Free Republic

It was yet another performance of the "full responsibility" flimflam. In a rare appearance before his adoring fans in the press corps yesterday, President Obama repeatedly took "full responsibility" for the blundering efforts to clog up the geyser of crude oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico coating everything in sight. At the same time, Obama repeatedly denied that his administration was complicit in allowing the catastrophe to happen in the first place, slow to realize the devastating nature of it, or ham-handed in the five-week effort to try to stem the toxic tide. In other words, Obama -- as...

"You know, after the Hurricane [Katrina] and its aftermath there was a lot of discussion about the fact that those who were impacted by the achingly slow response on the part of the federal government were disproportionately black." This video is from a speech Obama gave at Harvard In September of 2005.

Former Mayor Richard Riordan joined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday in chiding the federal government's disaster response and calling for more local self-sufficiency. Villaraigosa also announced a new panel of homeland security advisers, including Riordan, who will be charged with developing better ways to protect residents, deliver aid and evacuate the city in the event of a terrorist strike or natural disaster. "We need a new set of eyes to review what we do," Villaraigosa said in introducing the 42-member panel of government, law enforcement, business, religious and think-tank leaders. Villaraigosa blasted the White House last week, accusing federal officials...

After days of being harrangued by media reports to the contrary, this may seem like a radical notion, but... THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO KATRINA WAS NOT SLOW!FACT: Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and other search and rescue units were in New Orleans, elsewhere in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Monday, after the storm passed out of the area. FACT: The full extent of the devastation to the Gulf Coast region, and the levee breaches in New Orleans, were not known until Tuesday. FACT: A convoy of about 500 buses reached the Superdome late Wednesday. FACT: The first of 500 busloads...