Theos-Talk Archives (September 2005 Message tt00162)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Cass Silva <silva_cass@y...> wrote:
> Dear Paul
> I have just read an article on the Toxic Waste effect stating that 
if they drain NO into the mexican gulf that it will create an 
environmental disaster. That birds feeding in the area could spread 
disease throughout the country. It all sounds horrific. Also read, 
which I hope is BS, that a reason for the evacuation of the citizens 
is because they expect to find over 50,000 dead or decaying bodies, 
and that reptiles etc have begun to eat off the remains, further 
infecting other eco systems. As I said, it all sounds horrific. I 
don't see it as a cover up as the news media are permitted to stay. 
> Cass
> 
Dear Cass,

The emergence of restrictions on the media is a topic of discussion 
today, for example from NBC news anchor Brian Williams.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9216831/#050907c

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?
type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-09-
07T200848Z_01_N07644534_RTRIDST_0_KATRINA-CENSORSHIP.XML

However, no amount of restriction on press freedom will prevent the 
news media from doing their jobs FOR A CHANGE. Some traditional 
Republican diehard defenders of this administration, like Joe 
Scarborough of MSNBC and David Brooks of the New York Times, are no 
longer playing that role:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04brooks.html?
incamp=article_popular

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Scarborough-bashes-republicans-
Katrina.wmv

Even the infamously pro-Bush NY Daily News won't defend Brown:

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/53110.htm

Since my other link broke, here's an excerpt for anyone who missed it:


While George Bush was eating cake with John McCain, rats were eating 
American corpses in American cities. While George Bush was strumming 
a dissonant chord with a country singer, a dissonant, desperate cry 
for help went unheeded from American voices in American cities. While 
Dick Cheney was closing on a posh new house, floodwaters were closing 
in on many more American houses, and, even worse, their owners. While 
Donald Rumsfeld was enjoying a game in an American baseball stadium, 
American citizens were dying in an American football stadium. While 
Condoleeza Rice was delightedly prancing through Manhattan shops in 
search of shoes, American citizens were desperately sloshing through 
New Orleans buildings in search of drinkable water. The largest 
natural disaster in modern American history is no time for absentee 
government, but that's what we got.

Certainly, it's unreasonable to assign responsibility for the 
hurricane itself. However, it is certainly reasonable to assign 
responsibility for actions that made this disaster as bad as it was. 
Who ignored FEMA warnings about both a New York City terrorist attack 
and a New Orleans hurricane, and then gutted FEMA? The Bush 
administration. Who assigned another layer of bureaucracy to FEMA? 
The Bush administration. Who appointed the architect of FEMA's 
astonishing incompetence? The Bush administration. Who gutted the 
funds for maintenance and upgrades of the New Orleans levees - which 
might have withstood this storm otherwise - to fund the war in Iraq? 
The Bush administration. Who sent a considerable percentage of first 
responders - the Louisiana National Guard - to Iraq? The Bush 
administration. 
END QUOTE

Paul


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