otoh

On the MSNBC news show Countdown, Keith Olberman recently ripped into the poor response to providing aid to the vicitms of Hurricane Katrina. Ticked off by a slip of the tongue that he says defines the government’s response to the crisis, he lays down a thought-provoking barrage. The slip was made by Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff in his news briefing Saturday afternoon: “Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater…”(Umm, pretty sure that Louisiana is still a state, not a city…) I especially liked these comments:

…most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.

It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

and

For him [President Bush], it is a shame — in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st Century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was just a quick “I’m not satisfied with my government’s response.” Instead of hiding behind phrases like “no one could have foreseen,” had he only remembered Winston Churchill’s quote from the 1930’s. “The responsibility,” of government, Churchill told the British Parliament “for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence.”

As a side note, Ophelia is now a hurricane but there is still no clear indication of which direction she may go. She’s not going anywhere very fast.

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