Coty's Weblog

It's Not You. It's Them.

Jon Swift is dead on in his post on Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year.

They have been all over they place this year. Threatening our heterosexual marriages. Invading our borders and taking our jobs. Not standing up so that we can stand down. Wanting to cut and run. Gays, Mexicans, Iraqis, Liberals, and so many others. Who else has had such an impact? I wish it had been you, or better yet, we, but it was definitely them.

More Katrina Tapes

I check my referrer logs from time to time, and I noticed last night that I was getting hits from Yahoo based on searches for "Katrina tapes". Surprisingly enough, my Katrina Tapes post from September is among the first hits in Yahoo. That was about Walter Maestri's tapes of phone calls between local and federal officials. I thought those were pretty damning, but they didn't seem to get much play.

I'm pretty sure what people are looking for now is information about the more recently revealed tapes of the President being briefed the day before Katrina hit. I haven't posted about those tapes because I don't see the point. If you don't already know that this administration was incompetent in its handling of the emergency and that that incompetence went all the way to the top, then these tapes are not going to change anything for you.

However, in the interest of helping those searching Yahoo, here is a link to the story:

Bush Knew Of Katrina's Wrath Day Prior - CBS News

Katrina Tapes

NPR : Conference Calls Detail Katrina Concerns, Failings

I heard this on NPR this morning. I think these tapes are going to make it much more difficult for the administration to spin things their way. They record calls between local and federal officials (including FEMA) before and after Katrina hit. They were made by Walter Maestri, emergency manager for Jefferson Parish.

It is funny on The Office...

when Dwight Schrute tries to blur the distinction between being an assistant to the regional manager and being Assistant Regional Manager on NBC's The Office. It is not even a little funny that Michael Brown seems to have done something similar on his resumé.

Even leaving aside what the real nature of the position was, it was a job he had in college. How long do you keep that on your resumé?

Katrina

I spent my first eighteen years living in Shreveport, Louisiana. Shreveport is far from the coast and was not the least bit threatened by Katrina. That isn't well understood by people outside Louisiana, so I have gotten a lot of questions about how my family faired. Though somewhat misdirected, that concern has been extremely touching. People naturally care and want to help. Fortunately, my immediate family was in no danger, and my extended family and friends all seem to be doing as well as could be expected after such a catastrophe. Many others have not been so fortunate.

Donate to Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Relief