Rockey Who?

I am sure almost everyone reading this knows the name Spike Lee. Lee has been twice nominated for an Oscar. His latest project is "When the Levees Broke,” a documentary on the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and the government's response to the crisis. It is presented as "A Requiem in Four Acts.” The documentary is airing on HBO. Spike Lee is no stranger to controversy and many of his films have caused a stir even before their release. Despite the subject matter of this newest project, the Main Stream Media (MSM) virtually ignored Lee in preference to a man named Rockey Vaccarella. Or as I like to call him, Rockey Who? The Bush administration had once again diverted attention away from their monumental mismanagement of the Katrina aftermath with a White House lawn photo op.

From http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2006/08/bush-visits-new-orleans-farts-around.html

Bush spoke on the South Lawn of the White House after meeting in the Oval Office with a New Orleans-area man who lost his home in the storm. Rockey Vaccarella, 41, of Meraux in St. Bernard Parish, has been traveling the Gulf Coast region to mark the Katrina anniversary.
"I told Rockey the first obligation of the federal government is to write a check big enough to help the people down there," Bush said. "And I told him that to the extent that there's still bureaucratic hurdles, and the need for the federal government to help eradicate those hurdles, we want to do that."

I wanted to know who this guy was. Here is some of the information I found:

From http://www.attytood.com/archives/003647.html#more

In fact, we had a hunch -- that maybe, just maybe, Rockey Vaccarella had a background himself in GOP politics.

And, whaddya know? Turns out that the earthy Vaccarella -- a highly successful businessman in the fast-food industry -- is indeed a Republican pol, having run unsuccessfully under the GOP banner for a seat on the St. Bernard Parish commission back in 1999. We don't have a good link, but here (via Nexis) is part of his bio that ran in the New Orleans Times-Picayune on Oct. 15, 1999:

ROCKEY
VACCARELLA
PERSONAL
Republican
35. Born in New Orleans. Grew up in Arabi and Chalmette. Lived 11 years in Meraux.
Married, two children.
Graduated from Chalmette High, 1982. Attended St. Bernard Community College.
Director of operations, Lundy Enterprises, as manager of 31 Pizza Hut restaurants and 450 employees. Former general restaurant manager of Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits on East Judge Perez Drive in Chalmette

One of things that Rockey did during his visit to Bush was tell the press he wished Bush could have a third term. A suggestion that Bush feigned embarrassment when made. The MSM never reported anything on Rockey’s past except that “he had lost everything to Katrina.” Many of those 31 Pizza Huts survived Katrina since they were spread over a wide range in the south. He was back at work in a relatively short period.

So you say what the harm is with Rockey having his fifteen minutes of fame. Nothing except it was at the expense of filmmaker Lee. Documentaries are not the big budget productions that dramatic films are. Almost all HBO’s entire promotion budget was spent on plugging “When the Levees Broke” on the HBO networks themselves. The news cycles that would have normally highlighted Lee’s film were supplanted by coverage of Rockey. The film debuted on HBO without the publicity it would have normally had. Yes, the film was critical of the administration’s response to Katrina but instead of trying to correct the mismanagement of the response, the administration instead chose to stifle criticism. Bush and his administration gave a lot of lip service to rebuilding New Orleans last week during the one-year anniversary of Katrina then went about business as normal after leaving town.

Last week during that anniversary, New Orleans had a visitor from one of the countries that suffered from the tsunami. He said he did not understand how his country was able to recover faster and better than the United States. In addition, how the United States helped in his country’s recovery but it looked like America couldn’t help itself. Remember when the Iraq vote took place, remote voting stations were setup over the U.S. for Iraqis living here to vote. When New Orleans had elections, no such accommodations were made for the approximately 400,000 displaced American citizens from New Orleans. If I were more cynical, I might think this is being done on purpose.