Disappointed in Bush
Mistakes were made in the hurricane planning for New Orleans. Those mistakes should be exposed and corrected. Hindsight is 20/20, so I am not going to put undue emphasis on these mistakes. What I find totally inexcusable is the absolute incompetence of the rescue effort.
- The New Orleans police don't have command and control communications. (Didn't we learn our lesson on 9/11?)
- FEMA is run by an incompetent political hack who blames the victims and gave hours of TV interviews today, instead of coordinating response efforts. Maybe if he had been doing his job, he would've known about the thousands of desperate people at the Convention Center, instead of finding it out from Paula Zhan.
- The Department of Homeland Security chief also blamed the victims.
- The National Guard isn't coordinating with the military (rumor).
- The Secretary of State is on vacation in New York, buying $3000 shoes. Meanwhile, offers of help from foreign governments is being refused.
But mostly, I'm disappointed in President Bush.
Regular readers know that I do not like President Bush very much. I think he's made a lot of bad choices. But when a disaster happens, every American looks to the President to lead. Whatever else his faults, Bush did this on 9/11. I disagree with what he did after that, but he sent the right message in New York when he spoke on that pile of rubble.
So today, I am simply disappointed in Bush. He has failed to lead. I wrote this to the Star Tribune:
Why was President Bush having cake with John McCain while New Orleans drowned?
Why was President Bush getting public guitar lessons from Mark Willis while the levees broke?
Why did President Bush stage a political Medicare event while people died?
Why aren't there enough helicopters to rescue people and reinforce the levees?
As a major American city is wiped off the map, he schedules photo ops. I have never been more disappointed in a president in my life.
America needed a leader after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans. The Federal, state, and local governments were not cooperating. The instant the damage became known, Bush needed to personally coordinate the rescue effort and keep the American people calm. So far, he has failed.
This isn't partisanship. (Even conservatives are upset.) I'm just very, very sad.
Related: Stirling Newberry: If We Had A Real President -- the speech he would've given.
National editorials on response to Katrina
posted by Luke Francl @ 11:55 PM |
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8 Comments:
Why do we have to fund disaster relief in America through donations? Should we also be collecting to maintain America's infrastructure? And why does FEMA funnel money to Pat Robertson's organization?
Oh well, I guess it's okay as long as we're bringing 'democracy' to Iraq.
I saw Paula Zahn last night. Maybe FEMA would have had more of an idea of what was going on if they were on the news less, and watched the news a bit for a while.
Our legislature just contributed $10.5 billion to the relief effort for us.
Where is it?
The complete lack of leadership(none) that weve seen from the local agencies, Governor, and exspecially the mayor is disgusting. There plan was to put anyone who couldn't get out of the city in the superdome for the night and then go home. On any given Sunday during the football season that dome would have been stocked with enough food and drink to serve 300,000 people. there is no leadership because all the leaders are holed up in nice hotels with electricity holding news conferences pointing fingers at everyone else for there complete lack of any type of plan or contingency for the people of there town. So you'all can sit here and pile on Bush and the government agencies who are busting there asses getting supplies shipped down there. I choose to pile on the leaders who are truly responsible for this tragedy. Jeff, I don't quite understand your point. They passed this yesterday, should we see government employees standing waste deep in water handing out checks today? give me a break. The red cross is there and has been there but the local leaders had or have no plan on how to get the help to the needy. From what I understand local leaders are no where to be found. The mayor down there needs to be thrown head first out the front door today!!!
Scott k.
Unacceptable
US President George W Bush, bound for three southern US states ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, says the poor early response to the deadly storm is unacceptable.
There are "a lot of people working hard to help those who have been affected, and I want to thank the people for their efforts," Mr Bush said at the White House minutes before his departure.
He told reporters aid was "surging" in, but acknowledged things were not going well.
"The results are not acceptable," he said.
Scott:
We have to wait around for the govermment's check to clear?
When The Shiite Hits The Fan
Forget 9-11, let’s talk about Katrina. If there was ever anything to provide a dry run for Al Quaida, this is it, and it has to have the terrorists overjoyed. It has shown the whole world that our great governmental organizations are so inept, bureaucratic and ineffectual that they can’t even get out of their own way, much less accomplish anything meaningful in the way of providing health and safety functions. So if the bad guys can pull off any type of medium to large scale disaster, such as a dirty bomb or biological attack, in just half a dozen cities (as is rumored to be planned), there will be such a breakdown in society that it would do major, irreparable damage to the nation, and it could likely destroy major areas of the country for years to come.
