“An unmitigated, total fucking disaster.” That’s not a quote from Mike Brown, but rather, a quote describing him. And most disturbingly, it’s not even a reference to his dismal performance as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This blunt critique was emailed to me from a regular reader who was apparently attracted to HorsesAss.org by her passion for politics and her love of Arabian horses.
I think I’ve told you that I’m into Arab horses. Well, for 3 years Michael Brown was hired and then fired by our IAHA, the International Arabian Horse Assoc. He was an unmitigated, total fucking disaster. I was shocked as hell when captain clueless put him in charge of FEMA a couple of years ago. He or the WH lied on the WH presser announcing him to FEMA. IAHA was never connected to the Olympic Comm, only the half Arab registry then and the governing body to the state and local Arabian horse clubs. He ruined IAHA financially so badly that we had to change the name and combine it with the Purebred registry.
I am telling you this after watching the fucking shipwreck in the Gulf. His incompetence is KILLING people.
Yes, that’s right… the man responsible for directing federal relief operations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, sharpened his emergency management skills as the “Judges and Stewards Commissioner” for the International Arabian Horses Association… a position from which he was forced to resign in the face of mounting litigation and financial disarray.
And what of that misleading White House press release?
From 1991 to 2001, Brown was the Commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association, an international subsidiary of the national governing organization of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
I can’t even begin to fact check the dates or IAHA’s alleged relationship to the US Olympic Committee, because of course, the IAHA doesn’t exist anymore, so there’s nothing to Google. But it begs the question… how the hell did his prior job experience prepare Brown to head FEMA?
Well, judging by his agency’s performance over the past few days… it didn’t.
[Cross-posted at Daily Kos]
UPDATE:
Kos himself just picked up the story, and it’s sitting on his home page for his half million plus readers to see. This is a great example of how a comment or email from a single reader on a local blog can work its way up the blogosphere and eventually move headlines. Power to the people!
“I can’t even begin to fact check the dates or IAHA’s [International Arabian Horse Assoc.] alleged relationship to the US Olympic Committee, because of course, the IAHA doesn’t exist anymore, so there’s nothing to Google. But it begs the question… how the hell did his prior job experience prepare Brown to head FEMA?”
Maybe he knows which end is the Horse’s Ass?
Maybe this experience taught him which end is the Horse’s Ass?
Finally, me and Goldy agree on something. The only problem is Goldy thinks this problem just came about, it has existed for years! FEMA was a major obstacle during the Nisqually flood some years ago. Fema was nothing but a pain in the ass during last years hurricane in Ft Walton Beach, Florida, as well as this years. FEMA is simply another example of a bloated agency that has actually become more of an obstacle than an assistance. While we are on the subject, there is lots of talk of rebuilding New Orleans…at 10 feet below sea level I think it might be wise to move New Orleans to better digs right now so we may be less apt to pay for this type thing and see such devistation again…
FEMA a bloated agency?? Hardly. They have been cut to pieces and Brown is just a buddy of the last FEMA director, Albaugh who split for bigger spoils in Iraq. This is another example of Bush’s incopetance in hiring someone who knows nothing about emergency management. Instead he hired a “yes man” like many others who would not stand up for an agency he believed (or even had a sense of ownership) in. As far as moving New Orleans? Well, perhaps we should move Seattle a little further away from that big fucking volcano. I know a bit about geology and when that sucker blows I hope we don’t have to rely on the likes of Brown or Bush.
scary huh?
This is nothing new. I lived in the Santa Cruz mountains when the Lom Prieta quake struck in ’89. FEMA is just a huge bloated government bureaucracy wtih layers and layers of people dying to be important for a moment but unwilling to chance actually taking responsibility.
Watching LA Gov. Blanco crying on TV last night was a pretty good illustration of the leadership in Louisiana that has contributed to this condition.
Doesn’t Lousiana regularly get hurricanes? Don’t they have any people working on this?
Come on, be honest, criticize the locals too, unless of course this is just a tool to win back the presidency
And watching that empy suit of a governor, Blanco. All she does is stand around looking teary eyed. Come on lady, do something.
re 3: (What he said! Me too!) FEMA is hardly a “bloated” Federal agency as it has largely been defunded in favor of the fiasco/agency that is supposed to be protecting us from terrorists but is actally a Federal giveaway to Cheney/Bush glad-handing carpetbaggers.
re 7: Maybe she could call out the National Guard? ( I’m not being sarcastic, just bitterly sardonic.)
I’ll bet the state and city employ more people than the feds do…how about mobilizing all of them?
And when she had 3 days warning, did she pre position fresh water, food?
You bring up another important point about this disaster, Goldy, which is now we see in gory technicolor the effects of, not just AWOL’s lack of leadership, but of four years of appointing incompetent cronies and industry hacks to all levels of government. Lest we forget, AWOL and the Cheney administration’s goal from the very beginning was to dismantle the federal government to the point where it is simply a funnel of taxpayer money to defense contractors and coal/oil companies, and they’ve been replacing key people (and forcing qualified and competent people out) to that end for years. Now we see what that results in.
Apperantly the levy funding issue that has been raised is off your radar.
I agree 30 plus years of democratic leadership in Lousiana, leads to abject failure.
Oops… distracted… target @ 6
Fun new fact — yesterday on CNN Brown claims that FEMA wasn’t helping the thousands of refugees in the Superdome because “the federal government did not even know about the Convention Center people until today”.
I guess government employees don’t even have basic cable at home.
Harry Connick just on Today;
Man is he good; fire the reporters, just use him. He was pro-people, wondering why he could drive the Superdome, while no water trucks can. Said he’d run for mayor or governor, saying no offense to those in office, but noting this is crazy (he did dump on the mayor a bit).
But other than the mayor dumping on, he mostly made me say “to you and me”, lets focus on the insanity of no food, water…not the politics
Why, wrongon…because the “politics” suck for your guys?
This sums it up for me…courtesy of a diary at Daily Kos:
**************************
Olbermann, Limbaugh, Sharpton and the GOP Mindset
by mcolley [Subscribe]
Thu Sep 1st, 2005 at 18:31:31 PDT
Keith Olbermann just had an extraordinary exchange between himself and Al Sharpton.
The subject was the conditions in New Orleans, looting, and the question of where support is.
Olbermann remarked that he had heard Rush Limbaugh earlier today saying that those that were still in New Orleans deserved what they had gotten, as they had chosen to live there. Olbermann went so far as to call him, “that Limbaugh”. Denouncing the inherent inconsiderate nature of such a statement.
But Sharpton made the point that struck me…
The Right, as embodied by Limbaugh, Frist, Bush, Hastert, DeLay. They would move heaven and earth to save the life of one White Woman in Florida to combat the very idea of euthanasia (which technically it was not). A woman that a decade earlier had lost her ability to so much as ask for help, much less have coherent thoughts about the quality of her own life.
And they would sit on their ass and watch as tens of thousands of poor men, women, children, babies, and elderly bake in the New Orleans heat surrounded by water, sewage, gasoline and an abandoned city, now devoid of anyone with the means to have escaped ahead of the storm.
This is the culture of life. The culture of life wants to save brain dead white women and unborn children. The culture of life wants you to watch endless non-news about the disappearance of one white teenager in Aruba. The culture of life wants you to support your nation as it kills tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians in its Quixotic quest against a non-threat. The culture of life wants a zero-tolerance for looters policy to sound authoritative as babies die of dehydration. The culture of life expects you to take care of yourself, and if you can’t, then it is your own fault for getting into that situation in the first place. Fuck off. You had your shot. Station in life, where you hang your hat, and whether you have the $40 at the end of the month to pay for the overpriced gasoline to get out of that home in time is all up to you.
****************************
There’s more…go read it:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....13131/1462
Really fucking sad.
RE: righton @ #13
It seems that a Governor or Mayor with any common sense would have implemented and budgeted for a program of constant improvement for the levees and sea walls around New Orleans decades ago.
Those safety measures could have been 20 feet taller and 40 feet deeper by now. Instead we watch the leaders cry on TV.
Why not put Clinton in charge and just admit that Bush’s STRATEGERIES in this disaster are not accomplishing a thing. Let Bush go back to TEXAS and authorize some executions, since that is his one big success as a politician?
This Bush administration is an f-ing incompetent disaster from head to toe.
“Because when you say that they should have done this, that or the other thing first, you can look at that problem in isolation, and you can say that.
But look at all the other things they had to deal with. I’m telling you, nobody thought this was going to happen like this. But what happened here is they escaped — New Orleans escaped Katrina. But it brought all the water up the Mississippi River and all in the Pontchartrain, and then when it started running and that levee broke, they had problems they never could have foreseen.
And so I just think that we need to recognize right now there’s a confident effort under way. People are doing the best they can. And I just don’t think it’s the time to worry about that. We need to keep people alive and get them back to life — normal life.”
Bill Clinton last night on CNN, answering a question on the federal response.
Again, pretty much every disaster expert I’ve ever seen have said to plan to be on your own for 3-7 days in a major regional disaster such as this one.
This — not just FEMA’s failure, or the incompetent hire, or the incompetent vetting, but the fraudulent White House bio — could be the straw that breaks the chimp’s back.
When they sack Brown, maybe they can replace him with the guy who ran that animal-lover’s club in Enumclaw?!
RE:
Comment by headless lucy— 9/2/05 @ 8:21 am
Why not put Clinton in charge…?
HE WAS IN CHARGE. But, as with growing threats of terrorism, hurricanes in the area did nothing to get his attention. BTW the city was below sea level back then, too.
You libs are shameless; corpses aren’t even cold and your going ape*hit with the politics.
Is everything political?
Again, if you want to bring up Bush, we can bring up decades of Dem corruption in Lousiana….surely some of it tied to public works…
@25
Righton, they paying you overtime for this tripe?
No matter what you do, you can’t get Bush out from under his responsibility for this crap. He totally made his bed with this, and theres no getting out of it.
Also, gotta love the “No politics! But its the corrupt democrats in Louisiana!” bit there. Having it both ways, eh?
I’ll make you a deal righton… you get realistic about Bush’s failures here and I’ll listen to your arguments about what local government should or shouldn’t have done.
Unitl then, I am going to go with the coincidence that you just happen to be spouting the same talking point that is all over the right-wing noise machine today.
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.
In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way–inundating much of the city–were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.
However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and could not handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline. The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis…..
Funding for these projects generally has trended downward since at least the last years of the Clinton administration. Congressional records show that the levee work on Lake Pontchartrain received $23 million in 1998 and $16 million in 1999. It was not clear how much the drainage project received in 1998, but records show it received $75 million in 1999.”
