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"As the devastation of Hurricane Katrina continues to shock and sadden the nation, the question on many lips is, Who is to blame for the inadequate response? As a former state legislator who represented the legislative district most impacted by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, I can fully understand and empathize with the people and public officials over the loss of life and property. Many in the media are turning their eyes toward the federal government, rather than considering the culpability of city and state officials. I am fully aware of the challenges of having a quick...

Hillary Clinton to come on soon and tell Matt just how rotten George Bush's response to Katrina was, just how rotten how those Republican administrators are, and how she is going to get to the bottom of it all and make government what it is supposed to be next time. Madam President seeks to score points, and NBC is thoughtfully providing the forum. She's in in just a couple of minutes...

Democrats shift strategy on Roberts Plan to use Katrina to highlight racial and economic divide By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | September 7, 2005 WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats said yesterday that they will invoke the vast disparities in income and living conditions laid bare by the Hurricane Katrina disaster to sharpen their questioning of Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. at his confirmation hearings next week. The scenes of devastation featuring primarily poor African-American residents in New Orleans have highlighted the widening gap between rich and poor, said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. With Roberts having urged...

Who is to blame for New Orleans? By William John Hagan Houston Home Journal Print Edition 09/07/2005 David Vitter, a United States Senator from Louisiana, estimates that the death toll from Hurricane Katrina could reach 10,000 people. The reality is that a true death toll will never be known but 10,000 dead may just scratch the surface. Large-scale casualties in a natural disaster such as Katrina in unavoidable but the fact that the world’s most advanced nation had days to prevent such a massive number of deaths makes these numbers even more unacceptable. In the coming weeks politically-motivated accusations of...

one of the talking heads on Fox just said that...did i hear that right?

AUSTIN, Texas -- Like many of you who love New Orleans, I find myself taking short mental walks there today, turning a familiar corner, glimpsing a favorite scene, square or vista. And worrying about the beloved friends and the city, and how they are now. To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives. This is not "just...

Another Near Myth My Two Cents on the post-Katrina Blame-Storming By David J. Aland 6 September 2005 Confronted with the inexplicable, we seek answers. It is a fundamental characteristic of humanity to seek understanding, but when answers are not forthcoming, we tend to make ‘em up. The ancients created vast bodies of mythology, and even in our modern era we are not above doing the same. In the aftermath of Katrina, it should therefore not surprise us that many myths have already sprung up. Katrina was a storm of near-mythic proportion, a 9-11 sized event inflicted upon our nation. Few...

As the devastation of Hurricane Katrina continues to shock and sadden the nation, the question on many lips is, Who is to blame for the inadequate response? As a former state legislator who represented the legislative district most impacted by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, I can fully understand and empathize with the people and public officials over the loss of life and property. Many in the media are turning their eyes toward the federal government, rather than considering the culpability of city and state officials. I am fully aware of the challenges of having a quick...

Once again instead of concern for their fellow citizens, liberals are trying to exploit a tragedy for political purposes. There are some liberals (and Democrats) who made the rather bizarre claim that funding the Iraq war – in conjunction with Bush’s tax cuts - caused funding for flood control projects in New Orleans to be cut thereby causing the flood. Yet, ironically, they may have hoisted themselves by their own petard. While investigating the validity of these claims, evidence has been found that the actions of environmentalists may have contributed to the flooding of New Orleans – rather than the...

As is usually the case with liberals rather than be concerned about helping their fellow human beings who have suffered a tragedy they instead try to spread lies, rumors, and half-truths in a disinformation campaign to exploit the tragedy for their own political gain. This latest exercise in putting political power before people was manifested during the Hurricane Katrina natural disasters. Liberals –such as Robert Kennedy Jr. and the Democrats.com website – incredibly insulted the collective intelligence of the American people by making two unbelievably absurd claims. One claim was that global warming was responsible for Hurricane and therefore so...

As the devastation of Hurricane Katrina continues to shock and sadden the nation, the question on many lips is, Who is to blame for the inadequate response?... Many in the media are turning their eyes toward the federal government, rather than considering the culpability of city and state officials. I am fully aware of the challenges of having a quick and responsive emergency response to a major disaster. And there is definitely a time for accountability; but what isn't fair is to dump on the federal officials and avoid those most responsible -- local and state officials who failed to...

