President Bush is to blame for the scale of the disaster. agree/disagree?

JC

EOG Veteran
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1561356,00.html

Katrina comes home to roost

President Bush is to blame for the scale of the disaster as a result of his administration's policies and actions

Sidney Blumenthal
Friday September 2, 2005
The Guardian

Biblical in its uncontrolled rage and scope, the storm has left millions of Americans to scavenge for food and shelter, and hundreds reportedly dead. With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico. But the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina may not entirely be the result of an act of nature.

A year ago the US army corps of engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, the Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project. Operated by the corps of engineers, levees and pumping stations were strengthened and renovated. In 2001, when George Bush became president, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely potential disasters - after a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. By 2004, the Bush administration cut the corps of engineers' request for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80%. By the beginning of this year, the administration's additional cuts, reduced by 44% since 2001, forced the corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate debated adding funds for fixing levees, but it was too late.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane published a series on the federal funding problem - whose presses are underwater and can now only put out an online edition - has reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."

The Bush administration's policy of turning over wetlands to developers almost certainly has contributed to the heightened level of the storm surge. In 1990, a federal task force began restoring lost wetlands around New Orleans. Every two miles of wetland between the Crescent City and the Gulf reduces a surge by half a foot. Bush promised a "no net loss" wetland policy, which had been launched by his father's administration and bolstered by President Clinton. But he reversed the approach in 2003, unleashing the developers. The army corps of engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency announced they could no longer protect wetlands unless they were somehow related to interstate commerce. In response to this potential crisis, four leading environmental groups conducted a study that concluded in 2004 that without wetlands protection New Orleans could be devastated by an ordinary - much less a category four or five - hurricane. "There's no way to describe how mindless a policy that is when it comes to wetlands protection," said one of the report's authors. The chairman of the White House's council on environmental quality dismissed the study as "highly questionable", and boasted: "Everybody loves what we're doing."

"My administration's climate change policy will be science-based," President Bush declared. But in 2002, when the Environmental Protection Agency submitted a study on global warming to the UN, reflecting its expert research, Bush derided it as "a report put out by a bureaucracy", and excised the climate change assessment from its annual report. The next year, when the EPA issued its first comprehensive Report on the Environment, stating: "Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment", the White House simply removed the line and all such conclusions. At the G8 meeting in Gleneagles this year, Bush stymied any common action on global warming. But scientists have continued to accumulate impressive data on the rising temperature of the oceans, producing more severe hurricanes.

In February 2004, 60 scientists warned in a statement, Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policymaking: "Successful application of science has played a large part in the policies that have made the US the world's most powerful nation and its citizens increasingly prosperous and healthy ... Indeed, this principle has long been adhered to by presidents and administrations of both parties in forming and implementing policies. The administration of George W Bush has, however, disregarded this principle ... The distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends must cease..." Bush ignored the statement.

In the two weeks preceding the storm, the trumping of science by ideology and expertise by special interests accelerated. The Federal Drug Administration announced it was postponing sale of the morning-after pill, despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its safety and approval by the FDA's scientific advisory board.

The UN special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa accused the Bush administration of responsibility for a condom shortage in Uganda as a result of pushing its evangelical Christian agenda of "abstinence". The chief of the board of justice statistics in the justice department was ordered by the White House to delete its study that African-Americans and minorities are subject to racial profiling in police traffic stops. He refused to concede and was forced to quit. When the army's chief contracting oversight analyst objected to a $7bn no-bid contract awarded for work in Iraq to Halliburton, she was demoted despite her superior professional ratings.

On the day the levee burst in New Orleans, Bush delivered a speech comparing the Iraq war to the second world war and himself to Franklin D Roosevelt: "And he knew that the best way to bring peace and stability to the region was by bringing freedom to Japan." Bush had boarded his very own Streetcar Named Desire.

? Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Clinton, is author of The Clinton Wars
 

dirty

EOG Master
Anyone That believes one person is Responsible for the Hurricane is a God Damnded Idiot


Their have been many requests (13 as a matter of fact over 30 years) by the Army Corps (this is said CORE by you Government School Educated People) of Engineers


To Blame it on Bush is Lunacy



You leftist Freaks need to Get a grip on Life Not Communism
 
You bleeders act like it is as simple as going to the store and picking up case of beer and some steaks. It's a major operation taking days maybe weeks to evac. these people. EVERYTHING for miles is destroyed, roads are flooded or just plain gone. If it's such an easy task maybe you and a few of your buddies should run down there and carpool some of these poor people out of town.
It's desperate horrible operation, so rather than place blame say a few prayers for these people. Their going to need it! MAY'N!
 

