Obama Goes All Out For Dirty Banker Deal

Lies and fear ... clueless ... Right Crapalicious?

Nah, if this is true it really, really sucks.

How does this surprise anyone? When the President-Elect announced his economic team was being headed up Tim meeping Geithner and Larry meeping Summers, both in the top 10 list of Finance Guys Most Responsible For Causing This Gigantic Robbery In The First Place, it was pretty much confirmed that his economic policy was going to be written on Wall Street. Which it has been since day one.

meep, even BEFORE he was elected, Sen. Obama voted to (illegally) retroactively legalize all the secret criminal warantless wiretapping the Bushies had been doing to Americans, and to immunize all the telecoms from their criminal responsibility for helping. That's when I said "Oh." Actually, since being elected, the guy's gone further than Bush, actually asserting in court the right to hold people FOREVER without charge, trial, or lawyer, and as of last year to execute Americans accused of 'terrorism' without trial as well.

Oh well.

Hrm, wtf clipboard?

Mission accomplished.


Foodstamps: the only reason America isn't rioting like the rest of the 3rd world nations.

IT'S FREE SWIPE YO EBT

There is a meeptonne of editorial language in this piece.
I can only take Rolling Stone as a stepping-stone for further knowledge. It's essentially a very large-publication tabloid (more entertainment and editorial than fact).

YOU'RE a very large-publication tabloid.

Bam!

Yeah... Umm.

I no longer work as a Journalist. When I was employed therin, I adhered to the guidelines of impartiality, so... uh... Bam!?

Are You arguing for Rolling Stone or against me or something weirder?

@teh_blintz0r

lies

@Wotak

I don't mean to imply that folks who can't put food on their tables shouldn't get help in doing so; that extended families, friends, and/or neighbors should withhold food from those they care about and who are in need of such assistance; I'm just saying that everyone knows that the food stamp program is among the most important and most effective stimulus spending measures known, so obviously ..... GOOD TIMES AHEAD!

Although this Thomas Frank fellow has some confusing notions of the roles that cause and effect have in an objective reality, he offers relevant illumination on "Obama and 'Regulatory Capture'".

@Crapalicious

And for the purposes of rubbing in the salt from a different discussion:

"The first federal regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission, was set up to regulate railroad freight rates in the 1880s. Soon thereafter, Richard Olney, a prominent railroad lawyer, came to Washington to serve as Grover Cleveland's attorney general. Olney's former boss asked him if he would help kill off the hated ICC. Olney's reply, ...

"The Commission . . . is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the popular clamor for a government supervision of the railroads, at the same time that that supervision is almost entirely nominal. Further, the older such a commission gets to be, the more inclined it will be found to take the business and railroad view of things. . . . The part of wisdom is not to destroy the Commission, but to utilize it."

:D

http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/playlist/25504/2793038?wpid=10912

^ It'd be nice if the site owner would fix some of the meeping obvious meep-pits within LS2.0, no?

@lOki,

It's disingenuous to suggest that is ALWAYS the case.

Additionally, that is why we have to remain vigilant.

Your black & white worldview is just so meeping stupid.

@Crapalicious

Crapalicious: It's disingenuous to suggest that is ALWAYS the case.

No it's not.

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

BOOYAH!

No Crapalicious, what's disingenuous is to suggest that more watchdogs is the solution to the problem we have with watchdogs.

Crapalicious: Additionally, that is why we have to remain vigilant.

See what I mean?

Crapalicious: Your black & white worldview is just so meeping stupid.

No Crapalicious, you're stupid.

So stupid infact that you don't even know what "Your black & white worldview' even means, and that proud and retarded ignorance is the foundation of this (and every other) sanctimonious accusation and insult you fling at me.

BRAVO! Retard.

@LOki

what's disingenuous is to suggest that more watchdogs is the solution to the problem we have with watchdogs.

I didn't mean more regulators you idiot, i mean THE PEOPLE, but as you believe you are exceptional, you wouldn't include yourself in that, would you?... 'cause you're DIFFERENT, right? YOU see things the "right" way, and everyone else is "wrong", "stupid", "retarted", etc...

you don't even know what "Your black & white worldview' even means,

I certainly do. It means that you believe that there is a "right" and a "wrong", with you being "right" and everyone else being "wrong". Well guess what... You have no idea what the meep you are talking about... You just have severe copy/paste diarrhea of the keyboard.