A great deal or the blame can be laid where it rightfully belongs, Washington DC, and not just Bush or Clinton. The blame can be equally laid on every administration since Nixon. The federal government, in its never-ending quest to “help” us, has usurped the authority which has always rightfully rested with the state and local governments. If you are old enough to remember (or can read about it in “uncorrected” history books) the time period from World War II through the late 60’s, you remember the legacy of Civil Defense, a greatly efficient, largely civilian/volunteer outfit that helped defend our shores, rescue us from disaster and provide relief when it struck. But Civil Defense has been all but eliminated and replaced by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, one of the biggest oxymorons of our time. Its inability to respond to any type of major emergency, much less “manage” it, is legendary. During the aftermath of the Katrina flooding, the FEMA director stated he had no idea how many refugees were in the Superdome or Convention Center FOUR DAYS after the hurricane, much less having provided the first lick of relief. Mix in the added bureaucracy of “Homeland Security” to further gum up the works, and you have the perfect recipe for disaster and chaos, now field tested and proven in the Crescent City.
Because of the rise of these overbearing organizations, the local officials no longer have anything much more than ceremonial authority. I heard the mayor of New Orleans decrying his inability to issue any type of meaningful orders to facilitate providing relief and rescue to his citizens. He did not have the authority to declare martial law, commandeer any busses or cruise ships to transport refugees to safe havens, order the deputization of civilians to help stop the widespread looting, or anything else that would have made one whit of difference, as could have been done (and was in the past) under the authority of Civil Defense. However this is not at all likely to change, as Washington NEVER gives up confiscated power without a fight, as we learned about 135 years ago.
So lets take New Orleans, multiply it by 4 or 5 times, and the vision is absolutely frightening, and that is exactly what the terrorists are counting on and now likely preparing for. Our citizens are very tough, self-reliant, adaptable and innovative… concepts that are anathema to our federal masters, which is why they do so much to suppress this independent spirit. In their grand vision, they are the only ones who can protect us from ourselves, and do so with every politically correct method at their disposal. Terrorists, who fit a definable profile, can’t be singled out because that would be “racial profiling”, but Ray Charles can be subjected to a body search… for our protection, you understand. But don’t worry, they will see to it we die a very politically correct death, in a manner guaranteed not to offend anyone.
The citizens of the United States are not the enemy, even though we are routinely treated that way. Civil Defense relied on citizen volunteers to keep our homeland secure for many decades, with great success. Replace FEMA and Homeland Security with Civil Defense, spend the billions at the directions of the local officials, who know best what is needed and where (and give them back their authority), and we will see a vastly different outcome the next time a disaster of this proportion happens. I have seen it work before, and it can again.
Until then... your government is here to protect you… be afraid, be very afraid.
Copyright at Common Law, may be reprinted, but only in its entirity and with attribution
Mike Vanhooser (former member of Civil Defense)
Dallas, Texas 75374
novaelec@sbcglobal.net
While you people complain about President Bush's response to a hurricane, consider this.
I lived in New Orleans, one of my sons was born there. I know about how most of the population waits around for someone else to do something for them. It's just the way it is. State and Local government keeps promising and promising, and on some things they deliver...just enough to keep people dependent. As long as the check is in the mail, why go anywhere?
Folks, you should know this if you really have been watching the news: New Orleans is BELOW sea level. Everyone knows it. It's been that way for 250 years.
It's not the President's job to save people from themselves. The independent thinking, self-sufficient types in Mississippi are sniveling far less than the folks who waited around in New Orleans for their checks to come.
Overall, Mississippi has far greater damage than New Orleans, yet you aren't hearing the sniveling, whining and complaining from those folks. Why? They are DOING something about it. While New Orleans waits around for someone to send another BIG check...this time for billions...to rebuild a city that will still be BELOW SEA LEVEL.
Before pesticides, thousand of New Orleans residents would die from mosquito-borne malaria every year. Yet they chose to stay and keep building. Hurricanes came, and yet they chose to stay.
People have the right to live where they want to live. But if you chose to live below sea level, in the crater of a volcano, or on an earthquake fault-line, it is not the government's responsibility to save you.
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