Uh oh. The murderers of Abu Grahib and Gitmo saved the residents of New Orleans today. What will the anti-American “love the troops” LiberalDems do now?
Thousands Bused, Airlifted From New Orleans – FOX News
I haven’t seen Teddy Kennedy or Howard Dean or Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson or Michael Moore saying “thank you” to the US military for airlifting out tens of thousands of people in New Orleans today. Yet they celebrated the “first anniversary” of the Abu Grahib incident.
The troops that President Bush himself dispatched to bring order to a city the Democrats in New Orleans allowed to fall into chaos saved the day. Here is yet another example of the mismanagement and deriliction of duty of New Orleans officials.
So now the same President who, according to a moronic rap artist, “hates blacks”, sends in the calvary. And 24 hours later the situation in New Orleans is 180 degrees different.
The result is that the “Blame America First” LiberalDemocrats have to face their own smears and lies about the US military and their commander in chief and match them against the facts on the ground — both in New Orleans and Baghdad. How can you believe that all is lost in Iraq when you see our fine men and women working as hard in the French Quarter as they do every day in Tikrit. You cannot look at the television pictures today and believe those LiberalDem lies anymore.
UPDATE: GayPatriot Reader Nicholas says: Did you see how the USS Harry S. Truman and the USS Whidbey Island are in New Orleans to help out the relief effort? Kind of a good thing for them this didn’t happen in San Francisco, huh?
-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com
I wonder if there is a severe earthquake in San Francisco if the city council will vote to not allow the military into the city to assist in rescue operations. After all, the military is so discriminating and militaristic.
LOL…..I am torn between the fact that I will soon be one of those San Francisco residents who will need the assistance of those military personnel and the desire to see the looks on the faces of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors when a military commander tells them, “No, we wouldn’t want to intrude with our repressive and militaristic organization; you’ve made it clear that you consider any military presence at all to be an affront to all you hold dear, and we wouldn’t want to offend. We’ll just sit here quietly over in the East Bay and help out these nice people who actually want us here.”
Dear God, NDT… you are moving THERE??
Comrades,
Well, I’m waiting for the tap dancing to begin on behalf of his nibs, the Mayor of Nawlins as he tries to explain why some 300 or so school buses sat unused not 2 miles from the Superdome. Those buses could have taken more than 15,000 good citizens out of the city, turned around, and gotten another 15,000 out, all within 24 hours. Yet, they still sit, half-submerged, parked together for all to see.
It’s funny how they can all be mustered up by the Democrats to give folks a ride to the polls, but when the real emergency hits, they are sitting idle and unused.
Respects to all,
Gwedd
Once again, you group all “LiberalDems” together as “anti-military”. By your logic, we can now all officially group ALL of you “ConservativeRegugs” together as “anti-gay”. So, the question becomes: you’re gay, right? Then how can you be anti-gay? See how it works?
From the N.O. Evac Plan:
Sounds like the mayor wasn’t following the plan.
But of course, this is Bush’s fault.
My advice, Reader; ditch the people that GP mentions and start speaking out on the behalf of sane liberals and Democrats everywhere.
And GP, I thought you knew that. 🙂 I made the formal announcement in mid-May, but because of tax implications and assignments at work, it probably will be first quarter of 2006 before I actually leap. I put the Thirty under contract today, and am starting the process of packing and getting ready to move to temporary housing.
Rehnquist is dead. 11:08 Eastern.
This is one of those times when the news is hitting from too many angles.
Strap yourselves in boys, we’re in for
ONE HELL OF A RIDE!!!
Chandler, do you ever remember an administration that presided over so much bad news? Hell, not even the Carter years were this bad. This guy has so screwed up our karma that it’ll take decades to recover.
I was actually wondering if Armageddon had begun… :-\
A conservative judge dies… and the GP short bus kids can scarcely contain their glee.
I’m sorry but I’m not backing away at saying the whole of Katrina has been an utter mess. From the local level, to the federal level the ball has been fumbled the entire stretch of days. You want us to rejoice at the military finally, FINALLY, moving in to try to sort this out? I can’t tell you how happy I am, but at the same time I want to know why it took so long for it to happen. We’re only just realizing what the delay in leadership has wrought in human life. As the stories unfold we’re only going to see more and more evidence of negligence and incompetance.
The US Military has saved the day indeed, but again the leadership has directed them in a too little, too late way that have cost people their lives. This is an extraordinarily sad week made all the sadder by how pathetic the people are that we should be able to rely on and trust.
———————
I only have highest regards for Justice Rehnquist and am saddened at his passing.
