<p>Its not a cheap shot. She actually thinks this was a good thing for those poor people who lost EVERYTHING and have NOTHING…</p>
<p>As for Bush, the fact he didn’t know what milk cost, how his constituents live, it was just an obvious showing of his disconnect, and now Barbara’s disconnect.
Can you imagine if someone came up to you and said, well, you were poor anyway, this is a good thing you are going through this trauma</p>
<p>Protect and defend all you like, she is outed for what she is.
And now the world nows it.</p>
<p>The Core did not think they would fail–at least not the ones that did which were actually the smaller canals. They had been rebuilt recently and were thought to be fine. The failure was a surprise and probably due to a design flaw that was not forseen. Blame Bush all you want but he did not do the faulty design–which happens in all human built projects from time to time–and the so-called funding cuts had no impact.</p>
<p>The big mistakes were the failure to plan the evacuation by the local/state government and the coordination and communication problems after the storm at all levels. They planned for a three day response time by FEMA and it took about four so they were below the goal but not horribly so.</p>
<p>FEMA did a terrible job, its out there, Brown was told The Levees will BE Breached</p>
<p>The BBC article was not exactly unbiased, it was an analysis and didn['t mention so much- Hurricane Pam, the calls to Brown, Bush saying who knew, the lack of coordiantion, the lack of communication</p>
<p>he missed so much, as barrons like to point out</p>
<p>And if you move out of NO, talk to those people that waited for days and days to get water cause it might cause problems to just make water and food drops</p>
<p>Read the stories</p>
<p>Move outside of NO and see so many other problems</p>
<p>But hey, if FEMA is good enough for you, well good luck</p>
<p>I agree with poetsheart and marite: After reading Mrs. Bush’s statements, it is clear she is proud of Texan hospitality and it seems to me she is offering welcome and hope to those less fortunate people who have been uprooted from their homes and have ended up in Texas. Yes, she could have worded it differently, but she definitely does not deserve the venomous statements about her. </p>
<p>Driver: don’t waste the energy, it is futile to try to reason with the unreasonable.</p>
<p>Citygirlsmom, it must be a real burden to be so absolutely right, all of the time. Maybe you should consider laying down that great weight of yours and sit a spell among us, the merely human.</p>
<p>New Orleans is one of the most important ports in the country, shipping, oil, the end of the Mississippi, and yet Bush, who is so concerned with Homeland Securit,y did nothing to protect that port in the last five years, and he actually took money away</p>
<p>My mom can’t take tweezers on a plane, but one of the biggest ports in the world is left to decay</p>
<p>If this had been a terrorist attack, then what? Was FEMA and DHS good enough in the aftermath?</p>
<p>I am not unreasonable, I happen to care about people and think that the underprivileged aren’t thrilled and happy with their circumstances now</p>
<p>But some think they should be grateful they have it so good now.</p>
<p>Just see what the world is going to say about her comments. its not just me.</p>
<p>Just like you some in the world always enjoys a good Bush-bashing headline no matter how unfounded. To quote Rhett Butler–“Quite frankly …”</p>
<p>France has poor immigrants burning up in poor housing every few days–not to mention that nasty little thing with the heatwave and 1000’s of dead… Germany is Germany a very weird slightly perverse place from many years ago. The Dutch have let society go so far out of whack that it is the only modern country in the EU with negative growth as normal people just get fed up.</p>
<p>I thought Tim Russert’s comments this morning were fairly balanced, but he added something at the end I hadn’t heard yet, and thought was interesting:</p>
<p>“The one thing that government is suppose to do, the reason we have a government, is to protect its people. And the local, state and federal government has failed miserably in protecting its people. No one can question that. Now we have to find out exactly who did not fulfill their responsibility. The perception is after September 11th we created a department of Homeland Security because we were told it’s not a matter of if, but when there would be another terrorist attack and this time we would be better prepared. There would be command and control, there would be communications and there would be preparation. Guess what? No command and control, no communications, no preparation. The state, local, federals couldn’t talk to each other. Nobody was in charge and we’ve talked to the head of the Hurricane center at Louisiana State University who one year ago did a simulated computer model, tabletop exercise called Hurricane Pam in which they predicted this almost to the letter; and he called FEMA and said on Saturday or Sunday you have to have tent cities setup outside of New Orleans, outside the State. You’re going to have hundreds of thousands of evacuees. You have to be able to absorb them or they are gong to die in the streets. And FEMA said to them Americans don’t sleep in tents. That is what went wrong and that’s what we have to find out. Who’s accountable? This notion that we are all too busy now to look forward if we can’t look back, we can do both because to ignore what happened in New Orleans is to guarantee it will happen again.”</p>
