Here are excerpts from the newsweek article about Bush's pathetic efforts concerning hurricane Katrina (or as the bride of Satan says, "hurricane Corrina"😉. This is what we know about what happened:
The newsweek article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/
(from Newsweek and AMERICAblog)
Newsweek has just published a horrifying story entitled "How Bush Blew It." This is must-read for everyone, and this story must be shared widely. Bush should resign, now. He is the worst president in modern history. This is criminal what he did.
What we learn in the Newsweek story.
1. Bush's aides are SO afraid of telling him bad news that they practically drew straws to see who would have to tell him, on TUESDAY, that the hurricane was so bad he'd need to come home.
2. Even on Thursday AFTER the storm, Bush didn't realize how bad the storm was:
President Bush knew the storm and its consequences had been bad; but he didn't quite realize how bad.
The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. 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.
So Bush didn't realize how bad the storm damage was until Thursday night, almost the fifth day AFTER the storm hit. Good God. He was going to watch the weekly news Friday for the FIRST TIME to get a sense of how bad things were.
3. No one wanted to tell Bush the truth
When Hurricane Katrina struck, it appears there was no one to tell President Bush the plain truth: that the state and local governments had been overwhelmed, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was not up to the job and that the military, the only institution with the resources to cope, couldn't act without a declaration from the president overriding all other authority.
4. Rumsfeld opposed sending in troops as cops.
5. "Bush created a disaster within a disaster."
A NEWSWEEK reconstruction of the government's response to the storm shows how Bush's leadership style and the bureaucratic culture combined to produce a disaster within a disaster.
6. Washington just wouldn't listen
A man in a blue FEMA windbreaker arrived to brief them on his helicopter flyover of the city. He seemed unfamiliar with the city's geography, but he did have a sense of urgency. "Water as far as the eye can see," he said. It was worse than Hurricanes Andrew in 1992 and Camille in 1969. "I need to call Washington," he said.... The FEMA man found a phone, but he had trouble reaching senior officials in Washington. When he finally got someone on the line, the city officials kept hearing him say, "You don't understand, you don't understand."
7. 8pm on Monday, the day of the storm, the governor asked Bush for everything he's got.
Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a motherly but steely figure known by the nickname Queen Bee, knew that she needed help. But she wasn't quite sure what. At about 8 p.m., she spoke to Bush. "Mr. President," she said, "we need your help. We need everything you've got."
8. Instead of helping New Orleans Monday night, Bush went to bed.
here are a number of steps Bush could have taken, short of a full-scale federal takeover, like ordering the military to take over the pitiful and (by now) largely broken emergency communications system throughout the region. But the president, who was in San Diego preparing to give a speech the next day on the war in Iraq, went to bed.
9. Wednesday morning, while Bush was STILL on vacation, he wouldn't take the governor's call for help
Early Wednesday morning, Blanco tried to call Bush. She was transferred around the White House for a while until she ended up on the phone with Fran Townsend, the president's Homeland Security adviser, who tried to reassure her but did not have many specifics.
10. FEMA improved under Clinton, then was hurt under Bush
Once a kind of petty-cash drawer for congressmen to quickly hand out aid after floods and storms, FEMA had improved in the 1990s in the Clinton administration. But it became a victim of the Iron Law of Unintended Consequences. After 9/11 raised the profile of disaster response, FEMA was folded into the sprawling Department of Homeland Security and effectively weakened. FEMA's boss, Bush's close friend Joe Allbaugh, quit when he lost his cabinet seat.
11. Bush wanted to hear good news, so that's all they gave him until Friday.
Bad news rarely flows up in bureaucracies. For most of those first few days, Bush was hearing what a good job the Feds were doing. Bush likes "metrics," numbers to measure performance, so the bureaucrats gave him reassuring statistics. At a press availability on Wednesday, Bush duly rattled them off: there were 400 trucks transporting 5.4 million meals and 13.4 million liters of water along with 3.4 million pounds of ice. Yet it was obvious to anyone watching TV that New Orleans had turned into a Third World hellhole.
The denial and the frustration finally collided aboard Air Force One on Friday.
12. It took local officials ripping Bush a new one on Friday for him to finally wake up - a full 5 days after the disaster.
The denial and the frustration finally collided aboard Air Force One on Friday. As the president's plane sat on the tarmac at New Orleans airport, a confrontation occurred that was described by one participant as "as blunt as you can get without the Secret Service getting involved." Governor Blanco was there, along with various congressmen and senators and Mayor Nagin
cornponious
THE RACE ROW
We must come to terms with the ugly truth that skin colour, age and economics played a deadly role on who survived and who did not.
