Posted on 03/03/2009 6:58:25 PM PST by Trueblackman
Since Hurricane Katrina, liberal critics have hung the plight of New Orleans around the neck of former President Bush like an albatross.
These critics relentlessly hounded the Bush Administration for its "inadequate" response to Katrina. So, now that many of these critics run the federal government, one can expect natural disasters to be handled with prompt and effective action, right?
No so fast.
That opportunity came and went. The Obama Administration was found to be lacking.
When a brutal ice storm crippled several Midwestern states, particularly Kentucky and Arkansas, in January it took the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) several days to show up.
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands were without power and dozens died.
Why was President Obama sitting in the White House watching the Super Bowl while people suffered? Why did he campaign around the country for the economic "stimulus" plan rather than personally help lead relief efforts on the scene of the crisis as was expected of Bush?
During the presidential election campaign, then-candidate Obama belabored the need for a president to multi-task effectively. So why was President Obama sneaking out of the White House to read to D.C. schoolchildren as the Midwest froze? That's exactly what Bush was chastised for doing on 9/11.
FEMA is still operating under the leadership of an acting director. It's already inadequately managed the ice storm. Alaska's Mount Redoubt is now threatening to erupt, which presents a risk to the city of Anchorage.
Where's the leadership?
While Alaskans may be on their own due to an ineffective FEMA, they can at least have solace that the government will have enough money to watch it happen. The stimulus bill contained $140 million for "volcano monitoring."
Speaking of stimulus funds, there was nothing specifically in the stimulus bill for Gulf Coast hurricane recovery. Obama also didn't utter the names Katrina, Rita or Ike during his recent address to Congress. It marked a change in the demeanor of some politicians, as Ben Evans of the Associated Press pointed out:
Just last summer, Democrats accused Bush of putting Iraq before New Orleans when he sought to block Gulf Coast reconstruction money from a $162 billion war spending bill. Bush was pilloried for not mentioning the disaster in back-to-back State of the Union addresses.
Obama's defenders now say the stimulus contained no Katrina recovery funds because allocated money is still not spent. This argument, however, was unacceptable when Bush made it.
While speaking to flood victims in Cedar Rapids, Iowa last July, then-candidate Obama said he wanted the federal government to be "a strong, swift, effective partner" with state agencies in handling disasters. He talked a good game, but seems to have fumbled the ball.
Perhaps President Obama deserves the Kanye West treatment. Remember West's assertion after Katrina: "George Bush doesn't care about black people!" Maybe Obama doesn't care about the overwhelmingly-white states of Kentucky, Arkansas and Alaska. Or maybe it is because they didn't vote for him last November.
New Orleans is changing, too, as voters there just kicked out incumbent black congressman William Jefferson (D) for Vietnamese-American Joseph Cao (R) in a special run-off election.
Now that there is a liberal president and Congress, it seems acceptable for FEMA to show up a week late and many dollars short. In this case, it even came bearing Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) possibly tainted with salmonella-ridden peanut butter.
Political allies and admirers in the media have lowered the bar for Obama. They've given him a pass at the expense of the law-abiding and tax-paying residents of the Midwest.
The only saving grace was that the strong-willed people of that region banded together to help themselves. While Obama enjoyed the limelight, these people checked in on each other, delivered supplies to the needy and worked with the National Guard to prevent further damage. They were the true heroes - not the government.
Additional important facts:
1. FEMA under Obama sent salmonella laced peanut butter to victims in Kentucky during the ice storm. What would have happened had Bush done this?
2. Bush responded to Katrina with the largest military mobilization for a disaster in history— bringing a variety of naval craft— air and sea behind the storm on the south side so military personnel could immediately pluck victims from housetops using blackhawk helicopters. The largest response to a disaster in US history reduced the predicted fatality rate in New Orleans for a category three hurricane by 90%.
3. In contrast, Democratic governors such as Blanco [which means White in spanish] refused to issue emergency orders of evacuation and calling out the guard. Their purpose in these refusals was to kill local citizens in the disaster and then lay the bodies via the media at President Bush’s feet. These democratic partisans are so vile in their political cynicism that endangering the lives of their citizens is no big deal. Blanco failed so bad in her role, she chose not to run for governor in the next election.
Redneck crackers in a red state don’t count. Get it?
1) Isn’t that Criminal Negligence, at the least? Manslaughter, murder, and conspiracy to commit murder if it caused a death?
2) You are right. I’m in the NM National Guard, I was boots-on-the-ground, under federal orders, within three days of Katrina’s landfall. ... I’m so tired of people saying/implying that the disaster-relief was inadequate or insufficient or untimely on the federal level. They are insulting EVERY man and woman, civilian or military, who went there in a federal capacity. (And honestly, I wish they would say it to my face so I could blow my top at the idiots... f’ing idiots need to shut their mouths or get decked, what have they ever done?)
3) We have a word for that: murder. (Mass-murder, in this case.) It’s SUPPOSEDLY a capital crime. .. but I’m cynically thinking that the politicos have watered down the justice system from those “harsh punishments” ‘just in case’ their evil deeds come to light.
I am a big believer that Conservatives are never going to win in the American public sphere until they start arguing in a less conservative manner.
When Republicans are called Racists they say we are not instead of saying Democrats are racists.
Describing the behavior of Democratic leaders like Blanco is stark racial terms would do wonders for Republicans. If Democrats feared that Republicans would lay the dead black bodies of New Orleans at the feet of their democratic party partisans they would be utterly terrified. Sadly, they know Republicans have allowed themselves to be conditioned to believe that only they can be labelled racists.
The entire rhetoric of Katrina is largely fraudulent.
At the time of Katrina FEMA had a total of 2,000 employees. That’s 50 per state, less those at national and regional headquarters!! It’s not their job to rescue people and set up tents. They are NOT first responders. They make phone calls and co-ordinate logistical response by federal agencies. The criminals in this case who “really don’t care ‘bout no black people” were the mayor and the governor. Truth matters. Teach it to your children.
Here, here...I agree 100%. Monorities need to be told in very plain terms what the democrats have, and will continue to do to them. Blacks need to be told that they are on the plantation, when they vote democrat, and called racist when they they are. Hispanics need to be taught that the democrats DO NOT want them to succeed because they do not want the to integrate. Women need to have it shoved in their face the way democrats truly treat them.
I call it “Guerrilla Conservatism”. Use the left’s playbook against them. Those tactics, coupled with the truth, can devastate the libs defenses.
Well, if a volcano in Alaska erupts, they will blame Sarah Palin for any inadequate response. They will say Alaska is too far away, out in left field, yadda, yadda, yadda, and why wasn’t Sarah better prepared for disasters, since Alaska is so far away? They might even say how she doesn’t anticipate problems. They will personalize it and say she didn’t anticipate her daughter’s pregnancy, she doesn’t anticipate volcanoes, she is in favor of slaughtering wildlife, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Who cares what color they were? They were PEOPLE, CITIZENS!
The gross negligence should have resulted, not in a resignation, but with a noose around a neck choking the misbegotten life out of that vile creature. (Throw ‘racist’ on there as a seasoning if you must, but I firmly believe that Justice is of primary import.)
Your statement is absolutely true.
Nonetheless, to break the rhetorical strangehold of the Left on this nation, we must break their terminologies.
Until the Left is firmly and regularly referenced by the terminology of Racism, they will never cease and desist from the abuse of this terminology to impost injustice on this nation.
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