<p>It raises questions for me as to what is the truth?</p>
<p>Is it true that the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, waited a day too long to order a mandatory evacuation. Is it true that he actually allowed 2000 school buses to become submerged rather than moving them in anticipation of evacuating people? How many lives is he responsible for endangering?</p>
<p>Is it true that the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, did not declare martial law early even though urged to by the Federal Government? How much culpability lies at her feet?</p>
<p>Is it true Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu actually threatened to punch out the president? </p>
<p>It is clear things went horribly wrong with this disaster and President Bush has announced there will be an investigation. It seems that blame can be directed in many directions, but is that productive? Is hate productive? I am saddened by the hateful comments I have been reading on this board.</p>
<p>Is anyone bothering to notice the great good that many Americans are doing to help the victims? The generous reaction by the American people is an indication of the difference between our great country and others. We are a good people.</p>
<p>“seems that blame can be directed in many directions, but is that productive?”</p>
<p>It is VERY productive. Today, not tomorrow, not next year, not after a Congressional investigation, but today, in case of a biological, chemical, nuclear, or other terrorist attack, my family - my children - are depending on the good thinking, good planning, good analytical skills of the highest emergency management authority in the United States, and the trust he engenders. I don’t depend on the mayor of New Orleans, or the Governor of the great “city” of Louisiana; I depend on the chosen representative of my President, the President of the United States, to be the very best that my democratic form of government has to offer in providing for the first reason that governments exist, and that is to provide for my security and safety. </p>
<p>I think my President is making a very big mistake - a mistake that could prove deadly to my family - by allowing FEMA’s head (and his cohorts) to stay even one hour longer than the Office of the Pres. can fax over the dismissal letter. And yes, it DOES make a difference who heads the agency.</p>
<p>On a slightly different twist on the political implications of this disaster: Does anyone doubt that this will be a shot in the arm for a potential Rudy presidency? Rightly or wrongly, the contrast between 9/11 and Katrina will make Rudy look even more like a superman.</p>
<p>Politically, it is very interesting who is staying AWAY from the mess, FF. Guiliani and Jeb Bush for starters?? Both men will benefit from the inept handling of the aftermath. They look capable by default.</p>
<p>“Actually you do depend on their counterparts in your locality. FEMA is not set up to be a first responder organization.”</p>
<p>Quite right. As I said, I don’t depend on the mayor of New Orleans, or the Governor of Louisiana - so I don’t care, for the safety of my family, how well or poorly they responded.</p>
<p>But my children and I do depend - this very minute - on the skills and abilities of the Director of FEMA. So do yours. Independent of whatever your politics happen to be, do you find this a source of comfort?</p>
<p>Quite frankly, I would get very little source of comfort if I depended upon anyone to take care of me and my family after a biological, chemical, nuclear, or other terrorist attack. I get a much greater source of comfort from a government that will proactively attempt to keep something like that from ever happening. </p>
<p>You say that the reason for government is to, “provide for my security and safety.” I agree, but that is not FEMA’s role. They are there to pick up the pieces if the government fails with the primary role of providing you security and safety.</p>
<p>“On March 1, 2003, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). FEMA’s continuing mission within the new department is to lead the effort to prepare the nation for all hazards and effectively manage federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident.”</p>
<p>Are you comfortable that FEMA’s leadership is “leading the effort to prepare the nation for all hazards and effectively manage federal response?”</p>
<p>Or have you removed their statutory mandate?</p>
<p>This a just another way of stating that “we pick up the pieces after the s*** hits the fan.” I’ll leave it up to others to make sure that it never hits the fan to begin with.</p>