Washington Monthly on photo op in NO

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Denise Caruso <denise () caruso com>
Date: September 4, 2005 2:14:10 PM EDT
To: farber () dsl cis upenn edu
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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