Posted on 09/04/2005 2:36:33 PM PDT by visagoth
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.
****
UPDATE: Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005, 2:13 p.m.:
More Mysteries of Katrina:
Why is it that the snipers who shot at emergency rescuers trying to save people in hospitals and shelters are never mentioned except in passing, and Mr. Bush, who is turning over heaven and earth to rescue the victims of the storm, is endlessly vilified?
What church does Rev. Al Sharpton belong to that believes in passing blame and singling out people by race for opprobrium and hate?
What special abilities does the media have for deciding how much blame goes to the federal government as opposed to the city government of New Orleans for the aftereffects of Katrina?
If able-bodied people refuse to obey a mandatory evacuation order for a city, have they not assumed the risk that ill effects will happen to them?
When the city government simply ignores its own sick and hospitalized and elderly people in its evacuation order, is Mr. Bush to blame for that?
Is there any problem in the world that is not Mr. Bush's fault, or have we reverted to a belief in a sort of witchcraft where we credit a mortal man with the ability to create terrifying storms and every other kind of ill wind?
Where did the idea come from that salvation comes from hatred and criticism and mockery instead of love and co-operation?
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He also writes "Ben Stein's Diary" in every issue of The American Spectator. Please click here to subscribe.
True enough.
But at least he had the intestinal fortitude and strength of conviction to put it in writing and publish it.
Shows that the left really want a KING.
Thanks for the heads up.
I was trying to copy your posting of Ben's article to email it and it got here instead of you getting a thank you for posting it.
I have asked the admin moderator to remove my extra posting.
Have we heard comments from Jimmy Kimmel?
He can remove mine also #64) but the original post is not mine. It belongs to visagoth... and is replicated in at least two other threads.
I was having a problem with the original site trying to copy Ben's oped, and what you posted was clean without ads and other stuff.
Sorry about what happened.
Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! Now will you please tell my neighbors this please!!!!
George Bush is simply "the Jews" for the Democrat party. Anything negative that ever happens that relates to the USA in any way is "George Bush's fault"; anything negative that ever happens in the Arab world is "the Jews' fault". I can no longer see a spit of difference between the two approaches.
Heirs question levee board's efforts
By Amanda Furness
May 21, 2001
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:cuvo6ETx5KQJ:www.louisianaweekly.com/cgi-bin/weekly/news/articlegate.pl%3F20010521f+levee+board+casino&hl=en
What do you think they were doing the first two days - sitting around with a six-pack and watching game shows until the President finally gave an order? An awful lot of logistics and staging was accomplished in those two days, with huge amounts of equipment, supplies and people being flown into the staging zones and getting prioritized and loaded. Converging all of these capabilities toward the disaster zone but sufficiently holding them back to not lose them to the hurricane started following the federal disaster area declarations on Saturday.
Great article.
Excellent points.
Maybe Bush should have acted 10 days earlier. Would that have been early enough for you?
He opened the door for the locals to do their job AND to have immediate access to the full support of the federal government.
The locals did neither.
It is NOT the President's place to usurp authority from the Governors.
FEMA is not designed to be onsite within 24-48 hours and to expect that with devastaion as widespread as Katrina is sheer lunacy.
Yes, you may cling to your opinions no matter how silly they are.
Don't let your ignorance stop you from spouting your opinion.
How many Chinooks does FEMA own?
Under what authority can the President send in troops?
Looting and insurrection are not the same.
Your sarcasm about Bush worship won't fit when you talk to me 'cause cannot substantiate it from anything that I've ever written on FR about him. I didn't even vote for him the first time. Sarcastically claiming that he worked 'perfectly' is the type of immature comment reserved normally for children.
But unlike you I know a bit about emergency management and working in austere conditions.
FEMA is a SUPPLEMENTAL not primary relief source. They are not intended to be on the spot in the first 72 hours.
Other state's national guard cannot just go into LA without the governor's invitation. She didn't do it when she should have.
The result is that the state and local folks failed abominably and folks like you, Al Sharpton, Hillary, etc took pot shots at the wrong target.
Continue keeping your mind free from facts on this.
The Louisiana state government and New Orleans city government are culpable in the response problems. It appears they did very little but tell people to "get out." They did not provide any support for those who were clearly unable to get out. They should have had buses at the Superdome before the storm hit and started moving the infirm and the poor to safety.
Hurricanes are not a novelty to the Gulf states. Each state is supposed to have its own emergency response plan for situations just like this. We have always known that a Category 4 or 5 was a distinct possibility and that such a storm would be disastrous, particularly if it hit a major city.
I'm not surprised that the liberal whiners are pointing their fingers at Bush, but they ought to be looking more closely at what the local government in Louisiana did NOT do prior to the storm's landfall. They had ample time to do a better job in preparing than they did.
You are truly wonderful and not a drip of sarcasm, not a drip. I'm glad you know so much. Is ownership of Chinooks what kept the supplies from reaching the people? Why precisely did it take until FRIDAY! to get the loads of food and water that were PREPOSITIONED to the people? Because they sent them in on trucks? or maybe it was they don't think they have to be there for 72 hours?.(I know, It's because they don't OWN helicopters)..We the people own the helicopters! Don't give me bureaucratic reasons why folks were left on their own. It just won't wash no matter how hard you try to hide behind insults. You offer loads of insults but you are damn short on knowledge. Lord save me from people like you. Have a great day supporting the unsupportable. Just how is shooting at police or raping children equivalent to looting? And where is your support for the statement that FEMA is not supposed to be on site in the first 72 hours. If that is true what is their definition of an EMERGENCY as in Federal EMERGENCY Management?
You would rather argue with hot rhetoric than produce any supportable facts to excuse away why our government did not act faster in spite of an ever building recognition by knowledgeable people across the board including the President himself that that was what happened. No point discussing this with you. Read my first post to see what I disagreed with Bush on then go insult someone else. Call someone else ignorant.
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