Bush Fails to Act in L.A. Power Outage
There was a large power outage in Los Angeles today. Poor people and minorities were the hardest hit. (I have no idea whether that’s really true, but it sounds good.)
President Bush, who failed to take any action whatsoever, spent the evening trying to wriggle out from his obvious responsibility for the crisis. Bush’s flacks, and some right-wing blogger hacks, immediately began blaming local officials — in particular a local Department of Water and Power worker who (so the Bushie line goes) inadvertently cut a cable.
Bush’s failure to act was immediately denounced by the press and the Democrats in Congress. Sen. Feinstein noted that she has repeatedly requested hundreds of billions to upgrade the grips on the wire cutters used by DWP workers, to prevent them from inadvertently snipping power cables. However, her requests have consistently fallen on deaf ears, ever since President Bush appointed that deaf guy as his liaison to Feinstein’s office.
Sen. Leahy announced plans to ask John Roberts about the outage tomorrow.
Meanwhile, we L.A. residents tried to get on with our lives as best as we could without federal intervention. At the Criminal Courts Building downtown, lights went out for a couple of seconds, then the backup generators kicked in. We shrugged our shoulders and went back to work.
P.S. BoiFromTroy says:
The bottom line from being on the ground is that today’s brief hour-and-a-half power outage was a cluster-f*ck. No one appeared to be in charge, and no one knew what was going on or what to do. There were no clear lines of communication to people to let them know whether this was a minor incident or whether–as seemed entirely possible–an act of terror, or a distraction set up to facilitate one. Cell phone lines were jammed, if you had access at all. It really does not inspire confidence for when something *really* goes wrong.
Pretty good satire, I thought when I first read it. The weird part is, I think he’s serious.
Wait a minute Mr. Bush Asskisser. Apparently you didn’t read the press release from the DNC. They have it from a reliable source that the worker has a great uncle who’s college roommate had a girlfriend who’s father’s barber was close friends with a cabbie who got a really big tip from Prescott Bush in the spring of 1936. How big do the dots have to be before you wingnuts are able to connect them?
Lew Clark (9c38be) — 9/12/2005 @ 9:27 pmI love you guys.
Black Jack (ee3eb6) — 9/12/2005 @ 10:04 pmIt was very hard on the homeless in our area. FEMA was nowhere to be seen. Once again, we were left to fend for ourselves for the 90 minutes or so that we were without power. I understand our electricity is being used in Iraq…
Insider (49f78b) — 9/12/2005 @ 10:33 pm#1. Thanks. I have uncovered this….
Prescott Bush was a Nazi shill. GWBUSH spells HITLER if you use the Dean Decoding Ring. The barber and cabbie from 1936 are dead – they knew too much.
K (ce24d7) — 9/13/2005 @ 12:11 amI guess you didn’t notice that the busses couldn’t run because the stop lights were out.
You couldn’t get the poor out if you wanted to.
Lonetown (3c583b) — 9/13/2005 @ 3:45 amThe head L.A. FEMA guy was interviewed on one of the cable news shows, and he seemed surprisingly uninformed and, well, irritated when asked such annoying questions as what was going on and how long it would last. The FEMA->Red Cross logistical stuff is hugely complex, and I appreciate that. But what the organization needs is more of a first-responder mentality – one which acknowledges its important to tell people what the fuck is going on and where to go. That can be accomplished simply by getting the mayor, Fema, and LADWP on the same page.
That said, it is amusing seeing Wolf Blitzer showing Breaking News Video of 15+ cars stopped at a *working* stoplight, and he tells you to witness the chaos in LA. Breaking News: there is traffic on Wilshire Blvd!
Shredstar (532850) — 9/13/2005 @ 6:53 amThat is rich.
Patterico (e678c7) — 9/13/2005 @ 6:55 amP-
You were not in the financial district, where 30 minutes in to the power outage, they decided to evacuate whole buildings.
That ratcheted up the situation for those on the ground, especially in light of Sunday’s threats on L.A. Were it just a blackout, people were saying, why evacuate?
Now picture hundreds of people on a street corner, asking the same questions, and getting no direction as to what to do or when they could go back in, and emotions escalated.
boifromtroy (6285d0) — 9/13/2005 @ 8:23 amI find your mockery disgusting – I’VE SEEN A DEAD BODY!
anderson cooper (8fd1a1) — 9/13/2005 @ 9:19 amIt was truly amazing to watch Fox’s blanket coverage of a crappy power outage on Gibson’s show. He actually started asking people if this was a good thing in light of possible terrorist attacks.
Here’s just how desperate they were for something, anything to cover. They actually had Bob Mulholland on to comment. Bob Mulholland!! Who, of course, managed to turn it into a Republican/Bush bash. Un-freaking-believable.
CraigC (b6a973) — 9/13/2005 @ 10:03 amThis is becoming a trend:
There’s a fly in your Lobster Bisque at the “Haute” French Restaurant? Bush’s fault! Bad Bush!
You got a flat because some inconsiderate jerk broke a glass bottle on the pavement? Bush’s fault! Bad Bush!
Why heck, he’s even been criticized for not having himself been there to give “looters” a hand to carry their cumbersome goodies home through the muck in New Orleans; but of course it’s all about “race” you know! Bad Bush!!!
Althor
Althor (ee3eb6) — 9/13/2005 @ 10:29 amThe democrats should just go ahead and pass a law, wherever they can, that any time bad happens, it’s Bush’s fault.
Boman (65f35f) — 9/13/2005 @ 12:37 pmThis will cut out the middleman – the media.
Then we won’t have to go through the pretense of having to persuade the people of the truth.
We will all have inner peace.
Hilarious. Awesome. I linked ya.
I remember the dark days when I was a youth. The power was out for 11 hours after a windstorm. We were forced to play Scrabble by lantern light, and eat smores cooked over the barbecuer. And tell ghost stories.
What a night of living hell, I tell ya.
Partisan Pundit (263854) — 9/13/2005 @ 3:40 pm