Week 2 of this tragedy, and things are getting back to normal. FoxNews, and to a lesser extent, MSNBC, are fully back on message, supporting the power structure in its time of need.
Republicans are re-uniting, around images of our brave military men, pictures of once again hopeful people, and a strategy of shifting blame and suppressing the most basic criticisms.
And the Democrats? Our so-called leaders are back to their losing ways.
That leaves us, in the blogosphere? Where are we? To my opinion mired in way too many arguments and facts, without much regard to uniting behind some basic talking points.
More below the fold...
I'm not going to try to get everyone to adopt my talking points, but I am going to suggest that instead of pushing arguments and facts, we keep to the simplest and most damning questions:
Where was George Bush?
Where was FEMA?
Where was the Red Cross?
Where was the National Guard?
Four horrible days after Katrina. Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday. America's worst disaster in modern history was happening in New Orleans, and those we should expect to count on in times of crisis, SIMPLY WEREN'T THERE.
Our first big test in the Post-9/11 world, and the federal government skipped the first four days. The press was there, Mayor Nagin was there, the New Orleans PD was there, Governor Blanco was there. Hundreds of volunteer citizen heroes showed up. BushCo didn't. They took their own sweet effing time about.
Leave it to the other side to explain why they didn't show. Don't call Katrina and its aftermath a racist conspiracy, even though many of us all have our doubts. Don't get bogged down in too many details. Don't argue with your neighbors.
Just ask, where was George Bush? Where was the Red Cross? Where was the National Guard, and where, for the love of Christ, was FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security? Not in New Orleans, and that, to almost every American, should go down as unforgivable.
Tomorrow we can talk about another simple message, which is that we are NOT SAFER.