul O'Neill was Secretary, and Bush flunkies were likely making the decisions. DCI's a huge Republican firm.

Megan

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Megan Carpentier: i thought the same thing til i hung out with my ex-bf's housemate. i find the lobbying system, and its necessity, odious, but i learned that many of its denizens are good people who lobby for a myriad of great causes. it's the lobbyists who hit on you in bars who *won't* tell you who they lobby for that i know to be obnoxious to.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @katastic: Hell, we haven't even finished rebuilding New Orleans. The city that is in our OWN COUNTRY.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: Not bad; at least he keeps the social services running. I wish his guys weren't using death squads to execute and exile Sunni's, though.

@southernbitch: @Charlotte Corday: Well, okay, so there are a LOT of reasons why we were never going to invade Burma.

I'll bet Dubya will chastise them sternly, though.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: Heck, we don't even have enough troops to properly rebuild Afghanistan, let alone Iraq. Let alone Burma.

katastic

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: please, invasion was never and will never be on the table.

however, there are two carriers in the region, and they can drop as much food as they have and can carry, in addition to the bases in thailand and singapore.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> Hey guys! Anyone wanna talk about how global warming is increasing the intensity of such cyclones, therein guaranteeing more devastation in the future?
[wind.mit.edu]

Global warming! Fucking over poor people everywhere!

katastic

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: also, we can't invade burma, because that might directly threaten chinese interests and power in the region.

southernbitch

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: NefariousNewt knows.
@Charlotte Corday: Most people don't believe there are good lobbyists.
@katastic: The lobbyists, the junta, the folks at OFAC or Congress? I'd bet they sleep better than me but I'm an insomniac.

Megan

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: i'm not sure anyone really thinks of him as a good guy-- unless you're in the mahdi army. what's frightening is, he's not a completely bad option in the shi'a miasma.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @NefariousNewt: No, I mean, what are their names?

@Charlotte Corday: We can't invade Burma. We've got no active combat brigades left.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @NefariousNewt: oh please, oh please, let them take a potshot...

can mr bush invade burma, please? they have oil, gas, and a nobel peace prize winning head of a democratically elected govt.

and they're mostly buddhists. not at all ornery like them eye-raqis.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: The Congressmen in the pay of the lobbyists, who else?

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @formergr: Reminds me of Hugo Chavez offering free heating gas to NoLa post-Katrina and to Chicago's poor (after the Sox won the Series, bc coach Ozzie Guillen is Venezuelan, there's the connection) and the US refusing. Major catastrophes like this go down, I say politics go out the window. Get people help NOW. Who cares where it's coming from.

BlowJoy

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @southernbitch: you are absolutely correct.

cocoesq

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @NefariousNewt: Whatever.

Just so long as it gets screwed up.

@Charlotte Corday: I'm not saying he's a good guy. Just a guy with a good nickname.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @katastic: Given the money they make and decided lack of morals, probably pretty well.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @MadameOvary: the us sanctions against iraq were supposed to basically punish the population to the point where saddam could no longer ignore their plight and capitulate to all demands made by his government. in reality, starving and weakening a population only causes a dictatorship to have even more power, plus the added benefit of a dictator being able to point fingers to an outside enemy. perhaps the only example of sanctions "working" is with libya, but in that case qaddafi was no longer interested in being a small player in the arab power structure and instead decided to try and be a large player in the burgeoning african power structure. he gave up what he no longer wanted in order to stay in power with different terms.

southernbitch

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: And as an added courtesy, we can send along escorts, should the Myanmar military decide to take potshots at our planes.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Megan Carpentier: lobbyists in general give good lobbyists a bad name.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Megan Carpentier: That is fucking disgusting. How do they sleep at night? Seriously, how do they live with themselves?

katastic

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @hortense: That's just the tip of it. It'll be 10,000 by noon.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @haguenite: i just think it's a good idea. and yes! operation manna!

it reminds me of bill hicks' skit about smart bombs and "why can we use that same technology to shoot food at hungry people?" why indeed.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Megan Carpentier: Lobbyists -- have contacts, will travel.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @MadameOvary: Exactly. On a much smaller scale, our government's initial reaction (or lack thereof) to Katrina wasn't too different from what the junta is doing. Remember when other countries were starting to talk about offering aid to Katrina-hit areas since our government couldn't get their asses down there while people were dying?

formergr

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: why study when you can just go around offing your fellow shi'a mullahs? [www.cfr.org]

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Megan Carpentier: yeah, and that's part of my point: sanctions only represent a narrowing of economic ability to deal with a country, and people with the means and the resources will always get around them in order to make stupendous profits, irregardless of the legality of them. it's sad, but i wasn't surprised at all when this particular story broke.

southernbitch

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: And we LOVED IT! Also, when you hear as a kid that after WWII SWEDISH WHITE BREAD rained from the skies, you're kind of in awe.

