Posted on 09/14/2005 8:36:20 AM PDT by NutCrackerBoy
They even included Whorealdo, as a shining example of how appropriate was the hysterical response of the CNN reporters.
Lots of posts here on FR were circulating the same sort of hysteria.
The time for that is RIGHT NOW, because the death toll only stands at around 290 with the recovery operation winding up. The media keeps telling us they're a government watchdog.....but who's watching the watchdog?
Imagine if this storm had hit the Netherlands...
TG somebody finally said that. I've been thinking that right from the start but no way was I going to post that on this forum!
Go ahead and imagine it, this is why we're asking the Dutch for technical help.
The blogosphere, for one.
I think ways are evolving, but I am not sure what they will look like, to take the unaccountable to account. The problems of bad reporting are getting out of hand. I think something analogous is developing with Congress and Congressional committees. Like Able Danger - the 9/11 Commission may have gone way too far to politicize and twist their findings.
We are.
Thank you for reminding me that I forgot to add the usual (rhetorical question) alert to my post
That's what I thought when I heard some woman complaining that she'd been stuck on a bridge for 3 days with no shade and DEMANDED to know where her rescuers were. I don't mean to make light of those 3 days, but I wanted to say, "Honey, the rescuers are pulling people out of attics who are about to drown. They are pulling people out of trees that are about to topple in the flood waters. They are searching for people who are trapped and can't get to the comfort of a dry bridge in the sun.
Priorities are a fact of life. Had I been on that bridge I hope I would have been thanking G-d I was alive instead of complaining.
Shalom.
I would not have been in the least bit surprised if 10,000 people had died as a result of Katrina but I grew up on stories of the 1900 storm in Galveston. In Galveston 6,000 to 10,000 people did die and the number of people in the affected area was much smaller than in this storm.
Who's watching the [media] watchdog?The blogosphere, for one.
I think ways are evolving, but I am not sure what they will look like, to take the unaccountable to account. The problems of bad reporting are getting out of hand. I think something analogous is developing with Congress and Congressional committees. Like Able Danger - the 9/11 Commission may have gone way too far to politicize and twist their findings.
The Democratic majority Congresses of old used to conduct tendentious hearings in lockstep with journalism. Now that they are minorities in the House and Senate, the reportercrats demand "independent" investigative commissions to come to the predetermined conclusion of journalism (i.e., that everything is "Bush's fault").Middle America is under constant assault from the reportercrats - journalists, the rich, and much of the poor. The Republican congressional majorities have the duty to act as lawyers for, who are Middle America - for their constituents. That does not mean holding tendentious congressional hearings - but it does mean holding hearings which the reportercrats will call tendentious. It means having the courage to make the case for truth, when letting liars win the propaganda battle would be easier. It means telling the truth when The New York Times and The Washington Post - and ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS - all swear that the truth is a lie.
BTTT!!!!!!
Good points cIc. I would also add to Novak's article what he labels "hysterical reporting", may more accrately be described as "histrionics".
The people of the Netherlands are always aware that most of them are living below sea level. They continually repair and improve their levee system. Of course, they pay very high taxes. An interesting fact is that the state of Louisiana is 5 times as big as the country of the Netherlands.
VERY well written piece.
Though it isn't EXACTLY the same topic, the European's view of the US Federal Government's response shows a complete lack of understanding of US Federalism and such laws as the Posse Comitatus Act, as well as others.
They seem to NOT know that the STATE is LEGALLY in charge within their borders -- over the feds -- until they turn over control to the Federal Government or the Federal government declares martial law IF the State government is out of commission.
It's seems the US press doesn't want to acknowledge/include these particulars of US law either!
A storm the size of Katrina would have encompassed all of northwestern Europe from Denmark to Brittainy. The Mississippi Coastline is longer than the joint coastlines of the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France to Dieppe. It is also flatter. The wall of water would have pushed up the Scheldt to Antwerp and flood The great storms of the north sea are not to be despised, but not even the storm of 1953 was anything like Katrina.
The Delta Project was one of the greatest post-war feats of hydraulic engineering in the Netherlands. Immediately after the devastating storm surge of 1953, a Delta Commission was appointed to advise the government on the necessary works to protect the south-western part of the country. The first step was to construct a moveable storm surge barrier in the Hollandse IJssel, east of Rotterdam. This went into operation in 1958. The next move was the closure of the Veerse Gat and the Zandkreek in 1961. This necessitated the building of great sluices to regulate the discharge of water from the major rivers. Huge dams with sluice gates were likewise completed in 1971 to close off the Haringvliet and in 1972 to protect the Brouwershavensche Gat. The Philips and Oester Dams followed in 1974 and 1987 respectively. Plans for the closure of the last open estuary, the Eastern Scheldt, were also on the table, but evoked a clamour of protest from mussel and oyster farmers and environmentalists. They were fiercely opposed to closure on the grounds that it would destroy a unique tidal area and that the Eastern Scheldt was the nursery for many species of North Sea fish. Eventually a compromise was reached. A partially open storm surge barrier would be built, with huge gates that could be closed in the event of high water levels. This would preserve the ecological value of the Eastern Scheldt as a tidal area while at the same time guaranteeing the safety of Zeeland. The resulting storm surge barrier in the Eastern Scheldt is one of the biggest in the world. The components for the moveable gates, each the size of a twelve-storey block of flats, were built in special docks and floated into place before being sunk. The dam was officially opened by Queen Beatrix on 4 October 1986 and the final piece of the Delta Works jigsaw was slotted into place in 1997, when a moveable storm surge barrier was completed in the New Waterway. This consists of two vast gates which are normally kept open but can be closed when a storm is imminent.
This is exactly the point of using Dutch technology.
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