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Originally posted by SevenPercent:

In your little universe, Bush and the federal government get a free pass on everything, don't they? Just like I said, he could gun down a busload of nuns on Constitution Ave at high noon on a Sunday and you'd find a way to spin it.

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Originally posted by Hero:
Nor can I overlook the fact that the Governor of LA failed to implement her evacuation until a last minute personal call was made to her from the President. She did not activate her emergency center until hours before the storm hit, she failed to include FEMA in her emergency center, she failed to make a timely deployment of national guard into affected areas, she did not enact an emergency order giving the guard power to confiscate private property (like buses) until Wednesday. She mismanaged the crisis at every level from 72 hours before until 48 hours after the storm hit. I don't know if she's republican or democrat, it doesn't matter, she screwed up from left to right and top to bottom.

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The President, on the other hand, was on top of things as much as the President could be. He authorized the redeployment of military and federal assets before and after the storm. He coordinated with FEMA and the National Weather Service to issue the proper warnings and when they were ignored he made personal calls to the Mayor and Governor to get them off their asses. When FEMA's communication and management failed the President began making preparations to turn control over to the military and Lt. General Honore, but was unable to do so till Thursday night. The President directed efforts to coordinate interstate relief efforts and its no surprise that Texas, who emergency plans and capability the former Governor was most familiar with, was the first to come foreward with a state level response.

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Lets face it, the President could save millions of people from the hands of a brutal dictator and you would find a way to spin it negatively.

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For most of you its not about the Hurricane, the war, or even 9/11. Its about 2000 and you can't get past it.

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Kerry would be sailing his swiftboat into the delta looking for Charlie (literally, I'm sure some guy named Charlie is missing down there somewhere).

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But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.

It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?

I don't know which 'we' Mr. Bush meant.

For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been — as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be — whether or not I voted for this President — he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government — our government — "New Orleans."

For him, it is a shame — in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st Century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was just a quick "I'm not satisfied with my government's response." Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have foreseen," had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930's. "The responsibility," of government, Churchill told the British Parliament "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."

In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself — it damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.

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excerpted from "Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA" at http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197
Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?"
As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.
Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.
Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.
...
Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency aid.
But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

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Originally posted by SoupCatcher:
** I have found, with this administration, that the most truthful statements come in the immediate aftermath (not just in this situation, but in general). Once enough time has passed the party line comes down and public officials close ranks. The current leadership of the Republican party prides themselves on message discipline and we have now reached the point where the party line has been set. Early on in this disaster there was criticism of FEMA's actions from all sides. Today, the criticism is of the mayor and the governor. The attack machine has been reloaded and set loose. And, while they are attacking the mayor and the governor, they decry anyone attacking the President as engaging in partisan politics.

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Originally posted by HKCavalier:
I'm feeling pretty optimistic, as far as it goes, that the admin. will not be getting a pass on this one.

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CNNUSATODAYGALLUP POLL: ONLY 13% BLAME BUSH?
Wed Sep 07 2005 10:42:26 ET

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 609 adults taken September 5-6 shows:

Blame Game -- 13% said George W. Bush is "most responsible for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane"; 18% said "federal agencies"; 25% said "state and local officials"; 38% said "no one is to blame"; 6% had no opinion. -- 29% said that "top officials in the federal agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be fired"; 63% said they should not; 8% had no opinion.

MORE

Government Performance -- 10% said George W. Bush has done a "great" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"; 25% said "good"; 21% said "neither good nor bad"; 18% said "bad"; 24% said "terrible"; 2% had no opinion. -- 8% said federal government agencies responsible for handling emergencies have done a "great" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"; 27% said "good"; 20% said "neither good nor bad"; 20% said "bad"; 22% said "terrible"; 3% had no opinion. -- 7% said state and local officials in Louisiana have done a "great" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"; 30% said "good"; 23% said "neither good nor bad"; 20% said "bad"; 15% said "terrible"; 5% had no opinion.

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NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The U.S. government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area.

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Originally posted by SignyM:

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NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The U.S. government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area.

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(Edited to add: Signy, I was only trying to express my frustration with our government in a humorous way. I know exactly why you're posting this stuff. Don't go changin'!)

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There is another complicating factor- generally, the National Guard is under the governor's control except in times of war. During wartime, the President gains complete control over the national Guard. So "normally" the President lets governors request help from National Guard in other states although in emergnecies he has the authority to activate the National Guard on his own. Blanco, as far as I can tell, DID request National Guard from other states but that her requests sat on someone's desk in DC from the 26th until the 2nd.

