September 12, 2005

9/12: Things Are Gonna Change

Perhaps because of the 9/11 anniversary and the still-heavy focus on Katrina, discussion of the pending confirmation hearings for Chief Justice nominee John Roberts was scant this weekend. But this is likely to change now that hearings are underway and the MSM is devoting gavel-to-gavel coverage. Of note today is how the blame for Katrina seems to be shifting more towards LA Dems and away from Pres. Bush; also, the dearth of coverage of the 9/11 anniversary by lefty bloggers.

KATRINA RESPONSE: Brown-Out For Dems?

FEMA Dir. Michael Brown's non-dismissal dismissal seems to have diminished somewhat the left's attacks, while LA Dems are still feeling the heat.

>> Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) draws a lot of criticism after her appearance on "Fox News Sunday." The Political Teen has video and says she "as usual dodged questions and committed blatant hypocrisy." Instapundit's Reynolds calls it a "meltdown," saying her comments defending the city's evacuation efforts "seem a bit, um, dubious."

>> A New York Times story documenting LA Gov. Kathleen Blanco's (D) plea for more buses to evacuate city residents convinces no one on the right that it was the fed. gov'ts fault. Just One Minute counters that "Bloggers everywhere have seen the photos" of unused school buses in N.O., but "Somehow, those municipal buses never appear in this Times story."

>> In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jack Kelly's defense of FEMA drives a the push by righty bloggers to point the finger at local officials. Power Line's Paul Mirengoff says that if Kelly's analysis is true, "then the MSM's coverage must rank among the most monumental and (thus far) successful frauds in the history of journalism."

Liberal bloggers aren't conceding anything yet.

>> Newsweek's "How Bush Blew It" drives the left's surge against Bush. MyDD's Scott Shields says that Evan Thomas "paints an absolutely horrifying and infuriating portrait" of Bush and his admin "as completely inept, out of touch, and irresponsible to the point of complete and total negligence. ... While New Orleans drowned, the President was clueless."

>> Re: Brown, Marc Cooper writes: "While he completely and totally failed, he had little power to begin with. So his sacking -- more than anything else -- raises a whole number of other questions." One: "What did Bush mean when he said last week that Brownie was doing 'a heck of a job?' If the White House believes conversely, as it now apparently does, that Brownie was remiss, then what exactly in the administration's view, were his specific failings?"

KATRINA FALLOUT: So That's What They've Been Up To

Liberal Oliver Willis: "The Republicans had big plans for this fall, built around an ownership society fueled agenda (tax cuts for Paris Hilton, social security privatization, etc.) that they thought would cut off war critics and give their guys a slate to run on in '06. Instead, Katrina and the criminal response has given us a choice between two visions of America."

Lefty DemocracyGuy writes under the header "Why Katrina Is Bigger Than Iraq": "At the bare minimum, it shows Republicans out of touch, and from there it just spirals into every single GOP stereotype the GOP has struggled to overcome. ... Katrina reminds voters that Republicans want power not in order to govern, but merely to have the power in their possession, because it is power. Period. Governing is precisely what Katrina required, and governing is precisely what Republicans are incompetent to do and have no interest in doing."

Patrick Ruffini counters: "This feels like 1993 all over again. That was the year we elected Republican mayors who turned around New York and L.A., and the Democrats comically proposed midnight basketball. Center-right ideas should carry a great deal of weight in rebuilding New Orleans because they're the only ones that have worked for big cities in a generation."

Bizzy Blog notes that a Dem seems to have taken pre-emptive action in reserving the domain impeachblanco.com/.

Discussing the still mounting death toll, liberal James Wolcott writes that since 9/11, "'3000' has been elevated to a sacred, symbolic number in political discourse." Now that Katrina's death toll "is threatening the inviolable aura of '3000 dead,' rightwingers are playing their own form of hopscotch to put things in 'proper perspective.' They recognize they're in danger of losing a mass grave marker on the high moral ground."

