From the Associated Press:
   
Louisiana governor: The buck stops here

September 15, 2005
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has taken responsibility for failures and missteps in the immediate response to Hurricane Katrina and pledged a united effort to rebuild areas ravaged by the storm.
"We all know that there were failures at every level of government: state, federal and local. At the state level, we must take a careful look at what went wrong and make sure it never happens again. The buck stops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility," Blanco told lawmakers in a special meeting of the Louisiana Legislature Wednesday in Baton Rouge.

In all seriousness, as time passes and more facts come out, I believe blame for the most negligence  should go to the media.


-- Modified on 9/16/2005 7:42:50 AM

If it's all, that's a big, nebulous, convenient target.  Care to elaborate on your view?

I don't believe you're really interested in a dialogue. But I should have been more specific in my post by referencing network and cable news, both left and right.

"You can cool it
You can heat it
Cause baby I don't need it
Take your T.V. tube and eat it
And all that phony stuff on sports
And all those unconfirmed reports
You know I watch that rotten box
Until my head begin to hurt
From checkin' out the way
The newsmen say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so and so
and further they assert
That any show they litter up
They bring you news if it comes up
They say that if the place blows up
They will be the first to tell
Cause the boys they got downtown
Working hard and doin swell
And if anybody gets the news
before it hits the streets
They say that no one blams it faster
Their coverage can't be beat
And if another woman driver
Gets machine gunned from her seat
They'll send some joker with a Brownie
And you'll see it all complete"

Read what I wrote just 15 hours ago:

"Soon I'm going to be hearing from conservatives: 'a lot of good things are happening in New Orleans, but the mainstream media just doesn't report it.'  [The conservative leaders] will give this statement out to a few talk show hosts and a couple bloggers to get the ball rolling, and soon conservatives will muster their defenses around it."  

And sure enough, pseudo-impartial conservatives like yourself are beginning to echo the propaganda already.  You trust it and pass it on like a reflex.    

It's quite a propaganda machine the Rovians have built.  It's too bad for them they've built it around somebody as useless as Bush.  We're lucky he's not as competent or single-minded as Hitler or Stalin, but it does worry me to wonder who's being groomed to replace him.

I said nothing in my post about the media ignoring good news. There's not much good news to ignore when hundreds of thousands of people have had their lives turned to shit by a natural disaster.

My point is that the television media is all about creating drama and hyping controversy all in the name of ratings and ad revenue, i.e. TENS OF THOUSANDS DEAD! WHO'S TO BLAME!, instead of trying to objectively report facts.

And foolish, idiotic fuck-brains like you gleefully soak it up, grasping at anything that will reinforce your asinine conspiracy theories about Bush & his body bags.

-- Modified on 9/16/2005 12:07:56 PM

I don't own one.  If I've seen TV, I was passing it at relatives house.  

And what conspiracy?  

I'm thinking now I'm probably going to be proved wrong about the number of people dead, fortunately.  I really thought there would be 10,000 dead after 9/11 too.  I can't believe we got off so easy from that.  

I based the number on Scientific American's reported predictions in this scenario at 100,000 dead.  The things that have mitigated it: the storm was not a direct hit, it had weakened to a type 4, and the levies broke only afterward.  

However, the aggravating factor was the governments' flat-footed response.  If experts thought 100,000, my estimate at 20,000 is reasonable.  

No doubt this administration has a plan for damage control.  No doubt that they have more control of the press than any other administration.  What's the big conspiracy?

-- Modified on 9/17/2005 12:20:12 AM

{inside joke ... if you don't get it, don't read it, and nevermind.}

-- Modified on 9/17/2005 12:24:36 AM

** Prison Sex - TOOL **

It took so long to remember just what happened.
I was so young and vestal then,
you know it hurt me,
but I'm breathing so I guess I'm still alive
even if signs seem to tell me otherwise.
I've got my hands bound,
my head down, my eyes closed,
and my throat wide open.

Do unto others what has been done to you

I'm treading water,
I need to sleep a while.
My lamb and martyr, you look so precious.
Won't you come a bit closer,
close enough so I can smell you.
I need you to feel this,
I can't stand to burn too long.
Released in this sodomy.
For one sweet moment I am whole.

Do unto you now what has been done to me.

You're breathing so I guess you're still alive
even if signs seem to tell me otherwise.
Won't you come just a bit closer,
close enough so I can smell you.
I need you to feel this.
I need this to make me whole.
There's release in this sodomy.
For I am your witness that
blood and flesh can be trusted.
And only this one holy medium brings me piece of mind.

Got your hands bound, your head down,
your eyes closed.
You look so precious now.

( Show me something
Thought I could make it end
Thought I could wash the stains away
Thought I could break the circle if I
Slipped right into your skin
So sweet was your surrender
We have become one
I have become my terror
And you my precious lamb and martyr.) *

I have found some kind of temporary sanity in this
shit blood and cum on my hands.

I've come round full circle.
My lamb and martyr, this will be over soon.
You look so precious.

hire an excellent defense lawyer.

I'll be the first to admit that I can be an ornery asshole.

But it takes a really special kind of scum-sucking shitbag to say what you just did.

-- Modified on 9/16/2005 7:02:29 PM

{hey he called himself that TMT, I just copied it { lol }

Did you not know that it wasn't permanent?

Karl should start channeling Clarence Darrow - he's going to need him.

-- Modified on 9/18/2005 6:11:03 PM

and it's just plain incompetence.  FEMA listed a Nawlins hurricane as one of the 3 worst things that could happen to the US, so the Bushites cut the Army budget to reinforce the levees.   Just as they blithely ignored August 2001 warnings of AlQaeda attacks.

When you have that sort of brains, you need God - the Father, Son, Holy Ghost and anybody else you can drum up - on your side.  

So you listen to Dubya, and ask yourself why you should be surprised at incompetence.