I personally think that Bush deserves a pat on the back for taking the blame. He did not fail in the relief efforts as he declared a state of emergency 48 hrs in advance. Therefore, FEMA should have been waiting right outside if the states to move in immediately following the hurricane. Also, the govenor should have mobilized more National Guardsman. Do you want Bush to hold everyone's hands while they are doing their jobs. He just wants people to stop feeling the pressure and get back to cleaning this mess up, instead of trying to pin the blame on someone different everyday. I applaud him for his actions.
this is pretty funny to me. there's still that minority of republicans that won't give up on this guy. no matter what he does, how bad he fucks up, or how questionable his decision making is, he's still a stand up guy. what the fuck??? i'll say this and back away...if this were clinton, he would have caught it way worse than bush is for this katrina mess, and he would have gotten an even more severe nationwide ass chewing for the UAE mess as well.
lastly, why is it that everytime this joker does something stupid, illegal, and/or secretively the typical response i see(for those who are outside of politics i.e. people on this forum) has something to do with clinton's affair(which had absolutely no bearing on the security or the emergency response capabilities of our country)?
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"i wonder if this grief would ever let me go? i feel like i am the king...king of sorrow."
All I have to say is that the last 2 prez have left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't have much faith in the Feds these days. That's one reason why I wanted to get out of the Air Force.
this is pretty funny to me. there's still that minority of republicans that won't give up on this guy. no matter what he does, how bad he fucks up, or how questionable his decision making is, he's still a stand up guy. what the fuck??? i'll say this and back away...if this were clinton, he would have caught it way worse than bush is for this katrina mess, and he would have gotten an even more severe nationwide ass chewing for the UAE mess as well.
lastly, why is it that everytime this joker does something stupid, illegal, and/or secretively the typical response i see(for those who are outside of politics i.e. people on this forum) has something to do with clinton's affair(which had absolutely no bearing on the security or the emergency response capabilities of our country)?
On the UAE port deal, I've been reading up on it and I support Bush on this. I think that it's racism and prejudice that's getting people's panties in a bundle, IMHO. Just because they're Arab doesn't mean the country will be in peril. The UAE has been one of our strongest allies in the Mid East and it's not like they're going to take over the security of the ports or anything, they're just going to manage it.
On the UAE port deal, I've been reading up on it and I support Bush on this. I think that it's racism and prejudice that's getting people's panties in a bundle, IMHO. Just because they're Arab doesn't mean the country will be in peril. The UAE has been one of our strongest allies in the Mid East and it's not like they're going to take over the security of the ports or anything, they're just going to manage it.
here's why i'm against him on this. maybe the UAE is behind us 100% on this. i'll argue with that being a given. just because their government is with us doesn't mean their citizenship is. the powers that be in the UAE won't be the ones loading and unloading freight. we've all seen how easy it is for these guys to blend in to "normal" societies and later commit horrendous crimes. i have absolutely nothing against arabs except for the ones who've harmed us, but i'm no fool, and neither are the other people who are speaking out against this. it's not like they're the only alternative.
think about it this way. who do you trust most in the world to drive your car? you. how do you feel when someone at the dealership drives it back to the garage, or someone parks really close to it? if you're like me, you're paranoid. why give ANY control to someone else if you don't have to? you're a lot less likely to scratch your car or blow up your ports if you're the one controlling them, right?
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"i wonder if this grief would ever let me go? i feel like i am the king...king of sorrow."
Attempting to deflect all Katrina failure and blame to Bush is simply myopic and terribly counter-productive to fixing the emergency response system. It is very clear that many, many problems out of direct control of the White House and ANY administration contributed. To make an assumption that, had the current administration done everything in it's control perfectly, the Katrina response would STILL not have been a collossal failure shows a rather large degree of ignorance, IMO. The whole f*kn system failed right on down from president to resident.
Personally I think ANY sitting prez would/should be facing hard scrutiny and harsh criticism after a thorough review of the federal, local, institutional and individual failures identified. If all the Bush bashers would expend a tiny bit of their energy to constructively fixing the problems identified in the report rather than bloviating, America might just be better prepared for the next natural disaster... or worse.
Agreed. The entire chain of command failed from the local authorities to the feds, blame goes everywhere. Pointing the finger at Bush will not make the dead come back or restore commerce to New Orleans . . .
But what irks me is this teflon that Bush seems to wear against criticism. He was told that the major levee breach were obviously a "very, very grave concern.". That's a fact. And 5 days later on Good Morning America, he states, "I don’t think anyone anticipated breach of the levees …Now we’re having to deal with it, and will." http://www.factcheck.org/article344.html
Is this pettifoggery? Is this trivial to focus on?
Similar to UT's aforementioned point, when the President blatantly lies to you, why is the current public and administration selective as to which lies from a President are tolerant, and which lies are not? No, I'm sorry you can't have it both ways.
