just another reason I HATE THE PRESIDENT

[calvin1663]

i cannot belive that in "the biggest, best, most powerful blah blah blah country in the world" we have a president who says "you're doing a heck of a job, brownie" to a man who a week later gets fired/steps down......

 

 

i can't believe what this country has come to.............wow

 

 

 

 

 

pb

[an_cat]

I remember sitting and watching the news after Katrina and they cut to that live. I was watching it all, pretty bored with all the typical blah blah blahing doom and gloom stuff (as if we didn't have enough of that assaulting us already) and then suddenly I hear that.

 

:inquisitive: :freak: Can be the only way to describe my reaction.

 

Oh and then :lol:

 

Pretty sad. No, wait. Very lame, stupid and embaressing. That's more like it.

[!!!]

this is part of a column i wrote in my school paper:

 

Who would have thought that New Orleans would turn into a ghost town because of massive flooding from Hurricane Katrina? "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees,” said President Bush, speaking of the walls that could not hold back the floodwater which ravaged the city and left hundreds dead.

But President Bush was wrong. Actually a whole lot of people predicted it, like the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which ran a five-part series on the vulnerability of the city, or National Geographic, which ran an article in October 2004 that predicted a hurricane would hit New Orleans and leave the city “buried under a blanket of putrid sediment,” in what they predicted would be “the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.”

Then there’s the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which predicted its own failure in the future. In 2001, former FEMA Director Joe Albaugh said that “a Category 5 hurricane in an urban area would stretch our current response and recovery capabilities to a breaking point.”

Four years later, we see Bush saying “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job” to the recently resigned and much-maligned former FEMA director Michael Brown.

Wrong again, Mr. President.

[KMS]

You shouldve done a little more research for your paper. The Mayor and the Gov need to quit finger pointing and admit their wrong doing.New Orleans is so corrupt it isnt funny,and Im not just talking about this situation.They were given millions of dollars YEARS ago for fixing/updating the levee system... New Orleans wanted a big fat loan,proposals were made to the federal government that the repairs would be made within 4 years....what they did was build a stupid fountain among other things.The levees were barely patched,if that much.The LOCAL government needs to step up to the plate FIRST,constitutionally the president really doesnt have much of a liability on all this.The White House cannot keep holding every cities hand when they drop the ball.The Mayor and the Gov knew this was inevitable,but they made NO plans,lousey preparation and what happened to all those buses she promised would take the old,frail and poor out? They are sitting in about 6 feet of water in a parking lot-hundreds of them.It was easier to say fend for yourselves and we can just blame the White House later cause its just so much better than being accountable.

[KMS]

Let me add,The President isn't supposed to "make our beloved communities work right again." He's supposed to find beloved communities already working right and assist them in recovering from disaster. That's how FEMA works--bottom up, not top down. Mississippi and Alabama apparently understood that before Katrina struck, as they haven't had anywhere near the level of chaos that New Orleans has had. It seems none of the elites in Louisiana understood the basics of federalism. And they still dont.If there have been successes in New Orleans, its only because the President has taken command where by all rights he is not supposed to, and gotten things done despite local officials

[!!!]

Let me add' date='The President isn't supposed to "make our beloved communities work right again." He's supposed to find beloved communities already working right and assist them in recovering from disaster. That's how FEMA works--bottom up, not top down. Mississippi and Alabama apparently understood that before Katrina struck, as they haven't had anywhere near the level of chaos that New Orleans has had. It seems none of the elites in Louisiana understood the basics of federalism. And they still dont.If there have been successes in New Orleans, its only because the President has taken command where by all rights he is not supposed to, and gotten things done despite local officials[/quote']

 

are you kidding me? federal officials were asleep at the wheel the whole time...FEMA didn't even know about the shitload of people at the convention center until it was far too late. and bush was painfully unaware of the severity of the situation for many days (read this article from newsweek entitled 'how bush blew it': http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/site/newsweek/) obviously the local and state government did their part in fucking up, but to absolve the federal government of all guilt is just ignorant. ESPECIALLY since the most recent time new orleans asked for federal money to fix the levees they were denied because we needed the money to fight that pesky little war we're still fighting over in iraq.

