I've been thinking about that. We need National Guard here too. And in San Antonio and Dallas. We need to have security here before security becomes an issue. I'm happy to have everyone come even though I know crime is going to go up in Houston as a result. I'm glad they're coming, but we need to have a show of force here too.
This is a failure of the entire federal emergency response mechanism. Bush cannot bear all the blame. However, he did run on a platform of HOMELAND SECURITY. The explicit message in his campaign was that America would be safer under him than Kerry. When you run that kind of campaign, people are going to expect results. That was not a quote from a blue state liberal. That was from Newt Gingrich.
i'm not doubting he said it, but i'd love a link for that gingrich quote, if you have one. thanks in advance.
There is no way President Bush can possibly understand what is going on there. We have spent billions on the Department of Homeland Security on his watch, and we are no more prepared to confront a natural or manmade catastrophe than we were on September 10th 2001. For President Bush to truly understand what is going on, he would have to accept some of the blame for the less than adequate federal response, and since he thinks his sh*t doesn't stink, there is no possible way it will occur.
No. I'm not kidding you. The response has been commendable. You are focusing on the, what is it, 5-10% of the people of NO that stayed? that means 90-95% of the residents evacuated to safety. That was mandated by the state government. They issued a mandatory evacuation and the people that could, did. the people that didn't either did not have the means or the desire. since the disaster the relief effort has been massive and thorough. It has not been quick enough, that's for sure. But it takes time to orchestrate an effort the size of the one that is underway. And I am not going to begrudge "the government" and damned sure not the President as an individual for the effort that has been made thus far.
Kurtz: Are you a tool? Chance: I'm a patriot. Kurtz: You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill.
I'm sure if you're 98 you're probably not too self sufficiant and someone is helping you, be it a neighbor or whatever. And if you're 98 and alone, then your family has failed you, not the government. And although you do see some elderly in this situation that vast majority are not. My whole point is don't put yourself in a situation where you are relying on the goverment to take care of you, becuase you will be dissapointed every time. And yes, people sticking around to wait out the hurricane, knowing what could happen is in fact 'putting yourself in a situation'
What about all the people who did as instructed and went to the Superdome, and are now dying in droves there? What about all the people trapped in hospitals? Charity Hospital is under attack by looters and people are dying in there every day. Same in other instances. You're telling me the US military couldn't airlift troops to help protect and support those places in less than 5 days? This has been a colossal failure of government any way you look at it.
it's not about patriotism or loyalty to GW. I feel I have a better grasp on the reality of the size of the effort than others. I am not going in with a bias. I'm not going in with hatred of the President. And I am not using this natural disaster as yet another opportunity to lambaste the administration like the yappers on this board.
Four days after Katrina and still no sign of the Army, Navy, or Marines. We have a base full of troops here in Killeen just itching to help out. Instead, there are people starving, dying, and living in hell on earth. This is absolute bullshi*t. All this ******* money we pay for Homeland Security for this?
This is a good read for those blaming the federal goverment: Link New Orleans, the tragedy September 1st, 2005 As Hurricane Katrina headed toward New Orleans, sticklers for the actual meaning of words told us that it would be wrong to label the impending disaster a tragedy. That term, with its origins in drama, refers to horrible consequences produced out of the flaws in human nature. A hurricane is a force of nature, and cannot by definition be “tragic” no matter how horrible the outcome. The drama unfolding in New Orleans, however, is now officially a tragedy. Katrina wrought destruction, but the consequences most horrifying us today are the result of human folly. For at least a decade, critics have warned that the levee system protecting New Orleans needed serious upgrading. Dire predictions of the complete destruction of the city by either a hurricane or by a historic Mississippi River flood have circulated for many years, but were insufficient to move authorities to expensive action. Holland, after a tragedy killing thousands in the 1950s, reinforced its dykes with more than the thumbs of young boys. New Orleans ignored the lessons. The looting and apparent near-anarchy in the flooded streets have nothing to do with Mother Nature, and everything to do with human nature, unconstrained by the thin veneer of civilization. The incomplete evacuation of citizens and warehousing in the Superdome struck me at the time as a poor choice. Why were there not sound trucks cruising the streets warning those detached from the media to run for their lives? Why weren’t there places designated where folks heading out of town could fill up their cars with refugees lacking transportation? Why wasn’t every bus, truck, and railroad freight car pressed into service to haul people away? Blogger Ultima Thule captured my own impression of the political authorities in Louisiana when she wrote Louisiana Governor Blanco unfortunately resembles her name -- Blanco -- she looks like a deer caught in the headlines -- oops -- I was going to type headlights -- but that was an apt slip of the fingers. Nobody wants to kick New Orleans and