Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to This was reply to something on flame, but rightly belongs here

Context
Tom Brosz — (archived)

I think a major part of the context in this discussion, at least for me, is that in the days after the hurricane, everyone went directly for Bush's jugular and bit down hard.

There was no waiting for analysis, no waiting for the facts of the death tolls, looting, or anything else. Any idea that there was some local problems was brushed off with something along the lines of "Well, I'm sure there's some blame to go around, BUT..." and then the teeth clamped down tighter.

This turned into raw politics before the rain even stopped. And for a lot of people, it still is.

I spent some time--go back and look--trying to inject some goddam facts into the situation about response times, who was where and when, and what was real and what wasn't. Didn't help much. The closest I could get to prying that deathgrip on the jugular loose were comments along the lines of "well, it wasn't his fault, but he's still responsible!"

And then I was accused of being a Bush buttmonkey for showing that much of what the media was pumping out was wrong at best, and lies at worst. You wonder why I was frustrated? And then I get people like Tony going, "what media problem?"

I'm still working on injecting facts into the issue.

The idea that everybody knew Monday that the levees were a major disaster isn't true. I have links to news stories indicating that the problem was not immediately recognized. This story is typical, stating that the Corps of Engineers had a handle on the flooding, although you can see the other rumors already ramping up.

And my original post on Flame still stands. When someone is in trouble, that their first, and often only, thought is Washington D.C. is not the way our system was intended to work.

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