[IP] Washington Monthly on photo op in NO
Begin forwarded message:
From: Denise Caruso <denise@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 4, 2005 2:14:10 PM EDT
To: farber@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Washington Monthly on photo op in NO
Dear Dave,
From yesterday's Washington Monthly, in case you'd like to pass it
along to the list. I've edited out the most partisan stuff, but I
think the point being made is an important one: at what point does
stage management become something actionable?
Denise
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_09/007042.php
September 3, 2005
BEHIND THE CURTAIN....George Bush's photo-op tour of New Orleans
yesterday has apparently driven Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu over
the edge. Today she blasted FEMA for its feeble response to Hurricane
Katrina and Bush for his phony, stage managed promises of action:
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.
[ edited crankiness re Bush admin overall ... ]
UPDATE: Good God. Laura Rozen passes along the following report from
a Dutch reader:
There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report
on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and
reports of the same event by German TV.
ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged
event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point
Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after
the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others
which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.
The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves,
said ZDF.
This goes beyond stage management. This is criminal.
-Kevin Drum 9:53 PM
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