And Dholly I agree with you, sticking my finger at bush with blame is not going to help the current homeless and disposed in New Orleans. But when Clinton lied about Lewinsky, the whole country stopped and listened. When Bush lies about Katrina, you get a top story one day, and it's page 2 the next day. I just don't understand it and that's the point I'm trying to make. It doesn't make sense to me why this emperor is beholden and the previous one was made an example of? I didn't read the patriot act, but does it give the President immunity in all aspects of office? Should I stop caring? Does my vote matter?
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I am a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power. I am very jealous for the rights and liberties of my country; the least encroachment on those invaluable privileges makes my blood boil. Benjamin Franklin
But what irks me is this teflon that Bush seems to wear against criticism. He was told that the major levee breach were obviously a "very, very grave concern.". That's a fact. And 5 days later on Good Morning America, he states, "I don’t think anyone anticipated breach of the levees …Now we’re having to deal with it, and will." http://www.factcheck.org/article344.html
Is this pettifoggery? Is this trivial to focus on?
Deliberate dishonesty by any elected official should never be tolerated, so I appreciate that link because I think it helps explain and put that Bush comment in context and perspective.
The terminology used by the Army Corps of Engineers for 'breach', 'overtopping' and 'failure' each describe distinctly seperate incidents. When speaking of "facts", keep in mind it is also fact that Greg Breerword, a deputy district engineer for project management with the Army Corps of Engineers, told the New York Times: "We knew if it was going to be a Category 5, some levees and some flood walls would be overtopped. We never did think they would actually be breached."
I believe NO one including Bush argued that a 'breach' or 'failure' was not a "very, very grave concern." But, in my mind, that is totally different than anticipating or expecting the levees to erode completely away in a catastrophic failure as suggested by the Cat 5 simulation. I think the Corps, Nagin, Blanco, Bush et al, most certainly anticipated flooding due to overtopping, but not multiple and complete structural levee failures (breaches) to the extent occured.
What's the point of lying about this, what's to be gained? It seems at least equally plausible that the comment was taken out of its originally intended context, or promoted in efforts to discredit Bush, as it is that he was deliberately lying for some reason. So, once again, we are at a point were we must determine the meaning of comments based on an explanation by the source itself or the explanation others and the media would have us believe. YMMV
After watching these video tapes that have been released these past couple of days, it looks to me like that guy Brown who was in charge of FEMA wasn't asleep at the wheel afterall. Looks to me like maybe he got thrown under the bus.
That he was NOT totally inept is supported by the report findings. Rather, he was unable to coordinate and mobilize federal assets to the scope necessary. This was because government has gotten so big and cumbersome, operational efficiency and effectiveness have now simply become a practical impossibility. Unfortunately, I think ANYONE in his position would have suffered a similar fate under similar circumstances. Most people still have no clue just how big and devastating this natural disaster was.
August 28th:
"My gut tells me this is a bad one and a big one- this is, to put it mildly, the big one, I think."
- Michael D. Brown addressing the conference including President Bush the day before Katrina struck.
"Not to be kind of gross here, but I'm concerned about [the medical and mortuary disaster teams] and their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe." - Michael D. Brown said in the same conference.
"The superdome is about 12 feet below sea level . . . I don't know whether the roof is designed to stand, withstand a Category 5 hurricane." - Michael D. Brown
The below is from here: http://www.factcheck.org/article344.html
Whether or not a "breach" was "anticipated," the fact is that many individuals have been warning for decades about the threat of flooding that a hurricane could pose to a set below sea level and sandwiched between major waterways. A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report from before September 11, 2001 detailed the three most likely catastrophic disasters that could happen in the United States: a terrorist attack in New York, a strong earthquake in San Francisco, and a hurricane strike in New Orleans. In 2002, New Orleans officials held the simulation of what would happen in a category 5 storm. Walter Maestri, the emergency coordinator of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans , recounted the outcome to PBS’ NOW With Bill Moyers:
Maestri, September 2002: Well, when the exercise was completed it was evidence that we were going to lose a lot of people. We changed the name of the [simulated] storm from Delaney to K-Y-A-G-B... kiss your ass goodbye... because anybody who was here as that category five storm came across... was gone.
Maybe I'm tired of hearing that a President cannot bear the brunt of the blame for such disasters.
I heard this with regards to 9/11 and I hear it now. Okay, so maybe he can't and maybe my expectations are too high. But when I remeber seeing Rudy Giuliani in the streets of Manhattan working tirelessly - and I don't care for him that much either - I say to myself there's a leader who leads by example. He gets the people behind him. He gets his hands dirty, he's not just a politician, he's one of us.
During the early parts of Katrina hitting the cities, Bush was in San Diego for publicity photos and I think a charitable dinner. He didn't show his face at ground zero till days later.
September 1st, 2005, " I don't anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." - G. W Bush.
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