Somewhere in the City of Louisiana
His name is Keith Olbermann. The namesake of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, he brings a sharp wit to the news that requires more than a 6th grade education to appreciate. That's not only why he's the single voice of reason we turn to on a regular basis when our news fetish needs feeding, but it's also why he's the only news anchor officially endorsed by the BDS.
And when you hear the opinionated rant he launched into last night regarding local, state and federal response to Katrina, you'll understand why.
Unlike hacks named Geraldo, Greta, Anderson, Shep or (seriously) Dr. Phil, Keith prefaced his verbal editorial as just that — "this is my opinion". His preface also explained that last week was no week to point fingers or sling accusation, but that recent comments made by government officials forced him to vent. And did he ever.
The "city" of Louisiana
by Keith Olbermann
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater..."
Well, there's your problem right there.
If ever a slip-of-the-tongue defined a government's response to a crisis, this was it.
The seeming definition of our time and our leaders has been their insistence on slashing federal budgets for projects that might have saved New Orleans. The seeming characterization of our government that it was on vacation when the city was lost, and could barely tear itself away from commemorating V.J. Day and watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, to at least pretend to get back to work. The seeming identification of these hapless bureaucrats: their pathetic use of the future tense in terms of relief they could've brought last Monday and Tuesday — like the President, whose statements have looked like they're being transmitted to us by some kind of four-day tape-delay.
But no. The incompetence and the ludicrous prioritization will forever by symbolized by one gaffe by the head of what is ironically called "The Department of Homeland Security": "Louisiana is a city..."
Politician after politician—Republican and Democrat alike—has paraded before us, unwilling or unable to shut off the "I-Me" switch in their heads, condescendingly telling us how moved they were or how devastated they were—congenially incapable of telling the difference between the destruction of a city and the opening of a supermarket.
And as that sorry recital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment. The focus needed to be on the efforts to save the stranded—even the internet's meager powers were correctly devoted to telling the stories of the twin disasters, natural...and government-made.
But now, at least, it has stopped getting exponentially worse in Mississippi and Alabama and New Orleans and Louisiana (the state, not the city). And, having given our leaders what we know now is the week or so they need to get their act together, that period of editorial silence I mentioned, should come to an end.
No one is suggesting that mayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, should be able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we should ever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city, ahead of $454 million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska.
But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans—even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern...a group called The U.S. Army Corpse of Engineers.
And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection—or at least amelioration—against all threats: conventional, radiological or biological.
It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.
Mr. Bush has now twice instisted that "we are not satisfied" with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man who's message this time last year was "I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die"?
I don't know which "we" Mr. Bush meant.
For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been—as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be—whether or not I voted for this President, he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government—our government—"New Orleans".
For him, it's a shame, in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was a quick "I'm not satisfied with my government's response". Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have forseen", had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930s. "The responsibility of government", Churchill told the British Parliament, "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."
In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself—it damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.
As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitated for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found, or the last artifact of the levee break dug up. Could be next March. Could be 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even found our government's credibility.
Somewhere in the City of Louisiana.
And when you hear the opinionated rant he launched into last night regarding local, state and federal response to Katrina, you'll understand why.
Unlike hacks named Geraldo, Greta, Anderson, Shep or (seriously) Dr. Phil, Keith prefaced his verbal editorial as just that — "this is my opinion". His preface also explained that last week was no week to point fingers or sling accusation, but that recent comments made by government officials forced him to vent. And did he ever.
The "city" of Louisiana
by Keith Olbermann
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater..."
Well, there's your problem right there.
If ever a slip-of-the-tongue defined a government's response to a crisis, this was it.
The seeming definition of our time and our leaders has been their insistence on slashing federal budgets for projects that might have saved New Orleans. The seeming characterization of our government that it was on vacation when the city was lost, and could barely tear itself away from commemorating V.J. Day and watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, to at least pretend to get back to work. The seeming identification of these hapless bureaucrats: their pathetic use of the future tense in terms of relief they could've brought last Monday and Tuesday — like the President, whose statements have looked like they're being transmitted to us by some kind of four-day tape-delay.But no. The incompetence and the ludicrous prioritization will forever by symbolized by one gaffe by the head of what is ironically called "The Department of Homeland Security": "Louisiana is a city..."
Politician after politician—Republican and Democrat alike—has paraded before us, unwilling or unable to shut off the "I-Me" switch in their heads, condescendingly telling us how moved they were or how devastated they were—congenially incapable of telling the difference between the destruction of a city and the opening of a supermarket.
And as that sorry recital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment. The focus needed to be on the efforts to save the stranded—even the internet's meager powers were correctly devoted to telling the stories of the twin disasters, natural...and government-made.
But now, at least, it has stopped getting exponentially worse in Mississippi and Alabama and New Orleans and Louisiana (the state, not the city). And, having given our leaders what we know now is the week or so they need to get their act together, that period of editorial silence I mentioned, should come to an end.
No one is suggesting that mayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, should be able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we should ever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city, ahead of $454 million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska.
But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans—even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern...a group called The U.S. Army Corpse of Engineers.
And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection—or at least amelioration—against all threats: conventional, radiological or biological.
It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.
Mr. Bush has now twice instisted that "we are not satisfied" with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man who's message this time last year was "I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die"?
I don't know which "we" Mr. Bush meant.
For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been—as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be—whether or not I voted for this President, he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government—our government—"New Orleans".
For him, it's a shame, in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was a quick "I'm not satisfied with my government's response". Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have forseen", had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930s. "The responsibility of government", Churchill told the British Parliament, "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."
In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself—it damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.
As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitated for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found, or the last artifact of the levee break dug up. Could be next March. Could be 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even found our government's credibility.
Somewhere in the City of Louisiana.
posted by TheBDS at 2:30 PM
5 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ah man, anonymous just gets goin' and you cut him off...
See the post up there? The one I removed? It's because, ONCE AGAIN, someone tried to make a buck off our brand by posting a link to a commercial site. Like our blog? Great. Come on back. But I doubt you will 'cause I'm pretty sure you're a self-generating comment from a program written by a dumb-ass high-school dropout who actually thinks most bloggers can't smell out a fake post.
The only part race played in the disaster response was that local, state and federal officials didn't race down there fast enough after the winds died down. The color of a person's skin had nothing to do with it. But the color of money did. The rich got out. The poor got left. Who do you think survived the Titanic? Not the poor buggers sleeping in the bowels of the ship; the rich got first dibs on the life boats.
People died because they were poor. Not because they were black. And that's all the more reason to feel your stomach turn when you hear that the city actually freakin' charged regular bus fare to each person it evacuated to the SuperDome.
Don't worry Craig, I did not have a change of heart. That was Brian that posted that, not me. I am still 100% behind what I said on Saturday. And, to all of those who think there should be no finger pointing, let me remind you of what our "good first lady" said to the refugees at the Astrodome. "Most of THESE people are below poverty level anyway, so I think we are doing OK here. But what is scary is that THESE people want to stay in Texas". Are you fricking kidding me? Racism and classim is not occuring? Come on people. Let the finger pointing begin.
With love and a very strong opinion,
Queenie (aka LaRisa-Loch's wife)
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