Comments on: Disastrous disaster response from local and state La. officials

By: Edwin

Edwin — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 06:58:19 +0000

Mayors are not disaster experts. Nor is their sole purpose to stand ready to bring the resources of a nation to bear on a catastrophe. Yes, in the tactical nightmare of getting more than one million out of the region, not every resource was used. More than 90% did make it out of harms way in a very short time.

The governor carried out most of the duties of that office under these circumstances in accordance with the regional evacuation plan. The Republican turned Democrat opportunist mayor failed to use the buses to move more people out. I can see how he should be made accountable for that.

Whatever happens to the mayor, how much worse should it be for those who failed to act without the challenges of being the mayor of the city undergoing the worst catastrophe in our history? Especially when this is all that FEMA is for: they are supposed to be the cavalry. How much worse is it to have invested so much in the centralization of authority under Homeland Security only for it to have failed its first test so spectacularly?

This is a wake up call for Republicans. Rather than waste time with how much blame can be assigned to the mayor, Republicans should be focused on what this situation has to say about who is in control of their party. The failures in this case expose a real need in the party for better leadership. Those who fail to recognize this will be shocked to find the party removed from power by a majority of Americans who recognize that the failure to respond in New Orleans exposes a grave threat to the security of our nation.

By: J Rob

J Rob — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 12:10:14 +0000

When you look at the source for that timeline it becomes even more dubious. Given Air ScAmerica’s total lack of credibility I’m surprised anybody would cite them for a source for anything.

By: Baklava

Baklava — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 17:09:17 +0000

Webmistress wrote, “In answer to Baklava, yes, I do hate Bush. In fact the words to describe the depths of my loathing for him escape me right now.”

It’s obvious.

Webmistress wrote, “that has been answered in the post above somewhat by GBA. He gave a speech in Arizona on Medicare. I believe he attended a fund raiser in California.”

A 12 hour speech and fund raiser? You must be certain through that cloud of hate that he wasn’t on the phone at any time during the day with people coordinating relief efforts and/or being briefed by people on his options or even having any discussions with anyone on what to do. In fact, you sound so certain, that you have me convinced and gosh darn it, I now that think that Bush did NOTHING and I hate Bush to. Wow you are so convincing. /end sarcasm.

Thank you JRob for making the obvious to everyone else except someone with seething hatred that there was a lot of time (more than 80%) unaccounted for.

If there are 100’s of people reading this blog, and if 10% were NEW to politics, I’d say that entire 10% was convinced they should not be swayed by webmistress whatsoever.

By: J Rob

J Rob — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 06:05:43 +0000

That timeline leaves an awful lot of time unaccounted for. Do you seriously believe that nothing was done aside from wnat is known publicly. No president has ever let everything done be seen which is to be expected so why should this one be any different.
For the record I find the response by the administration no less appalling than the mishandling of the evacuation on the state and local levels. Nagin and Blanco can whine all they want, but Nagin had hundreds of school buses and public transportaion vehicles available but left them parked. How many people could have been evacuated by those buses which are now water logged and will have to be replaced due to Nagin’s incompetence? He had plenty of warning as well.
To hear many on the left, one would think Bush steered the storm straight at New Orleans.
Likewise, for any federal to say with a straight face they thought the leveys would all hold is equally arant nonsense. That said, it is still the height of political blindness to put up a rather skeletal timeline and attempt to pass it off as the sum total of what has been done. When Katrina was in the Gulf gaining strength, what was the itenerary of Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco? From the looks of things, part of Mayor Nagin’s itenerary was making sure all the school buses were parked in neat rows rather than using them for evacuation.

By: webmistress

webmistress — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 19:16:58 +0000

Baklava,

I found a timeline for you:

Monday

President Bush hits the road to promote prescription-drug plan to. His first stop is Arizona, where he eats birthday cake with Senator John McCain and talks to senior citizens in Phoenix at a golf resort.

