Good piece Steve....Shrub is lookin' worse by the day...more people that were on the scene will start to leak more stories of despair, yet, fauxnews is blaming Democrats and the Mayor of NO...just unbelievable the gullibility of some people.....
Posted by Goyo at September 7, 2005 11:38 AMIf only this country had a tenacious press (a la Woodward & Bernstein) and a Democratic party with a backbone. ...sigh...
Posted by Cookie Monster at September 7, 2005 11:41 AMSadly enough it is only a matter of moments before the trolls will be defending chimpy...
Posted by headxray at September 7, 2005 11:49 AMI'm just as much a critic of the Bush administration as you could wish; but I think this "no photos" story is being oversold. It's not that taking photos of the floating corpses is forbidden; it's just that FEMA isn't providing the photographers with rides on the boats so that they can photograph the floating corpses. Seems like a reasonable allocation of scarce transport facilities to me.
Posted by theophylact at September 7, 2005 11:50 AMFEMA has boats?
Posted by Cookie Monster at September 7, 2005 11:54 AMFEMA has boats?
news to me.
Posted by brownie at September 7, 2005 11:57 AMIt's not that taking photos of the floating corpses is forbidden; it's just that FEMA isn't providing the photographers with rides on the boats so that they can photograph the floating corpses.
or, if you read the article:
"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media,"
Was anyone else galled by Chimpy's attempt at joking around about how he himself has "had too much fun" in New Orleans in the past? Ok, so NOW he admits to partying! But how tasteless to joke like that.
Posted by Rebecca at September 7, 2005 12:03 PMWhether FEMA requests no photos, or whether the Defense Department does the same for the caskets of our brave men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, my original point is: where's the anger? The mainstream media still seem to think that Bush can do no wrong. The Democrats are afraid to speak up. If only the media spent as much effort on finding out the facts here as they did on Monica.
Posted by Cookie Monster at September 7, 2005 12:05 PMAmericablog reporting that they have banned all media from NO? No words can adequately express my outrage, fear, and hatred for these miserable murderous scumbags.
Posted by emal at September 7, 2005 12:40 PMConsider this: The problems with the levees in NO were well documented in public reports, even books. What if, without the 3-4 days of warnings on Katrina,bombs planted in the levees by terrorists had instantly flooded NO in the dead of night - with no warning. Even trapping the White Folks. Homeland Security - Safer with Bush - all that stuff would have been as useless in that scenario as it was with Katrina.
That, folks, is the bottom line here - the US Government failed miserably here, and Ray Nagin is not the President of the United States. We should be so lucky.
Here's a flashback for e'erbody: LIHOP. Lather, rinse, repeat. (:>
Posted by Donald Cormac at September 7, 2005 12:51 PMEd Schultz just said that FEMA has "lost" the records of who was on food stamps in LA. What were they doing with those records?
Posted by iamcoyote at September 7, 2005 01:09 PMWhy should FEMA care who is or is not on food stamps? If someone is hungry, give them food.
Posted by Cookie Monster at September 7, 2005 01:12 PMWe mentioned this would be the case in previous threads.
Now they are hiding the bodies, as I also mentioned in a previous thread. Why don't we send about 100 people down their with press credentials to document and broadcast what is going on?
Why aren't TV camera's parked in the face of the republicans trying to play block the commission. Let's get lots of footage of these guys in action. The reality is that the "red state" people have no idea how their reps actually do business. Do not under estimate lash back against these crooks if their casual behaviors can be broadcast back home.
Posted by patience at September 7, 2005 01:20 PMHey, let's send some donations to one of FEMA's recommended charity: Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing.
See the Katrina timeline link in this post: FEMA LIED AND PEOPLE DIED.
Cookie, we could get names and numbers of the poor and compare them to refugees/bodies and make sure the numbers match up. Y'know, so they don't miscount? So they know who might be missing?
Posted by iamcoyote at September 7, 2005 02:04 PMGhoul.
Posted by lex at September 7, 2005 02:39 PMSteve,
You're absolutely right in your indictment. But they're going to get away with it because the media, the Democrats, and the public allow it. As I just posted over at Digby's blog, we can blame the Democrats and the media for fucking up a lot over the past five years, but at some point we have to lay the responsibility at the feet of the stupid and gullible American public that elected these people.
Posted by Phil from New York at September 7, 2005 03:24 PMNo one appreciates that Bush is a Zen master. Listen to some of his recent comments, full of lines like "there is suffering" or "there have been problems".
Om...notice the suffering around you....breathe deeply....let it flow past like water.....Om....
/end snark/
Posted by Kaleefornian at September 7, 2005 04:29 PMJust a bit of tivia for you about food stamps. There are no more "stamps" in the food stamp program. It is all on Electronic Benifits Transfer Cards. Just like bank cards, they require electicity and computers. They are "perty much" worthless in New Orleans currently and you can add this thought to all the guff about the poor not leaving town 'cause they were waiting for their checks, they are no checks. It is a deposit into an account that can be used nationwide.
and why wasn't the red cross allowed in to provide food and water?
Posted by selise at September 7, 2005 07:11 PMIt does us no good to have all this information, when most of the public does not. It is hard to get people angry with this Admnistration and FEMA, when they don't know there is something to be angry about.
Posted by Judith at September 7, 2005 08:18 PMI take back what I said earlier; now it really does seem that the administration doesn't want to permit any ugly pictures coming out of New Orleans at all. I set aside my usual cynicism too soon.
Posted by at September 8, 2005 08:02 AMto keep things honest:
Unfortunately, the original requests from FEMA did indicate that community relations were on the docket. They obfuscated it (intentionally or not) by talking about possible austere conditions and eating meal rations, but it was set out in the request document (which you can find at the Int'l fire Chiefs Assn page) that PR was at least part of what they were being sent for.
That said: the training was ridiculous, and in some cases duplicated certifications in training the firefighters already had. Secondly, it's clear from the reaction that some departments, and definitely many individual firefighters--who simply heard the call for help and signed up, no questions asked--had no clue what they'd said yes to.
Posted by torridjoe at September 8, 2005 03:53 PME-mail Mary Hudak at FEMA, and tell her what a great job she's doing. mary.hudak@dhs.gov
Posted by Morgan at September 9, 2005 01:05 AM