Before everybody jumps all over me, all I’m trying to say is if you’re so insistent on playing the blame game, then there is a lot of people (going back to 1965) on the local, state, and federal level of both sides to blame for this mess.
Mayor a cable guy…..great stuff
many are taking the opportunity to express frustration with their mayor.
from times picayune…
“Where are you?” one person asked on the Web site. “Be a man and take care of your people.”
Another person said he liked Mr. Nagin but wondered, “Where is command central? Can we get some sort of plan, any plan, other than busing the refugees from dome to dome?”
Mr. Nagin, a former cable TV executive, was elected three years ago at the age of 45 after promising to reverse the city’s reputation for corruption. Now, he finds himself saying things about his city that he never could have dreamed possible.
windie; i offered no politics earlier; ya’ll incapable, just like my dog chasing cars…
@28
The people in DC say alot of things.
They said there were enough soldiers to pacify Iraq.
They said tat there were enough Nat. Guard to handle NO
The truth just isn’t there.
Righton: Please. You’re not fooling anyone. This is less playing politics than righteous outrage at the thorough incompetence that lead to this. If you can’t stand the fact that people might dare insult your dear leader, thats ultimately your problem.
The wingnut asshole trolls are speaking out of their … well … their assholes.
From the LA times yesterday::
What? Could it be that Bush dropped the ball in continuing to ensure support for U.S. natural disaster response? Yep … we have a shiny new Department of Homeland Security, but they broke FEMA in the process.
It gets expensive supporting counter/anti-terrorism and natural disaster preparedness and response. But, as the wealthiest nation in the world, can’t we do both? Perhaps, but Our Leader decides that the number one priority is “nation-building” through invasion.
So, instead of funding domestic projects that would avert disasters, we invaded Iraq and break it badly. What do we have now? No WMD, no flowers at our feet, no peace in Iraq, no real democracy in Iraq, no serious oil flowing from Iraq, dead soldiers. And to that we can pile on: mass destruction of a critically important port city, thousands of dead folks in New Orleans, a shortage of personnel to launch a rapid search and rescue operation, desperation leading to chaos in the streets of New Orleans, very expensive gasoline and heating oil, and a looming problem for American farmers in getting their crop exports shipped overseas.
The Bush administration is a pyramid scheme of one fucking disaster piled on top of another fucking disaster!
Still looking for evidence N.O. or Louisiana did anything to prepare for this? Best stuff I’ve seen is ordering school buses to take em to a new dome…
“The Bush Administration-When it ABSOLUTELY has to be fucked-up OVERNIGHT!”
BTW-Where the fuck is Dick Cheney?
windie @ 32:“The truth just isn’t there.”
Then what truth is there? The levees in question were never designed to handle more than a Category 3, that’s not in dispute, is it?
rujax @ 37
“BTW-Where the fuck is Dick Cheney?”
No doubt, in a secure, undisclosed location. After all, Katrina might really be a terrorist plot to overthrow the government. “Full alert! Launch operation ‘shadow government!'”
If there were not so much human tragedy and suffering we would have to laugh at the sheer hypocracy from the left. The greenies have been trying to torpedo the entire levvee system, including the repair and maintenance of existing levees for decades. The “unnatural” rerouting or control of nature’s rivers is an “ecological disaster” that must be stopped regardless of consequences to mere humans.
If GW has accomplished anything he has rallied the left both against himself and their own long-held beliefs regarding the environment. (As in “how come we do not have more refineries?)
Jon @ 38 – No they were not and everyone knew this except Bush. Though I guess he gets a pass in your book for either being too incompetent or just lying about this to the American people.
So what do you do if you are the president of the US and you are told that within two days a category 4 or 5 hurricane is going to hit a major city – the most important port in the nation – and that the levee system designed to protect it is likely to prove inadaquate?
Do you order relief crew to standby in preperation? Do you start sending the Navy ships with vitally needed food and water on their way from Virginia? Do you make sure that your FEMA director is ready to go?
Nah, you should stay on your 5 week vacation having a good old time playing guitar with Marc Willis and eating birthday cake with John McCain. Yeah, that is what a leader should do. And you should stay on vaction for two days afterward as well just to make sure that you are mentally sharp even if thousands of Americans are dying at the same time.
This is not simply politics for me… this is outrage over incompetant leadership that is too corrupt, too arrogant and too removed to be effective and we are seeing needless deaths because of it.
In my book, hiring incompetent flunkies to run an agency like FEMA is unacceptable. Bankrupting the government to pay for a voluntary war is unacceptable. These actions have real consequences and you can flip on your TV to see what those are.
When asked what the Dick’s schedule was his spokesperson said she “didn’t have that information handy.”
Oh… now we find out that the Dick will be at a FUND RAISER for Mo. Rep. Senator Jim (no)Tallent. Gotta keep balance in the life you know.
“The Bush Administration-When it ABSOLUTELY has to be fucked-up OVERNIGHT!”
New Orleans has been a crime-ridden, corrupt city for many years. A large percentage of the police just quit. The mayor’s only response is to beg for help from someone else.
Many people stayed behind who had ample resources to at least store up on 3 days of water and food, but it doesn’t look like they did. Instead they sat in their homes and pretended that nothing was going to happen. I’m not talking about those physically prevented from moving.
And now the gangs are taking control because the Mayor and Governor refuse to take security seriously. The police weren’t “allowed” into the Superdome? The hospitals are being looted of drugs. It is the job of the local and state governments to restore order. They failed miserably.
Has Bush made mistakes? Certainly. But it is interesting to see that the leftists here direct full blame his way, and also have to add in a lot of invective. I guess calling him names makes you feel better. Works for two-year-olds as well.
NoWonder @ 40
“If GW has accomplished anything he has rallied the left both against himself and their own long-held beliefs regarding the environment.”
Yep. . . this is the same situation we have with, say, the left trying to defeat I-912, only to repair and build more highways, and thereby encourage driving.
That is because we want both—refineries suck for nearby people and ecosystems, but we are all realistic enough to realize that we need gasoline and fuel oil.
What you perceive as an inconsistancy is, what folks with more than a 3rd grade education refer to as, trade-offs. We want refineries, but we want them done in a way that minimizes ecological damage and human misery.
It is not surprising that idiots who believe every issue is Black and White have a difficult time understanding this concept of tradeoffs.
Yeah, Clinton would have dropped everything to go there and do nothing, and adding workload to already overworked staffers.
I think chain of command plus telephones ought to be adequate. Do you want Bush to also review the plans for the viaduct…i mean does he have to be everywhere?
Why’s the mayor holed up in Baton Rouge…? He’s at least supposed to be there…??
It’s interesting to me that Bush “pre-declared” 4 counties in Florida disaster areas in the run up to the 2004 elections, and, where his Republican brother just happens to be the governor, but, was days late responding to Hurricane Katrina who happens to have a Democratic governor with no relations to Bush. One constant about W is his inconsistency.
Here’s a quote from an article and the link.
“Even before the storm hit, the president declared four counties disaster areas to speed federal money to victims. But that quick response fueled suspicion that he is using disaster politics to help his campaign in one of the most critical battleground states, a notion the president dismissed Sunday.
“Yeah, and if I didn’t come they’d have said he should have been here more rapidly,” Mr. Bush said.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories.....6126.shtml
If this was his response to the last disaster, why didn’t he do the same one year later? Because those MOTHER FUCKERS will do anything for a power grab.
A big FUCK YOU to anyone who continues to support the Republican party.
FUCK YOU, again.
righton @ 44
You fucking asshole troll. The Mayor holed up in the Hyatt hotel across the street from City Hall in New Orleans (which is flooded out).
I’ve never called a commenter a liar on HA before, righton. I prefer to think you have your head shoved so far up your ass that you have no fucking idea what the truth is.
By the way, righton, do you get paid less for posts that are immediately pointed out to be bullshit?
dj @ 43
‘It is not surprising that idiots who believe every issue is Black and White have a difficult time understanding this concept of tradeoffs.’
Oh no. You just dissed your fellow HAs and undermined the GW-is-evil arguments. There were tradeoffs involved in the decisions to design the N.O. levees to withstand cat3 huricanes rather than cat4 or 5, all made back in the 60’s.
The left is so preoccupied with hating GW that they keep tripping over their own beliefs and arguments.
I love the speculation by HA lefties about FEMA. We have family in Florida that endured three hurricanes in 2004. The FEMA people are nice and friendly and tried to be helpful when your house has no roof and you need a tarp to cover the holes. They tell you (FEMA employees) it’s a bloated bureaucracy. So stop the standard HA leftist moonbat belly-aching about the defunding and other stuff and talk to those who know and stop speculating about the agency. If you haven’t dealt with them all you are spewing is hearsay. Oh yeah, that’s right if DailyKos or ThinkProgress said it is’t got to be gospel right?
What I love is the lefties when a program is funded at a 5% increase instead of 8% it’s a cut. BS!
Please name me the FEMA carpetbaggers Loocy? Or are you comparing them to the skillset you implement in the Seattle School System – Carpetbagging 101 or is it CarpetMunching 101?
You moonbat lefties hate Bush so much that when Jon provides ample evidence the levee that broke was not viewed as a problem by the ACOE you guys can’t digest. That because it blows a hole in your Hate Bush mantra. If the funding was under since back in 1997 was that Bush’s fault. Suuuuuuurrrrrrrrrre the moonbats say!
If you have an expired web address and go to archive.org, you’ll get to visit the page as it was in the past, searchable and everything (if it had a search utility).
Here’s the url for the resolution page cited in the IAHA document:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/h...../index.htm
Nowonder & “This message paid for by the GOP”-Righton
you’re both conveniently leaving out something VITAL.
In the 90’s it was decided that NO was at major risk, so Clinton started that Southeast Louisiana Urban Disaster thingy (can’t remember the name offhand, I’m sure someone does).
Unfortunately, between the tax cuts and ESPECIALLY the Iraq war, Bush defunded it in 2003.
So the effort to fix the inadequate Levee’s was torpedoed by Bush.
The creation of the federal agency encouraged states, counties and cities to convert from their civil defense organizations and to establish emergency management agencies to do the requisite planning for disasters. Over time, a philosophy of “all-hazards disaster preparedness” was developed that sought to conserve resources by producing single plans that were applicable to many types of events.But it was Hurricane Andrew, which hit Florida in 1992, that really energized FEMA. The year after that catastrophic storm, President Bill Clinton appointed James Lee Witt to be director of the agency. Witt reoriented FEMA from civil defense preparations to a focus on natural disaster preparedness and disaster mitigation. In an effort to reduce the repeated loss of property and lives every time a disaster struck, he started a disaster mitigation effort called “Project Impact.” FEMA was elevated to a Cabinet-level agency, in recognition of its important responsibilities coordinating efforts across departmental and governmental lines.
