<< MONEY ILL-DIRECTED ~ MAIN ~ NEW DEPUTY ASSISTANT BOLDERER REQUIRED >>
BUSH UNBLAMED
According to this CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, most Americans don’t blame Bush:
Respondents also disagreed widely on who is to blame for the problems in the city following the hurricane—13 percent said Bush, 18 percent said federal agencies, 25 percent blamed state or local officials and 38 percent said no one is to blame. And 63 percent said they do not believe anyone at federal agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be fired as a result.
It wasn’t a vast poll—just 609 people—so it’ll be interesting to see if it indicates broader feeling.
5 per cent said Katrina, and the aftermath, is the wrath of god for on a hedonistic moshpit.
Perhaps if some of the respondents, journalists, and commentators had some on the ground experience there, a greater understanding of the social dynamics would explain the lack of local government preparedness, the lack of gear and provisions for the projected numbers seeking in-city refuge, and the simple refusal of some of the residents to heed evacuations orders.
St. Gabriel story was great, Roy Joy. I was there on Sunday.
I can’t get my head around the overwhelming numbers of people (79%!) who say they believe gas prices are “high” (as opposed to just “higher”). Nationwide average price today is USD 3.04/gallon. This equates to GBP 0.43/liter or AUD 1.05/liter.
The “prices unfair” meme is a little more explicable since that perception is fed by every story that focuses on retail price changes but neglects to mention whether profit margins have changed.
OT - The last missing Australian has been found. In jail. Love this from his sister:
Ms Mutnansky believed he was arrested in New Orleans on August 27, almost as soon as he arrived in the city.
She said he was most likely arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct.
“He probably had one too many and got loud – it wouldn’t have been anything serious,” Ms Mutnansky said from her home in Tennessee.
An Aussie tourist drunk and disorderly? Yep, sounds like a positive ID to me.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 09 07 at 06:28 PM • permalinkThe MSM spent considerable time and energy reporting about Bush’s alleged attempts to escape active duty in Vietnam by joining the Texas Air National Guard. An issue virtually no one gave a shit about.
I think it’s virtually certainly that the MSM, the Democratic Party, the leftist liberals, and all anti-Bushites around the world won’t give up beating the “Bush is a racist and let the darkies die!” drum for a long time.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 09 07 at 06:33 PM • permalinkObviously not a poll Michael Gawenda would consider credible.
Have a look at his report in the SMH today and you will have no illusions as to how much America hates Bush for causing this disaster.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/attacks-on-bush-continue-to-grow/2005/09/07/1125772584569.htmlJust 13% blame President Bush for post-hurricane stumbles.
I was both shocked and reassured by this number, as it shows most Americans aren’t as gullible or as stupid as the MSM would hope them to be.
Of course the MSM wont stop with this one failure to knee-cap President Bush (and Republicans in general).
Most likely they will get back on the Mother-Sheehan pile (to borrow a visual from South-Park) as soon as an appropriate amount of time appears to have passed.
I don’t know that the MSM is trying to fool the American people. Rather, they’re trying to hold the American soap opera audience, which is what they sell to advertisers.
I think the majority has been kissed off long ago as too hard to attract. Soap opera people are easy, and a large group, ratingswise if not majoritywise. Anyway the best they can do.
So that’s their business model.
The bad thing is that soap opera fans filter the national discourse on everything as a result.
Nora,
I was in St. Gabriel on Sunday! Didn’t see him, but there used to be a notorious bar near there called the Country Place that’s predominant clientele went there solely for the purpose of being drunken and disorderly!If he gets hung up, post something here as I am acquainted w/ a few attorneys and judges in the area.
I think this result indicates that claims of a “mass media revival” in the wake of Katrina are overstated.
If anything, it seems people are even less likely to believe the MSM than they were before.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 09 07 at 10:31 PM • permalinkParker, I am not “virtuous”. In fact, I’m gonna have to find a new vice now that you’ve even dared to associate me with “virtuous”. Thanks a heap, pal!
Back on thread….
Hey, where’s Skeptic? I thought he/she/it would be all over this.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 09 08 at 01:17 AM • permalinkHah! Got an e-mail from a friend, which reads in part:
“I think the local and then the state dropped the ball and started yelling
for the Feds to come in a bail them out and by then… it took time. I don’t think anyone expected the Dome to become an extended shelter. I think they figured a few hours and everyone can go home…HUMMMNow its all BUSH’S fault. Now wait one minute! I may not be a Bush fan but this one isn’t his fault.”
And my friend is not a Bush fan by any definition, although she can’t be classified as a “Democrat”. But my friend (who has some experience in the disaster relief community) was not fooled by this tripe on the news.
Would that we have more such rational people speaking their minds!!!!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 09 08 at 04:47 AM • permalinkI’m surprised more don’t blame Bush. There’s a solid core of close to 20% who hate him and blame him, or Rove, for everything and anything in every poll I’ve seen in the last 4 years.
I’m like Dr. Hibbard in that I laugh at all the wrong things, but it’s not really funny. Bush could get caught with a dead woman and a live boy in his bed and 85% of the US would yawn and say, “That liberal media again.”
The media who cried “Hitler” has lost all credibility.NBC White House reporter David Gregory argues with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan over what sound byte makes it into the soap opera news http://rhhardin.home.mindspring.com/imuscut.blamegame.ram somebody must have transcribed it but I don’t see it.
It sounds superficially like an angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin argument, but it’s really about getting soap into the soap opera (David Gregory’s goal) and the assignment of keeping it out of the soap opera (McClellan’s assignment). It’s in particular not about anything real.
There’s lots of posturing
Parker,
I have been homeless since fall of 2002 due to some slumlords and their henchmen determined that I wouldn’t win my case against them despite overwhelming evidence and statute.
I lost my possessions, my job, my gpa at grad school, the down payment towards a home, my health, and perhaps a bit more of my sanity and compassion. No one rescued me, in fact the cops were sicked on me. Getting health care was an ordeal in itself.
A few kind strangers helped out w/ a roof over my head but no group, government or otherwise, extended a hand to me, including the VA who I battled w/ for years and begged for assistance in getting a job.
I have lived in my car, in a pop-up camper for a year, on friends’ sofas for a couple of years, in a tent off and on, here and there at parks and campgrounds. I guess I have a different perspective.
As much as I would like to rush in and help, and believe me I do have some insight into what these people are feeling, I simply cannot….my health is precarious and if I contracted something, there would be no care for me, I have little money for food, gas, lodging so I cannot make a donation.
I have learned to live so frugally it would astonish you. I have had jobs that probably would rival the toughest amongst you, the hardest being raising my son, alone, through, quite a bit of that. No, I have compassion, just not the means to rush in where angels fear to tread.
I am saddened that it takes extreme catastrophe to get the attention of anyone anymore and I am acquainted w/ some of the loudest lefties screaming for blood; none of them provided assistance in my plight, just kicked more dirt in. My disaster was completely, irrefutably man-made.
The people in N.O. paid the price for having unprepared, unqualified personnel in positions that were critical for their immediate survival.
Page 1 of 1 pages
Members:
Login | Register
| Member List
15 per cent of respondents also blamed Bush for dandruff.