Louisiana when they are so devastated. But we will be deluding ourselves and laying the foundations for future suffering, if we don’t examine the human failures which have turned a natural disaster into a tragedy. Few if any cities have contributed more to American culture than New Orleans. Jazz, our distinctive national contribution to music, has its origins in New Orleans. So too in the realm of cuisine, New Orleans is virtually without peer. Many years ago, a wealthy and cultivated Japanese entrepreneur observed to me that New Orleans was the only city in America he had found in which rich and poor people alike understood food. He mentioned Provence in France and Tuscany in Italy as comparisons. You could walk into unimpressive restaurants in less prosperous neighborhoods in New Orleans, patronized by ordinary citizens, not free-spending tourists, and expect a meal made from fresh ingredients, flavored with interesting herbs and spices, and served to patrons who would accept no less. But the many virtues of New Orleans are offset in part by serious flaws. The flowering of the human spirit in the realm of cultural creativity is counterbalanced by a tradition of corruption, public incompetence, and moral decay. It is no secret that New Orleans and the Great State of Louisiana have a sorry track record when it comes to political corruption. And corruption tolerated in one sphere tends to metastasize and infect other aspects of life. They don’t call it “The Big Easy” because it is simple to start a business, and easy to run one there. Many years ago, an oilman in Houston pointed out to me that there was no inherent reason Houston should have emerged as the world capital of the petroleum business. New Orleans was already a major city with centuries of history, proximity to oil deposits, and huge transportation advantages when the Houston Ship Channel was dredged, making the then-small city of Houston into a major port. The discovery of the Humble oil field certainly helped Houston rise as an oil center, but the industry could just as easily have centered itself in New Orleans. When I pressed my oilman informant for the reason Houston prevailed, he gave me a look of pity for my naiveté, and said, “Corruption.” Anyone making a fortune in New Orleans based on access to any kind of public resources would find himself coping with all sorts of hands extended for palm-greasing. Permits, taxes, fees, and outright bribes would be a never-ending nightmare. Houston, in contrast, was interested in growth, jobs, prosperity, and extending a welcoming hand to newcomers. New Orleans might be a great place to spend a pleasant weekend, but Houston is the place to build a business. Today, metropolitan Houston houses roughly 4 times the population of pre-Katrina metropolitan New Orleans, despite the considerable advantage New Orleans has of capturing the shipping traffic of the Mississippi basin. It is far from a coincidence that Houston is now absorbing refugees from New Orleans, and preparing to enroll the children of New Orleans in its own school system. Houston is a city built on the can-do spirit (space exploration, oil, medicine are shining examples of the human will to knowledge and improvement, and all have been immeasurably advanced by Houstonians). Houston officials have capably planned for their own possible severe hurricanes, and that disaster planning is now selflessly put at the disposal of their neighbors to the east. Let us all do everything we can to ameliorate the horrendous suffering of people all over the Gulf Coast, not just in New Orleans. But we must not fail to learn necessary lessons. Hurricanes are predictable and inevitable. Their consequences can be minimized by honest and capable political leadership. It appears that New Orleans could have done much better. We would honor the suffering and deaths by insisting that any rebuilding be premised on a solid moral and political foundation. Thomas Lifson is the editor and publisher of The American Thinker
not true..they're there now. http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weath...l-50/1125662943159960.xml&storylist=hurricane National Guardsmen reach New Orleans 9/2/2005, 12:46 p.m. CT By ALLEN G. BREED The Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Four days after Hurricane Katrina struck, the National Guard arrived in force Friday with food, water and weapons, churning through the floodwaters in a vast truck convoy with orders to retake the streets and bring relief to the suffering. "The cavalry is and will continue to arrive," said one general. Rolling through muddy water up to their axles, the trucks began arriving at the New Orleans Convention Center, where 15,000 to 20,000 hungry and desperate refugees had taken shelter — many of them seething with anger so intense that the place appeared ready to erupt in violence at any moment. Flatbed trucks carried huge crates, pallets and bags of relief supplies. Soldiers sat in the backs of open-top trucks, their rifles pointing skyward. The military convoy was followed by dozens of air-conditioned tour buses, which broke off and went to the Louisiana Superdome, where thousands of storm refugees were massed outside, waiting to be evacuated, after suffering through the heat, the filth and the overpowering stench inside the stadium. National Guardsmen carrying rifles and wearing camouflage gear also arrived outside the Superdome, walking in a long line past a vast crowd of bedraggled people fanning themselves miserably in the heat. The soldiers' arrival-in-force came amid blistering criticism from the mayor and others who said the federal government had bungled the relief effort and let people die in the streets for lack of food, water or medicine. On Thursday, at the Convention Center, corpses lay abandoned outside the building, and many storm refugees complained bitterly that they had been forsaken by the government. And at the Superdome, fights