The Rude Pundit: San Diego Fire Evacuees vs. Katrina Evacuees: Who Ya Got?

[meegbear]

One of the mightier acts of bullshit sophistry that's already started (and will continue) is the comparison of how "well-behaved" are the people who have evacuated to San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium from the fires engulfing the nearby areas and how utterly degraded and savage were the people who made their way to the Superdome and Convention Center in New Orleans before, during, and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

A conservatistas over at Hot Air has already said as much (even allowing for the orders of magnitude larger the Katrina devastation was). Surely other crazoid blogs will spewed about America haters getting their houses burned down will be less offensive than what's coming. Yeah, it's all race and class-based, and it's also pathetically narrow and simple-minded.[br />
So let's dispose of this quickly through the magic of photos.

Here's what's going on outside the Qualcomm Stadium:



Here's where you can check your e-mail.



And, hey, here's some flag-twirling stilt walkers in thongs.

Now let's check out what was going in New Orleans:



That's a dead guy left to rot in a lawn chair outside the Convention Center. Wonder if he's wearing a thong.



f you look closely, you can see the Superdome, with the holes in the roof, surrounded by a water-covered city, only accessible by boat or aircraft. If the people were lucky. It's sort of like being able to deliver food, water, medicine, diapers, beds, and more by the truckload to people who are being entertained by live bands and massage therapists who can drive to the stadium in their cars. Except for the fact that it's not.

Yes, what's happening to people in California is hideous, awful, and other adjectives, and it's great that the evacuees there are being treated like human beings. But other than the desperate president trying desperately to not look like a desperate boob and trying to make sure everyone sees he's in charge and that he's "learned lessons" since Katrina, there is no reason to compare. Indeed, comparing the two masses of people at the evacuation sites is not unlike comparing apples and drowned people.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[DS1]

1. The fires are tiny next to what NO went through

[pansypoo53219]

7. but but but

the fires are happening to rich WHITE people! OH THE HUMANITY!

[ronnykmarshall]

16. Yeah EVERY one that lost a home is white!

Stupid ass remark.

[aquart]

11. The fires are NOT tiny. That's a ridiculous remark.

But they aren't in the heart of the city, either. And nobody has been cut off. Nobody stranded.

Something else: Nobody at Qualcomm had to leave behind a beloved family member. There were people who said, "See you soon" on rooftops and never saw each other again. Do you know anyone who can smile knowing a beloved pet has been abandoned alone? Qualcomm evacuees were hugging not only their families, but their dogs, cats, turtles, parrots...

When the California people go home to what's left, the buildings still standing won't have to be torn down because of black mold and raw sewage. They can move right back without being poisoned by fumes and filth (although the particulate matter is going to be a bitch).

Giving people food and water does seem to make a difference, too, doesn't it?

[DS1]

14. No, it's not a ridiculous remark

the roads are still passable, power is still on in huge urban areas, fresh water is available.

In the big picture, it's small next to NO.

[acmavm]

2. I know. There reports of how much classier and better 'behaved'

these people are than the poor in NO are making me sick. And I truly think anyone who makes that remark needs to have their front teeth punched out. I don't care what anyone says about 'violence doesn't this or doesn't that'. I tell you what it would do, it would make any arrogant, ignorant, disgusting elitist slug think twice before saying anything as crass and couthless as that again.

[azureblue]

3. And white

NT

[ronnykmarshall]

17. Fuckin honkeys

:sarcasm:

[napi21]

4. I hear that comparrison this AM and damn near choked! There's

absolutely NO way to compare the two situations! Yes many homes were destroyed in both cases, along with people gathering at a sports stadium, but in SD, people got in their cars and drove to the stadium. Last night they went to the local mall and did some shopping. If they have somewhere else they can go, they have the option of getting in their car and going to stay with friends or relatives.

In NO they were TRAPPED! There was no option of leaving because there was no way to get anywhere!