[lilchick629]

f

 

If there have been successes in New Orleans' date=' its only because the President has taken command where by all rights he is not supposed to, and gotten things done despite local officials[/quote']

 

He is not supposed to???? In time of crisis, he is not supposed to???

and yeah, taking command after five days pass of people dying, starving, not sleeping, not drinking water, suffering without any assistance from the government----yeah, that is really a good job---and where was the homeland security people???? oh yeah, over in Iraq--and why where they there instead of protecting us here??? oh yeah, cause the president send them over there to keep fighting in a stupid, pointless war----great job Mr. President :rolleyes: you really got things well done

[calvin1663]

hold on....... "the president has taken command"??????!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!???????? are you mentally insane?!?!? here's a little something about our not-so-beloved-ex head-of-fema (oh, and by the way, on FEMA's website, 20 out of the 22 charities it considered "worthy to help with the relief effort" were faith based, and organizations such as the red cross weren't listed.

 

just something about michael brown:

 

Before joining FEMA, his only previous stint in emergency management, according to his bio posted on FEMA's website, was "serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight." The White House press release from 2001 stated that Brown worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., from 1975 to 1978 "overseeing the emergency services division." In fact, according to Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond, Brown was an "assistant to the city manager" from 1977 to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other employees. "The assistant is more like an intern," she told TIME. "Department heads did not report to him." Brown did do a good job at his humble position, however, according to his boss. "Yes. Mike Brown worked for me. He was my administrative assistant. He was a student at Central State University," recalls former city manager Bill Dashner. "Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I'd ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt."

 

Under the heading of "Professional Associations and Memberships" on FindLaw, Brown states that from 1983 to the present he has been director of the Oklahoma Christian Home, a nursing home in Edmond. But an administrator with the Home told TIME that Brown is "not a person that anyone here is familiar with." She says there was a board of directors until a couple of years ago, but she couldn't find anyone who recalled him being on it. According to FEMA's Andrews, Brown said "he's never claimed to be the director of the home. He was on the board of directors, or governors of the nursing home." However, a veteran employee at the center since 1981 says Brown "was never director here, was never on the board of directors, was never executive director. He was never here in any capacity. I never heard his name mentioned here."

 

^ (time.com)

[Corum]

 

 

We're Helping!!

 

You can find the original pic at collegehumor.com or click on the pic for a larger version.

 

Cruel, yet funny.

 

lol

[calvin1663]

lol my dad sent me that!

[my_star_is_fading]

the reaction to the disaster was appalling. Would it have been as slow if it had happened to, say, miami or florida?

[Corum]

Just watch how fast Texas gets relief. It will make your head spin.

[KMS]

:rolleyes: it starts with local government and they failed.But that goes unnoticed,maybe they get a pass cause they are Democrats?

[KMS]

I noticed how no one touched the subject about the Levee Systems....interesting.

[Christiana]

^thank you... how come in all of this blaming, most people fail to remember the chain of command goes from city to state THEN to federal. the feds don't swoop in UNTIL they are called by the state. that is one of those checks that keeps the federal goverment from sending troops at will unless the state asks. c'mon this was a disaster of unparalleled proportions here in the usa. nobody could possibly foresee the whole chain of circumstances that made it so bad. just donate money, help where you can, and hope EVERY government agency is better prepared in the future. :/

[an_cat]

I think what this thread's topic was originally about how Bush conducted himself immediately after the disaster. I mean, nicknaming a guy and telling him he's done a "heck of a job" while in the MSNBC split screen you are simultaniously watching a woman being hauled up on a rescue helicopter while the rest of her family waits underneath her... it was just mind numbing.

 

The hypocrisy that we live in today is just amazing.

