You can tell the quality of a leader by the kinds of people he surrounds himself with. So what does this say about George Bush?
The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows.
And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position.
The Oklahoman got the job through an old college friend [Bush campaign chief Joseph Allbaugh — ed.] who at the time was heading up FEMA.
(Big ups: Josh)
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Both FEMA and NORTHCOM get an F for how they reacted to Katrina.
But who realisticaly expected any better out of this Administration.
Like in 9/11 President Bush got on Air Force 1 and headed in the other direction from Katrina.
This time it was to Coronado California for a hastly arranged VJ Day celebration on Tursday the 30th. Now I don’t expect any of you to to tell President Bush that VJ Day was September 2ed., last Friday.
Mean while like another Imperial Emperor, Nero in 75AD, President Bush just strums away as New Orleans dies. I wonder if he can play “The City of New Orleans”.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
“Stewart’s Platoon”
The funny thing is that FEMA were the same people who in the early nineties were totally reviled by the ‘Patriot Movement’ and Timothy-McVeigh types as plotting for the suprise overnight takeover/takedown of the USA.
For heaven’s sakes, these clowns couldn’t manage a half-decent response to a civil disaster that has been on everyone’s radar for a decade and for which we had at least three days’ warning!
How did we ever fear they’d turn the USA into an overnight 250mn person prison camp?????
Give me a break. GW is the President, not GOD. Even if he had flown immediately to New Orleans or any of the other hard hit gulf areas, what did you expect him to do? There is no spigot to turn off to stop the flow of water. If the Feds had, three days prior, began to order, at gun point, people to leave the area, your ilk would be among the first to complain aboout violations of civil rights. It was a natural disaster for Christ’s sake.
Wake up and smell the B.S. Steve Tackett!! The failure was after the storm, not before!! What he should have done instead of going to Coronado, was to have surrounded himself with a disaster team capable of handling it, “not” go celebrate VJ Day on the wrong day!! Sounds like something drawn up so he wouldn’t have to deal with something he doesn’t have the intelligence to handle, like he did when they hit the World Trade Centers, they say Mr President their flying into the W T C, and what does he do? He sits there continuing to read to the kids for 40 minutes!! Wake UP!!!
Actually, the blame if anyone should care right now, which we shouldn’t, lays in the mayor’s and governor’s laps. They should have run public busing for the poor before the storm, and got htose people out. They knew the levies wouldn’t withstand 20 foot waves. If no one was in the city, this arguement wouldn’t need to happen.
It’s easy to blame mayors and Governors who are working under budget constraints. Blame It’s easy to blame the Army. It’s easy to blame the poor. Let’s put the blame where it deserves to be . The congress and administration are so locked in on the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , that the American people are suffering . There just isn’t money enough to go around. I for one am ashamed of This administration and it’s starting a war in one country as we are fighting in another . An administration who finds an excuse for every thing it wants to prioritize. Forget the in creases in the numbers of poor. How about cutting the budget to the pay of Congress and the president. Make pay linked to performance. New Orleans is just one sad bungle by the administration in the handling of America.
Mr. Kilkelly: If ignorance was bliss you should be in heaven. Congress, not the Pres., control salaries of Congress. It brings into question your other remarks. No! Leonard Owen
Chertoff is saying that the magnitude of the disaster overcame the resources of the federal apparatus designed to handle such things.
And it’s the fault of the MAYOR that the disaster turned into a catastrophe !?
I’d say that maybe we should just give up and dissolve the federal government if I didn’t think that that was the plan behind this shameful performance.
I think you all are quick to point the finger. The fact is that these people lived in a place that is a bowl surrounded by water. They should have expected something. There were publications that warned the people of New Orleans of natural disasters before Katrina even happened. NEW ORLEANS FLASHBACK: OFFICALS WARNED RESIDENTS ‘YOU’LL BE ON YOUR OWN’
Mon Sep 05 2005 18:57:15 ET
Before residents had ever heard the words “Hurricane Katrina,” the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE ran a story warning residents: If you stay behind during a big storm, you’ll be on your own!
Editors at TIMES-PICAYUNE on Monday called for every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be fired. In an open letter to President Bush, the paper said: “Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.“
But the TIMES-PICAYUNE published a story on July 24, 2005 stating: City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give a historically blunt message: “In the event of a major hurricane, you’re on your own.“
Staff writer Bruce Nolan reported some 7 weeks before Katrina: “In scripted appearances being recorded now, officials such as Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm’s way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation.“
“In the video, made by the anti-poverty agency Total Community Action, they urge those people to make arrangements now by finding their own ways to leave the city in the event of an evacuation.
“You’re responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you,” Wilkins said in an interview. “If you have some room to get that person out of town, the Red Cross will have a space for that person outside the area. We can help you.“
Look it up!!!
Ah, you’re on your own. A WMD attack WITH WARNING and you’re on your own? I live in Los Angeles, which is likely terrorist target, was a likely Soviet target, and I’m on my own, right?
Gregg, you are missing the point. The core of the issue is the RESPONSE, not the prevention. Stay on focus here and follow who is supposed to react and respond to help the good citizens. Nobody? Let them linger until somebody gets around to letting the mobile hospital have permission (all while they are trying to get on location but can’t)? Let them feel they’ll be rescued while nothing substantial is really done and chiefs (Mr Michael and Chertoff, etc) talk about how it wasn’t foreseen when it was in the process of a table top exercise? While they talk about how a plan wasn’t ready therefore they couldn’t be responsible for not reacting?
Your points about warning are valid. My points are about the response. Look it up and consider the next time you need emergency services (fire, police, hospital) and consider if they slow their response because they hadn’t planned on YOU having to need their assistance or that you YOU hadn’t filled out the forms or that YOU should not have been where you where and got injured by your own fault or somebody elses or if your house caught on fire or… pick a scenario.
Look it up, Gregg. Stay on point. The point of this thread was not about warning and how people could have, should have, or were unable to escape the path of the storm and its effects. The focus here is culpability and responsibility for responding to a disaster, man-made or otherwise.
Look it up, Gregg. I am sure it isn’t only the Feds fault here, other agencies could have reacted and some did and some didn’t. Some where hindered and some just moved slowly. The ASPCA and the likes were apparently moving ahead from the last hurricane to setup coordinated resources. Sure, there is likely blame on local agencies. But look it up, the focus here is the blame the federal government must accept for its failure to respond.
Look it up.
If anyone is interested there is a timeline of the Katrina response at http://www.thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline. It begins on 8/26/05. Everything is linked to it’s source so readers can make up their mind about the validity of the information. I heard today on The Nancy Skinner Show on WDTW Detroit that when President Bush first took office he and his administration were briefed by FEMA on the three most likely disasters that should be planned for they were: 1) a terrorist attack on New York City
2) a major hurricane hitting New Orleans
3) a major earthquake hitting the San Farncisco Bay area.
If this is true, I think that the Bush Administration is criminally negligent for their lack of planning and response to this disaster which has caused the deaths of perhaps thousands and created an unthinkable economic and environmental disaster that may plunge our already suffering economy into ruin.