Can't Fight The Narrative: David Schuster, Nonpartisan Decider, Calls Craig Incident a "Moral Insult" To Recovering New Orleans

It's New Orleans Disaster Commemoration Celebration Week, which means that every incompetent partisan reporter is required to somehow link every fresh news story to Hurricane Katrina. The people have to be reminded of the Bush Administration's "incompetent response" as often as possible, even when it makes no sense.

David Schuster offers a tour-de-force here, not only claiming that New Orleans, of all places, finds it a "moral insult" that someone might have cruised a bathroom looking for anonymous gay sex (New Orleans!), but also reads dark malevolence towards New Orleans citizens in the wrapping of Karl Rove's car with plastic wrap.

The Deciders. They have the training and exquisitely-informed news judgment to make these sorts of connections.

Which, I'm almost 100% certain, first appeared on a left wing blog like Media Matters. David Schuster doesn't bother getting his newscopy from the DNC as most reporters do -- he finds the DNC itself too conservative and too easy on Bush. He prefers getting his information from solid gold sources, like internet embarrassments like Truth Out.

While Schuster finds time to link Larry Craig to Hurricane Katrina, he apparently doesn't bother reading stories about suits against Democratic Governor Blanco's alleged negligence in allowing dozens of nursing-home patients to die.

Evacuation was individual responsibility, Blanco tesitfies

Taking the witness stand Tuesday in the St. Rita's nursing home trial, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said she did everything she could to sound the alarm as Hurricane Katrina bore down on southeast Louisiana two years ago today, but that the government must ultimately rely on the "individual responsibility" of its residents to heed those warnings.

In three hours of testimony, the governor defended her response to Katrina in what amounted to a mini-trial within the trial as attorneys for Sal and Mabel Mangano argued that the government was largely responsible for the deaths of 35 elderly residents who drowned at the couple's nursing home in St. Bernard Parish.=

Gov. Kathleen Blanco leaves the West Feliciana Parish Courthouse on Tuesday after testifying in the trial of nursing home owners Sal and Mabel Mangano. The couple each face 35 counts of negligent homicide and 24 counts of cruelty to the infirm.

Blanco said she declared a state of emergency three days before Katrina's landfall and held frequent news conferences to alert the public.

"My message was very, very simple," the governor said. "I wanted people to understand that this is potentially the biggest storm we will ever deal with, and I urged people over and over to protect themselves and their families by evacuating."

Bush's position: Those primarily responsible for ensuring a full evacuation are the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of the state, both who have explicit power to order such things

Blanco's position: Those primarily responsible for evacuating themselves were the crippled and frail and semi-conscious residents of nursing homes

We see now that Bush's position was "incompetent" whereas Blanco's was... well, simply having a lot of faith in the Individual Initiative and Gung-Ho Spirit that makes this country great.

It is unclear what, if any, connection Larry Craig's cruising might have with Blanco's astonishing testimony. I'm sure Decider (Junior League) David Schuster will inform me in the days to come.

posted by Ace at 01:25 PM

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