President Bush travels to Southern California to talk to more seniors about changes to Medicare. He spends the evening in San Diego.

Tuesday

With a San Diego naval base and the USS Ronald Regan as a backdrop , the president made a speech to celebrate the anniversary of V-J day two weeks after the actual Aug. 14, 1945 anniversary. He spends 90 seconds of a 40 minute speech on Hurricane Katrina.

Afterwards, President Bush plays a guitar presented to him by Country Singer Mark Wills, backstage following his visit to Naval Base Coronado. He then flies back to his vacation home in Crawford.

Wednesday

President George W. Bush and his top advisers held a video conference on the Gulf Coast disaster. Most of the staff was still on vacation and away from Washington. Afterwards he flew back to Washington to coordinate the federal response

Bush cut short his working vacation in Texas by two days.

As Bush returns to Washington he does a flyover of devastated areas on Air Force One.

The President makes a recess appointment.

Thursday

In the face of report after report that the levees were known to be vulnerable â€“ Bush does an interview on Good Morning America and tells Diane Sawyer that no one expected the levees to break.

This was edited from a timeline compiled by Sam Ceder (sp?) of the Majority Report.

By: webmistress

webmistress — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 18:21:52 +0000

In answer to Baklava, yes, I do hate Bush. In fact the words to describe the depths of my loathing for him escape me right now. We are making arrangements to take a family in. How about you? And we’ll take them in even if they love Bush and voted for him

As for what he was doing, that has been answered in the post above somewhat by GBA. He gave a speech in Arizona on Medicare. I believe he attended a fund raiser in California. He came back to Crawford and spent the night before going to DC.

By: Baklava

Baklava — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 17:08:04 +0000

Webmistress wrote, “But, he was also not attending to the matters at hand.”

Can you stand to be corrected atain? Do you actually think you know what he was doing at any time of the day Tuesday or Wednesday?

Would like to hear your (made up) interpretation of what the President was doing or for that matter any federal official or state official.

By: Baklava

Baklava — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 17:04:20 +0000

Webmistress,

Yeah. Millions. Millions of armchair first responders….

Way to go. You are convinving people that…. you hate the Bush administration. Doesn’t say much for how much you care. Says the opposite.

By: webmistress

webmistress — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 00:07:05 +0000

I stand corrected. He was not playing golf. But, he was also not attending to the matters at hand. And how about the tsunami of compassion that will be flowing to the gulf coast? If this week is an example of what compassion is all about, I’ll pass.

By: GBA

GBA — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 22:20:43 +0000

Bush in Texas playing golf before Katrina. As far as I can tell this was his latest round and he sucked. LINK No golf in California. The Prsident adressed seniors at several country clubs and community center but no time for golf in California. On His visit to Idaho...He went on a nice boat ride and did about 32 miles of mountain biking. But sorry no golf.LINK Bush in AZ....Did not playLINK But behold.......Cindy Sheehan says he played in the Huffington blog. Ms. Rice and other were MIA..this is true. Stupid remarks about Trent Lotts house also true. Bush golfing...not true.LINK

By: oregano

oregano — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 21:12:39 +0000

Interesting report, ST. I had not heard any of this in the news. I wonder why that… nevermind.

By: webmistress

webmistress — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 20:22:10 +0000

I would like to add that the President’s remarks about rebuilding Trent Lott’s house were reprehensible.

By: webmistress

webmistress — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 19:04:16 +0000

Yes, the local officials made some serious errors in judgment, however, these errors do not obsolve the perception of callous disregard for the lives of the people effected by the storm by the President and his administration. He went golfing and to parties after the levees were breached in New Orleans. FEMA officials turned truckloads of water away from Jefferson Parish. Condi Rice went shoe shopping in NYC. Chertoff continues to claim that no one new the levees were at risk.

If a terrorist bomb had breached the levees rather than flood waters, the result would have been the same. Thousands are dead. Millions are homeless and many are questioning Homeland Security’s efficacy.