Among his points:

1. Things can get destroyed far more swiftly than they can get fixed.
2. The United States military can wipe out the Taliban and the Iraqi Republican Guard far more swiftly than they can bring 3 million Swanson dinners to an underwater city through an area the size of Great Britain which has no power, no working ports or airports, and a devastated and impassable road network.
3. You cannot speed recovery and relief efforts up by prepositioning assets since the assets are endangered by the very storm which destroyed the region.

Read the whole thing. (Apologies in advance if this is a double post. The server is being hinkie.)

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!

She will be savaged by the RNC spin machine…count on it.

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.

***

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.

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?

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.

However, if you want Bush-bashing, go to another blog. Read the top of the right-hand column.

Comments?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Is this not negligence?

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.