[lilchick629]

d

 

:rolleyes: it starts with local government and they failed.But that goes unnoticed' date='maybe they get a pass cause they are Democrats?[/quote']

 

Everyone did a terrible job leading to the hurricane----I'm talking about before the hurricane came, the city wasnt prepared, the state was not prepared, and the country wasnt prepared for such a disaster---no one is arguing about that

 

But what could the local government do right after the disaster??? They were vicitims themselves, they probably lost everything themselves----what could the state do after the disaster???? They did send firefighters and rescuers in right after the hurricane--they did--------but what did the federal government do??? what did FEMA do??? NOTHING, NOTHING at all until 5 full days had passed

 

Now, I dont live under the local government of New Orleans, I dont live under the local government of Louisiana, but i do live under the Federal government, and because of this, I expect some answers from them and I do expected some more from them------because if something happens where I live, I expect to see them sending help immediately not after 5 days have passed

[lilchick629]

x

 

I noticed how no one touched the subject about the Levee Systems....interesting.

 

some light reading like Aaron suggested ;)

 

Published on Thursday, September 1, 2005 by Der Spiegel (Germany)

No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming

by Sidney Blumenthal

 

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

 

Biblical in its uncontrolled rage and scope, Hurricane Katrina has left millions of Americans to scavenge for food and shelter and hundreds to thousands reportedly dead. With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico. But the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature.

 

A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late.

 

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane published a series on the federal funding problem, and whose presses are now underwater, reported online: "No one can say they didn't see it coming ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."

 

The Bush administration's policy of turning over wetlands to developers almost certainly also contributed to the heightened level of the storm surge. In 1990, a federal task force began restoring lost wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Every two miles of wetland between the Crescent City and the Gulf reduces a surge by half a foot. Bush had promised "no net loss" of wetlands, a policy launched by his father's administration and bolstered by President Clinton. But he reversed his approach in 2003, unleashing the developers. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency then announced they could no longer protect wetlands unless they were somehow related to interstate commerce.

 

In response to this potential crisis, four leading environmental groups conducted a joint expert study, concluding in 2004 that without wetlands protection New Orleans could be devastated by an ordinary, much less a Category 4 or 5, hurricane. "There's no way to describe how mindless a policy that is when it comes to wetlands protection," said one of the report's authors. The chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality dismissed the study as "highly questionable," and boasted, "Everybody loves what we're doing."

 

"My administration's climate change policy will be science based," President Bush declared in June 2001. But in 2002, when the Environmental Protection Agency submitted a study on global warming to the United Nations reflecting its expert research, Bush derided it as "a report put out by a bureaucracy," and excised the climate change assessment from the agency's annual report. The next year, when the EPA issued its first comprehensive "Report on the Environment," stating, "Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment," the White House simply demanded removal of the line and all similar conclusions. At the G-8 meeting in Scotland this year, Bush successfully stymied any common action on global warming. Scientists, meanwhile, have continued to accumulate impressive data on the rising temperature of the oceans, which has produced more severe hurricanes.

 

In February 2004, 60 of the nation's leading scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, warned in a statement, "Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policymaking": "Successful application of science has played a large part in the policies that have made the United States of America the world's most powerful nation and its citizens increasingly prosperous and healthy ... Indeed, this principle has long been adhered to by presidents and administrations of both parties in forming and implementing policies. The administration of George W. Bush has, however, disregarded this principle ... The distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends must cease." Bush completely ignored this statement.

 

In the two weeks preceding the storm in the Gulf, the trumping of science by ideology and expertise by special interests accelerated. The Federal Drug Administration announced that it was postponing sale of the morning-after contraceptive pill, despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its safety and its approval by the FDA's scientific advisory board. The United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa accused the Bush administration of responsibility for a condom shortage in Uganda -- the result of the administration's evangelical Christian agenda of "abstinence." When the chief of the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Justice Department was ordered by the White House to delete its study that African-Americans and other minorities are subject to racial profiling in police traffic stops and he refused to buckle under, he was forced out of his job. When the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting oversight analyst objected to a $7 billion no-bid contract awarded for work in Iraq to Halliburton (the firm at which Vice President Cheney was formerly CEO), she was demoted despite her superior professional ratings. At the National Park Service, a former Cheney aide, a political appointee lacking professional background, drew up a plan to overturn past environmental practices and prohibit any mention of evolution while allowing sale of religious materials through the Park Service.

