The more time passes, the more unbelievable the colossal failure in New Orleans becomes.
This story in the Guardian is one little example. It sounds like something from a Monty Python script “Sorry, no British tourists allowed on the buses” – except it’s happening for real and these people may start dying soon. As will these as well.
Everyone knows the Bush visit was just a photo-op, but even I am shocked by the incredible cynicism of this administration. Senator Landrieu writes:
I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims far more efficiently than buses FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.
But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast black and white, rich and poor, young and old deserve far better from their national government.”
More on Landrieu as well as reports by German journalists who witnessed fake activities underway wherever Bush went, can be found here.
At least the press isn’t rolling over and playing dead (for the most part). I have to give credit by name to the fiesty CNN reporter I mentioned in the previous post – Soledad O’Brien (not surprised that an Irish girly would speak out). And from what I read, many other reporters have been asking hard questions. CNN had this article comparing facts on the ground to Bush & Co. fiction. And when Chertoff tried the “we don’t know” lameness, CNN didn’t let him get away with it:
Headline: “Chertoff: Katrina scenario did not exist”
Subheadline: “However, experts for years had warned of threat to New Orleans”
Daily Kos has a round-up of how criminally pathetic Bush is. And this report in the Guardian underscores how incredibly lacking the initial response was.
This leader in the Guardian sums it all up. Frankly Bush has failed America since Jan 1, 2001 when he took office. But Bush is just a symbol, a figure-head, put into place by the corporate machine that over the past 35 years of has worked ceaselessly to destroy government, preaching the religion of “free markets” while practicing crony corruption of the worst kind.