Will Katrina upstage 9/11?
This is a problem that even the bush administration may not be able to spin in their favour. I'm sure that for the 5-year anniversary of 9/11 (and upcoming midterm elections), bushco must have had at least 10 days of commemorative events planned. Two weeks of "terra terra 9/11 9/11 be very afraid GASP!"
They started building up to it with the airliner bomb plot in the UK, which turned out to be an ongoing investigation that the bush admininstration pushed to be revealed before it was complete. The ensuing hysteria -- imaginary gatorade bombs, notes from al qaeda, planes being forced to land or not allowed to depart at all -- certainly ran according to the white house playbook. But the madness didn't take hold; people are becoming more immune to fearmongering and the media a little less fearful of digging for the truth. (That's how we know the plot probably wasn't even feasible.)
Now as the tide of terrorism hysteria ebbs, we approach the 1-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a disaster that destroyed one of the world's most vibrant cities. Thousands dead, thousands more homeless, and the city is still a wreckage; the anniversary commemorated this year will be for a disaster still ongoing. 9/11, tragic as it was, has finally become part of history -- people have moved on to newer catastrophes. And that makes 9/11 a far less potent fear-mongering tool.
So this year's commemoration of 9/11 may not be as effective as the white house would like. Contrasted with Katrina, which so clearly points out the bush administration's incompetence, 9/11 doesn't generate the same positive response to the administration that it once did. It only makes you shudder to think what the hell these guys would do if there actually was another attack.
They started building up to it with the airliner bomb plot in the UK, which turned out to be an ongoing investigation that the bush admininstration pushed to be revealed before it was complete. The ensuing hysteria -- imaginary gatorade bombs, notes from al qaeda, planes being forced to land or not allowed to depart at all -- certainly ran according to the white house playbook. But the madness didn't take hold; people are becoming more immune to fearmongering and the media a little less fearful of digging for the truth. (That's how we know the plot probably wasn't even feasible.)
Now as the tide of terrorism hysteria ebbs, we approach the 1-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a disaster that destroyed one of the world's most vibrant cities. Thousands dead, thousands more homeless, and the city is still a wreckage; the anniversary commemorated this year will be for a disaster still ongoing. 9/11, tragic as it was, has finally become part of history -- people have moved on to newer catastrophes. And that makes 9/11 a far less potent fear-mongering tool.
So this year's commemoration of 9/11 may not be as effective as the white house would like. Contrasted with Katrina, which so clearly points out the bush administration's incompetence, 9/11 doesn't generate the same positive response to the administration that it once did. It only makes you shudder to think what the hell these guys would do if there actually was another attack.
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