Spin can be a powerful force, as can journalistic stupidity and the willful suspension of disbelief. But reality has a few tricks up its sleeve, too.
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September 5, 2005
WB: The Power of Spin
Comments
Tinfoil warning?
New Orleans mayor fears CIA to take him out
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who cuts a fine media figure these days thinks he might be a target for elimination because of the choice words he has had for George Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
Hey, so what if it’s from World Net Daily? It’s a great story.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 5 2005 3:08 utc | 1
Honestly, I can see why they would be happy if 46% say they approved. I’m very surprised it is over 33. Where did they find a sample in which nearly half said this is going OK?
Posted by: Laszlo Panaflex | Sep 5 2005 4:08 utc | 3
Billmon, it looks like your guess about Bush’s falling numbers is right. Check out these numbers from Survey USA’s daily tracking poll, courtesy of Daily Kos, which is calling it a “freefall.” Combined with the NY Times story on Monday of the Rove-led political counterattack, it is obvious that the WH internal polling is also trending very negative for the Cheney administration. Can the freefall be stopped?
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SurveyUSA. Daily tracking poll. 1,200 respondents each day.
Thinking just about the President of the United States … Do you approve or disapprove of President Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina?
9/4 9/3 9/2 9/1 8/31
Approve 38 41 40 46 48
Disapprove 55 53 53 44 39
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Posted by: yearzero | Sep 5 2005 4:09 utc | 4
Rep. Wexler urged Bush to fire Michael Brown as FEMA head in January
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla) has urged President Bush to fire Michael Brown as undersecretary of the Homeland Security Department in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Wexler cited reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that FEMA under Brown’s management inappropriately gave away $30 million in disaster relief funds to people in the Miami, Florida, area even though they were not affected by Hurricane Frances, which made landfall more than 100 miles away…read on”
Foreshadowing!
10:40:28 AM postCount(‘4751’); Comments (34)Comments permalink
Keeping up with Jewish officeholders
Fire Michael Brown as FEMA head, Rep. Wexler urges President Bush
jewishsightseeing.com, Jan. 26, 2005
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla) has urged President Bush to fire Michael Brown as undersecretary of the Homeland Security Department in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Wexler cited reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that FEMA under Brown’s management inappropriately gave away $30 million in disaster relief funds to people in the Miami, Florida, area even though they were not affected by Hurricane Frances, which made landfall more than 100 miles away.
In his letter to Bush, Wexler wrote: “According to several news accounts by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, ‘FEMA has written checks to cover new wardrobes, cars, lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, furniture and thousands of televisions, microwave ovens, stoves, air conditioners and other appliances.’ In addition, the Sun-Sentinel cites that FEMA paid $4,500 for one resident s funeral, even though the county medical examiner recorded no storm-related deaths. Another Sun-Sentinel article stated that two residents received aid for ‘dental treatments due to dental injuries received during the disaster.’ In six other cases, FEMA reimbursed residents for damage caused by ‘ice/snow.'”
In a Jan. 24 news release, Wexler added: “On Monday, January 11, FEMA held a news conference acknowledging that they made $12 million in overpayments to 3,500 individuals blaming these overpayments on a ‘computer glitch.’ FEMA, however, continues to deny additional systematic problems and cites the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to prove that there were legitimate hurricane conditions in Miami-Dade. Yet, according to the Sun-Sentinel, NOAA has refuted the weather maps FEMA claims to
have obtained from them. As the head of FEMA, Under Secretary Brown oversees federal disaster response and recovery operations, and it is negligent of him to refuse to accept responsibility for its agency mistakes.”
Rather than taking responsibility for FEMA s mishaps and moving expeditiously to correct the
problems, Under Secretary Brown has further undermined his agency s reputation by stymied
investigations and inquiries into fraud allegations,” Wexler added. “FEMA s massive misallocation of recovery aid is a gross waste of taxpayer monies, which must be immediately addressed by the Bush Administration, Wexler said. Donald H. Harrison
Posted by: Michael D. Adams | Sep 5 2005 4:10 utc | 5
Santo George el Dragón Mago Grande
To paraphrase someone, “Everything changed after Katrina”. Not for all the tin-hats and bloggers,
morphing a cynically angry (and therefore cold) point of view over Iraq, into a flaming mad-dog retching peach-pits rage (least, I hope it did).
