In keeping with our commemoration of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, here s :
: A day earlier, the name Katrina had conjured whimsical images of a Gaelic ballad or a Vegas cocktail waitress. A close friend of mine, in fact, was named Katrina. There was no menace in the echo.
Perhaps if the storm had been named Genghis Khan or Attila the Hun or Caligula, I would have fled. But now, as the raging Mississippi frothed with primal madness, gushing around Algiers Bend, ripping open the huge riverfront warehouses where Mardi Gras floats were stored, it was clear that Katrina was no mere hurricane or flood. It was destined to be known as the Great Deluge in the annals of American history.
in their archives, speaking of gathering the oral histories that helped make up The Great Deluge. is still collecting oral histories of Katrina survivors.
As someone with a background in the visual arts, I ve always been fascinated with the implicit stories being conveyed behind photo choice in the print media.
It s a little bit of psychology, a little propaganda, and a little marketing rolled into one. It can make or break whether you buy the story. A year or so ago, I stumbled across what has now become one of the my favorite sites: .
At BAGnewsNotes, print photos are dissected and analyzed and often, the underlying thrust of stories are uncovered for what they are.
Last year, photographer Alan Chin went to the Gulf Coast and brought back images shared on BAGNewsNotes that were stunning in their unflinching yet compassionate look at the victims and the damage of Hurricane Katrina.
You can see the entire photo essay .
Alan s work is simply amazing. Many more images to be found .
(Originally posted on 12/28/05) Historian , appeared on and hit the President hard over his apparent abandoning of the people and the region that has been decimated by Hurricane Katrina.
The residents are fuming down there because the politicians that talked tough after being embarrassed by the initial response and have since not followed up to help the region. In order for confidence to return to the area-the levees must be repaired first and foremost.
When you look at presidents, a Theodore Roosevelt or a Harry Truman or a Ronald Reagan, the great American presidents would not let a region die and suffer.
They would have seen this as the bell ringing. This would be the moment that would define their presidency, and it is not too late for President Bush to do that. But he gave a very powerful speech in Jackson Square.
The blue lights were behind him, and, if you read that speech, it was wonderful.
But the reality is, the speech is mdash;was phony.
Cooper: ldquo;Does the federal government bear any responsibility for what is happening, should they apologize for what is happening now?
rdquo;
Landrieu put on a happy face and thanked all the wonderful politicians for showing their support. I mean WTF? Everyone is worried about their own asses and doing little if anything for the people on the ground.
has the transcripts.
: ldquo;He laced into Sen. Mary Landrieu saying people who have witnessed the devastation don rsquo;t want to hear politicans congratulating other politicians for how they rsquo;ve responded.
, ldquo;Don rsquo;t you get it yet? rdquo; He mentioned seeing a woman rsquo;s body on the ground being eaten by rats. Landrieu told Anderson she understood what he was saying and then thanked the President again .
rdquo;
: Cooper Rocks: ldquo;Cooper has been down in the middle of the devastation on the Gulf Coast since the beginning of the week. Today, he apparently hit his breaking point hellip; ldquo;
: Cooper rsquo;s 360 Roundhouse: Do not get the pretty boys mad: Mary Landrieu goes on about how great Bill Frist is. Anderson Cooper responds that it rsquo;s hard to take politicians thanking each other when rats are gnawing dead bodies in the streets hellip;
Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera were livid about the situation in NOLA as they appeared on H C.
When Hannity tried his usual spin job and said ldquo;let rsquo;s get this in perspective, rdquo; Smith chopped him off at the knees and started yelling at him saying, ldquo;This is perspective! rdquo; It was shocking.
Geraldo who I rsquo;m no fan of was crying, holding a little child up to demonstrate the extremely inhumane conditions these people are forced to live under.
Forced is the right word because they are locked in the dome by our government and can rsquo;t leave. Troops are guarding the bridge.
This goes beyond political lines and it rsquo;s as sad a situation as I rsquo;ve seen.
