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Power Line

Lauren

This is so telling:

I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It’s enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it… jump to certain conclusions.

19 thoughts on Power Line

  1. Pardon me for not getting it, but what exactly is this “telling” of, other than the fact the New Orleans is a disaster area right now and that progress in fixing it is ongoing, if spotty?

  3. Gotcha. Bush obviously should have waved his magic presto-change-o fix-it wand as he rode through town, causing floodwaters to recede and happy marshmallow castles to arise in their place.

  4. Wow, that would be neat.

    No, the point is the photo op is fake. Like his picture with firemen, the aircraft carrier where he wore a flight suit, the press conference where he patted everyone on the back for “good jobs,” and even the power being restored for a couple hours… how about we just have real images from our president? We don’t have a problem with honesty, but making things look better than they are is just lying to us.

  5. If we’re going to blast politicians for staging photo ops, we’re going to be pretty busy. Rumor has it that even the former President Clinton engaged in one or two during his eight-year presidency.

    I don’t think that’s the point. I think the point was Brian Williams wanted to imply that Bush is somehow spiting the people of New Orleans- although we’ll never know, because he conveniently never gives name to the “certain conclusions” that “some folks” are jumping to here. Not conclusions that he, a perfectly impartial and non-biased reporter, has reached himself, oh heavens no- just, you know, stuff that “some folks” are thinking.

  6. If we’re going to blast politicians for staging photo ops, we’re going to be pretty busy. Rumor has it that even the former President Clinton engaged in one or two during his eight-year presidency.

    As my mom used to say, “I don’t care who found the matches. We aren’t talking about your brother.”

    Sure, Clinton engaged in photo ops. However, Bush has pulled vital emergency resources–like trained fire fighters–away from the catastrophe to stage extra-cool photo ops at the expense of human lives. He has also allocated resources to flood-damaged areas for the duration of the photo op, potentially injuring people in the process. That’s a different degree of duplicity and negligence. Remember that the evacuees aren’t even stabilized yet, let alone helped. Williams is justified in commenting on Bush’s relative lack of concern for real repair, partisan pique notwithstanding.

  7. There’s something distasteful about providing needed services (food, water, electricity) only when there is a photo-op, and for only as long as the cameras are rolling. That’s the real problem, not photo-ops per se.

  8. Gotcha. Bush obviously should have waved his magic presto-change-o fix-it wand as he rode through town, causing floodwaters to recede and happy marshmallow castles to arise in their place.

    Oh, and Jon? When evacuees down to their last few dollars are given a 1800-number to call for financial assistance and then cannot get through to speak to an operator for days, the complaints aren’t about Bush’s failure to deliver an impossible level of assistance.

    We aren’t complaining because the hurricane victims aren’t back on their front porches already, ice teas in hand. We are complaining because no one at FEMA bothered to make sure that (for example) an old lady with lupus would be able to get her medication if she had to flee to Houston in the wake of a predictable disaster. Or made sure that that old lady could leave the city in the first place. Was that unforseeable, do you think? That in the event of a disaster, some of the evacuees might be sick?

    The response was much too little, much too late.

  9. I read this and all I could do was shake my head.
    Disgusting, deplorable, and horrifying are the only words that come to mind.
    I suppose the cynics in and among us figure that this type of thing happens from time to time. That doesn’t make it any less disheartening, or make me feel less ashamed of my government.

  10. There once was a little boy who liked to punch. He would walk around all day, just punching kids. Punch punch punch punch. At lunchtime he’d punch. In gym he’d punch. He’d look at a bruise he had made earlier in the day and punch it. When the principal would scold him, he’d nod his head in agreement, then punch him.

    He especially liked to punch the weaker kids. The little ones, who couldn’t fight back. He’d punch them, and while he was punching them, he’d say things like “I know what it is to be punched –punch. I’m gonna help you stop being punched – punch.”

    Then one day he was in a good mood, and decided to give people candy. He had a fistful of candy, and he would walk around giving candy to kids, then punching them. “Here’s some candy – punch. Enjoy your Sweetarts – punch.”

    The next day after that, he was in a really, really good mood, and decided to give people candy and not punch them. He walked around school with his fistful of candy, and he held out his fist to give them candy. But for some reason they kept flinching away from his fist after they got the candy. “Here’s some candy – flinch. Enjoy your Big Hunk bar – flinch.”

    So the little boy looked around, as hurt as can be, and shouted:

    “Why the fuck is everyone so paranoid?”

  12. There’s something distasteful about providing needed services (food, water, electricity) only when there is a photo-op, and for only as long as the cameras are rolling. That’s the real problem, not photo-ops per se.

    But rana, the poor people only exist for as long as the cameras are rolling!

  13. However, Bush has pulled vital emergency resources–like trained fire fighters–away from the catastrophe to stage extra-cool photo ops at the expense of human lives.

    Didn’t that matter in the first days, when he was on “vacation?” He was supposed to be in New Orleans and went back to DC! How dare he interfere with emergency operations that started just yesterday!

  14. When evacuees down to their last few dollars are given a 1800-number to call for financial assistance and then cannot get through to speak to an operator for days…

    …this is the best argument against big government.

  15. LOL. Yes! Better to have no government help at all. Just let those people die, unless faith-based charities feel like helping them out (as long as there aren’t any gays or unmarried mothers).

    WTF.

  16. No, Rob, it isn’t the best argument against big government.

    It’s the best argument against bad government.

    A company that has been doing relatively well for years hires a new CEO, and suddenly profits decline and customers jump ship. Who do you blame: the company itself or the CEO? And how do you fix it: by dismantling the company entirely, or by firing the people in charge?

  18. >>…this is the best argument against big government.>>

    No, you asshole, it’s the best argument against leaving relief efforts to the underfunded, understaffed, undersupported auspices of private charities. Like the one that’s running the fucking 800-number.

    I have spent the past week telling people that yes, that’s all there is. The scarcity of resources is not because big-government bureaucracy is choking on the supplies that would relieve people’s suffering. It’s because big-government programs that mitigate the effects of natural disasters have been neglected since the Grover Norquist President took office. We are the nation of the Berlin Airlift. Government efforts on a grand scale have never been a problem for us. The problem is that the government does not care about these people, is not interested in allocating enough resources to help them in time, and did not bother to plan for a natural disaster. This isn’t stagnant bureaucracy you’re looking at, but the bubble-gum-and-bandaids produced as an alternative to solid policy.

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