Witt fought for federal funding to support the new program. At its height, only $20 million was allocated to the national effort, but it worked wonders. One example: When the Nisqually earthquake struck the Puget Sound area on Feb. 28, 2001, homes had been retrofitted for earthquakes and schools were protected from high-impact structural hazards. Those involved with Project Impact thought it ironic that the day of that quake was also the day that the then-new president chose to announce that Project Impact would be discontinued.
The advent of the Bush administration in January 2001 signaled the beginning of the end for FEMA. The agency’s newly appointed leadership showed little interest in its work or in the missions pursued by Witt. Then came the Sept. 11 attacks and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Soon FEMA was being absorbed.
Agency’s Death Blow
This year it was announced that FEMA is to “officially” lose the disaster preparedness function that it has had since its creation. The move is a death blow to an agency that was already on life support. In fact, FEMA employees have been directed not to become involved in disaster preparedness functions, since a new directorate (yet to be established) will have that mission.
FEMA will be survived by state and local emergency management offices, which are confused about how they fit into the national picture. That’s because the focus of the national effort remains terrorism. Those of us in the business of dealing with emergencies find ourselves with no national leadership. We are being forced to fend for ourselves, making do with the “homeland security” mission. Our “all-hazards” approaches have been decimated by the administration’s preoccupation with terrorism.
America may well be hit by another major terrorist attack, and we must be prepared for that. But I can guarantee you that hurricanes like Katrina, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, windstorms, mudslides, power outages, fires and perhaps a pandemic will have to be dealt with. They are coming for sure, sooner or later, even as we are weakening our ability to respond to them.
@48
Puddy’s doing it again!
Just that information is anecdotal at best, you’re making crap up again, I suspect
GBS @ 45:“With forecasters warning of a category five storm, the president made sure the federal response would not be delayed by already declaring emergencies in Mississippi, Florida and Alabama just hours after a similar declaration for Louisiana. Such declarations make federal aid available to assist with disaster relief, but they are rarely made before a storm even hits.”
That’s from a AP report from Sunday, BEFORE the storm hit. Lots to complain about, but not the acutal disaster declaration.
NoWonder @ 47
“Oh no. You just dissed your fellow HAs and undermined the GW-is-evil arguments. There were tradeoffs involved in the decisions to design the N.O. levees to withstand cat3 huricanes rather than cat4 or 5, all made back in the 60’s.
The left is so preoccupied with hating GW that they keep tripping over their own beliefs and arguments. “
What the fuck? I read in this thread criticisms of Bush for his handling of this situation NOW, criticism of cutting the federal budget for coastal protection under the Bush administration (even though New Orleans was “among the three likeliest … disasters facing this country”), criticism of Bush for appointing an unqualified flunkie to head FIMA. What the fuck does that have to do with decisions made in the 1960’s and where are the inconsistancies? Are you a middle-school student or are you just really stupid?
dj; my source on the mayor was Harry Connick on the today show. Go to msnbc.com; his video, from 2 min into it is awesome. He was equivocal on who to blame, not as interested in that. But he did raise question of why the cable guy is in Baton Rouge.
Connick did the best job of honest indignation of anyone i’ve seen. Makes me wanna hire a truck and drive a load of water to the dome.
I’m not gonna weigh in on the politics of FEMA… but what is clear is that when disaster strikes, each of us needs to be able to fend for ourselves for a while. This whole fiasco should act as a reminder to us to renew our emergency supplies. FEMA website has a good list of stuff you should have on hand.
Condi Rice buying thousands of dollars worth of shoes in New York city yesterday, while thousands of real Americans are dying in the worst natural & Bush made disaster this country has ever seen.
I see where her priorities are, what a BITCH!
And Denny “cut-n-run Hastert, what a piece of shit. Don’t leave Iraq but the Hell with an America city.
FUCKY YOU some more.
windie @ 50
You guys need some better arguments.
The Chicago Tribune makes the same point in even stronger terms:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane-protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.
In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way–inundating much of the city–were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.
However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and couldn’t handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline. The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis.
And the Clinton efforts you refer to:
http://eurota.blogspot.com/200.....every.html
I encourage your efforts, and even hope you can tie Karl Rove into this disaster. Good luck!
@ 53 FUCK YOU Jon.
nowonder;
I’ll say the same thing. They’re being ‘good soldiers’.
They also said there were enough Nat. Guard to Police New Orleans, when the city is in anarchy.
I’m sorry, but the Fed. Gov’t has ~0~ credibility at this point. They just keep piling up the lies…
I hope you piece of shit Republicans enjoyed your time on top of the heap because there’s a landslide going on underneath you that you haven’t figured out yet.
FUCK OFF, FUCK YOU, YOU FUCK-UPS!
dj; source of mayor stuff is Harry Connick; on the scene and a very credible “reporter”. Go watch his video on MSNBC, skip to 2 minutes into it, best reporting i’ve seen yet.
Republicans have made our country a DISGRACE with your FUCKED UP policies.
You are living proof there is no such thing as Intelligent Design, because nothing that smart would make a piece of shit Republican.
FUCK YOU GUYS SOME MORE.
Now, I’ve got better things to do in my life, like working harder than ever to remove the lying bastard Republicans from office so we can begin the Impeachment Prcess of George W. Bush and reclaim America.
FUCK YOU AGAIN.
Does everyone own a gas wrench and know how to turn off their gas?
windie @ 59
How about your soldier – President Clinton?
http://www.captainsquartersblo.....005360.php
Take that CNN.
NoWonder @ 57
Once again you seem to have missed the point. A government agency (FEMA) produced a report (in 2001) stating that New Orleans is “among the three likeliest … disasters facing this country” BECAUSE the levees were designed for a Cat 3 hurricane.
The administration can read the report and say, “bummer … I hope a cat 4 or 5 storm doesn’t hit New Orleans on our watch,” or the government can do something about it.
But, like the famous 2001 memo, “Bin Laden determined to attack in the U.S.”, the administration ignored the memo—probably because the study that generated the report was commissioned durring the Clinton administration. Once again, Bush leadership at its best—if it has anything to do with Clinton, ignore it!
The year 2001 wasn’t a good year for taking actions on memos and reports, was it?
@64
I never said that Clinton wasn’t a whore.
He still did and would have done here a better job than GW.
One of the eerier things is the bizarre silence of the Dems on this issue. I think they’re just whipped.
~~They’re probably afraid of asses like the righties on here, afraid to call attention to the obvious incompetence and neglect by this administration… Because they know the operatives will yell at them for ‘politicizing’. The dem leaders are really letting the people down, I think.
To hell with the “Loyal Opposition”
yay filtered!
quick version: Clinton dropping the ball doesn’t justify Bush’s blowing this thing
New Orleans: Atlas has Shrugged. Black mayor, black Democrat city [77% Kerry]. Republicans should just leave.
Goldy, thanks for the post!!!!
Rujax @ 19, thanks for the link. And the “When it ABSOLUTELY has to be fucked op overnight.” HA!!!!
dj @ 65: Your points on FEMA’s focus shift to terrorism are very legitimate and on target, which were to be expected with the creation of a massive agency, so certainly this administration has to take responsibility for FEMA’s problems. However, the creation of DHS and FEMA’s role in it was not done in a vacuum and was done at the behest and urging of many in Congress of both parties.
Your points on flood control, are somewhat off base, as all the current measures were for Category 3 hurricanes, and studies for Category 5 hurricanes were not expected to be done for years. So even if all the current projects were fully funded starting in 2001, measures that would have protected NO this week would have still been years off in completion. The levee system in the area is not all federal, but rather a patchwork of federal, state, local, and levee district. Much like we here are having a debate over the future of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and the best way to locally fund it, I wonder if a similar debate had occurred in the NO area, given the importance.
WWL: Did you say to the president of the United States, “I need the military in here”?
NAGIN: I said, “I need everything.”
[Yup, Mayor Nagin is a “progressive”. Like every other Democrat, he has needs!!!
dj – NoWonder is all about the talking points, the talking points. Decisions made in the 60’s justify flood control budget cuts in present days and the draining of wetlands for developer’s wet dreams.
He just loves Bush.
Of course, theres the whole ‘hastert too busy at a fundraiser to go over to the special session of senate’ story too.
What the hell happened to the GOP to turn all the people evil?
Oh I still think he’s Liberal Larry. He won’t confirm or deny it. I wonder why?
Put snipers on the rooftops and in helicopters and have them shoot the WHITE looters.
This keeps the race baiters off the Nat. Guard/Army’s back and might “convince” the black looters to stop.
When there are no more white looters to shoot, start shooting the black looters. Jesse and coompany will howl race discrimination and the media will trumpet it like gospel, but since all the whites got picked off first, they won’t have a leg to stand on.
That in itself would probably do more to clean up N.O. than anything else.
Send oil/gas etc to the states that ALLOW refineries (and mine doesn’t) and let the rest of us fight it out for what’s left over.
Set up service stations for SUVs and Limos only. Let them pay $5.00/gallon or more.
Ground all private airplanes unless they’re heading for LA, MISS and AL to help.Same with yachts and power boats.
Stuff cotton in every Democrats’ mouth, including the ineffective useless Gov of LA.
And then there is this headline from the LA Times:
China Evacuates 600,000 as Typhoon Strikes South
Hey! Maybe China can offer some Continuing Education courses for the U.S. federal government on how to evacuate a region with an imminent disaster!
@70 oops, I always whine when people don’t cite… so here:
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=4896
windie@70 –
The GOP has a blind-spot or weakness that leads to evil people rising up.
Here’s why I think that. The other day, my mom told me she needed to buy new RAM because her computer had gotten a virus. So I asked her a series of questions, and it turns out that this is the idea she had been given by this store in the rural midwest.
So I told her the people who run that store sound like crooks to me, and she replied, “Oh, no, it’s run by a Christian family, so they aren’t trying to trick me.”
Some of my best friends are Christians, and, in my opinion, good Christians at that. But the problem I see is that there is a sector of the population — a “flock” if you will — that wants life to have a big Easy button, like on the commercials. For them, the big Easy button is “Christians are good.”