@hortense: Y'all really need to start working on getting a royal family. No one feels embarrassed about buying royal wedding memorabilia.

haguenite

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> Bob Barr? Ron Paul? Do they think anybody knows who they are, let alone cares? They're not going to hurt McCain one iota -- they'll certainly just soak up fringe voters who wouldn't have mattered otherwise. No, McCain will be perfectly capable of screwing up his own bid for the Presidency.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Megan Carpentier: That's like exactly the OPPOSITE of sanctions!

How is the government so god-damned retarded? WHO IS MAKING THESE DECISIONS!?!?!

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @BlowJoy: unfortch, better than nothing is all there is right now. short of declaring war and invading burma, that is.

and burma is not ethiopia.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: Sounds like he has about the same background as many US soldiers, vis รก vis shootin' killin' and blowin' stuff up in the virtual worlds.

@southernbitch: Hmmm. US sanctions against Iraq pre-Bush lead to the death of over a million people, 500,000 of whom were estimated to be children. Plus the IAEA did win a Nobel Peace prize for ferreting out nuclear weapons facilities and stuff. Depends how tight your sanctions are and who is effected. VERY hard to really effect the junta/dictator types because all their capital is usually out of the country and they can leave anytime they want to.

MadameO asks - WWOD?

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: He's studying to be an Ayatollah, now, I think.

Then, he will be Ayatollah Atari, which also has a nice ring to it.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @southernbitch: Well, they really don't work when we let lobbying firms accept hundreds of thousands of US dollars from the regime we're sanctioning in order to lobby Congress and the Administration to relax said sanctions.

Megan

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: sure, he could always rely on his family's status as shi'a theocratic royalty.

although, mullah atari does have a certain ring to it.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @southernbitch: Because if people are denied cell phones, DVD players, and above all food, long enough, they will turn against their oppressors. Assuming they have the strength.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @BlowJoy: It's pretty impressive how much info the Chinese are giving out and how fast they have scrambled aid to the earthquake-ravaged reason. I suspect it has something to do with a) the international outcry over Burma b) the Chinese efforts to look organized in advance of the Olympics and c) the fact that this is a region where there are a lot of westerners (the BBC had several reports on its newshour this a.m.)

It would be tragic if Burma/Myanmar falls off the international radar as the attention shifts to China, but we stretched out our hand and they batted it away. Such a tragedy.

brendastarlet

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> Moe: The earthquake death toll in China is already up to 7,600.

hortense

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Megan Carpentier: it's just yet another illustration of how sanctions don't work, and yet, we still pretend somehow that slapping sanctions against a country is actually going to somehow to the amount of political damage or pressure we want for changes in policy. always ends up harming civilians most, and creating greater incentives for black markets to flourish and crooked players on both sides profiting. sanctions are such a ridiculous concept.

southernbitch

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> McCain scares the everliving shit out of me. We're talking PRISONER of WAR, people. Someone so much as farts too loud in the oval office, and we're looking at nuclear holocaust.

blackbirdfly

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> Food bombs seem like a "better than nothing" idea, but it's not the answer. I vaguely remember reading about when the UN dropped "food bombs" in I believe Eithiopia. A) They were dehydrated packets which the people had to mix with local (dirty) water, making them sicker and even dying and B) Huge fights resulted from people freaking out, trying to get the few bags of food that DID fall on their heads. Literally killing each other for aid, which you can't blame them for... desperate times call for desperate measures. So though the intentions may be good, it may cause more harm in the long run.

BlowJoy

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @katastic: Seriously, I linked to that shit, they lay out their plan (and the money they made) in the FARA registration. Also, don't we have, like, sanctions against them? Oh, right, yes, we do. I wonder how it is exactly that the junta was allowed to transfer money to them?

