Anderson Cooper, now bitching with the former Mayor of New Orleans that people have not been dispatched all over the city to allow people to use cell phones to call their loved ones:
Why aren’t they doing this, Mayor?
THEY ARE DOING OTHER FUCKING THINGS, ANDERSON.
*** Update ***
Now they are yelling at hero to the people James Lee Witt. What part of disaster these fucking people don’t understand, what part of the rescuers still trying to rescue people who refuse to leave and/or who are hard to find/extract they don’t understand, what part of any of this they don’t understand is simply beyond me. I really do think this guy is right, and some people think rescuers can teleport at will ala Start Trek.
Meanwhile, Goldstein takes on the latest silly meme.
ppGaz
The terms “forest” and “trees” comes to mind.
You are missing the former, while focussing on the latter.
Last week was a 24 by 7 televised debacle, John.
People are basically shell-shocked.
Government suits went on tv every day and acted as though help was “right around the corner”. They were “surprised” at the scope of the disaster, even though it was probably the most modeled and predicted disaster in human history!
The president stood in front of a camera and praised the man who is running THE most dysfunctional outfit in a list of dysfunctions, “Brownie.” The man made a fool of himself in the middle of a giant clusterfuck, and now people are wondering why everybody is pissed off.
Honest to God, your tin ear and relentless denial of the reality here is stupefying.
You give up? A lot of people around here have given up, John. Given up on the possibility that any sense of reality is going to come over this place.
Why don’t you go wade around in shit and dead bodies for a week and let’s see how YOU DO on tv?
Publius Rhododendron
Bush is now a three time loser.
While he’s screwed up more than a few times, here are 3 instances where George W. Bush’s moments of ineptitude and dereliction of duty have been the cause of significant loss of American life.
1) 9-11. While vacationing at his Crawford Texas play ranch, and at a time when he was racking up a 42% vacation rate going into Labor Day of that eventful year, President Bush was presented with clear cut evidence that terrorist attacks on American soil using commercial aircraft were a very possible occurence, and in the not too distant future. Bush chooses to shelve the report, do nothing, and 3,000 innocent Americans died a few weeks later. His response? “How was I to know?” After all, wasn’t he on vacation?
2) The War in Iraq: Ignoring the huge amount of evidence accumulated by various agencies that Saddam Hussein did not possess “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” and proclaiming his belief in the fairy tale that the Iraqi people would greet our troops as liberators rather than targets, George W. Bush pushes every possible button available to him in a headlong rush to what would turn out to be an unnecessary, bloody, and costly debacle. 1,800+ American service members would meet their deaths while tens of thousands more would be maimed in a process that continues to this day. His response? “Faulty intelligence.” Couldn’t be more right if he tried.
3) Hurricane Katrina: Rather than heed the pleas for help from the Gov of Louisiana, the Mayor of New Orleans, various other elected officials, and tens of thousands of citizens of the stricken areas, George W. bush opts to complete a series of photo-op events in California, swing by his play ranch for one more swing at that pesky scrub brush, then putter off to Washington DC the following Monday for “meetings.” Aid that could have saved the lives of thousands of victims was held back for reasons that have yet to be properly explained. His later response? “I wasn’t properly invited in to save those people.” Turned out to be a lie, so typical of this manchild of unlimited privilege.
George W. Bush. He screws up on a regular basis, and sometimes it kills lots of people.
r4d20
“waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree while the grownups actually engaged in the recovery effort today were studying engineering.”
Amen, baby. Amen.
DougJ
I’d be upset and irrational and yelling at the wrong people too if I had just seen my city get destroyed. Why harp on that? Is that really the biggest problem we have? Witt didn’t seem upset about getting yelled at. He knows that goes with territory.
Darrell
Goldstein has been on fire lately. He nails Kevin Drum to the wall and hangs him up to dry. The left is throwing out baseless accusations as fast they can (levee broke because of Bush funding cuts, Bush didn’t utilize the USS Bataan, all failures are Bush’s fault, etc) hoping that no one will actually look beneath the surface to find that their accusations are, well, baseless.
But even now after the left’s Bataan meme has been thoroughly discredited, they will never admit it and acknowledge how wrong they were.. like an honorable person would do.
ppGaz
Darrell continues with his relentless repetition of the same fucking lie, over and over again.
People are not saying that “all failures are Bush’s fault.”
What they are saying is that government has failed the people, and he is the man in charge, and he could act like a man and stand up and take some responsibility, and act like a leader, and stop mouthing things like “Brownie doing a great job” and “we didn’t expect the levees to fail” when every goddamned person on earth who knew anything about New Orleans’ situation knew that the flood was something that had to be assumed.
Darrell, you suck, and your relentless stream of lying shit is only making things worse around here. You and John put together don’t have a damned clue. You talk as if this whole story is some kind of high school communications class project.
They’re going to fish 5000, maybe 10,000 bodies out of the water down there, Darrell. While your president glibly mouhted platitudes last week, people were dying a mile away.
Do you fucking get that at all?
Stormy70
I can understand if you are the resident of said city, but not the mayor or the police force. These people are elected to do a job, and there were massive local mistakes. They should not get a pass because they are a witness to seeing their city destroyed by an expected hurricane. Mississippi has lost everything on their entire coast, yet the leadership is not having nervous breakdowns. Showing leadership keeps a situation calm. Why no mayor with a bull horn at the Superdome saying help is coming? Why did people not heed his warning of bringing food for up to 3 days? Were the Feds slow? Not from what I’m hearing as more info comes out. The locals lost control because a major portion of their police force failed to show up for duty. The ones who stayed on the job deserve much praise for sticking it out in a terrifying situation. There is time for emotions after the crisis has been seen through. Those people felt abandoned by their elected officials because noone was giving them any information at the sight. The mayor should have rallied his city, not thrown a temper tantrum.
Possible point of agreement: Cable news sucks.
Darrell
All, or mostly Bush’s fault, right? Classy
Stormy70
Yet, have you mentioned the mistakes of the local and state officials for not getting those people out according to plan? The governor was prompted by Bush to declare a mandatory evacuation, but they resisted because they did not want to piss off the tourist industry. Seems like you immediately started yammering on about spuds or potatoes, Bush’s fault blah blah blah. Once I see potato ranting in your comments, I just skip over it, so I might have missed where you heeped scorn on the local and state governments.