and fires broke out and storm victims battled for seats on the buses taking them to the Houston Astrodome. "The people of our city are holding on by a thread," Mayor Ray Nagin warned in a statement to CNN. "Time has run out. Can we survive another night? And who can we depend on? Only God knows." In Washington, President Bush admitted "the results are not acceptable" and pledged to bolster the relief efforts. He visited the stricken Gulf Coast later in the day, and pledged in Mobile, Ala.: "What is not working right, we're going to make it right." Lt. Gen. Steven Blum of the National Guard said 7,000 National Guardsmen arriving in Louisiana on Friday would be dedicated to restoring order in New Orleans. He said half of them had just returned from assignments overseas and are "highly proficient in the use of lethal force." He pledged to "put down" the violence "in a quick and efficient manner." "But they are coming here to save Louisiana citizens. The only thing we are attacking is the effects of this hurricane," he said. Blum said that a huge airlift of supplies was landing Friday and that it signaled "the cavalry is and will continue to arrive." As he left the White House for his visit to the devastated area, Bush said 600 newly arrived military police officers would be sent to the convention center to secure the site so that food and medicine could get there. Earlier Friday, an explosion at a warehouse rocked a wide area of New Orleans before daybreak and jolted residents awake, lighting up the sky and sending a pillar of acrid gray smoke over a ruined city awash in perhaps thousands of corpses, under siege from looters, and seething with anger and resentment. A second large fire erupted downtown in an old retail building in a dry section of Canal Street. There were no immediate reports of injuries. But the fires deepened the sense of total collapse in the city since Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore Monday morning. The explosion took place along the Mississippi River about 15 blocks from the French Quarter. It was about two miles from both the Louisiana Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center, the two spots where tens of thousands of hungry, desperate and hostile refugees awaited buses to deliver them from their misery. The cause of the blast was under investigation. City officials have accused the government — namely the Federal Emergency Management Agency — of responding sluggishly. "Get off your asses and let's do something," the mayor told WWL-AM Thursday night in a rambling interview in which he cursed, yelled and ultimately burst into tears. At one point he said: "Excuse my French — everybody in America — but I am pissed." The National Guard arrived in force after law and order all but broke down. Over the past few days, police officers turned in their badges. Rescuers, law officers and medical-evacuation helicopters were shot at by storm victims. Fistfights and fires broke out at the hot and stinking Superdome as thousands of people waited in misery to board buses for the Houston Astrodome. Corpses lay out in the open in wheelchairs and in bedsheets. The looting continued. At the Superdome, group of refugees broke through a line of heavily armed National Guardsmen in a scramble to get on to the buses. And about 15,000 to 20,000 people who had taken shelter at the convention center grew ever more hostile after waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead, including at least seven bodies scattered outside the building. Police Chief Eddie Compass said there was such a crush around a squad of 88 officers that they retreated when they went in to check out reports of assaults. "We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten," Compass said. "Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon." A military helicopter tried to land at the convention center several times Thursday to drop off food and water. But the rushing crowd forced the choppers to back off. Troopers then tossed the supplies to the crowd from 10 feet off the ground and flew away. An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet. "I don't treat my dog like that," Edwards said as he pointed at the woman in the wheelchair. "You can do everything for other countries, but you can't do nothing for your own people." Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said FEMA just learned about the situation at the convention center Thursday and quickly scrambled to provide food, water and medical care and remove the corpses. While floodwaters in New Orleans appeared to stabilize, efforts continued to plug three breaches in the levees that protect this bowl-shaped, below-sea-level city, which is wedged between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. Helicopters dropped sandbags into the breach and pilings were being pounded into the mouth of the canal Thursday to close its connection to the lake. Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, said engineers are developing a plan to create new breaches in the levees so that a combination of pumping and the effects of gravity will drain the water out of the city. Removing the floodwaters will take weeks, he said. ____ Associated Press reporters Adam Nossiter, Brett Martel, Emily Wagster Pettus, Robert Tanner and Mary Foster contributed to this report.
The President himself said the "results are not acceptable." Several local officials have bitterly complained about the lack of federal assistance. Do you have a better grasp than those people as well?
Come on now. We both know that the resources from the National Guards is totally inadequate. There are literally tens of thousands of people who need saving, and I don't think "dozens of buses" and a truck convoy is going to do the job. I expect my government to get water to people in New Orleans and Gulfport in 72 hours. Is that too much to ask of the weathiest and most powerful nation in the world?
