Campbellodeon

 

Why do people assume that the elevator they are waiting on is empty?

 

I don’t how many times I ride down on an elevator only to be almost tackled by someone with their head down who is visually surprised by the fact that there are people coming off the elevator.

 

Do people think that if they call for an elevator by themselves, then the elevator is naturally or magically going to be empty?

 

Simply amazing.

 

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If you don’t have his feed in bloglines or you don’t read his site regularly, jwz is providing some excellent coverage of Hurricane Katrina.  The stories are off the beaten internet superhighway, but no less insightful or horrifying.  One of his recent posts contains a link to a story that gives some inside accounts of the meetings between Ray Nagin, Gov. Blanco, and President Bush in the days after the hurricane.

 

My interpretation:

Ray Nagin represented the people of New Orleans perfectly by believing that they were invincible.  For all the problems with the local disaster recovery effort, at least Mayor Nagin eventually accepted the fact that anything and everything had to be done for his city.

 

Gov. Blanco doesn’t appear to have ever shed her political skin.  She did not want to relinquish her control over the situation in Louisiana to the federal government after President Bush offered to take it over - an idea that Mayor Nagin supported.

 

Unfortunately, I believe that almost everyone who has stood behind a microphone and spoken on national television since the day before the hurricane hit are nearing the end of their political careers.  I just don’t see how anyone of these people can be trusted to continue in any political office.  Fortunately (I guess) for President Bush, his term will be over and it will be left up to historians to debate his administration versus the magnitude of events that occurred during his watch.

 

Who will possibly benefit:

 - The Governor of Texas: for very publicly making his state available to evacuees

 - The Coast Guard commander who has taken over operation of the relief effort

 - Opponents of the Department of Homeland Security

 

And perhaps the most terrifying group to benefit from this are the terrorist cells across the nation and world.  Call it the ultimate scouting report on preparedness.