Gadflyer asks: "Why Aren't We at Code Orange Alert?": "We now have parts of the country without power and water lines. We have thousands of National Guard troops displaced from their native states. Military equipment has been summoned away from its usual stations. In short, we are neither at full alert, full capacity, nor fully at national attention."

Lefty Eschaton's "Atrios," discussing rebuilding of New Orleans, says: "It's going to be boring, monotonous, dreary work, mostly leading to a bunch of boring, monotonous stories that no one cares much about. ... But, it will, if done right, also involve people. Please, press, both local and national, do your job following the saga of the reconstruction of New Orleans. There are going to be land grabs and corruption and bribery and efforts by the NO elite to keep the poor from returning." Atrios also offers readers a chance to find out who their "FEMA flunky" is.

9/11: Not Forgotten In The Blogosphere (At Least On One Side)

It was difficult to find many lefty bloggers posting on the subject of the 9/11 anniversary, as Ankle Biting Pundits capably notes. Most of the substantive posts that were on the subject were by moderate to righty bloggers. Some were focused solely on the attacks themselves and remembering the victims, while more seemed to take a "what has changed" approach. Naturally, some felt obliged to tie the events of 9/11/01 to the aftermath of Katrina. Others simply provided links to other Web/blog tributes. If one can draw a common theme from these posts, it's the idea that partisanship has come back with a vengeance to the point that a new disaster provides no unifying moment like the one 9/11 did.

>> Conservative Pat Cleary writes at RedState: "[S]omehow the reaction [to Katrina] is so very different from the clear Fall day of four years ago. Almost instantly the finger-pointing started, almost instantly the partisan rancor rose to a fever pitch. What the hell has happened to us."

>> Pardon My English's "Aaron" noted that the DNC Web site was "curiously lacking any mention to remembering 9/11" while the RNC posted had several items commemorating the attack. Aaron updated to say that when the DNC did note the anniversary, it was "riddled with politicization."

>> Liberal Juan Cole was a rare lefty poster: "Four years after September 11, al-Qaeda's leadership should have been behind bars or dead. Four years after September 11, Afghanistan should have been stabilized. Four years after September 11, the government should have been ready to save lives in an urban disaster. Bush recently started likening his poorly conceived and misnamed "war on terror" to World War II. What his handlers have forgotten is how long World War II lasted for the United States. Four years."

ROBERTS: Wait And See

As noted, blogs are mostly in wait-and-see mode on today's Judiciary Cmte hearings.

Armando at Daily Kos says: "The Democratic Senators on the Judiciary Committee must compel answers from Roberts and the White House. Senators Leahy, Kennedy, Schumer, Feingold, Feinstein, Biden, Kohl and Durbin -- we will be watching."

Red State's Thomas writes: "I personally think this will be so much sound and fury, signifying nothing. Then again, I went to sleep on Election Night 2000 resigned to a Gore Presidency."

Lefty Chris Bowers at MyDD cites a Newsweek poll and says: "Less than half of the country is ready to see this guy confirmed, and that number seems to be dropping fast. There are a lot of minds still to be made up." He adds: "It is time for our first major fight since Bush's numbers began falling off a cliff in late July. It is time to stand up."

Conservative Captain's Quarters writes: "A funny thing happened after Bush shifted John Roberts to William Rehnquist's seat rather than Sandra Day O'Connor's after the death of the Chief Justice: the Washington Post suddenly began to treat Roberts more rationally." CQ highlights "more balanced and neutral reporting" on Roberts in the 9/10 WaPo than previous stories "insinuating that Roberts was a closet racist ."

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: Revenge Of The Pajamas

A few celebrate the anniversary of CNN Pres. Jon Klein saying: "Bloggers have no checks and balances ... [it's] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas." To mark the occasion, Ace of Spades berates him for the Klein-endorsed "new style" at CNN, which he called a "hybrid of news and strong dramatic narrative." Ace defines that as "kind of made-up fictitious s--- with a pleasing emotional resonance," and notes LAT's Michael Kinsley's statement that a colleague appearing on CNN "was told by a producer to 'get angry.'"