Megan

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @MadameOvary: Apparently, while al-Sadr was in Islam seminary (or its equivalent) he was called "Mullah Atari," because he played videogames instead of studying.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: Exactly - and if they do enough drops, the bloody SLORC can't be in all places at the same time, so the people will get SOME aid, whereas now they are getting worse than none.

MadameO asks - WWOD?

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: i think if i was homeless and stranded in burma among bloated and rotting corpses that i'd risk having some rice land on my head in order to get some food and first aid supplies.

cocoesq

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @katastic: AHHHHHH! I hadn't even thought of that. Jesus, this stuff makes me shake with anger.

I like the earlier suggestion of food bombs.

rosasparks

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @BlowJoy: Its all about the news cycle - how about the twisters in Oklahoma in the US last week? Classic though is NOLA/Katrina. Sometimes I think the US admin is HAPPY when disaster strikes other parts of the world so the spotlight is off their own ineptness.

MadameO asks - WWOD?

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @katastic: that's all i need to know about mccain and co.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @lermanzo: i was in aceh after the tsunami, and the US deployed helicopters to drop food, etc. some of it landed on the houses, but honestly, so many were destroyed that people were more concerned with food, iodine pills for clean water, and the tarps that could provide shelter, than their houses.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @battleaxonista: musty rice and cholera-- the SLORC think they would finally have the perfect country of hungry, obedient slaves.

i say drop tonnes of food, etc. at least some would get thru. and if the SLORC junta fire on US planes, just bomb the fuck out of napyidaw, the fake capital.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> HOW do you do PR for these fuckers? Seriously. Spin it into "Junta officials are initiating a unique war against obesity in Myanmar"?

katastic

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> And now the earthquake in China, thousands predicted dead... let's see how this affects aid to Burma. In an "Well eff you Burma, if you don't want our aid, we'll give it to China." And agree with Jenalicious... what can we do? Invaid?

Let's see what sorts of medical epidemic comes out of Burma from all the rotting corpses in standing water in the coming weeks, and if it will seep into neighboring countries. Then it will no longer be "just Burma's problem."

BlowJoy

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> besides not letting in enough aid, the junta is also preventing local donors from distributing directly. some famous burmese guy was personally handing out rice he'd purchased and was stopped by the military. messed up.

BaconBandito

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @rosasparks: It's not about brainwashing; it's about control. If the thugs in Myanmar have all the food, they have control. That's all they want.

katastic

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @funnyface: I don't mean she shouldn't have had the wedding -- I mean on the earthly scale of things, it was one of the least important things happening right now. Burma is going to hell in a handcart and we need updates on a wedding no one was even allowed to see or cover at short range?

The wedding was symbolism for the whole Bush Administration -- a lot of things that look good, are cheery, and fundamentally bankrupt because they don't matter. And as a side rant, piss on CNN for covering it so intently.

If anyone can't tell, I'm mad.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @Charlotte Corday: cunt is too good a word for those post-terrence howard baby wipes.

i agree, though. but i think the concern is that they wouldn't be able to tell people on the ground to clear the way. you know, so they wouldn't be crushed by tons of food and other aid items.

lermanzo

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @hortense: People who don't know or care what's happening in Myanmar, I would assume.

katastic

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @BlowJoy:
Neither. Probably in the tradition of juntas everywhere, sell the goods for a tidy profit.

ManchuCandidate

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]>

so, why not just start bombing burma with food? they did it to save the starving dutch during WW2-- [en.wikipedia.org] sovereign airspace? fuck you, SLORC cunts.

Charlotte Corday

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> I know we've beaten this whole Jenna wedding to death, but I have to ask this ONE THING. Did anybody else see this bit the White House Press flogged about Jenna having a "Traditional Texas House Party" instead of bridesmaids? I am Texan, I got married in Texas, and neither myself nor my mother nor my other Texan relatives have a clue what the hell they're talking about.

Any other Texas Jezzies ever heard of this? I am befuddled.

