Free Republic

(AP) -- Echoing the words of President Bush a day earlier, Gov. Kathleen Blanco took responsibility Wednesday for failures and missteps in the immediate response to Hurricane Katrina and pledged a united effort to rebuild New Orleans and the surrounding parishes ravaged by the storm. "We all know that there were failures at every level of government: state, federal and local. At the state level, we must take a careful look at what went wrong and make sure it never happens again. The buck stops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility," Blanco told lawmakers in a special...

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

Would somebody please tell me what, specifically, has FEMA director Mike Brown done wrong? Or failed to have done in as timely fashion as humanly possible, under the circumstances?I've read every article I can find on Brown posted in the last few days. Can't find a single thing written by a knowledgable person that pinpoints what Brown has done wrong.Yeah, there are lots of grandstanding media types hyperventilating over Brown's "failure" and "incompetence."There are even some on the right whom Tony Snow is calling "bed-wetters" for their over-reaction to events -- and for jumping into bed with the Left in...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend Version September 13, 2005, 2:17 p.m. The Blame Game Look local. The Bush administration is excoriating what it calls "the blame game." If the alacrity with which Bush critics began their Katrina criticisms was unseemly, a vigorous "blame game" is still the only way to keep government failures from being conveniently ignored. But if Democrats and media get their way, recriminations will swing only one way — at President Bush and the feds. Consider Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, who has informally been designated as Washington's spokeswoman for the victims of Katrina....

We know what disaster relief is supposed to look like. Parachute drops of food for the hungry, water for the thirsty, doctors for the sick and hurt. Is there any doubt that many more people would be alive today if the president hadn’t taken the helicopters away and sent them to Iraq? Is there any doubt that many more people would be alive today if the president hadn’t taken the emergency medical teams away and sent them to Iraq? Is there any doubt that many more people would be alive today if the president hadn’t taken away the Humvees and...

President Bush yesterday said he takes personal responsibility for the federal government's stumbling response to Hurricane Katrina as his White House worked on several fronts to move beyond the improvisation of the first days of the crisis and set a long-term course on a problem that aides now believe will shadow the balance of Bush's second term. ...he has dispatched his top strategist, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and other aides to assemble ideas from agencies, conservative think tanks and GOP lawmakers to guide the rebuilding of New Orleans and relocation of flood victims. The idea, aides said, is...

President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks. "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq. "To the extent the federal government didn't fully do it's job right, I take responsibility," Bush said. The president was asked whether people should be worried about the government's ability to handle another terrorist attack given failures in...

Public: Response to Katrina Better Now Than Just After Hurricane Hit Most Americans were not impressed with the initial response to Hurricane Katrina, but according to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey, majorities of Americans now say that the people and officials involved in the rescue effort are doing a good job. Most Americans believe that government agencies in New Orleans should have been better prepared, and they support the proposal for an independent investigation into the problems with the government's response. But they reject the notion that race or poverty were reasons why the government was slow to respond.

Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu said Monday that Michael Brown's resignation as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency would not be enough to stem the tidal wave of criticism leveled at the Bush administration over its handling of the Hurricane Katrina crisis. Brown's departure, Landrieu said, "will not alone solve all the problems that plagued the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and the devastating floods that followed the levee breaches." In a statement posted to her Web site, the Louisiana democrat insisted that the Bush White House still needed to be held responsible. "The people of our nation, and...

Bush Takes Responsibility for Blunders By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 14 minutes ago President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks. "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq. "To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said. The president was asked whether people...

President Bush says he takes responsibility for the federal government's failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina. No details yet, but what the??????

...First, the blame game is missing the mark. George W. Bush is being accused by his natural enemies [b]ut his real error came long before Katrina, when he and Congress created a Department of Homeland Security.... After a disaster, politicians want to "do something." Striking back at U.S. enemies was essential and Mr. Bush did that against al Qaeda with the enthusiastic approval of Congress... giving free rein to Beltway gluttony.... That leads to lesson No. 2: If an agency is meant to cope with emergencies, don't put lawyers in charge.... In Mr. Brown's defense, lawyers are conditioned by training...

“Now is not the time for finger-pointing. Now is the time to rebuild.” These were the words of Senator Mary Landrieu (D- Louisiana) during an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. But this was in stark contrast to statements made by the Senator on the floor of the Senate decrying the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. “They gambled that no one would notice if Louisiana's critical and vital role in our national economy was threatened. And Washington rolled the dice and Louisiana lost.” Senator Landrieu, in full spin mode, refused to apply the same critical eye on...

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.

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...

There is a shot where Blanco is being set up several days ago for a TV interview, and her press secretary is helping her adjust her mic. They’re having a personal conversation, but the cameraman catches it!! In it, she kinda jokes to her press secretary something like “yeah, well I guess I really need to ask for troops,” and a couple more things she says. A bit later in hte segment she gets into a semi-argument with Miles O’Brien, and he’s pointedly asking her exactly WHEN she asked the President for troops.She gets frustrated and says she didn’t even...

Controversial film-maker Michael Moore is planning to make a hard-hitting documentary based on US President George W. Bush's handling of the Hurricane Katrina rescue operation. Moore grabbed international acclaim with his scathing 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11, which studied Bush's handling of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The Oscar winner is now "seriously considering" documenting the catastrophe in America's Gulf Coast region. He tells the New York Daily News, "There is much to be said and done about the man-made annihilation of New Orleans, caused not by a hurricane but by the very specific decisions made by the Bush administration in...

From the political perspective of the White House, Hurricane Katrina destroyed more than an enormous swath of the Gulf Coast. The storm also appears to have damaged the carefully laid plans of Karl Rove, President Bush's political adviser, to make inroads among black voters and expand the reach of the Republican Party for decades to come. Many African-Americans across the country said they seethed as they watched the television pictures of the largely poor and black victims of Hurricane Katrina dying for food and water in the New Orleans Superdome and the convention center. A poll released last week by...

A week of finger-pointing and blame-game playing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has scored few political points for the Democrats and their party. Democratic leaders pounded President Bush last week, charging he and his administration were slow to grasp the full depth and breadth of the destruction and to help the Gulf coast's storm-ravaged victims.