From someone on the ground in Lafayette, Louisiana who was volunteering at the Cajundrome:
It actually couldn't have been a worse experience; a team of us were working to put up a website with directions to every Red Cross shelter in the region when we were evicted from the computer room by the Secret Service.
There's only one room in the Cajundome with telephones and internet access for refugees, and Laura Bush shut it down for eight hours (along with the food service rooms to the side and the women's showers). You may have seen it on CNN; apparently seven refugees were allowed back so Laura could help them in front of the cameras.
If you saw that footage, that's where I put in half my volunteer hours. Not knowing Bush was still back there later I tried to insist on being allowed back into the room to a "Red Cross" guy who must have been a Secret Service agent undercover. A hint for future Secret Service agents: The real Red Cross guys don't look like they want to break your legs for walking too close to the barricade, because they're too busy passing out food and helping people. They're also less likely to use phrases like "Stand fast, sir!"
Now, I know this is the sort of thing that happens whenever a VIP tours a disaster site, and maybe Laura Bush handing out that loaf of bread really will lead to an increase in donations. All I can say is, to have paralyzed a third of a day of operations at this stage of the game, it fucking well better. And I tried to position myself to say this to her in front of the television cameras too, but instead I only got a wave and a smile as she hurried past me.
7:10 a.m. update: Fixed broken link, thanks Big Daddy in comments
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3 comments:
your hyperlink is not working...
miss you
No on is ever happy. People bitch when the bigwigs don't show up. They bitch when they do fly bys...and then the bitch when they are there.
"No on is ever happy."
That's not it at all. It's that the Bush's response to the tragedy is only happening because they're fearing the political backlash.
The president waited 2 days after the hurricane to cancel his vacation. While it was happening, he's off in San Diego yucking it up with big business.
His first trip was a staged lie - as soon as his photos were taken, the food tents where removed and the cranes being used to "fix" the levee were shut down. It was all just a lie to get some press time.
Now we have the 2nd round of bullshit photo ops. It's all just a like to cover their political asses.
www.jabberwonk.com
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