Posted on 09/07/2005 6:12:39 PM PDT by waltprobush
A few truths, for those who have ears and eyes and care to know the truth:
1.) The hurricane that hit New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama was an astonishing tragedy. The suffering and loss of life and peace of mind of the residents of those areas is acutely horrifying.
2.) George Bush did not cause the hurricane. Hurricanes have been happening for eons. George Bush did not create them or unleash this one.
3.) George Bush did not make this one worse than others. There have been far worse hurricanes than this before George Bush was born.
4.) There is no overwhelming evidence that global warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no clear-cut evidence that global warming even exists. There is no clear evidence that if it does exist it makes hurricanes more powerful or makes them aim at cities with large numbers of poor people. If global warming is a real phenomenon, which it may well be, it started long before George Bush was inaugurated, and would not have been affected at all by the Kyoto treaty, considering that Kyoto does not cover the world's worst polluters -- China, India, and Brazil. In a word, George Bush had zero to do with causing this hurricane. To speculate otherwise is belief in sorcery.
5.) George Bush had nothing to do with the hurricane contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up by New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans were perfectly good: mandatory evacuation. It is in no way at all George Bush's fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans neglected to follow the plan. It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would be. They were certainly warned. It's not George Bush's fault that there were sick people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. His job description does not include making sure every adult in America has a car, is in good health, has good sense, and is mobile.
6.) George Bush did not cause gangsters to shoot at rescue helicopters taking people from rooftops, did not make gang bangers rape young girls in the Superdome, did not make looters steal hundreds of weapons, in short make New Orleans into a living hell.
7.) George Bush is the least racist President in mind and soul there has ever been and this is shown in his appointments over and over. To say otherwise is scandalously untrue.
8.) George Bush is rushing every bit of help he can to New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama as soon as he can. He is not a magician. It takes time to organize huge convoys of food and now they are starting to arrive. That they get in at all considering the lawlessness of the city is a miracle of bravery and organization.
9.) There is not the slightest evidence at all that the war in Iraq has diminished the response of the government to the emergency. To say otherwise is pure slander.
10.) If the energy the news media puts into blaming Bush for an Act of God worsened by stupendous incompetence by the New Orleans city authorities and the malevolence of the criminals of the city were directed to helping the morale of the nation, we would all be a lot better off.
11.) New Orleans is a great city with many great people. It will recover and be greater than ever. Sticking pins into an effigy of George Bush that does not resemble him in the slightest will not speed the process by one day.
12.) The entire episode is a dramatic lesson in the breathtaking callousness of government officials at the ground level. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had gotten her way and they were in charge of your health care.
God bless all of those dear people who are suffering so much, and God bless those helping them, starting with George Bush
Welcome, Walt.
Thank you for your welcome.
amen! Every city or town in America has or should have an emergency contingency plan. If New Orleans had one and it wasn't implemented the blame falls on the Emergency Management Director. The EM director is the person who should call the Governor to request aid in the form of supplies and or National Guardsmen. He should also contact the Red Cross. If N.O. didn't have an EM director then the job would fall to the Mayor to coordinate efforts. FEMA, and the Military does not intervene without being asked.
How is it that you post an article written by Ben Stein and don't acknowledge his authorship?
Since I am new here I made the mistake of not acknowledging Ben. I am truly sorry and ask forgiveness but in my haste to get it out to others to read, I erred.
It was obvious when Bush visited the Gulf Coast several times that things going well, even before he said so. Whenever a supervisor personally oversees some project that means that he or she feels that whoever is currently handling the project (city of NO and LA) is not capable of handling the situation. Governor Blanco and the mayor of NO should be fired effective immediately! Why is it so easy for us to get fired in the private sector and so damn hard to fire politicians?
It is hard to "fire" or impeach a politician because they have too many blind people following them that think they are doing a good job. You have to get active and work toward defeating them when they come up for re-election. You can do this by working as a volunteer for the candidate who is running against them. That is what I do.
Walt
That should be easier since their base is now spread all over the country with very little intentions of returning.
That's the ticket. It is best to hit them when they are vulnerable.
There was a time in this country when most everybody supported the President of the United States even when he was wrong or mistaken. Now, there is wholesale hatred for our Commander in Chief that is eating the very soul of America away. We have entered the end times for this country if not the entire world.
If these people don't wake up and see that George W. Bush is an American, not the enemy but a man who has done his level best to steer our country through some of the worst catastrophes in this nation's history, then we are indeed doomed. Doomed by the fact that we now ask what our country can do for us instead of asking what we can do for our country.
We are no longer self-sufficient individuals who can survive tragedy but a mob howling for handouts and demanding that our government baby-sit us. We have no spine, no guts but go searching to blame the leadership because of nothing more than POLITICS.
We all share the blame as much as our President.
Straightforward response like that goes a long way around here. Glad to have you on board.
Thank you for your welcoming words; they are very encouraging to me.
Here is some more on the same subject that I wrote on another board.
It wasn't the Republicans or conservatives who created the welfare state which has enslaved people to poverty like those who were trapped at the Super Dome.. Those poor people have been kept poor by the Democrats who promise them welfare checks in return for votes. Welfare checks and broken down projects to live in; slums. Welfare checks that are not enough to afford a car with gas to allow them to escape from catastrophe.
And then they try to cover it up by blaming everyone but themselves. They MUST blame Bush, the federal government and Republicans because if they don't, the truth will be known.
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