Free Republic

ept. 7, 2005 - President Bush, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and a host of federal officials deserve much of the intense criticism they've been under for failing to leap into action when Hurricane Katrina's destruction brought on human misery and lawlessness, especially in New Orleans. But the finger-pointing ignores a massive local failure. Yes, FEMA Director Michael Brown moved painfully slowly. But the flooding that has nearly wiped New Orleans off the map was rooted in years of infrastructure neglect—and now state and local officials also need to be held accountable.

N.O. Blame From a CNN interveiw between reporter Soledad O'Brien* and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (via Little Green Footballs): S. O'BRIEN: You're telling me the president [Bush] told you the governor [Blanco] said she needed 24 hours to make a decision? NAGIN: Yes. S. O'BRIEN: Regarding what? Bringing troops in? NAGIN: Whatever they had discussed. As far as what the -- I was abdicating a clear chain of command, so that we could get resources flowing in the right places. S. O'BRIEN: And the governor said no. NAGIN: She said that she needed 24 hours to make a...

  (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

US military leadership has a consistent principal - "better that American civilians die than that we (the brass) be blamed for making a mistake." See the following from a Washington Times editorial today: http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050906-093817-7790r.htm "Lt. Gen. Blum said the National Guard did not move sooner to secure the Superdome and convention center because commanders were waiting to amass "an overwhelming force." Massing an "overwhelming force" you see, reduces military casualties. Let the civilians die while the military is assembling its "overwhelming force". Because avoidable military casualties might get the brass blamed. They know that avoidable civilian casualties won't get them...

"You and your family (yes, your children, too) should be dropped right in the middle of New Orleans and be forced to live there for three days, and maybe then your tight grip on the GOP might be loosened and you'll be awakened to the failures of the incompetent man sitting in the White House." Such is the vitriol spewing forth in the aftermath of Katrina from those who believe George W. Bush is responsible for all of life's misfortunes. I received this hateful e-mail after commenting on television that while the federal response to the crisis has shouldered most...

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...

Louisiana Officials Could Lose the Katrina Blame Game By Jeff Johnson CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer September 07, 2005 (CNSNews.com) - The Bush administration is being widely criticized for the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina and the allegedly inadequate protection for "the big one" that residents had long feared would hit New Orleans. But research into more than ten years of reporting on hurricane and flood damage mitigation efforts in and around New Orleans indicates that local and state officials did not use federal money that was available for levee improvements or coastal reinforcement and often did not secure local matching...

<p>Let's take a break from the joy of Bush bashing to reveal the dirty little secret of New Orleans: Its local government deserves an F for its planning and response to Katrina. And one other thing: The New Orleans police force would be a joke if it weren't a disgrace.</p>

While the tragic events are still unfolding in New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast, it is business as usual in Washington DC. Critics of President Bush are blaming him for requesting less money for programs to guard against catastrophic storms. Yet hurricane preparedness primarily should be the responsibility of state and local officials. And past experiences have taught that Congress will rush to spend funds -- often based on political priorities. Some assert President Bush is to be blamed for the tragedy in Louisiana because he resisted specific projects for Louisiana. However, the Corps of Engineers is...

Federal, local governments deadlocked in finger-pointing contest

CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 609 adults taken September 5-6 shows: Blame Game -- 13% said George W. Bush is "most responsible for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane"; 18% said "federal agencies"; 25% said "state and local officials"; 38% said "no one is to blame"; 6% had no opinion. -- 29% said that "top officials in the federal agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be fired"; 63% said they should not; 8% had no opinion. MORE Government Performance -- 10% said George W. Bush has done a "great" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"; 25%...

September 07, 2005 Public Skeptical New Orleans Will Recover Criticism, but little outrage, for Bush's and federal agencies' response to hurricane by David W. Moore GALLUP NEWS SERVICE ... Despite widespread criticism of the response by Bush and, separately, the federal government, to the problems caused by the hurricane, the public seems on balance only mildly critical. Forty-two percent say Bush did a "bad" (18%) or "terrible" (24%) job, but 35% rate his response as either "great" (10%) or "good" (25%). ... When asked to identify who was most responsible for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane, 38%...

As it happened, my youngest son, Rudy, was in New Orleans as the storm approached the Gulf Coast, so I was acutely focused on what actions were being taken to evacuate the city. On Aug. 27, with the hurricane gaining force in the Gulf, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called for a voluntary evacuation of the city....

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."

Don't blame only feds Crime rate, inept pols leveled New Orleans before the storm Let's take a break from the joy of Bush bashing to reveal the dirty little secret of New Orleans: Its local government deserves an F for its planning and response to Katrina. And one other thing: The New Orleans police force would be a joke if it weren't a disgrace. Yes, I know it's impolitic to say such things while the suffering in the Big Easy is fresh and many cops risked their lives to save others. But now is the time to blow the whistle...

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has been critical of the Bush administration's response to the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but, according to the mayor of New Orleans, her indecision when President Bush offered help delayed rescue efforts and cost lives. New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin told CNN's "American Morning" Monday that he met with Mr. Bush and Mrs. Blanco on Air Force One on Friday and implored the two to "get in sync." "If you don't get in sync, more people are going to die," Mr. Nagin said.     

(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 top Senate Democrat today called for an investigation into the way the government dealt with Hurricane Katrina, including whether President Bush's Texas vacation interfered with the response. Republican chairmen pledged to focus on recovery now and investigate later. In a letter to the Senate's Homeland Security Committee chairwoman, Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada pressed for a wide-ranging investigation and answers to several questions, including: "How much time did the president spend dealing with this emerging crisis while he was on vacation? Did the fact that he was outside of Washington, D.C., have any effect on the...

Here in America, the land of opportunity, we gave up on the poor more than two decades ago. Under the careful tutelage of Ronald Reagan and other conservatives, we learned that the poor were simply too lazy to improve their prospects and their misery was their own fault. We gave up on the white poor and the black poor, even though black Americans had suffered under three centuries of unconscionable oppression before a brief period — less than three decades — when they began to be treated as fully human. We gave up on the Native American poor, though they...

Today, a different kind of line was crossed. The Times has messed with Texas. You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit in the wind, and most of all you don’t mess with Texas if you have even a shred of common sense. KTRK-TV, the ABC affiliate in Houston has caught (hat tip: Austin Bay) the New York Times Company slurring Houston’s rescue efforts in a sneaky yet stupid maneuver. How do like this for the first sentence in a story about Houston’s sheltering efforts on behalf of the evacuees, by Houston-based NYT reporter Simon Romero?: “No one would...