Thursday, September 01, 2005
(This is my fifth post of this day, so scroll down to get the whole day's worth of Katrina-related rants.)
No Longer a Waste of Electricity
The general uselessness of CNN has been a recurring theme here since this blog began, but today and tonight, they stepped up. Hats off to Jack Cafferty, Anderson Cooper and Paula Zahn for calling bullshit on the bullshit. This afternoon, Cafferty called the government's response to the unfolding disaster "a disgrace." Tonight, Cooper interrupted Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu's rap about how now isn't the time for questions and told her bluntly that people are owed answers now. Also tonight, Zahn blasted the head of FEMA for not knowing there were people in need at the New Orleans Convention Center, which is not the Louisiana Superdome.
A toast also to Robert Siegel of NPR, who laid the stomp and whipsong on Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff for calling NPR's report of people in need at the convention center "rumors." Siegel told Chertoff that it's not a rumor if a reporter who knows what he's looking at has seen it, and there was nothing Chertoff could say in response.
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security simply can't be this incompetent with so much at stake--both of them should resign or be fired first thing in the morning. And good on CNN and NPR for leaving them no opportunity to hide their ineptitude behind a cloud of obfuscation. This is the kind of attitude we've needed from the press corps since 2001, the kind of attitude we needed in the runup to Iraq and didn't get. But we've got it now, for the moment. If it continues, a significant percentage of the Bush gang is going down.
Help for the Fuzzy: I took a few minutes today to make some contributions to hurricane relief, and I hope you will too. Some of my dollars went to organizations helping animals and their owners caught in the disaster. I couldn't decide between the Humane Society of the United States and Noah's Wish, so I sent some scratch to both. Perhaps you think contributing to animal relief is frivolous in the face of so much human need. Well, I have had that argument with myself already. Almost every entry you read on this site is written with two cats in the vicinity. Abby and Sophie spend their days in front of the open window near my kitchen table, which is where my computer is. If we'd lived on the Gulf and gotten the order to evacuate, we wouldn't have left the furry little annoyances behind, any more than you might have left your children behind. I cannot imagine the stress involved in taking care of cats down there right now with the way things are, so the idea of helping ameliorate it for some pet owner who loves his little monsters like The Mrs. and I love ours is reason enough to send some money.
There are plenty of links on the left-hand side of this page that will take you to various organizations happy to accept your financial help on behalf of disaster victims of all species. Sure, you can afford it. Put it on your credit card. You're going to have a balance until the end of time anyway, so why not carry something worthwhile?
No Longer a Waste of Electricity
The general uselessness of CNN has been a recurring theme here since this blog began, but today and tonight, they stepped up. Hats off to Jack Cafferty, Anderson Cooper and Paula Zahn for calling bullshit on the bullshit. This afternoon, Cafferty called the government's response to the unfolding disaster "a disgrace." Tonight, Cooper interrupted Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu's rap about how now isn't the time for questions and told her bluntly that people are owed answers now. Also tonight, Zahn blasted the head of FEMA for not knowing there were people in need at the New Orleans Convention Center, which is not the Louisiana Superdome.
A toast also to Robert Siegel of NPR, who laid the stomp and whipsong on Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff for calling NPR's report of people in need at the convention center "rumors." Siegel told Chertoff that it's not a rumor if a reporter who knows what he's looking at has seen it, and there was nothing Chertoff could say in response.
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security simply can't be this incompetent with so much at stake--both of them should resign or be fired first thing in the morning. And good on CNN and NPR for leaving them no opportunity to hide their ineptitude behind a cloud of obfuscation. This is the kind of attitude we've needed from the press corps since 2001, the kind of attitude we needed in the runup to Iraq and didn't get. But we've got it now, for the moment. If it continues, a significant percentage of the Bush gang is going down.
Help for the Fuzzy: I took a few minutes today to make some contributions to hurricane relief, and I hope you will too. Some of my dollars went to organizations helping animals and their owners caught in the disaster. I couldn't decide between the Humane Society of the United States and Noah's Wish, so I sent some scratch to both. Perhaps you think contributing to animal relief is frivolous in the face of so much human need. Well, I have had that argument with myself already. Almost every entry you read on this site is written with two cats in the vicinity. Abby and Sophie spend their days in front of the open window near my kitchen table, which is where my computer is. If we'd lived on the Gulf and gotten the order to evacuate, we wouldn't have left the furry little annoyances behind, any more than you might have left your children behind. I cannot imagine the stress involved in taking care of cats down there right now with the way things are, so the idea of helping ameliorate it for some pet owner who loves his little monsters like The Mrs. and I love ours is reason enough to send some money.
There are plenty of links on the left-hand side of this page that will take you to various organizations happy to accept your financial help on behalf of disaster victims of all species. Sure, you can afford it. Put it on your credit card. You're going to have a balance until the end of time anyway, so why not carry something worthwhile?
