help with family Thanksgiving fall-out

I have not been on the internet since before Thanksgiving, so I missed all the 'fun' posts about family get-togethers.

I would like help to counter (with 'acceptable' links) the following comments:

one brother.....there were many helicopters that rescued people after Katrina, IOW very few people were left stranded by the federal government; 'liberal' media just didn't report this

nephew.......firefighters held back for course on 'sexual harassment' (I know this happened); the clearly implied spin was 'feminists delayed needed aid'

another brother......all advances in human life have come from the northern hemisphere; NOTHING was ever done in the black societies of Africa.......I was shocked to hear this still being said as obviously true

general comments.....a great many individuals from all over the country helped in Katrina aftermath, but this was not covered by 'liberal' media; what they refused to hear/believe is that FEMA prevented many of these volunteers from helping

******

There was no big discussion, just a few comments dropped with no counter comments acknowledged. Years ago we agreed there would be no political discussions at family holiday get-togethers. Apparently they felt some things just had to be said.

'Acceptable' links will be sent to email addresses.

Over Blanco vs. Bush's response to Katrina

I was in Lafayette, LA for Thanksgiving

The booze flows with my in-laws and one pipes up that Blanco is the "worst governor ever" and that "Nagin didn't do anything"

I countered with the fact that at least 80% or more NO citizens were evacuated, which is better than the feds trial runs for such a scenario ever came out.

It's been a few weeks since then and I am a little fuzzy on all the details.

The end result was that I had 3 fanatical loons, all boozed up screaming that Blanco was bad, Bush was good.

I think I held my own in this argument, but it left the evening with a sour taste in my mouth.
Then my wife's uncle turned on Fox and started saying "everyone on Fox News is beautiful, there aren't any ugly people on Fox", I mentioned John Gibson as being a "real hunk", all pale, and ghoulish looking.

It's amazing what right wingers believe and how set they are to believe that Fox is telling the truth and no one else is.

"Good joke! Oh, wait. You were serious?" Laugh almost uncontrollably. "You're serious!" Laugh more.

Ream 'em with mirth since they're impervious to facts.

When they ask, "What's so funny?" Just weakly wave your hands then clutch your chest and continue laughing.

sloshing through the water to get to the Superdome (or floating facedown in the water), and then not being able to get food or water for several days? Not to denigrate the CG, but no helos were helping them.
Here's a good slideshow that was posted yesterday, though it takes awhile to view:
http://www.poynterextra.org/Katrina/gallery/index.htm

It only legitimizes thinly disguised prejudice ("all advances in human life have come from the northern hemisphere" - does that mean it's justifiable to let people die if their ancestors from 10 generations back happened to come from Africa? :wtf: ).

Do you really think any of these people would look at a link and say, "Oh, gee, I was wrong. I'll change my opinion now." Kinda doubt it myself.

to help victims of Katrina.

Firefighters were held back by FEMA's total incompetence. It was not just the delay in leaving Atlanta - because yes, they had the class but many of them still waited and waited for days to get deployed. My husband got sent to Arkansas. I can't even tell you what a clusterf*ck it was but my husband went to do some good and after 2.5 weeks he said enough - as did most of the other firefighters - and they left. FEMA could not make decisions, they could not authorize any kind of money distribution - which is what the people needed the most and they could not/did not make any effort to redeploy firefighters where they were most needed. It was awful.