Zip it up already!!
Posted on 09/09/2005 2:21:53 PM PDT by WestTexasWend
Former Vice President Al Gore urged Americans on Friday to hold the Bush administration accountable for failing to adequately prepare for and respond to Hurricane Katrina.
"When the corpses of American citizens are floating in toxic flood waters five days after a hurricane struck, it is time not only to respond directly to the victims of the catastrophe, but to hold ... the leaders of our nation accountable," Gore told environmentalists at the Sierra Club's national convention.
Gore had been scheduled to give a speech to state insurance commissioners in New Orleans this weekend about the likelihood that global warming will spawn increasingly deadly hurricanes. He decided to take his speech to San Francisco after that conference was canceled.
"The warnings about global warming have been extremely clear for a long time. We are facing a global climate crisis, it is deepening. We are entering a period of consequences," Gore said.
Bush administration officials have said Katrina's damage could not have been anticipated, but Gore rejected that.
"What happened was not only knowable, it was known in advance, in great and painstaking detail. They did tabletop planning exercises. They identified exactly what the scientific evidence showed would take place," Gore said.
In his Sierra Club speech, the former senator from Tennessee didn't mention an act of mercy that he was personally involved in - his help airlifting some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans to Tennessee on Sept. 3 and 4. He did that at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of his son years earlier.
Dr. Anderson Spickard, who is Gore's personal physician and accompanied him on the flights, told The Associated Press that "Gore told me he wanted to do this because like all of us he wanted to seize the opportunity to do what one guy can do, given the assets that he has."
An account of the flights was posted this week on a Democratic Party Web page. It was written by Greg Simon, president of the Washington-based activist group FasterCures. Simon, who helped put together the mission, also declined an interview.
On Sept. 1, three days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, Simon learned that Dr. David Kline, a neurosurgeon who operated on Gore's son, Albert, after a life-threatening auto accident in 1989, was trying to get in touch with Gore. Kline was stranded with patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
"The situation was dire and becoming worse by the minute - food and water running out, no power, 4 feet of water surrounding the hospital and ... corpses outside," Simon wrote.
Gore responded immediately, telephoning Kline and agreeing to underwrite the $50,000 each for the two flights, although Larry Flax, founder of California Pizza Kitchens, later pledged to pay for one of them.
"None of the airlines involved required a contract or any written guarantee of payment before sending their planes and volunteer crews," Simon wrote of the American Airlines flights. "One official said if Gore promised to pay, that was good enough for them."
He also recruited two doctors, Spickard and Gore's cousin, retired Col. Dar LaFon, a specialist in internal medicine who once ran the military hospital in Baghdad.
Most critically, Gore worked to cut through government red tape, personally calling Gov. Phil Bredesen to get Tennessee's support and U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to secure landing rights in New Orleans.
About 140 people, many of them sick, landed in Knoxville on Sept. 3. The second flight, with 130 evacuees, landed the next day in Chattanooga.
I actually saw his face in the crowd too...and was impressed. Of all people, he must know the logistics involved & the truth of the matter...including the failures at a local & state level... But, here he is...following his leader's bidding. I just cannot quite figure out who his leader is...probably Moveon.org (after all Al did invent the internet as someone posted earlier). AAARRRGGGHHHH. Make him go away.
Why in the hell didn't he solve the global warming problem when Clinto was in office. Oh the things that they could have done, and never would have happened under that administration. Clinton was spending all his time getting serviced underneath his desk and hall closet, what was Mr. Gore doing. We have an entire country after Bush, I think it is time he starts quashing some of this crap.
Zip it up already!!
The United States has about the most stringent air control standards in the developed world. I understand the nations who signs Kyoto are actually doing worse than before Kyoto. India and China are growing their economies and fossil fuel consumption as record rates. They are still cutting down the Amazon at a rapid rate,
How is this George Bush's fault?
I see all the Global Warming rhetoric simply sour grapes because Gore lost the election and a bunch of eko-kookoos hanging on his B.S. comments.
Where am I going wrong in this?
AlGore, inventor of the Internet, sees his political career on the rise! Doubtless he'll suggest Hill take the second spot on the ticket, in which case he'd better stay away from Fort Marcy Park.
Al's pissed he didn't get the RAT Talking Points Memo until today.
Al Gore might be reminded that if his fellow democratic senators had not given perjury by the chief law enforcement officer of the nation in 1998 a pass, he would most likely be President today.
Hey Al, how many evacuees are YOU taking into YOUR home? You good for nothing jackass.
When I read that he was speaking at a Sierra Club event in San Diego this weekend and Ariana Huffinton, Robert kennedy, etc., are all going to be there I cringed.... here it comes.
Gore no doubt got his Chinese friends to pay for charter.
If he personally paid have him order the charter service to release a copy of a paid invoice. Honest Al owes us no less.
Sick and tired of it!!!
"help airlifting some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters"
And they came to the airport from WHERE? I'll bet you big bucks it wasn't the Superdome.
I think it's time for our weasel Republican representatives quit their quivering and get off their butts and out there and defend this administration; I shudder to think about '06 if they don't! I wrote McCain, Kyle and Franks to tell them to support the President and Tom Tancredo's request to control the funds, too.
"Why in the hell didn't he solve the global warming problem when Clinto was in office."
Gore was too busy outside the Oval office door acting as lookout for Bubba while Bubba "enjoyed" a cigar with Monica. "Remember Al, 3 short whistles if you see Cankles coming."
Yes, he saw an opportunity for a photo-opp. He does something and gets back into the headlines so he can again bash Bush. This is from the slum-lord remember?
The MOST active trend was in the 30's, 40's, and 50's if I remembe right. Who do they blame for that?
Let me guess. Hot air balloons, because he's certainly got enough of it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.