Getting back to national politics, many of the leaders of the GOP wrap themselves in the flag of Christianity. Their policies are so wrong that only God can punish such crimes, but the flock sees them as salvation because they claim to be.
For the Clueless @ 69
‘…the talking points..’
The pot calling the kettle black again. If the HA lefties do not regurgitate what is already written on the hate-GW blogs the discussions would be limited to why Howard Dean bombed out in 2004.
Jon @ 68,
Thanks for the thoughtful comments!
“Your points on flood control, are somewhat off base, as all the current measures were for Category 3 hurricanes, and studies for Category 5 hurricanes were not expected to be done for years. So even if all the current projects were fully funded starting in 2001, measures that would have protected NO this week would have still been years off in completion. “
Yes, to some extent this is true. Nevertheless, there are low-cost short-term improvements that likely would have been made to the federal infrastructure—like making the pumps less susceptable to flooding. I understand these are massive pumps, but they are unusable now because of no power or becasue their emergency generators were submerged.
In any case, just knowing that you cannot prevent disaster in a cat 4 storm should kick-in heightened emergency planning and preparation. If there was no clue about the potential disaster, it would be hard to blame the feds. Given how well recognized New Orleans was as a “disaster waiting to happen,” by the feds and the lay public, it is remarkable how poorly handled this disaster has been prior to and after the hurricane!
78 – Larry, I wish you’d take your propaganda or “framing” somewhere else. It’s as tiresome as “loving” a guy who made a decision to kill 100 thousand plus Iraqis (in order to save them) as well as sending thousands of Americans into a meat grinder.
Face it. You love the guy.
Heath @ 77
I am sorry your mom appears to be gullible, and I hope you can advise her avoid scams in the name of Christianity, or liberalism. The Bible actually demands that followers think, and to your disappointment, “wrap themselves in the flag of Christianity”. It is a good read even if you do not want to believe. At least then your criticisms could elevate the debate.
NoWonder @ 78
“The pot calling the kettle black again. If the HA lefties do not regurgitate what is already written on the hate-GW blogs the discussions would be limited to why Howard Dean bombed out in 2004.”
Nope, none of what I’ve written here today comes from any lefty blog (other than material here on H.A.). I dug up the stuff I cited myself, wrote my own comments, and offered my own opinions.
I know that is hard for you professional trolls to fathom … I mean, it requires original thought and all that, but it is true.
Oh, and I have never posted anything on Howard Dean here or anywhere else.
ok, libs have rounded 2nd base in tarring Bush, now Christians….racing to 3rd to call us Nazis, i’m ….waiting…..
@81
way to miss the point!
These people don’t seem to give a damn about Christianity beyond what it does to help their careers.
Noone should have that much Christian-sounding rhetoric tied with so much Unchristian Behaviour. Its disgusting
@83
I’ll say it again, I doubt anyone is tarring *real* christians, but more people that pretend to be Christian in order to cement their own power…
(hey waitaminnit, isn’t that another hallmark of… fascism? I’ll have to check!)
dj @ 79
‘Given how well recognized New Orleans was as a “disaster waiting to happen,” by the feds and the lay public..’
Look at all the Monday morning QBs. The “lay public” knew this, yet the entire left wing did not cry out until after the levees broke. If you guys spent half of your GW-hating time on helping the Katrina victims the whole city could be dry today.
righton @ 83
You are a fucking Nazi–now go back into hibernation or at least answer my questions about how much you get paid to be a troll.
“I understand these are massive pumps, but they are unusable now because of no power or becasue their emergency generators were submerged.”
Yes, I was wondering about the logic behind those decisions. I also heard one of the hospitals has no power because their generator was IN THE BASEMENT.
“Given how well recognized New Orleans was as a “disaster waiting to happen,” by the feds and the lay public, it is remarkable how poorly handled this disaster has been prior to and after the hurricane!”
I would tend to agree, with only caveat being that I would include state and local officials in that list.
@87 don’t give Nazis a bad name, at least they had convictions as evil as they were.
Righton is just a walkin’ propaganda machine… no belief, no nothing. Just blind loyalty and an unthinking desire to destroy ‘the enemy’.
NoWonder@81 –
Of course I know that the Apostolic Gospels contain sayings that admonish followers to witness their faith. I don’t blame Christians for doing that.
What I do blame people for doing is asserting their Christianity, and getting the idea that they are Saved for it, while lying to people and ripping them off. The people who “wrap themselves in a flag of Christianity” are not the people who can honestly claim to be good Christians — they are just showing off that they can ‘talk the talk.’
As for what the Apostolic Gospels say, and interesting books, you might like “The Lost Gospel of Q.” It’s an archeological and theological reconstruction of what the earliest versions of the Gospels said, before they got transcribed differently at various points in history.
I used to be Methodist, where people follow one gospel that is from around 200CE, and other writings that came from a Council of Canon in around 1500. Why people get really attached to those two versions of the New Testament is another debate, but I will say that nowadays, I think you can know more accurately what Jesus said by doing research into which sources are available from the time that he lived. Whether or not he claimed to fulfill the Jewish Kristos prophecy, or whether that bit was an attempt by Rabbis to hold things together, is for you to decide. ;)
HEY dj
Where are all you friends,TED KENNEDY,JOHN KERRY OH THEY MUST BE DONE IN NO HELPING OUT
From my point of view, one of the absolute worst things is that the Christian flock has been lead to vote for a murderous regime — the Bush Administration. It’s a shame that the Kerry campaign was so attached to abortion as an issue that it alienated so many Christian voters over to the side of War. The war we are waging in Iraq, that our friends are waging for us, is not just. It’s a war of colonialism and exploitation for the sake of spoils.
This puts the Christian flock in the position of sinning through the irresponsibility of voting for Bush. Bush and Co. have done most of the work by deceiving people, but there is fault on the shoulders of all those who have allowed themselves to be deceived, too.
Just like you have to put some blame on the shoulders of people who buy new RAM to cure a virus, you have to put some blame on the shoulders of people who vote to continue the Commander-In-Chief who gave us war in Iraq while our enemies where in Afghanistan.
86 – Larry we don’t “hate” the guy. We just “dislike” him, rather intensely even. Most of us certainly would decline to have a beer with him.
You on the other hand love the guy – he cuts taxes and slaughters people with funny sounding last names using fancy military hardware with exotic acronyms – what’s not to love?
How are you directing that “love energy” you have for Bush into helping disaster victims?
Dingdong: You accidently hit capslock. Just letting you know.
Troll
windie @ 84
‘These people don’t seem to give a damn about Christianity beyond what it does to help their careers.’
Another broad brush. Except I assume you are not including Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etc.
You are free to pick and choose which flavors of Christianity you think are “real”, yet there are many who disagree with you.
its not flavors, dumbass. Its meaningless posturing.
But… I’m letting you distract me. Its another “BUT THE DEMOCRATS…” The subject is what YOUR leaders have done in pretending to be good Christians. Jesse and Al have nothing to do with it.
Damn rightie trolls need a new playbook. Its boring seeing the same 3 tricks over and over.
subject was mike brown, fema, plus avoiding question of what did the gov and mayor ever do to help or hurt things
If your house burns down and you don’t have a plan to get your family out safely is that Bush’s fault too? The Federal government cannot be responsible for evacuations and emergency response to every community in the country. That is what you have city, county and state government for. That is why the National Guard takes orders from the Governor. Each community is responsible for its own disaster relief effort. They must have a plan and must know what assistance to ask for from the Federal Government. Of course the Federal Government has a role to play but the leadership and plan execution has to come from the local officials whose job it is to know their communities and protect their citizens. It is the responsibility of the Mayors, Governors and State Representatives to know the localized threats to their citizen and to plan for their safety. Is it Bush’s or any other Presidents job to have a plan for Orting if Mt. Rainier blows? Or is it the responsibility of the local elected officials of this state to understand the dangers our communities face and to plan accordingly. The Federal Government would be a 1000 times larger then it already is if you want to put that responsibility on them. If the sirens in Orting malfunction (again) and the people in town are wiped out after an eruption I am sure you all will blame the President for that as well, assuming of course it is a Republican holding office at the time. This is ridiculous as are all of you that hate so much that you put blame only where it serves you politically, what a bunch of assholes.
Heath @ 92
‘The war we are waging in Iraq, that our friends are waging for us, is not just.’
You are welcome to your own opinion. I and many others do think the Iraq war is just, if not long overdue. I thought the US stopped way too short in 91, and still do not buy the reasoning for catering to those opposed. (A bit of irony – if GHWB had not catered to the Saudis in 91 the Iraq war could have been finished then.)
Anyhow, I have veered way off topic and hope to catch these item on other posts in the future.
righton@97 –
The governor ordered in the National Guard. What more do you want?
@99 he wants a republican Governer.
(’cause its all about protecting his paymasters afterall)
windie —
A republican, or a male republican? Either way, maybe the governor from the right could wave a magic wand and materials more National Guard.
Why did New Orleans have levies built to survive a Cat 3?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news
/2005/09/0902_050902_katrina_levees.html
Surely, part of it had to do with what the public was willing to pay for there, out of their taxes.
@102
Reading these posts, I don’t think he really cares about much of anything, aside from protecting ‘the party’ from criticism. Certainly not much empathy for the victims.
et tu.
go watch the connick video (non-partisan) on msnbc
Heath @ 103
Bravo – finally some reasonable discussion about the topic. Thanks.
Windie@104 –
It’s interesting to note that the La. governor today did something really important to help recover from Katrina. She made the statement that she ‘expected’ the Guard troops to shoot armed thugs and violent street gangs.
Beyond that, there are the people with kids who simply did not evacuate. I don’t know if there was enough help for people who can’t afford to go anywhere, really. Certainly the idea of going to the Superdome turned out to be a last-ditch sort of suggestion. But I guess that’s all that was offered to those who couldn’t afford a motel 6 out of town, or the gas to get there.
What’s depressing is all the home-bound people who died in their homes. Ugh. How the government could have helped them is beyond me, but it does seem like this should have been prevented.
This whole thing is appalling in terms of how poorly one of our communities has fared together. All we can do now is throw money and/or donated blood to the red cross, and keep these people in our thoughts and prayers.
NoWonder@106 –
On the plus side, here in the Pacific Northwest, we do have lots of seismology meteres on Mt. Rainier.
On the minus side, our Tsunami warning system is under repair.
Also on the minus side, part of the Seattle waterfront is built out of sawdust infill and is near an earthquake source.
Still on the minus side, we have a bridge that crosses 480-foot depths by floating, which needs to have its hull replaced.
