You can THINK that all you want but that doesn’t make it so. You apparently haven’t been paying attention to the number of articles I have posted here over the course of the last few weeks concerning the Katrina response. They are chock full of sources for you to take a look at, most of which are not op/ed pieces. Please do not come to my blog and assume because of the information you have cherry picked that you know more than the rest of us here about who did what in the aftermath of Katrina. You called Bak “arrogant” for assuming he knew more than a Senator, well that’s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black because you’re assuming you know more than the rest of us here when in actuality you’re cherry picking information to back up your points and making assumptions that I’ve gotten all my information from partisan sources. Think again. Here’s a list of my posts on this issue and I’d also advise you to visit this blog which has been the go to source as far as newslinks on the Katrina response. The federal response to this disaster was much better than initially reported and there are loads of sources out there that prove the bulk of the blame for the slow response goes to local and state officials. That’s something you really CAN’T cherry pick, Brian. I’m not going to continue to sit here and go round and round with you in a source war when there is plenty of information available for your perusal that contradicts your belief that this was a total cluster by the feds. I’ve got sources posted in my links and so does PW and many other places. I advise you to do a bit more digging for sources that give you the FULL picture, not just a partial picture.

I have lost my patience trying to over and over again explain the failure of the local and state officials. You guys are convinced this was W’s screw up and continue to give no to very little blame to those it actually belongs to. Everytime evidence comes out to contradict that belief, you guys raise the bar. I’m not playing that game. Been there, done that. No amount of convincing on my part is going to get you to change your mind and you have not changed mine. Time to move on.

The Red Cross was not allowed to enter New Orleans because it was not safe. I have already stated this before.

I find it very arrogant of you to think you have better access to information about the federal response to the hurricane than the Republican Senator of Louisiana. I don’t have any doubts that Senator Vitter” is much more informed about what was going on than you are. It’s very clear that the President and the federal government did a poor job in responding to the hurricane. Maybe if President Bush tried watching the news he would have known how serious the matter was to begin with.

LINK

Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.

You said:

“Perhaps you should ask him. I’ve been convinced that the federal response has been much better than the media initially reported. The administration responded to political pressure with removing Brown from his Katrina duties.”

According to the following article, Michael Brown was removed from his position based on a progress report from the Vice President that was critical of Michael Brown’s management, after a fact-finding trip to Mississippi and Louisiana.

LINK

I don’t see President Bush as one who gives in to political pressure.

I think you’re convinced that the federal response has been much better than the media initially reported because you get much of your information from very biased sources that aren’t always accurate, such as the article above. As I mentioned before, the article greatly exaggerated the number of buses available in New Orleans. The article says:

“You cannot speed recovery and relief efforts up by prepositioning assets (in the affected areas) since the assets are endangered by the very storm which destroyed the region.”

The U.S. Navy ship USS Bataan was positioned off the coast of Louisiana but was not effectively utilized by FEMA.

LINK

According to the article, the levee broke on Tuesday. The levee actually broke on Monday.

LINK

I think that many of the sources of your information are more intent on defending the Bush Administration than providing accurate information.

Due to the mass media inability to report, do you think that it is quite possible that David Vitter is not aware of the attempts for the feds to provide relief only to be denied by the Louisiana DHS or denied by the law?

Star Parker wrote about the buses. She also writes, “The first line of authority in emergency management, all agree, is local. It appears that Ray Nagin, New Orleans black mayor, was grossly negligent.“

Faster than previous hurricanes (of less severity even) – (yet you word it “such a good job”)

And blamed for things that the federal government couldn’t/shouldn’t be blamed for so people are defending the federal government from the Brian types yet Brian word it “such a good job”.

Does it have to be extreme with you Brian?

Does it either have to be “such a good job” or a Failed Grade?

The federal government was mobilized, lots of people provided hard work. Sweat was pouring off of many people’s brow. Effort was hampered here and there and communications wasn’t perfect.

Complaining about it here and putting people in the position of responding to your complaints (setting the record straight) doesn’t make it “such a good job”.

This was a huge disaster and hundreds of organizations provided relief and did their job to almost 90% of their capability or more. Given the communication difficulty and the problem of having to invoke the Insurrection Act and the Red Cross (managed by FEMA) being denied the ability to give food and water to the Convention Center and Superdome (which you keep missing Brian) by Louisiana DHS, I’d say 90% of liberals complaints (and yours) are simply childish.

LINK

According to the below document, the New Orleans the school district owned 324 school
buses:

LINK

This comes out to alot less than 2,000.

If the feds did such a good job responding to the crisis, why was Michael Brown removed from heading the hurricane relief effort and later resigned? Why have Republicans been so critical of the federal response to the hurricane? Sen. David Vitter, who is a Republican and a strong supporter of Bush blasted the federal government’s hurricane relief efforts as “ineffective” and said people are dying and suffering because of the incompetence.

LINK

And yes, I do believe Bak was being sarcastic.

Jeez, I hope your comment is a joke Baklava . That is a horribly invalid argument saying “I saw those people on TV suffering and dying for 3 days”, and concluding that this somehow gives you the ability to “…know what Bush thinks…”

If it was a joke, I apologize for not getting it .

ps. Nice ‘preview’ Ms. Toldjah! Much better than a button.

/end leftism (knowing what someone else thinks)