While the mayor was freaking out on the radio, and the police force was AWOL, people were dying a mile away. See how lame that sounds.
Ben
Stormy,
You are making the same mistake the many people who are trying to cover Bush’s ass are… you are applying the standards to people (the NO mayor) that are appropriate under normal circumstances. Do you get the magnitude of this disaster? The fact that he probably hasn’t eaten regularly, slept at all and has no home? Under normal circustances, his behavior is unacceptable…. this isn’t normal and many on the right don’t seem to get the magnitude of this disaster. It reminds me of the elitists who ask the question “why don’t the Sudanese fight back or leave?”. Pathetic.
Ben
darrell = official thread killer
Vladi G
He’s also a serial liar.
Mike S
The cult of personality is awe inpiring with people like Darrell.
Stormy70
Ben, the scope of the disaster is huge, but the onus is on the locals to keep it together for 76 hours following a disaster. Should the federal government only moved into New Orleans, and ignored the rest of the 90,000 square mile disaster area? While the Mayor was holed up at his headquarters, he had police officers out on the street who had not slept in days, and they kept their cool, and did not abandon their post. They did not break, and their conditions were hell on earth. I saw four officers interviewed, who did not leave until the last person was evacuated out of the Superdome. They are the overlooked heroes here. The Mayor also let the hotel he was in cut in line for evacuation, forcing people who had stood in the blazing sun for 3 days to wait. This is not leadership. Do I feel sorry for him? Yes, I do. I feel more sorry for the people who went through worse. Bush came in and said the response was unacceptable, but apparently that makes no difference to the people who hate him, and will always hate him.
Rusy Guiliani had a building fall down around him, yet he remained steady. He went without sleep for days, but he kept that city together. This is leadership, it is what is expected from your elected officials.
Stormy70
Who the hell is that guy?! I meant Rudy.
ppGaz
Did I SAY it was all his fault, you lying goddam piece of shit?
No, I did not. But the death and the destruction are real, and people are going to be upset, and angry, and they have a right to be.
They have a right to expect more of a president than the sorry display that this president gave them last week. They have a right to expect more, and they have a right to be pissed off, and they have a right to say so, and they don’t need your goddamned permission to do it.
Even David Brooks, that knee-jerk Bush hater, has written that this debacle has shaken peoples’ faith in their government and in their institutions …. AS IT SHOULD, because this is a debacle and series of cluterfucks that will be talked about for years and years.
And what the hell are you doing? Sitting here day after day and hour after hour, yelling “Don’t blame Bush!” “Don’t blame Bush!”
You’re a disgrace, Darrell. You’re a goddamned disgrace.
Jeff G
Honest to God, your tin ear and relentless denial of the reality here is stupefying.
Just keep telling yourself that. All you have left to point to as proof of failure is Bush and “Brownie’s” optimism during press conferences while bemoaning that people were dying! in increasinly strained tones of outrage — as if either Bush or Brownie didn’t know that and hadn’t put into motion all of the relief effort they were supposed to put into motion.
John has given you fact after fact, link after link. And you have comeback at him by calling him a Bush apologist, etc., without providing any evidence that the Federal response was anything less than exactly as it should have been.
It’s amusing, really, to watch you rail and blame and call names as people like John and I — both of whom, I’m certain, set out to draw conclusion from facts, not to work backward from a conclusion (as you all seem to have done) — because Bush “ass coverers” by default, because that’s where the facts, as the come to light, continue to take us.
Andrei
See John.. it’s this sort of thing that leaves me puzzled. You haven’t seemed to respond this sort of sentiment yet, or if you have I may have missed it. Not the apologist part (which I don’t think you are and neither do I think ppGaz really thinks you are either), I’m more at a loss over the claim by Jeff G that the Fed response was adequate given the evidence.
I mean… I just can’t see you agreeing with that, so if you don’t, please say so. If you do, I’d really like to know how you can feel that given evverything else you have said on this blog.
Andrei
Would you be saying the same thing if it were a nuclear blast in downtown New Orleans?
slide
Stormy has the Rove talking points:
Unfortunatly for both stormy and Rove it just ain’t so no matter how many times the right wing echo chamber will repeat it. From Andrew Sullivan:
Them damn facts always get in the way don’t they Stormy?
db
Amazing how quick the talking points trickle down.
GOP talking point: Shift blame from the feds to the locals.
Levees and pumps are a fed responsibility just as the building of highways is a fed responsiblity – this is commerce, the realm of the feds to ensure an efficient, operational economy.
No city government, even Guiliani’s, would have been prepared to respond to this. Knock out an entire city and an entire city’s communications system – would any rational person expect them to be able to still respond effectively? Absolutely not! We have a system of federalism and the upper layer failed miserably in this case. The lower level was completed obliterated – and shift the blame to them now (even as the feds continued to cut money to them)?! What levels will the GOP talking points stoop to now?
I don’t know whether to be more amazed by the power of mother nature or the levels that the GOP can stoop to.
And no, I am not blaming Bush. I am simply sickened by the failure of the feds to accept responsibility rather than blame someone else for their incompetence.
Director Brown didn’t know there were people in the SuperDome in need of food and water and evacuation?! You got to be frickin’ kidding me! And that is the fault of Nagin?! While he was busy running around trying to keep his police force intact without any system of communication, we are going to blame for him not finding the time to locate a charged cell phone to place a call to Brown to tell him, “Oh, dear Director Mike Brown, please turn on the news so you can see that there are people in need of help at the SuperDome now.”
I am equally shocked how those on the right are criticizing those on the left for claiming that the left is failing to recognize the contributions of those responding to people still trapped in flooded homes. First, no such failure to recognize has ever been made by anyone. But shouldn’t we extend Nagin the same recognition that the right claims the first responders deserve? He was busy running around on the scene trying to keep his tattered police force intact. And tell me just where Director Brown was at during those first critical days while our fellow citizens were dying? No, let’s bash Nagin and excuse Brown – brilliant!
scs
This doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, but this is what I saw on the Lousianna Office of Homeland Security site:
http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/agencyrelated/aboutagency.htm
Effective communication and partnerships with the Military Department in New Orleans, the Governor’s Office, the Legislature, our Congressional staff, State officials, Parish and City officials, Parish Emergency Directors, individual citizens and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has improved greatly since 1990…
…The LHLS & EP staff in Baton Rouge is small when compared to other states, but remains poised and ready to serve the people of Louisiana at a moments notice.
