It's probably not true.  I know most gov't crisis centers have TVs all over
the place.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jacob [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 3:26 PM
To: CF-Community
Subject: RE: on the scene assessment


"...we haven't had time to watch the news."

I guess FEMA needs to create a position.. channel surfer.  Just need one or
two individuals to watch TV to gather information.

-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Small [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 12:09 PM
To: CF-Community
Subject: RE: on the scene assessment

It's far too easy to point fingers at people in a situation like this.
Nobody expected this to need 40,000 troops on the ground just to deal with
the rampant looting and criminal activity. To compare this with the war is
just looking for another way to embarrass people in charge who have an
enormous job to do. I'm not a fan of the Bush administration, but this is
doesn't have anything to do with the Bush administration, which is the
underlying point of her remarks.

I watched Diane Sawyer's interview with GWB yesterday morning and Ted
Koppel's interview with the head of FEMA last night.  Neither of these
interviews were meant to provide the public with really useful information -
rather, they were asking questions that were unanswerable and purposefully
meant to make these people look as bad as possible.  Here's a paraphrased
snippet:

TK: "We've heard reports from FEMA that there are 5000 people at the
convention center.  We have reporters on the ground who estimate 15000. How
many people are in the Convention Center?"

FEMA:  "I sent General XXXX in to estimate the people there.  His estimate
was 25000."

TK:  "We've been reporting these kinds of numbers for day now.  Aren't your
people watching the news???"

FEMA (angrily but cool): "No Ted, we haven't had time to watch the news.
We're too busy trying to save lives."


I think ANYONE who thinks that we're moving too slow and not doing
everything we can is deluded as to what can be done in a situation like
this.  It's an incredible thing which happens only once every thousand years
or so, so it's just not possible to be prepared for this.  It's so classic
to blame the people who are trying to help as not doing enough for you.
There's never any responsibility to be taken for these people not getting
out of the city.  True, there are thousands of poor, but instead of waiting
to be rescued as calmly as possible, they've created a situation that makes
it impossible to rescue them. Looters, shooters, rapists, killers - this is
a situation of their own making, nothing that the federal, state, or local
governments can do could have prevented that.

Matthew Small







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble 
Ticket application

http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48

Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:172369
Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5
Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5
Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54

Reply via email to