Hand of God?

David Seaton's News Links

“I was just thinking, this Gustav is proof that there is a God in heaven,” (Michael) Moore said, laughing. “To have it planned at the same time – that it would actually be on its way to New Orleans for day one of the Republican Convention, up in the Twin Cities – at the top of the Mississippi River.” Business & Media Institute

That's one way of looking at it, but I just read this over on CNN:

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will not attend the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, because of Hurricane Gustav, White House press secretary Dana Perino said Sunday.(...) A senior McCain source said Saturday that officials were considering turning the convention into a massive telethon to raise money for the Red Cross and other agencies to help with hurricane aid. "He wants to do something service oriented if and when the storm hits and it's as bad as it's expected to be now," the McCain source said. They are also hoping to get McCain himself to a storm-affected area as soon as possible. McCain had suggested to a Fox News interviewer that the convention could be suspended if it seemed that a festive gathering was inappropriate in light of the destruction the storm may bring.

So, it turns out that the hand of God will keep both Bush and Cheney from attending the convention... Don't you think that keeping those two politically poisonous individuals away from the convention is something McCain would have been down on his knees praying for?

You bet!

And wouldn't you say having the entire media fixed both on Gustav and the Republican convention 24/7, that this is a God given opportunity for McCain be all over the news cycle and to look, proactive, competent, compassionate and presidential?

A chance for McCain at the scene of one of Bush's greatest disasters, to be "McDifferent" and not McSame?

If I were an Evangelical, which thank God I'm not, I would gather from all this that our Father in heaven is mightily pleased with McCain's Veep pick. DS

Fire and Water, Black and White, California and New Orleans

"I can only imagine what the Superdome would have been like with massage therapy, big-screen TVs and live rock bands, not to mention food, water and perhaps port-a-potties to suppress that lingering moldy urine smell." Shawn Brown

David Seaton's News Links
The American memory is notoriously short, but the Southern California disaster coming so soon after Katrina makes comparison inevitable.

It's would be an easy, a cheap shot, if it weren't so tragic, so obviously unjust... so unjust as to bring tears of impotent rage to the eyes of anyone raised to believe that, as an old slave owner once wrote, "All Men are Created Equal".

A musician, Shawn Brown has written the best comparison of the two disasters that I've read so far: a little masterpiece.

Shawn's are words that had to be written and they are words that should be read. DS

Shawn Brown: Katrina vs. The Witch - Los Angeles Times
Abstract: I know it shouldn't surprise me very much to learn that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as state and local government agencies, have reacted in a slightly different manner to the recent fire disaster in Southern California than their counterparts did after Hurricane Katrina. After all, in the current election-year political climate, when you compare the relative economic clout of the Southern California communities affected by the fires with that of the Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi Gulf coasts, it really isn't a shocker to find out that the evacuees in California come out ahead. We are talking about the difference between a population heavy with Caucasian millionaires, with houses valued at more than $750,000, and people of "the Chocolate City" and surrounding areas, where most of the residents lived below the poverty line. I was also not surprised to hear insurance companies in Southern California talking about settlements forthcoming within the next two weeks to a month, and homeowners planning to rebuild as quickly as possible. I also would expect that lessons have been learned by the ongoing, painfully slow and ineffectual response that the government and private sector eventually ... somewhat implemented for Katrina victims. In Southern California, the National Guard was deployed within 24 hours in key positions to protect "structures" from looting; massive cattle ranches, horse stables and many multimillion-dollar summer homes were spared because of to their government's timely diligence.(...) I also admit that television images of a specially equipped DC-10 DC-10 flying over, dropping 30,000 gallons of fire retardant between the firestorm and my good friends in Malibu gave my soul a gentle, warm, almost fuzzy feeling. Also, the cockles of my heart were warmed in the blink of an embattled politician's eye when I was told that the air conditioning was working quite well at Qualcomm Stadium, which was among several shelters that had been opened up to evacuees. It made me proud to be a registered voter, albeit in Southwestern Florida, where some folks are still living in FEMA trailers as a result of 2004's Hurricane Charlie.(...) I can only imagine what the Superdome would have been like with massage therapy, big-screen TVs and live rock bands, not to mention food, water and perhaps port-a-potties to suppress that lingering moldy urine smell. READ IT ALL