Bush's Battle of New Orleans (for driver,cgm et al)

Parent Cafe
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<p>Maybe the next mayor will be a republican given the poor performance of this one and his police and other employees.</p>

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<p>Yes, let’s blame someone whose city is underwater, who doesn’t have access to dry, working, vehicles and supplies. Sure, it’s his fault for not planning better. </p>

<p>And yeah, it’s all those poor people’s fare at fault for not having 3 days of emergency supplies in a floating kit to survive the flood.</p>

<p>It’s not a partisan issue. It’s a matter of who has access to resources and how they choose to use them in our society.</p>

<p>Interesting story that 18 guarded buses evacuated the Ritz-Carlton last night. But food and water couldn’t be delivered to the Convention Center.</p>

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<p>They had several days to prepare. Those flooded school and city busses were not disabled Saturday and Sunday. It’s much harder to bring 500 busses in from outside than to use what was at hand. I have prepared for several hurricanes over the years and the first thing you do is get drinking water and things you can eat without cooking. Now you are right, I’m educated and planning for the future is what we do.</p>

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<p>X assumes that these folks are not also working families when in fact many worked in the Hotels, restaurants, cafes, etc. in NO for minimum wage.</p>

<p>It’s simple to compare the situation in NO with the aftermath of 9-11 to understand why so many people have concerns about the handling of NO. Compare the time-line of September 11. Rudolph had immediate and direct contact with W. W. offered government help to NYC hours immediately after the planes flew into the building.</p>

<p>The NO mayor had no such connections.</p>

<p>While folk discuss the inhuman and bumbling handling of human life, Americans all, we should mull over our emergency preparedness situation. There but for the grace of the Creator go we all. Because of “accident” of birth, born poor or African-American and poor should not matter in a Democratic nation.</p>

<p>We should all research and find out what are evacuation “orders” for the city in which you live. Washington, DC has no such information available to its residents.</p>

<p>OH YEAH!. . . .never mind. . .
We do not have voting rights either . . .</p>

<p>The Senators and Congressmen have evacuation information available to them but not to those of us living 5 blocks from the capital. If your entire family lives in NO and you are poor where exactly are you walking to?</p>

<p>FYI :100,000 residents of NO makes less than $8,000.</p>

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<p>I’m surprised no one’s linked to this article from today’s NYT…perhaps it’s too balanced in its assignation of blame to be used here.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial/02response.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial/02response.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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The city’s own plan stated that it would take 72 hours to completely evacuate the city. They didn’t issue the order until about 36 hours before landfall. There’s a great deal to be learned from this calamity, and I don’t think the federal response was close to perfect. I simply object to the tone of those suffering from chronic Bush Indignation Syndrome, or those who raise phony racial issues where none exist.</p>

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<p>Halliburton hired for storm cleanup
The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
ADVERTISEMENT</p>

<p>Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so.</p>

<p>KBR was assigned the work under a “construction capabilities” contract awarded in 2004 after a competitive bidding process. The company is not involved in the Army Corps of Engineers’ effort to repair New Orleans’ levees.</p>

<p>Oh goody</p>

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<p>Who better than Halliburton? Know of a better company for the job?</p>

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<p>Neither knee-jerk criticism of Bush nor knee-jerk support addresses the issues. There are still people trapped in houses, there are still people waiting for transport, there are still people dying. It doesn’t really matter if the mayor should have bussed them out (and I assume he has the authority to require other cities to shelter them???) What matter is who now has the resources to address the situation.</p>

<p>The levies broke. If they hadn’t the evacuation and shelter at the Superdome would have sufficed. If the mayor gambled and lost that they would hold, so did the federal government which has the responsibility for maintaining them. See, there’s plenty of hindsight blame to go around.</p>

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<p>Bush Admits Katrina Response ‘Not Enough’
Sep 02 7:48 PM US/Eastern</p>

<p>By JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press Writer</p>

<p>NEW ORLEANS</p>

<p>Scorched by criticism about sluggish federal help, President Bush acknowledged the government’s failure to stop lawlessness and help desperate people in New Orleans. “The results are not enough,” Bush said Friday in the face of mounting complaints from Republicans and Democrats alike. </p>

<p>Bush promised to crack down on crime and violence, rush food and medicine to the needy and restore electrical power within weeks to millions of customers across the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. </p>

<p>“This is a storm that requires immediate action now,” the president said after a daylong tour of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. “I understand the devastation requires more than one day’s attention. It’s going to require the attention of this country for a long period of time.” </p>

<p>Congress passed a $10.5 billion disaster aid package, and Bush said he would sign it by day’s end. He also said National Guard troops were moving in to restore order in New Orleans. He said the city’s convention center, where thousands of people sheltered for days in unsafe conditions, was secure. </p>

<p>Inspecting Gulf Coast disaster scenes from the air and on the ground, Bush said the damage was “worse than imaginable.” He consoled weeping women and praised Coast Guard teams that pulled stranded people from the roofs of flooded homes. In New Orleans, Bush flew by helicopter to the ruptured 17th Street levee and watched workers load huge sandbags that were airlifted and dropped into the breach. </p>

