And the dumbest person on the internet tonight is Rick Sanchez, stupid enough to be fired from CNN, but just stupid enough to be hired as a Fox News contributor:
Yes, I seriously hope these 80 families don’t become dependent on FEMA, after all, they have their neighbors:
A huge fire destroyed 80 to 100 houses in a flooded beachfront neighborhood Tuesday, forcing firefighters to undertake daring rescues and injuring three people.
More than 190 firefighters contained the blaze but were still putting out some pockets of fire more than nine hours after it erupted.
As daylight broke, neighbors walked around aimlessly through their smoke-filled Breezy Point neighborhood, which sits on the Rockaway peninsula jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. Electrical wires dangled within feet of the street.
That’s right, Ricky. Right now, our chief concern is a culture of dependency on FEMA. Because, as you know, since once in several lifetime storms happen so frequently (like, once every several lifetimes), this is a major issue. Instead, we should cherish our reliance on our neighbors. Except for when all 80 of their houses burn down, too. But seriously. My neighbors have bulldozers, can fix downed power lines, replace damaged water mains, pump water out of subway tunnels. Who here doesn’t have neighbors like that?
I confronted him, and he is now babbling about how “Angel Flights” after Hurricane Andrew were the salvation.
Neighbors can help out, but they can’t replace FEMA or the massive might of the government. I find it so depressing that an alleged journalist would even try to equivocate the two, while using right wing frames about the culture of dependency (ON FEMA, OF ALL FUCKING THINGS. THE DAY AFTER THIS DISASTER.) that I just want to cry myself to sleep.
amk
Jeebus, this nut works for pox news now ?
Gordon, the Big Express Engine
Frist
Xecky Gilchrist
Because, as you know, since once in several lifetime storms happen so frequently (like, once every several lifetimes), this is a major issue.
Actually, they’re kinda the new normal.
But indeed, this joker is a dickweed.
YellowJournalism
I’ve been more entertained and informed by this spat with Sanchez than I ever was while watching his show on CNN.
You need to do this more often, John. Sure, it’s not really productive, but it’s pretty damn funny.
Chris T.
@Gordon, the Big Express Engine: What about Bill Frist? He’s been out of the Senate since 2006. Although apparently he and the (ex-)wife are divorcing…
sophronia
Yep. Not even one full day from when the storm hit, and our number one concern should be making sure that anyone who gets government help feels appropriately ashamed and disgusted about it.
Radon Chong
WHY DOES THE PRESS WANT PEOPLE TO SUFFER?
trollhattan
No wait list to buy a Taser–I have one right here for li’l Ricky, on the outside chance it zaps the sense back into him.
How long before we hear from Geraldo?
joes527
@Radon Chong: because suffering makes good copy.
PeakVT
Just ran across this video of the damage at Breezy Point a few minutes ago. It’s a little overwrought, but the footage is decent.
Arm The Homeless
Funny, I lived through Andrew, and I remember a lot of work that happened. But what I don’t remember are a bunch of dudes in Cessnas doing much of anything to pull the avocado tree off our house.
Were there a bunch of people from Wisconsin bringing truckloads of ice? Because I remember FEMA bringing the ones that were in my neighborhood.
Thatgaljill
I love it when Cole tells it like it is….
lisawill
Does he not get that taxes are neighbors helping neighbors? I live in CA, but I’m pretty sure some of my taxes pay for FEMA. I’m sure that our collective resources are much more useful than what I could do individually for my fellow americans in a disaster of this magnitude.
pseudonymous in nc
Rick has a point: after sleeping on cots in emergency shelters or having the floodwater pumped out of their homes, people are just going to get into the habit of calling FEMA when they run out of sugar or need someone to feed the cat over the weekend.
dead existentialist
Rick Sanchez should self-deport to Assholandia.
Election Follower
MICHIGAN WITHIN MARGIN OF ERROR! MICHIGAN WITHIN TWO POINTS FOR ROMNEY!
SHOCKING NEWS
SFAW
@Election Follower:
MUST CREDIT DRUDGE! ! ! !
AT
If only my neighbours in New Orleans had shot the police I wouldn’t be dead besides a bridge
Spaghetti Lee
Right-wingers sure love their ‘culture-of-dependency’ bullshit. As if having your entire movement propped up by a cadre of sugar-daddy billionaires and objectivist freakazoids isn’t as ‘dependent’ as it gets. If it weren’t for Roger Ailes, half of Fox News would be unemployable.
