Riding Out Katrina

[JJsushi]

When I speak of the failed leadership during this natural and man made disaster which displayed the complete ineptitude by government, this article says it all. The President failed miserably in showing leadership during a national crisis.

 

People deserve the leaders they elect.

 

 

BTW- before u partisan party guys get ur panties in a a bunch, I am non-partisan and I have voted for Republican, Democrat and independent candidates.

 

 

 

 

 

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Bush Pledges to Rebuild Lott's Home: Margaret Carlson (Correct)

 

( Margaret Carlson, the author of ``Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House'' and former White House correspondent for Time magazine, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

 

By Margaret Carlson

 

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- As part of President George W. Bush's damage control over the weekend -- not of damage to the victims of Katrina but to himself -- he sent his staff to the Sunday talk shows and his parents to visit evacuees bused to Houston from New Orleans.

 

The administration officials fared poorly. On ``Meet the Press,'' Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff cited a headline no one else saw (``New Orleans Dodges a Bullet'') to explain why his department stood by for days as thousands in the New Orleans convention center were trapped in their own filth, without food, water, or medicine. He looked silly.

 

But he gave a boffo performance compared with the president's mother, who left her comfortable house in the West Oaks section of Houston to tour the emergency facility at the Astrodome, where she found a bunch of happy campers experiencing a step-up in their living conditions.

 

Vacation's Over

 

While I saw a teeming mass of displaced people standing in hour-long lines to wash encrusted grime off their children in a tiny restroom sink, Barbara Bush saw visitors ``overwhelmed with the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this is working (she laughed here) very well for them.''

 

Oh, really? The Bushes have always made fun of Bill Clinton's lip-biting, hands-on governing, but who wouldn't prefer that to the president's upbeat platitudes about how one day it will all be bigger and better?

 

Tanned and rested from a vacation so long it would embarrass the French, Bush initially flew over the devastation in Air Force One promising his prayers. When he actually touched down in the Delta a few days later, he reminisced about coming to New Orleans ``to enjoy myself, occasionally too much,'' apparently thinking he was at a fund-raiser.

 

He topped that in Mississippi, home of Republican Senator Trent Lott. ``Out of the rubble of Trent Lott's house,'' Bush said, ``there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch.''

 

Not Like Terri

 

Even to his detractors, the callous, puerile attitude and sheer ineptitude of Bush this past week is shocking. He got off to a slow start after Sept. 11, but quickly found his bullhorn and Rudy Giuliani. He's got neither here.

 

One reason for the dismal federal performance is Bush's disdain for government. It's bloated and for chumps who can't provide for themselves. Bush signed spending bills filled with pork, finding $454 million for his pal Senator Ted Stevens to build two bridges to nowhere in Alaska, but not for the levees everyone but he knew were cracking.

 

Bush rushed back from the ranch in March so the federal government could intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, but wasn't in any hurry to get to New Orleans. His folks tried to fob the whole thing off on local officials. As he repeatedly cut taxes to favor the wealthy and starve government programs, his mantra was, ``It's your money, not the government's.''

 

Praise for Brownie

 

Whose hurricane is it, I wonder? If Bush cared about governing, he would have never appointed Michael Brown, the failed director of a trade association that ran horse shows, to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

 

FEMA, which Bush folded into Homeland Security, has little to show for itself other than long lines at the airports as arthritic old ladies remove their shoes to prove they aren't terrorists. Besides that defunct color chart, of course.

 

If Bush's first priority were managing the real crisis and not the political one, he'd fire Brown, who ignored the pleas for help from the thousands of people herded like cattle into the convention center. To the contrary, Bush praised his point man for the recovery that hadn't happened. ``Brownie, you're doing one heck of a job,'' Bush told him.

 

If he keeps up the good work, Brownie may end up, like those other great public servants Paul Bremer and George Tenet, with a Medal of Freedom around his neck.

 

Affable Frat Boy

 

To paraphrase Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, we went to New Orleans with the government we've got. It's one replete with Chertoffs, Brownies, Cheneys and assorted other ideologues, cronies and schemers, who gorge on patronage, revel in politics, and brush off the mundane responsibilities of the offices they hold. They're Big Picture guys who have brought the same management skills to the Gulf States that they brought to that other Gulf.

 

The worrisome question is how much like them are we? In 2000, we shunned the long-winded Al Gore and his 10-point plans for an affable frat boy rescued by family and connections from a checkered career into running the Texas Rangers and then Texas itself.

