Good Comments

Just thought I'd highlight a few from these comment threads at Roger L. Simon's blog:

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Watching all of the frenzy in the press makes me wonder if there's not another "war" going on in addition to the one between conservatives, and the Liberal Left. I'm think of a "war" to preserve the power sand credibility of the MSM.

It's been my belief for years that ever since the Vietnam War, the MSM had acquired power and prestige far beyond what it had in the past, and without ever having been chosen by the people to have it. They had, I think, assumed the role of "kingmaker" and "high priest of truth" and reveled in their ability to set the national agenda.

I think that they recognize that success by George Bush will go a long way toward shattering that power. With Bill Clinton, they reached the pinnacle of their power as he would move in whichever direction the current polls dictaged. GWB has demonstrated that he's willing to do what he believes is right whether or not the media agrees with him.

Something along these lines may well explain the intense visceral hatred of GWB demonstrated by the MSM, since it adds the more personal threat that would tend to explain their intensity. Their "power" is threatened not only by the rise of the "new media" which has broken their monopoly, but by the fact that if a president manages to succeed in spite of them, the Ptemkin Village of their power will be conclusively demonstrated. While they've never come out and admitted it, I think that they were all smugly confident that their ability to deliver 15% in the presidential election as Evan Thomas claimed would PROVE their power. They fully expected to see Kerry trounce Bush, when that didn't happen their psyches took a horrible shock, and they began to get truly scared that their house of cards was crumbling.

Great Discussion,

Ralph

Posted by: Ralph [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 8, 2005 09:38 AM



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Roger:

The level of ignorance by the media and the political opportunists on the sperate powers of state and federal governments is staggering. The MSM is judging President Bush as if he had the power of a dictator and didn't use it and now the Dems are trying to wrestle the recovery money and give it to the local authorities. Let me try to understand the logic. President Bush should have known that the city and state governments were useless or too wounded to operate and should have ignored the law and sent the Marines in and bypass the befuddled locals, before he had the legal standing to do so and before they had turned the power over to him. Now they are planning to give the power and the money for the unprecedented reconstruction to the very same befuddled locals that Bush was suppossed to brush aside and bypass because they were not up to it. Sure, I get it.

Posted by: Kevin P [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 8, 2005 12:26 PM



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Logistics.

Because they are so distant from these things, many people simply have no idea what is involved in the rescue of a city- and absolutely no sense of how long it takes to accomplish the most basic tasks when all infrastructure is ruined.

A few little vignettes. Just moving helicopters in to the theater and setting up maintainance and refueling capabilities in preparation for the SAR missions took us about a day and a half. Ordering buses from throughout the South (while the local school buses seemingly sat unused) I understand took about 2.5 days. Ordering and moving MREs from the plants to destination takes about a week. Send it by air? Ah, airlift to the victims, the politicans favorite scenario. However. There is no time advantage unless the food plant is next to the runway and all the hurricane victims are sitting on the destination runway. Plus, a C-130 holds only about as much as a - as in one - standard highway cargo trailer. I guess the Germans have offered to fly two trailers of food across the Atlantic. A C5 Galaxy, by the way, is about 4 trucks. Lots of nice political photo ops in airplanes flying around with bottled water and food, but not enough to make a difference.

Actually a much more practical albeit longer term offer is coming from the Ecuadorians, who want to donate - no fooling - a boatload of bananas. In containers that is about maybe 1,500 trucks worth. Not too shabby.

Que Viva Ecuador.

I can't watch the news. I don't think I will ever watch much TV news ever again.

I'm rambling. Later.

Posted by: Skookumchuk [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 4, 2005 06:06 A