However, like Katrina, it makes me utterly despair the thought of this administration being in a place to direct the appointment of a chief justice. The coming conflict has the potential to pull apart national unity for decades. And a president making that kind of a choice in that kind of manner does a disservice to the nation.
Liberals are for a stronger America at home and abroad. The Republicans have destroyed everything America has stood for years, and our country has never faced the troubles it has under the Bush Administration.
Wannabeleader
a real hum dinger this winter is going to be. Hum dinger my grandpa used to say that.
Chandler, do you ever remember an administration that presided over so much bad news? Hell, not even the Carter years were this bad. This guy has so screwed up our karma that it’ll take decades to recover.
Comment by Reader
=========================
I would have to say that the last time a president has so much bad luck was Lyndon Johnson. So bad that he declined to run. While he may have been a blowhard, he did usher in civil rights.
Then came Nixon, who was evil but a very capable Executive.
I LOVED Ford and voted for him as I believed he needed a term of his own to do justice to the things he started. But The Repugs didn’t support him as he became President as a fluke of TWO shameful Republican resignations.
Then came Carter and he was doing well until the Iranian revolution. He got stuck with decades of American Iranian foreign policy and it blew up on his watch. It didn’t help the every fucking night for a year and a half ABC/Nightline mad it their chief story. The MSM corroded his presidency.
Ronnie entered the Presidency as a made insider. The deals with Iran were already in the works. He was the great communicator. He knew how to use PR. Not a great thinker but a GREAT politician. He knew how to maximize ever arbitrative opportunity. His greatest coup was offering immunity to the guilty. Then he apologized and life went on. We invaded Grenada and life was good.
Oldbush was a lovely one term interlude. One short war. One dip in the polls and off to Kenebunkport with Bar.
Clinton had shitty luck because he was just a gram short on charisma to get over his first 100 days blunders. He underestimated just how profoundly people hate gays and spent an enormous amount of capital that resulted in the bogus DADT. Splice that with not being able to lead a Democratic congress and the subsequent Republican Contract On America and voila, a good looking, charismatic, intellectual was castrated by a vitriolic and energized shift to the right. But Clinton was a pragmatist. He always compromised. He was forced to.
Now, Bushkid, he does not compromise. He keeps sending the same people to the same committees and complains about obstructionism. He is hard line about getting his way. He is loyal to those loyal to him beyond the point of reason. He stands behind people as if he is the ultimate judge of right and wrong. He had uttered the phrase, “he is my friend and I believe him” often enough as a validation of fact and subsequent truth. Everything that happens to him will be deserved.
Johnson statement left out the NOT in decided NOT to run.
Actually I can’t think of an administration that’s gotten so lucky. Every field of landmines he walks through, Bush just keeps a dopey smile on his face and trudges on through while people get blown up around him right and left and they do nothing but give him an “atta boy, George. Way to fight the good fight.”
People are so polarized that they can’t see stupidity right in front of their own faces. It’s sad really how devoted and dumb, both on the right and the left, people can be.
Every field of landmines he walks through, Bush just keeps a dopey smile on his face and trudges on through while people get blown up around him right and left and they do nothing but give him an “atta boy, George. Way to fight the good fight.”
It just totally pisses you off that he rises above the hate, vitriol, libel, slander, spin, fabricated landmines by the left, etc. while NeoSocialist liberals like you blow themselves up right and left don’t it?
People are so polarized that they can’t see stupidity right in front of their own faces.
Actually, we plainly see the stupidity right in front of our faces and that’s why you whining Summer’s Eves keep losing. It’s so sad that liberals are so dumb that they can’t figure out why they keep losing, why America hates them and why they have to put Hillary in charge of a panel to figure out what they stand for.
It just totally pisses you off that he rises above the hate, vitriol, libel, slander, spin, fabricated landmines by the left, etc. while NeoSocialist liberals like you blow themselves up right and left don’t it?
No. It makes me sad that thousands or people might have been saved if we had the right leadership making the right decisions at the right time. But it’s too late for that. We need to focus on what we can learn from this experience. What have you learned from it?
I’ve learned that FEMA has been deconstructed from the inside out and that resources that should have been available in LA weren’t because they were in Iraq.
I’ve learned that people have known about the potential for catastrophe like this for years and requested resources to plan and anticipate for it were not responded to adequately. That being one of the most likely of natural disasters to occur in the United States, planning for it was not treated in kind. Budgets for levee reinforcement were slashed and the Army Corp of Engineers director resigned rather than being fired for voicing criticism about this kind of response from the administration.