AdrienneEE

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> Where the hell is that Asteroid of Justice?

howdybeep (runs with monkey wrenches)

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @jenalicious: There are more than 2 choices, other options include: stop selling arms; preferential trading; debt relief; supporting local movements; labour mobility, etc

info*ninja

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @NefariousNewt: I heard that this weekend while washing dishes & I broke a glass in the sink. I am horrified. What in hell is going on down there? These people need help, why are they being denied that? Are those dirtbags actually nervous the Burmese will be kidnapped/unbrainwashed by UN food delivery people? Jeez.

Second, who gives a FUCK about Jenna Bush getting married. Yuck city.

rosasparks

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @braak: Me too, because I am confused as well.

Re: Michelle/Hillary VP possibility. I don't think this is new at all - didn't the New Yorker mention this in their profile of Michelle this past summer? I would love to see Bill's head taken off the first time he tried to mack on Michelle.

MadameO asks - WWOD?

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @NefariousNewt: What, should she have rescheduled the wedding? I mean, it's not her fault the media acted like ninnies over the whole thing, as if it was the Di and Charles wedding. At least the whole thing wasn't televised!

And I really really liked Jenna's bridal look. I give her props for looking pretty without poofy.

funnyface

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> The minister at the Bush wedding is cute! What's a nice looking coloured boy like him doing in a place like that?

topsy

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @jenalicious: but the bush wedding might help THE ECONOMY! because it gives people HOPE when preppy white young republicans get together for a party!

lermanzo

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @hortense: Perhaps people are buying the mugs and snow globes to forever keep in their memory the legacy of our worst President ever

RyanB

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> Goddamnit. I wanted to hear about Moktada al-Sadr.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @NefariousNewt: but of course if we were to go in and "forcibly remove them from office" we'd be considered policing the world again.. damned if we do, damned if we dont!

re: the wedding.. stupid media needs to learn what real news is and that we're not actually interested in the bush wedding. but obviously its not the Bush family's fault the media's all over them. they tried to keep them away.

jenalicious

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @battleaxonista: yeah... and apparently people are rebuilding around the bloated dead bodies. so effed up.

lermanzo

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> I saw a video of the Burmese military handing out DVD players as "aid." And aid crates with different Generals' names stamped on them, either they were personally going to pocket the goods, or at least take credit for distributing it in their districts. Let's at least hope for #2.

Jenna looks nice. Henry already looks like an old, gross 'Publican that he's soon to be. They'll get to making little 'Publican babies in no time. Blech. But let's focus on it, because its sort of celeb, and this celeb-focused news crap sells better than real news.

BlowJoy

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @hortense: i am beginning to resent the fact that i care about things other than the completely vapid. because maybe then mugs would make me feel a teeny bit better about the 15 million people who stand to die in burma.

lermanzo

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @RyanB: And they were selling out of that shit! Apparently the mouse pads were a big seller.

Who the fuck buys this shit?

hortense

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @hortense: OMG the Bush wedding gift shop! Key chains and mugs! So chintzy, in a "down the shore" kind of way

RyanB

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> I think that tells all you need to know when a 'government' would rather let its people die than allow the world to know it needs aid. WTF are they going to rule then, when everyone's dead from their fucking musty rice. *arrrrgh*

battleaxonista

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @hortense: To which I say (politely): F*CK JENNA BUSH!

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> I heard Daniel Schorr on NPR over the weekend, and even thought the UN should pass a resolution saying the people of Burma need to be helped, even without the cooperation of the Burmese government. That tells me that the world in general is just a little fed up with this farce. One US cargo plane in 8 days? One? Taking supplies, stamping their faces and names on them and handing them out? Holding a vote while most of your people are dying? What does it take before these sycophants are removed from office at the end of the barrel of a gun, because it doesn't seem they are going anywhere voluntarily, except to their mountain retreats where they can dine on good rice and the finest foods while their populace die a slow, undeserved death!

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> @lermanzo: All fucking day Saturday CNN was running this shit. "Oh, uh, some stuff went down in Burma. But back to Crawford! They are selling mugs with Jenna's face on them. MUGS!!!"

hortense

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> ... And now Rick and Kathy owe me forever. You guys fucking rule.

Too Hot For TNR

]]> <![CDATA[It Was A Nice Day For A White Voter]]> take that burma death toll and multiply by 15. that's what happens if aid doesn't get there.

i teared up when i heard about the aid ship sinking.

am i the only one who is completely underwhelmed and kind of over the whole bush nuptuals as news?

lermanzo

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