Katrinas Blame Game
I was not going to weight in on this topic, but as a father of a 2 ½ year old, I feel compelled to respond. Now that Karl Rove is involved to start "swift-boating" everyone he can get his hands on, I owe it to my son to not let that happen.
There are some basic facts we can all agree on. First, Hurricane Katrina did hit about 6:00 am local time on Monday(8/29) and that the main levee was breached on Tuesday Morning(8/30) flooding New Orleans. Now is where you have the timeline somewhat wrong. On August 26th, Governor Blanco, declared a state of Emergency in Louisiana http://gov.louisiana.gov/2005%20%20proclamations/48pro2005-Emergency-HurricaneKatrina.pdf Then Following that she tracked George Bush down on his vacation and sent him a letter on 8/27 asking for federal assistance (http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf) While this letter was dated on the 28th, it was written and delivered on the 27th. On August 27th then, George bush declared a state of emergency (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html) > FYI at this point it then becomes George Bush’s responsibility. On 8/28 Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi were already declared disaster areas and President Bush pressed for an emergency declaration of Alabama with this quote "These declarations will allow federal agencies to coordinate all disaster relief efforts with state and local officials," Bush said.
Continuing with this timeline, on 8/29 FEMA director Brown, waited five hours to dispatch 1000 employees to the region and gave them two days to get there. Also on this same day, President Bush headed to AZ to give a speech on Medicare, then late in that day the first of the levees broke and FEMA went into disaster mode and President Bush went to a birthday party. On 8/30 FEMA turns down help from a group of Volunteer Firefighters , semi loads of bottled water, Diesel fuel from the Coast guard and cut the communication lines from central Command (the local sheriff turned them back on and placed an armed guard on them.) This little tidbit also came across the news this week regarding the start of the Hurricane . The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients.
On 8/31 the forest service authorized the use of their airplanes to help put out the fires burning in NO, but Homeland Security doesn’t give them authorization. Presidnet Bush uses this time to sneak a recess appointment through. On 9//1 Four days after landfall, the federal government finally requests help form the airline industry to remove victims, the promised caravans do not arrive, but George bush was busy doing such things as awarding a contract to Halliburton for Storm cleanup and halting the California swift water rescue team from rescuing anymore victims. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/01/acd.01.html ).
On 9/3 we get the news that the Red Crossi s being kept out of New Orleans by the department of Homeland Securityhttp://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/01/acd.01.html ) American Red Cross CEO, Tom Foley, states to KWY Newsradio in Philadelphia: "The state Department of Homeland Security in Louisiana asked the Red Cross not to go into the city because they want that message to be, 'You need to leave the city. This isn't going to be a sheltering spot.' "
This is just during the week of events, let us not forgot what happened leading up this week. in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that meant "major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now."
One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular administration attached to it. No one wants to play, "The Democrats did it," or, "It's all Reagan's fault." Many environmentalists will tell you more than a century's interference with the natural flow of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem, cutting off the movement of alluvial soil to the river's great delta.
But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term policies like letting the Corps of Engineers try to build a better river than God, there are real short-term consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush administration repealed those policies -- ordering federal agencies to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands. http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=19557). Also see http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_090105L.shtml .
Or we can go back even further to when George Bush was inaugurated in 2001 and appointed his campaign manager with zero experience in emergency management as head of FEMA. And its not like this was an anomaly either. Reversing an eight-year crusade to rid the now-embattled Federal Emegency Management Agency of political patronage, a newly elected George W. Bush in 2001 named two key players in his Florida recount fight to important FEMA posts. http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002346.html ). Or of course the infamous Brownie (Michael Brown.) agency chief Michael Brown, the ousted head of a horse association who was hired at FEMA in 2001 along with his college roommate, top Bush advisor Joe Allbaugh. And it was reported yesterday that FEMA's No. 2 and No. 3 officials, Patrick Rhode and Scott Morris, are also former campaign aides..
A couple other interesting tidbits to ponder are .
* Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush’s visit to New Orleans, officials said, NOLA.com reportshttp://www.nola.com/weblogs/print.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/print076556.html ).
* In the wake of what the Wall Street Journal projected may be the most expensive natural disaster in American history, the Republican Leadership in the House of Representatives limited floor consideration of the $52 billion Katrina relief bill proposed by President Bush and voted to reject any Democratic efforts to amend the bill to include a wider array of relief measures, RAW STORY has learned.