 

On the day the levees burst in New Orleans, Bush delivered a speech in Colorado comparing the Iraq war to World War II and himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt: "And he knew that the best way to bring peace and stability to the region was by bringing freedom to Japan." Bush had boarded his very own "Streetcar Named Desire."

 

Sidney Blumenthal is former assistant and senior advisor to President Clinton and the author of "The Clinton Wars".

 

© 2005 Spielgel Online

[!!!]

:rolleyes: it starts with local government and they failed.But that goes unnoticed,maybe they get a pass cause they are Democrats?

 

I noticed how no one touched the subject about the Levee Systems....interesting.

 

umm, did you read my post? i addressed both of those subjects. perhaps you just decided to pretend my post didn't exist?

[!!!]

^thank you... how come in all of this blaming' date=' most people fail to remember the chain of command goes from city to state THEN to federal. the feds don't swoop in UNTIL they are called by the state. that is one of those checks that keeps the federal goverment from sending troops at will unless the state asks. c'mon this was a disaster of unparalleled proportions here in the usa. nobody could possibly foresee the whole chain of circumstances that made it so bad. just donate money, help where you can, and hope EVERY government agency is better prepared in the future. :/[/quote']

 

they were called by the state's governor loooong before they took any legitimate action. and how about your statement that "nobody could possibly foresee the whole chain of circumstances that made it so bad" that's 100% incorrect. absolute bullshit.

 

once again, perhaps you people defending bush just skipped over a previous post of mine...so i'll copy it so you don't get confused again.

 

Who would have thought that New Orleans would turn into a ghost town because of massive flooding from Hurricane Katrina? "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees,” said President Bush, speaking about the walls that could not hold back the floodwater which ravaged the city and left hundreds dead.

But President Bush was wrong. Actually, a whole lot of people predicted it, like the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which ran a five-part series on the vulnerability of the city. Or National Geographic, which ran an article in October 2004 saying that if a hurricane were to hit New Orleans, it would leave the city “buried under a blanket of putrid sediment,” in what they predicted would be “the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.”

Then there’s the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which predicted its own failure in the future. In 2001 (9/10/01, a day before 9/11), former FEMA Director Joe Albaugh said that "a Category 5 hurricane in an urban area would stretch our current response and recovery capabilities to a breaking point.”

[greeneyedlady]

Let me add,The President isn't supposed to "make our beloved communities work right again." He's supposed to find beloved communities already working right and assist them in recovering from disaster. That's how FEMA works--bottom up, not top down. Mississippi and Alabama apparently understood that before Katrina struck, as they haven't had anywhere near the level of chaos that New Orleans has had. It seems none of the elites in Louisiana understood the basics of federalism. And they still dont.If there have been successes in New Orleans, its only because the President has taken command where by all rights he is not supposed to, and gotten things done despite local officials

 

_________________

 

Absolutely correct. Interesting though, in the Blumethal article(no, the 'Former Clinton advisor' didn't escape me) posted in a few posts later on in this thread - nowhere did it mention that the efforts in the 60's of the enviormental group 'Save our Wetlands' thwarted the building of a flood control gate on Lake Ponchartrain to ease strains on the levees in the course of a cat 3 or greater hurricane.

 

Sometimes I have a feeling it's going to get where the weatherman/lady will start blaming Bush when it's overcast.

 

Former lib sends.

[!!!]

it's always someone else's fault (where's the buck supposed to stop?). local blaming federal, federal blaming local...but this takes the cake. it flooded because of some environmentalist group from back in the 60's? yeah, that makes sense.

[lilchick629]

:dozey: :dozey: :dozey:

I have a feeling that this is going nowhere

:snore: :snore: :snore:

[calvin1663]

lol me too.........this is supposed to be a (relatively) civil discussion, not a couple of people yapping at each other.............i dunno......lets all slagg of bush some more.........its good at stress release...........

[lilchick629]

kj