natalie has got the meaningful information covered for our household's blogs, so, for only a second, i want to make a brief observation.
[of course, this is for me. everyone knows everything that follows. really, it has no public value at all, but this angry person needs an outlet.]
i saw the president's strange, filmed "briefing" in alabama, during which he heard from the woefully inept fema director*, the alabama and missisippi governors, two coast guard commanders, and a coast guard rescue swimmer.
the following is what we learned from the exchange:
1. fema and the governors explained to the president that some sort of hurricane or something came through and that it was bad.
2. the governors thanked the president for all the great resources he's provided.
3. the governors commended fema for all its top-notch work.
4. the president noted that it had been a bad disaster and thanked a lot of people for their good work.
5. the president promised incoming help and said the recovery would make the gulf coast a better place.
6. the president looks forward to sittin' on the porch of trent lott's beach house, once it's rebuilt.
ok.
if forget whether it was cnn or msnbc, but soon after this mildly surreal performance (seriously, i saw rove cut through one of the set-up shots... i thought he was supposed to be good at this), a few updates from the times-picayune's blog were posted onscreen. one explained that at one of the hospitals, air-lifted food and supplies meant to help had crashed on the roof and were unusable. the requisite "things are deteriorating" appeared at the end of the report. the network immediately cut to a shot of george "i just want to thank the good folks for all the great work they're doin'" bush grinning and waving big as he walked to his helicopter.
is it "making politics" out of disaster to wonder why the president should play his part in a skit about a disaster as people die on sidewalks?
*he who learned on the news yesterday morning that there were people without food and water at the n.o. convention center, he who twice used the unapproachably awful phrase "those who chose to stay" on cnn and then baldly lied about the manner in which he did so, claiming that he'd snuck in a "or had to stay." he keeps repeating that the american people need to know how bad the catastrophe is. oh, we get it.
Posted by dave at September 2, 2005 12:12 PM | TrackBack