But since we are at war (in Iraq) I think it was the President's duty to activate the National Guard in ALL states, as it was Blanco's duty to turn "hers" over to the Feds. Given everything, this seems more of a screwup at the Federal level. The sense that I'm getting is that the Federal government took on the authority for responding... to the point of sabotaging Jefferson Parish's emergency communication system, for example- but then did nothing for five days

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The Post, citing an anonymous “senior Bush official”, reported on Sunday that, as of Saturday, Sept. 3, Blanco “still had not declared a state of emergency”… when, in fact, the declaration had been made on Friday, August 26 -- over 2 days BEFORE Katrina made landfall in Louisiana. This claim was so demonstrably false that the paper was forced to issue a correction just hours after the original story appeared....
Newsweek’s effort to assist the Bush damage control effort was even more egregious. While claiming that “Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Barbineaux Blanco seemed uncertain and sluggish, hesitant to declare martial law or a state of emergency, which would have opened the door to more Pentagon help” the magazine didn’t even bother to cite {the} “senior Bush official” {who provided thsi assessment}, choosing instead to report Blanco’s alleged failings as fact.

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Originally posted by R1Z:
Actually, I'm pretty sure that we AREN'T at war. As I understand it, only the U.S. Congress can declare war, and the last time it happened was WWII. Korea was a "police action", Viet Nam was lending help to indigenous folk resisting communism, and heaven only knows what to call Irag/Afghanistan/the police action on terror.

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Stuff is being offered but not accepted by the near-worthless U.S. government.

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* The hospital ship, USS Bataan "equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day" was sitting in the Gulf of Mexico, unoccupied by a single person, by specific order of FEMA director Brown.

* Wal-Mart sent "three trailer trucks of water" to the stricken area but these were deliberately turned away by FEMA officials.

* FEMA workers prevented the U.S. Coast Guard, the only federal agency that effectively saved lives, from delivering 1,000 gallons of badly-needed diesel fuel to hospitals needing it to fuel their emergency generators,

* FEMA workers deliberately cut the emergency communications network in New Orleans, causing local police officials to reinstall it and post armed guards to prevent angry FEMA employees from further attempts to disconnect it.

* FEMA workers deliberately blocked badly-needed aid from other states, including offers from Chicago’s Mayor Daley, and the Governor of New Mexico, Richardson.

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So many stories of relief efforts being turned away. Wildlife and Fisheries who had a couple hundred boats going into the lower 9th ward for the first two days, rescuing the people trapped in attics and on roofs - until they were ordered to stop....

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Originally posted by firefloozysuzie:

During last week's sluggish response to Katrina, three other hurricanse coulda come right in behind her to finish off the entire Gulf region, and take Florida along with it.

We don't have the luxury of time. Every moment wasted in photo ops and in spinning attention away from Horsie Brown leaves us more vulnerable to the next storm. Will it take landfall of Hurricane Ophelia to get the Feds to take corrective measures?

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Originally posted by Hero:

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Wow, damn hurricanes are a menace. Somebody should do something...

First of all most hurricanes are well within the capability of State and Local governments to handle. Even the big one that hit Florida last year was ably managed by JEB Bush with the support of (but not controlled by) FEMA.

This was more then a hurricane. This is best evidenced by the response in Mississippi and Alabama where State, Local, and Federal recovery is proceeding mostly on schedule and as expected given the nature of the storm. This hurricane caused severe damage to New Orleans, but by Monday afternoon everybody was happy to have dodged the bullet. Had it ended there the State, Local, and FEMA approach would have been more then sufficient and they'd be blaming Bush for something else. Instead the levees broke and on top of the hurricane we had the worst flood in American history resulting in the near complete destruction of a major American City in just a few hours time.

So I wouldn't worry about Ophelia, she'll do what she wants and North and South Carolina or maybe Florida or whoever will deal with it as they always have and despite their support for the Katrina recovery. And if they need us, Ohio will be there.

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Originally posted by firefloozysuzie:

Like I said before, I've been away from FFF awhile, so you'll have to tell me: Are you always this casual about the suffering of other people?

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And do you ever check your facts?

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Originally posted by citizen:
I can just see you happilly defending a child molester while gleefully helping to convict an innocent man, if you made a bit of money from it of course.