Another debate is over what some feel is CNN's hypocrisy in suing to show dead bodies floating in flood-ravaged New Orleans when during 9/11 they would not show victims jumping from the upper stories of the WTC. From Instapundit: "[CNN] didn't want to show bodies, or jumpers, on 9/11, for fear that doing so would inflame the public. I can only conclude that this time around, the press thinks it's a good thing to inflame the public. What could the difference be?" But Pandagon counters by drawing a distinction between "showing people dying and showing a dead body."

Righty Hugh Hewitt writes: "There are many failures to be investigated in the aftermath of Katrina ... . But there's at least a day of hearings on MSM's role in this fiasco as well, from the question of the responsibility of flooding the area with reporters who, while they encourage people to 'take cover' or evacuate, are in fact doing neither, to the relentless peddling of the most sensational of stories and estimates."

Michelle Malkin is among those critical of a CNN report alleging profiteering by companies with WH ties, saying that "in their zeal to embarrass the Bush administration, CNN overlooks one very fat and inconvenient fact -- and embarrasses only itself."

MIDTERMS '06: If Only It Were Today

Regarding the another Newsweek poll showing that 38% would vote for a GOP Congress, compared with 50% for a Dem Congress, MyDD's Bowers writes that the GOP has "closed famously" in '02 and '04, and "we still have a lot of work to do. However a poll like this should put to rest any conservative fantasies that Democrats are not looking like a real alternative to Republicans right now in the eyes of the electorate."

INTRODUCING: Keeping An 'Eye' Out

Vaughn Ververs introduces CBS News' Public Eye, saying: "There is no model to follow here, no formula, no directions for assembly. It will evolve, change and develop over time." Ververs says the goal is to "help illuminate the process of doing news work," focusing primarily on CBS News but also looking "at overall coverage trends and the other news organizations." Among topics he says we can expect to see: "Who decides what makes the 'Evening News' and what doesn't? What are the factors that go into that decision? Why was a particular expert interviewed on a given topic? What did they say that wasn't included? How difficult is it to put together a package that runs just one minute and 30 seconds? Why wasn't a certain piece of information mentioned?"

The actual first post on the "Eye" was a rough chronological examination of how Hurricane Katrina was covered by the MSM, from when it first hit Florida to it's eventual strengthening and devastating hit to the Gulf Coast. PE's Brian Montopoli includes comments from CBS News Pres. Andrew Hayward on why there was no primetime coverage the Tuesday after the storm hit.

MISCELLANY: Seeing Red

Michelle Malkin offers a good roundup of the outrage at the design for a memorial to Flight 93 proposed for Shanksville, PA. RealClearPolitics wonders if anyone else thinks the "Crescent of Embrace" "bears a striking resemblance to one of the major symbols of Islam? as eerily similar to the iconic Muslim Crescent." Little Green Footballs: "For those who are trying to argue that this design is a pure coincidence, please note the following from the [Pittsburgh] Post-Gazette, revealing that the jury members knew in advance that this issue might come up, and recommended changing the name to avoid controversy: Flight 93 memorial decried as Islam symbol."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Revisionist History

DJ Drummond at PoliPundit gives a timeline of a world in which Al Gore wins WH'00. Among the differences: Bill Clinton becomes UN Amb, the U.S. signs Kyoto, terrorists bomb the U.S. Embassy in Berlin and the '04 Summer Olympics, China invades Pakistan, Iraq invades Iran, Jacques Chirac is assassinated, the GOP takes huge majorities in the Senate and House in '02, Gore is impeached and convicted, VP Lieberman becomes POTUS and Hillary Clinton becomes VP. But Bush defeats Lieberman in WH'04.

LEST WE FORGET: Iraq A Winning Issue?

Jim Treacher lists a few ways in which the entertainment industry might adjust to show greater deference to the victims of Katrina: Cartoon Network's Adult Swim bloc of programming is on hiatus pending name change. Contenders include Pack Another Bowl, Three Hours of Colorforms and Two Laughs, and It's Okay, Mommy & Daddy Are Asleep."

Posted by at September 12, 2005 02:06 PM