--Howard Dean
Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race
--Condolezza Rice
You'd have to go back to slavery, or the burning of black towns, to find a comparable event that has affected black people this way
--Darnell M Hunt , head od African -Americanstudies at UCLA
You see a black family, it [the press] says 'They're looting' . You see a white family it says 'They're looking for food' . George Bush doesnt care about black people.
-- rap singer Kanye West
It wasnt a racial thing - but poverty disproportionatly effects African-Americans in this country. And it happens cause they were poor.
--Colin Powell
Today I saw 5,000 African-Americans desperate, perishing, dehydrated, babies dying. It looked like Africans in the hull of a slave ship. It was ugly.
-- the Rev Jesse Jackson
Okay, here in North Carolina we've got Hurricane Ophelia sitting offshore. It's a Category 1 at the moment, and it may just do a brush by. They are issuing evacuation orders for the barrier islands and the governor has already declared a state of emergency and activated many national guardsmen. While Ophelia is by no means a Katrina, it's good to see action being taken in advance by the state.
That is good botankus... be safe--even a category 1 can be dangerous.
Regarding Hurricane Katrina, people looking to reconnect with their family members should really check out www.missingkids.com or call the Katrina Missing Persons Hotline at 1-888-544-5475. It's the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's web site, but they are putting information about EVERYONE seperated from family and friends due to hurricane Katrina. Hopefully it will bring some families back together.
i know Katrina killed 12 in Florida when it was a cat 1. See if people don't evacuate a hurricane has the chance to kill you. I was almost killed by hurricane Jeanne last year when metal rods went flying from a construction area near by!!! It was Cat 3 and god it was hell. I could not imagine Hurricane Katrina would be. Also i was 30 miles south of the eye and on the so called "easy side of the storm". Easy my foot.
And now, Queen Oprah has spoken!
http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/article/2444841
Yes, your highness and greatness! I'm very VERY sorry. I'm sooo sorry oh great Queen!
Originally posted by WindDancer
And now, Queen Oprah has spoken!http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/article/2444841
Yes, your highness and greatness! I'm very VERY sorry. I'm sooo sorry oh great Queen!
Perhaps if you got off your high horse and actually took a stroll through the superdome, as she did, you might feel the same way.
I for one agree with her, but an apology won't make anything better.
cornponious
Originally posted by WindDancer
And now, Queen Oprah has spoken!http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/article/2444841
Yes, your highness and greatness! I'm very VERY sorry. I'm sooo sorry oh great Queen!
Originally posted by cornponious
Perhaps if you got off your high horse and actually took a stroll through the superdome, as she did, you might feel the same way.I for one agree with her, but an apology won't make anything better.
cornponious
Good for you to agree with Oprah. I don't agree with her and I don't have to apologize to her or anyone else for the disaster. Americans responded with help to the victims and they are still helping. I don't have to stroll anywhere, the pictures speak for themselves. Now, here are the reins of the horsey if you want to ride it yourself.
Originally posted by FeceMan
The question is, why do these celebrities even think their opinions count? Because they are rich and well-known?
Oh they can give their opinion as much as they want. We just don't have to accept them or even respect their mumble jumbo. Just like I don't expect someone to give to cents for my little comments or opinions.
Originally posted by GCG
[B]THE RACE ROW
also, Sean PEnn has denied that it is a personal photographer. He says that he just attracted the cameras.
Penn's CNN appearance was his first since Australia's Herald Sun ridiculed the actor's rescue work, claiming it "foundered badly" due to a leaky boat "loaded with members of [the star's] entourage, including a personal photographer."Brinkley, a professor at New Orleans' own Tulane University who accompanied Penn on his voyage through the under-water city, was among the first to denounce the report. "There was never a leak," he said in the Daily News. On Larry King Live, Penn concurred: "The boat never sank."