Down in the Skyway/Covington/Renton areas, we need wider roads so it’s conceivable people could ever evacuate en masse. Mt. Luther King/900 is a prime candidate for wider lanes, median and side barriers, and a higher speed limit.
We also all need to learn how to respond to a local emergency. We need to know how to turn off our own gas and water lines. We need to have fresh water in storage, and enough food put back to last about 3 days with no electricity or gas to cook with or refrigerate things.
Maybe out of the New Orleans disaster, we can take some notes. Be prepared for the worst while you build for the best.
@107
From what I’ve read, discussion aside, almost everyone is giving to some charity. Thats heartening.
From accounts of people there (in downtown NO), they *need* to be willing to use their guns, so its heartening to read that they won’t get hosed for it. The situation has decayed beyond ‘lord of the flies’ into ‘Mogadishu, 1997’.
I’m all for the local government taking their fair share of blame, if it is indeed deserved… But I refuse to even humor any attempts to draw the administration’s share of blame away from them… Which seems to be what all the talk about the Mayor and Governer is about.
Whatever the Governer of Louisiana has done wrong, you can’t remove the horrible jobs that Bush and his political appointee in FEMA have done in this.
You fools (especially you GBS) seem to think (and I use THAT term with reservation) that Bush should have “heard” a hurricane was on its way, snapped his fingers and made things happen.
WHAT exactly?
Anyone with experience in ANY sort or emergency experience will tell you the very first rule is to assess the situation and NOT put any MORE people ar risk – you know, like the rescuers.
Do you not imagine it takes more than a snap of fingers to mobilize people? equipment? provisions?
Do you not imagine that it takes more than a snap of fingers to just make and implement a coherent plan for that particular situation that won’t make a situation worse (you know…kinda like the one that let rapists and murderers stalk helpless victims in the Superdome that was unprepared to deal with their hunger and personal needs)?
What would YOU have done armchair mayors?
What would YOU have done armchair city councilmen?
What would YOU have done armchair governors?
What would YOU have done armchair presidents?
The bottom line is the MAYOR (and his city council) is responsible for his city and its citizens.
The bottom line is the Governor (and his legislature) is responsible for his state and its citizens.
GOVERNMENT at every level, from library to federal, is a big bloated bureacracy and simply put bureacracies move slowly.
The problem with your liberalism is that you believe the federal government is responsible for everything – “cradle to grave” isn’t that your mantra?
Your little rants clearly show your glee to find something else to for which to “Blame Bush” far overides your concern for hurricane victims.
But GW has big shoulders … he can handle it (as opposed to the lip-biter ‘feeling your pain’… and even HE, the former dick wagger in chief, said: “Because when you say that they should have done this, that or the other thing first, you can look at that problem in isolation, and you can say that.”
“But look at all the other things they had to deal with. I’m telling you, nobody thought this was going to happen like this. But what happened here is they escaped — New Orleans escaped Katrina. But it brought all the water up the Mississippi River and all in the Pontchartrain, and then when it started running and that levee broke, they had problems they never could have foreseen.”
Quite frankly I welcome your lefty fringe frothing…
Anyone care to make book on whether those oh so prepared to defend their citizens whining dems (you know, those very same guys and gals that got the hurricane warnings right along with rest of us, (if not even earlier) including the President) are re-elected in the next New Orleans election, the next Louisiana election?
Something about Nero fiddling while Rome burned…
109 –
The problem started 3 years ago, when Bush ‘snapped his fingers’ and got us into a situation such that the National Guard are all in Iraq.
ASS – it took 19 hours for Bush to marshall resources for the Florida hurricane during election season. He can move mountains for election season photo-ops but can’t be bothered for a category 4-5 during his vacation in an off year.
Poor George – why do these tsunamis and hurricanes keep happening during his personal “me” time?
nowonder @ 86
what are the lefties who visit blogs doing to help?
Raising nearly $100,000 in 24 hours, it looks like.
HEY DINGDONG @ 91
“Where are all you friends,TED KENNEDY,JOHN KERRY OH THEY MUST BE DONE IN NO HELPING OUT “
I AM NOT SURE WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, I DON’T KNOW EITHER OF THESE GENTS, AND I AM NOT A DEMOCRAT.
WHY ARE WE SHOUTING?
Goldy–
Congrats on getting good play at Kos. However, as I wrote in comments there, from the Separation Agreement posted it appears Brown wasn’t fired. He resigned under pressure, as part of a negotiated agreement to get him out of there, but as part of that deal the IAHA had to agree there was no cause for termination:
—
The parties recognize that, due to the nature of Mr. Brown’s duties as Judges and Stewards Commissioner, he has been the subject of numerous personal attacks, and that there have been numerous allegations made during the course of his employment that Mr. Brown engaged in conduct that would constitute cause for the termination of Brown’s contract with IAHA. IAHA specifically acknowledges, however, that no cause exists to terminate Brown’s contract with IAHA.
—
Perhaps a minor issue, but in retitling the post at Kos as “Brown fired from last job” you may open yourself up to rebuttal. The calls from others to have the MSM get on this story will stall if they’re told he was fired, because he wasn’t. Is “quit under duress” functionally much different? No–but semantics is everything when you’re trying to weasel out of an accusation.
clueless @ 111
I keep scrolling down to check for new replies, and every time I do, I laugh at the worry over George’s “me time.” Funny.
The problem started 3 years ago, when Bush ’snapped his fingers’ and got us into a situation such that the National Guard are all in Iraq. -Comment by Heath— 9/2/05 @ 11:55 am
Oh, that’s right… a butterfly swooshes his wings in the Amazon and a wind storm occurs in the Arctic.
God, you people and your ignorance are truly frightening.
I guess you “missed, for example, the fact that when the levees failed, President George Bush activated 15,000 National Guardsmen (5,000 more on the way), who were joined by thousands of police officers, physicians and emergency-management specialists from around the nation. Within 24 hours of the levees failing, there were 50 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, 25 Urban Search and Rescue task forces, eight swift-water rescue teams, two Incident Support Teams, and 1,700
trucks loaded with water, ice, meals, medical supplies, generators, tents and tarps en route. Additionally, FEMA coordinated massive relief efforts with DHS, DoD, HHS and other agencies with relief capabilities—indeed, an armada is now on its way.”
I guess Moron.org neglected to mention that, eh?
Of course, that armada of rescue and relief workers are being shot at by those oh-so-grateful looters, rioters and thugs.
I guess Moron.org neglected to mention that too, eh?
I also if they for got to mention “the Senate’s diversion of domestic infrastructure funding to cover the 700-percent cost overrun for Ted Kennedy’s Big Dig boondoggle. Perhaps that $16 billion American tax payers spent on 7.5 miles of Boston highway could have been better spent on levee improvements in New Orleans…”
“The fact is, the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana have been arguing for decades with the federal government over who should foot the bill for the NO’s gambit on developing
ever-widening areas of the sinking swamp around the city. Every elected official in Louisiana knew that the city was on borrowed time with its category-three levees. The eventuality of a cat-four or cat-five hurricane was accepted as a “moral hazard.” Indeed,Katrina ended that debate, and American taxpayers will now be saddled with the cost of the levee and the total recovery effort.”
Oops, I guess Moron.org missed that one too, eh?
FTC @ 111
“Poor George – why do these tsunamis and hurricanes keep happening during his personal “me” time? “
I hear that the big delay in the federal response occurred because George had just sat down to finally finish “My Pet Goat”. It has been a rough 4 years since the last time he was interrupted, and he has been anxiously awaiting this vacation to finish the book. He gave strict orders: “No inter-erruptions” (which the Secret Service understood to mean “No interuptions”).
The problem started 3 years ago, when Bush ’snapped his fingers’ and got us into a situation such that the National Guard are all in Iraq. -Comment by Heath— 9/2/05 @ 11:55 am
Oh, that’s right…a butterfly swooshes his wings in the Amazon and a blizzard occurs in te Arctic.
God, you people and your ignorance are truly frightening.
I guess you “missed, for example, the fact that when the levees failed, President George Bush activated 15,000 National Guardsmen (5,000 more on the way), who were joined by thousands of police officers, physicians and emergency-management specialists from around the nation. Within 24 hours of the levees failing, there were 50 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, 25 Urban Search and Rescue task forces, eight swift-water rescue teams, two Incident Support Teams, and 1,700 trucks loaded with water, ice, meals, medical supplies, generators, tents and tarps en route. dditionally, FEMA coordinated massive relief efforts with DHS, DoD, HHS and other agencies with relief capabilities—indeed, an armada is now on its way.”
I guess Moron.org forgot to mention that, eh?
Of course, you also missed those oh-so-grateful looters, rioter and thugs are hindering rescue and aid efforts.
I guess Moron.org forgot to mention that too, eh?
I guess you’ve “forgotten the Senate’s diversion of domestic
infrastructure funding to cover the 700-percent cost overrun for
Ted Kennedy’s Big Dig boondoggle. Perhaps that $16 billion American tax payers spent on 7.5 miles of Boston highway could have been better spent on levee improvements in New Orleans'”
“The fact is, the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana
have been arguing for decades with the federal government over
who should foot the bill for the NO’s gambit on developing
ever-widening areas of the sinking swamp around the city. Every elected official in Louisiana knew that the city was on borrowed time with its category-three levees. The eventuality of a cat-four or cat-five hurricane was accepted as a “moral hazard.”
Did your Moron.org have that particular little snippet or was it just too darn inconvenient for their BlameBushEverytime” ideology?
Lucy @ 21. Funny you mention Clinton. The Bush family had their press conference and who did all the talking? Clinton of course. This country needs people like Clinton, not the wishy washy bankrupting inbred idiots that have been in charge since they ‘legally’ won the presidency in 2000.
nowonder @ 86
what are the lefties who visit blogs doing to help?
Raising nearly $100,000 in 24 hours, it looks like. -Comment by torridjoe— 9/2/05 @ 12:05 pm
And just look at the political affiliation of the $403,058
in contributions so far
ass @ 117
what’s your point? How does that show that leftist bloggers are not doing anything to help?
@117
You damn liar. Those aren’t all conservative blogs. There are leftie blogs, poker blogs, everything under the sun.
Way to make giving into a competition… and then cheat.
Slimeball.
@118 damn I’m having bad luck today.
Its not just rightie blogs, TJ. Its all kinds. Can’t give examples or the post’ll get eaten :p
He’s misrepresenting who’s giving.
because he’s a partisan ass with no love of the truth.