I’ve learned that the FEMA director is a political hack and knows nothing about disaster planning. I’ve learned how the administration gives jobs like this to cronies rather than qualified professionals. I’ve learned that the media was apparently more informed than both the president and the FEMA director about the situation in the superdome and that apparently no one in Washington watches television news anymore. I’ve learned that the president was patting Brownie for “doing a heck of a job” when it was apparent that neither one of them had a clue what was going on.
I’ve learned that FEMA’s ability to respond to this kind of disaster is now significantly compromised because of a majority of resources going to counterterrorism.
I’ve learned that LA’s ability to respond to this kind of disaster was compromised with key pieces of equipment reassigned to Iraq.
I’ve learned that we knew that the storm had the potential to do the type of damage that should have prompted the activation of federal resources before, not after, the storm blew through to evacuate those who did not have the means to do so. The administration gave the go-ahead two days before the storm hit and military resources were moved into position.
I’ve learned that offers from Chicago for assistance and relief were refused by the federal government.
I’ve learned a lot of things and they make me disgusted.
What have you learned from it?
I’ve learned that liberals still suck.
I’ve learned that liberals will exploit anything.
I’ve learned that you’ll swallow whatever you’re fed by the left.
I’ve learned that liberals will still point the finger at Bush when attention should be focused on the left.
Shall I go on?
Mayor Nagin blew it bigtime read this
New Orlean’s “Hurricane Plan”. Scan it for about 10 minutes and you’ll see it’s a damning document insofar as city management there is concerned. Judging from recent comments by a few of the folks named as responsible in that plan they didn’t know it existed – there’s no other explanation for the absurdity of some recent statements and “demands”.
Ray Nagin, in a radio interview, said: “I need reinforcements. I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. Now get off your asses and fix this. Let’s do something and let’s fix the biggest goddam crisis in the history of this country.”
He castigated the government’s failure to help those stranded in the city by Hurricane Katrina, echoing a mounting wave of criticism of the slow federal response to a long-predicted catastrophe.
“This is a national disaster,” he said. “Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get it here to New Orleans.”
That wasn’t in the plan. Actually, the buses were in the plan. They were here. This was in the plan too:
Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the Mayor of New Orleans in coordination with the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, and the OEP Shelter Coordinator.
The SOP, in unison with other elements of the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, is designed for use in all hazard situations, including citywide evacuations in response to hurricane situations and addresses three elements of emergency response: warning, evacuation, and sheltering.
Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the Mayor of New Orleans in coordination with the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, and the OEP Shelter Coordinator.
The SOP, in unison with other elements of the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, is designed for use in all hazard situations, including citywide evacuations in response to hurricane situations and addresses three elements of emergency response: warning, evacuation, and sheltering.
This is in the plan too:
V. TASKS
A. Mayor
* Initiate the evacuation.
* Retain overall control of all evacuation procedures via EOC operations.
* Authorize return to evacuated areas.
B. Office of Emergency Preparedness
* Activate EOC and notify all support agencies to this plan.
* Coordinate with State OEP on elements of evacuation.
* Assist in directing the transportation of evacuees to staging areas.
* Assist ESF-8, Health and Medical, in the evacuation of persons with special needs, nursing home, and hospital patients in accordance with established procedures.
* Coordinate the release of all public information through ESF-14, Public Information.
* Use EAS, television, cable and other public broadcast means as needed and in accordance with established procedure.
* Request additional law enforcement/traffic control (State Police, La. National Guard) from State OEP.
go to this URL http://junkyardblog.net/archives/week_2005_08_28.html#004749
Scroll down to BUS- ted
With the improved resolution we count 255 buses in that one lot. That means at a capacity of 66 on board, 16,830 New Orleans residents could have been evacced out in one trip. Even if you have a lower capacity per bus, say 50 per bus, you’re still getting nearly 13,000 out in one run. In an emergency mandatory evacuation, you could probably get away with putting more than 66 on each of those buses.
When we said that the buses are now expenses instead of assets, this is what we meant. Not only are those buses ruined, their disuse resulting in lives lost, but now they’re spilling oil and gas out into the already polluted water. A spark near that slick could cause yet another fire and a whole new set of explosions.
It appears another small school bus lot in New Orleans sat unused too. It’s in this NOAA image. Here’s a cropped detail:
Looks like 13 buses there. That’s enough transportation to get another 500-1000 people out of town before the storm hit.
There may be more evacuation resources sitting out there if anyone wants to keep digging using the raw images or Google Earth. For instance, there were at least a few airport buses sitting at the closed airport.
Bush warned him/Nagin on saturday to evacuate the city, that mean Nagin had all day sunday to utilize these busses. Nagin was busy that evening eating at a local resturant.