Another Halocene Human
@AT: Close the thread.
SFAW
@Election Follower:
Keep fucking that chicken, sweetums.
amk
@dead existentialist: he seems to have self-deported to foxistan already.
suzanne
@lisawill:
This.
Whenever my religious friends get on one of their government-is-tyranny tears, I love to remind them how we could abolish all those agencies and services if the church got off its ass and did its job.
Short Bus Bully
Kick his ass JC! You are my Twitter Warrior proxy, don’t let me down. ;)
Hill Dweller
That MI poll is from Glengariff Group, who make Gravis look credible. I’m betting they don’t release their cross tabs.
This is another wingnut pollster trying to hide the stench coming off Willard’s campaign, and save down ticket races.
Redshift
You know why other relief efforts were more prominent during Andrew? Because FEMA screwed up, in part because Bush I (the one who wasn’t incompetent at everything) appointed a crony with no experience in disaster management to run it.
Hiding behind Twitter is so wimpy. If only he’d gone to Florida and asked people if they wouldn’t rather go back to the Andrew-era FEMA so they wouldn’t become dependent! He probably would have been carried away by an angry mob and we’d never have to hear from him again.
NotMax
@lisawill
It stems from the same bizarre, skewed mindset that Romney sports: disaster relief does not make a profit, thus is a drag on the economy and a waste of (government) resources.
Jeff Spender
@Hill Dweller:
I live in Michigan. Right now I live in a part of Michigan that’s a lot like Alabama.
But I can guarantee one thing: Michigan is not going to elect Mitt Romney.
Bookmark it, EF.
piratedan
yes, by all means, because hurricanes are just like tornadoes which can capriciously jump from state to state, which is just like hopping over your house to destroy the one next to you…. or how I was absent from 7th grade social sciences when they taught us about the weather
Soonergrunt
So now Sanchez says, after several people have taken him to task, and he had to explain himself that he meant FEMA shouldn’t go away:
Leaving aside that a shithead like that isn’t going to get any support from his neighbors, FEMA isn’t going to hire Billy Bob with a snow plow on his Ford F250.
lamh35
dead existentialist
@amk: Oh, so that’s what the natives call it. Kinda like how Germans refer to their country as Deutschland.
? Martin
@lisawill: The only reason these assholes are pining for days of neighbors helping neighbors is because their neighbors in their gated communities fucking hate them and will probably pull out beer and lawn chairs if Rick Sanchez’s house caught on fire.
Petorado
@lisawill: Exactly!
“Neighbor helping neighbor” seems to be the new “states rights”: a seemingly innocuous statement that’s been weaponized by people who want to only help their own kind and dismiss others with a “you ain’t from around these parts, are you” retort.
Rafer Janders
Similarly, the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps are vital, but we should guard against dependency — they shouldn’t replace neighbors helping neighbors to invade hostile lands, which after all is who we are as Americans.
dead existentialist
@Rafer Janders:
You’re referring to the National Guard, amirite?
scav
well, I’m already getting my news from my neighbors here instead of developing a dependency on BIG MEDIA, so let’s strike a blow for freedom and eliminate Fux.
(brought {brut?} to you by a shud shudder).
BGinCHI
Now neighborliness is the free market.
OK, good to know.
Fucking idiots.
cbear
@? Martin: …..and then call the police to report a suspicious-looking Mexican when he inspects the fire damage.
trollhattan
Note in passing: Nate Silver has Rmoney’s odds at 27% today. Something about that number….
YellowJournalism
@Soonergrunt: I think I despise him more for that hideous short version of “shouldn’t.”
Rafer Janders
@Soonergrunt:
I’m sorry, but is Sanchez saying that neighbor should do it for free? But that’s socialism!!!!
Jay C
I really have to wonder whether Rick Sanchez actually knows, personally, anybody at all who:
1) was made homeless by Sandy
2) suffered any personal injury or property damage by Sandy
3) needed to call on FEMA for any reason whatever
4) endured Superstorm Sandy from any other vantage point other than a safe distance – probably another state.
My money would be on “not” for any combination of the above….
scav
@Rafer Janders:
Let alone the point where people wait until a campaign rally to contribute a can of SPAM.
trex
Health insurance is well and good, but it shouldn’t replace bake sales to help our struggling neighbors pay off tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills, which is who we are as Americans.
dead existentialist
@cbear: Zing!
