Two meme's circulating in European media

[mogster]

1. The number of victims from the Katrina-disaster is much lower than expected.

2. Bush screwed up on Katrina, as compared to 911, when he was quick to react.

Number 1:
What does this signify? I tell ya; I'll be happy if the numbers turn out to be low, low, low. One person less killed is good, not bad.
But then there's the attempt of putting a bind on media reporting. Knowing Bush' track record, it's impossible to not think that he'd try to influence on the final number.
I just want the truth.

Number 2:
Bush screwed up on 911. He was gone for x number of days before showing up. He didn't pose as a leader of the nation in that crisis, even if you can accept his Pet Goat.
I want the truth, and if that response was a success, it's a rewriting of history.

[mirandaod]

1. I just want the truth, too.

Read an email this week from a former NO resident who thinks the toll will be under 1000. He bases this on the death toll from hurricane Camille in '69. The death toll there was 250. So, if you add the flooding from this one, it will no doubt be higher (already is higher), but probably not over 1000. I hope he's right.
I think we'll have to wait a while, and get an idea of the numbers of missing people who don't resurface anywhere. Some of the bodies may have been washed out to sea or lost in other ways.
I just want there to be transparency in this process.

[KharmaTrain]

2. The Same Here

I see people either trying to inflate the death numbers (someone posted here to expect 25,000 dead) or that there won't be as many as predicted. In my view, the deaths that have happened already are bad enough. Some were unfortunate victims of nature, but there are those who were victims of neglegence...and that is what will have to be investigated.

How much destruction or loss is enough? The big point is this was a tragedy made worse by an inept Federal government rife with corruption. There's no whitewashing this...it's out there for the world to see.

The transparency here should be on those who enable this regime...members of the Repugnican party. If they dare to waiver in their support for the manchild in Washington, the light should be pointed at them for the complicity in all that's gone wrong in this country.

This party needs to be called on its lies, arrogance and hypocrisy and not allowed to slime and slither its way out of this mess of its own making.

[mirandaod]

3. Well said.

We need to keep the focus on this disaster - not exaggerating, for the facts are damning enough. We can't let them push this under the rug.

[mogster]

13. And that is a fair claim

Transparency in process - it would have prevented many of the disasters of the Bush administration, no? That's why I believe in democracy and openness; transparency will probably filter out bad desicions which else is enacted.
At least those where the thing to be decided upon is forewarned, like Katrina. And especially the self inflicted, like Iraq.

[liberal N proud]

4. The truth is all we have been asking for these last 5 years

But the bu$h regime is not capable of truth.

[sam sarrha]

5. they haven't started to pull the bodies out of the attics yet.. they will

be sure to make the count Very low....

[Bridget Burke]

6. I heard a US media type refer to how Bush "comforted the nation"

After 9/11. I certainly don't remember it. He sat listening to a reading lesson. Then he hopped on a plane to flee the scene.

A few days later, he held a pep rally on a smoking grave.

(&, with 9/11, there's the question of what he did (or did not do) BEFORE the disaster.)

[annabanana]

7. funny.. i don't remember feeling "comforted"

not by him... I guess being in NY, you could have missed that alleged "comfort"

[ThomWV]

8. Bush's Immediate Response To 9/11 Was To Abscond

The son of a bitch disappeared until well into the evening of 9/11 if folks will recall. The press was reporting that his whereabouts were unknown on that day. In truth when the Nation was being attacked in the north Bush headed west. Air Force 1 ended up somewhere in Oklahoma if I remember correctly.

[bryant69]

9. The problem with number 1

Is that people on our side of the fence have claimed a high number of casualties (mostly the mayor of New Orleans, which, frankly, is understandable). And if the numbers turn out to be relatively low (as compared to 10,000), well than we will be subjected to suggestions that we wanted the numbers to be high and are dissappointed because this doesn't paint Bush in such a negative light.

The Pet Goat story is pretty bad - but we've also made far to much of it over the years. I mean it's pathetic - but when you compare it to three fucking days of goofing around while Katrina is coming, has come, and people are suffering?

Bryant
check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[elehhhhna]

10. BUSH WAS IN NYC on 9/14. Three days late, as usual.

Takes that long to slap him sober.

[mogster]

14. You mean:

Holy shit he's ugly in this picture! :D

[rman]

11. Also circulating in Eu mainstream media: 9-11 LIHOP/MIHOP

Saw it a few days ago on a daily news background show on Dutch TV.

About the neocons and their Pearl Harbor, about the farce that is the official 9-11 commission report. About how big conspiracies do happen (Watergate, Iran-Contra), and about how governments can in fact be ruthless.

I get the impression that certain mainstream media see the current negative publicity regarding Bush as an opportunity to tell some of the more controversial tales.

[PATRICK]

12. it tells you

The foreign media isn't crawling all over like the swarming US media does. It relies on official info from reliable sources in other countries(which in this nation is so far bent to WH from that the foreign media can't grasp how pervasive is the disinformation in a broad, everyday sense) and much of the foreign media is lockstep corporate media in its own right fearing for oil prices, economic disaster and global panic.

They are not all necessarily champions of truth and freedom when the rallying cry goes forth. They pretty much ganged up against Chavez by the simple memes to. As in small matters so in large.

To think it is all Rove is to underestimate the problems facing journalism globally today. Insofar as there as time frame Bush deliberately dropped the ball before and during 9/11 but with totally absent press scrutiny although then too they were shocked and puzzled by his behavior.

Had THIS been a terrorist attack it would all have been different. it would have been worse for everyone in that Bush may well have profited for no merit of his own at all in such an event. Now that Bush is painfully exposed, the about face is nearly impossible for world corporate journalism to execute, even those outsiders critical from the start. Concessions are still made to outrageous lies told too often and never challenged- in the eyes of the press.

[JHB]

15. Number 1: remember the toll of 9/11 was lower than initial fears too.

If the toll of Katrina is lower than early fears and estimates, that's wonderful (as long as it's real, and not because of hiding bodies or rewriting the numbers, or other legerdermaine): it just means the evacuation was more effective than was thought.

It's still premature to consider it a fact (so don't let it become a RW talking point), but if it is, so what? On 9/11, we were afraid them might be over 10,000 dead: the first tallies dropped that to around 7000, and once the many redundant missing persons reports were consolidated, the final count was a little under 3000. Was that lucky? No, it just meant more could evacuate than was initially feared. If it had happened after the workday was in full swing (say around 10am) rather than before the start when many were waived off from entering the buildings in the first place, it would have been much worse.

But just because it's not "worse" doesn't make what did happen OK.