Michael Barnett has been blogging from his 10th story office in new Orleans, His observations are fascinating, recommended reading.
http://mgno.com/
GCB-
We’ve given concrete examples of the local government failing to do very basic things that were easily in their power, and even in their stated disaster plans, and shown what a difference they would have made.
Can you make any similar demonstration with regards to the Federal response??
Do you even vaguely understand that what you characterize as a “delay” in getting troops into New Orleans was in fact the time it took them (working frantically) to build the logistics and infrastructure support for their current efforts?
Of course we could have simply airlifted a few thousand airborne troops into the city on Wednesday. And on Thursday, when their water supply gave out, they would have become more victims in need of rescue.
Eventually, when the people on the ground are done with things like, you know, saving lives, they’ll get around to reporting on their work. We’ll hear about the incredible job they’ve done building temporary bridges over flooded and debris-filled rivers — bridges that took years to build the first time and days to build this time… We’ll hear about the massive effort to bring in a fleet of federalized buses and keep them supplied with gas to transport people to Houston and Baton Rouge and elsewhere, and the extraordinary efforts of local officials there to care for refugees as numerous as their full-time residents… We’ll hear about the frantic triage of the first few days of the Federal response, removing thousands upon thousands of hospital patients and others in the greatest danger, by helicopter — leaving the young and the healthy behind in the expectation that they can survive for a few days, as it turns out they did.
And eventually the gross, criminal incompetence of a local government that might just as well have firebombed its own slums and tourist hotels will be clear — at least to those who are capable of understanding facts. To those who still believe that President Bush “stole” his elections, this will always be Bush’s fault, just like everything else.
Chandler #16 and GCB #20 are providing some great perspective — which will go unappreciated by this crowd.
More on our earlier discussion of this being an era of relentless bad news, government incompetence, and worse, here’s a piece today from right winger David Brooks, of all people, sensing the unending bad news which is now indelibly stamped on the era of Dear Leader:
“As a result, it is beginning to feel a bit like the 1970’s, another decade in which people lost faith in their institutions and lost a sense of confidence about the future.”
The link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04brooks.html
Just imagine how much better our national psyche would be through all this if he had really been the “A Uniter, Not A Divider”, as billed, as sold. Instead, we got The Most Divisive President Ever at exactly the worst time.
Pamela-
Thanks for the link. Fascinating reading.
From Monday: “When you look at the damage New Orleans sustained vs what we were told to expect, you’re left with the impression that they will never be able to talk anyone into evacuating again…. ”
I’d previously heard reports of N.O. police throwing down their badges and quitting the force in the middle of this week’s events. Michael Barnett reports on Wednesday that the police are actually looting, themselves, as well.
Had the Louisiana Governor issued her authorization allowing Federal control to the President on Saturday, when the President issued his declaration, then the President would have been given the power to send in Federal troops.
The Governor of Louisiana WAITED UNTIL WEDNESDAY 31st before ISSUING HER AUTHORIZATION. (soory for the cap BUT Reader needs to understand why Lousisiana was a hellhole until the President arrived to clean up her mess)
The President Issues his declaration on Sat. 29th yet it took four days for the Governor of Louisiana to issue her authorization?
No wonder LA and NO’s are in a hellhole of a mess, the people have continually elected Democrats since the Reformation! Democrats, destroying everything one socialist poilicy at a time.
A new name for the Mayor is “Noggin”. If he would have stopped whining and DONE SOMETHING (like use all available busses, ie school, city) to move everyone out in the first place, we would not be dealing with this mess. HIS MESS!!!!!!!
If the Governor had listened to the PRESIDENT, we would NOT be dealing with HER MESS!!!!!
What have you learned from it?
***Yeah, What do you consider “learning”?
I’ve learned that liberals still suck.
***You have learned that when you do not have an original thought,
***call people names. It makes you feel so superior.
I’ve learned that liberals will exploit anything.
***Because you have learned that you can justify any bad Republican
***decision by blaming Democrats for noticing.
I’ve learned that you’ll swallow whatever you’re fed by the left.
***Because you have sipped the Kool-Aid of the right.
I’ve learned that liberals will still point the finger at Bush
when attention should be focused on the left.
***And again, when somebody notices you have made
***a catastrophically bad decision, bring attention to how rude
***it is TO POINT. And point right back telling everyone how bad
***it is for them to point a finger. What I have learned time
***and time again from the compassionate conservatiz’ is that
***hypocrisy is HILARIOUS.
Shall I go on?
***No, just go.
Comment by ThatGayConservative
***Commentary by That Chandler in Hollywood
The President Issues his declaration on Sat. 29th yet it took four days for the Governor of Louisiana to issue her authorization?