Anyone who suggests there is a comparrison is flat out INSANE!

[gratuitous]

5. Saw the report on ABCNews last night

And they went on and on about how wonderful life was at QualComm. I thought, well sure! They have electricity, people being allowed to bring in fresh supplies, the restrooms are working, folks are pitching tents (heh, heh) in the corridors and so forth. These are people who drove to the stadium in their cars. The folks in the Superdome walked, some swam through fetid water, and relief supplies were being stopped, sometimes at gunpoint, from coming in.

One of these things is not like the other. The aged and the feeble are being bused in to QualComm from their care centers with their medicine, medical staff, and amenities, all decently and in order; old folks in New Orleans were left to perish in a scene straight out of Dante as everyone from the wealthiest surgeon down to the lowliest menial had to scramble for their lives.

Of course, most folks can see the difference for themselves; what our popular media will refuse to provide is any context whatsoever, and the victims of Katrina will get to be victimized all over again.

[acmavm]

10. I don't agree. The truly stupid don't understand the difference.

And there are a lot of truly stupid in this country.

This subject is the one that's pissed me off the most over all the others lately. How dare these fucking media assholes denigrate the poor in NO, the most defenseless people in our country and their own government not only CAUSED the problems (by neglect and then and then ignoring the warnings of what would happen if a hurricane hit), they left their own countrymen/women to die a horrible death trapped in that place. Now they won't let them have their homes back.

Oh man, this pisses me off.

[gratuitous]

13. I dunno

I think if you ran scenes from San Diego side-by-side with scenes from New Orleans, most folks could see the difference for themselves, and would figure it out without much prompting at all. My feeling, though, is that this won't happen, no how no way, and the truly stupid will be the only folks that we'll hear from (Glenn Beck, call your service).

But the perception is correct in that now the Bush administration, through no effort of their own, will be painted as suddenly competent and capable, having "learned the lessons" of New Orleans. And what will pass into the conventional wisdom consciousness will be how those greedy colored folks in New Orleans just sat around waiting for someone to do something while the industrious white folks in San Diego pulled together and saw themselves through. It will be a tortured, confusing story that won't stand much real scrutiny, but it will be told over and over again so that enough people will just accept it without thinking about it too much.

The only people who will challenge the prevailing wisdom will be the shrill cranks like us. Then someday in the future, maybe several years from now, the patently obvious will finally be accepted, and the shapers of public opinion will have moved on to another distortion, wondering why we're so shrill about such ancient history.

Yeah, I've been in a whole realm of pissed off, undreamed of prior to 2001.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

19. Frankly, the scene in California has very little to do with the Bush administration

But the comparison between the state and local administrations of California and Louisiana can certainly be made.

If the La governor and NO mayor had done better jobs, Bush and company wouldn't have had so much "shock" power over the city.

[sniffa]

6. appLes and drowning bodies

:rofl:

[rudy23]

8. The toilets flush at Qualcomm--there's your major difference right there

But no, the media is just going to continue to flog New Orleans, as if it's necessary.

Why don't they just take all the Louisianians, line us up against the wall, and just shoot us? It'd be much easier on everyone.

[azureblue]

9. Bush hasn't learned a thing

New Orleans is still in ruins, he still thinks he can lie, hide & cover up what he did to New Orleans, including his cutting off the levee repair money.
Bush is a failure, always was & will be and, like all failures he just keeps repeating his failing ways, hoping that one day, he may actually succeed.

CA burns while New Orleans still is in ruins.
Love to hear what the people of New Orleans have to say about this..

[NMDemDist2]

12. there is food and water in SD

in NOLA, not so much...

[frylock]

15. i was able to drive my boat all the way to the murph without incident..

these racist pigs are fucking idiots.

[meegbear]

18. Kick

[killbotfactory]

20. If the government doesn't fuck up the response to the fires

how much do you want to bet the horrible poverty in NO, and the complete lack of concern for them, will be completely forgotten among the punditry?