Amplify’d from www.theatlantic.com
Lee was in Venice for a film festival when the hurricane hit and the levees broke. He said he couldn't leave his hotel room because he was transfixed by the coverage on television. He started work on the project almost immediately after returning to New York.
Responding to Brinkley's questions, Lee spent most of the interview blasting the Bush administration for its failure to respond swiftly to the flooding catastrophe.
"When the tsunami hit Sri Lanka, we were there two days later," he said, of the 2004 Indian Ocean crisis. "Nobody has explained why it took five days for the United States government to come to the help of its own citizens on the continent of the United States of America. People are dead. Lives have been changed forever, because the U.S. government did not come to the aid of its own citizens."
Lee had some sympathy for FEMA's Michael Brown, dubbed "Brownie" in President Bush's infamous "helluva job" comment. "I had a feeling like Brown was a scapegoat, and the real villain was Chertoff," he said.
But for Chertoff, Lee pulled no punches. "People are dead now because he didn't do his job. He wasn't equipped to do the job," he said. Lee said he thought Chertoff used his friendly relationship with Bush administration officials to snatch a position that was too big for his capabilities. If he's going to be in the administration, "let him be ambassador of Luxembourg or something," he said.Read more at www.theatlantic.com
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/9MbTa8
No comments:
Post a Comment