The depths of the ‘Bubble Boy’ phenomemon

September 4, 2005

Kevin Drum, citing Laura Rozen, pointed yesterday to a potentially stunning observation.

There was a striking discrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV.

ZDF News reported that the president’s visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of ‘news people’ had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.

The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF. (emphasis added)

From time to time we’ll marvel at this White House’s fondness for stagecraft, but don’t laugh this off as just another “Bubble Boy” problem. As Kevin said, “This goes beyond stage management. This is criminal.”

It’s not just overseas journalists who’ve raised the concern. Mark Kleiman noted that Mary Landrieu is also suggesting that relief efforts are being manipulated for presidential public-relations purposes.

[P]erhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast — black and white, rich and poor, young and old — deserve far better from their national government. (emphasis added)

Marshal Whitman asked the other day, probably in jest, whether “criminal incompetence should constitute grounds for impeachment.” It’s not an entirely unreasonable question to ask at this point. At a minimum, if the president, in the midst of the worst national disaster in American history, orchestrated publicity stunts in which crises were dealt with only temporarily for the cameras’ benefit, then the resignation of a whole lot of Bush aides will be absolutely necessary.

September 4, 2005 at 11:49 am

This a really important issue. Others were also asking why emergency equipment was being used as a backdrop for Bush’s news spots. This admistration has all the reality of a 700 Club stage set.

Can we survive 3 more Bush vacations?

You can put this story on the front page of every newspaper in the U.S. and still 50% will not believe it. They have their followers 100% behind then NO MATTER WHAT.

Cuba, North Korea, Mexico, Chile, Germany (Hitler), the Soviet Union…all countries where a “Cult of Personality” took over. Countries where cronyism replaced government.

A pretty interesting list to be put on.

It’s “Mission Accomplished”, and “Turkey in Iraq”. Photo ops with Sequoia Trees, photo ops on top of rubble heaps, standing next to Tony Blair, and on the World Stage at the UN General Assembly. Photo ops in factories and hospitals, on farms and on main street.

But you have to ask yourself, what do any of these things have to do with actually running the country?

If Ferdinand Marcos had someone like Karl Rove, and a military command staff willing to eat their training he would have remained President of the Phillipines until the day he died.

Incompetence cannot be criminal. Many of Bush’s other failings, however, can.

Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

Yesterday, Al Gore payed for an American Airlines flight to air lift 100 critical patients from NO while Bush poses for cheesy fake photo ops and discusses the importance of reconstructing Trent Lott’s porch — what a contrast.

Someone has posted a translation of one ZDF-TV report of the staged appearance of the event:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_09/007042.php#693803

“Cleaning only for Bush?

Where US President Bush visited, helptroops cleaned up before he came – but only these places. ZDF-correspondent Claudia Rüggeberg quoted desperate citizens as saying that Bush rather than bringin tall bodyguards and assistents in his Limousine should’ve brought aid items.

Before Bush’s visit, helptroops had cleared debris and corpses at the length of the route. After his visit Bush left, and with him all of the helptroops, according to Rüggesberg. In the place of Biloxi nothing has changed – everything is in short supply.”

The ZDF-TV website is http://www.zdf.de.

just passing on some info, i was directed to Louisiana VOAD at 225 925 7377 by someone at the witt & associates group for volunteer information. i hadnt gotten anything but an auto-reply from my calls to the red cross and habitat for humanity. just fyi.

here, also, is detailed info on the ZDF report:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/4/20824/67561

If true, this is almost beyond comprehension.

If true, and Bush is not made to answer to this, then we know that “The Media” has bought into the Bush regime 100%.

This is absolutely shocking, appalling.

And I haven’t heard word one from the MSM.

It is hopeless. The MSM will keep this
sinking ship afloat no matter what.

Nothing is hopeless! That’s the beauty of the ‘net. And a good reason to quit being so glum. ZDF did cover it, and word is getting out, and it won’t be “spun” no matter how hard anyone tries. The MSM is as dead as the dodo; they just don’t know it yet. The blogosphere is where humanity now lives. It has become the “Fourth Estate” of our governing system, the mind and conscience of us all, for us all.

Actually, incompetence CAN be criminal if someone dies because of it… that what negligent homicide laws are for. Neg hom is generally defined as “Unintentional killing(s) in which the actor(s) should have known they were creating substantial and unjustified risks of death by conduct that grossly deviated from ordinary care.” — failure to reinforce the levees; failure to get supplies to trapped residents and troops in to secure the city; failure to ensure that the poor had a practical form of transportation out of the city beforehand (especially in light of the fact that they’d had a dry run with Ivan last year, and numerous studies warning of the likely impact).

Anybody up to counting the dead and charging Bush and several other cronies with several thousand counts of negligent homicide.

“Incompetence cannot be criminal.”

As jay denari says, of course incompetence can be criminal. There may not be the intent to do harm, but when the aformentioned incompetence results in the deaths of thousands of people intent becomes meaningless.

For example, if own a a nuclear reactor that through my own incompetence, or those that work in my employ, goes haywire and kills thousands, you can bet I would be punished for it, whether or not I directly had a role in the accident.

While President Bush did not make Hurricane Katrina, he did remove National Guardsmen from New Orleans that could have cushioned the impact, as well as cutting funds for FEMA, who could have perhaps done more to prevent it.

This administration has been so intent on its imperial ambitions in Iraq that it has deliberately neglected needs at home.

If those are not grounds for impeachment, then I’d imagine that there are few that are.