But for those Rovian RNC spin’ster marketing meisters, well, oh frabjous day, kaloo, kalaa! Their $400B poker game in Iraq had just about crapped out, and now comes a Katrina god-send.
See “Rebuilding America for the Future”, with Chairman Bush boldly looking off stage right, while a FEMA Army of no-doubt outsourced H-1B laborers work frenetically in the background, raising Neo Orleans up from the ashes of an
evil conspiracy: Unavoidable Natural Disaster!
“You are either with Neo Orleans, or you are
against US!” the billboards will cry out from
every corner of our nation. Like 9/11, but oh,
god, the visuals are so much more compelling!
Moses parting 27th Street Canal compelling!
George Bush, sitting tall astride his white
charger, Champion, leaning down out of the
saddle to kiss attractive young black women
(no doubt bussed in by the Young Republicans),
as the gleaming, somewhat Atlantean, City of
Neo Orleans rises in a carefully framed scene.
God, Louis B. DeMille would kill for a script
like this! Oh sure, there were some errors back
in the beginning, and everything takes time. It
was unavoidable suffering caused by a terrible unavoidable natural disaster. But now Der George is showing his true mettle, his natural swagger as a real leader. Der George is in charge!
Thrusting left and right, shining white hard-
hat tilted jauntily on his greying skull, the
Architect of Tomorrow will point the way to
a Utopian Future for the American Homeland.
Neo Orleans, the emerald in his 2008 crown.
In fewer words? The 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Fewer? “Olympia” — Home of the Gods!
For the “refugees”? Silence and invisibility,
the calm, serenely cold surface of the North Atlantic, as the Titanic plunges to its grave,
one or two plucked from the water, dusted off, given a new home and a State job, for show.
And for US? Another $400,000,000,000 deficit,
another three years of mad bank pour-the-gas
on the housing industry and the stock market,
until by June 2008, America trigger-point 2000.
Then you’ll really vote the Neo’s … or die.
!!Viva la Santo George, Asesino de Huracanes!!
Posted by: tante aime | Sep 5 2005 4:38 utc | 6
speaking of bush’s falling poll numbers – i put together a post looking at the damage that Putin suffered in 2000 when he was on holidays when the kursk submarine sank.
the similarities are striking.
You have not SEEN what reality has in store. Here it comes, you may want to brace yourselves.
Posted by: jay boilswater | Sep 5 2005 5:57 utc | 8
In all defense of Broder? The NYTimes columnists managed to be on the ball in their Sunday pieces. I consider(ed) WaPo far more of a “paper of record” than their upcoast rival, and Broder has no excuses, IMHO.
Posted by: Matt Langer | Sep 5 2005 6:20 utc | 9
They did this poll Friday night. Anything happen on Friday?
Oh yeah – Bush did his big photo-op visit to the disaster areas, and the first real aid convoy arrived. If you’re Karl Rove, Friday night is the perfect time to conduct a poll on Bush’s response to Katrina.
Bet the results would have looked completely different if they’d taken the poll Thursday, or even waited until yesterday or today.
Posted by: RT | Sep 5 2005 18:28 utc | 10
I’m not so enamo(u)red of Billmon’s prediction on this one.
I think they waited for the thing to hit bottom and will now fight back tooth and nail.
Not to do anything of substance mind you. Instead, they will next break out the legions of zirconian-encrusted power grinders and do their very best to turn every last kernal of truth to dust and then rebuild the image from the hugging-ground on up.
______
And in case you were wondering what the leader of the Cheney Administration was up to these days….
Apparently, he is turning all attention towards a tragedy that has suddenly become Tragically (caution whor-o-rama) Hip as evidenced by the fact that he has just cancelled a trip to come up North in advance of the annexation of our oil sands (rama-lama ding-dong #2).
.