The following is an excerpt of a press release from Sen. Mary Landrieu:
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.
I found this at Americablog.
-The Oklahoma Hippy
I also find it interesting that the two women Bush "comforted" in Biloxi seemed like "ringers" too. They look like refugees, but don't seem to have any of the problems of the refugees.
ReplyDeleteThe Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an excellent picture of the trio here.
Notice their nice clean clothes (particularly the bright white shirt), their clean hair and skin (the hair is even neatly combed), and their relatively cheerful expressions. Now compare to the true scenes of devastation that we have seen coming out of New Orleans and outlying areas all week.
The women told the president (and later in an interview with Aaron Brown of CNN) that they didn't have any clothes. That the clothes they were wearing were all they had. Those clothes seemed in awfully good condition considering it had been almost 5 days since the hurricane struck. Ditto for their hair and skin.
Additionally, I find it interesting that whoever chose these women to meet the president, chose extremely light-skinned women. It goes back to the basic complaint through all of this voiced so poignantly by Kanye West during the Red Cross fund raising concert: "George Bush doesn't care about black people."
Personally, I found Bush's body language to be off-putting. It was like he didn't want to touch the women. He seemed to have to keep reminding himself to hold these girls tightly, and just like in the earlier "briefing," he kept looking off into space. He is the most disengaged president in recent history.
I'm not saying these women aren't truly hurricane survivors. But the CNN transcript reveals that they live in Gautier, 17 miles away from Biloxi. They also stated that Gautier would be getting back power within hours. We've already been told that areas with the least damage would get power back the fastest. Therefore, it follows that Gautier has less damage. Also, the transcript shows that they've had water, ice, and other aid every day. So, while I'm sure these women lost a great deal, they are not representative of the true tragedy we are seeing everyday on CNN, MSNBC, and even FOX.
It seems to me that Bush's advance people found two girls that they liked and got them cleaned up and "presentable" for the president. Because Lord knows the president wouldn't want to see, hear, smell, or touch real tragedy!
-The Hippy's Wife