Free Republic

CONSERVATIVE FRIENDS have been sending me long, detailed e-mails about the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. They are all designed to place the blame on New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, while exonerating President Bush. These electronic messages have certainly been impressive and revealed previously unknown facts. After reading them, I acknowledge the timelines of what happened, when and who knew what, and when and who signed what and when. My friends are right that state and local government were the first lines of defense -- and they failed. This represents a systemic failure of...

UNITED NATIONS - The African leader some call a hero and others a destructive despot suggests people in his country aren't hungry, they just can't eat their favorite food. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his people are "very, very happy" though aid agencies report 4 million of 11.6 million face famine. "You describe it as if we have a whole cemetery," Mugabe said of a reporter's description of the southern African nation's dire straits, blaming "continuous years of drought." The problem is reliance on corn, he said during Friday's interview, "but...

IN HIS BEST leadership move since Hurricane Katrina hit, President Bush on Tuesday accepted responsibility for the federal government's inadequate response to the disaster. The people of Louisiana are still waiting for their state and local officials to stop passing the buck. On the same day President Bush shouldered the blame for the federal government's actions, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco continued to accuse FEMA of botching the recovery process. As far as we can find, Blanco has yet to take any responsibility for the state's failures in the days immediately before and after Katrina hit. Blanco refused the President's request...

Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin are to blame for the catastrophic response to Hurricane Katrina. Over 40% of the country says that they are to blame for the inadequate response; only 29% blame the federal government. Nearly two-thirds of the natios says that Judge Roberts is qualified to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, only 14% say he is not qualified. President Bush's popularity has taken a toll-to the lowest level of his Presidency..DEVELOPING

Funny how Hillary waxes nostalgic for how FEMA was run under her husband. (Anything that was "under" her husband HAD to be questionable). Here's the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Floyd Here's the text: The Hurricane Floyd disaster was followed by what was judged by many to be a very slow Federal response. Fully three weeks(!) after the storm hit Jesse Jackson complained to FEMA Director James Lee Witt on his CNN program Both Sides Now, "It seemed there was preparation for Hurricane Floyd, but then came Flood Floyd. Bridges are overwhelmed, levees are overwhelmed, whole town's under water . . . [it's] an...

As a new batch of polls confirmed that the disaster in New Orleans had dragged Mr Bush’s approval rating to a record low, the White House announced that the President would address the nation from Louisiana tomorrow night at peak television viewing time. There was growing speculation last night that Mr Bush may use the occasion to appoint a “czar” to oversee the recovery effort. Possible candidates include Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State, and Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York.

Bush Team Conspired Against Blacks, Activists Charge By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Correspondent September 12, 2005 (CNSNews.com) - Several black civil rights leaders are accusing the federal government of conspiring against poor African Americans in the aftermath of the flooding in New Orleans. But one of those hurling the charges, comedian and political activist Dick Gregory, on Friday refused to say what, if anything, he has personally contributed to the relief effort. Gregory, who had just visited evacuees at the Houston Astrodome and the city's convention center, said he was able offer the flood victims something else besides money and food....

In a stark reminder of how drastically Hurricane Katrina has impacted the lives of New Orleanians, Mayor Ray Nagin has purchased a home for his family in Dallas and enrolled his young daughter in school there. Nagin, who spoke with The Times-Picayune by telephone from Dallas, where he has been since Wednesday, said he planned to return to New Orleans on Saturday. He said he will remain in the Crescent City while his family lives for the next six months in Dallas, making occasional visits to his family when possible. It’s not clear where Nagin will be living: His home...

When you listen to a Liberal typing away from his soft chair in front of the computer, you can almost see the wave of the magic wand at work. You don't have to preposition an army of relief in a semicircle around a threatened city, the way FEMA did, beginning two days before the storm, you just wave that magic wand, park it all right next to the Superdome, and fairy dust prevents the storm from destroying it. There's no need to assess the entire region and decide what you need more of, or where any of it should go....

Remember this pic?

With all that has happened in the state, it’s understandable that the Louisiana chapter of the Sierra Club may not have updated its website. But when its members get around to it, they may want to change the wording of one item in particular. The site brags that the group is “working to keep the Atchafalaya Basin,” which adjoins the Mississippi River not far from New Orleans, “wet and wild.” These words may seem especially inappropriate after the breaking of the levee that caused the tragic events in New Orleans last week. But “wet and wild” has a larger significance...

SOME KATRINA LESSONS: We're going to see a plethora of commissions and inquiries (most about as useful and non-partisan as the 9/11 Commission), but here are a few lessons that seem solid enough to go with now: 1. Don't build your city below sea level: If you do, sooner or later it will flood. Better levees, pumps, etc. will put that day off, but not prevent it. 2. Order evacuations early: You hate to have false alarms, but as Brendan Loy noted earlier, even 48 hours in advance is really too late if you want to get everyone out. 3....

CNN is trying to get the public to blame the Feds. Poll on right, about halfway down

After 10 days of often uncertain responses to the Bush administration's management of Hurricane Katrina, Democratic leaders unleashed a burst of attacks on the White House on Wednesday, saying the wreckage in New Orleans raised doubts about the country's readiness to endure a terrorist attack and exposed ominous economic rifts that they said had worsened under five years of Republican rule. Democrats offered what was shaping up as the most concerted attack that they had mounted on the White House in the five years of the Bush presidency. snip The display of unity was striking for a party that has...

Well, we get to start off today with some news that's not going to make the left happy. "A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll of 609 adults taken September 5th and 6th: 13% said that George W. Bush is 'most responsible' for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane; 18% said federal agenceis are most responsible; 25% said that state and local officials more responsible; 38% said nobody is to blame; 6% had no opinion, and 29% said the top officials in the federal agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be fired; 63% said they should not."

(CNN) -- A majority of Americans believe the city of New Orleans will never completely recover from the effects of Hurricane Katrina and the resulting flooding, according to results of a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Tuesday. Fifty-six percent of 609 adults polled by telephone September 5-6 said they believe the hurricane devastated the city beyond repair. And 93 percent of poll respondents said they believe Katrina is the worst natural disaster to strike the United States in their lifetime. But a majority of respondents -- 63 percent -- said they believe the city should rebuild. And 66 percent said they...

WASHINGTON - The retired admiral who played a key role in drafting the Homeland Security Department's catastrophic emergency plan said the agency was too hesitant in executing it in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

  (click here to see it reeeeeeeally large) here is a link to the Gallop.com news article thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1479262/posts?page=100

It's Bush who's to blame for the London subway bombings in July, according to Jann Wenner, founder and publisher of Rolling Stone magazine. "If the London bombings are the work of an al-Qaida offshoot," contended Wenner, "then you have to fairly say, in the same way we condemn other's terror, this is in part the result of Bush's War on Iraq." In Wenner's world, a swaggering and trigger-happy Bush is driving people nuts, causing four otherwise normal guys to go wild and simultaneously blow themselves to smithereens during the morning rush hour in London. Of course that doesn't explain former...

OF COURSE, it's George Bush's fault. Why miss this chance to blame someone you already hate? So see them line up to kick him over the devastation of New Orleans, and the delays in bringing relief. See some so insane with loathing that they blame him even for Hurricane Katrina itself. Germany's Environment Minister, Jurgen Trittin, for instance, jeered that Bush had been punished for not cutting emissions to stop global warming: "The American President has closed his eyes to the economic and human damage that natural catastrophes such as Katrina -- in other words, disasters caused by a lack...