Hurricane Katrina: Scapegoating the White Guy
Jim Kouri, CPP
September 09, 2005
I don't know if FEMA's Mike Brown is just another incompetent bureaucrat or the monster he's being portrayed in the news media. It just seems to me that he's being singled out for immense news coverage because he's a safe target. Mike Brown is a white guy.
Governor Blanco, a woman and minority, is obviously an inept--perhaps dangerously inept--Louisiana leader. Her missteps before, during and after this disaster in New Orleans may arguably have cost lives. Also, the mayor of New Orleans, an African-American, looked more panic-stricken than some of the evacuees. He's obviously ill-prepared for a leadership role. And yet, he too is getting a pass. I'm not even going to discuss the lack of leadership on the part of the NOPD chief, who is by the way an African-American. These local officials seem to be of no interest to the mainstream news media.
When Senator Hillary Clinton made the rounds of the network morning shows, she proposed that a special commission investigate FEMA and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Not once did she mention an investigation was needed in order to review the actions of the Louisiana governor (a Democrat, by the way) or the New Orleans mayor (surprise! another Democrat). Nor did those intellectual giants of the mainstream news media ask Senator Clinton if the proposed commission should broaden it's scope to include state and local officials within the disaster zone.
And what happened to the millions of taxpayer dollars poured into reinforcing the New Orleans levees and the additional millions of taxpayer dollars poured into Louisiana for homeland security? The levees certainly weren't functioning properly. Nor were the first-responders, although I don't blame them. They depended on leadership that just did not exist. Where did the homeland security money go?
Talk radio, internet news services and the bloggers are all revealing the incompetence of Louisiana officials including the fact that they turned away Red Cross trucks enroute to the Superdrome and the convention center. The trucks contained food and water, but the Red Cross people say they were told not to make a delivery to two key locations because the Louisiana officials did not want evacuees to remain in those areas of New Orleans.
Another story uncovered by citizen-journalists is the fact that Governor Blanco refused to turn over command and control to the federal government when President Bush telephoned her. Governor Blanco argued -- and rightly so -- that she was the governor of Louisiana and therefore should be in complete control during the emergency. It wasn't until this empty-suit fell flat on her face that she decided to complain about the federal response and the Bush Administration. And why not? Heck, the mainstream media already hates the President. They are more than willing to denigrate the President. They even tried doing it with forged documents. Why not give them the opportunity to bring down Bush's poll numbers again? And the Democrat Party is always more than willing to slam Bush, his subordinates and his actions.
During President Bush's stay in the Oval Office, many of his staff have been the focus of vitriolic calls for their firing or resignation. Rumsfeld and Rove are the most recent. In fact, the intellectual giants in the Democrat Party went to the Library of Congress to research documents to see if there was some way to impeach Karl Rove during the invented scandal that he disclosed the name of an undercover CIA agent. Any first-year law student knows -- or should know -- that only presidents, vice presidents and judges are impeached. You don't impeach a President's chief of staff. Chief of Staff isn't even mentioned in the US Constitution. This constitutional fact escapes the Democrats and their propaganda tool, the mainstream media. Afterall, absence of knowledge usually occurs when hatred outweighs intellect.
Now President Bush's detractors want Mike Browns head on a platter. While news reporters delve into every aspect of Brown's past, we know almost nothing about Louisiana's governor or New Orleans' mayor. The other day, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the plastic surgeon's best friend, peered into the camera's (I think she was peering or perhaps it was just her latest facelift that caused it to look that way) and questioned Mike Brown's qualifications, but not once did she question the qualifications of local officials in-charge during the Katrina disaster.
I don't know if Mike Brown is guilty or not guilty of official missteps or misconduct or even gross negligence. Only the future will tell. What appears most suspicious is that the mainstream news media chose a white male to throw to the wolves, while overlooking the gross incompetence of a female governor and a black mayor. When I see and hear such things occur my "political-correctness alarm" goes off. It fits right into the conventional wisdom in our nation's newsrooms: White men are evil, woman and minorities are good. A simple mindset for the news media's simple minds.