 

We watched as Bush ignored Osama in favor of capturing Saddam, and then created and compounded the tragedy in Iraq. We rehired him anyway, and he proceeded to cut services even further. Even Bush may wish for a little more government now.

 

To contact the writer of this column:

Margaret Carlson.

 

Last Updated: September 8, 2005 06:11 EDT

[Hugh_Hoy]

JJ...you STILL don't get it, do you? It is the opinion that the federal government and a sitting president are responsible for every calamity and responsible for providing the safety, comfort, and long life for every citizen, non-citizen (legal or not) that has fucked up this country (compared to previous generations). People have such high expectations and have misplaced responsibilities to such a degree that it is almost laughable. Fuck all ! If 10,000 residents of N.O. are STILL insisting on staying on in a cesspool after an ordered evacuation and means are available to do so, I don't think its unfathomable that a 100,000 or more decided to "sit tight" before the storm struck (thinking or hoping) that the weather man was (once again) wrong. I'd hope that if nothing else good comes out of this tragedy is that a few people will learn to be more self-reliant and use their brains instead of blaming others for all of their misfortune or stupidity.

 

(As an aside, I have to wonder what people are thinking when they complain that the President didn't get back to Washington as soon as the storm struck. I guess they are unaware that he has the same communication available to him virtually anywhere in the world that he has in the Oval Office.)

 

Hugh (mak)

[JJsushi]

Hugh_Hoy said:

JJ...you STILL don't get it, do you? It is the opinion that the federal government and a sitting president are responsible for every calamity and responsible for providing the safety, comfort, and long life for every citizen, non-citizen (legal or not) that has fucked up this country (compared to previous generations). People have such high expectations and have misplaced responsibilities to such a degree that it is almost laughable. Fuck all ! If 10,000 residents of N.O. are STILL insisting on staying on in a cesspool after an ordered evacuation and means are available to do so, I don't think its unfathomable that a 100,000 or more decided to "sit tight" before the storm struck (thinking or hoping) that the weather man was (once again) wrong. I'd hope that if nothing else good comes out of this tragedy is that a few people will learn to be more self-reliant and use their brains instead of blaming others for all of their misfortune or stupidity.

 

(As an aside, I have to wonder what people are thinking when they complain that the President didn't get back to Washington as soon as the storm struck. I guess they are unaware that he has the same communication available to him virtually anywhere in the world that he has in the Oval Office.)

 

Hugh (mak)

 

Your simply missing the point and not even thinking about the issue of leadership. You are too focused on the divison of the federal govt vs States rights. This is not about that. This is about WHAT the leader of our country did AFTER the hurricane struck. He WAITED too long respond to a natural disaster that affected the entire country. Wake up Hugh this was not a state or local issue this was a NATIONAL issue. When 35% of our energy sources and 20% of our refining capacity is affected, it is a FEDERAL ISSUE, when FEMA is involved it is a Federal issue, when the Dept of Homeland Security is involved it is a Federal issue. Stop ranting and raving about States rights you sound like a politician.

 

The point is that our President had nothing to say for 2 days after the hit, showed up on the scene of a national disaster 4 days after the fact and our VP was still on vacation. A President is supposed to address and calm the nation, provide reassurance, give the country a course of action, etc.

 

Stop defending our joke of a leader.

[Hugh_Hoy]

Khun JJ...being retired, I have six Saturdays and a Sunday each week. Needless to say, I could draw pictures for you 'til I ran out of Crayons. However, I don't think it would help. And I know how you like to have the last word; so go for it.

 

Hoping that somebody is cuddling you, reassuring you, and leading you so that you don't walk off a cliff or fall out of a window,

 

Hugh (mak)

[Steve]

lazyphil said:

<<I've found New Yorkers to be rough on the outside, but pretty good people once you get to know them. Living there, I'd probably develop a tough exterior in self-defence too. >>

 

I was in a phone booth in san francisco and this woman got all angry as i was taking so long, i told her to wait a moment, to which she told me she was from new york in a raised voice....never did figure that one out ::

 

There are two accepted responses to her query.

1. With your free hand, raise your hand, make a fist with the back of the hand to the person and leave the middle finger up.

2. Or respond verbally : "F**k New York"

[Hugh_Hoy]

chocolat steve said:

 

 

There are two accepted responses to her query.

1. With your free hand, raise your hand, make a fist with the back of the hand to the person and leave the middle finger up.

