Ted Koppel blames Bush for failure to evacuate poor prior to the Katrina hitting New Orleans

2 Sep 2005 | Philip Freneau

[Rokke]

So let me get this straight. You admit that the mayor has failed, and that the governor has failed, but that FEMA is to blame for an apparent lack of response? Do you realize that FEMA is a support agency designed to aid state leadership in the event of a disaster? That is kind of hard to do when state leadership is part of the disaster. It is a bit like blaming the cops for not helping out in a domestic violence situation, when nobody remembered to call the cops. FEMA is having to play catch-up from an absolutely bungled response by LA elected officials. Not to mention having to overcome the fact that half of NO police force walked off the job soon after the hurricane hit. Do you happen to notice the lack of anarchy in MS and AL? Could that be that despite the fact that the hurricane was even more devastating in those states, the state government in those states has managed to form a coherent response?

[Caipirabob]

Who's Ted Koppel?

[Caipirabob]

I should have added, I know who he is supposed to be. He's still a nobody.

[Dustbunny]

Ted Koppel demanded to know why the Bush Administration did not send fleets of buses into New Orleans to evacuate those too poor to evacuate themselves -- PRIOR TO KATRINA HITTING NEW ORLEANS.

What a total jerk.

Other words come to mind to describe him but I decided that during this time of tragic need to be kind.

[AlexW]

"I wanted to jump through the television screen and choke that weasel."

I am in Slovakia, having only CNN International.
There are CNN Morons..The last one is Anderson Cooper?
I think if the sun was about to explode, he would blame Bush.
He is frothing at the mouth wanting to know why thousands of troops and rescue people were not in NO, BEFORE it hit.

IDIOTS

[GregoryFul]

You can bet that the dims are working behind the scenes to gum up the works, so they can attack Bush.

[MarxSux]

I agree that Koppel's remarks were off the wall, and that it was not the Feds' responsibility to do all the heavy lifting, but this "Bush should have done more" idea is going to gain traction over the next while and may mark the effective end of Bush's presidency. We may see poll numbers in the teens by the end of this year.

[PhilipFreneau]

>> You call Koppel a weasel and then do the same thing.

Get a clue.

[PhilipFreneau]

>> Hide your heads in the sand. This Bush/FEMA support was a complete disaster. Complete non response. Worthless.

You are being sarcastic, right?

[moose2004]

When the situation in NO is stable and we have all had a chance to evaluate what went wrong from top to bottom I believe the inept Governor of LA and Mayor of NO will be blamed for their lack of preparedness and management. I did catch Miles "I Hate Republicans" Obrien of CNN rip Governor Blanco over the situation in NO. He questioned her multiple times as to whether she specifically asked for military troops from the President when she spoke to him on the telephone. Blanco tried her best to dodge the questions, but Obrien wouldn't let her off the hook. She ended the interview by saying she was so tired that "I don't even know where I am now." Scary.

[philetus]

You already gave me one.

[bert]

The irrational ivory towered nincompoop assumes it could have been done. We see how long it takes to evacuate the folks once they had their wills broken and actually decided to leave.

Thw whole point is these people for the most part decided not to make the effort to leave. They decided the expense and effort were too great. There was mass decision to do nothing.

[Trust but Verify]

The officials in LA, who had to be told by W to order an evacuation knew full well it was too late to get everyone out ahead of the storm. They purposely did not provide mass transport of the poorest people because they knew it they'd end up with busloads of people stuck on freeways when the storm hit. The time to get all out of the city had long passed by the time they acted. How is that Bush's fault?

[prophetic]

Anybody here remember when that Fox News reporter went to that guy on live TV and asked him what he's doing.
The guy blurted out "What the f#ck does it look like? We're gambling".

At the end of it the reporter quipped "well it looks like we're gonna have some dead people here after the hurricane".