"BUSH'S FAULT" ALERT!
Posted on 09/04/2005 1:56:57 AM PDT by Crackingham
Like many seismic events, Katrina’s true impact might take a while to absorb. What started as a natural disaster soon became an unforeseen social meltdown and potential political crisis for the president. The poverty, anarchy, violence, sewage, bodies, looting, death and disease that overwhelmed a great American city last week made Haiti look like Surrey. The seeming inability of the federal or city authorities to act swiftly or effectively to rescue survivors or maintain order posed fundamental questions about the competence of the Bush administration and local authorities. One begins to wonder: almost four years after 9/11, are evacuation plans for cities this haphazard? Five days after a hurricane, there were still barely any troops imposing order in a huge city in America. How on earth did this happen? And what will come of it?
In the past, American disasters have led to political changes — the Johnstown flood in 1889 and the Galveston hurricane in 1900 led to fury at class privilege and a government that seemed not to care for the poor. The 1927 flood in New Orleans — and the inequalities it exposed — propelled the rise of the populist demagogue Huey Long. There seems to me a strong chance that this calamity could be the beginning of something profound in American politics: a sense that government is broken and that someone needs to fix it. It did, after all, fail. It failed to spend the necessary money to protect New Orleans in the first place. This disaster, after all, did not come out of the blue.
Below is a passage from the Houston Chronicle in 2001, which quoted the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the three likeliest potential disasters to threaten America. They were: an earthquake in San Francisco, a terrorist attack in New York City (predicted before 9/11), and a hurricane hitting New Orleans.
Read this prophetic passage and weep: “The New Orleans hurricane scenario may be the deadliest of all. In the face of an approaching storm, scientists say, the city’s less-than-adequate evacuation routes would strand 250,000 people or more, and probably kill one of 10 left behind as the city drowned under 20ft of water.
“Thousands of refugees could land in Houston. Economically, the toll would be shattering . . . If an Allison-type storm were to strike New Orleans, or a category three storm or greater with at least 111mph winds, the results would be cataclysmic, New Orleans planners said.”
Katrina, of course, was category four.
So what was done to prevent this scenario? There was indeed an attempt to rebuild and strengthen the city’s defences. But the system of government in New Orleans is byzantine in its complexity, with different levees answering to different authorities, and corruption and incompetence legendary.
More politically explosive, the Bush administration has slashed the budget for rebuilding the levees. More than a year ago, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune: “It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.”
It’s still unclear whether even with higher levels of funding the levees would have been strong enough to withstand Katrina in time. The Army Corps of Engineers has backed the president and said that the levees were built for only a category three hurricane and were in satisfactory shape. But levees need constant maintenance and an agency with a one-year budget cut of $71m might have skimped. The connection between shifting funds to fight wars abroad rather than to defend against calamity at home is a politically explosive one. As one Louisianan said: “You can do everything for other countries, but you can’t do nothing for your own people. You can go overseas with the military, but you can’t get them down here.”
I had to google around for it, but here's what he reportedly (Wash. Post) said:
"The results are not acceptable," he told reporters on the South Lawn before leaving the White House for his tour of afflicted areas. He added: "We'll get on top of this situation, and we're going to help people that need help."In the context of a huge amount of outrage, expressed not only by the usual Bush haters, that sounded to me, like it sounded to almost everybody, including, that Bush was taking on some blame. If he wasn't, he needs to get out there and defend himself. To me that "We'll get on top of this" implies that the Bush Administration is not currently "on top of this".
What it said to me was the locals were not doing their job and the feds were going to seen to it that it gets done.
PULLLEEEZZZ -
Response to natural disasters, whether hurricanes, tornadoes, floods or fires - starts at the local level. Florida handles these things all the time with effective, timely responses to much larger natural phenomenon. The President and federal government responded as rapidly as possible once it was determined that neither the mayor of New Orleans nor the governor of Lousiana had the wherewithall to effectively manage the response.
My relatives and friends understand that the news media is making this out to be Bush's fault as a matter of finding something to tarnish the reputation.
I believe the response was as fast as could be done. I also believe in survival of the fittest. Those that wailed that the gubment wasn't moving fast enough were shown repeatedly on the news - those people aren't typical of the vast majority of americans who rally under adverse conditions - step up and take care of themselves and their loved ones like the kid that took the bus and drove 60 people to Texas.
If this nation ever experiences something on a large national level I think 50% of the population would die of starvation or thirst because they are incapable of caring for themselves and expect the gubment to take care of them.
In the case of New Orleans there was NO gubment to do that. It took the federal gubment a couple days to get rolling so I guess that is Bush's fault. You obviously read the NYT on a daily basis and believe everything they write.
Just my opinion.
Bingo
Pres. Bush should be unaffected. The Stafford Act requires the Governor of a state to request the federalization of National Guard. This is generally because states cannot absorb such a huge cost and all soldiers benefits are not attached unless the troops are on some type of fed training or activation.
