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Did Bush and the Federal Govt Fail New Orleans


monsoon

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If Fox, CNN and MSNBC could get their trucks down to New Orlean Tuesday, why did it take to Friday before help came?

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My guess is that the news' plans to get to the disaster were a lot better coordinated and planned out than our government's was.

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Why can't all you libbies admit that this was a SHARED failure of both Republicans AND Democrats? From the Democratic Mayor of New Orleans and the Democratic Governor of Louisiana to the Republican white house? All should share in this blame. If you roast Bush, you should also roast Nagin and Blanco. If you don't do that, you're not really looking at this from a realistic perspective.

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I love how liberals make contradictory arguments about Bush. First, he is in the pocket of corporations and therefore caused global warming which then caused this hurricane. Then, he is incompetent in his rescue efforts because he obviously should have foreseen this situation. And finally he is an evil genius who intentionally delayed the rescue effort in an attempt to kill blacks. So, which is it? Is he an evil genius? Is he a puppet under the guidance of the puppet master, Karl Rove? Or is he a moron with no connection with reality? Please be consistent.

As to Democrats hoping to make political gains out of tragedy, I will say that your efforts are both pathetic and transparent. Voters dont care about the levee issue outside of NO and Bush will never run again anyway. You are making yourselves look foolish with shrill attacks in a time of tragedy. Whatever happened to tact and propriety?

First and obviously, race had nothing to do with the delayed rescue effort. The completely obvious answer is that the flood and the scale of the disaster caused the delay. You also cant just drive into New Orleans like you could drive into Miami after Andrew. This should be obvious to any objective individual.

Second, the scale of the disaster was unprecedented. Obviously the feds should have had a better plan and better levees in place. But this is a multi-generational failure in that succeeding leaders of both parties did not take care of this problem. By the way, Hurricane Georges almost hit NO during the reign of that virtuous, courageous genius Clinton in 1998 and probably would have done the same thing then had it not turned away from NO at the last minute.

Sleepy, I realize that federal legislation long ago preempted local authority with regard to coastal flooding control. I think this was a huge mistake. I think the government which is closest to the people is usually that which is most effective. So, I believe that the local levee boards and state levee authorities should be in charge of this, perhaps with some federal assistance. After all, locals should have a vested interest in seeing that the levees are done right.

Finally, I think we have to restore the flow of the Misssissippi south of NO in order to allow for frequent flooding to rejuvenate the swamplands and provide more of a buffer against storms. Also, let's stop trying to make political hay and rebuild NO to better than ever before and build impregnable levees.

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Why can't all you libbies admit that this was a SHARED failure of both Republicans AND Democrats?  From the Democratic Mayor of New Orleans and the Democratic Governor of Louisiana to the Republican white house?  All should share in this blame.  If you roast Bush, you should also roast Nagin and Blanco.  If you don't do that, you're not really looking at this from a realistic perspective.

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I agree that local and state governments failed their citizens as well, however I didn't raise that issue for two reasons. First, there is a long-standing precedent that disaster relief is primarily the responsibility of the federal government, as someone else has stated. No city or state has the resources to handle something like this, and the mayor shouldn't have had to go on television to plead for the president to help. Second, the Democratic state and local leaders are getting enough criticism from the right wing, while Bush seemingly is infallible to some people. We "libbies" are trying to get some acknowledgement that the president has failed as well. If even Fox News and Bill O'Reilly are criticising the federal response, I don't see how anyone can defend him.

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Just heard the office of the Sheriff of St. Bernard Parish on WWL tonight saying that some of the parish is still under 20 feet of water, every home has been damaged or destroyed, and get this, not one bit of federal assistance has arrived.

Not one helicopter, not one boat, no food, no water, nothing.

St. Bernard is about 5 miles downriver from downtown New Orleans.

It's one thing to say state and local officials should have been better prepared, but part of hurricane preparedness is accepting the assurances of FEMA and Homeland Security that federal disaster relief will be there on the ground if a storm hits. In this case it wasn't.

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All day Sunday, New Orleans city buses were picking up anyone who wanted to go to the Dome.  That option was available and widely known.  People there foolishly decided to ride it out.  I never left for a hurricane in the 25 yr. I lived there.

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I said to bus people OUT of New Orleans, not bus them to the Superdome. We all see what happened at the Superdome.

