Dems worried New Orleans Death
Toll Lower than Hoped
by JohnHuang2
So far, it's not been a good week for Democrats. Rescuers in New Orleans are finding far fewer corpses than hoped (by Democrats), city streets are already drier than Teddy Kennedy after a month in detox as the Big Easy stirred back to life faster than expected two weeks after a major disaster triggered by powerful 160-foot oscillating fans mounted on platforms just off the Louisiana Gulf Coast, a Skull and Bones project funded by Bush's tax cuts for wealthy corporations working with FEMA in testing the first human-engineered racist hurricane.
In many parts of New Orleans, there were smaller mounds of trash, debris and rubble than you'd find after Mardi Gras. Death Toll lower than feared the headlines read over the weekend. No follow-up plague of super hairy-legged locusts, giant frogs, gnats, flies, two-headed vampire bats with a taste for Republican flesh. Not even boils, thunder and hail. Fewer dead than expected -- looks like Bush is off the hook again! So depressing.
In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, with estimates of 10,000 floating corpses in Lake New Orleans, dumped there by passing slave ships, libbies were readying another one of their solemn Wellstone memorial celebrations. The early hysteria was fed by those "10,000 killed; Bush named as Possible Suspect" media stories. The "10,000 dead" figure, which was based on media reports, which were based on media reports prompted by Mayor Ray Nagin who retrieved the figure from his keister, drove the reporting.
"New Orleans Mayor: 10,000 Feared Dead" blared one headline 1 week after Katrina. Democrats were quietly hoping for a bigger haul -- 25,000 would be nice; but hey, why be greedy? So they settled for 10k.
Now it looks like even that figure was wildly optimistic (for Democrats). The New York Times admitted Tuesday that "despite apocalyptic predictions, Marines searching St. Bernard Parish -- in the direct path of Hurricane Katrina -- have yet to find any bodies." Capt. Stephen Kahn, "operations officer for the battalion of Marines brought in from Camp Lejeune, N.C.," is quoted saying: "The areas worst flooded, as our guys are getting in there, they're not finding anything."
In short, the media reporting has been incompetent. At all levels, it failed. Reporters were too slow to respond, slow to understand the magnitude of the calamitous death toll that didn't happen. The reporting was disastrous. It showed the wretched failure of the media to prepare. Maybe the press is just too bureaucratic. I would fire them for incompetence. Or maybe ask for a commission. Or call Gov. Blanco. Just give me 24 hours to think about it.
Regarding the press, things could be worse. Just imagine if the media had been trying to inflate the death toll for shock value and high ratings to get people to watch those TV commercials which pay their bills! They'd never do it for ratings or sensationalism. Goodness no.
I'm just sick and tired of the media blaming Bush for downed power lines, uprooted trees, wrecked homes and flooded streets! They know darn well it was John Roberts who did it.
By Monday, those "10,000 Dead; Cheney Feasting On Corpses In Undisclosed Location" headlines of the prior week slowly gave way to: Death Toll Now Believed Lower Than 10,000. By "Lower Than 10,000", they mean 423. In Mediaspeak, South Florida's death toll from Katrina was under 1,000 -- or 7. In the Gulf Coast, given the extent of the damage -- the effects of Katrina covered an area of nearly 100,000 square miles -- the death toll's been remarkably low. More died from the scorching '95 Chicago heat wave (nearly 800 were killed) than from Katrina. Bush can't even plan a hurricane right.
Which is why Katrina competed for news coverage this week with the John Roberts criminal trial -- excuse me, Senate confirmation hearings.
Committee Democrats cross-examined Roberts over positions he took on contentious issues in debates back in 3rd Grade. They questioned him on a broad range of issues, such as abortion, capital punishment, abortion, civil rights, abortion, voting rights, abortion, presidential powers, abortion. And poor Sen. Joe Biden. He bruised his brain cell trying to get Roberts to say how he would rule on abortion. If this nominee won't tell us in advance what his rulings will be on cases that are likely to come before the court, HE AIN'T QUALIFIED TO BE A FAIR JUDGE!!
With the grim news of fewer than expected body bags taking the wind out of Katrina's sails, Democrats tried to shoehorn the hurricane into the confirmation hearings. Teddy Kennedy said in a statement that "the tragedy of Katrina shows in the starkest terms" blah, blah, blah.
The bottom line is that the tragedy of Katrina for Teddy is that Katrina was no 9/11. New Orleans was not attacked by some stateless, Saudi-funded hurricane. There was no need for Bush to grab a bullhorn atop a damaged home in New Orleans. Anyway, what was he supposed to say? 'I hear you, the rest of the world hears you and Hurricane Katrina will hear from all of us soon!' Hard to rally the nation against weather disturbances. 9/11 remade Bush into the "war President." Katrina would not remake Bush into the "Hurricane President." Bush was not going to announce a "War On Hurricanes" before a Joint Session of Congress, with preemptive bombing strikes against 'hurricanes and those who harbor them.' Better to fight hurricanes there so we won't have to fight them in New Orleans! LET'S BOMB THOSE HURRICANE TRAINING CAMPS IN PAKISTAN!
Nope, doesn't sound quite right. Libbies gazed into Katrina's eye (it was love at first sight) and saw a great opportunity. Thousands of body bags! Recession! Gas lines! Chimpy, crippled forever by Katrina! He may not even run in '08! Dems could smell corpses in the water.
But two weeks after Katrina, they can't even find the corpses. No gas lines. Pump prices are down. Bush's still light years ahead of Democrats in Congress. Economy's still hitting on all cylinders. And Katrina's gone! Poor, poor losercrats.
Anyway, that's...
My two cents
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