You're a simpleton, and just like so many other wannabe right-wing sociopaths... a real "dittohead"...

Crapalicious: I didn't mean more regulators you idiot,...

Yes you did. It's a certainty you can check for yourself by reviewing your own posting.

Crapalicious: ...i mean THE PEOPLE,...

ANd by "The People," you mean "The State"--in the form of legislative bodies, and their tools...regulators.

You're just so meeping transparent.

Crapalicious: ...but as you believe you are exceptional, you wouldn't include yourself in that, would you?... 'cause you're DIFFERENT, right?

I make no such claim. I just claim to be different from you.

And happily so.

Crapalicious: YOU see things the "right" way,...

I don't make this claim either; but it occurs to me, based both on the evidence I've brought and that you've brought, that my perception is consistent with reality while yours is in futile denial of it.

Crapalicious: ...and everyone else is "wrong", "stupid", "retarted", etc...

Nonsense. I'm just pointing out that you're ""wrong", "stupid", "retarted", etc..."

Although it's interesting (but not at all surprising, I suppose) that despite the weight of evidence to the contrary, you seem to hold to the notion that "everyone else" agrees with you.

Crapalicious:

LOki: you don't even know what "Your black & white worldview' even means,

I certainly do.

No you don't; watch...

Crapalicious: It means that you believe that there is a "right" and a "wrong", with you being "right" and everyone else being "wrong".

See what I mean?

Crapalicious: Well guess what... You have no idea what the meep you are talking about...

Considering that many of the sources I post--that support my point--are supplied by you, I will hazard the assertion that I actually do know what I'm talking about, and you're just a ... how did you put it?...oh yes, a "clueless meep."

Crapalicious: You just have severe copy/paste diarrhea of the keyboard.

Yeah...kicking your stupid meep with your own (as well as many other) sources.

Crapalicious: You're a simpleton, and just like so many other wannabe right-wing sociopaths... a real "dittohead"...

And ther it is folks...the same old Republican vs Democrat, Conservaitive vs Liberal, Red State vs Blue State, Fascist vs Socialist--might I even suggest Black vs white--bullmeep paradigm kicking in.

What you (and every retard exactly like you) fail to parse is that I troll "right-wing sociopaths... real "dittohead" forums with the same position and get a resoundingly familiar "left-wing degenerate ... terrorist hugging hater of America" from those retards.

And you know what? While you both disagree about who should be holding the gun and telling everybody else what is good for them, and forcing them to do so for "the common good," the one thing all you authoritarian nanny statist retards agree upon is that I, and those like me, are not like you, and are your enemy.

And I for one cannot be happier about that.

> Yes you did.

Actually, no, I meant exactly what i wrote. It's your paranoid delusions that make you think that's what i mean.

You're just so meeping transparent.

Again, you are putting meanings to my words based on some sort of ridiculous fantasy.

my perception is consistent with reality

Except you can't provide serious examples.

No you don't;

Repetition isn't argument. It's the definition of mental illness.

kicking your stupid meep with your own (as well as many other) sources.

Again, fantasy.

And I for one cannot be happier about that.

Glad you're happy. You should move to Somalia, where the state has totally failed. Am sure you'ld love it there..

LOL @Crapalicious

Crapalicious:

It's as if you have no concept of the format you're posting into.

It's all right up there in defiance of your denial of reality...including the "serious examples" I provided. Seriously, which ones do you consider not serious? The EPA examples? The SEC examples? The NRC examples? None of those are serious enough for you?

For your own sake Crapalicious, I hope you can just stay high forever.

Retard.

LOL @LOki,

You're such a sad, creepy, intellectually crippled, hate-filled idiot.

Your examples are all repeats. Yet again, repeating yourself with cherry-picked examples that conform to your fantasy.

Here's the bottom line. Enjoy the boot on your neck. If you don't, am sure you (and you alone) are strong enough to remove it and make a world (all for yourself) that provides you (and you alone) with "true freedom".

^ Christ, watching you turn into a little meep over this isn't even funny anymore, you literally won't speak to a single point being made.

