Um....now I am confused:Bush takes blame for flaws in Katrina response

[bingolong]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9324891/ - Bush takes blame for flaws in Katrina response'

[tamra]

bingolong,
yeah I had to wonder about that myself. it almost sounded like a coverup so others wouldn't be blamed - this is his last year, yanno. he needs to keep other people in office after he's gone prolly. because Bush appointed people to make decisions. those people screwed up. however, Bush also advised mandatory evacuations a day before Katrina hit.

me personally, I blame local government for not having a plan or following state evacuation plans. but the interesting part is in New Orleans, the storm didn't do much damage, the levees broke. and the cause of the levees breaking may not be directly storm related, but failure to provide funding for maintenance years before. and there was a loose barge which hit the east side levee before it broke. storm or not that would have caused a break.

but in Mississippi, Katrina did some serious damage and those folks had to wait days for help too.

[KMommy]

tamra,

I agree with your opinion on why Bush is taking blame. Having someone with no prior experience such as "Brownie" didn't help. I believe it was Gov. Blanco that stated her feelings are blame can be placed on all levels, local and federal. The actual plan for evacuating people such as those with no means of transportation, elderly, special needs...really needs to be changed. I don't know if it is possible but in my opinion the elderly and ill need to be in a seperate facilities when evacuated. Utilizing the school buses to help evacuate, the response time for supplies...Oh there is so much. I believe it was Dateline that did a special Katrina What Went Wrong. I recorded it and I thought it was very imformative and covered all areas. Funding not given to improve the levees, the amount requested to actually improve it to modern standards was alot less than it is going to cost to rebuild New Orleans. I want to see New Orleans restored but I am wondering if they don't start with improving the levees will the same problem happen again with another hurricane. The coast is eroding and that protection is no longer there. New Orleans is already 8-12 feet below sea level.

[tamra]

KMommy,
well, the one excuse that was so lame was not using the buses to evacuate people ahead of time because there were no drivers. so hundreds of buses were flooded out. there were over 20,000 people in the Superdome. ever heard of the word "volunteer" to get drivers?! I'm sure it wouldn't have been that hard if this was stated: you wanna stay here and die or drive someplace else and live.

if no food or services were going to be provided w/in the superdome, there should have been a plan B for a cat. 5 storm. the local officials honestly thought the storm would blow over in a few hours. it did, but the levees broke.

but there was a young kid, 15 years old, who stole a school bus and managed to get strangers to safety at the astrodome.

[bingolong]

astonamous,
Yeah and then one of the people on ABC was like we could have gotten out on those buses!! But then they go on to say the hurricane didn't do the damge as much as the breaking of the levees and then alot of people weren't trying to leave anyway!!

It makes me wonder have the people been brainwashed down there into b elieving the presidebnt is going to come thru for them b/c of lack of understanding or the need to have faith is something?

[KMommy]

Bingolong,
As large as New Orleans is I am amazed that there are only 324 school busses? Hell even if only a few were working they could have been put to better use. I think the whole plan was piss poor and it's not like the higher ups haven't been aware of the leeve problems and what would happen even if a catagory 3 hurricane hit. I saw those people on ABC commenting after Bush speach. That one lady who blamed the mayor for funding being taken away from improving the leeves is blaming the wrong guy. I think they all just needed to hear that everything was going to be taken care of and that they would get their lives back. I hope for their sake it isn't alot of empty promises.

Did anyone see the ABC program following the speach about future disasters? That scared the crap out of me!

[tamra]

astonamous,

that's what a lot of people did do: brought party stuff (snacks, water and drinks, weed, and music - you know how we new orleans folks do, shoot, we have bars inside of movie theaters ). in theory the superdome as a safe place for a few hours or a day, was a good idea. but then the levees broke.

but damn something should have immediately been done for the elderly, sick and disabled.

[bingolong]

KMommy,
Glad you could understand my post it was writen in haste......anyway I caught only glances of that on ABC...after sitting thru that whole speech and the post interviews I was thru....

[JTF]

bingolong,

I thought about this... It is strange all around. Bush steps up to the plate? And takes responsibility? He even dumped an appointee over it??? That is so unlike Bush.

Well, when you think about it, he has a current approval rating slightly above Hitler and below Lizzy Borden. He is also taking responsibility for something that nobody can realistically blame him for. A hurricane hit. Yup. I'll take the blame on this one! But will he take the blame for a single death in an unnecessary war?

[KMommy]

I thought the info. on the following site was pretty interesting The Responsible Irresponsible President - One Thousand Reasons http://www.thousandreasons.org/
I couldn't copy and paste it here for some reason.

Anyone see Ted Turner on Letterman? I thought he had some pretty interesting ideas. I'd rather listen to Ted than Bush.


[/i]I finally got it to copy but there is more info. on the site.[/i]

The Responsible Irresponsible President by One Thousand Reasons

He wants to have it both ways, accepting responsibility when it serves his political interests, and behaving irresponsibly when it, serves his political interests. This is about the hurricane, of course, and George Bush’s belated admission that the federal government might have done something a little bit wrong in its woefully inadequate response to hurricane Katrina, the storm that has so far led to the tabulation of 800 bodies. And it is also about the cleanup and reconstruction, which Bush promised to buy with federal dollars, but without raising taxes.

Being responsible and irresponsible at the same time is a neat trick even for a politician. For five years we’ve watched his irresponsible side, first with gigantic tax cuts for the wealthy, then with his inattention as the terrorists were planning 9/11, then with more tax cuts for the wealthy, then with the squandering of lives and treasure to invade Iraq, a country that was under the thumb of US and UN forces and was therefore a threat to no one. In a more general sense we have watched helplessly as Bush gutted environmental protections, chipped away at labor unions and other working-class Americans. We watched as he imposed unrealistic -- and, yes, irresponsible -- requirements on public education, as he reduced federal participation in financial aid for higher education, and as he pushed more and more of the social responsibility of government down to the state and local levels, governments that were forced to cut service after service as their funds were cut and their responsibilities increased.

America has never had to endure such an irresponsible president. I dare anyone to list his accomplishments. I dare anyone to claim that America has been strengthened in any way by his bungling, ineffective, and irresponsible leadership. If that’s what you call it. He reads speeches, most of them eloquent enough to hide their true intent, which is to turn back the clock on America to the age of pollution and corporate rule, to the age of iron and fire when only the strongest survive and the weak are left to drown in their own shit.

But George Bush has accepted responsibility “as far as the federal government failed in its duty.” Political expediency required it, of course -- his poll numbers are in the cellar, as are Republicans’ in general -- and so to believe that his admission of guilt is anything more than cynicism is the height of gullibility. He is not contrite. He is not sorry. Let the 800 dead float about for five days in an incomprehensibly vile soup of oil and sewage and sludge. Let ten thousand bureaucrats stand helplessly by as the country’s worst disaster ever unfolds before their eyes on CNN. And George Bush is responsible. It is his mess, his complete and utter inability to do anything but read teleprompters that led directly to this. If you want leadership, find a leader. If you want responsibility, find a responsible man or woman and put them in charge. But don’t expect the most irresponsible president in history to carry us anywhere but to the same sorry fate of those 800 in New Orleans. Surely we will all be floating face down, if not in water, then in debt, if not in debt, then in the toxic chemicals his friends spew forth from their industries. We will all drown in the world’s ridicule and derision. We will all, ultimately, come to regret him.

astonamous,

[/i]I can't imagine what it would be like here in Salt Lake City. We have a hard time getting out of town on a long weekend.[/i]