Katrina...
I keep thinking it's been 5 days and people are still in the Superdome, still on their roofs, still stuck in a city submerged. Why isn't more being done, why wasn't more down earlier, why didn't they push harder for a mandatory forced evacuation? But most importantly Bush why haven't you shown your face to the American people and issued a plan to help, why aren't you urging Americans to donate, or are you so disconnected from the non-rich that you just don't care.
I've been obsessively reading the news and looking at pictures from this devasting area of the country. First and foremost send money to the Red Cross ASAP.
Here's what I've found:
The mayor of New Orleans extreme disappointment and raw honesty.
Seth Abramson has a terrific post on Katrina
Because Bush likes to lie and we certainly knew that the levees were in jeapordy.
FEMA-What the hell happened Mr. President from the Washington Post
I thought the job of the President was to lead and comfort in times of national crisis.
Further proof that Bush and Washington have a major disconnect with this nations poor.
Attytood: a newsblog with plenty of opinions on the subject, it's what we're all thinking but afraid to say. well not always, but you know what I mean.
Satellite Images from the NYTimes.
And of course Common Dreams which contains much much more on the situation.
I've been obsessively reading the news and looking at pictures from this devasting area of the country. First and foremost send money to the Red Cross ASAP.
Here's what I've found:
The mayor of New Orleans extreme disappointment and raw honesty.
Seth Abramson has a terrific post on Katrina
Because Bush likes to lie and we certainly knew that the levees were in jeapordy.
FEMA-What the hell happened Mr. President from the Washington Post
I thought the job of the President was to lead and comfort in times of national crisis.
Further proof that Bush and Washington have a major disconnect with this nations poor.
Attytood: a newsblog with plenty of opinions on the subject, it's what we're all thinking but afraid to say. well not always, but you know what I mean.
Satellite Images from the NYTimes.
And of course Common Dreams which contains much much more on the situation.
posted by Kristine at 11:27 AM
4 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Isn't it time to call for impeachment. Clinton screwed 'em one at a time but Bush has done it to a whole city.
There has been a lot of criticism of President Bush for the handling of the New Orleans disaster and the alleged diversion of funds from the work on the levee, to the Iraq war. There’s only one problem with this argument, two actually. The representative of the Army Corps of Engineers has stated that the critical Levee work was completed, that it was up to designed specs. The problem is, those specs were for a class three hurricane, not a four or five. Secondly of the funds that were transferred to New Orleans over the last decades, were diverted by the local levee boards to buy a Gambling Casino and a private marina. It would appear that the “Big Easy’s” reputation for inept governance and corruption is well deserved. President Bush has done everything within his power to take care of the disaster area. When he saw that Democrat incompetence was unable to deal with the crisis, he went down to shake things up and get people moving. Within a very few hours of his visit, massive truck convoys began entering the city carrying water and food to those in need. This morning, less than 24 hours after his visit, the buses were flowing into the city to carry people to safety. President Bush had to go down to Louisiana to do the jobs of the Mayor’s and Governor’s jobs. Okay, I know that the massive response was mostly coincidental, but if this had occurred during Clinton’s watch, the MSM would have been saying that very thing.
The President called on Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to order a mandatory evacuation on Saturday, 36-48 hours prior to the storm’s arrival. Nagin expressing concern about the legality of ordering people out of the city when New Orleans had some safe hurricane shelters to which they could evacuate, failed to act. National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield in Miami called Nagin at home Saturday night and told him: “Get people out of New Orleans.” Two days before the hurricane made landfall, President Bush declared the area a federal disaster area, giving the Governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama all of the resources they needed to prepare for this chaos, all of the troops, all of the supplies, all of the transportation, all were available to the Democrat Governor, the Democrat Mayor, Democrat City Council, Democrat Levee Board in Louisiana. The problems arose because Governor Blanco couldn’t make up her mind to “pull the trigger” and begin mobilizing until two days after the storm hit. That means she lost four days before acting to begin the rescue of the people in New Orleans. It is readily apparent that Governor Blanco was incapable of doing her job. It is also apparent that Mayor Nagin was neglectful in doing his job. New Orleans had a plan for this contingency:
“The authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane is conferred to the Governor by Louisiana Statute. The Governor is granted the power to direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from a stricken or threatened area within the State, if he deems this action necessary for the preservation of life or other disaster mitigation, response or recovery. The same power to order an evacuation conferred upon the Governor is also delegated to each political subdivision of the State by Executive Order. This authority empowers the chief elected official of New Orleans, the Mayor of New Orleans, to order the evacuation of the parish residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.”
“The person responsible for recognition of hurricane related preparation needs and for the issuance of an evacuation order is the Mayor of the City of New Orleans. Concerning preparation needs and the issuance of an evacuation order, The Office of Emergency Preparedness should keep the Mayor advised.”
“...Evacuation notices or orders will be issued during three stages prior to gale force winds making landfall.
> Precautionary Evacuation Notice: 72 hours or less
> Special Needs Evacuation Order: 8-12 hours after Precautionary Evacuation Notice issued
> General Evacuation Notice: 48 hours or less”
The entire plan is here: City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan [link].
A reading of the entire plan, reads like a step by step summary of what Mayor Nagin failed to do. President Bush provided the local officials every resource they needed to deal with this emergency. The failure was a failure of the local government (Democrat) bureaucracy. This is President Bush’s fault? There were stockpiles of food and water setup at depots all around Louisiana. We know now that it was the gross incompetence, over an extended period of time, of local Democrat controlled government that has been the cause of this mess. Tuesday morning, within 24 hours of the storm, the federal government began rushing baby formula, communications equipment, generators, water and ice into the storm ravaged areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, along with doctors, nurses and first-aid supplies. The U.S. Defense Department sent experts to help with search-and-rescue operations. This was 24 hours prior to the levee failure which occurred on Wednesday.
Americans have the right to expect competency in their elected officials. What we are witnessing in Louisiana is complete incompetence. And what is the response of the Congressional Black Caucus NAACP, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and the usual suspects? Recriminations of the President, vague and not so vague hints that the President just doesn’t care about black people, and most shallow of all the complaints, my personal favorite for most useless complaint of the decade...”refugees.” There has been an almost universal complaint that the refugees from the storm are being called “refugees.” What an irrelevant, inane, useless, diversionary concern to be addressed. What good are you doing your people by making that an issue?
Oh yes there was gross incompetence involved in the disaster that used to be New Orleans, but it wasn’t the President’s, it was the local authorities failure, dare I say, it was a Democrat failure. Local government is supposed to be actively engaged during the early stages of emergency response activities. Normally the Federal government doesn’t step in until asked by the Governor of the state. The more information that becomes available, the better the Bush Administration’s response looks and the worse the Democrat finger pointers appear to be. By jumping to conclusion (something Liberals are really good at), they have, once again, made themselves look like the mascot of their party...EEEHAW...EEEHAW!
Of course I am not so naïve as to believe Democrats or Liberals will comprehend what I have stated, because their irrational hatred of President Bush blocks all reasoned thinking. They are so blinded by hatred that, for example, I have read in one comment, on a certain liberal blog, criticism of President for hugging and kissing a couple of the young black girls, victims in Mississippi, commenting that it reminded her of a sexual predator. Perhaps Michael Savage is correct, Liberalism is a mental disease.
Evil is most easily seen where those most familiar with its feel seek it.
i think that the above long winded post defending president bush has missed the point entirely. there are people suffering and dying and they need help right now.
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