Don't you know me, I'm your native son

[cyrano]

Drivingblind posted this link to a column by Teresa Nielsen Hayden. I hope it's wrong. Or at least overstated--maybe these people exaggerated because they were in the middle of the situation and were emotionally excited when they wrote it. Or maybe the situation was horrifically mismanaged from before the start and the governors are more concerned with CYA than with the governed.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006754.html

EDIT: Thanks to IrisMoonlight, here is the original account.
Yeah, I'm sad that 'socialist' seems like such an awful word to TNH, too.

Comments

[jendaviswilson.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the post. I've been following up, and found many different corroborating reports, including some footage from Geraldo that shows just how horrible things were, Geraldo-hamming or not.

I'm still amazed that people were not allowed to leave on foot and were kept in the Superdome and convention center for days, when in the same amount of time they could have reached help, food, water, and electricity on their own.

God, I'm getting so pissed off! How the hell could this happen?

[mnarra.livejournal.com]

I'm scared. My brother is there with the National Guard. He's too tough to back down if he's asked to do something wrong, and too foolish to think about whether he'll be shot for it.

That sounds melodramatic, but there's //something// going on in NO, and the government is the only thing big enough to make this happen. I'm not normally a "secret conspiracy" sort of guy, but this :waves hands over keyboard wordlessly:

This seems like a Nazi WWII experiment. "Let's pile a bunch o' niggahs together without no food and watuh, and watch how long it takes fo' 'em to turn back to savages." I want a different explanation, but incompetence just doesn't cut it.

Prejudice? "Let the niggahs die"?

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

So, highly co-ordinated incompetence?

[mnarra.livejournal.com]

It doesn't read. Incompetent fucks in high places get there by learning to CYA. It is not conceivable that this many people could believe they could trap refugees in these conditions on national media...and still Cover Their Ass.

Which leaves me with nothing but X-Files and Jihads.

[tnalpgge.livejournal.com]

I'm not normally a "secret conspiracy" sort of guy, but this :waves hands over keyboard wordlessly:

Words you may consider here:

• Mishegoss - craziness


• Narishkayt - foolishness


• Schmutz - dirt


• Shande - shame


• Tsimmes - fuss


• Tsoris - suffering

Sometimes English just doesn't cut it.

I had a term I used to describe how the phone company would screw up our phone/DSL wiring in my previous residence: malicious negligence. Prejudice? Definitely. But I'll not fly off the handle here about what this president and his administration appear to think of the poor -- I've used up enough of your precious margin-space already.

[mnarra.livejournal.com]

Good words, all, but...the magnitude of this, and the thorough fashion in which it is pursued. That's what stuns me.