Not so funny, I was in Thailand when the tsunami struck, the US had supplies being delivered within two days. Here in our own country, the national government waits until a week has passed before they call special sessions of congress to budget money so that they can get off their big asses and start helping our own citizens. No wonder the rest of the world is looks upon our country as a FUCKING JOKE since the neocons took the helm
Something about Nero fiddling while Rome burned…
actually the AP photo shows him playing guitar at the Navy Air Base in Coronado, CA the afternoon of Tuesday August 30th.
Spyder@122
and loving it. Look at that smile!
we need more seasoned management, not a crybaby mayor
“Get off your asses and let’s do something,” the mayor told WWL-AM Thursday night in a rambling interview in which he cursed, yelled and ultimately burst into tears
ASS again – The american people as generous as they are can’t compare to the money raising power of Congress or rather the treasury’s ability to borrow from the Chinese and Japanese as this country has long been living off the credit card. However, the Congress and the prez were quicker to pull together during Schiavo than during a disaster complete with floating bodies, bodies left for the rats and old people left to expire in the heat.
A tip of the hat to your “culture of life”.
As for TLB’s website – anybody can go his website and type in what they want – whether they gave or not. It’s as phony as a three dollar bill.
Bottom line: the partisanship isn’t helping any side right now. Send your money directly to the American Red Cross.
Dammit, I had the word cr*d*t in my last comment and it got held.
I made the mistake of using p*ker, so I know your pain :)
@6
“Watching LA Gov. Blanco crying on TV last night was a pretty good illustration of the leadership in Louisiana that has contributed to this condition.”
Why is it that every time a liberal politician sheds tears of frustration, grief, or even joy the Rethugs jump all over him/her for showing emotion? We’ve now had almost 5 years of cold-hearted Rethuglican leadership, and it sucks. In every imaginable way. Rethuglicans don’t care what happens to other people. No thank you.
Yknow I think I’ve figured out why the Bush admin. infuriates me so …
I’m always having to remind my teenager to “take responsibility” … it bothers me that you goofed around all day and your chores didn’t get done, but it bothers me even more that you won’t admit your mistake and begin working to correct it. All I hear is excuses and whining, instead of stepping up to the plate, taking full responsibility, and getting stuff done.
Bush is exactly like my teenager. Can’t admit a mistake even if its obvious. Always pointing the finger at someone else. All spin and no results.
Wrong Again @ 8
“And watching that empy suit of a governor, Blanco. All she does is stand around looking teary eyed. Come on lady, do something.”
Do what? Bush took away her National Guard and sent it to Iraq. Bush took away the money for levees and spent it in Iraq. Bush gutted FEMA and put a boob in charge. WTF is she supposed to do?
Folks, the nonaction you are witnessing is what government looks like when it’s run by people who hate government and want to destroy government. This is the everyone-for-himself ideology in action.
Better decide right now if this is what you want for yourself and your loved ones if disaster ever strikes your home, business, or family. Because this is what you get by voting for Republicans.
Oh yea Rabbit! I agree – tears, snuffling whining and lip biting do oh so much good for those suffering. Let’s have a bit more of it.
I thought New Orleans had a Dem mayor? What could be worse?
Heath @102, commenting on righton’s desires:
A republican, or a male republican? Either way, maybe the governor from the right could wave a magic wand and materials [materialize] more National Guard.
One already did.
Excerpts from a Chertoff press appearance yesterday:
As we speak, in addition to local law enforcement, we have 2,800 National Guard in New Orleans as we speak today; 1,400 additional National Guard military police trained soldiers will be arriving every day — 1,400 today, 1,400 tomorrow and 1,400 the next day.
**********************
We are also, by the way, mindful of the situation in Mississippi. There, of course, we don’t have the extensive flooding, but we have destruction of a number of coastal communities. We’ve been talking to Governor Barbour. There are substantial National Guard personnel on the ground in Mississippi assisting and maintaining order there.
As of last night, there were 2,700 National Guard in Mississippi. By the end of today, there will be 6,000. And ultimately, we envision 9,500 National Guard deployed in various places in Mississippi.
Let me count it up for you. In New Orleans, National Guard deployment by day’s end would come to 4200 on Thursday, 5600 on Friday, 7000 on Saturday. In Mississippi, the end-of-day totals were 2700 on Wednesday, 6000 on Friday, 9500 very soon.
Conclusion — being a male Republican governor (especially one who ran GOP, Inc.) puts you at the front of the line.
I thought New Orleans had a Dem mayor? What could be worse?
-Comment by righton— 9/2/05 @ 1:29 pm
Easy answer:
King County
Seattle
Washington
Now that fucking asshole Jesse Jackson is criticizing GWB claiming racism is behind the poor response. How the fuck can anybody take him seriously?
Wrong Again (and Hypocrite too) @27
“You libs are shameless; corpses aren’t even cold and your going ape*hit with the politics.”
Thanks for refraining from playing politics with the disaster on this board, Wrong Headed. Dipshit.
N in seattle
Nice try on the racist angle, but the Lousiana national guard works for the Democratic governor of Louisana. Call her up if you think she’s slower than Barbour.
@133
Um, gee, maybe because a lot of people think Republicans ARE racists?
@133 (continued)
I have a better theory, though. Republicans simply are contemptuous of anyone who doesn’t have a lot of money, and have outright hatred for poor people.
@129
Heartless bastard. All Republicans are heartless bastards. You’re a heartless bastard, too.
roger at 139
its a lot of work keeping up with you guys. I thought the library closed early today.
I saw in the news this morning that Schwarzenegger’s approval rating has dropped to 36% and his disapproval rating is pushing close to 60%. His numbers are even worse than Shrub’s. Looks like he’s going to be a half-term governor.
@139
You have too much time on your hands. Get a job.
Wabbit – GD it… I know you’re not stupid. Stop saying stupid fucking shit.
Oh, excuse me, I forgot — you have a job. So, tell me, who’s paying you to post your tripe? The RNC? Discovery Institute? Heritage? A Scaife foundation?
@141
You first.
roger, go watch the Connick video (on msnbc or the today show)….i totally agree w the guy, and he’s not hearless about this.. (awesome interview, he’s threatening to run for office)
Righton @ 130
“I thought New Orleans had a Dem mayor? What could be worse?”
Well, how about a Bush-like Republican mayor: “Wait ’till I’m done reading ‘my pet goat,’ playing my guitar, and my political team figure out how to spin this and what I am supposed to say, and then I will overreact to fix the situation.
Or how about a Chuck-like anti-government Republican mayor. “Evacuation? Hell, only pussies evacuate! Besides, we told these people to stock their compounds with food and ammo. It is their own damn fault if they are hungry and getting robbed!”
Yep. . . could be worse than a Democratic mayor kicking Bush squarely in the NUTS with a few tears.
@143
Thanks for the tip, but I don’t have a fast enough computer or connection to run video.
Connick was awesome, i suspect slightly liberal but hugely straight talking
This article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9117367/
Quotes Lt. Col. Mike Milord as reporting that 35%, or 3000, of Louisiana’s National Guard troops “are supporting deployed operations” in Iraq.
Otherwise, Louisiana has 3,500 active National Guard troops, and between 2,000-3,500 inactive Guard members.
A friend of mine is an Inactive Reservist in another state. She is a mom of two kids, ages 4 months and 3 years. The people on Inactive Reserve count toward the totoal number of troops to varying estimates.
So, here is part of the problem: 35% of the Louisiana is deployed to Iraq, and that percentage includes Inactive Reservists in the total. If you count Active Reservists only, the figure is 46% deployed.
@144
Actually, dj, parts of the Rethug program merit our serious consideration. The idea of summary executions, for example. Starting with our non-functioning “leadership” in the WH and Congress.
so why aren’t they deploying 54% of their NG troops?
Uh-oh, now Ann Coulter will accuse me of plagiarism.
righton@149 –
When you exclude inactive reservists, the 3500 being deployed presently are 54% of the Guard.
After the current emergency is counted, Louisiana’s National Guard’s Active Reservists are 100% deployed.
Roger; you just made a threat in post 148. I think that’s illegal. (seriously)
Roger Rabbit @ 150,
“Uh-oh, now Ann Coulter will accuse me of plagiarism.”
Maybe not. But Sharkansky most certianly will!
Continued: The 100% deployed are: 54% for this emergency, 46% in Iraq.
If they call up the Inactive Reservists, the lowest the Iraq total can go is 35%. But they will be unable to call up all of the Inactive Reservists, is my guess. I am not sure if there’s an emergency process that makes the Active Duty immediately — I think they have to go through a process to come back on-line.
right on, enough already, it is obvious that even though you are a neocon, you are enfatuated and probably aroused watching the Connick video. Maybe you should go to the peep shows and relieve yourself
Comment on 147
According to my calculator, 86% of LA’s active NG troops are in Iraq. One may ask why the inactive NG isn’t called to active duty … let me take a stab at this … because the phones don’t work? because there’s no way to find them? because some are dead, missing, or stranded? because … ?
… because their armories, staging areas, vehicles, and equipment were destroyed by the storm? because … ?
Great photo-op for the trolls.
righton @ 152
“Roger; you just made a threat in post 148. I think that’s illegal. (seriously)”
You fucking moron, satire is protected speech. Are you working on your GED?
Rabbit — What numbers did you plug into your calculator? I don’t get those answers.
The reason some Inactive Duty Reservists aren’t called up is that they haven’t been mustered into Active Duty and their ability to serve is unknown. They are supposed to maintain an ability to serve, but many of them may currently be able to get a waiver/unable to serve.
dj; go ask air america, randy rhodes if its free speech. You can’t say those things w/ respect to the presdient, even if its a nasty democrat.
No, the sensible thing to do is bring in Guardsmen from states not devastated by the storm where the phones work, the staging areas and equipment are intact, the Guardsmen are not preoccupied with the loss of their own homes and families, buuut … this requires coordination at the federal level which is sadly lacking under this fucked-up excuse for an administration.
Clueless @ 158,
“Great photo-op for the trolls.”
Did you notice that someone photoshopped in a cake so that it looks like Bush is licking his thumb instead of sucking it? “Moooooooommmmmmeeyyyyyyyy, what should I doooooo!”
True — they would have to pass a physical, not be sick or pregnant, etc. Heath — I divided 3000 by 3500 to get the percentage of active duty LA guardsmen in Iraq, using the numbers you posted @ 147.
righton @ 161
“You can’t say those things w/ respect to the presdient, even if its a nasty democrat.”
Yes, you can.
