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UNFINEST HOUR (Charges about Katrina)
National Review Online ^ | September 2, 2005 | David Fum

Posted on 09/02/2005 8:42:03 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah

I haven't posted much on the New Orleans disaster. There are so many people on the spot, adding so much to genuine understanding, that it seemed an absurd waste of your time for me to add my distant words. Tonight though I was invited by the BBC to talk about the political fall-out from Katrina with Sidney Blumenthal. To prepare, I spent some hours immersing myself in the catalogue of left-wing attacks on the Bush administration.

Now let me declare at the onset: Katrina has obviously not been the finest hour of American emergency management. There may well be fault on the part of the federal government and this administration. I'm certainly open to evidence on that point.

But to review the wild, contradictory, and utterly opportunistic charges from the administration's critics is to enter a realm of madness. Some patient bloggers are responding to the charges one by one. Here is a post in reply to the charge that the levees were somehow neglected. Here is an accounting for the Louisiana National Guard: 8,000 of whom remain on duty in-state, including the Guard's most pertinent engineer group, numbering four battalions.

Here is a crushing reply to those who blame the Bush administration for hurricanes - when hurricane activity has in fact dropped since 1940. Here is one of many stories detailing how the notorious New Orleans police force led the breakdown of civic order. (For those who deplore the sharp drop-off in the flow of federal funds to Louisiana since 1999, here is a link to one important explanation: the resignation of former Speaker of the House and Appropriations Committee chairman Bob Livingston [R., La.] after Larry Flynt and Hustler magazine threatened to publish details of Livingston's marital infidelity, in order to punish Republicans for the then-looming impeachment of Bill Clinton on perjury charges.)

And yet ... and yet ... is all this really necessary? The time will come, and come very soon, when the great self-critical mechanisms of American society and government will go to work to study what went wrong. Those who deserve blame will get blame in plenty then. But now - with the dead still uncounted and unburied, with the living still struggling for refuge and help, is there not something indecent about the haste with which the American left avidly tries to turn this terrible disaster to political account?

Is there not something bizarre about their willingness to fire off accusation after accusation, each contradicting the last? The disaster was caused by the Bush administration's failure to protect the environment from global warming .... no, no, it was caused by the administration's refusal to manipulate the environment by funding more levees to control the Mississippi River .... it's Iraq, no it's budget cuts, no it's wetlands, and on and on and on.

Good God, what is wrong with these people? Will they ever learn to see somebody else's misfortune as something more than their political opportunity?

Mississippi governor Haley Barbour is right. This tragedy is bringing out the worst in many people. And I wonder, as I watch the volunteers cooking food for the houseless in the Houston Astrodome, or supplies being delivered by rescue workers who are living in cars because there is no place else for them, or the elderly being hoisted to safety - I wonder: why at a moment like this can we not live up to their generous spirit. Why can't we act first, investigate afterward, and let blame and credit be apportioned as they are due, when they are due? 12:23 AM

SEP. 1, 2005: KATRINA

Of all Instapundit's many services, here is one of his finest: a comprehensive, instantly ready, list of Katrina-related charities, offering a range of choices for every generous giver. Can you believe that there are already people eager to exploit this natural disaster for anti-Bush propaganda? It's such outbursts that make me wonder whether American liberalism has not gone truly mad. As for the suggestion that conservative doubts about the Kyoto treaty are to blame for Katrina ... maybe the best answer is that it was liberal opposition to the building of new refineries that is now driving gasoline prices past $3 a gallon as damage to Gulf Coast refineries burdens the already over-strained industry .... 08:25 AM



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; US: Alabama; US: Louisiana; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: bush; davidfrum; hurricane; katrina; louisiana; nationalguard; neworleans
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1 posted on 09/02/2005 8:42:04 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
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To: Ooh-Ah
Great post. Thanks.

I'll just toss this into the mix

Before becoming Mayor, Mr Nagin served as the vice president and general manager for Cox Communications in south-east Louisiana.

2 posted on 09/02/2005 8:50:13 PM PDT by syriacus (You can't fool Mother Nature. Why didn't New Orleans codes require lifeboats for each residence?)
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To: Ooh-Ah

This was a good article. I'm really getting fed up with most of the media taking an opportunity to blame the Bush administration on everything from hemroids to hurricanes. The bull$hit piles up so fast on TV...


3 posted on 09/02/2005 8:52:28 PM PDT by craig61a
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To: Ooh-Ah

If Bill Clinton were President right now, (or say Al Gore), the media and the left would be praising his leadership even if the exact circumstances were taking place. What we have is total civil disorder fueled in part by 5 years of " Bush stole the election from Al Gore by disenfranchising Blacks.". I knew then this would happen someday.


4 posted on 09/02/2005 8:53:52 PM PDT by ladyinred (Leftist=Anti American!)
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To: Ooh-Ah
Good God, what is wrong with these people? Will they ever learn to see somebody else's misfortune as something more than their political opportunity?

