Comments on: U.S. Embassy Helps Americans in Burma Cyclone – The Bastards!

By: Nightly Ramble:Hillary VP? Burma vs NOLA, more. | BitsBlog

Nightly Ramble:Hillary VP? Burma vs NOLA, more. | BitsBlog — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:07:50 +0000

[...] see; How long did it take for outside help to get to NOLA? Of course the usual suspects are complaining how our people there were helped first, as Joyner informs us. I tell him, It strikes me that in the [...]

By: KJ

KJ — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:32:58 +0000

If we follow Attackerman's point to it's logical conclusion... the function of the State Dept. of to assure that US citizens are provided as additional victims for disasters such as this. This may be one of the great idiot blog comments of the past year.

By: charles austin

charles austin — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:59:40 +0000

Shouldn't they rename themselves feelprogress? Thinking appears to takes a backseat to feeling. Outrage certainly doesn't have much of a contribution to make to anyone actually trying to help.

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:31:13 +0000

It's not clear exactly what Ackerman's point is. He could be just criticizing the blog as being tone-deaf. For example, the blog post could have been rewritten to say essentially the same thing by first emphasizing that this is a human tragedy, then going on to note that:

"As the Department of State, our role is..."

Imagine if it were a corporate blog. Of course, we all understand that the purpose of a business is to make money. Nonetheless, an official blog post from a drug company that reads:

"At XYZ Inc., whenever a new disease emerges, our first thought is how we can use this opportunity to increase our profits..."

would be considered a PR disaster.

However, to a large degree, I do think that Ackerman is overreacting.

By: Bithead

Bithead — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:13:06 +0000

It strikes me that in the aftermath of Katrina, those at the bizzarely named "think progress" were busy blaming BOOOOOSSSSSSCCCHHHH for people not getting help, there, instead of putting the blame for their not getting help sqaurely on the shoulders of the local and state governments there.

Are we now, based on their rection to this, to assume that the state and local governments in and around NOLA are as helpless as those in Burma?