Xecky Gilchrist
@YellowJournalism: Ha, the “shud” and “shudn’t” remind me of “Flowers for Algernon.” And better, of TBogg’s old Jonah Goldberg spoof based on it.
Redshift
@Soonergrunt:
It takes some serious mental gymnastics to apply the “welfare makes people lazy” mentality to come up with “if government money is coming in, people who would normally help their neighbors for free will sit around waiting for a check.”
I don’t have a link to the article handy, but this is rather reminiscent of the Romney campaign aide in a news article I read today, who in an effort to back down on Romney’s “privatize FEMA” stance, described how they think FEMA should be organized, having the state and local authorities with local knowledge be first responders, and the feds providing support, money, etc. They are apparently unaware (which the article explicitly noted) that this is already the way FEMA functions.
Conservatives are always conducting glorious battles against the straw man government programs that exist in their heads. In the uncommon situation where the real government program is highly visible, it always makes them look like clowns.
Some Loser
Life is depressing. Politics sucks. On days like these, I know there is only one truth: God fucked up when he created the Universe. Bad move on his part. He should’ve known better.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Spaghetti Lee:
That’s a really good observation.
amk
@trollhattan: Nope, it’s 77.4 to 22.6. +9.3 to that kenyan ebil soshalist.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Xecky Gilchrist: …which doesn’t have “shud” in it like I remembered, but that is central to my point: Flowers for Goldberg
amk
@? Martin: Yup. Shouldn’t the fucker have asked his naybors that before he twitted himself ?
gwangung
Particularly since the neighbors will almost certainly be IN THE EXACT SAME STATE.
How does “neighbor helping neighbor” actually work in that circumstance???
Chris T.
@Spaghetti Lee: Again, it goes back to the essential Republican trait of projection….
Frankensteinbeck
@Petorado:
Well said. It appeals to three types of thought, none of which are admirable: ‘I resent paying any money to help other people.’, ‘I don’t want outsiders interfering in my inbred, conformist, highly religious local community.’ and ‘Obama likes it? Then I hate it.’
Ken_L
It’s vital but you shouldn’t depend on it? Dude it can be the one thing or the other thing but surely even a Fox News moron can see that an undependable vital service is not really a good idea.
BTW down here in Australia neighbours help neighbours too … also in other countries, so I’ve observed. I guess we are all Americans now.
trex
@gwangung:
It goes like this: you have a bucket and Sally has some water and I have a freeze ray – and together we can make ice!
pseudonymous in nc
@amk:
Nate just posted the new run half an hour ago, so not fair. The two MI polls that came out yesterday are from orgs with very odd past results this cycle.
FlipYrWhig
Why prop up a culture of dependency? Instead of paying taxes for a police force to investigate crimes, like some soçialist society might do, use individual initiative to organize a posse or a lynch mob! You know, neighbors helping neighbors!
amk
@pseudonymous in nc: That feminine fucker.
YellowJournalism
@Xecky Gilchrist: And isn’t it sad that, even at his lowest point, poor Charlie had more common sense and empathy.
asiangrrlMN
You know, I could use some of that wingnut money. I am seriously considering switching sides so I can get on the Fox dole. Added bonus – I wouldn’t have to use my brain at all!
Hill Dweller
The new NYT/Quinnipiac poll coming out in the morning has Obama up 5 in OH. FL and VA “essentially tied”.
Tripod
All you need to know about the state of the race- RMoney is campaigning in Florida tomorrow.
Yutsano
@YellowJournalism: Will no one think of the shan’ts?
Rafer Janders
Yeah, because Canadians and Mexicans would just let their neighbors die….
Rafer Janders
The police and courts are vital, but we should guard against dependency — they shouldn’t replace vigilante mob justice, which after all is who we are as Americans.
cmorenc
@Some Loser:
There’s innumerable variations of planets scattered throughout the universe which have developed intelligent life forms, which God conveniently arranged to be scattered in extremely sparse fashion at forbiddingly remote distances from each other, so that the instances where the life forms fucked up each other and their home planet couldn’t also reach and contaminate the ones which were more successful. We’re probably a tiny part of a vast cosmological experiment by God in creating intelligent life forms over vast spans of time, and it’s an open question whether our current status is viewed by God as a probable success or else a usefully interesting but probably doomed to fail instance of intelligent life.
Mister Papercut
Good Lord, the sentiment is deeply and abidingly stupid enough, but the needless Twitterese is about to make me go full Jules-from-Pulp Fiction: “SAY ‘SHUD’ AGAIN!”
yopd1
I’d say Brit Hume was a close second, maybe even first for his genius.