* "Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them," Mrs. Bush told American Public Media's "Marketplace" program, before returning to her multi-million dollar Houston home.
On the tape of the interview, Mrs. Bush chuckles audibly as she observes just how great things are going for families that are separated from loved ones, people who have been forced to abandon their homes and the only community where they have ever lived, and parents who are explaining to children that their pets, their toys and in some cases their friends may be lost forever
Every cloud has a silver lining. Hurricane Katrina has devastated New Orleans, leaving thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, and plunging the entire city into chaos. In the hurricane's wake, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its director, Michael Brown, forced out of his former job at the International Arabian Horse Association, with no credentials in disaster relief, have become targets of withering criticism. Yet FEMA's relief efforts have brought considerable assistance to at least one man who stands to benefit from Hurricane Katrina perhaps more than any other individual: Pat Robertson. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050919/blumenthal
This timeline followed closely with all the information, is not as Molly Ivins puts it To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives.
This is not "just politics" or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies
I do agree with you completely that now is not the time to point fingers of blame, that time was last Wednesday when there were AMERICANS stranded with no food or water and no help. We need to realize that this happened in America to AMERICANS, and it made us a disgrace to the whole world how we treat our own poor. There is definitely blame to go around,. The Mayor does need to explain why we didn’t use public buses to get the poor out of the city, just like we need to figure out why there was over 100,000 people living in New Orleans under the federal poverty level. Im also quite certain the Governor could of improved on her performance but the one thing that is indisputable when all of the facts are in, is that the responsibility in the end of every single death afrer the storm hit lies strictly on George Bushs shoulders.
What is more important that giving right now all that you can give, is to make sure that he is held accountable. We had four years since 9/11 to figure out what to do when tragedy hitand we handled this much worse than we did when the terrorists hit. What we need to do is leave Michael Moore out of it and put George Bush in it. Michael Moore had nothing to do with what happened to the Gulf Coast, and George Bush did. His policies and appointments have actually led to AMERICANS dieing on our streets. We went from 3,000 dead on 9/11 to probably 10,000 if not more dead during this catastrophy.
I also pray that we learn from this or else the next time something happens and 15,000 people die we don’t keep blaming democrats who just happen to be there. There is a reason George Bush will personally head the investigation on the governments reaction to this tragedy. There is also a reason that Karl Rove is in charge of damage control in the White House regarding this http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspecial/05blame.html?ex=1283572800&en=1d14ebfbd942a7d0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss ). I owe it to my son, and we owe it to all of the victims of Hurricane Katrina to make sure that they are not allowed to “swift boat” their way out of this one. We as Americans owe that much to them.
A solid debate on these and all issues is outstanding and what makes our country so great, but we need to start out using the facts to base our opinions, so I hope this helps.
I also strongly recommend visiting the Sauk County Fairgrounds this Saturday Sept 10, for Fighting Bob Fest, where we pay tribute to one of the countries greatest Politicians, who also happens to come from WI. www.fightingbobfest.org.
Have a super day.
There are some basic facts we can all agree on. First, Hurricane Katrina did hit about 6:00 am local time on Monday(8/29) and that the main levee was breached on Tuesday Morning(8/30) flooding New Orleans. Now is where you have the timeline somewhat wrong. On August 26th, Governor Blanco, declared a state of Emergency in Louisiana http://gov.louisiana.gov/2005%20%20proclamations/48pro2005-Emergency-HurricaneKatrina.pdf Then Following that she tracked George Bush down on his vacation and sent him a letter on 8/27 asking for federal assistance (http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf) While this letter was dated on the 28th, it was written and delivered on the 27th. On August 27th then, George bush declared a state of emergency (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html) > FYI at this point it then becomes George Bush’s responsibility. On 8/28 Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi were already declared disaster areas and President Bush pressed for an emergency declaration of Alabama with this quote "These declarations will allow federal agencies to coordinate all disaster relief efforts with state and local officials," Bush said.
Continuing with this timeline, on 8/29 FEMA director Brown, waited five hours to dispatch 1000 employees to the region and gave them two days to get there. Also on this same day, President Bush headed to AZ to give a speech on Medicare, then late in that day the first of the levees broke and FEMA went into disaster mode and President Bush went to a birthday party. On 8/30 FEMA turns down help from a group of Volunteer Firefighters , semi loads of bottled water, Diesel fuel from the Coast guard and cut the communication lines from central Command (the local sheriff turned them back on and placed an armed guard on them.) This little tidbit also came across the news this week regarding the start of the Hurricane . The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients.
