Wednesday, December 17, 2008
12 comments:
Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.
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I find it interesting that everyone wants to blame Senators Shelby & Corker (if not all Republicans). Ten Republicans voted in favor (Bond, Brownback, Collins, Dole, Domenici, Lugar, Snowe, Specter, Voinovich & Warner). Four Democrats voted against (Baucus, Lincoln, Reid & Tester) and four more didn't vote (Biden, Kennedy, Kerry Wyden). Why doesn't Reid/Biden/Kerry catch half the flack of Shelby/Corker?
ReplyDeleteFlintConservative, I think it's the hypocrisy factor that's drawing the ire of many people. Shelby and Corker criticized the notion of a government handout after overseeing millions of dollars in state government handouts to lure foreign automakers to their state.
ReplyDeleteI've focused my annoyance on Corker primarily because I voted for the guy and now am less than pleased, but also because he is pandering to Nissan and ignoring the plight of Saturn.
ReplyDeletegeewhy...I understand that point. But isn't it also hypocritical to call out Shelby/Corker but not, in the same breath, call out Harry Reid or Senator Joe "I love unions" Biden?
ReplyDelete...ugh... Conservative... PUHLEEZE...
ReplyDeleteThere are a million other places on the internet for regurgitated nitpicking and BORING partisan political parsing. Try Flint Talk or the MLive forums if you wanna delve into the realm of endless ideological arguments that totally lack nuance, analysis, or original thought.
It's up to Gordo as far as what is allowed to be posted here, whether its my crap or typical pablum puking or whatever. Having said that, the expats site has been devoid of lame politico drivel, so uh… please don't start spreading this tedium now. We're all gonna be inside and online a lot for the next few months. Try to keep it interesting.
It's true, I've let Flint Expats get sucked into the pointless political back and forth. It's my own fault for breaking one of my original rules which was...well...avoid pointless political debates that you can get elsewhere. There was just something about the Wall Street/
ReplyDeleteAuto bailout that got to me.
So from here on out I'll have to follow my own rules and stick to things that are more exciting.
I apologize for suggesting this as an item of potential interest to Flint Expats. Really didn't mean to bore with the tediousness of people taking action to protect their own livelihoods and those of our neighbors, friends, and family in Flint and throughout the country. Should know by now that expatri0tism is more a state of mind than an affect of time and geography. You want your distance. Out of sight; out of mind. Got it. Next time we'll just predate a custom postcard by 70 years or have some sweet buttons mailed to Will Ferrell.
ReplyDeletePublic D, I don't mean to diminish the issue, and I don't want Flint Expats to be a pointless nostalgia outlet. I think if you look at the posts over the year, you'll see it's more than that...I hope. But I also don't want it to turn into the endless back and forth about politics that dominate much of the blogosphere. There are so many better venues to find that than Flint Expats. No offense intended.
ReplyDeleteGordo -- nostalgia pointless?
ReplyDelete"How will we know it's us without our past?" (Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath.)
Our past is an integral part of who and what we are at present. Reflection on things gone by is never pointless, imho.
Cooley, I guess it's a question of degree for me. I'm hoping to have the site be a good mix of nostalgia, history, current events and looking to the future. But when issues like the bailout arise, I tend to go overboard on that particular topic.
ReplyDelete"...a good mix of nostalgia, history, current events and looking to the future."
ReplyDeleteYou're there, GeeWhy. That's exactly how I'd describe this place.
(Now, if you'd just get your mom to tell us some more stories about Diz and Bird...)
Public D, enough of the sanctimony From what I can tell your activism is limited to a bunch of forum posts and a myspace page that links to crazy stuff like prisonplanet.com. You're all over the Flinternet getting into it with various other nattering nabobs and in the end solving absolutely NOTHING. The Expats blog has consistently been the best Flinternet site becuase it has avoided the rehashed bi-polar debates found elsewhere. Y'know you can always log in over at Flint Talk and debate with three other know-it-alls who've already made up their minds about EVERYTHING... or you and the likes of FlintConservative could conspire to pollute the waters here too.
ReplyDeleteSure, you can say Expats is just a buncha nostalgia freaks, while you're fighting the good fight... but in actuality your're just howling in the wind. Buck up, bucko. Stop taking yourself so seriously. Maybe then we can have a nice little discussion.