« Architecture for Humanity wins design prize | Main | DHS - the (cough cough) series! » Bush and RitaPresident Bush is making a lot of noise about government's preparedness for Hurricane Rita, which seems to've been named for the national drink of Texas. Ultimately Rita, at one point the third largest storm in recorded history, lost its punch, but it still made a mess of Texas and Louisiana along the Gulf of Mexico. At the Texas Emergency Operations Center in Austin, Bush said "I'm really here to let the folks in Texas know that the federal government knows we have a responsibility to support you in the mission of saving lives – first and foremost – and then help to rebuild their lives." The telepundits agree that Bush was more responsive this week, attributing his burst of energy to his attempt to recover points lost to his Katrina nonperformance. Nobody mentioned that Rita struck his home state, near Houston, where he used to live. My bet is that he would've been Johnny-on-the-spot (or Georgie-on-the-spot) even if Katrina had never happened, so I wouldn't read too much into it. Meanwhile the Texas evacuation was as orderly as anything that impossible could be, though evacuees heading for Austin found "no vacancy" signs, with the city already booked for the Austin City Limits Festival. jon posted this at 10:06 AM |
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Don't be too impressed by GW. He had no intention of being "on the spot" at all. Last week he cancelled his trip to San Antonio and announced he would monitor the storm from NOAA's Colorado headquarters. (The official reason given? He didn't want to be a "distraction" from rescue efforts.) Only after a bit of backlash -- including reminders of his flight to Nebraska during 9/11 -- was the Texas stop added back into his schedule.
Posted by: Marla | September 25, 2005 11:20 AM
Was Rita's last name Shiner?
Posted by: Aldon Hynes | September 25, 2005 6:26 PM
Don't understand. Rita is a name of drink or name of storm?
Posted by: Fedor | December 11, 2005 5:48 AM