<p>He stayed far from the worst-hit areas of the city and places that have been gripped by crime. Bush met with state and local officials, including New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin who a day earlier had lashed out at federal officials: “They don’t have a clue what’s going on down here.” </p>

<p>“The president is starting to grasp the magnitude of the situation,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said, “The president obviously was just stunned” by what he saw. </p>

<p>Bush sprinkled levity in his remarks at New Orleans’ airport at the end of the day. He talked about Houston, which has agreed to house more than 15,000 evacuees from New Orleans, and recalled that he used to enjoy himself _ “occasionally too much” _ in that Texas town. </p>

<p>Four days after Katrina killed hundreds if not thousands, Republicans joined Democrats in wondering why it was taking so long to relieve the misery of so many people living in squalor without the necessities of life. </p>

<p>“If we can’t respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we’re prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?” asked former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican. </p>

<p>Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts called the government’s response “an embarrassment.” </p>

<p>Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., called upon Bush to recall National Guardsmen stationed in Iraq whose homes and families were in the path of Katrina’s destruction. The president said there were enough Guard troops for Iraq and recovery efforts. </p>

<p>The storm of criticism was stinging for a president who won widespread praise for his handling of the terrorist attacks four years ago. It was an unwelcome turn for Bush, suffering sagging approval ratings in the polls. </p>

<p>While Bush has been loath to admit errors throughout his presidency, he conceded that the recovery is not proceeding well. Some White House aides and Republicans were glad to hear the president stop defending the administration’s response when it was so obvious that conditions were so bad for so many people. </p>

<p>“Where it’s not working right, we’re going to make it right,” the president said after walking through a devastated neighborhood of Mobile, Ala. “Where it is working right, we’re going to duplicate it elsewhere.” </p>

<p>Bush faulted efforts to restore order in New Orleans, where looting, violence and other crimes have been rampant. Asked what he meant by unacceptable results, Bush said, “Well, I’m talking about the fact that we don’t have enough security in New Orleans yet.” He said 1,200 National Guard troops arrived there on Friday and that 1,200 were deployed on Thursday. </p>

<p>“They need to stabilize that situation,” the president said. “They need to make sure that the food and medicine that is in place is given to the people that need the food and medicine.” </p>

<p>He said he was not faulting efforts in Mississippi, where Republican Gov. Haley Barbour praised federal help. Still, Barbour said, “We’ve suffered a grievous blow that we won’t recover from for a long while” </p>

<p>There were calls from Republicans for Bush to name a prominent official to oversee the recovery. Gingrich suggested former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., suggested Giuliani, former Secretary of State Colin Powell or retired Gen. Tommy Franks to take charge. </p>

<p>In Biloxi, Miss., Bush comforted two weeping women on a street where a house had collapsed and towering trees were stripped of their branches. “My son needs clothes,” said Bronwynne Bassier, 23, clutching several trash bags. “I don’t have anything.” </p>

<p>“I understand that,” Bush said. He kissed both women on their heads and walked with his arms around them, telling them they could get help from the Salvation Army. “Hang in there,” he said. </p>

<p>Asked later how the richest country on Earth could not meet the needs of its people, Bush said: “I am satisfied with the response. I am not satisfied with all the results.” </p>

<p>Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would fly to her native Alabama on Sunday to view the destruction there. She acknowledged that the trip is an unusual one for the nation’s top diplomat. </p>

<p>“I’m an American and I’m a Southern American,” she told reporters. “I just hope I can be a little bit of an extension for a president who cares deeply about what’s going on in the Gulf region but can’t be everywhere.” </p>

<p>Rice, the administration’s highest-ranking black, dismissed criticism from black leaders who were angry about what they said was a slow federal response to a disaster affecting mostly poor people.</p>

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<p>Mini said this in another New Orleans thread. </p>

<p>“It’s the elephant in the middle of the parlor that no one wants to talk about.</p>

<p>(In America, race usually is.)”</p>

<p>Said differently, and more aptly, I think we could say that poverty (and its brute and ephemeral cause) is the elephant, while race may be the elephant’s foot prints. The people most in need are, by definition, the ones who need it the most so none should wonder that they need it now. </p>

<p>The bottom line is that the people of New Orleans (democrats and republicans, rich and poor alike) are miserable, even dying, while many quibble about how Bush and his oil chums have failed ‘us’ (insert rant—check other threads if drawing a blank). Should we not be slightly more productive, even if it only means offering our prayers instead of our witless jibes—that come in droves no matter what the occasion? </p>

<p>On another note: </p>

<p>The Republican Brain is trying to repair the political levees before 2008.</p>

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<p>Most of the rich got out, are staying else where, probably with at least water, while the ones still there, are by and large, poor, elderly and black</p>

<p>If we don’t talk about the failures of the whole system of politicians we are doomed to repeat the mistakes</p>

<p>If questions aren’t asked now by the press, the elected officials, both republicans and democrats have asked, then when the next disaster strikes, and from forecast, I think more hurricanes are coming, then we will be in the same mess</p>

<p>If we as people just, say, well, that was good enough, in this country, a country of invention, fortitude, and imagination, we should always search for a better way</p>

