Per the Chicago Tribune today:
http://tinyurl.com/are5e

I have taken the best thoughts on this editorial article to include here, but strongly encourage visitors to this blog to look to the original post in full. I found it just now in Yahoo! News. But as we all know, these are the headlines and stories that may appear briefly in American mainstream media but suddenly disappear. My bolded sections are what really strike me.

For the title, this comes from the quoted statement of "historian Robert Dallek", from this article. It crystalizes the crisis that all the Bush Administration spin cannot alter. This blog post today directly relates to my post yesterday on the political and semantic use of the term "Blame Game" as a way to draw attention away from legitimate concern and attention RIGHT NOW, not in February 2006 when the President suggests his investigation into the failures of the Katrina Relief effort commence.

By Michael Tackett Tribune, senior correspondent
2 hours, 15 minutes ago

Optimism,
Colin Powell famously said, is a force multiplier.

In Washington, so is blame.

Blame is a main exit off the road to getting elected. So in times good or bad, officials try mightily to avoid it, or at least to shoulder it well.

In the 24/7, split-screen, blog-drenched, unfiltered America, controlling the image and controlling the language go a long way toward controlling the blame.

But so far, the only clear winner of the recent battle of images is the lethal, inanimate force of nature named Katrina.

On Thursday, President Bush stood before a bank of television cameras--American flags arrayed behind him--to announce financial aid and other assistance for victims of Hurricane Katrina. But broadcast alongside that announcement were images from New Orleans and reports that more than a dozen bodies were being removed from a hospital.

It has been that kind of communications battle for the president and the army of Cabinet officers who have been deployed. Vice President Dick Cheney made his first trip to the Gulf Coast area Thursday, sleeves rolled up, concern on his face, empathy in his voice.

But a ceremonial visit is not enough. The difficulty so far for the administration has been making the images and words match the reality that people are seeing on their screens.

"There's no question that these sorts of television images have a big impact on people and in many respects shape reactions to the White House," said historian Robert Dallek. "But at some point it's the reality that bites.

"The images that have been constantly on television--a city that is under water, people who have been displaced, sobbing, crying, the evacuation of people--you can have this kind of spin-doctoring and have people say all sorts of things, but I think these realities on the ground [matter]."

SNIP
"This is a basic crisis communications principle: When you are dealing in a crisis situation, people want to look, see and feel that some type of leadership is being projected," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic communications consultant.

"There is a void, and people are looking for someone to fill that void," he added. "In the modern media age when most people get their information through television images, it is important to physically show leadership."

But there is only so much that even good staging and soaring words can overcome.

SNIP
At the same time, the public relations war is one the president cannot afford to lose.

"It's crucial," said Keith Appell, a Republican communications consultant whose firm often does battle for conservative clients in the culture wars. "Under President Clinton, I thought his FEMA director, James Lee Witt, was very effective, and it benefited President Clinton.

SNIP
Last Friday, when the president first visited with disaster victims in Mississippi, he hugged and kissed victims alongside scenes of relief trucks arriving.

The president, who let several days pass before visiting the devastated Gulf Coast, initially failed to provide a similarly strong image of effective leadership. As yet, he has not even given a nationally televised prime-time address to Americans about his plan for dealing with the disaster. To be sure, he has said that the initial response was "unacceptable" and vowed forceful action.

However, the problem has been that for every positive image, there have been dozens more that have been negative. Even the words of the president's mother, Barbara Bush, added to the problem when she seemed to suggest that those evacuated to the Astrodome might be better off than if they had continued to live their impoverished lives in New Orleans.

That has led to a rush to assign blame among both Democrats and Republicans. While the president was quick to say earlier in the week that he did not want to engage in a blame game, others in his party have done so frontally.

In a release Thursday, the House Republican Conference blamed local and state officials in Louisiana, many of whom are Democrats. The release included a photo showing hundreds of school buses under water and said city officials could have used those buses to evacuate citizens. The release also blamed the mayor of New Orleans for the decision to use the Superdome as a shelter.

SNIP
For Bush, the difficulty is that the images from the Superdome, the New Orleans convention center, and now, constantly, from the water-clogged streets are beamed the world over. And the president, by stepping out last week and vowing to clean up the mess, in essence took responsibility for the relief effort, if not failures in preparedness.