ZZ CREAM

EOG Master
TONY MONTANA said:
You bleeders act like it is as simple as going to the store and picking up case of beer and some steaks. It's a major operation taking days maybe weeks to evac. these people. EVERYTHING for miles is destroyed, roads are flooded or just plain gone. If it's such an easy task maybe you and a few of your buddies should run down there and carpool some of these poor people out of town.
It's desperate horrible operation, so rather than place blame say a few prayers for these people. Their going to need it! MAY'N!
You are correct Tony! When leadership does not have any contingency plans in place and all you worry about are your poll numbers, it probably does take weeks or even longer to activate a valid response! No one doubts how long recovery will take, but as for basics such as water and food , the response time here has been 'unacceptable'!
 

Nimue77

EOG Senior Member
"Me and my friends" don't have the resources of the federal government. What the heck is FEMA for if not for something like this?

TONY MONTANA said:
You bleeders act like it is as simple as going to the store and picking up case of beer and some steaks. It's a major operation taking days maybe weeks to evac. these people. EVERYTHING for miles is destroyed, roads are flooded or just plain gone. If it's such an easy task maybe you and a few of your buddies should run down there and carpool some of these poor people out of town.
It's desperate horrible operation, so rather than place blame say a few prayers for these people. Their going to need it! MAY'N!
 
I don't mean to piss you off. All I'm saying is it's not as easy as dumping food and clean water out of a plane. These things take time. It's just a horrible situation.
 

dirty

EOG Master
I agree with Tony

This is the most Massive undertaking ever by our country


The Feds have been spending 500 to 700 million a day on the cleanup


And people forget Congress is in Recess til after the Holiday. They couldn't Refill FEMA's Coffers until enough Travelled back to Washington to sign the 10.5 billlion dollar aid Bill.


The Responsibility starts with state and Local governments to have contingency plans. It is not the Feds Job to do it until the States Fail....They did and Now they are there taking over
 
X

xpanda

Guest
Watching this stuff on the tube, it looks like a LOT of people are to blame for the response to this disaster.

Some governor on tv talking about how he was "begging" people to evacuate on Saturday ... well, did he organise buses to round up the sick and elderly and children and get them out? Haven't heard anything about that.

The authorities send thousands of people to the convention centre, but then NOBODY tells the relief folks that they're there?!?!?! Are you kidding me? Whoever is responsible for that SNAFU is responsible for every death taking place there. Disgraceful.

As for Bush, god knows that if your National Guard weren't performing it's new International Guard duties, this response would have been faster and much bigger in scale. As it is, it's hard to bring the resources needed when those resources are tied up elsewhere.

What REALLY disgusts me, however (and this IS a Bush issue) is that the oil and gas issues were addressed awfully damned quick. I don't give a crap if I have to pay an extra 50 cents a litre for my gas if that means the people dying of dehydration are tended to FIRST.

I'm curious, too ... have there been any stories of everyday citizens taking refugees into their homes? I'm absolutely flabbergasted that I've not heard reports of this. Seems to me a totally natural thing to do under the circumstances.
 
X

xpanda

Guest
No sooner do I type that and CNN reports that a town in Louisiana is going to take people into their homes.

GOOD.

That's the way it should be.
 

Nimue77

EOG Senior Member
That only shows the feds should change the rules so congress can vote remotely when necessary. Still, they should be able to get to D.C. in 1 day. Better yet, it should be unecessary because the emergency management agencies in the states and FEMA should have been more prepared for something like this. Instead they waste their money fighting an in iraq, afghanistan, and against an ism.

dirty said:
I agree with Tony

This is the most Massive undertaking ever by our country


The Feds have been spending 500 to 700 million a day on the cleanup


And people forget Congress is in Recess til after the Holiday. They couldn't Refill FEMA's Coffers until enough Travelled back to Washington to sign the 10.5 billlion dollar aid Bill.


