The Shannon Family Website

...because our lives are so damn interesting

Stupid Things people say

There have been a lot of incredibly stupid and shortsighted things said over the last week by people who should know better. Let's review:

1. As "The youngest" pointed out, Barbara Bush stepped up with:
1. "What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," she said during a radio interview with the American Public Media program "Marketplace." "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." Following was the clarification from the White House saying:
   

2. "Former First Lady Barbara Bush's comments about some hurricane refugees were a personal observation".
   

2. Rick Santorum chimed in with:
1. "people who don't heed future evacuation warnings may need to be penalized". He later clarified:
   
2. "he did not mean people who lack cars or other resources."
   


3. Dennis Hastert joined in with:
1. "it might not make sense to rebuild New Orleans, noting that a lot of the city "could be bulldozed." He later backpedaled with:
2. ""It is important that when we rebuild this historic city that we consider the safety of the citizens first. I am not advocating that the city be abandoned or relocated. My comments about rebuilding the city were intended to reflect my sincere concern with how the city is rebuilt to ensure the future protection of its citizens and not to suggest that this great and historic city should not be rebuilt."
   


4. Mike Brown. Oh where to start? Let's see. How about:
1. "New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates." Forgetting (as did Mr. Santorum) that many had no way to evacuate. (No clarification from him)
2. On Thursday Sept 1, When people were still waiting for anything and anyone to show up at the Superdome, at the Convention Center, he offered this assement: ""Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans -- virtually a city that has been destroyed -- that things are going relatively well,".
3. While news stations we're reporting the horrible conditions at the convention center for a few days, Brown stepped up to the plate with this one: " We learned about that (Thursday), so I have directed that we have all available resources to get that convention center to make sure that they have the food and water and medical care that they need". As at least one anchor asked him, "Don't you watch television or listen to the radio? We've known about this for days".
   


5. Michael Chertoff, Director of Homeland Security, brought us this gem: "government planners never imagined the New Orleans disaster could have occurred." Uh, yeah they did.
   

I know there are more. I haven't even started with George Bush. He'll get his own entry in due time. Now is not the time to play the blame game.

posted by Dave @ 7:18 PM