Katrina's POLITICAL aftermath (keep the political discussions HERE)

HARRY CONNICK JR. can get to the Convention Center to help. ANDERSON COOPER and TUCKER CARLSON can access all of these areas. Fuck, ARTHEL NEVEL OF A CURRENT AFFAIR can access all of these areas. I mean, I know I'm just venting at this point but we have half a mind to head down there ourselves loaded with supplies this weekend, because it's pretty fucking obvious that no one in the government went on, like, Yahoo! Maps and got directions to New Orleans or Biloxi, cos they ain't getting near it. Maybe they got their directions from Google Maps, those ones were confusin looking.

xpost - maura otm. ned, dude, you really pay way too much attention to that guy than he actually deserves.

naw she worked for upi, i thought.

Gallows humor a go-go!

It's just that I was watching the local news here in DC last night, and some police department here (forget which county) got a phone call from an official in New Orleans, asking if they can help with supplies and efforts, so of course they said yes, loaded up trucks with gatorade and food and stuff, and then made the mistake of trying to go through FEMA to get approval to go down there. They were still waiting as of newscast last night, because FEMA was WAITING FOR A WRITTEN REQUEST TO COME IN FROM NEW ORLEANS GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.

OH RIGHT LET ME JUST FAX THAT TO YOU RIGHT NOW. Douchebags.

xpost OK I mean I just xposted a ton, this Condi Rice thing is getting kind of stupid

Mel Brooks was prescient:

Sandurz, Sandurz! You got to help me! I don't know what to do! I can't make decisions! I'm a president!

I'm just waiting for certain low-level govt employees to go, "You know what? Fuck you and your official requests. We're heading out there now with this gear and you can fire me all you want when i get back. People are fuckin' dying."

It's like she's completely lost her mind after getting her hair done. "National emergency? Bump that; I need to get some pumps that make my bangin' coiffe pop!"

Yeah, exactly. I mean this doesn't make good sense, why is the paper trail this important right now? I mean, official requests? You can see with your own two eyes, turning on a television, that, OK, if these people COULD fax you an official, notarized, signed by everyone necessary BLAH BLAH BLAH request, they WOULD, but you know what? I bet they got other shit going down to be thinking about besides trying to, like, find some paper, write on it, and fax a request to FEMA. It just strikes me that, hi, paperwork, that can be done after the fact. I mean every workplace I've ever worked for has understood this, special circumstances require bending of the rules. Sometimes, you know, you have to get the person's credit card after the fact. Sometimes, you know, you gotta get that letter a year later because, like, THIS NEEDS TO BE DONE NOW, NOT THREE DAYS FROM NOW.

It's insanity, the complete level of...disinterest the Capitol has for this situation.

XPOST I didn't even know Fats Domino was still alive until I found out he was rescued!!! I watched 12 Monkeys a few nights ago and have had Blueberry Hill in my head off and on since then, so it was kind of a relief to find out that he didn't actually die 20 years ago as I had assumed!

What's that proverb? Every crisis is an opportunity? AP this morning: "President Bush has used a constitutional provision to bypass the Senate and fill a top Justice Department slot with an official whose nomination stalled over tactics at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval facility."

OUR PREZNIT: GETTIN SHIT DONE

But the Bush adminstration has broken the basic social contract in New Orleans, the one that goes all the way back to Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, the one that says we adhere to laws because you agree to protect us, and thus the city and its citizens have returned to the state of nature, which is to survive, motherfuckers, just survive.

and other bits about hipsters going to black clubs in a never-ending search for "authenticity" etc, El Doofus coming down and "[you] can bet he's gonna hug some negro, maybe two, maybe he'll feed a negro child."

http://www.snopes.com/photos/katrina/looters.asp

Stepping aside from Katrina specifically for a moment:

Y'all think *I* do that? What about all the feebs who watch him and nod their head approvingly even when he slips up, self-contradicts, begs forgiveness? *They're* the ones I'm worried about, and they're why I want to see what the mouthpieces say.