Comment by syn
============================
Wow,
If that is what it takes for Homeland Security to shoot into action it’s like a fire department waiting for the owner of the home to call before they respond. If a house is on fire, the response is automatic and immediate. The same should go for NATIONAL DISSASTERS. Sheesh. All y’all are just trying to cover Bush’s uncoverable ass.
Can you imagine the reaction if, when Bush called to request the mandatory evacuation, he also advised to use the 300+ school buses and 250+ City buses to move the people to higher ground? Rumors would have flown from the Jackson-Sharpton machine that he was sending all the black people to concentration camps.
It is evident that Bush can’t win among these people and he never can. But given that the accusations of the left are not visited one whit upon the Democratic local and state authorities – even when fully justified – it would not be surprising to see an enormous backlash against these so-called black and liberal “leaders.” This could actually result in a benefit to the President, with public opinion in general turning on those in the media whose Replican-bashing can’t be justified by reality.
Rumors would have flown from the Jackson-Sharpton machine that he was sending all the black people to concentration camps.
Comment by JT
=======================
Just wait until the Jackson-Sharpton machine finds the numbers that Bush is bundling off to concentration camps in the next few weeks. The thousands packed away and forgotten in concentration camps. Oh, I’m sorry, they are appropriately called cemeteries.
Bushco can’t hide behind a terrorist attack and merely call them collateral damage this time. They are his collateral.
Bruce: B I N G O. You nailed another angle on the Katrina “blame-game” square on.
Given Reader’s and Chandler’s and gaycowboybob’s respective tag-team responses, it’s clear you struck a nerve that sensitive to criticism… from their posts, I read fear.
I’m just happy the MSM has something to chew on worthy of their low standards for selling misery, controversy and pain –something other than the whole Casey = Hero, Cindy = Zero nonsense.
The LibLefties like NO Mayor started the finger pointing; they didn’t stop to figure that it would backfire when truth or facts win out over spin and newsbites. I’m waiting for Congressman Conyers to hold hearings on the issue ala the Downing St Memo, or Jessie Jackson to get off his adulterous, extorting aging ass and help out in NO rather than grab headlines, or for JimminyCricketCarter to swing some sand bags to prove he’s the ONLY real caring ex-President with a conscience. LOL
Another good post, Bruce. Nailed it dead on.
Chandler? The dead in NO are (Bush’s) collateral?
Dude, you have no shame. You’re borderline sociopath with that kind of greedy willingness to use dead people for cheap political partisan gain. I am ashamed of my left-of-center gay friends these days who resort to these kinds of slickwilly era tricks –but then you guys did it with Casey Sheehan, so I am not surprised. Just ashamed for your conduct.
Chandler
The reason the Federal government is not allowed to supersede State authority, unless authorizes by the Governor, is to prevent the very thing Bush-haters have been falsely accusing the President of becoming…a Dictator.
Geez man, for five fucking years Bush-haters have been falsely accusing the President as being a dictator (ya know the whole Hiltler BS)
BUT, now that a crisis has occurred in an inept Democrat-governed state, motherfucker Bush-haters are blasting the President for not acting like a dictator!
You want it both way yet you complain how you hate both ways. Never satisified, useless wanker.
Pardon my spelling, my brain is overloaded with Chandler speech.
I see the Patsies are pleased with the Bush response to the NOLA disaster. You think he was on top of the situation from the get-go, and that all the blame just has to go to someone else (and the someone else always wears a Dem label).
Well, here’s what George W. Bush was doing at mid-afternoon on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 (Day 2 of the NOLA disaster):
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/1756/im:/050830/480/capm10208301856
As these scenes had ALREADY unfolded in New Orleans:
http://www.detnews.com/2005/nation/0508/30/01-297671.htm
God, no wonder the man thought (FEMA director) “Brownie” was “doing a heck of a job”. He is completely out of touch, and the Patsies are tagging along right behind him.
Re: Rehnquist…
How long before someone on the left seriously proposes filibustering to confirm NO NEW JUSTICES for the next three years?
(One death and one resignation leave us with currently a Court of three liberals, two moderates, and two conservatives — with a liberal (Stevens) as acting Chief. The 5-4 Kelo majority is now 5-2.)
I wonder if we should start calling them “insurgents” instead of “looters.” That way, Code Pink and International ANSWER would take over the job of supplying them.
It’s being pointed out that Judge Edith Clement is from New Orleans, and GWB might have an easier go if he nominated her.
Also, NARAL, HRC, and PFAW already have their Edith Clement press releases ready to go, and won’t have to fill in the INSERT NAME HERE field on the template where they call whoever Bush nominates an extremist right-winger who threatens to turn back the clock… yadda yadda yadda….
