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I think its that moment, you remember, during one of the debates when Gore is following Bush around and Bush turns, gives him the up and down look and a majority in most of the states all looked at their TV and said 'he just won the election'. I said it and I was right. Once more I thank God we elected Bush. Gore would be curled up in a fetal position right now begging Saddam and Bin Ladden to spare us the wrath of Allah's hurricanes

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (Sept. 9) - Al Gore helped airlift some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans, acting at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of the former vice president's son.

Gore criticized the Bush administration's slow response to Katrina in a speech Friday in San Francisco, but refused to be interviewed about the mercy missions he financed and flew on Sept. 3 and 4.

However, Dr. Anderson Spickard, who is Gore's personal physician and accompanied him on the flights, said: "Gore told me he wanted to do this because like all of us he wanted to seize the opportunity to do what one guy can do, given the assets that he has."

In the speech, Gore urged that the Bush administration be held accountable for the government's inadequate relief response, particularly "when the corpses of American citizens are floating in toxic floodwaters five days after a hurricane struck."

Bush administration officials have said Katrina's damage could not have been anticipated, but Gore rejected that.

"What happened was not only knowable, it was known in advance, in great and painstaking detail," Gore told the Sierra Club's national convention. "They did tabletop planning exercises. They identified exactly what the scientific evidence showed would take place."

An account of the flights was posted this week on a Democratic Party Web page. It was written by Greg Simon, president of the Washington-based activist group FasterCures. Simon, who helped put together the mission, also declined an interview.

On Sept. 1, three days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, Simon learned that Dr. David Kline, a neurosurgeon who operated on Gore's son, Albert, after a life-threatening auto accident in 1989, was trying to get in touch with Gore. Kline was stranded with patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.


"The situation was dire and becoming worse by the minute - food and water running out, no power, 4 feet of water surrounding the hospital and ... corpses outside," Simon wrote.

Gore responded immediately, telephoning Kline and agreeing to underwrite the $50,000 each for the two flights, although Larry Flax, founder of California Pizza Kitchens, later pledged to pay for one of them.

"None of the airlines involved required a contract or any written guarantee of payment before sending their planes and volunteer crews," Simon wrote of the American Airlines flights. "One official said if Gore promised to pay, that was good enough for them."

He also recruited two doctors, Spickard and Gore's cousin, retired Col. Dar LaFon, a specialist in internal medicine who once ran the military hospital in Baghdad.

Most critically, Gore worked to cut through government red tape, personally calling Gov. Phil Bredesen to get Tennessee's support and U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to secure landing rights in New Orleans.

About 140 people, many of them sick, landed in Knoxville on Sept. 3. The second flight, with 130 evacuees, landed the next day in Chattanooga.

Associated Press writer Terence Chea in San Francisco contributed to this report.


09/09/05 19:18 EDT


Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

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Originally posted by OurMrReynolds:
Private citizens can do ANYTHING quicker, simpler, easier and cheaper than the govt. That bloated plutocracy can't even pave f***ing roads. I know a guy with stitches all the way around his cranium that can do that. I give it a decade and the space program will be gone or comatose, replaced by private citizens who actually want to acomplish something. Terrorism? Call in every SEAL, Ranger, SpecOps guy, the Mossad, give 'em a pic of ol' Osama and say "An extra $5 million if you get a head shot." Over in a week. Man, the beaurocracy is so busy fisting itself they are actually crippling the relief effort. I've got a Yoda plush toy that displays more leadership than our current prez. At least Yoda can look me in the eye.

Cynicism is the smoke that rises from the ashes of burned out dreams.

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Originally posted by OurMrReynolds:
What part of my post made you think I approve of ANYTHING the govt does??? And why is terrorist in quotes? Is there a better term for someone who murders civilians by the thousands in order to inspire fear and Terror?

Cynicism is the smoke that rises from the ashes of burned out dreams.

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2) Where are the howls of outrage of those who claim to be the staunch defenders of human life? ..... Enquiring minds want to know why there's such a deafening silence.

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Originally posted by perfessergee:
only the most idiotic administration apologists are going to buy that ration of BS.

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One prominent African-American supporter of Mr. Bush who is close to Karl Rove, the White House political chief, said the president did not go into the heart of New Orleans and meet with black victims on his first trip there, last Friday, because he knew that White House officials were "scared to death" of the reaction.

"If I'm Karl, do I want the visual of black people hollering at the president as if we're living in Rwanda?"

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Originally posted by rue:
Facts, facts, facts ... the more I read of them, the more pissed off I get.

So don't expect facts in our media, especially on TV. Just lots of lots of sound bites and spin control with Bush prancing around looking concerned and grave.

My conclusion: LEADERSHIP IS THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE SOMEONE ELSE WALK THE PLANK.


Please don't think they give a shit.

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Originally posted by rue:


My conclusion: LEADERSHIP IS THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE SOMEONE ELSE WALK THE PLANK.

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