Bush’s Potemkin Villiage in New Orleans

From Brian Williams’ Daily Nightly blog:

I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It’s enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it… jump to certain conclusions.

Bottom line is that the facts on the ground are what matter. I don’t care if you liked or disliked Bush’s speech. Even a great speech this long afterwards does not make up for the lack of preparedness at the time. No mere words are sufficient to erase the suffering of those living in the areas affected by Katrina.