From Politico.com:
[ Storm could swamp GOP convention
By: Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin
August 27, 2008 07:35 PM EST
Planners of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul held emergency conversations Wednesday about what to do if a tropical storm continues on its track as a potential Category 3 hurricane threatening NewOrleans.
Gustav’s projected path suggests possible landfall on the convention’sopening day — Labor Day.
The storm could threaten everything from President Bush’s Monday night address to the broader Republican message of effective governmentmanagement. Local officials fear a Katrina II — a rerun of the storm that ravished New Orleans and badly damaged Bush’s image. The liberal group Progressive Accountability planned to try to embarrass Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Friday for his response to the Katrina strike, claiming his was the 40th senator to visit New Orleans afterwards.
“We will be making sure everyone knows it is not just Bush who has a Katrina problem,” said the group’s Eddie Vale. “McCain was eating birthday cake with Bush after the levees broke. And then he voted against oversight, against medicaid for victims, and against unemployment benefits for victims.”
Government forecasters said the target area runs from south Texas tothe Florida Panhandle — including the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts devastated by Katrina. The president, Laura Bush and Vice President Cheney are all scheduled to speak Monday on the convention’s opening day. Friday is the third anniversary of Katrina’s landfall.
The sloppy government response still haunts the Bush administration, raising questions about whether the president would address a political gathering if the Southeast coast was being battered by another monster storm. The president is scheduled to fly into St. Paul on Monday, speak at the Xcel Energy Center at 9:40 p.m. Central time, then fly home to spend the night at Camp David.
Spokespeople for the organizations involved in convention planning said they were not ready to comment. “Stay tuned,” e-mailed an official involved in the conversations. ]
Don't you love what they are all worried about re Hurricane Gustav:
"The storm could threaten everything from President Bush’s Monday night address to the broader Republican message of effective government management."
What about the people, the city, the region, the nation? But no, we are worried about the political CON.
Last night Clinton mentioned New Orleans -- the first mention I've heard during the demCON; he referred to the regime's response as "Katrina cronyism." Friends in New Orleans are outraged at how Gustav is what put the levees' catastrophe and New Orleans in play at either CON -- and as a political manuevering, not humanitarian concern.
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4 comments:
One wonders if Obama will talk about Katrina and the Gulf tonight. And how he will do it. It's kind of tricky. How do you show honest compassion and outrage in this context without being a politico cynically using this terrible thing as a political manuever?
Vaquero and I realized today that neither of us has ever gotten past that alienation we felt from our city -- NYC -- and the rest of the country as a whole, during those weeks and months post the levees' failure. Everyone else so blithely went about without noticing that an essential city of our nation had been destroyed, and been left alone to drown and deal with the aftermaths. We'd go outside in the beautiful end-of-summer sunshine and blue skies -- so exactly like the 9/11 era -- and there were all those chattering eurotrashes and other tourists, blocking our right-of-way on the sidewalk with their laden bags of expensive junk, drinking wine and coffee and eating butter-laden meals from a restaurant that used to be excellent until the tourist traffic simply overwhelmed them.
It feels that way again. Nobody is really noticing what may happen again. Or at least doesn't care.
The rest of the country has swallowed whole the meme that the entire region is that mythical being, the Welfare Queen. I know my sister, who lives in a suburb of Denver, believes it. Nothing I can say will change her mind. Doesn't matter that I've lived there, know enormous numbers of people who live there. When so many friends and strangers (including so many in the sf/f community) contributed funds to help out some of the people we know post the disaster, my sister refused.
Of course, it hasn't helped Nagin any or New Orleans, that video clips of him partying it up in Denver last night are being shown everywhere, instead of him being at home and -- well, working?
Are there any politicians who haven't let down and betrayed New Orleans and her people?
Love, C.
When Vaquero interviewed Nagin a year plus ago for Vibe, he got the impression the mayor had been handed an impossible game with no cards to play. He came away with a positive feeling about Nagin and certainly about his staff. This, in spite of all our friends of whatever political viewpoint, whatever shade of skin, of whatever background, whether professor, musician or restaurant worker -- thought Nagin was an ass. But Nagin didn't manage to confirm that initial sense, has he.
Love, C.
I'll be at the demonstration outside the RNC on the first day. That is what seems for sure, the largest and most legal event outside the convention.
I didn't hear of any plans to cancel.
If you do a very quick google, you will find the story that the reThugs are considering postponing their CON in all the papers, etc., including the L.A. Times and the Washington Post.
Love, C.
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