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I said to bus people OUT of New Orleans, not bus them to the Superdome. We all see what happened at the Superdome.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not that I disagree with you, but that was caused by the fact that so many rival gangs and drugless drug dealers were packed in there.

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Not really, the situation there was a result of not having power, air-conditioning, enough supplies, etc. and 10-20,000 people staying in there for 4 days without taking baths, brushing their teeth, changing babies diapers,etc. Then top that off with the high summer temps in New Orleans and you've got the recipe for a death trap.

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I found this on the Drudge Report.

New Orleans a 'ghost town' for 9 months

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americ...ticle310186.ece

School Buses

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/0...flpc21109012015

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/343324p-292991c.html

Law Officers, Overwhelmed, and Quitting The force

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/national...agewanted=print

First Estimate Puts Storm's Economic Toll at $100 Billion

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/business...agewanted=print

There is plenty to read on this site in ref. to NO

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Yep from one of the articles.

"The criticism is all the sharper because the President did nothing to alter his holiday schedule for 48 hours. Vice-President Dick Cheney remains on holiday in Wyoming. Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, returned to Washington after being seen shopping for $7,000 shoes in Manhattan as New Orleans went under."

Condeleezza Rice is a spin master extrodinare. When asked if any of the aid from th 60 countries had been accepted, she responds "none has been turned down". Of course she won't say the State Dept. has not accepted any of it either. Apparently $7,000 shoes are more important than coordinating foreign aid. I have never seen someone speak so much, so elequently, and say absolutely nothing as well as never answer any question put to her as this woman. I note that she is now going to make a trip to Alabama. Wondering if she will be wearing those new shoes.

What in the hell is wrong with these people?

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In order to make all libbies happy, why can't we just change the title to "Bush Sucks" and close the thread?

I mean, since no one on the left wants to acknowledge that this is SHARED BLAME.  Good lord, the hypocrecy is overwhealming!

There is no way you can be truthful and deny this statement.

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This isn't a question of right vs left. It's a statement of fact the President of this country has failed his people by failing to respond. He has referred to NO as a "temporary disruption" and without exception all of his people have refused to accept any blame for this debacle. Sharing Blame? its not in the Bush vocabulary. Its deny deny deny and then hope it goes away.

Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, on Meet the Press this morning basically had nothing to say about the federal failures in NO. Spin Spin Spin. This will equal the WMDs that were never found in Iraq and were blamed on the incompetant CIA.

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I'm late to the discussion but this is my take on the situation. I'm quite sure the mayor of New Orleans would have evacuated all citizens (buses, etc.) prior to the hurricane if he could have sent them ANYWHERE. NOBODY wants additional poor people in their city, ESPECIALLY POOR BLACK people. Can you imagine any of these "COMPASSIONATE" cities accepting these "refugees" by the busloads prior to the SUFFERING they see on TV now.....ABSOLUTELY NOT!

The vast majority of the BLACK & WHITE citizens who remained in the city during the hurricane were HARD WORKING LAW ABIDING TAX PAYING American Citizens who had NO means and NO where to go (they're not stupid....trust me, they would've left!....yeah, you had some tough-it-out folks....but deal with them later). As an African-American (Phd. candidate in Electrical Engineering), sometimes it's hard for me to grasp the reality of TRULY being poor and having NO options.

Last year, I taught electronics at an inner city high school here in Durham. Myself and most middle class folk cannot conceptualize the meaning of being destitute in America. The stark reality of there being two Americas became very evident to me (you can ride by it everday...see it....but until you feel/touch it....you do not KNOW it). Most of US (Black & White) refer to these neighborhoods as the "bad" part of town...the hood, as if these people do live in a 3rd world country here in America (some of them acutally do!). We AVOID these parts of town like a PLAGUE.

That being said, there IS absolutely NO WAY that GEORGE BUSH and most politicians (including Democrats....most of them front allegiance for a VOTE) can relate to this environment (but he knows that middle & upper class Americans ABSOLUTELY do not want to deal with this "problem"...sort of like having a PAIN in your side until it becomes unbearable and finally going to the doctor)......He's clueless as are most of Americans who have not had first hand experience. Why do you think a lot of these folk were able to survive for 3- 5 days without decent meals and borderline dehydration....Hell, a lot of them are used to being thrown to the wolves....cause I don't know if I would've made it.

