27 September 2005

CNN Sucks Like No Other

ITEM 1 - Two weeks ago CNN (and most everyone else) was lighting up the president for not being anywhere near Katrina damage moments after the rain stopped. Tonight, as Bush arrives in the region for the 7th time (that's about once ever four days since), CNN is blowin' the lid off the cost of the fuel required to shuttle this president, not any president, mind you just This One, to and fro. "Oh Jeez," sez leggy Paula Zahn, "just yesterday Bush tells everyone to cut back on fuel consumption, and what does he do? He takes off in a big airplane that uses lots and lots of fuel. How mindlessly inane can correspondent Suzanne Malveaux specifically, and TV news in general possibly get? After the shocker headline, those mental midgets never actually did any math to put their hype into perspective. You want something to bitch about, Paula, how about the Yankees flying to Boston, ot the Nationals flying to New York while we all subsidize that east-coast heavy turd called Amtrak.

ITEM 2 - Next story has Susan Candiotti talking to people who are still living in FEMA trailers post Hurricane Charley; yes the one that went through greater Punta Gorda, Florida over a year ago. Shockingly, she found some folks without teeth who weren't happy there, and still didn't know where to go. Never mind that they are living rent-free for 18 months, they don't like the conformity of the surroundings.

CANDIOTTI: FEMA's emergency housing trailers in Punta Gorda, Florida, stretch as far as the eye can see. They were put here as an oasis for last year's homeless after Hurricane Charley. But many residents call it a nightmare.

DOYLA LANE, RESIDENT: It's all identical. You cannot have no individuality.
Time to grow up, Doyla. Where's the pile of cash you should have from living for free for 13 months? You got that working for ya?

ITEM 3 - Then we went to the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. There was the always-available city council type talking to John King. She was all set with the black helicopter/foil hat theory about rebuilding someday:
WILLARD-LEWIS: I'm not so foolish as to believe that other agendas are not being fashioned. I would imagine that individuals who focus on the wealth of the land, who focus on the fact that, perhaps, with higher integrity of the levee system, high-rise buildings might be fashionable and trendy.
John King comes back with the nugget that over 50% of the neighborhood was rental, which means that the former residents don't really have a say in what gets built and when, but that doesn't prevent the nutria-eatin' alligator tears about the whole dang deal.

All three of these stories do nothing but perpetuate in the minds of shockingly Stuck-on-Stupid America the sense that they can have what they want when they want it. Nothing bad just happens, it's always someone's fault, and damned if it isn't up to the government to solve every problem out there.

All this crap ran in just one hour of CNN tonight, 27 September, 2005.

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