Katrina Anniversary: Let's Face the Facts, Folks

It didn’t take a genius to be able to predict the tone and coverage of the Hurricane Katrina anniversary by most of the “Drive By” liberal media.

I said it would go something like this.

(Condensed talking point) “It’s all President Bush’s fault, because he’s STUPID, and HATES black people.”

Sure enough, here it comes. Today on the Today Show, Matt Lauer has Mike Brown on the set. Hmm, I thought? That’s odd. He was the guy everybody HATED a year ago! Why would they give him a forum?

Oh, I get it. So he can throw PRESIDENT BUSH UNDER THE BUS!

Which is exactly what he did.

The Washington Post ran a headline front page article: “President and His Critics Mark Katrina Anniversary.”

Ah yes, never forget those critics. Lest anyone forget, how much this was Bush’s fault. We’ll put it right there in the headline.

Look, let’s be honest okay?

New Orleans was a very clean, politically honest, highly efficient city before Katrina.

The levee boards were NOT comprised of political grifters and scam artists.

Everybody wanted the levees to be built higher.

Nobody EVER thought a hurricane would EVER do this.

Tens of thousands of residents were NEVER told to leave the city, it all caught them by surprise.

The Superdome should have had temporary hot showers, a temporary kitchen, full-sized beds, wi-fi hotspots, video games, daycare, and senior activities set up in 4 days notice to accommodate a crowd of 40,000 plus refugees for a week.

The argument that “if Geraldo could get into New Orleans in a day, why couldn’t the buses” is an excellent point. Because dropping Geraldo, his mustache wax, a camera man, and a producer into the city, is no different than getting 500-plus fully gassed up buses with certified drivers and a place to put those 20,000 homeless refugees.

Mayor Ray Nagin did not leave an entire fleet of school buses sitting in a flooded parking lot. That photo you saw was doctored.

Governor Kathleen Blanco was in complete command. She only cried to show how much she cared about the devastation. Once the cameras were off, she went right back to kicking ass and taking names.

The New Orleans Police Department really shined. It was perhaps their finest hour.

The media thoroughly vetted the accuracy of every one of their sensational stories they ran with, like the ones about families having to eat floating corpses, or serial gang-rapes in the back of the Convention Center.

The fact that the ENTIRE city hasn’t been TOTALLY re-built after ONE FULL YEAR is an outrage, and a national disgrace. The tsunami victims had their straw huts back up and running in about 6 months.

Global warming will continue to produce more of these monster storms if we don’t DO SOMETHING right away. It’s a proven fact that smokestacks cause hurricanes, didn’t you see the movie?

I mean come on people! You know all this is true. And I know all this is true. Stop hiding behind your lame excuses! It’s all Bush’s fault, and oh by the way, he’s stupid, and hates black people.

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I’m going to hold off for a weeks on my analysis of Tony Kornheiser in the MNF booth, because like the teams themselves, you can’t tell much from just the pre-season. My initial thoughts are these. 1. He’s made the booth better already. 2. But he is being so timid and so watered down, that it’s hardly the Tony Kornheiser that I have come to know from working around him and playing a few rounds of golf.

That being said… here’s a good snippet from Pete McEntegart’s Daily 10-Spot on SI.com.

3. I haven't really been watching the new Monday Night Football crew on ESPN, but I heard enough in a few minutes late in Monday's Bengals-Packers game to become a big fan of Tony Kornheiser in the booth.

(Full disclosure: Theismann, who was perhaps generously listed at 6-0, did indeed return punts in the NFL.) It will be interesting to see if these two ever come to blows.

MY ADD: My only current regret, is that when Korny has Joey T locked up like that, he does NOT concede the point that he just WON by use of logic and articulation. Perhaps even a gentle: “Joe. Come on. Do you ever admit you might be wrong?” would have been nice.

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Mark Spencer sends me these fantastic pictures from the recent Melissa Ethridge concert in my adopted “hometown” of Jacksonville, Florida. (aka: “Jacksonville: Good Enough For Skynrd, Good Enough For You!”)

Man, I sure wish I had somehow secured the flannel shirt concert rights to that event.

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Speaking of Jacksonville, as many of you listeners to my Fox Sports Radio national show know, I managed to coin a “slogan a day” for that city while we were trapped there for a week covering the Superbowl in 2005. The slogans went…

Monday: “Jacksonville: Technically, NOT Georgia.”
Tuesday: “Jacksonville: Yep. That’s About It.”
Wednesday: “Jacksonville: Buffalo By The Sea.”
Thursday: “Jacksonville: Good Enough For Skynrd, Good Enough For You.”
Friday: “Jacksonville: Mullet City.”

Now, I think it would be pretty damn funny, if anybody out there wanted to take a crack at making bumper stickers for any/all of these slogans. For your time and effort, the best ones will get a t-shirt, or other equivalent thank you from yours truly, The Czabe.

Good luck, and get creative!

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A while back, I said I just couldn’t stomach any more “Horrible and Ironic Ways to Die.” But them stories like this one floated across my in-box. Eee-gad!

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- A hot-air balloon caught fire during a circus stunt, killing a clown acrobat as dozens of children watched, police said Tuesday.

About a half-dozen circuses, employing mostly Eastern European performers, tour Ireland each summer.

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And Now, Your Pic O' The Day!

Freed journalist Jill Carroll. I mean, she's kinda snicky, right?