Recently, CNN’s Glenn Beck (his radio program began in Tampa, by the way) had on the science and operations officer of the National Hurricane Center, Chris Landsea.
I’ve chosen bits & pieces here, but don’t believe I’m taking it out of context. To double-check, I encourage you to read the entire transcript from CNN. But in a nutshell,
BECK: Yesterday, the director of the National Hurricane Center retired and he left us with these parting words — this will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside: “The biggest concern we have in our country is the rapid buildup of the coastlines. We`re setting ourselves up for another disaster,” end quote. This guy should know…
Chris, how real is this that we can be devastated by a hurricane?
CHRIS LANDSEA, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Well, we look back on the U.S. hurricane history, and throughout our history, we have seen devastating hurricanes with hundreds, even thousands killed, and perhaps with — before Katrina, many people thought that would not happen again. But with 1,400 dead in Louisiana and Mississippi, we realize we are very vulnerable to strong hurricanes.
BECK: OK. Yesterday and when I heard the final — the final words of the hurricane chief, and he said, you know, this is coming, I thought exactly of the words that I read about, starting I think in the 1950s, the warnings in New Orleans, “It`s coming, it`s coming, reinforce the walls” and nobody did anything about it.
And now here we are rebuilding the wall to the exact same level as it was before. I mean, it`s going to happen again in New Orleans, isn`t it?
LANDSEA: Well, New Orleans is very vulnerable. So is Houston. So is Tampa. So it Miami, even New York. And so it`s not a matter if you`ll have a strong hurricane strike those areas; it`s a matter of when.
BECK: What is the city that you`re most concerned about? What`s the one that you say, this is it? This is ground zero?
LANDSEA: It could be Tampa. Extremely vulnerable, low lying, a big bay. A hurricane will funnel the water in and flood the entire city.
BECK: Right.
LANDSEA: New York is extremely vulnerable, too, if a hurricane strikes just west of them and funnels all that water just north along Long Island into the city itself. They could have 20 to 25 feet of storm surge.
BECK: Actually, that would clean the streets out. It might not be bad.
Chris, thanks a lot.
Ok, so what is the main point of that interview?
- another big, badass hurricane WILL hit a big population center sooner or later, and Tampa may be the most vulnerable
- glenn beck wants a hurricane to hit NYC
- glenn beck is a terrorist
Huffington Post chooses #2, which allows the parrot lefties to select #3. Michael Bouldin’s take is among the most ridiculous, asking why rightwing blogs haven’t taken Beck to task. Good Morning America has since hired Glenn Beck, and Media Matters is all up in arms for the future of our great country.
Wait a minute. Slow down. Before we go on and on about how Glenn Beck is an ass, tells horrible jokes, and how on earth anyone could give him his own program, perhaps we need to read that transcript again.
Oh. There’s a hurricane coming, and these bloggers want you to be aware of Glenn Freakin’ Beck. Who gives a rat’s ass about him, if you are going to be under 20 feet of seawater? Idiot bloggers, that’s who. It seems they are so concerned - no, obsessed - with proving the other side wrong, incompetent, or divisive, that they fail to address the actual meat of the CONVERSATION.
But it’s not just the left wing that does this. So do those in the conservative ranks. Sue Carlton has a column about the right wing making a huge deal about Senator Barbara Boxer’s comments toward Condoleeza Rice. Sue Carlton:
What I heard from Boxer was an observation on who makes the big decisions about this war and who lives and dies with the repercussions - and the great divide between the two.
To divert from that with a sideshow, and from the larger point of where this war is going - now there’s your insult.
Insulting, indeed. Bloggers both left and right are very quick to attack the messenger, rather than discuss the issues. And all of that gets you, the reader to focus on things of very little import, while ignoring those issues that truly affect you.
By the way, in case you missed the point while I was going on and on about people missing the point,
another big, badass hurricane WILL hit a big population center sooner or later, and Tampa may be the most vulnerable
Chantal, Dean, Erin, Felix, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Noel, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van and Wendy. That’s this year’s list of hurricane names. There are six lists that rotate and they do not change unless there is a hurricane that is so devastating that 
I don’t know what it is about this picture but for some reason it seems to capture everything about the event for me. Like everyone else, I watched the events in New Orleans from the comfort of my dry living room. I judged the NOLA government, I judged FEMA, I judged Washington, I judged the rioters and I judged what went down in the Superdome. I judged it all… over dinner, from the comfort of my dry, air conditioned living room. For the Southeast and Gulf coasts, it really isn’t a matter of if so much as when will we get hit. The Tampa/St. Pete area has been really fortunate. So far. Watching the Katrina events unfold, it was scary knowing that your town could be next. FEMA still sucks and will fall short again in 2007. If nothing else, that is guaranteed.
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