Spinning Disaster: Katrina, ONE year later

The White House has gotten very good at spin, as one would expect since they screw up so much. But this week is their biggest challenge with the one year anniversary of Katrina. Karl Rove has been planning this spin for awhile. The LA Times reported a major public relations effort to try to rewrite history. (If his followers can swallow the crap he is feeding them on Iraq, I suppose he thinks he has a shot with this.)

I can see it now. Kids in goofy “KATRINA KIDS” T-shirts singing propoganda like: "Congress, Bush and FEMA…Together have come to rebuild us and we join them hand-in-hand!"

Too corny? Yeah, but sadly, I didn’t make that up. That really happened.)
But corny songs and smear campaigns against local officials won’t save them. We know the truth of what Bush was told and when, and we know that while he was blowing off reports, eating cake and playing guitar, the rest of us were watching in horror as images were being broadcast of tens of thousands trapped in the Superdome, along with dead bodies floating in the streets.

Disgraceful.

The only thing more disgraceful? Although polls showed that 90% of the population wanted an independent, bi-partisan panel, modeled after the 9/11 Commission, to investigate government failures at all levels-—EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN IN THE SENATE voted it down. They choose a partisan panel that did gave the GOP the sole power to handle the direction of the investigation AND to suponena. The point was to shift blame, as much as they could, from the federal government.

To the GOPers who read my blog, I pose this challenge. I watched all the political shows that featured one D and one R, hoping at least one republican would attempt to justify that action against the American people. Not a one ever did. If you can find one, or you can justify it, post a comment.

Finally, Think Progress had an excellent Katrina timeline that recaps the events from the start of the hurricane to present. (Click Here or click KATRINA on their homepage.)

The best way to combat the spin is with the truth.


Aug 30: Bush "fiddled" as New Orleans drowned