A defense of bigger government.
Mike S
Talk about a tin ear.
slide
Speaking of Brown, Andrew Sullivan is collecting links to bloggers calling for the firing of FEMA head, Michael Brown. John, dont’ think I’ve hear your opinion on this, are you calling for the firing of Brown? or do you think Brownie is doing a great job as the President does?
Eural
Here’s the angle on this which pisses me off – and most of my friends from what I’ve heard – at the crumbling facade of the Bush presidency. Since 9/11 we’ve poured billions of dollars and untold thousands of lives into making America safe. The whole Bush 2004 campaign (especially the noticebly absent VP Cheney) was built around “trust us” and “the other guys are sensitive, Frenchified elitists who will get you killed”. Now its pretty obvious that the US is less safe (in many, many, many ways) than it was pre-9/11. Failed foreign policy, failed demostic policies and now a catastrophic failure with Katrina (what if it had been a bombing – or will be soon?). Yes, there are many levels of accountability but the bottom line is Bush has repeatedly damaged this nation far more than a Clinton era blowjob (it sounds so quaint now, doesn’t it?) and some people still act like its all a game. People in many places are dying and will die because of these policies. Our children and grandchildren will be paying for these policies for generations to come. A thinking, compassionate, patriotic conservative would be at the front of the line to remove Bush ASAP – not defend his incompetence and failure. (Wow – I feel better now!)
Jane Finch
Perhaps these folks aren’t as level-headed and reasonable as you are, John, because they haven’t had the luxury of opining from a safe, odor, disease and dead body-free distance as you have. For instance, the former Mayor of NOLA still has a missing mother-in-law and Anderson Coooper has been on the ground in the midst of the dying and the dead for the past week. Perhaps that’s why they’re letting themselves show through the usually oh-so-polite cable pablum and the discourse has become a tad sharper.
Ben
Andrei,
Exactly.
Stormy,
What is the mayor supposed to do once the hurricane has cut electricity and communications? He is helpless. The bushies are making this entire discussion an either/or affair, either the locals are to blame or bush… I will state, for the record, that there is plenty of blame to go around. From the people that refused to leave, to the mayor, governor, FEMA and Bush. Bush wanted to be the big kahuna of this country and it is time to sack up. Seeing the enormity of this disaster, the Feds should have tried to do something, anything, earlier. Bush is not showing leadership by turning Rove loose for PR damage control.
For me, the real question I want answered by our elected representatives is are we going to continue to focus on b.s. issues like gay marriage, stem cells, ID, abortion or other social issues or are they going to get down to brass tacks and take care of the people in this country. This was a confluence of events that resulted in a huge disaster that nobody was prepared for. NOLA could have been protected if congress had taken the last 5 years of pork-barrel money and fixed the levees.
Our elected officials in this country are failing us, and as US citizens, the only arguments we can come up with are partisan in nature. It is sad because they are all crooks and deserve to be replaced. They won’t as long as people are only looking for partisan advantage and partisan ass covering (bush).
scs
Well Slide, I think you and Andrew forgot to point out this
in your explantion of the 2004 National Response Plan:
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/press_release/press_release_0581.xml
Emphasis on Local Response
The Plan identifies police, fire, public health and medical, emergency management, and other personnel as responsible for incident management at the local level.
The Plan enables incident response to be handled at the lowest possible organizational and jurisdictional level.
Multi-agency Coordination Structure
The Plan identifies police, fire, public health and medical, emergency management, and other personnel as responsible for incident management at the local level.
The Plan enables incident response to be handled at the lowest possible organizational and jurisdictional level.
And you still think the state has no part in this?
scs
Getting a few trucks a day filled with some food and water to the convention center and a highway shouldn’t be all THAT hard for a state to handle.
slide
scs asks:
Did I say that? I think the local authorities did a terrible job but the Federal response was absolutely disgraceful. And this attempt to shift the blame on the locals is just a disingenious attempt to divert attention from the fact that the Feds didn’t do what their own plan called for them to do. Not by a long shot. Disgraceful performance. But what would you expect from a political hack with no experience that bush put in charge of FEMA?
Mike S
I’ve seen reports that trucks, supplies and rescuers have been turned away by FEMA. I have not seen them confirmed yet. One said that a wall mart truck with water was turned down because the 1 gal. bottles were too big.
A lot of what I have seen is unconfirmed, but if true people like brown shouldn’t be fired, they should be arrested.
Ben
Eural,
You are spot on with your analysis (venting)… I’m a former Republican that voted for Bush. A libertarian style conservative, if you will. I’m embarassed by Bush and his incompetence and am amazed at how the people who claim to be the “party of values” are no longer willing to accept any responsibility for anything. As long as the republicans are a christian theocracy that is only interested in big business and fag hating, I will never vote for another one again.
slide
scs you miss the whole point of the National Response Plan. Yes, tradionally in most emergencies the emphasis is on local response. But Katrina was in a SPECIAL CATEGORY (any natural or manmade incident, including terrorism, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, and/or government functions) of emergency that changes that and put the Federal Goverment in charge because of the inability the local authorities to handle such a catostrophic event.
Ancient Purple
Why the hell not have the outrage? For the love of God, Jeff, the damn President of the United States was vacationing and doing political stump speeches while people in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi were suffering. How much more callous does one human being have to be before you would say anything?
Then again, considering what Bush’s mother said this evening about the evacuees in the Astrodome, I am not surprised by his actions. Breeding will tell.
ppGaz
That’s right, and when people really are getting killed, the goddamned president will stand in front of a live camera and joke around about rebuilding Trent Lott’s FUCKING PORCH.
Welcome to the twilight zone.
DougJ
The guy they had on was a former mayor and a current resident.
