disappointing incompetence in the face of disaster

I don't watch tv, mainly because I see no need (or have no time) to spend hours glazed over in front of the boob tube. But something about the handling of the recent tragedy^*, has glued my crying eyes to constantly watching the videos as news reporters and elected officials break down.

At the current moment this is from my favorite video clip:

But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.

It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

--Keith Olbermann (video link via CrooksandLiars)

I've always held a certain distrust and disinterest in politics. I understand why governments exist, but I still can't wrap my brain around how protecting your citizens (which seems to be the role of the government from what I understood) has utterly failed in this country. Is it a case of the current administration being anti-science, pro- The End of the World is Coming Soon, pro-ignorance, pro-military spending instead of school funding, pro-big corporate funders, anti-poor and others who didn't vote for them^**, ad nauseam??? Whatever it is, it depresses me greatly-- and I begin to wonder how much longer this country (or administration) will last.




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^* I believe my family's birthdays are cursed. It starts with my youngest brother whose birthday is on Pearl Harbor day, my birthday being the unfortunate 9-11, and now my sister's birthday is the day of Katrina. I do wonder if this means that the next horrific event will happen on my younger brother's birthday. Perhaps I should make it an annual traditional to spend his birthday in the complete middle of nowhere?

^** Seriously, why the hell are people like Anne Coulter so against New York City? I have read about how evil the woman is, but never watched her until recently (and secretly wish that she will randomly lose all of her obviously beloved blond hair)... Why does she keep bashing New Yorkers especially in regards to the current devastation in NOLA?