Governor Blanco, a woman and minority, is obviously an inept--perhaps dangerously inept--Louisiana leader. Her missteps before, during and after this disaster in New Orleans may arguably have cost lives. Also, the mayor of New Orleans, an African-American, looked more panic-stricken than some of the evacuees. He's obviously ill-prepared for a leadership role. And yet, he too is getting a pass. I'm not even going to discuss the lack of leadership on the part of the NOPD chief, who is by the way an African-American. These local officials seem to be of no interest to the mainstream news media.
When Senator Hillary Clinton made the rounds of the network morning shows, she proposed that a special commission investigate FEMA and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Not once did she mention an investigation was needed in order to review the actions of the Louisiana governor (a Democrat, by the way) or the New Orleans mayor (surprise! another Democrat). Nor did those intellectual giants of the mainstream news media ask Senator Clinton if the proposed commission should broaden it's scope to include state and local officials within the disaster zone.
And what happened to the millions of taxpayer dollars poured into reinforcing the New Orleans levees and the additional millions of taxpayer dollars poured into Louisiana for homeland security? The levees certainly weren't functioning properly. Nor were the first-responders, although I don't blame them. They depended on leadership that just did not exist. Where did the homeland security money go?
Talk radio, internet news services and the bloggers are all revealing the incompetence of Louisiana officials including the fact that they turned away Red Cross trucks enroute to the Superdrome and the convention center. The trucks contained food and water, but the Red Cross people say they were told not to make a delivery to two key locations because the Louisiana officials did not want evacuees to remain in those areas of New Orleans.
Another story uncovered by citizen-journalists is the fact that Governor Blanco refused to turn over command and control to the federal government when President Bush telephoned her. Governor Blanco argued -- and rightly so -- that she was the governor of Louisiana and therefore should be in complete control during the emergency. It wasn't until this empty-suit fell flat on her face that she decided to complain about the federal response and the Bush Administration. And why not? Heck, the mainstream media already hates the President. They are more than willing to denigrate the President. They even tried doing it with forged documents. Why not give them the opportunity to bring down Bush's poll numbers again? And the Democrat Party is always more than willing to slam Bush, his subordinates and his actions.
During President Bush's stay in the Oval Office, many of his staff have been the focus of vitriolic calls for their firing or resignation. Rumsfeld and Rove are the most recent. In fact, the intellectual giants in the Democrat Party went to the Library of Congress to research documents to see if there was some way to impeach Karl Rove during the invented scandal that he disclosed the name of an undercover CIA agent. Any first-year law student knows -- or should know -- that only presidents, vice presidents and judges are impeached. You don't impeach a President's chief of staff. Chief of Staff isn't even mentioned in the US Constitution. This constitutional fact escapes the Democrats and their propaganda tool, the mainstream media. Afterall, absence of knowledge usually occurs when hatred outweighs intellect.
Now President Bush's detractors want Mike Browns head on a platter. While news reporters delve into every aspect of Brown's past, we know almost nothing about Louisiana's governor or New Orleans' mayor. The other day, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the plastic surgeon's best friend, peered into the camera's (I think she was peering or perhaps it was just her latest facelift that caused it to look that way) and questioned Mike Brown's qualifications, but not once did she question the qualifications of local officials in-charge during the Katrina disaster.
I don't know if Mike Brown is guilty or not guilty of official missteps or misconduct or even gross negligence. Only the future will tell. What appears most suspicious is that the mainstream news media chose a white male to throw to the wolves, while overlooking the gross incompetence of a female governor and a black mayor. When I see and hear such things occur my "political-correctness alarm" goes off. It fits right into the conventional wisdom in our nation's newsrooms: White men are evil, woman and minorities are good. A simple mindset for the news media's simple minds.
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