I swear, Stormy and Darrel are going to drive me out of the Republican party if they keep this up.
scs
You know, I may be in the minority here, but now that I think about it, the Fed response wasn’t all THAT bad. The actual rescue efforts and levee repairs went okay, as far I heard. The mayor was responsbile for bad evacuation plans and the bad conditions in the shelters to begin with. Bush was probably sticking to the words of the 2004 National Response Plan and waiting for State authorities and the state guard to provide some food and water and security at the shelters and hospitals afterwards. Which they didn’t, so then he acted. After all, it took from Tuesday to Friday to get things going. Four days is not all THAT long in the grand scheme of things to evacuate 200,000 refugees, as they had to get the other out-of-state shelters ready first. Okay it wasn’t great, but was it all THAT bad, considering the scope? Do we really need the hystrionics?
P.S. I repeat, I consider the rescue efforts and shelter conditions as two seperate issues.
DougJ
I think John said he supported firing Brownie in the comments somewhere.
Brownie is a horrible, horrible embarrassment.
DougJ
Because it wasn’t coming.
scs
Slide, I think you are misinterpreting the Act. Even if it IS an incident of national signifigance, the response is supposed to start at the local level as much as possible.
Adrian
No John. Anderson Cooper obviously respects James Lee Witt. In the new segment to which you refer, only the former mayor of New Orleans was chastising Witt.
The former mayor of New Orleans seemed not to understand that Mr. Witt was very recently hired by Louisiana’s governor to direct the rescue, recovery and clean-up operations there, and work in conjunction with FEMA. The former mayor seemed to believe that Witt currently works for FEMA, and not understand that Witt was the director of FEMA under Clinton.
I believe that Anderson’s suggestion is a good one. As soon as people are rescued, they ought to be lent a cellular or satellite phone with which they can call their loved ones.
Anderson
The head of Jefferson Parish said Wal-Mart sent them 3 semis full of water & FEMA turned them away.
It’s hard for a state when FEMA is run by a serial loser with No Fucking Clue.
Darrell: please assist this Goldstein person in discrediting the Bataan meme by including a link? Merci.
tBone
Stormy, you said to ppGaz:
Yeah, you missed it. He was one of the first here (may have been the very first, in fact) to blast the local and state response.
Not to speak for him (he’s pretty good at doing that himself, as I’m sure you’ve noticed), but he seems to understand that this thing was a massive failure of government on EVERY level. That’s why it’s so infuriating to see these blame games being played. They were ALL – local, state and Federal – at fault to one degree or another, and they should all pay a price, including FEMA and the Bush administration.
Anderson
Oh, & re: That Other Anderson’s rant, are cell phones even WORKING in New Orleans? My sister in Picayune, MS (one county inland from the coast) couldn’t use hers until she got into northern Louisiana. Of course, that was last Friday.
Ben
darrel must have left the computer to run off to a mensa meeting ;-)
scs
Yeah it did seem like FEMA couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time. It’s like someone was going over a bullet memo – 1. rescue efforts, 2. Food and water.. and didn’t want to mix the two.
I experience lots of customer service people like this. Not capable of thinking outside the box.
Andrei
What he said:
Olbermann’s take
Adrian
Why the hell was Brownie spending many hours giving media interviews on several different networks, rather than spending the precious time coordinating relief efforts. Incredible! Perhaps, he didn’t know what he needed to coordinate. Such incompetence.
Why didn’t Brownie have one or two staff watch television newcasts and reading blogs. By doing so, he could have discovered that refugees were in the convention center. Why did he not go amidst the refugees in the Superdome and convention center (after he found out that people in need were in that center) amd personally assist people there, and bark orders to others from a satellite phone from there. He didn’t get sweaty and dirty, and smell fetid odors. Doing so should have at least have given him empathy for the suffering.
Contrariwise, General Honoré is a hands-on leader — a damn good one in my opinion. Would that he were on the scene earlier. Unfortunately, I rather doubt that Brownie would have had the capacity to learn much from him.
summr
I see nauseous repetition is necessary on this blog, so here goes…
Summary of this excerpt from the LA governor’s August 26th letter: “state and local authorities are not going to be able to cope effectively with a disaster of this magnitude.”
What is the responsibility of the feds when they are told this plain as day? Blame local authorities for not coping effectively, I guess. I’ve heard about NOLA police officers resigning and committing suicide. There’s also this outburst from the police chief. Excerpt:
I don’t think that first responders who are personally affected by a disaster (losing their homes and loved ones) should be expected to hold out for five days after a disaster without substantial relief from FEMA.
ppGaz
Yes, Andrei …. Olbermann says it for me, completely and perfectly.
I would love to see Darrell go against Olbermann. I would love to watch Olbermann wad Darrell up and toss him at the camera like a piece of waste paper. Or flick him away like a piece of intellectual detritus.
Olbermann has it right, and a lot of people around this blog have it dead wrong.
capelza
Such a simple response, but I got to tell you DougJ, it brought tears to my eyes…
ppGaz
Here’s a somewhat better link to the Olbermann piece, for those who are interested.
Olbermann on Louisiana, the city
scs
The assistance is monetary assistance such as loans. Thats what a State of Emergency request means. She is also “specifically” requesting emergency protective measures, direct Federal Assistance, Individual and Household Program (IHP) assistance, Special Needs Program
She requested ’emergency protective measures’, which she received in the coast guard, FEMA, and monetary assistance for the rest.
As the act says, it is still the state’s responsibility to provide what it can and then up to the Feds to do the rest. The confusion there is probably debate on what the state can do for itself, hence some of the problems.
ppGaz
Yeah, blah the blah the fucking blah.
Unfortunately, it isn’t the state that co-opts the tv time to strut in front of the camera and act like a bunch of feckless damned fools like Brownie, Chertoff, and the Spud President.
It also isn’t the state that demands a Patriot Act and a Department of Homeland Security and a ton of money and tells us night and day how well they are going to protect us, and then can’t find its ass with both hands when a disaster that has been predicted in detail for 15 years comes along right on schedule during — surprisingly — hurricane season.
scs
ppgaz, if you INSIST on replying to my comments, as I never do to yours, at least TRY to stick to ONE relevant fact. You are a master at inserting inflammatory but meaningless and irrelevant comebacks. YOU should be a politician.
ppGaz
Okay, as long as I can run against you.
ppGaz
Okay.
