Unimaginable

Posted by on . 13 comments.

no_intention.jpg

You have no idea how bad it is down here.

The President plans to swagger down here on Monday to brag about how he’s keeping his promise to the people of New Orleans.

I’m going to bring you reality.

Comments

  1. Nick in Beantown says:
    August 24, 2006 at 7:48 am

    You have no idea how bad it is down here.

    Tell it, brother.

  2. btezra says:
    August 24, 2006 at 5:23 pm

    ~reality, for Bush, does not exist…plain and simple, I have never seen, known, hated, despised a President so much because they are so out of touch with reality~

  3. Rhonda says:
    August 25, 2006 at 11:06 am

    Are you blaming Bush for the slow cleanup? Seems like Nagin thinks he’s in charge….

    But before any rebuilding can take place, the clean-up and restoration of the city’s infrastructure must be complete and it will be Mayor Nagin, recently re-elected, who leads the efforts.

    Perhaps you need to take the blinders off and look around a bit more before entering into a tired old pattern of blaming Bush for everything….

  4. matt says:
    August 25, 2006 at 11:16 am

    blinders? well, one of us is down here, and one of us isn’t. i wrote a three line post letting my readers know that i was here and what i planned to do. you jumped to assumptions, but you’re free to play the idiot if that’s your plan.

    the tired pattern is his long string of fuckups and the sycophantic entourage of apologizers who try to pawn off blame on people who aren’t “the decider.”

  5. Rhonda says:
    August 25, 2006 at 11:28 am

    You can take that up with Nagin, he seems to disagree with you…

  6. matt says:
    August 25, 2006 at 11:37 am

    you do understand that Katrina damaged more than just the territory of new orleans proper, right? that it affected things wholly outside of the mayor of new orleans’ control? that the federal government is responsible for quite a few things even within the boundaries of new orleans? maybe you don’t.

    i carry no brief for nagin. in fact i find him to be mostly an opportunistic idiot. but it wasn’t nagin who stood in jackson square and made a bunch of promises he had no intention of keeping. bush basked in the purple lighting and the glow of the media, and accepted the good coverage it produced. now he must answer for reality. and he isn’t coming down here to beg for forgiveness. so the man who wants all the power of a king is just going to have to accept the responsibility from those who are watching. and those who feel the need to shelter the poor helpless president can continue to delude themselves.

  7. Jen says:
    August 25, 2006 at 11:52 am

    Obviously a pipe dream…

    …but if Nagin or Bush wanted to make a good impression for anyone they would take some time out and just go down there, roll up their sleeves and help out. What a waste of money to go down there and do absolutely nothing. I am sure that there are several people that would have used their plane ticket to get down there and lended a hand/a little of their personal time.

    It seems that politicians act like they are above doing volunteer work. It would be really awesome if they could just set a physical example for once… even if they only where able to dedicate one day month.

    Or at least have the balls to say… this part of town is fucked and we need to get all of you to a better place.

  8. Rhonda says:
    August 25, 2006 at 11:59 am

    There is damage to more than just New Orleans but you are in New Orleans and are making it the focus of what you say represents a failure of Bush. Yet the rate of cleanup and reconstruction varies even within NO itself, let alone the entire affected region. It would be fair for you to point out what is still wrong and needs fixing along with what has been done right and put blame where blame belongs, equally with no bias, if that’s possible…

  9. matt says:
    August 25, 2006 at 12:07 pm

    Yet the rate of cleanup and reconstruction varies even within NO itself, let alone the entire affected region.

    you think? which parts would you guess are experiencing a better rate?

    It would be fair for you to point out what is still wrong and needs fixing along with what has been done right and put blame where blame belongs, equally with no bias, if that’s possible…

    i’ll point out whatever the fuck i want. and until i actually write something other than a three line post, your little blocking tactic for your hero is just plain silly. sillier still when you aren’t even here. whose facts are you relying on for your opinion?

  10. sarabeth says:
    August 25, 2006 at 1:20 pm

    It would be fair for you to point out what is still wrong and needs fixing along with what has been done right and put blame where blame belongs, equally with no bias, if that’s possible…

    It would be fair if the Bush administration did that too, right?

    I’ll bet you any amount you care to name that that’s not what they’re going to be doing in the next three or four days.

  11. Diane says:
    August 26, 2006 at 9:11 am

    Matt, don’t you think you are getting a little fired up with unnecessary language when Rhonda is just expressing her opinion? Which is by the way, what you are doing too. People forget it’s their opinions that they are saying (as I am). None of us who preach what the President is doing right or wrong is there in the midst of political happening so we truly don’t know. That makes us have opinions. Don’t be so arrogant.

  12. matt says:
    August 26, 2006 at 10:04 am

    we’ve heard this point of view over and over. shielding the president and blaming others. it’s enough already. i’m down here talking to people and photographing what i see. none of it is acceptable. none of it measures up to what was promised. i don’t care what’s going on behind closed doors. i care about what i am seeing. and as soon as i can pull all the photos together and organize my thoughts, my readers will see it as well. we can have a full debate then, but i will not suffer this pre-emptive shielding of the president based on one photo and three lines of text.

  1. philly » Blog Archive » New Orleans Improvements says:
    August 25, 2006 at 10:11 am

    [...] And Matt points to the 1115.org blog and corresponding flickr stream. Matt Cohen of 1115 is down in New Orleans investigating how much has changed as far as he can see. His first post titled "Unimaginable" leads with a photograph of a piece of stickerart which reads There is no real intention to rebuild New Orleans. And follows with three short sentences: You have no idea how bad it is down here. [...]