Reply #38: I wasn't going to respond ...

[Eloriel]

but the more I think about your OP, the more I feel just a little insulted by the mischaracterization of my thread, and feel the need to respond.

... we are not going to be hosting discussions about weather control any time soon on Democratic Underground.

There were a couple of posts mentioning weather control almost tangentially, but the thread itself was NOT about weather control, nor did I actually suggest that the Bush administration caused the hurricane. I realize that using the term LIHOP/MIHOP made some people, including certain prominnent DUers, think that I was suggesting it, that's not the case and I made that CLEAR in a subsequent post in my thread. To be rigorously honest, because I have actually done some research on the subject in the past and know that the subject of attempts to manipulate weather is NOT completely out of the realm of possibility, I also said that I wasn't completely hostile to the subject. But we didn't go on to discuss it any further. So characterizing it as such is, IMO, inappropriate. And unfair.

Earlier I removed a thread by Eloriel which had been previously locked. At first glance this thread appeared to be inappropriate, specifically because of the premise that the Bush administration deliberately planned the poor response as some kind of social experiment.

Well, I wasn't exactly calling it a "social experiment," tho I did speculate in my OP that it had an element of that to it -- but with a specific purpose in their minds, not just to be playing around, and I still believe it does.

AFAIC some of the information we've seen since then (since Friday, Sept. 2, at 4:25 pm) supports my OP "conspiracy theory" at least in broad strokes -- widespread credible reports of FEMA's unconscionable withholding of aid and rescue efforts, the power struggle between the Bush Admin and Gov. Blanco, reports (currently unconfirmed, AFAIK) of suspension of posse comitatus this morning, and so forth -- it strikes me as absolutely undeniable that, YES, you bet "the Bush administration deliberately planned the poor response." Did they plan it in advance in preparation for this hurricane, or in advance in preparation for some other hurricane or other potential natural disaster? Or have they just taken advantage of the situation as it developed, as good fascists are wont to do? I don't know. But the evidence is there (well, elsewhere now, not here at DU), and accumulating.

As one sagacious DUer put it: Incompetence gets you to Tuesday.

Anyway, if anyone has whacky conspiracy-theory stuff they now understand would be considered unsuitable for DU, please feel free to PM me. I am still compiling this stuff, and will be.