I was eating lunch and just got this CNN breaking news alert on the email: "New Orleans flood waters contaminated with e. coli, official in office of Mayor Ray Nagin tells CNN."
This is a surprise? This is news? Next thing you know, they'll be telling us that not only is the water contaminated, you shouldn't drink it, either.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at September 6, 2005 12:39 PMIf I have learned anything from this it is that politicains are idiots. Sorry, I already knew that but the LA pols seem more dense than most.
Of course, the pols have been lesser idiots than the talking heads.
As for me, I cannot understand why the President didn't make everyone leave the Gulf Coast back in mid-August when there was plenty of time for them to get out. And I am not real happy about the Feds letting the local gas prices get so high.
Posted by: Larry Anderson at September 6, 2005 12:48 PMLeave in August? Pshaw. If they'd only outlawed hurricanes, this NEVER would have happened.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at September 6, 2005 12:57 PMI would write my Congress Persons to tell them they should outlaw hurricanes and tornados but they might actually do it.
I think it is the left turning air in the northern hemisphere that causes them. Maybe a law to require right turns would be good.
Posted by: Larry Anderson at September 6, 2005 01:21 PMIf you check below, the morning before the storm, among the many lies Ray Nagin told (and which the press reported wihout comment, was that the flood waters would NOT be toxic.
There is a difference between failing - and lying to the people you are supposed to protect. And that is what Ray Nagin did.
http://lacowboy.blogspot.com/2005/09/hurricane-katrina-blogger-brendan-loy
Posted by: Brady Westwater at September 6, 2005 01:52 PMLarry, I think you'd have a hard time legislating only right turns. NASCAR, after all, is very powerful.
As for lying or misinforming or disinforming--it is beyond all reason that ANY floodwater can be assumed to be clean. Rather than searching for ways to assess blame, the news media could have been working to inform people about the need to STAY OUT OF THE WATER as much as possible. Obviously some people had to wade or swim to get places, but there seemed to be a veritable parade of people just out walking in it. I remember seeing one shot of a young woman in the French Quarter after it was all over, sitting on the sidewalk, playfully flapping her feet in the gutter.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at September 6, 2005 02:05 PMI cringe when I see people playing in flood water. It is always nasty stuff.
Posted by: Sarah G. at September 6, 2005 02:41 PM