Need help debunking this.

[texas1928]

Got this from my best friend and this is the kind of crap he sends me all the time.

1. Texas: Productive industrious state run by Republicans.
Louisiana: Government dependent welfare state run by Democrats.

2. Texas: Residents take responsibility to protect and evacuate themselves.
Louisiana: Residents wait for government to protect and evacuate them.

3. Texas: Local and state officials take responsibility for protecting their citizens and property.
Louisiana: Local and state officials blame federal government for not protecting their citizens and property.

4. Texas: Command and control remains in place to preserve order.
Louisiana: Command and control collapses allowing lawlessness.

5. Texas: Law enforcement officers remain on duty to protect city.
Louisiana: Law enforcement officers desert their posts to protect themselves.

6. Texas: Local police watch for looting.
Louisiana: Local police participate in looting.

7. Texas: Law and order remains in control, 8 looters tried it, 8 looters arrested.
Louisiana: Anarchy and lawlessness breaks out, looters take over city, no arrests, criminals with guns have to be shot by federal troops.

8. Texas: Considerable damage caused by hurricane.
Louisiana: Considerable damage caused by looters.

9. Texas: Flood barriers hold preventing cities from flooding.
Louisiana: Flood barriers fail due to lack of maintenance allowing city to flood.

10. Texas: Orderly evacuation away from threatened areas, few remain.
Louisiana: 25,000 fail to evacuate, are relocated to another flooded area.

11. Texas: Citizens evacuate with personal 3 day supply of food and water.
Louisiana: Citizens fail to evacuate with 3 day supply of food and water, do without it for the next 4 days.

12. Texas: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees. State officials provide accessible distribution points.
Louisiana: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees. State officials prevent citizens from reaching distribution points and vice versa.

13. Louisiana: Media focuses on poor blacks in need of assistance, blames Bush.
Texas: Media can’t find poor blacks in need of assistance, looking for something else to blame on Bush.

14. Texas: Coastal cities suffer some infrastructure damage, Mayors tell residents to stay away until ready for repopulation, no interference from federal officials.
Louisiana: New Orleans is destroyed, Mayor asks residents to return home as another hurricane approaches, has to be overruled by federal officials.

15. Louisiana: Over 400 killed by storm, flooding and crime.
Texas: 24 killed in bus accident on highway during evacuation, no storm related deaths.

16. Texas: Jailed prisoners are relocated to other detention facilities outside the storm area.
Louisiana: Jailed prisoners are set free to prey on city shops, residents, and homes.

17. Texas: Local and state officials work with FEMA and Red Cross in recovery operations.
Louisiana: Local and state officials obstruct FEMA and Red Cross from aiding in recovery operations.

18. Texas: Local and state officials demonstrate leadership in managing disaster areas.
Louisiana: Local and state officials fail to demonstrate leadership, require federal government to manage disaster areas.

19. Texas: Fuel deliveries can't keep up with demand, some run out of gas on highway, need help from fuel tankers before storm arrives.
Louisiana: Motorists wait till storm hits and electrical power fails. Cars run out of gas at gas stations that can‘t pump gas. Gas in underground tanks mixes with flood waters.

20. Texas: Mayors move citizens out of danger.
Louisiana: Mayor moves himself and family to Dallas.

21. Texas: Mayors continue public service announcements and updates on television with Governor's backing and support.
Louisiana: Mayor cusses, governor cries, senator threatens president with violence on television, none of them have a clue what went wrong or who‘s responsible.

22. Louisiana: Democratic Senator says FEMA was slow in responding to 911 calls from Louisiana citizens.
Texas: Republican Senator says "when you call 911, the phone doesn't ring in Washington, it rings here at the local responders".
What if state and local elected officials were forced to depend on themselves and their own resources instead of calling for help from the federal government? Texas cities would be back up and running in a few days. Louisiana cities would still be under water next month. Republicans call for action, Democrats call for help. What party will you be voting for in the next election?

[strategery blunder]

1. Two words: Hurricane Mulligan.

Had Hurricane Mulligan hit Houston, it would have been another clusterf*ck blamed on another Democratic mayor.

