September 2005 Archives

You know - when CNN starts to directly contradict government officials, I start to think that there must be some deep crisis going on. That's what's been happening over the past few days with the Hurrican Katrina madness. I've staved off blogging on the issue until more is known and I can make some sense from all the different sources of information. It does appear that the Bush Admin and many government agencies will have a foul mess on their hands. It's almost as if it took until Friday for the stench of the sewage-infested waters in New Orleans to waft up to DC. Bush took a big wiff Friday - a bit too late, it seems.

So many things. Anderson Cooper's (who, by the by, is somewhat openly gay) nasty exchange with Senator Mary Landrieu. (Transcript thanks to mediabistro or look here for the video)

LANDRIEU: Anderson, tonight, I don't know if you've heard -- maybe you all have announced it -- but Congress is going to an unprecedented session to pass a $10 billion supplemental bill tonight to keep FEMA and the Red Cross up and operating.

COOPER: Excuse me, Senator, I'm sorry for interrupting. I haven't heard that, because, for the last four days, I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi. And to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated.

And when they hear politicians slap -- you know, thanking one another, it just, you know, it kind of cuts them the wrong way right now, because literally there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman had been laying in the street for 48 hours. And there's not enough facilities to take her up. Do you understand that anger?

LANDRIEU: I have the anger inside of me. Most of the homes in my family have been destroyed. I understand that, and I know all the details, and the President —

COOPER: Well, who are you angry at?

LANDRIEU: I’m not angry at anyone. It is so important for everyone in this nation to pull together, for all military assets to be brought to bare in this situation. I have every confidence this country is great and strong as we can be do to that, and that effort is under way. That effort is under way.

COOPER: Well, I mean, there are a lot of people here who are kind of ashamed of what is happening in this country right now, what is — ashamed of what is happening in your state. And that’s not to blame the people that are there, it is a terrible situation, but you know, who — no one seems to be taking responsibility. I know you say there’s a time and a place for kind of, you know, looking back, but this seems to be the time and the place. There are people that want answers, and people want someone to stand up and say: we should have done more.

Forgive me for posting yet another transcript, but this gets even better. Soledad O'Brian ripped into FEMA Director interview with FEMA Director Mike Brown after he noted that he hadn't learned about the Superdome situation until well after it had been widely broadcast by the media:

S. O'BRIEN: You know, when you hear the interviews with some of these families who are living on the street, completely and utterly unprotected from these armed roving troops of men who are attacking people and they're raping people, what are you doing to protect these people right now?

BROWN: Well, that's why we're trying to get additional boots on the ground, because we have to protect them.

And, Soledad, I want the American people to know that we understand how dire this situation is. And we're going to do everything we can to get that aid down to that individual level. You know, we're feeding stuff into the Superdome. When we found out about the Convention Center yesterday. We started diverting supplies to get them fed, too. And now we're finding literally as we do evacuations that more and more people are beginning to manifest and show themselves in areas that we didn't that they were there, and so we're doing everything we can to get to them.

S. O'BRIEN: You were unaware of the situation at the Convention Center until yesterday. When yesterday did you become aware?

BROWN: I think it was yesterday morning when we first found out about it. We were just as surprised as everybody else. We didn't know that the city had used that as a staging area. That shows how difficult communications are. And that is why we moved the USS Bataan, so that we could give the mayor a place to actually be able to communicate on a regular basis, to give us good intel about what he needs.

S. O'BRIEN: How is it possible that we're getting better intel than you're getting? We had a crew in the air. We were showing live pictures of the people outside of the Convention Center. We had a National Guardsman who was talking to us, who was telling us he estimated the crowd at 50,000 people. That was at 8:00 in the morning yesterday. And also, we've been reporting that officials have been telling people to go to the Convention Center if they want any hope of relief. I don't understand how FEMA cannot have this information.

BROWN: Well, we're busy doing life-saving and life-rescue efforts. We rely upon the state to give us that information. And, Soledad, I learned about it listening to the news reports.

S. O'BRIEN: FEMA has been on the ground for four days, going into the fifth day. Why no massive airdrop of food and water? In Banda Aceh, in Indonesia, they got food dropped two days after the tsunami struck.

BROWN: That's what we're going to do here, too. And I think...

S. O'BRIEN: But, sir, forgive me...

BROWN: Soledad, just a moment, please.

We're feeding those people in the Convention Center. We have fed over 150,000 people as of last night. That is happening.

S. O'BRIEN: But I guess the point is, as of last night -- sir, forgive me, I have to stop you here.

BROWN: What we're hearing, is that we're hearing people's frustrations. There are people that are beginning to manifest themselves out of the community that we didn't know that were there, and we're doing everything we can to find those individuals, case by case to get them help as quickly as possible.

S. O'BRIEN: But it begs the question, why are you discovering this now? It's five days that FEMA has been on the ground. The head of police says it's been five days that FEMA has been there. The mayor, the former mayor, putting out SOS's on Tuesday morning, crying on national television, saying please send in some troops. So the idea that, yes, I understand that you're feeding people and trying to get in there now, but it's Friday. It's Friday.

BROWN: Soledad, what's going on is in this situation, we have people who have gone, for example, to the Superdome, and we're feeding those people. And as we do the evacuations, as the water recedes, people begin to come out wherever they've been trying to keep themselves safe. They go to the bridges. They go to the overpasses. We find out about those people. We have every urban search-and-rescue team in this country out trying to find them now. We don't know where everybody is. And as they come out and they show themselves, we're rescuing them and moving them to places. I understand their frustration. I understand your frustration. This is a catastrophic event, and as these people continue to show themselves, we rescue them and take care of them.

S. O'BRIEN: Do you look at the pictures that are coming out of New Orleans? New Orleans? And do you say, I'm proud of the job that FEMA is doing on the ground there in a tough situation?

BROWN: Soledad...

S. O'BRIEN: Or do you look at these pictures and you say, this is a mess and we've dropped the ball; we didn't do what we should of done.

BROWN: Soledad, I look at these pictures and my heart breaks. My heart breaks just like the rest of the country's heart breaks. And so what we're doing is ramping up. I've asked the military to come in and help us and do -- I mean, I've mission assigned the Army, and the Coast Guard and the others to get those supplies in to all of those pockets.I don't want to see any American suffer the way some of these people are suffering, because of the consequences of this disaster.

And then today, I was reading today a CNN article on comments from Homeland Security's Secretary Michael Chertoff. The following are the lead paragraphs to an article whose headline was "Chertoff: Katrina scenario did not exist" and subhead, "However, experts for years had warned of threat to New Orleans":

"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.

But in fact, government officials, scientists and journalists have warned of such a scenario for years."

You can find the full article here. It just amused me. So rarely do corporate mainstream news sources like CNN ever step out and seriously question anything that comes out of someone in the Administration. It's a glimmer of hope? Maybe? (Not, of course, that the corp media has somehow changed, but that the magnitude of this situation has yet to be fully disclosed or realized).

Ask me again in a week and we'll see.