On 8/31 the forest service authorized the use of their airplanes to help put out the fires burning in NO, but Homeland Security doesn’t give them authorization. Presidnet Bush uses this time to sneak a recess appointment through. On 9//1 Four days after landfall, the federal government finally requests help form the airline industry to remove victims, the promised caravans do not arrive, but George bush was busy doing such things as awarding a contract to Halliburton for Storm cleanup and halting the California swift water rescue team from rescuing anymore victims. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/01/acd.01.html ).
On 9/3 we get the news that the Red Crossi s being kept out of New Orleans by the department of Homeland Securityhttp://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/01/acd.01.html ) American Red Cross CEO, Tom Foley, states to KWY Newsradio in Philadelphia: "The state Department of Homeland Security in Louisiana asked the Red Cross not to go into the city because they want that message to be, 'You need to leave the city. This isn't going to be a sheltering spot.' "
This is just during the week of events, let us not forgot what happened leading up this week. in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that meant "major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now."
One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular administration attached to it. No one wants to play, "The Democrats did it," or, "It's all Reagan's fault." Many environmentalists will tell you more than a century's interference with the natural flow of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem, cutting off the movement of alluvial soil to the river's great delta.
But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term policies like letting the Corps of Engineers try to build a better river than God, there are real short-term consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush administration repealed those policies -- ordering federal agencies to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands. http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=19557). Also see http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_090105L.shtml .
Or we can go back even further to when George Bush was inaugurated in 2001 and appointed his campaign manager with zero experience in emergency management as head of FEMA. And its not like this was an anomaly either. Reversing an eight-year crusade to rid the now-embattled Federal Emegency Management Agency of political patronage, a newly elected George W. Bush in 2001 named two key players in his Florida recount fight to important FEMA posts. http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002346.html ). Or of course the infamous Brownie (Michael Brown.) agency chief Michael Brown, the ousted head of a horse association who was hired at FEMA in 2001 along with his college roommate, top Bush advisor Joe Allbaugh. And it was reported yesterday that FEMA's No. 2 and No. 3 officials, Patrick Rhode and Scott Morris, are also former campaign aides..
A couple other interesting tidbits to ponder are .
* Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush’s visit to New Orleans, officials said, NOLA.com reportshttp://www.nola.com/weblogs/print.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/print076556.html ).
* In the wake of what the Wall Street Journal projected may be the most expensive natural disaster in American history, the Republican Leadership in the House of Representatives limited floor consideration of the $52 billion Katrina relief bill proposed by President Bush and voted to reject any Democratic efforts to amend the bill to include a wider array of relief measures, RAW STORY has learned.
* "Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them," Mrs. Bush told American Public Media's "Marketplace" program, before returning to her multi-million dollar Houston home.
On the tape of the interview, Mrs. Bush chuckles audibly as she observes just how great things are going for families that are separated from loved ones, people who have been forced to abandon their homes and the only community where they have ever lived, and parents who are explaining to children that their pets, their toys and in some cases their friends may be lost forever
Every cloud has a silver lining. Hurricane Katrina has devastated New Orleans, leaving thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, and plunging the entire city into chaos. In the hurricane's wake, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its director, Michael Brown, forced out of his former job at the International Arabian Horse Association, with no credentials in disaster relief, have become targets of withering criticism. Yet FEMA's relief efforts have brought considerable assistance to at least one man who stands to benefit from Hurricane Katrina perhaps more than any other individual: Pat Robertson. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050919/blumenthal
This timeline followed closely with all the information, is not as Molly Ivins puts it To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives.
This is not "just politics" or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies
I do agree with you completely that now is not the time to point fingers of blame, that time was last Wednesday when there were AMERICANS stranded with no food or water and no help. We need to realize that this happened in America to AMERICANS, and it made us a disgrace to the whole world how we treat our own poor. There is definitely blame to go around,. The Mayor does need to explain why we didn’t use public buses to get the poor out of the city, just like we need to figure out why there was over 100,000 people living in New Orleans under the federal poverty level. Im also quite certain the Governor could of improved on her performance but the one thing that is indisputable when all of the facts are in, is that the responsibility in the end of every single death afrer the storm hit lies strictly on George Bushs shoulders.