Let rsquo;s see all the happy politicians slap themselves on their backs after viewing this segment.
has more: This was some amazing TV. Kudos to Shep Smith and Geraldo for not letting O rsquo;Reilly and Hannity spin their GOP ldquo;resolve rdquo; apologia bullshit.
I rsquo;m fairly shocked hellip;.
: I rsquo;ve never seen anything as harrowing as Fox News rsquo; Geraldo Rivera and Shepard Smith on Hannity and Colmes. While Aaron Brown on CNN said we have ldquo;turned the corner rdquo; on CNN, it rsquo;s clearly not the truth hellip;.
(originally posted on 9/02/05) During the , Kanye West and Mike Myers were celebrity narrators during the segment, West said: (rush transcript)
ldquo;I hate the way they portray us in the media. ldquo;If you see a black family it says they are looting if you see a white family it says they are looking for food.
ldquo;We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war now fighting another way and they rsquo;ve given them permission to go down and shoot us.
rdquo;
ldquo;George Bush doesn rsquo;t care about black people. rdquo;
grilled Chertoff over the absolute failure of his department in combating the Hurricane Katrina disaster. (Originally posted 9-4-05)
has: hellip; rdquo;Well, I think if you look at what actually happened, I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, ldquo;New Orleans Dodged the Bullet.
rdquo; Because if you recall, the storm moved to the east and then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing worse. rdquo;
Russert exposed the lies that have been coming from the administration for their lack of response to Katrina. DON rsquo;T tell me that the government gets all its intelligence from the media?
points out when they actually knew, besides since they apparently do get their intel from the media, then they would have seen what we all saw. Transcripts and more video at the website.
(Originally posted 9/1/05) David Shuster interviewed Robert, an auto mechanic in Biloxi and asked him to comment on President Bush rsquo;s speech.
(video contains some of Bush s speech and a report by David Shuster on the situation in Ms.)
Robert: President Bush don t need be the president no more. President Bush ain rsquo;t doing his job.
I m out here starving, hungry, starving I finally got me a bottle of water It ain t looting, it s surviving
He also said that the police are hoarding gasoline. The desperation is overwhelming.
You know it rsquo;s bad for President Bush when NRO rsquo;s entire staff is bagging on him.
has all the quotes.
Ted Koppel interviewed Michael Brown, head of FEMA on . He had no interest in the spin, and began at least five questions with ldquo;With all due respect Mr Brown, but hellip; rdquo;
Ted: We rsquo;ve been reporting on the crisis at the Convention Center for a lot longer than just today, but you say that you only heard about it today?
rdquo;
Koppel: I ve heard you say during the course of a number of interviews that you found out about the convention center today. Don t you guys watch television? Don t you guys listen to the radio?
Our reporters have been reporting on it for more than just today.
He s been doing the talk show circuit since he has apologized and says that he really feels bad about reciting BushCo s talking points on all the shows during Hurricane Katrina while people were suffering. This is what he said :
BROWN: The lie was that we were working as a team and that everything was working smoothly.
And how we could go out, and I beat myself up almost daily for allowing this to have happened, to sit there and go on television and talk about how things are working well, when you know they are not behind the scenes, is just wrong.
O lsquo;DONNELL: So let me get this clear. Someone in the White House was telling you to lie?
BROWN: Well, yes. They give you the talking points. Whenever you go out to do any interviews they always have the talking points.
Here lsquo;s what the message for today is and here lsquo;s how we are going to spin everything. That lsquo;s just the way Washington, D.C.
works and that lsquo;s just wrong.
Well, you ll see some of his work when I post the video of those performances and you be the judge. We have short memories and while we are a forgiving people at heart his behavior back then was reprehensible.
If you take him at his word then instead of telling the truth and possibly quitting he chose to lie. And it shows how low this administration will go at trying to deceive our country in a time of crisis. This administration isn t the only one culpable for the disaster, but it certainly was a big part of it and they had people lie to cover their shortcomings.
Update: Anderson really started to take charge in his coverage and got very emotional from this point on. It s a small clip, but begins to show the devastation and lack of response to Katrina.
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