Katrina redux
Here we are, less than a week from the RNC, and lo and behold, a hurricane is again bearing down on the Gulf Coast of the United States. Bobby Jindal just announced that he would stay in Louisiana if the storm hits his state, and is preparing for evacuations in New Orleans as we speak.
What a distraction this could be for the Republican National Convention. While I, of course, wish no ill will on anyone living along the Gulf Coast, think about what a calamity this could be for the RNC. The convention is already starved of big-name party-folk like Jindal, who have instead elected to tackle more important issues with their constituents. And what better way to give everyone a fresh reminder of the idiocies of the Bush administration than another huricane hitting the ravaged Gulf Coast. Cue up images of McCain and Bush eating cake at Bush's birthday party. Talk about how little the government seemed to care about its levees built by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Regardless of whether or not this will be another catastrophic event on the Gulf Coast, it will certainly deflect some media attention from the Republican convention, and bring back all-too-familiar memories of a failed White House.
All that aside, let's all hope and pray that this storm spares us another tragedy.
What a distraction this could be for the Republican National Convention. While I, of course, wish no ill will on anyone living along the Gulf Coast, think about what a calamity this could be for the RNC. The convention is already starved of big-name party-folk like Jindal, who have instead elected to tackle more important issues with their constituents. And what better way to give everyone a fresh reminder of the idiocies of the Bush administration than another huricane hitting the ravaged Gulf Coast. Cue up images of McCain and Bush eating cake at Bush's birthday party. Talk about how little the government seemed to care about its levees built by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Regardless of whether or not this will be another catastrophic event on the Gulf Coast, it will certainly deflect some media attention from the Republican convention, and bring back all-too-familiar memories of a failed White House.
All that aside, let's all hope and pray that this storm spares us another tragedy.
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This is like something Shakespeare could have written a play about...the sweet taste of karma revisted!
August 27, 2008 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Very well said!
August 28, 2008 12:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
I would very much like the Evangelic wing of the GOP to pray that the storm moves aside... in honor of "God's Original Party". You know, faith-based meteorology.
August 27, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hell, while we're at it, let's just add NOAA to the list of faith-based initiatives!
August 27, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Try to put yourself -- mentally, physically, emotionally -- in the path of the hurricane. Yes, this is about politics, as it is about corruption and moral bankruptcy. But first and foremost it is about people -- your people, in the sense of your fellow Americans.
In 1989, as Hurricane Hugo aimed for landfall in South Carolina, local Charleston news stations ran coverage of a church community in Hilton Head praying for a change of course. The next day, Hugo took a sharp hook northeast and hit Charleston late that night, full bore.
In 2004, local Pensacola news stations ran coverage of a church community in Panama City praying for a change in course of Hurricane Hugo. The next day, Hugo narrowed its target and hit Pensacola, full bore.
Hurricane Hugo and its aftermath cost me a few months of real anxiety, some physical discomfort and a lot of money... and then it was all right again.
Hurricane Ivan, and the year plus of its afterlife, cost me everything I had worked for during the preceding twenty-five years, my belief in our government and, in the moment of reckoning, my marriage.
Hurricane Katrina, a year later in 2005, cost people their belief in their government, everything they had worked for during their lives, their marriages, families and, in too many instances, their actual lives.
I am an agnostic. But I ask you to ask God to help the Gulf Coast and its people -- who have regrouped and rebuilt and gone on, much as the Kennedy family goes on -- as yet another hurricane aims for its throat and its heart.
August 27, 2008 10:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obviously this is an emotionally-charged issue for me. Correction: in 2004, it was not Hurricane Hugo, but Hurricane Ivan that devastated Pensacola and its environs.Freudian slip. Perhaps I yearn for my experience of Hurricane Ivan to be as surmountable as that of Hugo. Never mind. Imagine, just imagine, what it takes to surmount Hurricane Katrina, which devastated an entire population of a city that is at the heart of our arts culture, but struck me, personally, even though I was not there, not only as a 2-time hurricane survivor, but also because it struck the city in which my mother was born.
August 27, 2008 11:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think I made it pretty clear that I wish no harm on anyone, I was merely trying to point out the political implications of such an event.
August 27, 2008 11:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I meant no personal criticism of you, Joe. I thank you for taking the time, during the convention, to even raise this as an issue -- on whatever grounds. The political implications are real. I did not mean to diminish them, or you.
August 27, 2008 11:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I certainly hope you don't think anyone minimizes the tragedy of such an event. Here in CA, we have our version of hurricanes -- but without even the warning to prepare.
I am appreciative of your comments that the *government* failed rather than the GOP. I remember Katrina quite well -- I was working with some firefighters at the time. The Democrat mayor of a major city, delayed their deployment to Katrina because he didn't want to miss a photo op with "his guys".
The fact is that with today's infotainment mentality, each disaster is simply seen as fodder for a story or personal gain.
We need more than God here -- we need a government doing what a government should be doing: building levees, had keeping the national guard protecting the nation, not fighting in a foreign war.