One Relevant Fact
djc
You’d lose.
ppGaz
Fuck, man, you can’t even win in here in a friggin Republican’s blog, on your home turf.
Get lost.
scs
Hallelujah! Something relevant. Not to disagree with Armando (whoever he is), but he left something out there. The troops were dispatched Monday to N.O. and were on standby. However, they did not ENTER N.O. until Friday. If you read the article carefully about the airforce already flying missions, which he used to imply that Fed forces were already in NO, it actually said they were in MISSISSIPPI, not N.O.. Armando’s a spin master like you.
Why did the Fed forces not enter NO earlier? The media doesn’t know. Speculation is the fall out between Blanco and Bush, and Bush being hesitant to go over her head.
hadenoughofthisyet
So, if there is a carastrophic event of a magnitude of this hurricane we should expect local responders to have to wait up to 96 hours for federal help? So if the rescuers need rescuing, tough ba-to-hees, you’re on your own for up to 96 hours? Well, seems as though that is not quite accurate.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=32146&dcn=todaysnews
hadenoughofthisyet
I can understand not being able to transport people out of there rapidly. I cannot understand having at least 4 or 5 very concentrated pockets of people (Superdome, convention center, hospitals) with no food or water until Friday. I still cannot wrap my brain around that. Sorry.
ppGaz
We’ll alert CNN, maybe you can get on Larry King.
djc
Well…
You definitely lost my vote, you stupid old fuck.
scs
Yes but this was also in the article.
The National Response Plan says that states have the responsibilty to do what they can, then the Feds do the rest.
scs
I have got to stop posting here. Sleep is more important.
ppGaz
Aw, you’re killin me here.
ppGaz
If only.
hadenoughofthisyet
And if you read my first blocked quote and did not go into automatic cognitive dissonance mode you would note that this had thatoverwhelmed the local and state authorities. Thus it’s kicked up a level. Go to sleep. Maybe you can comprehend that tomorrow.
stickler
Nobody’s pasted this here yet, so might as well add in to the fray.
In 1906, there was a pretty impressive earthquake in San Francisco (even then kind of a Sodom and Gomorrah type of place).
Here’s a rough timeline of events :
The earthquake struck at 5:13 AM.
By 7 AM federal troops had reported to the mayor.
By 8 AM they were patrolling the entire downtown area and searching for survivors.
The second quake struck at 8:14 AM.
By 10:05 AM the USS Chicago was on its way from San Diego to San Francisco; by 10:30 the USS Preble had landed a medical team and set up an emergency hospital.
By 11 AM large parts of the city were on fire; troops continued to arrive throughout the day, evacuating people from the areas threatened by fire to emergency shelters and Golden Gate Park.
St. Mary’s hospital was destroyed by the fire at 1 PM, with no loss of life, the staff and patients having already been evacuated across the bay to Oakland.
By 3 PM troops had shot several looters, and dynamited buildings to make a firebreak; by five they had buried dozens of corpses, the morgue and the police pistol range being unable to hold any more.
At 8:40 PM General Funston requested emergency housing – tents and shelters – from the War Department in Washington; all of the tents in the U.S. Army were on their way to San Francisco by 4:55 AM the next morning.
Prisoners were evacuated to Alcatraz, and by April 20 (two days after the earthquake) the USS Chicago had reached San Francisco, where it evacuated 20,000 refugees.
Link: http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist10/06timeline.html
And, yes, I saw it on Daily Kos. Sorry. The point is: Federal response to an emergency was better in 1906 than it was in 2005. Similar comparisons, similarly damning to the Bush Administration, could be made to the 1927 Mississippi flood. Herbert Hoover had Federal assistance on the ground headed to flood victims within 48 hours. And he didn’t have helicopters or Wal-Mart.
Of course, the Republicans under comparison were Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, and George W. Bush. Draw your own conclusions.
djc
Knock on wood.
docG
Hallalujah! Wisdom from hadenoughofthisyet!! The logistics guy quoted in the original statement said:
If people could be “prepositioned” in the Superdome without being excessively endangered, then surely some damn food and water “assets” could have been risked there, as well as the people.
If you are not furious at all local, state and federal officials, you need to rethink your position.
ppGaz
This is a guy who probably hasn’t slept in a week, whose parish has been under water, bodies floating down the street …
The guy about whom Stormy said, yesterday, that she was “suspicious” of his story of death, as told on Meet the Press yesterday. That’s right, the whiskey-drinkin’ Texas sot who talks of “lighting up” the Palestinians, you know, to get rid of them and everything, was here yesterday trashmouthing this guy for daring to have the balls to speak up about a gigantic government screwup.
Watching Death
Stormy took the trouble to go out and find some story about how this man had been served a subpoena a couple of weeks ago, as though that story somehow discredited the gentleman in terms of what is going on in his parish right now. She served this up with these words:
Hee hee, in the face of a frigging horrow show.
Welcome to the sorry land of Stormy and Darrell.
ppGaz
Send me your address, and I’ll give you a chance to say that to my face, you piece of dirt.
djc
Uh, chill asshole… It was only a sick joke.
Kind of like you
hadenoughofthisyet
I am apologizing for no one. They all need to be held accountable. But when it’s obvious that the local and state were failing at this point — well I think it’s safe to demand accountability from the feds.
I still cannot get the image of that young girl going into diabetic shock out of my mind, or the young baby that was barely conscious from lack of water, or news that three babies died of dehydration at the Superdome… Sorry. Then I directed my rage at those on dry ground and with the supplies, manpower and equipment at that point.
ppGaz
What a surprise.
Andrei
djc… all kidding and snide remarks aside, that’s an entirely foolish comment. You do realize that veiled death threats even made as comments on public forums are subject to possible legal action? Further, you are putting John Cole at legal risk as well by merely involving him because its his blog.
Death threats, no matter how coyly veiled in snark, are a serious matter and you have just crossed the line, even though the line was pretty far as it is due to the emotional state of everyone in the blogosphere right now.
I only say this because I assume John Cole is either asleep or tied up at the moment to respond. I have no idea what he thinks or would do, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he made an example of you and banned you for that kind of remark.
jobiuspublius
Game Over. As I said a day or two ago.
