Twisted Logic

Two of the most elaborately twisted notions have been and are continuing to be trumpeted as conventional wisdom by liberal Democrats, the left-wing blogocracy and the MSM. It's time to address these things clearly and nuke the CW. To wit:

1 - The observation: The vast majority of victims of Hurricane Katrina were poor black people. The conclusion: This shows we've not been doing enough to help stamp out poverty in this country. Sample of an actual quote: "...which is why we need to do some work on the income disparity, asset building. There's a whole group of things we need to do to help with that problem." - former Senator John Edwards, on Hardball with Chris Matthews. Response: Collectively, we have spent over 6.5 Trillion dollars (GAO figures) in the "war on poverty" since 1964. HELLO!!! It's NOT going to help throwing MORE money at the problem. Let's figure out how to help the poor access the main stream rather than teaching them to keep putting their hands out. Part of the problem that so many poor folks stayed behind is they've been taught to wait for Government to help them, rather than learning self-reliance and how to be self-sufficient. In fact, the conclusion really is: This shows we've been doing too much to teach people to be dependent on Government, and keep them in a perpetual state of poverty.

2 - The Observation: The the levees were insufficient and were a disaster waiting to happen. The Conclusion: The feds screwed-up by not paying attention to a potential problem (that EVERYONE knew about) and not allocating enough money to fix it before it became the disaster that's been waiting to happen all these years. Sample of an actual quote: "...the culprit is not the president but government-wide resistance to investing long-term in projects such as flood control." That quote comes from Michael Parker, former assistant secretary of the army for civil works. Response: In fact, the Environmental movement in this country prevented the Army Corps of Engineers from "fixing" or "preventing" this problem, beginning years ago. See here and here The lawsuit by an environmental group called "Save Our Wetlands" in 1975, prevented the Army Corps of Engineers from building a series of floodgates which could have prevented exactly the kind of flooding which occurred after Katrina. In fact, the conclusion really is: The insistence by environmentalists of valuing "wetlands" over humans has proven deadly in this case.

They can pretend all they want that their version of the "truth" is correct, and that only their agenda will serve the people. Unfortunately, there are obviously no mirrors in the "reality based" community, or else they'd be able to see their own agenda for what it really is -- a poison pill for America's future.