Hrmmmm. I am not sure that "maintaining an equilibrium of collectiveness" coincides with being emotionless. There's an interesting parallel between your reaction to Broussard and the stereotypical republican response to, for example, bad news in Iraq. I think I understand your point, but getting emotional over FMEA ineptitude and insufficient resources to protect your people is hardly the same as "going nuts".
Good God. Some of you get pissed when there are harsh words for the federal government who seemed inept in getting help to thousands of people after a huge disaster, but this poor guy - who saw his small town utterly destroyed - gets criticized for being overwhelmed. Wow. Just...wow. I'll never understand the thought process of some folks.
John Nichols 1 hour, 32 minutes ago The Nation -- Finally, we have discovered the roots of George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism." On the heels of the president's "What, me worry?" response to the death, destruction and dislocation that followed upon Hurricane Katrina comes the news of his mother's Labor Day visit with hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston. Commenting on the facilities that have been set up for the evacuees -- cots crammed side-by-side in a huge stadium where the lights never go out and the sound of sobbing children never completely ceases -- former First Lady Barbara Bush concluded that the poor people of New Orleans had lucked out. "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. Perhaps the former first lady was amusing herself with the notion that evacuees without bread could eat cake. At the very least, she was expressing a measure of empathy commensurate with that evidenced by her son during his fly-ins for disaster-zone photo opportunities. On Friday, when even Republican lawmakers were giving the federal government an "F" for its response to the crisis, President Bush heaped praise on embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown. As thousands of victims of the hurricane continued to plead for food, water, shelter, medical care and a way out of the nightmare to which federal neglect had consigned them, Brown cheerily announced that "people are getting the help they need." Barbara Bush's son put his arm around the addled FEMA functionary and declared, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." Like mother, like son. Even when a hurricane hits, the apple does not fall far from the tree. http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/2...zH9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
With respect to the man whose mother drowned after 3 days, why was this man waiting for SOMEONE ELSE to go and save his mother? 3 freakin days pass and you still wait for OTHERS to save your MOTHER. That is pathetic. Maybe there is more to the story than I know. However, on the surface, it seems that the poor lady had one apathetic son.
Wow this is harsh and uncalled for. I can't believe it comes from you, AggieRocket. The guy, who was in charge of the Emergency Management of Jefferson Parish, was working his butt off (probably nonstop) to rescue people within his own "jurisdiction". His mother was in a nursing home in St. Bernard Parish. If anything, he should be lauded for his utter selflessness, work ethics, and complete trust in fellow government officials' ability and promise. Can you imagine what it would be like if everyone in the government put down what they were doing and mind their own businesses in time of crisis like this? I truly feel for "that guy", heart broken.
I was not aware that he was in a different parish from his mother. I assumed that they were in the same area and he was just "depending" on others to do what he easily could have done himself. I certainly mean no disrespect to the man or his mother and what I said was wrong. You are right in what you have to say. In that context, my comments were uncalled for.
I think we are all upset right now. I would like to think that the overwhelming number of people here, the Americans, are patriotic, and it grieves me, as it must grieve all of us, to see an ancient city of vast historical significance for this country, that some of us hold dear to our hearts, practically destroyed by this terrible storm. It grieves most of us, I think, to see how much of this could have been prevented by the kind of effort that was needed by this and past administrations, and with more effort from state and local authorities, to prepare for this eventuality. And it's grieves many of us to see the gross incompetence on display in the immediate aftermath. I don't care how one "spins it." The people of the greater New Orleans area, and the rest of the affected Gulf Coast, were failed by their elected government, more than anything by the one government branch with the vast resources that could, and should have made the most immediate impact in saving lives and alleviating horrific conditions... the Federal government. Keep D&D Civil!!
I concur, ultimately. However, and there is always a "however" with me, the Federal Governemt reacted mightily when activated and that is being overlooked and underreported.
I guess they weren't activated soon enough. I hope that the bureaucrats that were responsible for this will be held accountable.
I do too. And they were not activated soon enough. Soon enough, with hindsight, would have been 60,000 troops and aid workers in a semicircle around the area on 8-26-05. Everyone trusted luck and was wrong.
Good post. This is a disaster on all levels of party politics. Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin are Democrats while our Feds are ruled by the GOP. I don't know who I despise more at this moment. It was a "governmental" failure, whether you want to call it local, state, or national.
I think that's behind a lot of the anger directed at the President. It's obvious to so many, and yet one of the first things out of Bush's mouth is praise for the incompetency of the head of FEMA. If his response had been, instead, righteous anger, and a fervent vow to take names and kick ass, he would have shown leadership. Yes, there is a time for emotion from our leaders, as well as cool, collected actions. This was one of those times. And the "cool collected actions," if they were there, came across as blithe incomprehension of the horror of the situation by the President. Keep D&D Civil!!
