(no subject)

[ceebeegee]

fignuts (Chris's friend, Joe) posted Michael Moore's letter to President Bush. Someone on Joe's flist took great issue with it, and now the argument is on. Doug brought up Rudy Guiliani, about whom I was talking with Mom last night. Personally, I can't stand Guiliani. I think he's way too-thinned skinned and pissy (I couldn't STAND how defensive he got after the Diallou shooting, as though people had no right whatsoever to be upset at the shooting of an unarmed civilan who was doing nothing wrong). I thought he made things worse between the police and black residents.

However, politically, I liked a lot of his policies. And I was really impressed by his actions on 9/11--he was a true leader and went into the heart of darkness and led. He was amazing. Mayor Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, was talking about physically walking the people in the Convention Center up the Expressway out of there. That's what a leader does. It's like in the Middle Ages, when kings were judged in part by how they fought in battle, how they responded to an actual physical (as opposed to metaphorical) assault on their country. At times like this, the actual physical presence is as important as what you may be delegating or arranging or whatever.

Comments

[omni-bot.livejournal.com]

Excellent.

[dje2004.livejournal.com]

Hell, I don't even know you, and after reading the comments there, even I had to throw in my $0.02. The Internet: bringing complete strangers together to yell at each other. Isn't it great?

[omni-bot.livejournal.com]

It's great for that.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Did you respond? I didn't see it.

[dje2004.livejournal.com]

I did. In response to the claim that "no one could have forseen the levees breaking" I posted an excerpt from an article that shows that not only did everyone know this could happen, but that a massive federal project to shore up levees, build pumping stations, etc was left unfinished due to a combination of tax cuts and funds being diverted to pay for the Iraq war and homeland security.

[wonderpanther.livejournal.com]

I went and read that thread, really interesting. I am not the biggest Guiliani fan but I felt that he did an excellent job with 9/11. The fact that he was always in the thick of it, always on tv, etc. His presence was really important during that tragedy. He was a leader and gave people strength and hope.