[Mz Pip]

2. In answer to the last question:

I'll be voting for the Dems because dumb ass unproductive e-mails like this do nothing to solve problems and are written by partisan hacks with too much free time.

If this guy thinks everything went so well in the evacuation of Houston he must have been living in Cleveland.


Mz Pip
:dem:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. Why is this person your best friend?

[texas1928]

7. He and I have been friends since High School

Since he married his wife, he has gotten this way. He was not like this before. He and I have been through hell and back, we will always be close.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

9. Since he is your friend, and knows that your politics are different (?),

how is it that he doesn't respect you enough to not bombard you with RW crap like this? Unless you frequently engage in "friendly" political conversations, but if he still thinks like this I don't see how such conversations could remain friendly.

[texas1928]

11. He just found out I am a "Liberal".

Really I am a Democrat, and I have Liberal tendencies. He used to have them. But now, I really think it is his wife. She since out the "Christian" e-mails all the time. I have come close a few times to asking her to stop. But, I love my friend just like he was my brother. He is my brother I never had. Hell, we picked rock salt out of each others backsides one time.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. It seems to me the height of disrespect to send someone these crap clone

emails when you know they think differently from you, ESPECIALLY if they are a friend. If they are interested in talking politics and exploring your different ideas, they can do that in person, on the phone, or in a REAL email that they wrote themselves that isn't some cloned crap they are forwarding.

Why are you somehow powerless to ask that they stop doing this? It's not like asking them not to be your friend, it's simply a question of "you know we disagree on politics and I ask that you respect my differences and NOT forward propaganda chain emails that you receive." If they are actually a friend, or even any kind of decent person, then they would do this.

By the way I agree with the other poster that the points on this email are easily debunked with a little research. You don't even have to leave DU to do it, search some of the Katrina threads, this very email is discussed, among other things, over in GD. It's on purpose that I didn't address your original question of "debunking" this because the bigger issue that I see is that you say your "best friend" "always" sends you stuff like this. Of course my first thought when I read this is that "here's some right wing troll trying to pimp some crap chain propaganda email on our site in the guise of 'could you debunk for me pretty please'?" but the I'm intrigued by the issue of how it is that you could stay best friends with someone who always sends objectionable crap to you and not say anything.

I have friends who are Republican, but they wouldn't dare send me stuff like this. If they did, and didn't stop when I asked them, I wouldn't be friends with them for very long regardless of the past friendship.

The parents of one of my best friends from my military days sent me these clone emails, and I asked them to stop, and they did. They screwed up one more time by putting me on their recipient list by accident, I pointed it out, they apologized and stopped.

[Bossy Monkey]

4. Here

http://www.1900storm.com/
Mind you, Texas, like the rest of the South, was run by people who called themselves Democrats then, but in general you would have been hard pressed to have distinguished them from today's Republicans.

I echo MM's question.

[Redstone]

5. Just inform your friend that he's a racist asshole and save yourself

a lot of work.

You could debunk each of those points with some research if you wanted to, but anyone who would send them to you is beyond redemption, and would not have the intelligence to read andunderstand your rebuttals, much less admit that he was wrong.

You don't need "friends" like that.

Redstone

[WhollyHeretic]

6. Every point is wrong and it is very racist. n/t

[skygazer]

8. Do what I do every time my father sends me crap like this

My standard response -

"With all due respect, please stop sending me things like this. If you would like to discuss political issues, I would be glad to do so but not by simply sending these bulk emails that someone else began – I prefer to discuss YOUR views and YOUR opinions, stated in YOUR voice.

I am not going to waste my time explaining why all of these things are silly and pointless. I enjoy discussing the issues - not in sound bites and talking points but in real dialogue. These bulk emails put the burden of research and proof upon me while allowing you to simply cut, paste and forward."

Feel free to use it. By perpetually making the effort to debunk these stupid emails, we legitimize them. Make the sender do some work - we waste too much of our time doing the opposition's research for them.

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. Time to find a new best friend.