@129 Heartless bastard. All Republicans are heartless bastards. You’re a heartless bastard, too. -Comment by Roger Rabbit— 9/2/05 @ 1:39 pm
Oh you’re right BunnyButt.
Here, let me weep a few crocodile tears for you “() () () () ()”, let me get on a “sad face” :-( ,let me snurgle a few snots and grab my Chapstick before I bite my lip and assume a baleful look….
There.
According to your lib criteria, I now have a heart.
I wonder if the victims can use that more than the cash we donated?
According to you, yes.
Roger@177 –
That’s what I was afraid of. :)
There are apparently 6500 Active Duty Reservists in the La. National Guard right now: 3000 in Iraq, 3500 called up for the local emergency. 3500:3000 out of 6500 is 56%:45% out of 100%.
Based on the quotes in the article, there are 2000-3500 Inactive Duty Reservists in the La. NG.
What would YOU have done armchair mayors?
What would YOU have done armchair city councilmen?
What would YOU have done armchair governors?
What would YOU have done armchair presidents?
So what would you have done, ASS? Come on, you arrogant, self-absorbed fucking prick. You’re as much an armchair wannabe as anyone else, in addition to being a shamelessly partisan Republican apologist.
What would you have done to ensure everyone in New Orleans evacuate? Would you have been playing guitar at a fundraiser while people drowned in the country you’re supposed to protect? When a year ago the Army Corps of Engineers wanted to study the effects of a catostrophic hurricane on New Orleans, would you have opted out? Would you have then, after the fact, been so completely ignorant as to say “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” on Good Morning America? Would you have reduced New Orleans’ flud control funding by 44% in 2001, then in 2004 cut over 80% of the money the core of engineers needed to hold back Lake Pontchartrain? If you were FEMA’s director, would you have been widely quoted in the media saying you had no idea people were even in the NO convention center until yesterday?
Come on, ASS. It’s hard to believe even you would have managed the relief effort so poorly. People are going to point out these faults, not out of the belief that they could have done the job better, but because it should have been done better.
After all the posturing from assholes in your party about the need to protect Americans from threats at home, this is the best you guys could do? Is this what we can expect the next time al Qaeda pulls off an attack on our soil?
God help us, because your ideology has failed in every respect at running this nation.
righton @146, on my post about Guard deployment in LA and MS:
Nice try on the racist angle, but the Lousiana national guard works for the Democratic governor of Louisana. Call her up if you think she’s slower than Barbour.
Racist????? I was talking about vs. governors, you moron.
As I understand it, these are Guard deployments coming in from other states, not the sent-to-Iraq LA or MS National Guard (for instance, 2500 from Pennsylvania). I doubt that that’s done at the state level; it’s got to be “coordinated” by the feds.
heath@65–
heath asked a legit question about if everyone has a gas wrench & knows how to turn the gas off.
heath—I know how to use the wrench to turn off my natural gas supply. Is that what you are talking about?? Or are you referring to YOURSELF…the consummate gasbag???
I’m looking at my wrench and I suppose it could possibly be used to beat you into silence thus shutting you up gasbag!!
Here are some percentages of troops not deployed to Iraq and available to help, but from the Pentagon:
“Nonetheless, Pentagon officials pointed out that 65% of Louisiana’s total Guard force and 60% of Mississippi’s Guard members are available to assist in hurricane relief, along with 77% of Alabama’s total Guard force.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....2443.story
I think whether 65% or 56% of the La. Guard is available depends on whether you count all the Inactive Reservists, or none of them.
No matter what, 35-44% percent deployed is a lot.
The LA Times article also claims that the deployed units include the civil engineering units that would be most needed right now.
Ooops, the above makes no sense because I used HTML tag symbols in the wrong place. Substitute
Racist????? I was talking about male Republican vs. female Democratic governors, you moron.
for my first paragraph in the earlier comment.
Cynical@182-
I challenged you to an unarmed contest long ago. If you want to bring a wrench, OK. Where should we meet?
ProudAss
“Here, let me weep a few crocodile tears for you “() () () () ()”, let me get on a “sad face” ,let me snurgle a few snots and grab my Chapstick before I bite my lip and assume a baleful look….
There.
According to your lib criteria, I now have a heart.”
Exactly, just like Bush is doing, when he is really thinking, “Shit! I’ve fucked this up just like my daddy did. Must spin. . . . “
dj@186 –
You left out one part of the act. The President also has to say, “Now is not the time for people to bring politics into this. We have an emergency to respond to.”
The President says this when people accuse him of doing a bad job. That way, any talk of him doing a bad job is irresponsible politicking during a time of crisis.
Nevermind that he always does a bad job, and politics is what he does for a living.
Be honest little horsesasshole – GW Bush could swim through the damned lake, carry victims on his back to safety and shelter then turn over the keys to his ranch to them and you would still despise him.
And that’s all this noise you little libs are spewing is really all about.
Mommy must be so proud of her MY KID IS AN HONOR STUDENT AT IDIOTS ELEMENTARY
Be honest 187, Bush would never do that. He would get dirty.
Yeah, and neither would ASS.
n in seattle
I’m just faster than you guys; you should be dumping on fact the GOP governor of MIss, with coastal hotels and nice homes, got going pretty darn quick, while Lousiana with mostly poor people flooded out, moved slower. You should say, Darn, rich white folk get a better deal.
I wish I was stupid enough to be a republican. Life is so much easier when you don’t think.
@165
It’s satire, you jackass!
Also — since you’re stupid and everything has to be spelled out for you — the context clearly implies that government would be carrying out the “summary executions” so it’s certainly not a threat by me!
Finally, asshole, why is it okay for right-wingers like Coulter to go around talking about “executing” liberals but if we borrow her words it’s a “threat?”
Tell you what, if you think the Bunny deserves judicial punishment for the post @ 161, why don’t you throw me in the same cell as Coulter? Now THAT would be punishment! I’ll go to jail when she goes to jail …
@179
Careful now or you might turn into a Democrat.
@179
Roger; must be the sterno or whatever. Fed law against this, even joking, w/ the Pres.
Try your logic out next time at the airport, make a satirical statment similar to the summary execution one. Go see what happens.
Coulter wasn’t even obliquely threatening the pres
Has anyone besides me noticed the Wingys are 100% in favor of shooting looters — until they think you’re talking about the Looter In Chief?
(Actually, I didn’t mention anyone specifically.)
@193
Where did I mention the President?
Try your logic out next time at the airport, make a satirical statment similar to the summary execution one. Go see what happens.
Yeah, except at the airport they have signs specifically prohibiting jokes of any kind.
@193
“Coulter wasn’t even obliquely threatening the pres”
Neither was I, except in your drug-hazed imagination.
I’m not at the airport, asshole. I’m posting on HorsesAss. HA isn’t the airport. HA is the outhouse where I shit on little troll fucks like you.
Now that I’m Dean Logan in Stefan’s (fill in adjective) imagination, and Stefan is an election worker, it’s my duty to supervise him.
Checking up on Stefan, I see he’s complaining today that the absentee ballot envelope, which says
“Federal and state laws require you to be registered to vote only at the address at which you currently reside. You CANNOT change your voter registration by writing on this envelope. To change your voter registration address, contact King County Elections at 206-296-VOTE.”
isn’t EXPLICIT enough in describing voter qualifications as required by RCW 29A.40.091, which says,
“If the county auditor chooses to forward absentee ballots, he or she must include with the ballot a clear explanation of the qualifications necessary to vote in that election and must also advise a voter with questions about his or her eligibility to contact the county auditor.”
Yeah whatever Stefan. Sometimes I think Stefan talks just because he likes to hear himself talk.
How could the U.S. federal government, with its newly retooled “homeland security” department spend so much money on disaster preparedness and then respond to a slow-motion crisis (two days warning, and 3 days of water filling New Orleans) worse than most third-world governments do after cyclones and tsunamis?
How could the mayor order poor people to the Superdome and not plan to provide them food and water?
ouch, i’m good.
@201
“How could the mayor order poor people to the Superdome”
So they wouldn’t be killed by the hurricane winds, flooding, and flying debris?
“and not plan to provide them food and water?”
Because he didn’t have any?
righton @ 201,
“How could the mayor order poor people to the Superdome and not plan to provide them food and water?”
In fact, the serious problems were a lack of toilets, the inability to dispose of dead bodies, no air conditioning, no electricity, lack of medical assistance for people on medications, dialysis, etc. Lack of food and water was not really the most pressing problem–they had several days worth.
Who would have expected it to take 4 freaking days for the government to deliver more food and water into the Superdome? Even Bangladesh could have handled that!
I guess mayor of N.O. must not know about 1x a year his town is threatened by a hurricane.
righton @ 204
I guess you don’t have a clue about what the mayor of N.O. knows or doesn’t know.
Hey, your last post was only 19 words, and only about 12 conveyed meaning. Do you get paid less for those short ones?
Darn, i forgot mayor was the cable guy. Maybe he’ll get a signal for all those plasma tvs we keep seeing.
double ouch
righton @ 206,
And then there nonsensical posts like 206. Do you get full wage for these?
So you all have never said boo about the failure of the city officials in any of this….is that back on target enuf for you? The mayor was a cable co mgr, what’s he done… esp in a town know for corruption
Codes up to snuf?
bldgs really built to code or did inspectors look the other way
No buses for people though they sent them to the Superdome?
No police inside the Superdome (aren’t those people residents?)
No real plan
“So you all have never said boo about the failure of the city officials in any of this….is that back on target enuf for you?”
Perhaps that is because the topic of Goldy’s post is about the lack of qualifications of the director of FEMA.
But, feel free to go to the open thread and stir up a conversation about your (rather ignorant, in my opinion) view of the mayor. Try to do a little research first—I mean outside of the bullshit sources that usually feed you.
sorry, there’s enough random crap in this post such that I don’t feel the least bit random by noting its unfair to blame the whole thing solely on bush and fema dude. If people are to blame (as opposed to solely the natural disaster) then add the mayor and governor to the list
righton @ 210,
There you go again with your fucked up “black or white” attitude. Nobody said it was all a fuck-up by FEMA. Nevertheless, the topic of Goldy’s post is the lack of qualifications of the director of FEMA and what a misrable job the federal government has done in this disaster—not just in New Orleans, not just in Louisiana, but in Mississippi and other areas, too.
The primary disaster relief efforts for a regional disaster, or even a more localized disaster in which most local infrastructure is disabled or destroyed, is with the federal government. Hence the larger focus on the feds.