I think I know what happened, you started fighting on the internet, lazily linked a meepty source, realized that your dance partner studied just a bit more tap/jazz/salsa than you did. And you keep you summon retard strength to keep your arm-swinging, overbite box-step chugging along.

It has been made painfully clear that you are unwilling to admit that you are either:
1) too lazy to actually research your rejoinders.
2) ignorant of the subject material.

And you answer in the broadest handwaving terms imaginable, seriously "intellectually crippled", do you realize how stupid that looks, countering with cherry picking sources but offering a grand total of 0 in response, like zilch, nary a meeping one what encapsulates even a fraction of your points without contradicting you.

This coming from a fat socialist commie-pinko canuck whatever (blahblahblah).

Are you kidding me? You want me to take this crank seriously? What point is he even making?

That "Regulatory Capture" exists? Well, meepin' no meep Sherlock... That's why we need to tear these meepers down and build something that doesn't allow that sort of bullmeep to happen. I believe that is possible. He doesn't, or doesn't want admit it, or is blind to it,... blah.

That politics as usual is an abject failure? Well, mostly true, although there are still pockets of Social Democracy that function rather well.. The Scandinavian countries, for example (which kind of blows a hole is his whole "The State is Ruin" concept). But hey, let's keep focused on the US for now.

So, what is he trying to say... Let's go back.

LOki wrote " Any truly beneficial reform will first require a change in the climate of ideas. For instance, the idea that the only alternative to injustices distributed by corporate institutions is injustices distributed by government institutions... ...the first requirement will be a change in the climate of ideas; a paradigm shift from the (currently held) rule by greater authority, to one of self-determinant self-governance. "

What this means in the real-world is the privatization of just about everything. Especially those functions presently provided by the State. Unfortunately, this creates a scenario where public defense and courts would tend to represent the interests of those who pay them enough (yay! let's have private militias just like in Uganda). As a result, if economic power were concentrated in the hands a relatively small number of people (as indeed it tends to be), the rich would immediately dominate the society politically, You see, having defense and courts controlled by the market is an inherent miscarriage of justice because it turns justice into a commodity. I believe that society should hold that justice is an ideal to be achieved by an electoral process and that LOki's position would amount to a conflating of economic power and justice which would lead inexorably to de-facto fascism.

I could go on for hours with further moral and practical criticisms of LOki's anarcho-capitalist fantasy, but have to go do the dishes.

I'll leave you with this quote, which comes from an excellent book by Carl Landauer called "European Socialism: A History of Ideas and Movements" (1959)

"The belief that ill intentions will cease if repressive force disappears is an absurdity."

FITE!

@Crapalicious

LORDKAHUNA:It has been made painfully clear that you are unwilling to admit that you are either:
1) too lazy to actually research your rejoinders.
2) ignorant of the subject material.

3) Stubbornly refuses to refute the actual position LOki holds and presents.

Crapalicious, you are not only retarded, you're a meep.

sad trombone

ITT mad

That "Regulatory Capture" exists? Well, meepin' no meep Sherlock... That's why we need to tear these meepers down and build something that doesn't allow that sort of bullmeep to happen. I believe that is possible. He doesn't, or doesn't want admit it, or is blind to it,... blah.

That is the crux of it (highlighted in bold), we don't NEED any more government control. There is a huge body of proof that points to government, given enough time, will meep up all the meep out of a populace.

That politics as usual is an abject failure? Well, mostly true, although there are still pockets of Social Democracy that function rather well.. The Scandinavian countries, for example (which kind of blows a hole is his whole "The State is Ruin" concept). But hey, let's keep focused on the US for now.

Here you are actually supporting a portion of his stance, pointing out little feeble locales with innate wealth and low population to begin with, a very thin slice of the whole which is generally meepted up.

meep look at Iceland, with all it's government meepery in it's economy, it is predicted to be the first country to enter into what is classified as an economic depression.

Finland?
Wiki- "...overall tax burden is now around 43% of GDP compared to 51.1% in Sweden, 34.7% in Germany, 33.5% in Canada, and 30.5% in Ireland.

Couple that with an inflexible job market and an unemployment rate close to 7% (high for highly educated vikings) it isnt terrible, and it is no Shangri-la either.

