End of Disinformation Age

When was the last time someone made a "mistake"

Or when has someone gotten an order "wrong"

Newspeak and doublethink have allowed business and government to get around problems by simple denial and renaming.

When political correctness got out of control, a side effect was the "softening" of all term to point of it being an army of Nerf.

People have stopped standing up and saying the truth and sticking to it.

One of the most "spun" Presidents has said the truth.

George W. Bush has stated how bad the issues in response to Katrina was and how the poverty which complicated the response had it's roots in racism.

No spin, no lies, no sugar coating.

Could this be the first blow to the Misinformation Age which snuck up on us?

Nah, it's just more subtle. You'll note a few things:
1. From the Officer's take on NOLA thread - we see things are being censored to the media. We don't have the full understanding of how bad it is.

Softening!

2. The truth is "Several decades of beaurocratic apathy caused thousands to die, hundreds of thousands to lose everything they have, hundreds of billions of dollars of damage, and immeasurable damage to the largest natural marshland in the US - a symptom of the overall destruction of the environment by industry to which taxpayers like you and me are paying the bill. Even after 9/11, when it should have been patently obvious how much we needed to prepare for disasters on a large scale, our government has shown that politics, greed, and apathy have made our country weak."

What we heard was "It was a bad hurricane and we were overwhelmed."

Half-truths!

3. "I take full responsibility for the reconstruction." as opposed to the real truth, "My college buddy nominated an awful, underqualified FEMA leader, national guard troops are tied up in Iraq, and I never stepped in - as a leader in a national crisis would - and take charge to make sure things were right. In addition, it took me 3 days just to stop my vacation before I started to deal with this."

LIES!

Don't think disinformation is over. It's stronger than ever! Be outraged! Our beaurocracy has cost us so much this tragedy!

The very act of importing generators and floodlights to light up the building serving as a backdrop for the speech is a form of disinformation. Oh, look! It's not as bad as we thought!

"I take responsibility" IS progress. Now show us that you have some faint idea what you personally did wrong. Include bad political appointments and underfunding needed infrastructure both in flood control and emergency management.

Then maybe I'll listen.

The president took responsibility? Seemed to me like the People already knew he was responsible. What's he going to do? Say it really wasn't his problem?

I don't think he had a choice. Worse yet, by accepting responsibility in this somewhat hesitating manner - under pressure and likely only because of the downstream political ramifications to his party - he looks better imo only to those who don't want to see the underlying self-serving motivations.

To be honest, I can't help but think now that Guilianni was even more impressive after 9/11, as I imagine our president was equally slow to respond then.

Well, at least now I know why he says the things he does.

*blinks*

wow. thats quite the parasite. thanks for that link. most intriguing

Giuliani was a very vocal spokesman at a time when such was needed. Often overlooked, however, was that Giuliani benefitted greatly from a FEMA that was built by Clinton. Why, after 9-11, Bush decided to dismantle and castrate FEMA the way he did I have absolutely no clue. Bear in mind that FEMA used to be a cabinet level agency that was free to act under it's own auspices in the event of an emergency.

Not knocking Rudy here --but he had a lot of Federal support.

wow, you're very welcome!*


*I'm surprised because I think that's the first post of yours I've ever seen in which you weren't angry

I'm never angry. People seem to have that impression of me. Usually I have an extremely wide and wicked grin when I post. But very rarely angry. I can rant while perfectly happy. honest. In fact, ranting makes me happy.

So his college buddy could run it, duh.

I love you, Hiro.

My point exactly. "To be honest, I can't help but think..."

Already knowing the things you've pointed out, my impression has still changed. I always figured George was slow, but this cemented my impression. With the consequent result. Now imagine how those who gave George the credit back then are now coming around to the realization maybe he deserved no credit for the response after 9/11. This may affect 2008.

D'awwww .... but you're still not gittin' me lucky charms!

OMG!!! Bush is a fish! Now everything is starting to make sense