PM Cone's Invective-Laden Blast

[jj]

Was it not reasonable after 8 days to ask that the PM issue a PD concerning the vast devastation and loss of life - suffered by some 53+ countries around the globe - due to the Tsunami and earthquake of 12/26/04? Was it not right to get frustrated with his silence? Talossa has a long-standing tradition of these things. It is one of the relatively few things a Pm routinely does. He speaks for the nation, and this PM has failed to say anything about the costliest, most devastating natural disaster in modern world history.

When e-mailed and asked by concerned citizens here (NOT just me, as you all know well) to do this task for the nation, he instead mustered what little reserves of strength and care that he has and instead issued the following:

"I was going to say "ass" instead of "case", but that would have entirely too many wrong connotations.
I've been back in country about a week, and when I wasn't decompressing from that, and trying to have a *little bit* of a holiday, we hit crunch time at work -- fixing, preparing, and packing equipment for another show that had to ALL BE DONE TODAY, and I leave for Detroit tomorrow morning!
I've been fighting a nasty sinus/chest cold since I got back, and I've barely had the energy to even go on-fucking-line with a roadrunner-enabled PC right in my fucking BEDROOM -- and THAT my friends, is a LOW EBB.
I'm GLAD the God-damned general election is coming, I'm more than ready to shed this job, and I'm sure you'll all be glad to be rid of me.
If I don't fucking calm down in time to write something properly respectful, roust out my Distain, Wes, and have him do it.
Now I'm going to go put this adrenaline to good use and get pack to packing my fucking luggage..."

That is how this PM reacts to his citizens. He said one thing that is dead-on correct:

"I'm GLAD the God-damned general election is coming, I'm more than ready to shed this job, and I'm sure you'll all be glad to be rid of me."

Incidentally, the DPM cannot issue PDs, only the PM can, so to shirk your duty and say (in not so many words, but essentially) "Let Wes do it, I don't care!" is nonsense.

All the time he spent complaining and giving himself excuses could have been spent on a PD. He chose to attack his constituents instead.

Yes, PM Cone, if your response from increasingly frustrated citizens is to hurl attacks upon them for [glow=red,2,300] DARING TO REQUEST THAT YOU DO YOUR DUTY![/glow], then you had better go, and the sooner the better!

[kri]

> Yes, PM Cone, if your response from increasingly frustrated citizens is to hurl attacks upon them for DARING TO REQUEST THAT YOU DO YOUR DUTY! , then you had better go, and the sooner the better!

While I was as annoyed as anyone at the PM's outburst, I think it was slightly disingenuous for the counterblast to come from someone who shirked his own duty as an Uppermost Cort Justice by resigning in the middle of an invective-filled blast condemning "the roots of Talossa [as] un-American" and denouncing your fellow Talossans for being too partial to Democrats (as if there is something wrong with that).

The nonsense on both sides must stop. We are having elections in ten days. Let the voters decide.

Ben

[jj]

The requests of several citizens for this PM to issue a PD - a well-tried and true tradition - over something as calamitous as the disasterous earthquake and tsunami - are perfectly reasonable. He is the sitting, elected PM, after all.

So, when given an opportunity he just attacks people and then goes away again.

The requests to PM Cone from Hamilton, Moisan and myself are not, sir, "nonsense."

[kri]

Attacking people -- period -- is the problem, on both sides. Especially when this particular issue is all supposed to be about a human tragedy which (of course) the Talossan government should be responding to in some way.

Ben

[jj]

We requested a PM to do something, anything! If that is "attacking people," then so be it, but fact is, citizens are free to complain when their elected leaders don't do or say anything. This is such a case. The complaints are about the fact that the gov't has - and continues - to fail to respond to the disaster. That disaster prompted us to make such a request.

Cone, in a typical hissy-fit, took these calls as "attacks," well, then he has no right to be an elected leader of anything. Which is what's about to happen. So I guess the people will have spoken after all.

Let that be our official response, then. Not what I was hoping for, but bottom line is we'll have a pro-active leader (one hopes) once again.

[markymark]

I must register my disappointment, once again, with the lack of a response to this terrible disaster from the Prime Minister. I was away for a few days on family business and I had thought that maybe a PD might have been issued in my absence, this did not happen.

Unfortunately for whatever reasons, the Rt. Hon. Cone was unable to issue a PD. A PD should have been issued soon after the disaster happened or as soon as the Prime Minister became aware of the situation. I am not, however, going to turn this issue into a vicious personal fight. All I can say is that a Cantaloûr administration would have responded immediately.

[inksplash]

To I.M. and the rest of the Kingdom:

1. The request, innocuous as it was, hit me at a bad moment. I was stressed-out, sleep-deprived, scrambling like mad to make real-world travel deadlines.

2. The pointed comment about eight day's worth of reminders already being sent was part of what set me off -- the first seven reminders were wasted because I wasn't online (for the reasons stated before), so referring to them was even more of a waste.

3. I was absolutely unaware that the DPM was powerless. This is one of those little proceedural things that ONLY a Cort Justice would actually be aware of. This is ridiculous!!! I *specifically* handed off to Wes when I left for Mexico. If the King can hand off power, by specific declaration, WHY CAN'T THE PM? I thought I'd covered the bases! And now, you not only tell me I have not (and in fact CAN not), you slam me (repeatedly) for 'shirking'. And you wonder why I flamed back?

4. If the only way to give the necessary power to Wes is to resign, I damn well might. I feel like Pope John Paul II, trapped in a job that circumstances (business travel) prevent me from performing properly. At least, when I'm at home, a quick phone call from Ben or anybody else can trigger necessary action. Here in Detroit (no friendly Kinko's to go to for rented comp use, even!) that's NOT AN OPTION.

5. The ONLY reason I'm online now is that I've borrowed a couple minutes of usage of my co-worker's personal laptop -- which is damn hard to do because he is under no obligation to allow such, and he spends nearly every waking moment playing Diablo II online. YOU ARE NOT IN MY SHOES, MISTER, DON'T TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT BE "ABLE" TO DO.

[inksplash]

6. All else aside, I really should not have said what I said the way I said it. (This post was interrupted because I got kicked off the computer)

Ian, yours was the only email I saw -- that and the 'tear down this wall' post here. It was more than enough to set me off. I apologize for going off like that.

I don't curse very often, beyond a sprinkling of 'damn's. WHen I start tossing f-bombs, It's the result of something seriously wrong somewhere. You should know that about me by now.

[inksplash]

Also Ian, I notice you didn't QUOTE my message in the usual fashion, and when you did so, you edited a few small things.

"Ghod" was not a misspelling or a typo. Inserting a silent 'h' in certain words (like 'bheer') is an affectation of sci-fi fans nationwide.

And science fiction fandom is, was, and always will be my preferred waste of time (i.e. hobby)

[kri]

> I feel like Pope John Paul II,

Yeah, but no Talossan has a car that's cooler than his.

Ben

[Xhorxh Asmour]

Aw shit! Double shit! My ears are no pisspots!