Posted on 09/09/2005 2:58:27 AM PDT by The Raven
In less enlightened times there was no catastrophe independent of human agency. When the plague or some other natural disaster struck, witches were burned, Jews were massacred and all felt better (except the witches and Jews).
A few centuries later, our progressive thinkers have progressed not an inch. No fall of a sparrow on this planet is not attributed to sin and human perfidy. The three current favorites are: (1) global warming, (2) the war in Iraq and (3) tax cuts. Katrina hits and the unholy trinity is immediately invoked to damn sinner-in-chief George W. Bush.
This kind of stupidity merits no attention whatsoever, but I'll give it a paragraph. There is no relationship between global warming and the frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes. Period. The problem with the evacuation of New Orleans is not that National Guardsmen in Iraq could not get to New Orleans but that National Guardsmen in Louisiana did not get to New Orleans. As for the Bush tax cuts, administration budget requests for New Orleans flood control during the five Bush years exceed those of the five preceding Clinton years. The notion that the allegedly missing revenue would have been spent wisely by Congress, targeted precisely to the levees of New Orleans, and that the reconstruction would have been completed in time, is a threefold fallacy. The argument ends when you realize that, as The Post noted, "the levees that failed were already completed projects."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Facts don't matter to the lunatics on the left. In fact, I can't remember the last time the democrats had a valid talking point based on fact. Can you?
December 8th, 1941.
Received this morning, it sums up what I have been saying – but in a logical chronology.
Received by a friend on the net:
I'm only going to share some comments and opinions about
Katrina and the blame game.
First to those who questioned and asked:
Here is a partial list of the 40+ nations that have
offered financial assistance, specialist help, material
assistance, transportation assistance, and other
assistance.
Offers have been received from Russia, Japan, Canada,
Honduras, Germany, Venezuela, Jamaica, Australia,
the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland,
Greece, Hungary, Colombia, the Dominican Republic,
El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, Israel,
United Arab Emirates, NATO and the Organization of
American States and of course.....
France wants to send their Red Cross Logistics advisors
....thank you so much.
Venezuela, a target of frequent criticism by the Bush
administration (and "death threats"...via Pat Robertson
but quelled by the ambigous ambassador "the" Rev. Jesse
Jackson),
(Venezuela)....offered humanitarian aid and fuel.
Venezuela's Citgo Petroleum Corp. pledged a $1 million
donation for hurricane aid.
Australia has sent personnel / donated ($US 13.8 million).
Other assistance includes 26 nations who have pledged to
either increase oil production, or release oil from their
national reserves, in order to try to stabilize the world
price of crude oil.
Even Wal-Mart donated 23 million.
The Blame Game.
Where do we start? It seems that the Media, politicians,
and most individuals blame Bush. I believe that there is
enough blame to go around. Starting with those fools back
in the early 1700s who decided to build a levee and start
a city below sea level.
We can start with the timeline:
On Fri. (before Katrina struck),
Pres. Bush called the Govs of LA. and MS.
and a state of emergency was declared.
He recommended a 'mandatory evacuation'.
-Gov of LA. issued a voluntary evacuation notice Sat.
afternoon at 2:30 PM CDT.
-Gov of LA issued a mandatory evacuation order Sun.
at 9:30 AM CDT.
The storm hit the Louisiana coast on Mon. at 6:00 AM CDT.
And, it almost 24 hours later that it was recognized that
the levees had breached.
-First question,
Why did the Gov wait almost 48 hrs.
to order a mandatory evacuation?
For that matter, why didn't
the Mayor order a mandatory evacuation? (
Maybe they wanted to keep the French Quarter open longer?)
-Next question do any of you remember the Media bobble
heads talking on Mon. evening news, that N.O. had apparently
dodged the bullet. The Mayor held a press conference and was
thankful. But, by morning (Tues.), with water around their
ankles, someone realized that there was a real big problem.
Someone mentioned why didn't they use the school busses?
By the time someone figured out the problem, the bus parking
lot had several feet of water covering it and water half way
up the sides of the busses. Besides I'm sure that most of the
drivers were not, at that moment, interested in driving a bus.
And, by this time, most of the streets were filling with water
and blocking all roads in and out of town.
So it seems that at least 72 hrs were wasted. BTW, official
estimates, prior, were, it would take 72 hrs to evacuate N.O.
I wonder if any investigation will try to figure out why
local officials waited so long to react.
Next a few words about the National Guards (NGs).
-First the Media has time and again cited the fact that many
NGs are in Iraq. I saw one bobble head asking a police chief
in MS. what he though about the fact the 7,000 MS NGs were in
Iraq. He got the obvious answer. But, what he did not say/note
was the fact that there are an additional 17,000 MS NGs, at
home, not deployed, available for Katrina relief. In fact,
within 8 hrs. driving there are 121,000 NGs who aren't
deployed to Iraq. And, throughout the US, approximately
300,000 NGs not deployed to Iraq. "Stretched Thin?"
Everyone, I'm sure, has heard the complaint that Bush waited
too long before sending in the NGs. If I may, let me explain
a couple of the finer points of law. First, the Pres CANNOT
activate NGs for civil crisis's, until he receives a formal
request by the Gov concerned. He did not receive such
requests until after the levees broke.
Now place yourself in the position of trying to get these
NGs to where they are needed. NY sent 1,000 men and equipment.