@210
The mayor can’t order up the National Guard or mobilize the federal resources needed to deal with a large disaster, jackass! And the governor couldn’t order the Guard to duty because Bush sent 86% of them to Iraq.
The mayor can’t order up the National Guard or mobilize the federal resources needed to deal with a large disaster, jackass! And the governor couldn’t order the Guard to duty because Bush sent 86% of them to Iraq. -Comment by Roger Rabbit— 9/2/05 @ 4:55 pm
I call bullshit on you dumbbunnybutt:
Plenty of Troops
One of the myths the Angry Left has been peddling in the wake of Katrina is that there aren’t enough National Guardsmen to deal with the disaster because they’re all off in Iraq. National Review Online’s James Robbins offers a dose of reality:
Take the Army for example. There are 1,012,000 soldiers on active duty, in the Reserves, or in the National Guard. Of them, 261,000 are deployed overseas in 120 countries. Iraq accounts for 103,000 soldiers, or 10.2 percent of the Army.
That’s all? Yes, 10.2 percent. That datum is significant in itself, a good one to keep handy the next time someone talks about how our forces are stretched too thin, our troops are at the breaking point, and so forth. If you add in Afghanistan (15,000) and the support troops in Kuwait (10,000) you still only have 12.6 percent.
So where are the rest? 751,000 (74.2 percent) are in the U.S. About half are active duty, and half Guard and Reserve. The Guard is the real issue of course–the Left wants you to believe that the country has been denuded of its citizen soldiers, and that Louisiana has suffered inordinately because Guardsmen and women who would have been available to be mobilized by the state to stop looting and aid in reconstruction are instead risking their lives in Iraq.
Recall, too, that many of the same people who are now say the National Guard is too important to waste on American security overseas a year ago were insisting that George W. Bush was a bum for serving in the Texas Air National Guard while “war hero” John Kerry was in Vietnam.
ProudAss @ 215
You are stoopider than normal today Ass. Getting a little rusty in the logic department, perhaps?
Read this thread. . . the number of National Guard members in LA and MS are given above. Other members of the military are irrelevant because the Governor has no authority over them. In other words, Bush was the commander in chief who could have done something with all those folks. The fact is, within each affected state, the Guard was substantially drawn down by the war in Iraq.
The next time you read right-wing tripe that seems too good to be true, think about it before spouting off—particularly when you have no prior knowledge about it.
You are stoopider than normal today dj. Getting a little rusty in the logic department, perhaps?
Read the article…not just the first line synopsis, Mr-Cliffnotes-barely-got-me-through-remedial-English:
According to Lieutenant General H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, 75 percent of the Army and Air National Guard are available nationwide. In addition, the federal government has agreed since the conflict in Iraq started not to mobilize more than 50 percent of Guard assets in any given state, in order to leave sufficient resources for governors to respond to emergencies.
See that KEY WORD, Mr-cliffnotes-got-through-remedial-English?NATIONAL Guard.
In Louisiana only about a third of Guard personnel are deployed, and they will be returning in about a week as part of their normal rotation. The Mississippi Guard has 40 percent overseas.
a third…that’s 33 out of every 100, Mr Math Challenged, which means 67 out of every 100 are on home soil and readily available to be assigned duty. 67 is MORE than 33, Mr Math Challenged.
40 percent>…that’s 40 out of every 100, Mr Math Challenged, which means 60 out of every 100 are on home soil and readily available to be assigned duty. 60 is MORE than 40, Mr Math Challenged.
Proud Ass–
You are arguing numbers with a donk. Come on they can’t even count votes right.
ASS and Rufus-
Are you really prepared to argue that the Federal response was timely or reasonable?
ProudAss @ 217
“According to Lieutenant General H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, 75 percent of the Army and Air National Guard are available nationwide.”
Holy shit, you are a fucking moron today. It does not matter what the U.S. average is. 75% was NOT available to the governors of LA and MS. Those states have a much higher proportion deployed overseas.
That means that the Federal Government, not the state government has to act to mobilize states with more Guard available.
RUFUS @ 218
“You are arguing numbers with a donk.”
No, she wasn’t. I’m not a Democrat.
219; Why should we only argue about the Fed response? We both know its because the Fed has a GOP government, whilst the City and State both are Demo….
Its politics.
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE!!! We should argue about the Federal response because this is a national emergency. Do you know what FEMA is? the Federal EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Agency. How have they managed this emergency so far? Did the local authorities make mistakes, certainly. If they were perfect (and they surely were not) they could not handle this. Can’t you get it through your partisan skull that the Feds have failed miserably. Why did the planes ust leave McCord today? Ifv the Cubans launched a flotilla and invaded Lousiana, the Feds would be there. THese damages are much worse.
Kong reporting at 10pm news, “1/2 of the N.O. police force has fled their jobs, leaving the other 1/2 to handle things.
Nice job not blaming them, but of course trying to blame bush..
Ya’ll only after Bush’s scalp, we’re not buying your nonsense
First of all we are at war. What % of the National Guard do you think was ready at stand by when this disaster occurred? Where are all the city police? Is the mayor and idiot not to have the police in full force in a situation like this?
223
Wouldn’t you think that the City of New Orleans would have a disaster plan for this type of emergency? I could understand why they would not plan on an attack by a foreign county. For crying out loud the city is fucking 6 feet below sea level and surrounded by water.
We are at war with a president leading us who does not have the courage to ask the country to pay the cost. How are we going to pay the financial costs? And what is the cost in readiness? Can you agrue the military was not less able to respond to this disaster? It’s still fire season here. What if the wild fires start? DO we have the resources for that? If it is a war impoprtant enough for us to be involved in, than let Bush ask the country to do more than accept tax cuts.
Why’d 1/2 the police force up and desert their city?
Because they were left without the federal support they had every right to expect. Because after days without support their families are at risk and they saw no help coming.
And the topic of this thread was ?????????
It was either incompetence or Arabian horses – I’m not sure which.
228
In a way I could see your point. The police in New Orleans worked for a liberal government. It doesnt suprise me one bit that they cut and run given the leadership they were under. There are examples right here on how well the police are backed up by the leadership of this community.
Ah, of course, its all George Bush’s fault…
You know you guys make like zip points with stupid one sided logic like that.
No, it’s not all Bush’s fault. It is his fault he appointed a political hack to head FEMA, not an emergency response expert (didn’t I haer some of you criticizing the monorail board for not having transportation expertise). It’s his fault Homeland Security obsessed with terrorism, no doubt a real concern, but ignored natural disasters, also a real concern. It’s his fault that the budget requests for levee repairs were slashed. It’s his fault that the military took so to mobilize. How quickly can a MASH unit get im place? WHy did it take so long.
Surely there is local blame. Just as surely there’s plenty of blame for Bush.
Deny it and you’re either an ass or a liar.
K;
7 lines dissing bush, 1/2 of 1 on libs… what’s fair about that?
#
I’m not gonna weigh in on the politics of FEMA… but what is clear is that when disaster strikes, each of us needs to be able to fend for ourselves for a while. This whole fiasco should act as a reminder to us to renew our emergency supplies. FEMA website has a good list of stuff you should have on hand.
Comment by Mark The Redneck — 9/2/05 @ 10:03 am
MTR, pretty much everything you ever write makes my blood boil, but for once I agree with you 100% (I was just thinking today I’ve got a few days worth of canned and dry food, but where exactly would I get water for a week if things really fell apart during a disaster).
To get back to placing some richly deserved blame, the disaster in New Orleans has been made immeasurably worse by GW “Nero” Bush. I can’t imagine one of his primary opponents in the 2000 election making 1/100th mess he has in his miserable failure of a term (let alone bleeding our military white by going to war alone in Iraq).
234 – righton demands political equity on a liberal board – fair and balanced like (un)SP.
Takes brains…
Clueless, you screwed up
You used the L word; didn’t you get the orders from on high that you guys are now called progressives?
righton
When a disaster surpasses local capabilities, the Federal Government is responsible for coming in to assist. THey failed.
237 – Better check in with the RNC righton, your shilling check is waiting. They put an expiration date on those.
Conservatives would have us believe that the great Depression was the fault of liberals. That the National Guard is needed in other nations more than here. That we don’t judge people on the basis of skin color. That the country was founded by Christians not unitarians. That you can silence criticism by pretending no problems exist. That God and the flag are one and the same. That big goverment is baaaad unless it signs my paycheck
Our talents were slightly better suited for the Federal Emegency Polo Association.
sorry, came into this blog late, ex blackhawk crew chief, saw blog #23 “nobody saw this coming” ? we knew since the 1800’s.
we were warned, it was ignored. wrong place to build a city. not enough emergency facilities, government hoped it wouldnt happen.
It did. I wish I knew who said it, but some one said ” if mother nature had been consulted, she never would have consented to New Orleans.” #1 take care of those hurt now, # 2 learn.
do not make the same mistake again, #2 take care of tose hurt now,
blog 243 was my first. glad to hear all of you expressing yourselves. Mark the red neck is right in that it is your responsibility to prepare yourselves, but we band together as a society for mutual benifit, and the preamble to the constitution mentions that one of the purposes of our American society is to “promote the general welfare” and the clearest example of this is police, fire, rescue, emergency medicine, and military. I do NOT fault the people serving, However they were not used correctly by D.C.
HEY WILD BILL, GET IT STRAIGHT! IF THE LIBERALS WOULD HAVE THEIR WAY, AND AT THE MOMENT THEY DONT FOR THE MOST PART. (THATS WHAT IS PISSING MOST OF THEM OFF). THE GOVERNMENT WOULD BE SIGNING OUR PAYCHECKS IN THE FORM OF SOCIAL SECURITY CHECKS AT THE AGE OF 25.I LIVE IN MAINE AND HAVE HEARD NUMEROUS PEOPLE AROUND HERE SAY THAT IF YOU CAN ACE A “RETARD” TEST, YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY CHECK IS IN THE MAIL. SO, TO ALL YOU LAZY LIBERAL WELFARE RECIPIENTS THAT I SUPPORT WITH MY HARD EARNED TAXES, GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASSES AND GET A FUCKIN JOB ASSHOLES
In Mike Brown’s world, the truth is defamatory (and it’s all the blogosphere’s fault anyway). From Think Progress: Appearing today before a congressional committee, Mike Brown explains what caused his downfall at FEMA: While FEMA was trying to re…
Watch the news tonight (local and national) for references to Seattle’s top political blog Horsesass.org and his involvement with the forces of darkness (in this case former FEMA head Brown’s lawyers). The Westneat column in the Seattle Times is on t…