The Responsibility starts with state and Local governments to have contingency plans. It is not the Feds Job to do it until the States Fail....They did and Now they are there taking over
 

dirty

EOG Master
xpanda said:
I'm curious, too ... have there been any stories of everyday citizens taking refugees into their homes? I'm absolutely flabbergasted that I've not heard reports of this. Seems to me a totally natural thing to do under the circumstances.


http://www.shareyourhome.org



It has been widely Reported all over the channels I watch about people offerering up thier Homes. As a Matter of Fact They even showed a whole Plane of Uprooted people landing at Dobins AF base in ATL for people in GA to help.



watching the Communist news network all the time you only get the slanted left and Half the story.
 

dirty

EOG Master
ZZ CREAM said:
You guys wouldn't recognize unadulterated news if Bernard Shaw showed up at at one of your Republican/Klan meetings! LOL!


Typical Left Bashing when they have nothing else to say or someone has a decent counterpoint to thier Socialism and Commust Karl Marx thinking.


I am a Conservative so I have to be in the Klan or just like Hitler to the Bleeding heart liberals


Throw enough of that crap against the wall and some will have to stick I guess.
 
A cursing mayor on the radio and a governor looking like a deer in the headlights. No plans before it happened and no action just after it happened. Overmatched.

And FEMA....as outdated as a black and white TV. Wow.
 
X

xpanda

Guest
dirty said:
watching the Communist news network all the time you only get the slanted left and Half the story.

I live in Canada. I don't get your local news. The American news I do get is all on the major networks, and I had not heard it reported. Have heard plenty of good Samaritan stories just not that one.

Or maybe you missed the part where I ask the question, "has anyone heard reports of people taking the refugees into their homes?"

No need for your snippety implication that I've been brainwashed by the media.
 

dirty

EOG Master
xpanda said:
I live in Canada. I don't get your local news. The American news I do get is all on the major networks, and I had not heard it reported. Have heard plenty of good Samaritan stories just not that one.

Or maybe you missed the part where I ask the question, "has anyone heard reports of people taking the refugees into their homes?"

No need for your snippety implication that I've been brainwashed by the media.



Not really noted for you. For everyone else that lives and dies by CNN.....I try to watch them all. The great Help stories have been Reported by Fox News, MSNBC and Other Cable Outlets. IN the US at least you will not get many of the True stories and only slanted parts of the News by the Broadcast Networks. That is why Viewership is at a alltime low. They don't report the News anymore they try to Create it.


I apologize if I offended you on the subject.
 
X

xpanda

Guest
Well, since you brought it up, CNN was talking nonstop last night about people taking people into their homes.

Of course Fox News wants to paint a pretty picture here ... they know precisely who they need to protect.
 
Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Vacation is Over... an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush


Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.
 

Woody

EOG Veteran
xpanda said:
I'm curious, too ... have there been any stories of everyday citizens taking refugees into their homes? I'm absolutely flabbergasted that I've not heard reports of this. Seems to me a totally natural thing to do under the circumstances.

Yes, Canadians especially in Halifax did that following 9/11 for the displaced persons.

I believe a great deal of the tragedy of New Orleans rests at the door of the governor Blanco of Louisiana. On Friday, over 48 hours before Katrina hit, they were looking at a category 5 hurricane with New Orleans as the bulls eye. Why martial law was not declared in New Orleans and the National Guard called out to supervise a mandatory evacuation is something I will never understand. You can say that hindsight makes it easy to say this but those people have to know that the levees were built to withstand category 3.

Inability to act at the political level magnified the disaster.

Reminds me of Pierre Trudeau, who declare martial law in Quebec following the assassination of Pierre Laporte. Here was a man who was a great liberal but who knew how to take action and then told the media he didn't care "what the bleeding heart liberals said".

Reminds me also of Nero of Rome.
 

ZZ CREAM

EOG Master
dirty said:
Typical Left Bashing when they have nothing else to say or someone has a decent counterpoint to thier Socialism and Commust Karl Marx thinking.


I am a Conservative so I have to be in the Klan or just like Hitler to the Bleeding heart liberals


Throw enough of that crap against the wall and some will have to stick I guess.
Enough crap eh? So, show me the states in the Confederate States of America that voted anything but Republican? You got it pal, not a single state in the whole Old South or 'New South' , home of the Ku Klux Klan! Show me an educated , liberal state in the South and I will change my opinion and take back what I said, everyone knows this but noone wants to talk about! Don't get me wrong, The Klan and its' views are spreading, especially in most Northern states, but hopefully, it will never be strong enough up there to predominate, but as your apt analogy showed, like Germany, you too can have your fascist state! Kind of like having your cake and eatting it too! You guys deserve George W!
 
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