Switzerland?
Ok it's nice and stuff, must be what you are talking about, still hardly makes a point

LOki wrote " Any truly beneficial reform will first require a change in the climate of ideas. For instance, the idea that the only alternative to injustices distributed by corporate institutions is injustices distributed by government institutions... ...the first requirement will be a change in the climate of ideas; a paradigm shift from the (currently held) rule by greater authority, to one of self-determinant self-governance. "

OK, I can read and grok this.

What this means in the real-world is the privatization of just about everything. Especially those functions presently provided by the State. Unfortunately, this creates a scenario where public defense and courts would tend to represent the interests of those who pay them enough (yay! let's have private militias just like in Uganda). As a result, if economic power were concentrated in the hands a relatively small number of people (as indeed it tends to be), the rich would immediately dominate the society politically, You see, having defense and courts controlled by the market is an inherent miscarriage of justice because it turns justice into a commodity. I believe that society should hold that justice is an ideal to be achieved by an electoral process and that LOki's position would amount to a conflating of economic power and justice which would lead inexorably to de-facto fascism.

This is where you inject a cute little straw man, do I need to actually spell it out to you? You are extrapolating L0ki's position to fit your scary straw man shape.

Condensing:

Who is better at determining what is best for your own person?
Does the state have your best interest as a priority, or does it exist to serve itself?
Does a self-serving state improve your existence, with you benefiting from it's byproducts?

Answer these sanely, you can see that improvement can only come from lessening it's
power, not obliterating it, but rather have the state serve it's original purpose.

I could go on for hours with further moral and practical criticisms of LOki's anarcho-capitalist fantasy, but have to go do the dishes.

Besides going "TEH URGH L0KI IS BAAD AND DUM" you have yet to hit anything close to a home run on this, besides providing hand-waving.

I'll leave you with this quote, which comes from an excellent book by Carl Landauer called "European Socialism: A History of Ideas and Movements" (1959)

"The belief that ill intentions will cease if repressive force disappears is an absurdity."

Nice quote I guess, it doesn't apply to the argument, unless you are saying that there will always be evil in the world, or people willing to meep over another.

The thing is, WHAT WE HAVE NOW IS A SYSTEM SUPPORTED BY THE POPULACE THAT REWARDS ENTITIES FOR FUKKING YOU IN YOUR PERSONAL ANOOSE.

How many items like the one swarmed here do you need to see before you tire of the government giving a pass to corporate entities that screw over real living people before you start wondering if it is a bad idea.

Like Kenneth Pinyan, like-minded citizens are working their way up the zoological ladder until you will miscalculate the geometry of the state's thrust, then it will be too late, you will die horsemeepered.

@Crapalicious

Sorry. I didn't mean to shirk. I just didn't have time right then.

Here you go.

Crapalicious: Are you kidding me?

God no. Kidding you would just be cruel.

Crapalicious: You want me to take this crank seriously?

Well, if taking you seriously is the alternative ...

Crapalicious: What point is he even making?

How about advancing the abusive power of regulatory authority is no way to abate the abuse of regulatory power.

OR

[N]either equality or justice will ever happen so long as meep-meeps like yourself feel entitled to simply kife whatever you like, for whatever purposes, through legislative action.

(You know, provided we think it's possible, and that we can admit it, and that we can see it, ...blah.)

meep.

Crapalicious: That "Regulatory Capture" exists? Well, meepin' no meep Sherlock...

Well. Isn't this just a 180 degree turn from "Fear and Lies."

What a meep.

Crapalicious: That's why we need to tear these meepers down and build something that doesn't allow that sort of bullmeep to happen. I believe that is possible. He doesn't, or doesn't want admit it, or is blind to it,... blah.

I'm not the one who called the whole thing "Fear and Lies" retard.

Crapalicious: That politics as usual is an abject failure? Well, mostly true, although there are still pockets of Social Democracy that function rather well.. The Scandinavian countries, for example (which kind of blows a hole is his whole "The State is Ruin" concept). But hey, let's keep focused on the US for now.

No, let's not.

Instead, why don'tyou provide an example of one of these Scandanavian countries where Social Democracy functions rather well. And remember to not be a "cherry-picking" meepgot about it.

Oh, who am I kidding--you're going to be a cherry-picking meepgot anyway, so why ask you to contradict your intellectually dishonest nature. Instead, let me ask you to not cherry-pick a Scandanavian Social Democracy that will prove my point rather than yours.

