I think the implication was that if officials had been watching coverage of the disaster on TV they would have been aware of the convention center. They wouldn't need to be informed by state officials. If they were watching TV and their explanation now is that no state or city officials informed them of the problem then it's just CYA.
Can you provide an explanation as to why no one except everyone in the US and on FR was aware of the folks at the convention center but none of the federal officials were?
Earth to Arkie2: the convention center and the Superdome are two different buildings.
Because it's the job of the local officials to tell FEMA where the shelters are so they can get the food there.
The first day, the people were just standing in the street; they finally BROKE into the CC and took it over.
That's why there were no NG, no water, and no food.
There is a plan for a reason, see?
I imagine when all of this was going down they were busy trying to help instead of watching tv or surfing FR. The would logically think that since they are in contact with the state and local folks in charge of the situation that they would hear it first from them instead of the news, which is ideally how it is supposed to work. What they failed to consider was that those folks were bumbling fools.
Chertoff may have as many or more in his offices, but he was probably on the phones, not sitting around monitoring TV. Generally, government officials rely on official reports that have been verified, not snotty rumors from Soledad O'Brien.
Of course, no one was aware of the Convention Center until Thursday...maybe that was because they were suppose to be going to the Superdome if they had ignored the multiple warnings to get the flip out of Dodge.
There was no information about the Convention Center until days after the storm.
All focus was on the Superdome.
I did see the communication before the storm that people who were unable to evacuate should go to the Superdome and bring changes of clothing, food and water for themselves to last several days.
There was NO mention of the Convention Center at that time or in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
There is a real liklihood they were not watching TV. In fact I don't see how the FEMA people would have had the time to do so & others watching in Washington would have likely and reasonably assumed the state people were keeping the Feds abreast of the where the problem sites where.
I don't want federal officials watching tv during a crisis such as this. I want them getting accurate info from on the scene sources such as the mayor of NO and governor of LA and other official channels. Perhaps in hindsight it would have been better to tune in to Fox, or maybe even CNN, but is that how government is supposed to run?
Do you really trust cable television news for facts? It was the job of local elected officials to communicate their needs. This is not to say that mistakes were not made at all levels--but your critical thinking here is at the level of the blow-dried cable news airheads.
That is just not true. I watched this stuff nonstop and all the talk was about the superdome. I didn't hear word one about the convention center until everyone was pi$$ed that FEMA didn't know either.
Those doing the logistics are not watching TV for their coordination efforts I"m sure. If you're Firefighter and the city is ablaze, do you get your dispatch info from radio or do you turn on the friggin TV?
Those who are running the minute by minute logistics are supposed to be getting the info from those on the ground; i.e. the mayor and his ass clowns. If you don't find out about the people then you're not going to send supplies to them.
The AP just reported that the Govenor STILL has not handed over control of the National Guard to the Feds. So, just because the Feds see something on tv, doesn't mean they can disregard the laws that are in place. Posse Comitatus for example prevents law enforcement actions to be performed by the federal military. And control over various agencies must be approved by the state. Blanco would not yield control to the feds and the feds had to legally work around that. That takes time.
To be honest with you, I didn't know until Thursday or Friday that there were people in the convention center and I have had my TV on 24/7 for over a week. All I ever heard was the Superdome. Maybe I didn't hear it because I got so disgusted with hearing the complaints and blame games. All I know is that I didn't know about the convention center until Geraldo reported it at the end of the week.
A convenient dodge by the media. In retrospect it may seem like we knew all along that there was a large gathering at the convention center. I don't think that will be supported by review of the tapes. It hit the media at best, late Wednesday night, which would have hit Brown Thursday morning.
Hindsight is wonderful but often ignores actual time lines.
Which lyin' member of the Treason Media would YOU believe about anything?