By the way, much of the story is about New Orleans. But just as 9/11 was about the lives lost at the Pentagon and not just NYC, Katrina devastated Mississippi which actually bore more of it's force than New Orleans. You hardly ever hear of those people, sadly.
August 28, 2008 1:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, Focus on the Family has been praying for rain tonight in Denver. Instead, the forcast for Obama's acceptance speech tonight is fine, while a hurricane is bearing down on the Gulf Coast right in time for the GOP convention. Who says the Great Spirit doesn't have a sense of humor?
August 28, 2008 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wolf mentioned this last night as they were discussing Hillary's speech. They may aide McCain, but they are after the rating above all else. ABC News had a picture from Katrina near the Superdome with a little image of Gustav inserted for their story. They would love nothing more than to relieve the story, and their own personal stories as that story unfolded.
Like you, I wish no ill on anyone, but what Katrina revealed to America not only about Bush, Brownie & Company, but also about the state of poverty and race in this country, should never be forgotten. It is unfortunate that it take this kind of thing to make the MSM take a serious relective look (as opposed to a 2 minute stint about FEMA trailers or how this one street has been restore or not restored.
August 27, 2008 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is unbelievable to me that they had the temerity to pick New Orleans at all.
The epicenter of their failed work.
August 28, 2008 1:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just in case you misunderstood, Euro.... the RNC convention will be held in St. Paul-Minneapolis, not NOLA.
Not even the Repukes are tacky enough to hold their party in NOLA!
August 28, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Can a government be competetent? Jimmy Carter says 'yes'"
And Barack Obama.
August 28, 2008 2:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
clearthinker,
You are correct, the "government" at fault most for the havoc of Katrina, was the local city and state officials. I blame FEMA for taking so long to come and help, but that was also Nagin's fault too, for telling them that we were "o.k." . The sad fact is though, that no city, no state, will ever actually be able to be "prepared" for a natural disaster. Sure, you can leave when you know a hurricane is coming, and save your life, but what about other disasters that happen in a matter of minutes..seconds. Overall, it's nobody's fault. I am proud of Mississippi for picking up the pieces after Katrina: they bore the brunt of it. It breaks my heart to see New Orleans so ramshackled. It was my home.
August 28, 2008 3:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
UPDATE: The National Weather Service is currently predicting hurricane Gustav to reach landfall in the Gulf Coast near New Orleans at approximately 8pm on Monday - about the time president Bush is scheduled to begin speaking in New Orleans.
August 28, 2008 4:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
The same people who were praying for rain tonight to dampen the Obama enthusiasm are praying for Gustav to miss the coast during the GOP convention.
Sorry to break it to ya, Pat, God's not Republican and praying doesn't affect weather.
August 28, 2008 9:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, with the up-is-down, down-is-up b.s. spewed by the MSM, I'd be surprised if they *DO* make the connection. I'm afraid it would have to be a full-bore hurricane/emergency for it to get play. In a *fair* world of reporting, they would skewer the Repugs on it. You can bet your ass they would do it to the Dems in a New York minute. How do I know? Just look at the crap they are spewing during the convention over trivial nonsense...
August 28, 2008 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just read that Bush is considering NOT attending the convention on Monday *because of Gustav*. Too damn late to show he cares now and I cannot see how the punditry can avoid mentioning the reasoning and making obvious connections.
But, what the heck do I know....
August 28, 2008 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
God forbid it hits us hard here (too many folks will give up and not come back).
But WOW, McCain would be caught with his pants down soiling his depends. So many problems for him: the birthday cake debacle, him in a whiny voice, "never again my friends" played over and over as we see the way he really voted for our recovery.
BO really could step up his rhetoric on the issue anyway. It may seem to only have regional appeal in states he wont win, but it is absolutely a national security and economic issue for the New Orleans ports and the gross poverty here.
August 28, 2008 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
BO will have to be really careful, though. You can't go stumping about Katrina when people are potentially suffering from Gustav in the present. But all in all, nothing about this storm is going to help the Republicans.
August 28, 2008 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Karma?
Tomorrow is the anniversary of Katrina, and also this:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/24/flashback-as-katrina-raged-mccain-celebrated-69th-birthday-with-bush/
August 28, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also a blogger pointed out that Focus On the Family actually prayed for rain on the Democratic Convention. No joke.
Instead, a storm is heading in time for the GOP one.
Divine intervention?
August 28, 2008 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha, well, I went to school in Colorado (in the same city as FOTF, actually) and summer time is definitely rainy time. So Obama has either been super lucky, or God is a Democrat. Maybe both.
August 28, 2008 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, just proves they get everything backwards.
August 28, 2008 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have always felt that the rain that came down during Dubya's inauguration, in 2001, was really God's tears. And, with the possibility of a hurricane in the Gulf Coast next week, while that wretched group, Focus on the Family, prays for rain tonight? Karma. What goes around, comes around. Pick a cliche and it fits.
I want no harm to come to the Gulf Coast. They have endured too much.
August 28, 2008 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink