Kevin Drum and the Art of the Stage

Apparently, according to Kevin Drum (courtesy, in turn, of Laura Rozen), Bush's press conference was a stage-managed farce:

UPDATE: Good God. Laura Rozen passes along the following report from a Dutch reader:

There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV.

ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.

The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF.

This goes beyond stage management. This is criminal.

This is Bush. This is Republicanism.

And, although this may be the wrong time for this, this is what you voted for, America. You hold some responsibility for this. Nowhere near as much as the criminal partisan mismanagers at the (now comically named) "Department of Homeland SECURITY", but Bush voters and nonvoters alike have their own small part in this.

They have their own thinking to do about exactly what this means and how their own behavior fits into this, just like Ms. Beast and her pet Randroids.

If nothing else, they need to learn just what fucking time it is.