From the Washington Post:
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state’s emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration had sought control over National Guard units, normally under control of the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request, noting that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. State authorities suspected a political motive behind the request. ”Quite frankly, if they’d been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals,” said the source, who is an adviser and does not have the authority to speak publicly.
Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state’s victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort.
Bush, who has been criticized, even by supporters, for the delayed response to the disaster, used his weekly radio address to put responsibility for the failure on lower levels of government. The magnitude of the crisis ”has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities,” he said. ”The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable.”
Uh.. GCB.. this pretty much proves my point. The “locals” kept control and didn’t evacuate anyone. And it took until Blanco issued the order on WEDNESDAY for the Feds to have the authority to come in.
From the Chicago Tribune:
During one of his first televised news conferences Wednesday, when violence and chaos were spreading in New Orleans and bodies were beginning to be seen floating in the water, Brown laughed and joked as he took reporters’ questions.
At points last week, he described security in New Orleans as “pretty darn good.” He said he had received no reports of “unrest,” nor any information about uncollected corpses. And on Thursday night, he told CNN the agency had just learned that thousands of people had huddled at the New Orleans Convention Center, even though the city had directed them to go there, and journalists had been reporting their plight.
The frustrated New Orleans mayor, C. Ray Nagin, lashed out last week, saying federal officials “don’t have a clue” what was going on in his city. And the top Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, was quoted in The New York Times as calling on President Bush to fire Brown.
Seeking her own expert, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Saturday hired James Lee Witt, the widely praised FEMA director under President Bill Clinton, to advise her.
Still, even though Bush has called the federal response to the disaster “not acceptable,” he praised Brown Friday during a tour of Alabama, saying, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” the AP reported.
“He’s done an enormously good job considering what happened,” said Ronald Castleman, former director for FEMA in the region that includes New Orleans. “I think the scale of this is just far beyond anything FEMA was able to prepare for.”
————————————-
And that’s one of the major problems. They’ve known about the possibility of such a storm for years, they’ve slashed the budget for upgrade and repair of the levies which is odd since weather experts have been predicting this as the year to expect such storms, they mapped out a scenario for a Grade 3 storm but never even completed the study last year. FEMA was totally unprepared with an incompetant director and no plan for this eventuality. I wouldn’t recommend the state government turn over control to the Feds either. Sound like NO ONE had a plan but at least by not giving up any more resources to the federal government, they can be assured those resources stay in Louisiana and not be appropriated for other uses.
Uh GP, it proves my point. FEMA couldn’t find its ass with two hands and a flashlight. They had no clue what was going on and it would have been ill-advised to turn over military control to the federal government. However, the federal government could have turned over resources to the state to assist with the effort which they were unwilling to do unless they had control.
they’ve slashed the budget for upgrade and repair of the levies
For the upteenth time:
1. The levee that breached had already been repaired.
2. Repairs on the rest of the system would not have take place until 2008
3. The proposed plan would only have upgraded them to withstand a CAT3, Katrina was a CAT4/5
4. Bush has never vetoed a spending bill. If congress had put the money in, he would have signed it.
Keep beating that dead horse, though. I can just cut-and-paste the refutation as long as you do.
His budget slashed a requested $100+ million to $46 for repairing and upgrading the levees last year. It was established that the levees would withstand a CAT3 but in FEMA’s own study last year, which they abandoned before even completing it, they knew that the levees would breech beyond that. This year weather experts warned of more and more dangerous hurricanes.
Is this not negligence?
P.S. McLaughlin joked today that the direction of the relief effort was so screwed up Somalia called asking if they could lend any help.
#47 — Not according to the New York Times, which in April 2005 editorialized against the Army COE levee project, calling it a waste of taxpayer dollars and harmful to the environment. Also, the Army COE has come out and said it wouldn’t have made a difference. But, hey, blaming Bush is an emotional release for you guys that helps you deny an unpleasant reality. I understand that.
Re: early posts in the 10s…..
GCB, Chandler, Reader and others….You guys are once again proving what a bunch of losers you are. You can’t even think about cause and effect.
Bush didn’t cause 9-11 (after only 8 months in office). Bush didn’t ask for 9-11 to happen. It just happened at that time. If any President did contribute to it, it would be Clinton (having the previous 8 years in office and doing NOTHING about Islamo-fascism; erecting Jamie Gorelick’s famous Wall where the military people who knew all about Mohammed Atta were actively prevented from telling the FBI; etc.).