Steve
You know, I’m not sure what’s a bigger waste of my time. The stupidity of Anderson Cooper asking such a question, or the fact that John Cole felt it was worth wasting his time showing faux outrage.
Darrell
What “veiled death threats did he make dumbass? Oh that’s right, he didn’t and you’re an idiot
Darrell
Oh lookie, a leftist circle jerk with old wrinkle dick ppgaz as pivot man.
Stormy70
The mayor should have stocked the place up. DougJ, the Mayor did go into an over emotional rant on the radio last week.
He’s alot calmer now and squealing on the Governor of his state.
I see where some of you ignored Jeff G.’s arguments without batting an eye, so I’m sure the revelations in this transcript will go right over some of your heads, as well.
Instead, you’d rather Bush break the law, and strong arm a sitting Governor. Then Kos would have been OUTRAGED at the FASCIST tendancies of the Bush Administration. In my mind, that would have been an impeachable offense.
Olberman?! The sports hack with smarminess oozing out of every pore? Come on! I would never quote that popinjay O’Reilly at you guys, that is just dirty pool.
Darrell
Anderson wrote:
Uh dumbfuck, the link is in the original post by John Cole
Darrell
Stormy, you must not have been watching Nagin on CNN. He is going off on over the top profanity laden outbursts. He screwed up so badly and is now swearing up a storm as if he’s not the #1 f*ckup in this disaster.
djc
ppgaz,
It was only a joke. Probably pretty badly worded.
My sincere apololgies.
PS: You still lost my vote for telling me to get lost.
hadenoughofthisyet
You’re so right. While people were dying I am so glad that Bush was paying attention to the nuances of bureaucracy. Maybe he isn’t such a black and white type of guy after all.
Darrell
ppgaz is old enough to have protested in the 60’s. It wouldn’t hurt a thing to knock his stained false teeth down his throat
ppGaz
Tough talk, Darrell. Want to give it a try?
Far North
Oh, fer fuck sake, djc, can’t you do more that just cut & paste? You never seem to have anything to say.
“You’d lose”. “You lost my vote blah blah.” Is that all you can do?
Darrell
Oh, and such “nuances” they were, federal govt forcibly usurping state and local powers and all.
djc
Oh that was Andrei posting that.
I any event my comments to ppGaz still hold.
Andrei, you must be a lawyer. He’s always trying to get Cole ban someone.
Darrell
Mighty brave talk from a wrinkled scumbag
Stormy70
Yeah, I missed it. How many elderly people can use an ax to poke through their roofs? Still the buses sit, leaking unused fuel into the flood waters.
{hicc-up} Light them up, boys. The terrorists are just misunderstood. They didn’t mean to kill all those people.
djc
Far North,
I dunno. You have anything interesting to say?
…………….
ppGaz
Plenty of time for that fine, vintage GOP nuance during the coming weeks as we get the daily accounts of bloated bodies fished out of New Orleans, Darrell.
You and John both sound like you are making a “No controlling legal authority” type argument in this situation. That will go over really well in the days ahead as the horror stories come out, day after day.
There are only two things you need to keep in mind:
One: There are a lot of dead people yet to be counted.
Two: “Brownie, your doin a heckuva job.”
Keep that tough talk going, Darrell, you’ll need it.
—//
BTW, I have all my real teeth.
db
From Drudge’s report on NPR story so the sources should make everyone happy; but the quote shouldn’t….
http://drudgereport.com/flash5bb.htm
Excuse me while I go vomit.
If Dubya’s mama thinks like this, it’s a wonder that it didn’t take any longer for the her son to make something happen.
hadenoughofthisyet
I dunno. Maybe the same number who are able to not drown in a nursing home. Hee hee.
Stormy70
The people on the local news say they are relocating to Texas. Something about being able to buy big houses for less money. Lots of these people like what they are seeing, and will stay. Good. Move into an area with more job opportunities, and only marginally less corrupt city officials. Dallas city council, I’m looking at you. Truth is some of these poorer people will have a better life in Texas, and employers are lining up to give people jobs. The local churches are picking people up in buses, and taking them to church. One mall hosted ice skating parties all weekend, and threw birthday parties for others. I think most will land on their feet.
djc
Yikes!!
Would that mean you’d be knocking on wood?
Mike S
.
I saw him interviewed earlier where he said there were things he could have done better. Something the leader of your cult has never done in his life.
tBone
Wanna bet Babs gets a hand-knit muzzle from Karl Rove for Christmas this year?
jobiuspublius
Maybe the plan was to save space for more people and have the feds come really fast, circa 1906 fast, to rescue people like they are supposed to.
stickler
Just to reiterate, for those of you arguing the Feds — and by extension Bush — have nothing to apologize for:
In 1906, on the same damned day as the earthquake,
At 8:40 PM General Funston requested emergency housing – tents and shelters – from the War Department in Washington; all of the tents in the U.S. Army were on their way to San Francisco by 4:55 AM the next morning.
All of the tents in the US Army. Sent to the site of the disaster by the War Department before dawn the next day. Compare and contrast 1906 with 2005. Then consider all of the above comments.
DougJ
Get off the Barabara Bush thing, people. She just an old lady who said something that came out wrong. Stick to bashing Michael Brown and Michael Chertoff.
ppGaz
Heh. Got married and started a family in the 60’s. Got a commercial pilot’s license and made a living with it off and on for ten years. What were you doing?
Anyway, by all means, continue to shoot your mouth off. Don’t let me stop you.
DougJ
And knock it off, Darrell and ppgaz! You sound like 7th graders.
Mike S
Momma Bush is not gonna like that. Atrios has a real player link with the whole thing.
ppGaz
Excuse me? These guys are calling me names and talking tough about knocking my teeth out, and I’m a 7th grader?
I’ll take it from here, Doug, thanks anyway.
db
Is Dubya off limits, too? Please provide me a list so I don’t offend anyone.
Look Baba is walking into shelters and saying this in front of people who have lost everything they have known. If it were me and I heard that, “condescending” does not even come close to describing it.