Once the Pres federalizs the troops, the Stafford Act further calls on the GOVERNOR of the state TO DIRECT the troops' activities. This is to prevent any violation of the Posse Comitatus Act + it is a recognition of the power of states in a federal system.
In short, the governor of Louisianna is totally incompetent. If you recall, it was the governor of NY and the mayor of NY who directed their efforts after 9/11. There are legal reasons for that.
Congressman Billybob: can you correct where I'm wrong on this?
"BUSH'S FAULT" ALERT!
I remember that idiot. He got blowed up real gud.
Jimmy Carter got a Nobel Peace Prize.
Anyone think Dubbya will ever win anything like that, for keeping the terrorists "over there" and not here.
I sure hope not. Means about as much to me as a bag of burning poop on my doorstep.
They very fact that these isolationist appeasement liberals had a bus down in Texas that sayed that is proof you are right.
I can't help but think there were some enviromentalist wacko deals cut vs common sense spending on leeve control.
Just a thought.
You know, it's one thing for lazy, deceitful MSM/dems not to look at the facts, but it's outright scurrilous for a Bush "supporter" not too.
I've talked to many Repubs that feel the same way, and I am astonished at the lack of forthought about this for people who supposedly use common sense. All day long yesterday I was goading people to come out and challenge me on the premise on Bush's "perception" problem he was going to have and learned many facts that as usual, were not over exposed by MSM/dems.
This disaster's blame should squarely be laid on state and local authorities that were not only warned, but directly ordered to do certain things that never happened.
I question who you say you are. Talking to people around me I have a different picture. What I am hearing is that the Gov. of LA and the Mayor of NO were lacking in their ability to handle the hurricane and what happened when the levies failed. Face it the state and local governments dropped the ball in New Orleans. The Gov. should have sent the state police and the LA Guard into the city before the storm hit. The local police force fell apart under the pressure of events. Knowing the problems of corruption and effectiveness of the NO police both the Gov. and the Mayor should have acted to assure that the NOPD had support from outside to handle the security in the city after the storm hit. President Bush did what he could do given the need for the Gov. to request federal help in order to get get the ball rolling on outside help. Don't get me started on the buses you see sitting in water. The Gov. and Mayor could have used them to get people without transportation out of the city. But they did not. If you are blaming the president for the failure of the state and city governments then I question if you ever voted for the man.
I have heard the Corps of Engineers budgets were always attacked by the environazis and their lap dogs in Congress. We need to see how the Dem liberals voted on these budgets. Therein lies the tale.
and implement the clean air check on all motor vehicles, that has made him millions here
My guess is that the pwerson who denied the request during the Clinton Administration will end up sitting on the committee.
That is one of the stupidest responses I've ever from anyone yet.
1) The president is the President until 2009. Not only is it factually untrue to state otherwise, it demonstrates a severe lack of perspective on YOUR part.
2) The Bush administration DID respond and kept millions from dying. The crisis of leadership is directly on the heads of Blanco and Nagin.
3) If your family and friends are so uneducated, as you appear to be, you had better get the facts everyone knows HERE and start passing them out to do something USEFUL.
4) Are you sure you are on the right board?
The real problem remain was PEOPLE...ignoring warnings and the attitude "Everything is the Feds" job. Local government was a TOTAL failure.
"THE REQUEST WAS DENIED BY WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON. For those interested in the details, they are available in the FEDERAL REGISTER as a matter of permanent record."
Uh, Sandy, looks like you forgot something. Back to the archives, boy, and wear your long tube socks and jockeys.
Best wishes,
WJC
I wonder if the contacts in this info would have some information.
American Rivers Policy Update For the week of September 6, 1999
Energy and Water Conference on Hold:
Conferees for the Energy and Water Appropriations bill have put their meeting on hold until Appropriations Committee leaders from both houses can agree on the total funding level for the bill. The House passed its $20.2 billion FY 00 funding bill (H.R. 2605) by a vote of 420-8 on July 27. The Senate passed its $21.7 billion version of the bill on June 16. The bills provide funding for the Department of Energy, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Bureau of Reclamation.
H.R. 2605 would provide the US Army Corps of Engineers with $4.19 billion for its civil works program, which includes flood control, shoreline protection, and navigation. This is $91.2 million more than FY 99 funding and $282.6 million more than the Clinton Administration s FY 00 request. The Senate bill includes $3.76 billion for the Corps civil works projects.
Although overall funding for the Corps would increase in the House and Senate bills, they would both cut funding for habitat restoration programs by the Corps. For example, the House bill would provide $18.945 million the Corps Environmental Management Program, and the Senate would fund the program at just $16.2 million. Through EMP, the Corps restores and enhances fish and wildlife habitat and conducts long-term monitoring of the ecological health of the Upper Mississippi River.
House contacts are Jim Ogsbury (majority), 202-225-3421 or Sally Chadbourne (minority), 202-225-3481. Senate contacts are Alex Flint (majority), 202-224-7260 or Greg Daines (minority), 202-224-0335.
I guess building the SUPERDOME was more important than taking care of the levees
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