As far as the immediate response to the aftermath in New Orleans, Bush SHOULD have contacted the Governor of Lousiana and the Mayor of New Orleans (I'm sure he did) and required a FULL assessment of the situation and remained in constant dialogue (not a pretentious conversation as it seems to have been). You are the LEADER, like the CEO of a company......find out what the HELL is really going on!......TRUE LEADERS demand answers NOW......I'm not going to wait for you to come to ME with an answer..."OK, this is what were going to do" response ). He didn't have this problem in Alabama and Mississippi because the leadership is Republican (not a bad thing, just political relationships that evolve in discussing matters with members of your on political affiliation.....scratch-back theory).

As soon as media reports began to show the turmoil and lawlessness in the city, he should've mobilized the 82nd Airborne & Marines (the troops he's sending there now) to gain control over the city.....I was in the National Guard, these people are principals, accountants, etc. once-a-month soldiers that take time to mobilize. The 82nd airborne(& equivalent forces) are FULLTIME SOLDIERS (not dissing the Guard and Reserve), but the 82nd can mobilize at the drop of a hat ......that's their JOB (they know the meaning of TRAINED-to-KILL!....yeah, that was our training chant for those of you with no military experience....11 Bravo). I understand military deployment protocol and the primary responsiblity of the National Guard is to support amd respond to domestic natural disasters......but this abnormal situation required abnormal responses! If these were upper and middle class citizens, THEY WOULD'VE FIGURED OUT A WAY TO FLY IN THE SPACE SHUTTLE WITH AMPLE SUPPLIES!

Should all the blame point to BUSH? No, but he is the COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF and should have been on top of the matter from day ONE, regardless of the claimed ineptness of the local and state government.

Notice how fluid things started to move on Thursday and Friday when he put down the 9-iron and demanded answers. By that time, it was a national embarrassment.

No, I don't think Bush hates Black or poor people......he's insensitive as are most upper & middle class Americans (until the problem is standing at your front door) and has consistently lacked the leadership fortitude that a Commander-in-Chief should possess.

He TRULY misses COLIN POWELL!.....He's either too stubborn or getting some awful advice.

JMHO!

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This isn't a question of right vs left.  It's a statement of fact the President of this country has failed his people by failing to respond.  He has referred to NO as a "temporary disruption" and without exception all of his people have refused to accept any blame for this debacle.  Sharing Blame?  its not in the Bush vocabulary.  Its deny deny deny and then hope it goes away.   

Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, on Meet the Press this morning basically had nothing to say about the federal failures in NO.  Spin Spin Spin.  This will equal the WMDs that were never found in Iraq and were blamed on the incompetant CIA.

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Why on earth hasn't Bush fired Chertoff and Brown on the spot?

On NPR's All Things Considered on Wednesday, they were interviewing Chertoff and telling him about the scenes at the NO convention center. He basically dismissed it as rumor. The interviewer was astonished, saying these were reports from national correspondents. And hour later, he came back and said yes, it appeared to be true.

Doesn't he even watch TV?

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Durhamite--

I agree with most of what you say.

100 combat troops dropped at the Dome and at the Convention center could have secured those areas in 30 minutes and brought safety to those people.

Within an hour after that, choppers could have brought in the relief people with food, water, tents, portalets, medical help, etc.

It still wouldn't have been a picnic for the people, but they would have been safe, fed, and cared for, until they could be driven out on the buses.

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I said to bus people OUT of New Orleans, not bus them to the Superdome. We all see what happened at the Superdome.

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Yeah, I saw what happened at the Superdome--15,000 evacuated there, many of whom would have died in the storm.

How many people actually died at the Dome?

The Guard says 2--one suicide, and one man beaten to death.

The evacuation to the Dome saved thousands. It was terrible, but they're alive.

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^I heard the other day the number was much higher than that, in and around the dome.

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Perhaps by the end of the week it was higher, when water and food began running out. But during the storm itself, the guard said 2.

The Times-Picayune said were it not for the evacuation to the dome, the death rate in the city would have been exponentially higher.

Maybe you're thinking of the convention center.

EDIT--

msnbc.com now says 10 found dead at dome.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/

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Times-Picayune

Sept. 4th

Open Letter to the President:

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/

(scroll down)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Umm, Umm, Umm. I hope those who argue otherwise now understand. These are the people who have suffered through this first hand and they even say what most of us have been saying. That is there is blame to go around, but there's no excuse of the negligence (it being Bush praising Brown for incompetence) and slow response.

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