[Dont Mention the War]

By way of comparison, we've heard for four years now about DHS planning for a N/B/C attack. But if a nuke went off in a major US city than is already beset by transportation choke points (i.e. NYC, Seattle, SF), do you really think that the response 3 days later is going to resemble a well-oiled machine?

No, but I know the response of the members of the press in the White House Briefing Room will be very well-oiled.

[lugsoul]

At this point, I don't care...

Meaning, I don't care if yahoo puts captions on photos some some view as racially unfair.

I don't care if idiot morning show hosts ask questions that put a political slant on this disaster, or if talk radio hosts make statements that slant the issue in the other direction.

I don't care if the governor of the state who may have just lost her largest city, economic engine, and hundreds, maybe thousands, of her citizens looks shaken in some TV interviews, or isn't appropriately resolute.

I don't care if a Mayor who 98% of Americans could not have named last week doesn't come off as Rudy II in the wake of this disaster - especially when Rudy I still had 98% of his city remaining to use in responding to his crisis, while Nagin has very little of his own city that isn't a part of his own 'ground zero.'

I don't care if people think Haley Barbour interviews better than Blanco.

I don't care if people who have been saying for years that our failure to accept or address global warming increases the strength of hurricances raise that issue again in the wake of a monumentally destructive hurricane.

I don't care if those who have been lamenting the strain on the NG from its role in Iraq now crow that this overtaxed NG would ordinarily be a primary part of the disaster relief effort, and that this effort is adversely impacted by the strain already existing on that branch of the service.

And I don't care what questions get asked at WH press briefings about this disaster.

Because none of these things have anything to do with the priority at hand, which is to rescue, feed, shelter, and provide medical care to a vast number of refugees from this disaster. That is not going to happen in the press, it is not going to happen on Larry King Live or the Today show, it is not going to happen in the WH briefing room. It is going to happen on the ground, if it happens. And every moment that is spent jacking around over the political spin or the proper behavior of the press or the pointing of fingers is a moment not spent on the immediate and dire mission of responding to a catastrophe.