Shame

Posted on by

Top Gear in New Orleans

This is a clip from a British reality show, Top Gear. In this episode, three Brits buy cheap cars in Florda and take a road trip across the Deep South to New Orleans. A video to another segment is posted at Crooks and Liars.

This clip shows the end of the trip, as the guys drive into New Orleans. Here’s a transcript:

[voiceover] My word; were we in for a shock. We had seen on the news what Hurricane Katrina had done, but seeing the devastation for real was truly astonishing.

[The Brits look around]

[Brit #1:] Oh, my god

[Brit #2:] Oh, look at this

[Brit #3:] Well, now this is extraordinary. Every house! I’ve been driving now, what about 15 miles. There isn’t a pavement, there isn’t a building, there isn’t anything that isn’t smashed. It’s such a vast scale of destruction.

[Voiceover] A year had passed since Katrina had blown through, and we sort of assumed that after 12 months the wealthiest nation on earth would have fixed it. But we were wrong.

How can the rest of America sleep at night knowing that this is here?

Well, how can we?

Happy Mardi Gras. I guess.

10 thoughts on “Shame”

  1. We can sleep because we don’t have a grasp for the extent of the damage. Limited visual exposure helps maintain an abstract understanding that doesn’t convey the enormity of the damage. By looking at the video, I’d say…you’ve got to see it to believe it and comprehend it. Even at that, we’re only getting a partial picture.

  3. But– but– but– Bush put on a tool belt!

    If some really pissed-off TV journalist (hey, Brian Williams, I’m talking to you) went down there and drove around like the British guys, filming everything just as it is, and then NBC pre-empted all three hours of primetime one night to show us the fubar state of things…. Aw, hell, what am I thinking? No one would watch. Especially not if it was on opposite American Idol.

  4. The “still deceased” Anna Nicole gets more press…..
    But here’s the thing I learned on the “spirtual” Moody radio channel in Central Florida, God destroyed New Orleans because it was a wicked city, and the place was full of welfare blacks anyway.Caller after caller on this “Christian” radio station expressed this sentiment. Shocking, I tell you!

    I remember a song from my early
    Catholic school dazes,
    “What ever you do to the least of my brothers, that you also do unto me!”
    That has been pre-empted by “me first” and “sorry about you luck, suckers!”

  6. Learned helplessness, that’s how. As bad as Katrina is, I don’t think it makes my top five list of Bush administration horrors. How can we sleep with the destruction of our constitution, of checks and balances, of habeas corpus, the Iraq war, the trashing of our economy, of our international reputation, global warming, the fact that 32% of the American people still approve of Bush because he shares their values (ick), that the Supreme Court will be a reactionary bastion for decades, that Bush is a drooling fool with his hand on the button.

    In some ways, I thank God for Katrina, because it seems to have been the trigger that finally turned the country against Bush.

  7. Thanks for blogging about New Orleans. Really, there is progress. I’m afraid it gets lost in the middle of all this destruction. It’s going to take years to fix this place, so we appreciate your attention.

    Peace,

    Tim

  8. How can we sleep at night? I would argue that some of us don’t.

    I don’t know which makes me angrier – the administration’s continuing abysmal response to this tragedy or the MSM’s failure to report on the administration’s continuing abysmal response to this tragedy.

  9. Didn’t Joe Lieberman, who now has the chairmanship of the Senate oversight committee re: Katrina [Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs], make a statement awhile back that he would NOT be doing further spotlighting or investigation about Katrina issues?
    This makes me angry about what I think is the worst kind of inter-party collusion at the top layers of power. Lieberman accepted lots of money and support from Republicans to run as an independent against Lamont after Lamont won the Democratic primary in Connecticut. Then, three months later, he pays back the Republican supporters by neglecting the victims of Katrina.

    I have to tell you, it is this kind of collusion potential with respect to Hillary clinton [yep, the clinton spelled with a small ‘c’] being backed by Murdoch, that has me really worried about the future of the Democratic party and the future of our nation.

Comments are closed.