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11/09/2005

Body bags and image politics

1896

Keeping with the fundamentals of neoconservative leadership, Perception Management, now sacked Bushman and now X FEMA Director Michael Brown's primary concern five hours after the Hurricane Katrina hit land was to "convey a positive "image" of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public." To that end he asked for permission to send one thousand federal workers to New Orleans to assist rescue operations. Reality Check. This week, Louisiana officials prepared for the next stage of the recovery operation by amassing 25,000 body bags.

BODY BAGS.

The idea of body bags is a hard one to manage. The Image Manipulators do everything in their power to keep that image out of the public eye. "Body bags" blow the soft focus and mood music Bush needs to look legitimate. But Hurricane Katrina even tore the roof off of Bush's carefully guarded secret and gave the world a peek at what a truly incompetent boob this guy actually is. Team Turd Blossom is scrambling to re-plant their patented PR Sleeper Bullet in the national psyche and save the day but I hope people manage to stay awake long enough to connect a few more dots because Bush, the poofter who golfed while Katrina shredded the gulf, is the same jackal who lied us into this unwinnable war in the middle east. And that's still just the tip of the shit iceberg.

PS:

If you've been getting your "news" from FOX TV and other propaganda organs for this administration I suggest you refresh your definition of the word "reality". Look it up. You'll find it between "rapture" and "salvation" in the dictionary.

Reality TV cartoon source.

08/09/2005

Death of Yogi Nugget

It's a sad day around here today. This morning I discovered that Yogi Nugget died. I realize that with all the disaster and death that's going on in the world, especially now, this news is about as insignificant as insignificant can possibly get but still I care. Life is life. I will miss her.

I'm leaving for Tonopah tomorrow for the weekend, then I'll be in Oregon most of next week but I will post more photos and story as soon as I get the chance. They'll be in the Cockroach Diary.

Ps. I just got my first visitor from New Orleans since Katrina hit. Good to see people are getting back online. That part of the stats map has been dark for days. Welcome back!

07/09/2005

Deadman's best friend

"A man died of a seizure five days ago
-- and his dog has stayed by his side ever since --
at a gas station in the Gentilly Woods area of New Orleans."
(Sept. 1st, by Andrea Bruce -- The Washington Post)

Censoring the dead

From the beginning the bodies of military personal killed in Iraq and Afghanistan have been brought back to the US under cover of darkness. The administration doesn't want Americans grasping the reality of the situation. Now the government is doing the same thing with the bodies of the dead strewn throughout New Orleans. Like the soldiers, Bush wants to keep them out of sight and has ordered a media black out on images of corpses. If he had given New Orleans the money it requested, desperately needed, to repair the levees the damage and death toll would have been much less.

Now Bush has decided to head up the investigation into his administration's criminally inadequate response. I can't believe people are going for it. Naturally he won't find himself or his bungling, bloated bureaucracy guilty of anything. It's really disheartening.