Would that be too much to ask?

Feel free to make some excuse (blaming me would be most predictable, and probably grant some plausible deniability for your busted self-esteem) for why it's not worth the effort to do so.

Crapalicious: So, what is he trying to say... Let's go back.

Wait. just a minute ago you said, "That's why we need to tear these meepers down and build something that doesn't allow that sort of bullmeep to happen. I believe that is possible. [LOki] doesn't, or doesn't want admit it, or is blind to it,... blah."

It's one thing to deny the objective reality around you, but it's another thing entirely to deny your own reality--the one you made up from nothing inside your head. You should attempt to at least get consistent with that.

Crapalicious: So, what is he trying to say... Let's go back.

LOki wrote: " Any truly beneficial reform will first require a change in the climate of ideas. For instance, the idea that the only alternative to injustices distributed by corporate institutions is injustices distributed by government institutions... ...the first requirement will be a change in the climate of ideas; a paradigm shift from the (currently held) rule by greater authority, to one of self-determinant self-governance. "

What this means in the real-world is the privatization of just about everything.

That's funny. That's not what I said that meant (in the real world). You (conveniently, like the intellectually dishonest meep-meep that you are) omitted the actual meaning I explicitly (in the real world) provided so you could not possibly be confused (by the real world--meep):

LOki: A paradigm where the benefit of the human beings in a society is the primary end of society, rather than the benefit of society being the end--with human beings as the merely the means to that end.

The obvious reason for this omission, is that attacking the Strawman of "de-facto fascism" is preferrable to you than attacking what I actually meant.

You're a meepa-meep for attempting this, and a retard for thinking anyone would miss your meepgotry.

Crapalicious: Especially those functions presently provided by the State. Unfortunately, this creates a scenario where public defense and courts would tend to represent the interests of those who pay them enough (yay! let's have private militias just like in Uganda). As a result, if economic power were concentrated in the hands a relatively small number of people (as indeed it tends to be), the rich would immediately dominate the society politically, You see, having defense and courts controlled by the market is an inherent miscarriage of justice because it turns justice into a commodity. I believe that society should hold that justice is an ideal to be achieved by an electoral process and that LOki's position would amount to a conflating of economic power and justice which would lead inexorably to de-facto fascism.

Typical. As LORDKAHUNA recently pointed out,

It has been made painfully clear that you are unwilling to admit that you are either:
1) too lazy to actually research your rejoinders.
2) ignorant of the subject material.

Posted eleswhere by LOki but not read by Crapalicious: I don't advocate lawlessness, but you know that--retard.
Seriously. You did.

AND

Posted eleswhere by LOki but not read by Crapalicious: This LOki is no Anarchist, hence no Libertarian--despite how much Libertarians dig LOkitatrian notions of socio-political-economic justice.

If there are two separate terms, then they should really describe two separate notions; "Anarchist" best suits what Anarchists are about--far more so than "Libertarian" does. I have attempted to defend Libertarians from the label "Anarchist," only to be undone by the first "Libertarian" that expounds upon the virtues of privately owned "national defense," "courts of justice," and/or how government--ANY government--is unnecessary in a free world.

Crapalicious: I could go on for hours with further moral and practical criticisms of LOki's anarcho-capitalist fantasy, ...

No you can't.

Obviously.

Otherwise you wouldn't engage this Stawman as the prime example of your ability to do so.

But feel free to construct other Strawmen ... you're certainly fooling yourself, but you're fooling nobodyelse.

Crapalicious: ...but have to go do the dishes.

^Retard code for "Lick the window."

Crapalicious: I'll leave you with this quote, which comes from an excellent book by Carl Landauer called "European Socialism: A History of Ideas and Movements" (1959)

"The belief that ill intentions will cease if repressive force disappears is an absurdity."

The belief that repressive force can do anything but grant greater potentcy to ill intentions is even more absurd.

Man, you sure do devote a great deal of time to counting how many anarchist angels would dance on the tip of a pin if only the government would get out of your way. Nonetheless, maybe things as simple as earthquakes and hurricanes might be give you cause to reconsider.

In Haiti, with no strong government building codes, a relatively mild earthquake killed a hundred thousand people.

