San Diego Fire Evacuees vs. Katrina Evacuees: Who Ya Got?:
One of the mightier acts of bullshit sophistry that's already started (and will continue) is the comparison of how "well-behaved" are the people who have evacuated to San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium from the fires engulfing the nearby areas and how utterly degraded and savage were the people who made their way to the Superdome and Convention Center in New Orleans before, during, and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

A conservatistas over at Hot Air has already said as much (even allowing for the orders of magnitude larger the Katrina devastation was). Surely other crazoid blogs will pile on. And certainly what Glenn "If You Hire a Cretinous Retard, Expect Him To Say Cretinous, Retarded Things" Beck spewed about America haters getting their houses burned down will be less offensive than what's coming. Yeah, it's all race and class-based, and it's also pathetically narrow and simple-minded.

So let's dispose of this quickly through the magic of photos.

Here's what's going on outside the Qualcomm Stadium:

Here's where you can check your e-mail.


And, hey, here's some flag-twirling stilt walkers in thongs.

Now let's check out what was going in New Orleans:

That's a dead guy left to rot in a lawn chair outside the Convention Center. Wonder if he's wearing a thong.

If you look closely, you can see the Superdome, with the holes in the roof, surrounded by a water-covered city, only accessible by boat or aircraft. If the people were lucky. It's sort of like being able to deliver food, water, medicine, diapers, beds, and more by the truckload to people who are being entertained by live bands and massage therapists who can drive to the stadium in their cars. Except for the fact that it's not.

Yes, what's happening to people in California is hideous, awful, and other adjectives, and it's great that the evacuees there are being treated like human beings. But other than the desperate president trying desperately to not look like a desperate boob and trying to make sure everyone sees he's in charge and that he's "learned lessons" since Katrina, there is no reason to compare. Indeed, comparing the two masses of people at the evacuation sites is not unlike comparing apples and drowned people.