KC
Man, after being at a wedding all weekend in sunny San Francisco, I feared I was missing important stuff. Seeing this latest flare up over Barbara Bush’s remarks tells me I feared way too much.
ppGaz
Heh.
jobiuspublius
She’s a sarcastic evil fascist crow who spawned a copy of her self. She knows what she is doing. If you say that the displaced had better conditions then she claims that this is good so what they had was not bad. If you claim that this is better than what they had then she claims that they can get better from a minimum wage job. I know a thing or two about crackers, I’m observant.
ppGaz
Watching Nightline. Koppel hops a chopper, tours NO.
They drop in on a strip mall, where truckloads of supplies are being handed out to the needy.
Turns out that the supplies had been sent down from Kentucky by private citizens making donations.
Good Samaritans in Kentucky can get relief into NO, but the mighty US Government looked hamstrung for the better part of a week.
The mind boggles.
The ppGaz No-Bell Prize goes out to the people of Kentucky who sent these truckoads of supplies.
chuck
Well,
I was going to post a link here, but after reading through some of the comments it strikes me as all children all the time. Trying to be informative would, I think, be a waste of time. Nighty Nite little ones.
ppGaz
It isn’t bad enough that we have to endure the scolds of John, and the daily carrot-stick, inflame-hosedown cycle of stirring up churn …
… and then the insane and basically vile ministrations of the likes of Darrell and Stormy ….
… then we have to get some condescending shit like this from Chuck.
You want a tuck-in? Okay, here’s mine: When will somebody in charge around here take note of, and comment on, the David Brooks piece from 9-4 NYT?
An excerpt:
Brooks is not a liberal. In fact, I’ve considered him often to be an intellectual whore to the rightwing pundit industry. But my point is, this is not the ranting of some rigid Bush-hater.
C’mon, John and Darrell, aren’t you going to tear Brooks a new one? What the hell are you waiting for?
Good night, my ass.
jobiuspublius
Carefull, Pat Robertson will smite your ass.
rkrider
Oh wow, your buddy found one story out of how many that just might not be true. Damn left wing media.
How about all these.
FEMA won’t accept Amtrak’s help in evacuations
FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
FEMA won’t let Red Cross deliver food
FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
FEMA turns away generators (See entry from 3:32 P.M. by Ben Morris, Slidell mayor)
FEMA: “First Responders Urged Not To Respond”
Six year old responds to disaster better than Bush
Probably all made up by left wingers too. I don’t care if there all debunked, the one story that can’t be debunked is the one the entire world saw up close and personal.
What everyone saw is an out of touch president who stayed on vacation while his people were under water.
What everyone saw were reporters who could get to people pleading for help from their government at the Superdome and a president who did nothing for them, until he had his photo-op on Friday.
What people saw (once again) was a leaderless nation when leadership was needed most. So go ahead keep blaming the victims, blaming the mayor and the governor, keep protecting the one person who could have picked up the telephone and had supplies (in a matter of hours, not days) to the dying people in the Superdome.
Keep giving up your humanity, a little piece at a time, just keep doing whatever it takes to keep from admitting that you’ve been wrong about this president.
SEARP
Goldstein’s post is just CYA bullshit. I have worked with military officers for 30 years, and when the answer does on that long, you KNOW it is bullshit.
The 82nd’s ready brigade can deploy in 12 hours. It could and should have deployed by last Wednesday morning at the latest.
The general officer is not going to give an order that puts his troops in harm’s way without orders from up the chain. Someone didn’t tell him to get his ass in gear. Period.
Slide
We all know the ROVE strategy at this point is to blame this on Louisiana. The usual suspects are parroting the “party line” with their usual zeal. But, the mistake you guys make is that this isn’t going to disappear under the radar screen without a LOT of scrutiny. And when everyone is done examining the FACTS and not the ROVE spin they will realize the the federal government WAS responsible and FAILED in their responsibility.
You know little boy Bush often likes to compare himself with Churchill. Well, here is a quote from Churchill:
We hold the President responsible for the public safety, especially after 911. And Bush failed miserably in that responsibility. All the spin in the world ain’t going to change that.
Darrell
Typical leftist moron, what matters most is symbolism, not results. But you know what, I like your list and I think we need to have answers to every damn one of the questions you raise. Maybe not this minute, but we need answers to them. But so far, it seems all the left cares about is pinning everything on Bush. The very fact that your list doesn’t ask why state and local officials didn’t issue mandatory evacuation orders earlier? or why weren’t the hundreds of buses available (thousands if you count those available state wide) utilized during the evacuation? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe I’ve read even one leftie demanding answers to those questions. Funny how their accusations and criticisms only run in one direction
But rkrider’s list still deserves to be answered. Because I want to see whether or not a picture emerges of a federal response which was reasonably well planned and executed given the difficulties (breakdown of state and local govt, infrastructure hurdles, etc), or was it one of too much disorganization with too many unforgiveable mistakes. I could care less if Bush stayed on his Crawford ranch (hello, leftist fools, Bush has a wonderful technology in Crawford called the telephone.. they even have internet!), what I care about is learning about the screwups, so we can learn from them, try and correct the problems, and hold those who screwed up responsible for their failures.
Darrell
Can Bush just send in the military without being asked by the governor? Or would that have exceeded his authority? Because if it did exceed his authority to do so, that would make your angry criticism damn ignorant, wouldn’t it?
Anderson
Uh dumbfuck, the link is in the original post by John Cole
I see what politeness gets you around here. Sheesh.
(N.b. that Cole’s post did not mention “Goldstein.”)
Anderson
Okay, okay, it’s in the UPDATE. Gotcha. I think I am now qualified to be the new head of FEMA. References, anyone?
Tractarian
From Wikipedia (emphasis added):
There’s nothing here that explicitly answers the question, but it seems clear to me that the governor’s authorization is not necessary for the president to order troops to enter a disaster area.
Incidentally, does it strike anyone else as tragically ironic that some of Bush’s blind followers consider him to be above the law when it comes to war powers and torture, but helpless and constrained by the law when it comes to domestic emergency response?
jobiuspublius
Anderson, your in. Take me with you.
Darrell, the screws ups have gone on long enough. Some of us have been learning from them for years. This POTUS BLOWS, relatively speaking. WORST POTUS EVER. Remember shit rolls down hill. A turd blossom this large can only come from the top.