What is more important that giving right now all that you can give, is to make sure that he is held accountable. We had four years since 9/11 to figure out what to do when tragedy hitand we handled this much worse than we did when the terrorists hit. What we need to do is leave Michael Moore out of it and put George Bush in it. Michael Moore had nothing to do with what happened to the Gulf Coast, and George Bush did. His policies and appointments have actually led to AMERICANS dieing on our streets. We went from 3,000 dead on 9/11 to probably 10,000 if not more dead during this catastrophy.
I also pray that we learn from this or else the next time something happens and 15,000 people die we don’t keep blaming democrats who just happen to be there. There is a reason George Bush will personally head the investigation on the governments reaction to this tragedy. There is also a reason that Karl Rove is in charge of damage control in the White House regarding this http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspecial/05blame.html?ex=1283572800&en=1d14ebfbd942a7d0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss ). I owe it to my son, and we owe it to all of the victims of Hurricane Katrina to make sure that they are not allowed to “swift boat” their way out of this one. We as Americans owe that much to them.
A solid debate on these and all issues is outstanding and what makes our country so great, but we need to start out using the facts to base our opinions, so I hope this helps.
I also strongly recommend visiting the Sauk County Fairgrounds this Saturday Sept 10, for Fighting Bob Fest, where we pay tribute to one of the countries greatest Politicians, who also happens to come from WI. www.fightingbobfest.org.
Have a super day.
posted by Jeff Simpson | 5:29 PM
2 Comments:
For someone who doesn't want to get caught up in the blame game, you certainly were quick to attribute all the Katrina-related deaths to President Bush. But I'm sure your rant wasn't politically motivated.
Timelines aside, what did the Mayor of NOLA or the Governor of LA do to prepare and protect their citizenry? Send them to a vulnerable building well within the path of the storm with no emergency supplies or armed security?
The President can sign Executive Orders and declare states of emergency until the cows come home, but that doesn't alleviate the city, county and state governments from their responsibility to protect and serve.
President Bush doesn't control first responders, order evacuations, call up the state's National Guard troops or run the state emergency response team. In fact, he's not even the Coordinating Officer for the federal response team. Someone from FEMA is. And the Governor, or her appointee, is the State Coordinating Officer. The buck stops with those two individuals.
The Governor can ask for federal help all day long, but she is required to first implement her state's own comprehensive plan and utilize every last resource within her power. She's supposed to coordinate preparedness, response and recovery with every parish, city and town. But she and the mayor cannot even agree on a much needed evacuation.
In all of your numbers, I don't see you mention even once the billions of dollars that have been provided to cities, counties and states through the Stafford Act. How much money has NOLA and LA received over the years to plan, prepare, test and refine their strategy? I shutter to think of how much money, time and energy has been expended to get that state ready for such a time as this. And yet, the Governor was incapable of executing her own federally-funded and mandated plan, or of coordinating a statewide response to this disaster. Shame on her! And shame on the mayor for his equal incompetence!
I do not attribute all Katrina related deaths to George Bush, but I do attribute all deaths IN New Orleans from Tuesday Morning through nowand beyond becuase that is where the finger needs to be pointed.
Mayor Nagin actually evacuated more people than anyone in history was able to do. I said he needs to answer for the fact that he didnt use the buses among other things.
Once Governor Blanco asks for assistance and George Bush decides to give it, then he takes over full responsibilty. The problem where I fault Gov Blanco is when she saw George Bush had no leadership in this and was busy playing politics instead of helping the evacuees, then she needed to take control. When you see the leader is incompetent then its your responsibilty to take over.
President Bush does not control first responders(no But when first responders showed up FEMA turned them away), order evacuations(done), call up the States National Guard troops(once bush took over that was his call, the ones that were left anyway).
The whole point of my blog was that the director of Fema was to blame, and this is where george bush has to take some responsibility. When you give someone such an important job who has absolutely no experience or qualifications, what do you expect. Crony Capitalism is as much to blame as anything else and George bush has to take responsibility for that.
Sure Millions have been spent but when 44% of the budget to repair the levees that means that the needed money wasnt there. That is like saying we spend millions on education, when the actual facts are we are terribly underfunded in our public education(which is another topic). As for planning a local professor ran models and predicted almost to the T, what would happen when Hurricane Katrina hit. He then called up FEMA and told them they need to get there and set up tent cities out of harms way and work to get everyone out and was told by FEMA "Americans dont live in tents"! As i said before in a disaster of this size everyone has questions to answer, including Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin. The Shame falls on Michael Brown(he wasnt qualified to do his job) and the blame falls directly on George Bush.
Post a Comment
<< Home