According to Brinkley, the boat did take on water--because it was "overloaded" with storm survivors. According to Penn, his "entourage" consisted of "a couple of friends." (The actor's camp denied the existence of the "personal photographer."😉
from yahoo news
just to give both sides a voice in the issue
living in hurricane sensitive areas
Originally posted by Fishy
Yeah and thats why you shouldn't live below sea level in Hurricane sensitive places.
i am about to become one of the most unpopular people on the web by saying this, but i feel it must be said: fishy is right. people who live in these area should not be given a great deal of sympathy....yes, it IS a tragedy, BUT when you KNOW that there is practically an inevitability about being wiped out on a periodic basis....sorry, my sympathy only can stretch so far.
the federal government could save billions in aid if it were to do this one simple thing: in the event of a disaster, go in and give aid and comfort to those who have lost everything, and that's what they should do.
once.
they give aid, BUT get names and social security numbers, and when another disaster occurs and those same people are living in the same disaster prone area, other than immediate humanitarian aid....they get nothing. the initial aid should cover moving expenses to anywhere they want to live, but if they rebuild in the same flood plain, tornado area, hurricane zone, etc...that's it: no substantial aid should be given. the insurance companies should do the same.
if you listen to some of the news interviews, some of these folks have been through this 3 or 4 times or more and they still live there !!! it's like some weird macho badge that 'so-and-so' has been wiped out 3 times or something. HOW OFTEN CAN YOU LOSE EVERYTHING YOU OWN AND STILL CONSIDER SOMEPLACE "A NICE PLACE TO LIVE" ?
the government passes laws regarding seat belts, 2nd hand smoke, drunk driving, even car seats and bicycle helmets (and don't get me wrong, those for the most part are good things.) , but time and again they continue to subsidize the stupidity of living in known disaster prone areas. peoples insurance rates go up partly because somebody can't take two minutes of coherent thought to say to themselves, "Hmmm... i'm living between two dikes and am below sea level near a coastline in a known hurricane area..... this is not a good idea."
in part i also blame the government for not passing laws to prevent people from living in those areas. it would be a huge boost to the ecology and save a great deal of money if people weren't allowed to live, say, 5 miles from a coastline. it wouldn't save everyone but it would go a LONG way toward mitigating damage.
but to call this a tragedy when in fact these things are relatively predictable and people don't have the sense to heed a simple evacuation order.....sorry, it's not that big a tragedy when you won't get out of the way of a routinely scheduled speeding train, and don't ask me for further aid when my tax dollars are bailing you out (probably again).
a true tragedy would be if the people in Las Vegas, or say, Detroit were nailed by a hurricane...that would NOT be predictable, that WOULD be deserving of the outpouring of sympathy and extra tax dollars. and i won't even get into the people who plunk a million dollar home in the middle of a pine forest and then whine about wildfires! talk about chutzpah!
anyway....thanks for letting me get this off my chest, and let the inevitable flames begin !!!
I guess this is the official Hurricane thread. Ophelia is lurking a few hundred miles from where I am sitting right now. It is a Tropical Storm with 70 MPH winds max. It could strengthen over the warm gulfstream waters (what the NOAA advisory is) and possibly get back up to Hurricane Status before making landfall tomorrow. We'll probably get about 50-60 mph gusts tomorrow and it should (WILL) be a relatively dreary day nonetheless.
"You see a black family, it [the press] says 'They're looting' . You see a white family it says 'They're looking for food' . George Bush doesnt care about black people."
-- rap singer Kanye West
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he's right, you know. the media likes to play on our racism and prejudice, because it enflames passion on both sides and thus boosts ratings....sad
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"It wasnt a racial thing - but poverty disproportionatly effects African-Americans in this country. And it happens cause they were poor."
--Colin Powell
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he's right as well. its not about race when it comes to the federal handling of the disaster, its about class. many people died because they were poor and were thus of the lowest priority. as it always was and as it always will be 🙁
Originally posted by ElectricBugaloo
also, Sean PEnn has denied that it is a personal photographer. He says that he just attracted the cameras.
Yeah 😆
With the boat loaded with members of Penn's entourage, including a personal photographer, one bystander taunted the actor: "How are you going to get any people in that thing?"
😂 😆
Re: living in hurricane sensitive areas
Originally posted by Juliet Echo
i am about to become one of the most unpopular people on the web by saying this, but i feel it must be said: fishy is right. people who live in these area should not be given a great deal of sympathy....yes, it IS a tragedy, BUT when you KNOW that there is practically an inevitability about being wiped out on a periodic basis....sorry, my sympathy only can stretch so far.
so where exactly should we live?
Northwest - tons of rain & mt st helens
west - earthquakes & drought
midwest - tornadoes
north - blizzards
southeast - hurricanes & flooding
southernmost - hurricanes
😖
Originally posted by D-Double
yes, they are doing a great job.... NOW.
I retract my previous statement. The government is still not doing their job. Please donate anything you can to help the people of New Orleans because we obviously can't leave it in the hands of butterfingers.
... Go f*ck yourself, Cheney!