For myself, I've realized that the function of a lot of political commentary that I do agree with is to reassure me -- to say, "There there -- whether we're angry or just simply calling it 'like it is,' this way you can be reassured you are not alone, and we can all be comfortable at least in being right." This applies across the political spectrum. Well, I don't want to be reassured -- rather, I want to be annoyed, on guard, wary, suspicious. NRO's blog may be neocon fast food but it gives off a stench of the darker rot within.

less than 2 months ago, cuba was able to move 1.7 million people on
short notice.

the whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with.
people know ahead of time where they are to go.

they come to your door and knock, and tell you, evacuation is coming,
then they come and tell you, now.

if no electricity, they have runners who communicate from a headquarters to central locations what is to be done.

the country's leaders go on TV and take charge. but not only the leaders are speaking. the TV weatherpeople are knowledgeable. and the population is well educated about hurricanes.

they not only evacuate. it's arranged beforehand where they will go, who has family where. not only pickup is organized, delivery of people is organized.

merely sticking them in a stadium is unthinkable. shelters all have
medical personnel, from the neighborhood. they have family doctors in
cuba (!), who evacuate together with the neighborhood, and already know who, for example, needs insulin.

if they evacuate to a countryside high school -- a last resort -- they
have dormitories there.

they also have veterinarians and they evacuate animals. they begin
evacuating immediately, and also evacuate TV sets and refrigerators, so that people aren't relucatant to leave because people might steal their stuff.

it's not throwing money at the problem. it's not financial capital, it's social capital. the u.s. in this sense has zero social capital.

dealing with hurricanes in cuba, as compared with how it's done in the
u.s., is similar to the differences in how they deal with medicine. it's not reactive; it's proactive. they act as early as possible. the u.s. doesn't have civil defense, it has civil *reaction.*

also, apparently the "Freedom Walk"/Pro-War Rally is still on!

why did Americans in the South vote in such a Clown as Bush?

remember everything that me and plenty others here and elsewhere about how people aren't all that rational in their voting patterns, that narratives("bush is a strong silent, man-of-the-people-on-his-ranch") matter far more than actual reality? or, that "facts don't trump frameworks," as George Lakoff once wrote?

"There's nothing wrong about America that can't be fixed by what's right about America."

"Imagine the Gulf Coast obliterated by the worst weapon imaginable."

No, that would be nuclear weapons, which you... ah, nevermind.

I tried to volunteer for the Capital City Area Red Cross for volunteer work in Katrina just now and the site's not even coming up at times. When I finally got to the page for signing up, they had some sort of error and the online form I filled out with my contact info didn't go through. I tried twice more and it still faltered. Fuck. I'll have to try it again later today, if it's working. I can't get through on the phone, either, and I haven't found information as to where the office is.

yeah well, again, the ruling conservative ideology doesn't believe in social capital. They don't believe in much of anything with the words "social" or "public" in them. The whole idea of the social contract -- which is arguably one of the two or three most important ideas underpinning democratic self-government -- is in their view part of the "problem." This is already showing up in the right-wing commentary: the problem isn't government's failure to respond, it's peoples' expectation that government will respond. The answer is not more or better government, it's less and worse government, to teach people not to be so "dependent."

Stepping aside from Katrina specifically for a moment:

Y'all think *I* do that?

yes. i'm pretty sure if i searched on your posts that were reposts of his posts, i'd have quite a few results. don't take it the wrong way, i know why you're fascinated by him, but at the end of the day it's something that i can't really understand or share. i mean, the guy is clearly a douche, even after reading him for a little bit. can it really be that much of a revelation at this point that he's going to contradict himself, badly?

What about all the feebs who watch him and nod their head approvingly even when he slips up, self-contradicts, begs forgiveness? *They're* the ones I'm worried about, and they're why I want to see what the mouthpieces say.

i honestly don't think they matter. i'm not sure there's that many of them, either.

but that said, i'm just pointing it out to point it out, as hopefully constructive criticism, not cuz i like hate ya or nothing. that's all.

No officials on the ground, so it's just young men who fight to get the food.

What matters, I think, is that regardless of the exact amount more than a few are in more than a few positions of power these days. Tuning into that wavelength is an eerie fascination, I admit. But we could debate this into the ground.

You guys, something is happening.

Ted Koppel, Joe Scarborough, NRO, Cafferty, Anderson Coopers, Robert Siegel on NPR grilling Chertof, fucking PAULA ZAHN getting pissed off, etc. Something is happening here. Please Christ let the deaths of thousands of Americans have at least the effect of shaking up the complacency of everyone else.

NOTE: One quote caught my ear but I didn't quite focus on it. I've played it again and Brown is laying the groundwork for putting the blame on LA's governor. (It must be a Fox News talking point; my dad made the same argument earlier.)

Brown of FEMA: We work closely with the state government. The federal government didn not just come in here and tell the state governor how or what to do. We came in here and said, 'What do you want us to do? We will help you.' We are now taking it upon ourselves to do what we think needs to be done. And we will continue to do that.

Translation: LA's Democratic governnor screwed things up royally and now we're cleaning up her mess and taking charge.

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Somehow I don't think that'll take root, except with Republican cheerleaders.

still, it's always good to identify and point out the Talking Point when it begins.