Every now and then there is a piece that goes beyond the standard fawning garbage of the propaganda pre$$ and descends into offensive outrage to even the most jaded observers.
This is one such article:
"In New Orleans, Bush lauds school gains since Katrina" by Campbell Robertson and Richard Pérez-Peña New York Times August 29, 2015
NEW ORLEANS — Returning here Friday 10 years after this city was inundated, former president George W. Bush painted a rosy picture of the recovery since Hurricane Katrina, declaring, “New Orleans is back, and better than ever.”
Visiting one of the facilities that became a charter school in those early years after the storm, Bush focused on education, citing the failings of the public schools before Hurricane Katrina, and the marked improvement since.
“Isn’t it amazing, the storm that nearly destroyed New Orleans, and yet now New Orleans is the beacon for school reform,” he said.
What book did he read the kids?
Bush did not address what made the flooding a rich target for critics of his administration: the weakness of the initial response to the disaster when federal, state, and city agencies were widely seen as doing far too little to help the stranded and displaced, and doing it much too slowly.
Many New Orleans residents make the distinction between those horrific first days and what was eventually a robust federal rebuilding effort, a difference Bush himself noted in his memoir, “Decision Points.”
Yeah, in retrospect, he didn't really manage things that badly.
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“All of us who are old enough to remember will never forget the images of our fellow Americans amid a sea of misery and ruin,” Bush said Friday. But twice, he said, “I hope you remember what I remember,” citing the work of military personnel, law enforcement, and thousands of volunteers in rescuing, feeding, sheltering, and rebuilding.
Our finest hour!
It was at this time this morning that I really felt like puking.
I'm glad the sick, murderous, war-criminal shit misses it.
“In spite of the devastation, we have many fond memories,” he added, recalling sitting with Russel L. Honoré, the retired Army lieutenant general who coordinated the military response to the storm, “on top of one of those big ships, strategizing.”
Like it was a WAR ROOM! Bushes feel right at home in those!
He has FOND MEMORIES?
What kind of MONSTER is HE?
It should be a SOMBER OCCASION!
Bush received an enthusiastic response from several hundred dignitaries, students, and school staff members in the auditorium of Warren Easton Charter High School, on Canal Street, a former city school that was flooded and battered 10 years ago, and reopened the next year as a charter.
They are just as bad as he is. They should be booing him out of town.
But in the city at large, where signs of recovery are just blocks away from neighborhoods where little progress can be seen, bitter memories of the days after the flood are still common.
But that is ALL YOU WILL SEE of THAT!
10 YEARS and there has been no cleanup, never mind rebuilding, in certain areas!
WTF?????
The overhaul of schools itself has been polarizing, as more than 8,500 employees of the old school system — most of them from the city’s black middle class — were laid off in the first year.
Maybe Kanye West was right. Bushes are racist. Comes with the elitism.
“I guess I’m not feeling quite as magnanimous as some others are,” said Bob Mann, who was the communications director for Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, the governor 10 years ago.
“The first week was awful, the second week was better, and after that they increasingly did a very good job of helping the region get back on its feet,” Mann said. “But that doesn’t absolve anyone, including the state, of their failures in that first week. And it should be remembered.”
Warren Easton, which Bush visited in 2006, on the first anniversary of the flood, was the first public high school in Louisiana when it opened in 1843. Bush was joined there Friday by his wife, Laura, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Blanco, Honoré, and others.
Outside the school, one man held up a placard with a well-known photograph of Bush, days after the storm, gazing out an airplane window at the wrecked city — an image Bush later said he came to regret.
Below the picture, the man had written, “You’re Early — Come Back In a Week.”
Ha-ha-ha!
That is funny because it's true.
But the former president’s visit got a warmer response from some unexpected quarters.
“I think it’s wonderful,” said former senator Mary L. Landrieu, a Democrat and the mayor’s sister, who joined Bush at the school and praised him for supporting New Orleans’ education overhaul.
I can see why she is no longer your senator.
Blanco, a Democrat, joined Bush and the city’s mayor at the time, Ray Nagin, as the subjects of intense criticism in Katrina’s aftermath. On Friday, she recalled those early days, when Bush’s senior adviser, Karl Rove, falsely accused her of not having signed a disaster declaration before the storm’s landfall, and when the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the time, Michael Brown, promised buses that did not arrive.