Sadly, the answer to this question is "NO"

5 posted on 09/02/2005 8:55:01 PM PDT by msnimje (TAKE CNN OFF YOUR REMOTE - THEY ARE THE ENEMY OF THE US)
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To: Ooh-Ah
Remember how they were all over the President about not responding the Tsunami fast enough?
Now they are using that as the model for Katrina.
They can't even keep track of their own maddening and contradictory statements.
6 posted on 09/02/2005 8:56:16 PM PDT by msnimje (TAKE CNN OFF YOUR REMOTE - THEY ARE THE ENEMY OF THE US)
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To: Ooh-Ah

Outstanding post! Thanks, I needed that.


7 posted on 09/02/2005 8:56:46 PM PDT by SueRae
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To: Ooh-Ah
THE MAYOR APPARENTLY DIDN'T REALIZE HIS CITY HAD BUSES
8 posted on 09/02/2005 8:57:00 PM PDT by doug from upland (The Hillary documentary is coming -- INDICTING HILLARY)
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To: Ooh-Ah

Since when is Sidney Blumenthal an expert on hurricanes and building levies? He is a political hack, and that is the only thing he has to his credit.


9 posted on 09/02/2005 9:00:43 PM PDT by popdonnelly
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To: Ooh-Ah

The answer is No. The Liberals don't give a damn about unity and saving lives. Only about power.

It's sad, it's infuriating, it's many things. But I wonder so many conservatives are shocked. It's as though they give them credit for characteristics they do not have. Humanity they no longer possess. Time for them to wise up here because disbelief and shock at this reality should have come and passed long ago.


10 posted on 09/02/2005 9:01:50 PM PDT by Soul Seeker (Ah, how sweet)
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To: Ooh-Ah
My rant to all those who jumped aboard the bashing bandwagon:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476091/posts?page=42#42

11 posted on 09/02/2005 9:05:07 PM PDT by RasterMaster (Saddam's family were WMD's - He's behind bars & his sons are DEAD!)
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To: popdonnelly

Blumenthal is such a nasty, discredited, partisan @sshole that I can't believe he hasn't adopted a pseudonym when writing his stupid articles.


12 posted on 09/02/2005 9:09:41 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (I ain't got a dime, but what I got is mine. I ain't rich, but Lord I'm free.)
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To: RasterMaster
Good rant. Here was mine (from this morning) -- against all those Freepers who were so quick to criticize this administration . . .

Click Here

13 posted on 09/02/2005 9:12:48 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (I ain't got a dime, but what I got is mine. I ain't rich, but Lord I'm free.)
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To: popdonnelly
Would someone in the MSM ask Sid th Squid if he has stopped beating his wife?

If he will not then asked why he dropped his lawsuit against Drudge and had to pay drudge's legal feels, what would have discovery found and why hasn't he followed up?

14 posted on 09/02/2005 9:13:17 PM PDT by dts32041 (Shinkichi: Massuer, did you see that? Zatôichi: I don't see much)
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To: popdonnelly

"Since when is Sidney Blumenthal an expert on hurricanes and building levies? He is a political hack, and that is the only thing he has to his credit."

He isn't and you're correct. However, he is, as I understand it, a very close friend of Hitlery's and Bubba's---he can do the dirty work for them to assist Hitlery in her quest for presidential power. Don't you think it's a bit curious he crawled out from under the woodwork now? I do and I know why - --they don't want the Prez to get the popularity w this disaster he got after 9/11.


15 posted on 09/02/2005 9:21:14 PM PDT by Seattle Conservative (God Bless and protect our troops and their CIC)
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To: Alberta's Child
Alot of good rants in that post! It's all about choices...do you want to survive, protect your family or become a "victim".

For those unable to fend for themselves, this pic should be tattooed to mayor's forehead....


16 posted on 09/02/2005 9:23:29 PM PDT by RasterMaster (Saddam's family were WMD's - He's behind bars & his sons are DEAD!)
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To: syriacus

Really good and fair article. It's written by David FRUM, author of a supposed-to-be-good post-9/11 book about President Bush called "The Right Stuff". I am now reminded that I bought the book the other day from a used book store and haven't read it yet. The guy who sold me the book said he went to school with David Frum, who is a Canadian, and son of famous journalist Barbara Frum.


17 posted on 09/02/2005 9:28:46 PM PDT by plushaye (President Bush: W-2-4-4!! God Bless him and his administration.)
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To: Ooh-Ah

Folkes, this has been going on for a LOOOOOONG TIME.

HYPOCRISY ABOUNDS

OUR LEADERS' & WALMART'S LOOT RUSH TO CHINA AT EXPENSE OF NATIONAL SECURITY IS THE WORST PART


18 posted on 09/02/2005 9:37:19 PM PDT by JudgemAll (Condemn me, make me naked and kill me, or be silent for ever on my gun ownership and law enforcement)
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To: doug from upland; MeekOneGOP; PhilDragoo; potlatch; ntnychik; Smartass; Alamo-Girl; ...









19 posted on 09/02/2005 9:38:09 PM PDT by devolve (------- warning -- do not check out my lame FR profile page -----)
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To: devolve

Thanks for the ping!


20 posted on 09/02/2005 9:43:08 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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