Was it ALL staged?

Blah3 thinks so:

was tuning in and out of Bush's massive photo op on the Gulf Coast yesterday, and everything at the time seemed just a little too pat for me. From the 'briefing' that went on in a hangar full of helicopters to his walking down a street in Biloxi and having three regular citizens walk up to him for comforting to the last press availiability of the day when he announced that the Convention Center was secure and the levees were being repaired, it was clear that the game plan from the White House was for Bush to go to the region, look decisive, comfort a few citizens, and announce at the end of the day that all was well.

It was a full-on effort to change the subject of discussion from the utter failure of the Bush administration to handle the crisis with even a hint of competency, and in true Bush fashion, he wrapped it up at 5:00 PM and announced that he was 'Flyin' out of (t)here.'

But from beginning to end, the entire exercise was a series of lies - a Potemkin photo op designed to fool those Americans who were not bothering to look closely at what was going on. Let's look at key aspects of Bush's trip that were covered by television.

Go read the analysis. It's hard to come to any other conclusion than that everything was staged in an attempt to stem the damage to the Bush presidency.

That three tons of food for flood victims lay baking in the sun because air traffic was grounded so C-Plus Nero could do a photo-op is disgusting.

And it'll be interesting to see how much progress there is once the media begins spinning for Bush again, lest they be disinvited to White House cocktail parties. It looks like not much. Mary Landrieu, who was blasted by Anderson Cooper last week for spouting platitudes and praising the Federal effort, has had just about enough of being a good little brownshirt:

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., charged Saturday President Bush's visit to a New Orleans levee Friday was a photo opportunity on a hastily prepared stage set.

Landrieu repeated her call for the president to appoint a cabinet-level official to oversee the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, reported KTAL-TV in Shreveport, La.

Landrieu said in a statement she had hoped Bush would come away from his Friday tour of devastated areas with a new understanding for the magnitude of the suffering and for the abject failures of the current Federal Emergency Management Agency. Instead, she said, FEMA is overwhelmed by the challenge.

Landrieu said FEMA had yet to accept an offer of equipment from the U.S. Forest Service to fight fires on the New Orleans riverfront, and dragged its feet when Amtrak offered trains for evacuations.

said when she toured the 17th Street levee with Bush Friday, she believed a real and significant recovery effort was under way.

Flying over this critical spot again (Saturday) morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a presidential photo opportunity, she said. and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment.

There's no longer any doubt about it: The people running this government are evil. This has been a word reserved for people like Osama Bin Laden, but the cynicism of staging photo-ops to make it look like the Administration is getting things moving, only to yank the help away once he leaves, puts them in the same category...and before it's all over, the death toll of this Administration's policies will rival anything Osama Bin Laden ever did.

(Hat tip to Earl again.)

UPDATE: Hal at Kos describes how the needs of the evacuees was secondary to the necessity of a good photo-op for Laura Bush:

It goes to show how overwhelming things are here right now that I encountered the First Lady yesterday and I almost forgot to put it in this e-mail. It actually couldn't have been a worse experience; a team of us were working to put up a website with directions to every Red Cross shelter in the region when we were evicted from the computer room by the Secret Service. There's only one room in the Cajundome with telephones and internet access for refugees, and Laura Bush shut it down for eight hours (along with the food service rooms to the side and the women's showers). You may have seen it on CNN; apparently seven refugees were allowed back so Laura could help them in front of the cameras. If you saw that footage, that's where I put in half my volunteer hours. Not knowing Bush was still back there later I tried to insist on being allowed back into the room to a "Red Cross" guy who must have been a Secret Service agent undercover. A hint for future Secret Service agents: The real Red Cross guys don't look like they want to break your legs for walking too close to the barricade, because they're too busy passing out food and helping people. They're also less likely to use phrases like "Stand fast, sir!" Now, I know this is the sort of thing that happens whenever a VIP tours a disaster site, and maybe Laura Bush handing out that loaf of bread really will lead to an increase in donations. All I can say is, to have paralyzed a third of a day of operations at this stage of the game, it fucking well better. And I tried to position myself to say this to her in front of the television cameras too, but instead I only got a wave and a smile as she hurried past me. Looks like I'm going to have to become nationally infamous another day.

Someone please tell me one thing this Administration has not fucked up.