In Japan, a far more terrible quake killed relatively few because the national government imposes strong regulations.

True, in Japan the tsunami killed tens of thousands, but without government warning systems and emergency preparations it would have been many times as bad.

Remember when Bobby Jindal gave the Republican response to Obama's first state of the union? The high point was when he mocked the notion of federal volcano prediction research, and this was from the governor of Louisiana which had just lost New Orleans to a failure of government preparation.

Here's a link to a WaPo piece contrasting Irene to Katrina:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hurricane-irene-and-the-benefits-of-big-government/2011/08/29/gIQA4bnEoJ_story.html?hpid=z2

@Crapalicious

@Crapalicious

@LOki

>@Crapalicious

LORDKAHUNA:It has been made painfully clear that you are unwilling to admit that you are either:
1) too lazy to actually research your rejoinders.
2) ignorant of the subject material.

3) Stubbornly refuses to refute the actual position LOki holds and presents.

Crapalicious, you are not only retarded, you're a meep.

If NYC was hit by a 7 magnitude earthquake, I'm certain a few hundred thousand would die of it despite a building code book that 3 inches thick.

As you pointed out, building codes probably didn't save any lives from the tsunami in Japan.

So I'm pretty sure the lack of building codes generally has nothing to do with lives lost when you're really discussing the lack of a specific building code--namely tsunami code and earthquake code.

And the losses in N.O. were clearly NOT due to lack of Government preparation. The Government was fully prepared for Katrina. Look it up you intellectually lazy meep.

And just so I can leave behind something else you won't read, but will eventually accuse me of being against--I have no problem with Emergency Relief responses, or collecting revenue in anticipation of such acute, yet transient, contingencies.

Man, you sure do devote a great deal of time to counting how many anarchist angels would dance on the tip of a pin if only the government would get out of your way. Nonetheless, maybe things as simple as earthquakes and hurricanes might be give you cause to reconsider.

Really?
Who is anarchist, who is taking a stance against governance?

In Haiti, with no strong government building codes, a relatively mild earthquake killed a hundred thousand people.

Here is where you expose yourself as a complete moron who is:
1) too lazy to actually research your rejoinders.
2) ignorant of the subject material.

I can say this because I have actually been to both places, and here is where I will point out how much of a moron you actually are.

What we have been speaking about all this time is the inherent corruption that exists within government (as outlined in the fuking link swarmed). Haiti is literally the most corrupt government on record (not counting failed-states).

Read it here

You are speaking about a country where the government only maintains the barest pretense of doing what is right for it's citizenry, and takes what it can, when it can from the poorest. There is no industry, no GDP, no development, no infrastructure in this country that steals from it's people. Your argument that we need MORE government control is hilarious.

You counter with Japan, stating that strong regulation saved lives. This is absurd, not to mention false, I suspect that you googled it and grabbed the first NYT link that backed up your theory. You miss the fact that Japan has been hit with so many tsunamis that the word we use to describe the phenomenon is Japanese. To further dumb it down, after learning from failure it has become the practice of this small island nation to prepare for such disasters.

I'm not going to embarrass you further and mention the resource gap between the two countries (oops, just did). In Haiti I have seen people buy a 10 ft 2x4 or $20, building material is just that scarce, no building code can help you make an earthquake-proof building when all you have is basically dirt. You are stupidly comparing the richest and poorest in terms of disaster resiliency, you should be embarrassed for typing this.

Remember when Bobby Jindal gave the Republican response to Obama's first state of the union? The high point was when he mocked the notion of federal volcano prediction research, and this was from the governor of Louisiana which had just lost New Orleans to a failure of government preparation.

Weird, because it doesn't take much research to find evidence that more than one government entity was aware that there were shortcomings in the flood prevention methods. If this information was given to the people years before the disaster hit, or the truth told as the storm approached, of if the people could actually have a role in their safety (3rd party access/input into the decision process surrounding the levees), it might have been different.

I am unsure what kind of point you are trying to make here...

And your link is stupid, boiled down to this:
1) Katrina was bad, FEMA was unprepared
2) Irene was not so bad, FEMA sent some disaster relief just in case
3) See, government was smart being prepared for what turned out to be a non-event.

makes gigantic meep-off motion