I think blogads is hosing this site, and I can’t even get in to take ’em down temporarily, so you will just have to flame each other (and me) at a slower pace.
Personally, I blame FEMA. Or Mike Brown.
by John Cole| 7 Comments
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance
I think blogads is hosing this site, and I can’t even get in to take ’em down temporarily, so you will just have to flame each other (and me) at a slower pace.
Personally, I blame FEMA. Or Mike Brown.
by John Cole| 30 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Trying out the office digital camera for something else, so I thought I would bring you some shots of the roommate:
People who pose cats for a living do not earn enough money. If I could figure out how to turn the flash off on this thing, I bet he would stop scowling, too.
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Media
The WSJ has a pretty interesting piece on why almost everyone in the media and elsewhere went to bed Monday night thinking New Orleans had been spared the worst-case scenario, and why we were all wrong:
On Sunday, Sept. 4, Tim Russert of NBC’s “Meet the Press” asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to explain President Bush’s statement that the government couldn’t have anticipated breaches in levees in New Orleans.
Mr. Chertoff talked about news coverage. “Well, I think if you look at what actually happened, I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers, and I saw headlines, ‘New Orleans Dodged The Bullet,’ ” he said. “Because if you recall, the storm moved to the east and then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing worse. It was on Tuesday that the levee — may have been overnight Monday to Tuesday — that the levee started to break.”
But now it is known that major levee breaks occurred much earlier than that, starting in the morning of Monday, Aug. 29, the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Even as the storm veered off and many observers felt a sense of relief, the Industrial Canal levee in eastern New Orleans was giving way, and a rush of water swiftly submerged much of the Lower Ninth Ward and areas nearby, trapping thousands of people on rooftops and in attics. The 17th Street Canal levee also was breached early Monday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now believes, resulting in a slower-rising flood over a larger area.
Yet it wasn’t until Tuesday that most people across the country, apparently including Mr. Chertoff, realized that any levees at all had been breached. Did media outlets get it wrong, as Mr. Chertoff claimed? Some did, some didn’t.
A look at news reports of the events of Aug. 29 paints a picture of confusion, miscommunication and conflicting information among some government officials and news media. Several major news outlets, including Viacom Inc.’s CBS network and National Public Radio reported the breaking of the Industrial Canal and flooding on Monday, although not all of the reports acknowledged the extent of the devastation. The Wall Street Journal reported the Industrial Canal breach but no others.
Read the whole thing. I am just swamped today with a number of different things going on, so I apologive for the sparse posting and even worse responses in comments. I will catch up later.
by John Cole| 63 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
As to the status of the Iraqi Constitution:
Iraqi politicians have failed to conclude negotiations on a draft constitution and it remains unclear when a final text may be printed, less than five weeks before a referendum, Iraqi and U.N. officials said on Sunday.
“We don’t know when they’ll finish,” Nicholas Haysom, the United Nations official charged with the printing, told Reuters, confirming that negotiations were continuing.
“We’d like it as soon as possible.”
Last week, after a series of missed deadlines, Haysom said he expected the National Assembly formally to endorse a final text on Sunday, after making an amendment in talks that followed parliament’s previous adoption of the draft on Aug. 28.
Any later, he had said, and it would be a “challenge” to get five million copies out to the electorate of about 14 million in time for them to digest it by the referendum on Oct. 15.
Voting on a Constitution they haven’t read and can’t agree on. Sounds like California and gay marriage.
This post is in: Domestic Politics
I really am tired of dealing with the Katrina ‘fall-out,’ but Ezra Klein has a post up criticizing efforts to ‘privatize’ FEMA, which I think would be a pretty bad idea right now. However, most of his post comes from the standpoint that what happened in the Gulf was a failure- a premise I do not agree with nor probably never will.
I see some inexcusable errors- the communication breakdown, the failure to evacuate people or place food and supplies in the shelters of last resort, a number of bureaucratic snafus, etc., but I hardly see the largest and fastest mobilization of this kind as a ‘failure.’
Now, granted, I spent a couple of years in the military and have been involved with a few mobilizations and a few relief efforts, so I may not have the credibility that a Paul Krugman or a Josh Marshall, with their extensive experiences, when it comes to condemning these efforts as a failure, but I do have my opinions. One of my opinions is that statements like this demonstrate the wide gulf between the plausible and the desired:
MR. RUSSERT: What’s the biggest mistake you made?
MAYOR NAGIN: My biggest mistake is having a fundamental assumption that in the state of Louisiana, with an $18 billion budget, in the country of the United States that can move whole fleets of aircraft carriers across the globe in 24 hours, that my fundamental assumption was get as many people to safety as possible, and that the cavalry would be coming within two to three days, and they didn’t come.
Now that is one fast aircraft carrier!
by John Cole| 22 Comments
This post is in: Sports
by John Cole| 5 Comments
This post is in: Sports
And the long dark period from January to August is almost over. In a little over two hours, another season of Steeler football starts, with the Steelers opening at home against the Titans.
If you are a Steelers fan, this is hands down the best fansite for information and other stuff.