Same with Katrina. Bush doesn’t cause hurricanes; his “evil” is not so cosmically powerful. Bush “evil” also didn’t cause Nagin and others to ignore their own disaster evacuation plans and fail to use hundreds of their own buses to evacuate people, fail to stock their own emergency shelters, fail to keep order and let their citizens fire guns at rescue helicopters, etc. If anything, as we are now learning, Bush begged and pleaded with them to move faster before the catastrophe – and they elected not to.
Jimmy Carter, on the other hand, did contribute with foolish policies to many of the crises he faced. The rolling buildup of inflation…the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (which he, and he alone, was surprised by)….the Iranian hostage crisis, which was the Iranian Islamo-fascists’ response to the growing perception of America’s timidity, and which Carter allowed to drag on and on….all were things he developed over the course of his 4 incompetent years.
So you can try to say “There has been equal or more bad news under Bush”, but you’re complete idiots if you can’t see the difference between a President who caused bad news over a period of years with his policies, vs. a President who is standing there to deal with the 9-11 events and natural disasters caused by no one (or, in some instances, by his predecessors if anyone). Complete idiots. But please keep it up – because you’ll keep on losing elections – which works for me since I happen to believe in defending America from Islamo-fascism, pursuing Social Security reform, lower taxes and a less left-wing-activist type of judiciary.
Re: #34, the “struck a nerve” theme…….Yeah Matt, that’s what the libs’ political response to the crisis is all about. Their butts are SO hanging in the wind, that they desperately need to divert attention and create an “alternative narrative” (read: myth). Fortunately, so many good people are now answering their myths with the facts.
#45 – GCB, again, man is your brain warped. You post evidence of Bush begging and pleading with the local officials, before the catastrophe, to do more of what those officials ought to be doing – or else to let him do it – and you think that’s evidence of something wrong with Bush, or of why he would somehow be blameworthy in this catastrophe. How did your brain get so screwed up? Really. I’m really curious.
I see you averted your eyes from pictures showing Bush happy and strumming a-f-t-e-r NOLA was sunk. Days later, he arrives in the region, gets off the plane and starts yammering about his fun college days as people struggled all about him just to live. You Patsies are so consumed by a need to protect the reputation of the boy king that you have lost all perspective on a huge human tragedy. But the folks on the scene, at the NO Times-Picayune haven’t. They just told him this morning what they locally think of his latest “performance”. Since you guys have stated you ignore all potentially disagreeable links, here’s the text:
New Orleans Times-Picayune, Sunday, September 4, 2005:
An Open Letter To The President
Dear Mr. President:
We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, “What is not working, we’re going to make it right.”
Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.
Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.
How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.
Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.
Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.
Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a “Today” show story Friday morning.
Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.
We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.
Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.
It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?
State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: “Buses! And gas!” Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, “We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day.”
Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.
Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, “You’re doing a heck of a job.”
That’s unbelievable.
There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.
We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.
No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.
Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.
When you do, we will be the first to applaud.
State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: “Buses! And gas!”
Well, doesn’t look like that was much of a problem.
Moreover, despite all their whining about “accessibility”, I guess they weren’t covering the collapsed bridges, the clogged river channels, the flooded airport, and the debris downtown that were making it impossible to move large quantities of anything anywhere.
Chandler
The reason the Federal government is not allowed to supersede State authority, unless authorizes by the Governor, is to prevent the very thing Bush-haters have been falsely accusing the President of becoming…a Dictator.
You want it both way yet you complain how you hate both ways. Never satisfied, useless wanker.
Comment by syn
====================
syn,
The whole point of a DISASTER CSAR is so that nobody gets bogged down in red tape. That was the whole reasoning behind the Department of Homeland Security. It has nothing to do with a president being a dictator but a leader during national crisis.
He has failed.
And in the tradition of the uncompassionate conservative name calling here, you never tire of cleaning up for Bush you cum rag.
A little off topic, but have any of the conservative posters here ever considered something the Bush administration to have done the wrong response? I’m totally being serious here. I want to know what kinds of things he’s done that conservatives have not been OK with.
Comments?
GCB – Yes, I was preparing such a critical posting about the War on Terror prior to Katrina. I will get to it in time. And I have also stated I thought the Federal response was “not acceptable”.
However, if you want Bush-bashing, go to another blog. Read the top of the right-hand column.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#076771
OUR OPINIONS: An open letter to the President
Dear Mr. President:
We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, “What is not working, we’re going to make it right.”
Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.
Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.
How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.
Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.
Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.
Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a “Today” show story Friday morning.
Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.
We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.
Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.
It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?
State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: “Buses! And gas!” Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, “We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day.”
Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.
Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, “You’re doing a heck of a job.”
That’s unbelievable.
There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.
We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.
No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.
Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.
When you do, we will be the first to applaud.