But Blanco said she did not hold that against Bush personally.
“I always thought his heart was in it,” she said. “But I didn’t think he was well served by the people around him.”
Actually, it really wasn't. Otherwise, the response would have been much better.
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And the brother would have handled it been even better.
Related: In New Orleans, blacks, whites differ on Katrina recovery
At least the "new guy" is better:
"Obama praises New Orleans for city’s resilience; Reflects on rebirth after Katrina; says inequities remain" by Darlene Superville and Nancy Benac Associated Press August 28, 2015
NEW ORLEANS — Obama held out the people of New Orleans on Thursday as an extraordinary example of renewal and resilience 10 years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
It's the same guy(?).
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Still, Obama was clearly energized by his visits, at one point breaking into a song from ‘‘The Jeffersons’’ sitcom after meeting a young woman who calls herself ‘‘Ouisie.’’ He stopped for fried chicken at Willie Mae’s Scotch House, and pronounced the resulting grease stain on his suit a good indication that he’d enjoyed his stay in the city.
(Blog editor shakes his head in dejected astonishment)
He held out the community center as ‘‘an example of what is possible when, in the face of tragedy and in the face of hardship, good people come together to lend a hand and, brick by brick, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, you build a better future.’’
‘‘And that more than any other reason is why I’ve come back here today,’’ he said.
And because it's a good political and public relations move.
Katrina’s powerful winds and driving rain bore down on Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005. The storm caused major damage to the Gulf Coast from Texas to central Florida while powering a storm surge that breached the system of levees meant to protect New Orleans from flooding.
Nearly 2,000 people died, most in New Orleans.
Oh, gee, that is the FIRST MENTION of DEAD PEOPLE!!
Video of residents seeking refuge dominated news coverage as Katrina came to symbolize government failure at many levels.
Like police randomly shooting people (they f***ed up that trial, huh? Seems to be a theme).
Also see: No retrial for N.C. officer in killing
Related: North Carolina Cop Goes on Trial
That sure was brief.
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Of course, we had something called the Gulf Gusher on his watch.
Okay, folks, party's over:
"Louisiana trooper shot by man during traffic stop dies; Motorists subdue suspect; another man found dead" by Alan Blinder New York Times August 25, 2015
NEW YORK — A Louisiana state trooper died Monday after being shot in the head a day earlier when he stopped to help a stranded driver in the southwest part of the state. Passing motorists helped to capture the suspected gunman, who is facing a murder charge.
The State Police superintendent, Colonel Michael D. Edmonson, described Senior Trooper Steven J. Vincent’s death as “senseless and tragic.”
“Steven was proud to serve as a Louisiana state trooper, and we were proud to count him among our ranks,” Edmonson said in a statement on the State Police’s Facebook page. “This loss exacts an enormous emotional toll on the State Police family, but we will do what is necessary and proper to honor Steven and support those who knew and loved him.”
Related: Cops Lives Matter More
It really is true.
Authorities said they would charge Kevin Daigle, 54, of Moss Bluff with first-degree murder in the trooper’s slaying. He was under arrest at a hospital, where he was being treated for scrapes and other injuries sustained while the other motorists subdued him.
Daigle is also suspected in the killing of his roommate, who was found dead Monday, the Associated Press reported, citing a sheriff.
Vincent, who died at a hospital in Lake Charles, was the 28th member of the Louisiana State Police to die in the line of duty, the first since 2011.
The State Police said Vincent, 43, was wounded Sunday afternoon after he stopped to investigate a pickup truck that was in a ditch in Calcasieu Parish, which borders Texas, and that had been reported for possible drunken driving.
Edmonson said that the shooting was recorded on video and that Vincent had offered to help Daigle, before the driver opened fire with a sawed-off shotgun....
The look was “pure evil” -- same as this one (or is it love?).
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"New Orleans has framed the 10th anniversary as a showcase designed to demonstrate to the world how far a city that some questioned rebuilding has come. Many parts of the iconic city have rebounded phenomenally, while many residents — particularly in the black community — still struggle. Once a bastion of black homeownership, it still hasn’t regained anywhere near its pre-Katrina population. But a day of events illustrated how attached the residents are to their community. After the speeches, a parade snaked through the neighborhood while music played from boomboxes and people sold water from ice chests under the hot sun."
How special.