MSNBC has now retracted the original story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9368952 -- An emotional moment and a misunderstanding Story of a mother’s desperate calls from nursing home skewed MSNBC and NBC News Updated: 10:55 a.m. ET Sept. 19, 2005 WASHINGTON - The Jefferson Parish president's emotional retelling of a mother's desperate calls from a New Orleans nursing home included details that conflict with the timeline of the tragedy. The story, of a colleague's mother begging her son for rescue as flood waters rose after Hurricane Katrina, came to prominence on Sunday, Sept. 4, when Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, was interviewed by Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.) New details and interviews with the son whose mother died in the flood show that the tragedy unfolded from Saturday through Monday, Aug. 29 — not Monday through Friday, Sept. 2 as recounted by Broussard. The owners of the nursing home were indicted Tuesday for the deaths of more than 30 residents, which officials say occurred on Aug. 29. In the course of the interview, in which Broussard was expressing frustration with the slow-footed response by the federal government to the hurricane, he related the personal story of a man whose mother had died in the flooding caused by Katrina. Broussard, who did not identify the man by name at the time, broke down in tears as he related the story. As the Meet the Press transcript shows, Russert paused the interview to allow Broussard to compose himself. BROUSSARD: ... The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night. RUSSERT: Mr. President... BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody. RUSSERT: Just take a pause, Mr. President. While you gather yourself in your very emotional times, I understand, let me go to Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi. Since the broadcast of the interview, which elevated Broussard to national prominence, a number of bloggers have questioned the validity of Broussard’s story. Subsequent reporting identified the man whom Broussard was referring to in the Meet the Press interview as Thomas Rodrigue, the Jefferson Parish emergency services director. Contacted on Friday by MSNBC.com, Rodrigue acknowledged that his 92-year-old mother and more than 30 other people died in the St. Rita nursing home. They had not been evacuated and the flood waters overtook the residence. The chronology of the phone calls described by Broussard came under particular scrutiny by bloggers. Rodrigue said he didn’t see or hear Broussard’s comments on Meet the Press. When told of the sequence of phone calls that Broussard described on Meet the Press, Rodrigue said “No, no, that’s not true.” “I can’t tell you what he said that day, why he was confused, I’m assuming he was under a tremendous amount of pressure,” Rodrigue told MSNBC. “I contacted the nursing home two days before the storm [on Aug. 27th] and again on the 28th of August,” Rodrigue said. “At the same time I talked to the nursing home I also talked to the emergency manager for St. Bernard Parish,” Rodrigue said, “to encourage that nursing home to evacuate like they were supposed to and they didn’t until it was too late.” Broussard must have been confused “because I was calling, not my mother calling me, I was calling her,” Rodrigue said. Further, Rodrigue says he never made any calls after Monday, the day he figures his mother died, based on conversations he’s had with another person who had a family member perish inside St. Rita’s. Officials believe that the residents of St. Rita’s died on Monday, Aug. 29, not on Friday, Sept. 2, as Broussard had suggested. Broussard could not be reached for comment Friday, but Jackie Bauer, a spokeswoman for Broussard who was present during the Meet the Press interview, said "it was a misunderstanding." Late on Friday, Bauer told MSNBC.com: "I was there when he (Broussard) was doing that, when he was saying that, I think he was meaning that he was calling, he was calling and trying to talk to Tommy and telling him ‘don’t worry,' trying to console Tommy, 'don’t worry, we’ll get her out, don’t worry we’ll get her out.'" When asked how Broussard could have gotten the details of his mother’s story so wrong, Rodrigue said, Broussard “was emotional, absolutely and he was from the time that he found out that, you know, that my mother had died and I was here doing what I’m required to do for the citizens for Jefferson Parish.” Rodrigue said he hasn’t spoken with Broussard since the Meet the Press broadcast. “He’s been busy, I’ve been busy,” Rodrigue said. “I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and talk to him.” The husband and wife owners of St. Rita’s nursing home in the New Orleans suburb of Chalmette have been charged with homicide in the case. “The pathetic thing in this case was that they were asked if they wanted to move them and they did not,” Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti said Tuesday. “They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people.” “They had a duty and a standard of care to people who could not care for themselves,” Foti said of the owners. “If you or I decided we are going to stay, we do it of our own free will. ... The people at the nursing home don’t have that choice.” “Thirty-four people drowned in a nursing home when it should have been evacuated. I cannot say it any plainer than that,” Foti said, his voice rising with anger.
This is a perfect example of why patience is soooo important. That clip was played a thousand times and that man was ill informed. He painted a picture of post-levee-breaking federal failure and his data were all wrong. I feel bad for the man that lost his mama, and everyone that lost loved ones. I stand by my belief that histrionics have no place in a leader.