Let the fun begin.
tBone
No. There are a minority of partisan-blinded lefties who want to pin all the blame on Bush. There are a minority of partisan-blinded righties who don’t want any of the blame to fall on Bush.
And then there are a vast number of reasonable people on both sides who see massive failures on every level of government and want EVERYONE responsible to be held accountable.
I’ll leave it up you to decide which camp you belong to.
jobiuspublius
Anything for Dear Leader. It’s shamefull.
scs
The 2004 National Response Act replaces, or supplements the Posse Comitatus Act. The National Response Act makes it more clear that the Feds can do what needs to be done in an emergency. However it also says that the locals are first responders and should do whatever they can first and that the Feds should defer to that, but that the Feds can then come in with what the locals can’t do.
Problems with this NRP plan is, first, I think this act was more geared to terrorism. Second it was only in effect since 2004, and not tested. Third, its unclear what it is the locals can do and what they can’t do. Is providing food and water to rescue areas in NO something the state can’t do? I wouldn’t think so. So, even though he had the ultimate authority, Bush was afraid to use the ‘nuclear option’ and just barge in there over the governor’s head, which is what he did a few days later apparently.
scs
FEMA probably turned back all those deliveries under the idea that NO was too dangerous to travel in, they would need escorts, they would clog up the rescue roadways, etc. But they should have been able to multitask. It sounds to me like they have too many low-level people out there in the field, following broad outlines too rigidly. People who are low in the totem pole, afraid to make decisions on their own. Perhaps a result of budget cuts. They need to reorganize that organization with more people able to make decisions on their own and who know how to multitask.
capelza
scs…I don’t know that I agree or not. What Bush, because he is the leader of the country, DID certainly do was allow political fallout to happen. When the Mayor of N.O. is yelling Friday to get help in (not defending him), when the Governor of LA is crying on TV (again not defending her)..and lastly, and probably most damaging, when Aaron Broussard’s breakdown on Russert’s show is showed again and again on national TV, he has a problem.
I don’t know that the rest of the country cares so much about the “blame game”, but I think a lot of people had their “Aaron Broussard moment”. Talking to my Southern, very white, very Republican dad, if he is any indication…THAT was when he got really pissed off with Bush. Fairly or not, but in this country, perception goes a very, very long way…
Anderson
Bottom line: you CANNOT justify failing to bring in food & water to the Dome and convention center by Tuesday evening. Might’ve been well into Wednesday before enough was there for everyone, but even so.
As far as the short term response, I can forgive just about everything but that. A gov’t that really cared about those people would’ve moved heaven & earth to do it—calling to borrow private copters, appropriating water & food, whatever.
scs
Okay, I know everyone is going to think I’m evil when I say this, but I’m a little suspicious of Aaron Broussard. I watch crying carefully and I always look to see if it looks natural. The breathing patterns, the voice, the tears. His looked a little Susan Smith-like to me. If his story is true, why hasn’t the media shown the man whose mother died? After all, they would dig up someone’s cousin’s pet who had problems, if it was a human interest story. I’m not accusing, I’m just saying.
scs
Yes I agree the food thing was bad. I think the problem is FEMA needs to learn to multitask. New leadership and top to bottom retraining is needed there.
Joe Albanese
scs uttered this absolute idiocy:
You guys on the right are incredible. Not even going to comment further.
scs
Sorry, but I have to say what I think. You are were all defending the doctor who told the patient she was fat too, until you heard the whole story. Not me, I was suspicious of him from the beginning. So I have a good track record of being right about people. Now whether I am in this case or not, I don’t know. If not, I apologize in advance.
ppGaz
Actually, 32 people died in the nursing home, according to this story:
This is the second time I’ve posted this:
Full Broussard Story
Darrell
Since the Superdome evacuation was the city’s plan (I’m not sure if even it was on their list of approved shelters), wouldn’t bringing food & water to these people through Tuesday (or even Wed) clearly fall under the responsibility of state and local govt.? I mean, knowing how vulnerable they are, and how much money they’ve taken from the feds to just that, why didn’t they think to stock food and water as well as other supplies? I think this is another knee-jerk “why didn’t the feds handle everything from day 1” type of accusation.
ppGaz
Let’s review: You were, according to you, right once, so that means you have a “good track record of being right?”
Oh my.
In that case, I am Jesus H Christ himself. I’ve been right at least twenty different times.
jobiuspublius
Once the levee broke, the city flood to 80%. The only road out was across the superdome to Gretna across the river over a bridge. The superdome was baracaded and National Guard were post to guard the bridge, not letting people out, except press. People were trapped in the superdome for days without supplies. Walmart trucks carrying water from Gretna, 3 IIRC, were turned back. FEMA said no. I guess Brownie had to get it just right.
I know, stampde, yadda yada yadda. It doesn’t excuse this immense disgracefull catastrophic failure. Worst POTUS Ever and Friends will just dig themselves deeper whie eating their own words. We have video and horror this time.
scs
Okay, I saw the story on MSNC. I apologize then. I was wrong this time. And no, I haven’t been right just once, I am right a lot, just with my friends, and my personal life about judging people. But I am a suspicious person in general, so I suppose some suspicions are bound to come true somethimes anyway.
hrrrrumph
Darrell offers:
Tractarian retorts:
And of course there’s no response from Darrell as he just continues down his path of ignorance and on to the next talking points handed down by the turds in charge.
ppGaz
Me too, I was just giving you an extra hard time because you were sounding like Stormy.
I don’t think the guy made up the story. I will say that I also don’t think we know the whole story, nor probably does he himself know the whole story. A lot of those responders down there are goofy with fatigue and trauma, I am not sure half of them are sane at this point.
goonie bird
Andrew Cooper with his walnut brain whats he trying to prove anyway
scs
Wow PPGaz, you better stop that, you are almost starting to sound nice!
scs
Okay, stop the presses! I told you all, I am NEVER wrong.
Remember me being suspicious of Brossard’s story about the man’s mother dying after his repeated cries for help was ignored? (as said on MSNBC link provided by ppgaz)
Well this is what I saw tonight in the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/national/nationalspecial/07chalmette.html
.
See? The residents died almost immediately in the flood, as their home was in a dip. And rescue efforts started immeditely. I knew that guy was not on the level.