Nic White has made a stand against what he sees as the 'politicising' of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and Tim Dunlop at Road to Surfdom has more.
I think this post by Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings pretty much sums up my opinion of 'politicising' in this context:
Criticizing the administration's response to this or any other disaster is not 'politicizing' it. There are, I think, two ways of politicizing something. One is to drag politics into a discussion where it does not belong. Thus, if I decided to make a big issue out of Laura Bush's birthday party, that would be 'politicizing' it. I can't imagine in what possible world criticism of the administration's response to a catastrophe would count as 'politicizing' in this sense.
The other way is to use something to score cheap political points. Criticism of the administration's response to Katrina only counts as 'politicizing' if that criticism is motivated by partisanship, rather than by genuine outrage. Criticism of people as 'politicizing' the disaster is, fundamentally, a criticism of their character: it means either that they have allowed partisanship to skew their judgment, so that they overstate their criticisms, or that their motives are not grief, outrage, and anger, but a desire to score political points.
This is important. If all criticism of the administration were out of bounds, we would have no way of registering any of its failures.
Political football is not good, but genuine criticisms should not wait until the disaster is 'tidied up'. There is anger in the air and it's not just partisan name-calling.
NB: I apologise about the lack of trackbacks -- can someone au fait with TypePad help me out with this? I've tried following the destructions but it didn't work.
Kate, you can manually send trackbacks from this site til someone can show you how to in TypePad (I would, but I don't know!):
http://www.aylwardfamily.com/content/tbping.asp
Posted by: Mark Bahnisch | September 05, 2005 at 07:20 PM
Like I said - constructively criticise response = good, blame and point fingers for stuff that happened before Katrina hit while the rescue effor is ongoing = bad
Posted by: Nic White | September 05, 2005 at 11:36 PM
I suggest people watch this video, a bit of it was on 730 Report last night. I was having fun stoushing on the 1970 thread at LP at their time, rather stopped me right in my tracks.
Watch it right to the end.
Frankly I think its pretty petty to be getting so self-righteous about petty point scoring when stuff llike this is going down. Damn right fingers should be pointed. NOW.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/04.html#a4783
Posted by: Amanda | September 06, 2005 at 03:18 AM
Well, Nic, if what happened before the Hurricane lead directly to the disaster after it, I see no problem with laying blame and finger-pointing.
There will be plenty to go around.
Posted by: Kate | September 06, 2005 at 08:09 AM
>
Posted by: kim | August 12, 2007 at 08:04 AM
Hi, I only care that I have my mother proud of me. Because I know that my father hates me so I really don’t care if he is proud of me or not. I have tryed to walk the strait and narrow path and faltered afew time. But, at the end of the day I would like to know that my Mother was proud I was her son
I am sorry if it to you not interestingly.
Posted by: Tomas Wong | August 17, 2007 at 02:41 PM
Hi, I only care that I have my mother proud of me. Because I know that my father hates me so I really don’t care if he is proud of me or not. I have tryed to walk the strait and narrow path and faltered afew time. But, at the end of the day I would like to know that my Mother was proud I was her son
I am sorry if it to you not interestingly.
Posted by: Tomas Wong | August 17, 2007 at 02:41 PM
Hi, I only care that I have my mother proud of me. Because I know that my father hates me so I really don’t care if he is proud of me or not. I have tryed to walk the strait and narrow path and faltered afew time. But, at the end of the day I would like to know that my Mother was proud I was her son
I am sorry if it to you not interestingly.
Posted by: Tomas Wong | August 17, 2007 at 02:43 PM
Hi.
Wonderful and informative web site.
bye, bye ;-)
Posted by: Britney Pocked | August 25, 2007 at 03:31 AM
Hi.
Wonderful and informative web site.
bye, bye ;-)
Posted by: Britney Pocked | August 25, 2007 at 05:31 PM
Hi.
Wonderful and informative web site.
bye, bye ;-)
Posted by: Britney Pocked | August 25, 2007 at 05:42 PM
Hi.
Wonderful and informative web site.
bye, bye ;-)
Posted by: Britney Pocked | August 26, 2007 at 03:00 AM
Hi.
Wonderful and informative web site.
bye, bye ;-)
Posted by: Britney Pocked | August 26, 2007 at 04:46 AM
Pretty nice site, wants to see much more on it! :)
[url=][/url]
I am sorry if it to you not interestingly.
Posted by: Britney Pocked | August 26, 2007 at 08:48 PM
check abcba05b7e now
Posted by: yqwfmg | September 25, 2007 at 12:52 AM
check abcba05b7e now
Posted by: yqwfmg | September 25, 2007 at 12:53 AM
[URL=][/URL]
Posted by: | November 05, 2007 at 09:55 PM
[URL=][/URL]
Posted by: | November 05, 2007 at 10:11 PM
Posted by: | November 05, 2007 at 11:15 PM
Posted by: | November 05, 2007 at 11:57 PM
[URL=][/URL]
Posted by: | November 06, 2007 at 01:19 AM
Posted by: | November 06, 2007 at 02:01 AM
Posted by: | November 06, 2007 at 02:22 AM
Posted by: | November 06, 2007 at 02:22 AM
[URL=][/URL]
Posted by: | November 06, 2007 at 03:51 AM