"The argument that goes on now is about `Let's not play the blame game, because we need to get on with the business of caring for people,'" Dallek said. "But the rejoinder to that, at least by thinking people, is that if you had people who failed at their jobs, you need to look now. Do you want them to stay in place and continue doing a lousy job?"

Winning the battle of images is only part of the struggle. The administration also has tried to shape the language around the recovery, notably when the president, and then nearly every Cabinet officer, said that "saving lives" was the first priority. Bush also offered up his administration as "problem solvers" who ultimately would get results.

So far, the president's critics say, the administration has found neither the words nor the images to inspire confidence.

"Even as we speak, they really haven't determined what the tones and right chords are," said Lehane, who worked for Vice President Al Gore. "On the communications level, these story lines get written very quickly. . . . At the end of the day, you just come back to the fact that this is a national disaster and the national government is responsible for handling it."

"Blame Game" = Family Values

Seriously.

The amazing usurption of the Conservative Right and Religious Right in Amerika over the use of semantics is at work in the usual way. Name something and then you give people a hook, a key phrase that will now become what you want it to mean. In this case, "Blame Game" is used by the Bush administration to draw attention from what the media and PEOPLE are saying about the continuing debacle of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and the all-too-insufficient federal response. As we know, if the phrase catches on further, it will come to mean:

Anyone who continues to discuss concerns and bring up documented FACT that does not put the US federal government in a good light."

For evidence, see the first major document revealed by the Freedom of Information Act in the publication of the exact letter the FEMA chief sent to the Homeland Security chief THE DAY AFTER the Hurricane devasted the Gulf States. Here is the plain truth:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0907051fema2.html
(scan of entire document and horrifying bureaucratese language)

http://tinyurl.com/7mcsy
spin control ordered by FEMA

And then there are the "timelines" now fluorishing in online publications! I spent part of yesterday recording complete web pages and archiving them of relevant articles in respected sources. Just in case they "disappear" from public view. After all, a federal "investigation" has been ordered, oh, say for FEBRUARY 2006, that will be the time to investigate the failures of this administration and the departments from FEMA, to Homeland Security, to the Pentagon, to the National Guard. The heroic attempts of the National Weather Service and NOLA to alert the Bush administration and request complete attention to the disaster BEFORE it happened will also be awash in the nether lands because they will point to documentation that does exist to show that the federal government was fully informed prior to the Hurricane hit and during the disaster.

Oh, except for those federal government officials that claimed they had no idea that there was chaos and over 20,000 trapped in the Superdome until 2 days later. Even though there was round the clock TV news coverage on all channels! Maybe they missed this video from Monday a week
ago:
Insane video taken on Monday, August 28 over New Orleans

Or this fine set of video clip links on the Daily Show with John Stewart, covering the timeline and the "Blame Game" with the usual "fair and balanced" pointed humor to direct attention where it must be not forgotten:
http://www.overspun.com/?cat=2

And maybe we the people need to keep more tabs on the amazing growth curve of federal government secrecy:

Let's Reverse the Pattern of Secrecy

Concerned that our government keeps from the American public information that we need to make our families safe, secure our country and strengthen democracy, a broad-based set of organizations formed OpenTheGovernment.org. We hope you'll help.

Oh, but doing all this investigation on a minor scale by easily accessible search results on the Internet by the PEOPLE is probably just going to be dismissed as a "Blame Game" tactic to discredit the esteemable BushCo, isn't it? Perhaps my "family values" are different. And thankfully so, for whatever it is "called", this Blame Game stinks.

After all, Blame Game spin is on a national and multi-national corporate scale these days... And we really need to have our attention on more money to rebuild Iraq, FAR MORE IMPORTANT than a rebuild of the Gulf States. And if Dennis Hastert has his way, New Orleans will not be rebuilt. Didn't take long for suggestions to come on that level and spin. Now let me see, after the 9-11 disaster, were there any calls to rebuild NYC somewhere else? I think not. But then we launched the War of Terrorism (no, I did not slip on the verbage) to seek revenge. Where is the War on Poverty in Amerika? Oh, doh, I forgot, there's no money to be gotten from uncontrolled foreign oil sources there.

Blame game, indeed.

BTW, here's that timeline, summarized by MoveOn.org:

Friday, Aug. 26: Gov. Kathleen Blanco declares a state of emergency in Louisiana and requests troop assistance.

Saturday, Aug. 27: Gov. Blanco asks for federal state of emergency. A federal emergency is declared giving federal officials the authority to get involved.

