Yes, we must remember to mark September 11 with a star-studded affair. The Department of Defense urges all to join in the walk, but please, register first!
Sen. Mary Landrieu: President Bush “staged photo opportunity”
Australia’s ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp) shares quotes the following from a statement issued by Senator Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) office today, in regards to her tour of the 17th Street Levee breach with the President:
“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;”
Choice America Network tipped me to this.
Is the Media being critical enough?
Scott McLellan today suggested that the buck stops with President Bush, inferring that he is to be held responsible for what “went wrong and what went right.” Additionally, Gen Richard Myers suggested that most papers on Tuesday said something to the extent of “New Orleans dodged a bullet,” when in fact, many blogs prove otherwise, as can be seen on the plethora of front pages crying, “devastation… catastrophe, etc” at Newseum
Its easy for bloggers and anyone in the media to point out these inaccuracies, but how can we effectively criticize without partaking in a silly blame game?
The Katrina issue revolves primarily around race and how the federal government chooses to be ignorant of those who are poor. Its not a black / white thing, its a rich/poor thing. Right Barbara Bush? Right, 14-year old Jamaican observer?
Several musings over the weekend regarding the media’s general outrage and uprising in the face of bureaucratic ignorance and indifference. Howard Kurtz writes in the Washington Post that “Journalism seems to have recovered its reason for being.”
From situations worsening…. to outrage at the response… The New York Times on the pendulum of reporting the disaster.
Still, Ariana Huffington begs the Times to “stop enabling the White House Blame game!”
Steve Zunes, of “Foreign Policy in Focus,” hopes to read more criticism tying the Katrina response to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Christopher Hitchens thinks otherwise in Slate.
Stories in America is with me when I wonder: Shouldn’t other members of the media be advocating the impact poverty and race has had on the Katrina situation? Oprah exposes quite a bit of what is really happening her show. catch the video.
New Orleans SURVIVORS, REFUGEES, or INSURGENTS?
The Army Times declares that combat operations are underway on the streets ?to take this city back? in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and a scene not unlike Somalia can be expected.