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Originally posted by chrisisall:
By the way, I second what perfessergee said about hearing everyone on here. When someone tells you you (Finn) or anyone else should stay off the board, take it as high emotion. I am subject to it myself at times.
For instance, I may feel that AJ is being an idiot about things in the extreme, but he is hardly a troll.

But Bush still sucks Chrisisall

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From the New York Times:
When Wal-Mart sent three trailer trucks loaded with water, FEMA officials turned them away, he said. Agency workers prevented the Coast Guard from delivering 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and on Saturday they cut the parish's emergency communications line, leading the sheriff to restore it and post armed guards to protect it from FEMA, Mr. Broussard said.

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Bush to tap Brown for Supreme Court, by Deanna Swift

In a surprise move, sources close to the White House say that President Bush will soon announce that he wants FEMA head Michael "Brownie" Brown to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. Conservatives are cheering the decision, maintaining that Mr. Brown’s experience overseeing judges at horse shows will suit him well once he joins the highest court in the land.

WASHINGTON D.C - President Bush calls him “Brownie,” and if Mr. Bush gets his way, the nation will soon be referring to FEMA chief Michael Brown as “Justice.” Sources close to the White House say that Mr. Bush could announce his selection of Mr. Brown to replace retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor as early as next week.

A wealth of experience
In many ways, Mr. Brown seems a logical choice for a life-time appointment to the highest court in the land. He has a legal background and has distinguished himself in every position in which he has served. But it his experience overseeing judges that fans of the Oklahoma native say makes him an ideal candidate to don the black robe of the Gang of Nine.

Judging the judges
Between 1991 and 2001 Mr. Brown accrued the sort of legal experience that makes nominee John G. Roberts Jr. look like an amateur; he served as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association—the appellate court of the horse world. There he was charged with 'judging the judges,' enforcing the rules administered by judges at the horse association’s 300 annual horse shows.

A tough enforcer
While in his important role, Mr. Brown earned a reputation as a tough enforcer of rules—and intolerant of horse-related judicial activism of any kind. Fans of the former head horse judge say that when it came to interpreting the founding constitution of the International Arabian Horse Association, Mr. Brown was an 'originalist'—and unwilling to be swayed by whatever trend was sweeping the horse world at that moment.

Case in point: the bitter debate over horse appearance and identity. Influenced by a coarsened culture, a growing number of riders sought to use glitter on or in the mane, tail or hair of their horses. But Mr. Brown stood firm against this trend, noting that the founders of the IAHA had never intended for horses to be adorned in such a way.

"Michael knew that the founders had had a very clear vision," says one source close to the likely Supreme Court nominee. "Horses must wear a long, natural, unbraided mane--with or without clipped bridle path--,and a natural, unset, ungingered tail. That’s the traditionalist view in the horse world and Michael believed that his role was to enforce traditionalism."

Friends of the potential Justice say that he has long dreamed of a job in Washington DC, and is particularly enthused about a position that comes with a life-time appointment. "He's really looking forward to a place where he can just be himself and he doesn’t have to worry about getting fired, then going through that whole hassle about updating his resume and lining up references. Michael’s really had it with all of that," says a confidante of Mr. Brown.

Wanted: a quick confirmation
Legal analysts say that they anticipate a relatively quick and painless confirmation hearing for Mr. Brown, whose reputation for hard work and attention to detail has won over lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Do you agree with the Swift Report that Michael Brown is the best choice to replace Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court? Talk back to Deanna Swift.

http://swiftreport.blogs.com/news/2005/09/bush_to_tap_mic.html

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Originally posted by rue:
And that's exactly why the Coast Guard had a fleet of 20 ships plus 10 commercial ones waiting IN THE GULF to assist NO after the hurricane. Because they could and they're brave and capable, and you're a chicken sh*t that can't do anything but think up excuses why it's OK to be a chicken-sh*t like your chicken-hawk chicken-sh*t buds.

Got it, dude?


Please don't think the chicken-sh*ts give a sh*t.

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Originally posted by rue:
and you're a chicken sh*t that can't do anything but think up excuses why it's OK to be a chicken-sh*t like your chicken-hawk chicken-sh*t buds.

Got it, dude?


Please don't think the chicken-sh*ts give a sh*t.

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I enjoyed hearing your loud whine about how the feds are suppose to be there care less than the locals who could not follow a plan they put toghere. I guess the mayor is proof that stupid people do get into power.

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