happytalking bullshittery

* driftglass: "And since there are no War Heroes standing between him and a fat, greasy slice of electoral pizza, that means there are no honorable men that Karl Rove can be dispatched to slander and defame.
There are no Domestic Rumsfelds to trot out to hose down the press corps with a couple of hundred, high-pressure gallons of happytalking bullshittery about why the debacle in New Orleans had turned a corner, and a few regime dead-enders and Democracy was Marching, and so forth." (link)

* some people are arguing that the Bush administration deliberately create murderous conditions in New Orleans - eg heres canonfire, and xymphora i wont go that far. one thing is obvious though - the level of incompetence is breathtakingly astonishing - many people have contrasted the response with the tsunami response and found it wanting - and many have also drawn parallels with the potential aftermath of a terrorist attack - the difference of course being that a hurricane hitting NOLA had plenty of advanced warning - both long-term warning, and short-term/immediate advance warning. if we ignore the possibility that they intentionally left NOLA and its evil black denizens to rot, then we are left with the realisation that there simply is no effective disaster preparedness for terrorist attacks. the next question then is whether they knew how ineffective they were - cos if they knew, and they havent been moving mountains to fix the problem, then you are left with one of two scenarios - either they simply dont care, or more interestingly, they actually dont think that there will be any major domestic terrorist attacks. perhaps osama is essentially as fictitious as zarkawi.

* brooks: "We're not really at a tipping point as much as a bursting point. People are mad as hell, unwilling to take it anymore." (link)

* "Defending the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur." (link)
to be fair, i had never considered that a hurricane called katrina would hit NOLA either

* joshmarshall: "It's almost awe-inspiring to see the level of energy and coordination the Bush White House can bring to bear in a genuine crisis. Not hurricane Katrina, of course, but the political crisis they now find rising around them.
As we noted yesterday, the storyline and the outlines of the attack are now clear: pin the blame for the debacle on state and local authorities." (link)