<p>For instance, after 9-11, one of the biggest complaints and concerns was communication- fire fighters able to talk to police to the city to others, they all raised serious concerns regarding communication systems</p>

<p>And here we have another national tragedy, and once again, communication systems failed</p>

<p>We must figure out how to fix that, with all the technology we have, this is one of the most important things</p>

<p>I mean, if a person can open my car door from across the country, we should be able to have walkie talkies, cell phones, satellite phones, something that will workl with long lasting batteries, that don’t depend on towers</p>

<p>This is imperative</p>

<p>Why wasn’t this done during the last four years</p>

<p>I heard from the former head of the FCC on the radio today- he claims that the technology is there, it is used in war zones, such as Iraq, why don’t our emergency personal, the National Guard, FEMA have them in huge supplies</p>

<p>That is why we HAVE to discuss it NOW…lives are being lost everyday and those lives are worth a little finger pointing</p>

<p>ANd if Bush, FEMA, Homeland Security is questioned, well they should be</p>

<p>ANd they should have answers, not Well, we didn’t know what was happening at the Superdome: They should know That is there job</p>

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<p>Wha’ts up with the people from the “W” Hotel getting out of town before everyone else?</p>

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<p>What’s up with non-essential staff getting evacuated from the Tulane Hospital before 200 urgent patients at Charity hospital are evacuated(next door)??</p>

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<p>i think, but am not sure, that tulane hospital hired its own helicopters to evacuate the hospital. They then managed to evacuate some patients from charity.</p>

<p>if government functions are taken over by private companies (ie mass evacuations) then obviously the people who paid for the evacuation would be evacuated first. </p>

<p>thats not to say that i think tulane hospital should have done any different-- it showed better management than most anyone else around to have the wherewithall to hire their own helicopters, and they were nice enough to help evacuate charity as well.</p>

<p>it’s jsut a reason that government needs to be the one in charge of things like this- not that the current government is doing a good enough job</p>

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<p>The president of the Red Cross says they are not delivering aid into the neighborhoods because people cannot stay there. They are afraid that if they take food relief into the neighborhoods and set up there it will hinder the evacuation efforts. </p>

<p>New Orleans is a cesspool if you are away from the convention area. Do people live there because it is a cesspool or is it a cesspool because people live there? Don’t know. I tend to hold people somewhat responsible for their neighborhood. Not necessarily for the appearance, but certainly for the affect. </p>

<p>My husband’s family came into NO in the first decade of the previous century as immigrants who had lost everything in a natural disaster of their own. They lived in a barn in Algiers. My husband’s grandmother was so poor that she gave her daughter up to an orphanage for a period of time. They worked their behinds off, struggled, and got out. Some of the family still lives in Chalmette and Slidell, but they had the resources to evacuate. What’s the point? I don’t know. Maybe the point is that they have worked their behinds off so that they would have the resources to get out.</p>

<p>I am not happy about the situation in NO. Who could be? I do remember what it was like after Hugo. YOU CAN’T GET AROUND. And Hugo was just wind. There is stuff everywhere. Half the time you don’t even know where you are because all of the landmarks are gone. Add to that water obscuring everything. Heck, those who were looting looked perfectly healthy and able to walk out to me. </p>

<p>I really believe the level of ranting here is not really about the relief effort. (How can I tell?) </p>

<p>Why can’t we stipulate that it is deplorable, that many people could have done more to get themselves out, and that many people could have done more to mitigate the problem? But if you would rather rant…</p>

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<p>So true. In fact, we never learned the lessons of Hurricane Ivan, which apparently revealed all the problems the City of New Orleans should have learned before Katrina, just last year. That near miss should have been considered a gift from God.</p>

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<p>*PRESIDENT BUSH sought to regain the initiative yesterday, as a blame game erupted between Washington and state officials over the response to the disaster.
As senior Republicans said that the fallout could undermine Mr Bush’s second-term agenda, the President scrapped all his plans for September. </p>

<p>He cancelled a visit by Hu Jintao, his Chinese counterpart, on Wednesday, and will return to Louisiana and Mississippi today. Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, visited New Orleans yesterday, while Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, travelled to her home state of Alabama. </p>

<p>Mr Bush, facing the lowest poll ratings of his presidency, again conceded during his weekly radio address on Saturday — for the first time televised live from the Rose Garden — that the response had been “unacceptable”. </p>

<p>But in doing so, he sought to shift the blame to state and local officials. The tactic showed that, despite the overhaul of the nation’s emergency agencies after September 11, the chain of command responding to a large-scale disaster is unclear and mired in bureaucracy. *</p>

<p><a href=“The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines”>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1765481,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I can hear the howls from the ACLU and others when the Federal government asserts instant authority to put into effect martial law and whatever it deems appropriate in response to a storm. Get in touch with political reality–you can’t have it both ways as in federal control only when the state can’t handle something it has the right and responsibility to do. What next–federal takeover of local bad schools and police depts?? The conspiracy theorists would really run amok.</p>

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<a href=“http://www.cnn.com%5B/url%5D”>http://www.cnn.com</a></p>

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<p>From the Times Picayune, a letter to Bush</p>

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