Narcissus
What sort of fucking driveway do you have that you need a truck with a snowplow to clear it
I bet his driveway is like a hundred yards long
Probably can’t even see the road, let alone his neighbors
slag
I suspect “equate” might be the word you are looking for.
slightly_peeved
@Narcissus:
And I think the people who FEMA are really there to help have bigger problems than a heap of crap on their driveway.
B..Lehmann
My family had a beach house at Breezy Point. I was very young but I have such vivid and good memories of that place. It has been thirty years since I visited and I have hoped to return.
My Grandma had five chihuahuas, a border collie and a fox terrier. She would pick me up from nursery school in Jackson Heights in her Cadillac Convertible and drive to to the beach house.
I inherited my love of dogs from her. The destruction of Breezy Point is the landscape of my childhood. It is such a beautiful neighborhood.
halfcynic
@Xecky Gilchrist: Yep, the new normal. Storms from here on out will likely just keep getting freakier and more destructive. Kind of like Republicans.
fuckwit
OK, Sanchez, you dog-fucking whore:
In a democracy, the government IS NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS.
Sweet fucking christ, how stupid can you possibly be not to get this.
In a democracy, WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT. It’s not different from us, or separate from us, or oppressing us. We’re it.
buckyblue
@Arm The Homeless: No, we sent the beer. Who wants rice when you can have beer.
prufrock
@Arm The Homeless:
I remember half my battalion (8th Engineer Support Battalion) deploying to Homestead for hurricane relief after Andrew. Hope the folks down there didn’t become dependent on the USMC.
Citizen_X
Mock Sanchez all you want, but I clearly heard him invite anybody made homeless by Sandy to stay at his house, amirite?
Or at least, that’s what people shud do.
different-church-lady
My god John, that retort overfloweth with win.
Unsympathetic
John, also: Romney implied that FEMA was 100% federally funded, which it is not. FEMA is funded 25% by the state receiving the aid, and 75% from DC.
Paul
Here’s a thought: if a huge storm like Sandy hits, we can do more than any other country in responding to it. If we want to.
The problem is that people like Sanchez/tea baggers do not want us to. They instead want either the state or private business or in Sanchez case individual neighbors to step up. And with that approach, we would be as powerful as perhaps Uganda in responding to a big storm.
RedKitten
What an utter douchenozzle. Even the most self-reliant manly man is not going to have the gear or the experience to deal with a disaster of this magnitude. A bad snowfall, sure. Some downed limbs blocking your driveway? No problem.
Your entire fucking community underwater? Um…
RedKitten
BTW: Has Punchy been around at all lately? I think he owes people a bit of an apology for his non-stop mockery of how worried people were about Sandy. Turns out those milquetoast New Englanders had a damned good reason to worry, huh?
bg
Rick Sanchez and his family got plenty of help from the federal government when they came here from Cuba. Apparently it is good for them but not good for anyone else? He seems to have forgotten that after Andrew it was the Army, Marines & National Guard who saved our asses down here and I can’t begin to tell you how glad we were to see them. sure, our neighbors (from across town) who had electricity brought us ice and let us do our laundry, but the rescue and cleanup job was too big for individual efforts — it really needed the federal government; our local government was pretty much overwhelmed.
Sanchez was not a good neighbor to the victim of his hit and run drunk driving accident, either. Left the guy lying there, quadriplegic, died 5 years later at the age of 36.
No surprise this selfish asshole wound up on Fox.
Patricia Kayden
@lisawill: Great point.
I used to like Sanchez when he was on CNN. Didn’t know he was such a jerk. He’d fit in well with Fox News, but I’m not sure they would take him given the anti-Semitic comments that got him fired from CNN.
NonyNony
@Some Loser:
I prefer Douglas Adams’s rendition:
Gracie
Awesome John. It had to be said and you said it well.
Gus
Cheez, it’s Rick Sanchez. He has shown himself to be really, really stupid on multiple occasions. Not worth crying yourself to sleep over.
JustRuss
Well played, Se
& ntilde;or Cole.Don
I was so disappointed when I heard CNN hired that backwater clown who I’d had the misfortune to see on local Miami news so long ago. In a just universe he’d have gone to jail for his drunken driving shenanigans and never been on TV again.
bootsy
If it’s a Legitimate ‘Cane, the red-blooded American has a way of shutting that whole thing down.