Sunday, Aug. 28: Mayor Ray Nagin orders mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. President Bush warned of Levee failure by National Hurricane Center. National Weather Service predicts area will be "uninhabitable" after Hurricane arrives. First reports of water toppling over the levee appear in local paper.

Monday, Aug. 29: Levee breaches and New Orleans begins to fill with water, Bush travels to Arizona and California to discuss Medicare. FEMA chief finally responds to federal emergency, dispatching employees but giving them two days to arrive on site.

Tuesday, Aug. 30: Mass looting reported, security shortage cited in New Orleans. Pentagon says that local authorities have adequate National Guard units to handle hurricane needs despite governor's earlier request. Bush returns to Crawford for final day of vacation. TV coverage is around-the-clock Hurricane news.

Wednesday, Aug. 31: Tens of thousands trapped in New Orleans including at Convention Center and Superdome in "medieval" conditions. President Bush finally returns to Washington to establish a task force to coordinate federal response. Local authorities run out of food and water supplies.

Thursday, Sept. 1: New Orleans descends into anarchy. New Orleans Mayor issues a "Desperate SOS" to federal government. Bush claims nobody predicted the breach of the levees despite multiple warnings and his earlier briefing.

Friday, Sept. 2: Karl Rove begins Bush administration campaign to blame state and local officials—despite their repeated requests for help. Bush stages a photo-op—diverting Coast Guard helicopters and crew to act as backdrop for cameras. Levee repair work orchestrated for president's visit and White House press corps.

Saturday, Sept. 3: Bush blames state and local officials. Senior administration official (possibly Rove) caught in a lie claiming Gov. Blanco had not declared a state of emergency or asked for help.

Monday, Sept. 5: New Orleans officials begin to collect their dead.

(Adapted from: Katrina Timeline, http://thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline/ )

Those are the facts. State and local officials BEGGED for help as people in their city suffered. The Bush administration didn't get the job done and when their failure became an embarrassment they attacked those asking for help.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Karl Rove and White House communications director Dan Bartlett "rolled out a plan...to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina." The core of the strategy is "to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana."

This is the same pattern of smearing that the Bush political machine has used for a decade. John McCain and John Kerry had their war records smeared. The CIA cover of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife was blown after he criticized the Bush Iraq policy. Now, Hurricane victims are attacked when the Bush administration failed to do their duty to help them.

It isn't just the Bush administration. Republican Senator Rick Santorum blamed victims in a TV interview and House Speaker Dennis Hastert suggested New Orleans should not be rebuilt.

We can't let them get away with this. Please sign our petition today and do your part.

MoveOn Petition

More links I found yesterday:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0907051fema2.html
(scan of entire document and horrifying bureaucratize)

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0907051fema1.html?link=rssfeed
spin control ordered by FEMA

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-09-07-voa50.cfm
Voice of America has been hitting this hard - loss of 400,000 jobs expected
(Makes the 160,000 increase in July a bit hard to celebrate, doesn't it? Plus there is no accounting for those new jobs that are minimum wage only.)

http://govexec.com/fedblog/#1120
Another fine blogger collecting verifyable facts and timeline

Brendan Loy, a student at Notre Dame in weather science followed and sent alarms about this storm from August 26. He was ignored.
See the amazing blog entries:
http://brendanloy.com/page2.html#112511310874584823

Part of the mission, according to the documents obtained by The Associated Press, was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims.

This is copied from yahoo news, by an AP story this is out right now online. Given the propensity for such headlines and stories to suddenly disappear, this blog post is made quickly to be sure that folks DO SEE THIS. Since we Amerikans are all so relieved that Bush and the federal government is going to look into their own shortfalls on Katrina disaster response, I thought this would be a good place to start looking...

By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 7, 2:18 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The top U.S. disaster official waited hours after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast before he proposed to his boss sending at least 1,000
Homeland Security workers into the region to support rescuers, internal documents show.

Part of the mission, according to the documents obtained by The Associated Press, was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims.

Acknowledging that such a move would take two days, Michael Brown, director of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29.

Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller rescue and communications teams across the Gulf Coast. But officials acknowledged the first department-wide appeal for help came only as the storm raged.

Brown's memo to Chertoff described Katrina as "this near catastrophic event" but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, "Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities." http://tinyurl.com/8v8wn