September 06, 2005 RALEIGH — There is a fetid stink in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and it’s not coming just from the fouled waters flooding New Orleans. It also wafts from the putrid reporting of the disaster by the mainstream media. From the moment Katrina made landfall the media focused on anything that could redound to the detriment of President Bush or inflame race and class tensions. Reporters and commentators ignored the dismal performance of New Orleans’ Democratic mayor and Louisiana’s Democratic governor, blaming every problem that arose on the Bush administration. Racial demagogues accused Bush and his administration...

Did anybody see Shep Smith on Dave Letterman? Letterman had just gotten through ripping FEMA and Bush for their performance with New Orleans and Katrina. Letterman then had Smith go through all the horrors he's seen. Then Letterman tried to get Smith to assign blame. That's when Shep shined. He basically said there are people dying...yet to be rescued. There are dead bodies floating around. He basically said it's sick to be playing the blame game right now when people haven't been able to bury their dead yet. I don't think it's at all what Letterman had in mind. He...

Before residents had ever heard the words "Hurricane Katrina," the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE ran a story warning residents: If you stay behind during a big storm, you'll be on your own! Editors at TIMES-PICAYUNE on Monday called for every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be fired. In an open letter to President Bush, the paper said: "Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame." But the TIMES-PICAYUNE published a story on July 24, 2005 stating: City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give a historically blunt message:...

A Letter To The Elected Politicians Of The State of Louisiana and The City of New Orleans and to Louisiana Journalists YOU, The New Orleans Elected Politicians, Parish Elected Officials, and State Elected Politicians Must Share Blame For The Tragedy In New Orleans In addition to looking at the 5 days after the hurricane, we must examine your actions in the 5 days leading up to its landfall. Why were poor citizens left behind in the path of certain flooding of the city? Can any Louisiana politician claim the flooding was not highly likely from a Cat 4/5 Hurricane? This...

There has been much smug finger-pointing in the hurricane's wake. If you believe the recriminations flowing thick and fast in the trail of hurricane Katrina, President George Bush has an almost superhuman talent for calamity. According to his critics, the President can be blamed for causing hurricanes because he ignored the risks of global warming. He can be blamed for exacerbating the consequences of Katrina because he diverted funds and manpower to Iraq. And he can also be blamed for the rape and pillage of New Orleans because his unfair tax policies inflicted on the poor and vulnerable no other...

WASHINGTON -- Blame for the hurricane damage in New Orleans is spreading all the way to Alaska. Dozens of newspapers around the country carried an Associated Press analysis late last week asserting that Alaska's clout in Congress was drawing money away from New Orleans. Last year, the Army Corps of Engineers sought $105 million for New Orleans hurricane and flood programs, AP political reporter Ron Fournier wrote. Congress approved less than half. And yet it funded thousands of pet projects in the transportation bill in July, including two much-mocked bridges in Alaska. "How could Washington spend $231 million on a...

An interesting thing happened this weekend. After 5 days of blaming President Bush for Hurricane Katrina, the mainstream media found it increasingly difficult to continue their negativity and finger pointing. There was actually good news! And the mainstream media didn’t know how to deal with it. They were still trying though. We were treated to a CNN news “babe” leading us through the nearly empty New Orleans convention center, always a snide comment at the ready. When she arrived at the line of National Guard troops who had been working night and day to evacuate the victims from the civic...

To stop the divisive blame game and unfair portrayals of President Bush, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has issued the following statement: I refused the gracious offer of help from President Bush on August 27th. My actions have created a delay in getting federal troops and assistance to the State of Louisiana. I have corrected my error by accepting all federal help and hiring a competent coordinator to facilitate that help. I now implore all those who profess to care about the residents affected by Hurricane Katrina to stay focused on taking care of their needs.

Tensions color Bush, Blanco meeting Gov. Kathleen Blanco canceled a scheduled trip Monday to visit Louisiana evacuees in Houston shelters to stay in Baton Rouge to meet with President Bush. Blanco Communications Director Bob Mann said the governor did not learn about the Bush visit until early Monday morning. “We had no idea the president was coming,” Mann said. Tension between the Blanco and Bush administrations has surfaced in recent days as state and federal officials try to coordinate recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The Blanco administration clearly wanted to express their irritation with the communication about...