September 10, 2005

• I can honestly say I've heard nothing at all in support of the goverment and how they handled the relief efforts. Even my ex-cop - mega republican - drives around with the Rush is Right and Bush/Cheney bumperstickers - neighbor - called them (cue nasal Chicago accent) "The biggest buncha jagoffs I ever seen".
• I live in San Francisco so I have no idea what the Joe-Sixpacks of the country think. Here, we are appalled beyond belief (and rushing around buying earthquake survival kits.) Talking to my parents, Texas Republicans who grew up in New Orleans, they are equally appalled at the federal fuck-up. However, they just use the blanket term 'federal' without mentioning the Bush-word.
• I have heard a couple of people (early on) defend Bush and say "he didn't make the hurricane happen!" But, as things dragged on, they became quiet. I haven't heard these people criticize the government, but they have stopped defending it.
• This is why the Left are Unfit to Govern.
• Wolof, there's already enough of that. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are exploting this tradegy to thrust their propaganda foward. That's driving me nuts. Can we all stop with the bullshit politics and just HELP these people? New Hampshire, in general, is divided on what to say. We've taken in 500 displaced citizens, but I fear their in for a shock when it starts snowing. From what I've seen the general opinion is the tendency that everyone screwed up, and that heads should roll. We'll see what happens.
• Republicans pin the blame on either a) local authorities (Blanco, Nagin) or b) the people themselves (in the words of O'Reilly, they were too lazy, stupid and criminal to leave.)
• That's cute, Vertex. I never thought of it that way before. I mean really, a blowjob is no tragedy, so why not make political hay? But if what you do (or don't do) gets people killed by the thousands, it really isn't appropriate to go pointing fingers.
• It's pretty hard to defend the appointment of the Arabian Horsey Head to run FEMA. So it's not surprising that Bush supporters go all quiet over that. If it weren't sad, it'd be sooooo f*cking outrageously funny. It's so outrageous that the sins of the local officials pale in comparison. Nawlins has always had a lacksadaisical attitude to life. It's not a big surprise that the mayor and governor didn't get their asses in gear. The big surprise is the Bush Administration's four year, billion-dollar grand opera on Homeland Security and the "safey" choir when all they've got backstage is a janitor with a headless mop.
• Safey = Safety. Good grief.
• I dunno. It seems like we have a whole lot more "safey" because of Homeland Security. No more safety, but plenty of safey. :)
• whether indy media is right on the mark or might be adding hype I haven't gone to indymedai in the longest time, but I'll say they're adding hype, because that's what indymedia does.
• To my mind, there were two separate catastrophes. The first was the hurricance; some low-lying areas may have been outside the initial evac order (don't know the geography, but inland areas may have weathered Katrina just fine). The second disaster was the levee breach that flooded all low-lying areas, apparently regardless of location relative to the hurricane. Just off the top of my head, I blame the clearing of Katrina's path on the state and local govt; the horrific breach and flooding on feds.
• Of course, everyone but me is at fault here.
• ...and nobody at work agrees with me. It's all Bush's fault! I don't buy that.
• This hits real close to home, I got something close to eighty friends and relatives from New Orleans staying with me and my friends here in Baton Rouge. Of course, they all tend to be party-line Republicans, or old guard, Southern "yellow dog" Democrats - and a handful of liberal dems, but just a handful. They're all furious at Bush and FEMA, and are baffled that the FEMA head (and most FEMA management jobs) are basically do-nothing political patronage jobs. I politely explained to all of them how the system works, and they were livid. They all like Bush, think he stands up for people like them, think he's one of them. They feel genuinely let down and abandoned by the people in whom they placed a tremendous amount of trust. And, now, they got -jack shit- to go back to. But more into it: We're all a little upset that the current narrative is the "Bush is a racist" one. Fact of the matter is, over a million (perhaps 2 million in the entire affected area) white people were left out by the federal government. St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. Charles, NOLA's Westbank (the "Best Bank"), St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington, and the MS Gulf Coast are all overwhelmingly white, and all of them suffered immensely due to lack of federal response (FEMA or Bush, place your blame wherever). Nobody here seems to be blaming Nagin (that's for national media to do), or any of the Parish presidents (Rodriguez, Broussard, etc), or any of the affected mayors, because we all, more or less, recognize the scope of what they can and can't do - and that they basically didn't have the resources needed to take care of the situation. As for Governor Blanco, a lot of people have been trying to take her down for a while - this will probably sink her political career. Nagin pulled off the largest and most successful evacuation in the history of the city. And, most of the local authorities (mayors, city councils, parish presidents) pulled off amazing things given their resources. As for the friends and fam, they're blaming Bush/FEMA/"the feds", because of the ineptitude of the recovery/cleanup operation. The coast didn't suffer because Bush is a racist, the coast suffered because Bush is incompetent and put some of the worst possible people in charge of the most critical agencies. My point? I don't have one. Sorry.
• My point? I don't have one. Sorry. Seemed clear enough to me. Good comment. There failure isn't about racism, though there has been much about race (would the small towns be afraid of the evacuees if they were white? Why were white internationals in the Superdome given special treatment, such as being given water without having to line up?). It's about an evacuation plan that didn't account for pedestrians (whether poor, elderly, or just unable to drive, like many city people rich or poor). It's about the inadequate security in the SuperDome and the fact they never told people what was going on. It's about the criminal negligance of FEMA, who even stopped local authorities (like the president of St Bernard's Parish) from bringing water in for people. And continued incompetence and stupidity. There should be an independent investigation. And a count should be made of all the deaths from heat exhaustion, from drowning, that would not have happened if FEMA had done their job.
• Race not a factor in Katrina "Statistics released by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals suggest that fewer than half of the victims of Hurricane Katrina were black, and that whites died at the highest rate of all races in New Orleans." But you know, Bush hates black people...Kanye said it, so it must have been true.
• He doesn't hate them so much as feel socially awkward. Oh nice source - here's another from their front page: Bush's Efforts in Iraq Succeeding, Israeli Analysts Say Well that's also a relief! Is this one of those "good news" sites? Ooh there's more! Pelosi Says Dems Won't Offer Unified Position on Iraq OOOooh those cowardly unorganized Dems! Iraq Vote Seen As Good News for Bush Yay! Kerry's Impeachment Crack Not Funny, Republicans Say Kerry made an Impeachment crack? Huh. The things you don't get from the liberal media huh? Pro-Union Protesters Arrested at Florida Wal-Mart Damned unions wantin' their "fair wages"! Call to Condemn Communist Crimes Upsets Party Faithful Wow droppin' tha "C" bomb even! No punches pulled, baby! etc.
• CNSNews is an offshoot of the Media Research Center, whose Chairman, L. Brent Bozell III, was National Finance Chairman for the 1992 Buchanan for President campaign. As much as I hate to ad hominem the source, I think I'll look elsewhere for my news.
• Haha - the google news search for "kerry impeachment" brings up as the first three sources: CNSNews NewsMax RushLimbaugh.com awesome.