GCB-
A few things President Bush has done wrong? Have you got a few hours?
Steel tariffs, lip-service to the F.M.A., continuing the anti-gay witchhunts in the military, never vetoing a spending bill (to gain credibility (showing that big stick…) to rein in pork-barrel spending), not finding a way to communicate the importance of this War as well as Tony Blair has, stem cell research, dealing inadequately with old Soviet nukes (though I’m cautiously optimistic that Condoleeza Rice is dealing with this quietly in the background, since it’s really her area of expertise), an enormous Medicare expansion, taking four years to get Taiwan to agree to buy the submarines they need to have for us to be able to use our submarines to attack an invading Chinese fleet with plausible deniability, the bankruptcy bill, medical marijuana (not sure on the policy, but definitely a State, not Federal, decision)…
I could go on, but you probably get the point.
If the Dem’s put up a free-market Hawk for Pres, I could switch parties in ’08. Historically, I voted for Bill Clinton exactly as many times as I voted for George Bush.
Now, your turn — can you think of some things that President Bush has done right?
Gak! It was bad enough when the “Talking Points” were four word slogans. Now we’re getting the same long letter copied and pasted in its entirety by multiple posters on multiple threads.
I’ll just repeat my earlier critique from a different post: It praises the mayor for not padlocking the planned emergency shelter?!? Sure, I’m glad he didn’t lock people out of the emergency shelter, but is that really the standard we want to judge Democratic government officials by? And it then blames the President specifically for not getting the people in the Superdome evacuated ON MONDAY — while those hundreds of busses were still sitting UNFLOODED and operable about a mile away from the Superdome. Working busses that belonged to the City and which the City’s emergency plans called for using. While praising the Mayor. Give me a break.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003458.htm
MEMO TO BUSH: FIRE MICHAEL BROWN
By Michelle Malkin · September 04, 2005 08:17 AM
During his visit to Mobile, Ala., on Friday, President Bush singled out Michael D. Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for praise:
“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”
Really? “Brownie’s” job is to direct the federal response to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Let’s review his public statements during the past week:
– He admitted that he didn’t act more aggressively because as late as last Sunday he expected Katrina to be a “standard hurricane” even though the National Weather Service in New Orleans was already predicting “human suffering incredible by modern standards.”
– He proved himself utterly clueless about the disaster unfolding in New Orleans. He claimed that the federal relief effort was “going relatively well” and that the security situation in New Orleans was “pretty darn good.”
– He blamed the flood victims in New Orleans for failing to evacuate on time, even though local authorities failed to make municipal vehicles available to residents who could not drive or did not own their own cars.
“It took four days to begin a large-scale evacuation of people stranded in the Superdome stadium and to bring in significant amounts of food and water to an American city easily accessible by motorway,” the Observer notes. “Relief agencies took half that time to reach Indonesia after the Boxing Day tsunami. ”
Although the delay was not entirely the fault of the Bush Administration, Brown’s complacency clearly didn’t help. And his bumbling statements after the hurricane struck have not inspired confidence.
This is not the time to give a weak performer the benefit of the doubt. The FEMA director’s role in the ongoing recovery effort is too important to be entrusted to a clueless political hack with such poor judgment.
Rather than praise Michael Brown, Bush should fire him.
***
Whoa, a right winger with a mind of her own.
She will be savaged by the RNC spin machine…count on it.
Clint, so don’t read it you whiney little fuck.
For Reader and Bob:
Thanks both for posting this. I’d heard about this open letter, but hadn’t (and wouldn’t have, as Reader correctly predicted) read it yet.
This is a fantastic representation of something I’d earlier written as a reply to another post about how the city of NO (and apparently the ed board of the Pick as well) has followed in the footsteps of its incompetent ‘leader’: Why isn’t the government fixing this?, rather than: Here’s what we should do to fix this ourselves.
Sad, sad, sad commentary on the state of things these days that this is how people react.
Oh, and for GCB, I have two things to add:
-Letting Ted Kennedy write the education bill, and
-Adding drug coverage to medicare
Two things that frustrate me the most, and examples of how Bush has cow-towed to the limp-wristed Left in this country to our peril, all in the name of ‘consensus building’–poppycock!
An Air Force Logistics Officer Offers a Reality Check
Among his points:
Read the whole thing. (Apologies in advance if this is a double post. The server is being hinkie.)
what the hell are we waitng for; — demand this bozos resignation; — and get our country on track again.—-all we do by waiting is see more of our young guys and girls die because of the bushkid tryin’to get sadaam fer his daddy; — i said this over 4 years ago.—–i’m writing a book on this creep.wmd not the threat to our country; threat is the bozo bushkid.