Great links Teletart, and well done.

Let me know if you get a response from the head of the line. Perhaps a hug from GW will help you forget this messy bit of disaster.

Wow.

My beautiful little dumpling gets all political :)

This was really well-written. It pains me to think that people waited 2, almost 3 days, for any sort of response from federal administrators, who claimed ignorance to the news we were all watching for a full two days while people starved to death and died without medicine or rescue.

Can we get married already, baby? :)

That is all.

Thanks for the comments.

Bob, yet again I must turn down your proposal. So sorry. However, I'm sure there's a Mrs Booey out there for you - obviously not as perfect as me, but such is life.

And you're so right, Bennett - a hug would fix everything. One of my fave PR shots was of W walking through some rubble with a posse of white guys dressed just like him. It did even more to reinforce that image of 'us' vs 'them'. Though perhaps it was more honest than the rustling-up of dazed victims for photo-ops.

teletart

Just an update - thanks to the wonderful www.sploid.com I've been alerted to the fact that the Hyatt story I linked to has since been changed. The original version is up there as a link to a cached Google page. And I've put the sploid link in as well.

tt

Darling,

You're not allowed to take my mock flattery seriously and turn me down so dismissively :)

It's part of our schtick.

That is all.

Bob: mock? Nooooooooooooooo! Don't go breakin' my heart!

Today, Homeland Security claimed it has been too busy focusing on terrorism to plan for natural disasters.

Ummm call me crazy, but what's the difference between Mother Nature destroying your levees, and terrorists doing it? Don't you still need a comprehensive disaster relief plan? If, heaven forbid, a big old bomb went off somewhere, wouldn't you need to be ready for evacuations, mass panic, looting, disruption of water supplies, medical emergencies, food shortages...? Or does that sound too much like common sense?

"but what's the difference between Mother Nature destroying your levees, and terrorists doing it?"

Terrorists are preventable. The mayor of NO and the Governor of LA should have done something about the Levees.
Where exactly are those two???

But Anthony, terrorism ISN'T preventable. That's partly what makes it terrorism. Sure, you can apprehend suspects, disseminate intelligence, and try to foil sinister plots. But somewhere along the line, Homeland Security has got to be about securing the homeland after an attack, as well as before.

As for culpability - of course everyone shares in that to some degree - though all the finger-pointing is part of the problem, as no one seems sure just who to point a finger at. My post was more about the use of "Terror" as a spectre of evil - when evil can come just as benignly, through keeping food and water from the hungry and thirsty.

teletart