-Second, there are two other people who have the authority to
activate the NGs; the Gov can activate those NGs in their own
state and the local sheriff can activate those NGs within their
own county. Which begs the question, Why did they wait for Bush
to activate the NGs.
Answer: MONEY.
If Gov/Sheriff activate the NGs they (the State) assumes the
costs: salaries, food, housing, fuel, transportation, etc. If
the Pres activates the NGs then the federal gov picks up the
costs. So LA. and MS. saved a bunch of money by waiting for
the Pres to activate the Guard. If they, Gov and Sheriff, had
activated the NGs, they would have been on the streets in a
matter of hrs., not days. Also what they did not understand is
that if they had activated the NGs, as soon as the Pres.
started activations, their troops would have been covered by
the Fed order. And, they would have still saved money, but,
the troops would have been there much sooner.
I see that there will be an investigation into why it took so
long for the Guard to show up; I hope someone asks the Govs of
LA. and MS.
There is another aspect of the time taken to get support into
the area. If you have access, they take a look at a map of
N.O. and the surrounding area. Please note I-10, as it heads
NE from N.O. Think about it folks, I-10 no longer exists, it's
been destroyed, gone, and it will be gone possibly years. The
Causeway Bridge to the N, has been damaged and inspection isn't
complete to determine if it is safe to use. Land-wise, that
leaves only one way in and out of N.O.; I-10 NW.
Now bring up a mental picture of you standing on an overpass
near N.O. If you look away from the city, what do you see?
Both of the in bound lanes are packed with trucks of all shapes
and sizes, crawling along in a one hundred mile traffic jam.
Most civilian trucks are not being allowed into the city,
filled with everything donated by people wanting to help.
I'm sure that they ran into a little traffic, and may have found
trouble getting fuel. Anyway, they cannot go into N.O., instead
they must stop at Baton Rouge, and off load the items. They will
be sorted and then shipped on to N.O. then again staged to go
into different areas costing more time.
As you are standing on that overpass, you see the out bound
lanes are packed with empty trucks headed for Baton Rouge
and busses headed to some safe haven.
I've rambled on a bit, but, I hope I've given you a different
view. There is blame at all levels. The important thing right
now, feeding, clothing, and caring for those who have lost
everything.
BTW, I wonder how many tree huggers are getting a petition
together to declare N.O. a National Wetland Sanctuary, and
to not allow any people to return.
And you have to love the media "dramatizing" from the ravaged
"war" zone ...enduring pain and suffering as individuals.
Plese no Pulitzer prize ...thank you ..but if nominated...
and the wonderful celebrity enigmas that donate their hard
earned loot, extremely valuable time along with a few
"enlightened" apprehensive reactions.
Those are most appreciated for actions that didn't endeavor
to "grandstand" and I support those individuals for who
they are and what they do, rather than what they believe
or would have you
believe.
Bill Adkins
everyones right at least once Eh?
*Does a happy dance*
Bottom line: Don't count on any level of government to take care of you. Unfortunately, some people have relied on government to take care of them their entire lives, and they are the ones who were hurt the most. Liberal government progrems = impoverished people.
If the Dems keep up the level of blaming others, it is going to backfire.
We don't need no stinkin investigation!
We don't need no stinkin commission!
Krauthammer has it right, now let's move on.
Well, the party's sure over now.
That actually wouldn't be a bad idea. New Orleans should be rebuilt a few miles away from its present location, on higher ground.
When Hillery threw the lamp at Bill after his latest bimbo eruption!
" The president. Late, slow, and simply out of tune with the urgency and magnitude of the disaster. The second he heard that the levees had been breached in New Orleans, he should have canceled his schedule and addressed the country on national television to mobilize it both emotionally and physically to assist in the disaster. His flyover on the way to Washington was the worst possible symbolism."
He is right, of course, but hindsight is always 20/20.
On Monday afternoon, it did not seem like the situation in New Orleans was all that bad.
"Well, the party's sure over now."
I think it is just getting started, what with 62 billion dollars in the pipeline and maybe another 100 billion on the way from the Feds.
Sounds good to me.
As radical environmentalists continue to blame the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation on President Bush’s ecological policies, a mainstream Louisiana media outlet inadvertently disclosed a shocking fact: Environmentalist activists were responsible for spiking a plan that may have saved New Orleans. Decades ago, the Green Left – pursuing its agenda of valuing wetlands and topographical “diversity” over human life – sued to prevent the Army Corps of Engineers from building floodgates that would have prevented significant flooding that resulted from Hurricane Katrina.In the 1970s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Barrier Project planned to build fortifications at two strategic locations, which would keep massive storms on the Gulf of Mexico from causing Lake Pontchartrain to flood the city. An article in the May 28, 2005, New Orleans Times-Picayune stated, “Under the original plan, floodgate-type structures would have been built at the Rigolets and Chef Menteur passes to block storm surges from moving from the Gulf into Lake Pontchartrain.”
I thought that freepers had determined that Chertoff hadn't known about people gathering in the Convention Center because:
1) it wasn't a designated shelter;
2) New Orleans officials didn't tell him that people had gone there;
3) that images of people gathering at the center were not shown on television at the time Chertoff gave his briefing.
I notice that Krauthammer says that all Chertoff had to do was turn on the television.
I think Krauthammer is incorrect with regard to his finger pointing of Chertoff on this item.
Does anyone know more about this?
The jury is still out on how factual those talking points were. Several books and documentaries have suggested FDR knew it was coming.
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