2. Or respond verbally : "F**k New York"

 

LOL!!! And I'm quite sure she would fully comprehend. But in case she was a bit "thick", you could cheerfully explain that the phone she wanted to use can't make international or intergalactic calls.

 

Hugh (mak)

[Evel_Penivel]

Katrina evacuees resist relocation

 

By Chris Adams, Gary Estwick and Martin Merzer

 

Knight Ridder Newspapers

 

 

NEW ORLEANS - Authorities struggling to manage the largest relocation of Americans in modern history collided Wednesday with an unexpected obstacle: resistance from many of the evacuees.

 

In Houston, a plan to move evacuees from the Astrodome to two cruise ships in Galveston was canceled for lack of interest, officials said, forcing the government to search for evacuees from other areas to move into the ocean liners? cabins.

 

Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines chartered three festively named ships - the Sensation, the Ecstasy and the Holiday - to the federal government for use as floating shelters for the next six months.

 

The Sensation and the Ecstasy have been in Galveston since Monday, company spokesman Tim Gallagher said, but no evacuees boarded them. Potential passengers had so many questions that the company sent representatives into land-based shelters to explain the program.

 

In the end, said FEMA liaison Conley, the plan to move people from the Astrodome was canceled. Now, evacuees from elsewhere may be offered the cabins.

 

Gallagher said Carnival executives were flabbergasted when they learned of the evacuees? reluctance to board the ships.

 

The Sensation and Ecstasy each can accommodate 2,050 people, two to a cabin. The Holiday, due in Mobile on Thursday, can accommodate about 1,450 people, two to a cabin.

 

With Louisiana, Texas and other nearby states overwhelmed by the nearly 1 million people displaced by Katrina, officials in those states sought to place the overflow elsewhere - often in states far away and sometimes without the evacuees knowing where they were going.

 

In Washington, D.C., about 300 people ended up at the D.C. Armory, which was ready for at least 400.

 

Most were happy to be there, though several were surprised, having misunderstood an announcement: They thought their plane was headed to Dallas rather than Washington?s Dulles airport.

 

?Is there any way to get back?? Melvin Taylor, 53, tears welling in his eyes, asked a reporter. ?I?ve got two aunties, Rosemary Parker and Bernice Taylor, and some cousins I can?t find. I don?t like it here.?

 

In many cases, relocation managers said, evacuees simply did not want to venture far from home, fearing that distance would further complicate their return to the lives they knew.

 

Sociological factors also played a role, experts said. Most evacuees were relatively poor, and many may never before have left their cities or even their neighborhoods. Thus, the prospect of starting life anew in a distant city was daunting - especially for families that are separated.

 

Mercelita Plessy of New Orleans? Lower Ninth Ward lost contact with her four children when they retreated to the Superdome shortly after the storm passed. Now, she?s afraid to leave town.

 

"People say they?re sending them to New Mexico, they?re sending them to Texas, they?re sending them to Georgia, Mississippi," she said. "Lord! How am I going to find my children?"

 

Officials in Philadelphia said last week that they were prepared to receive as many as 5,000 people, and 600 were expected earlier this week, but only 35 had arrived by midday Wednesday. Officials cited ?logistical problems? and said some potential arrivals balked at leaving the Houston area.

 

 

Bureaucratic breakdowns also were evident, including some that - in another context might have been viewed as comical.

 

A plane full of evacuees twice failed to materialize at the Charleston International Airport in South Carolina on Tuesday. Even after local officials were told that the evacuees were there, they learned that the flight had landed in Charleston, W.Va.

 

?They say, ?It?s coming to Charleston, it?s coming to Charleston,? ? said Ron Osborne, South Carolina?s director of emergency management. ?Then they say, ?We think it?s Charleston, West Virginia.? We?re having some problems.?

In New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin authorized force to remove an estimated 10,000 people still living amid floodwaters, which were receding but also becoming increasingly polluted with oil, sewage, bacteria and life-threatening toxins.

 

Five planes from West Virginia sent to ferry evacuees from Texas returned home without passengers. Flights expected to carry 1,000 evacuees to Ohio were canceled. Cots stood empty at the D.C. Armory in the nation?s capital.

 

Throughout the Gulf Coast region, people decided that they preferred the familiar and the close to home - regardless of how awful it had become - to the unknown and the far away. In some cases, bureaucratic foul-ups and lack of coordination also played a role.

 

?Once you put yourself in the hands of the government, you could end up in Utah,? said Michael O'Donoghue, 64, a holdout in New Orleans? Lower Garden District.

 

Ed Conley, a liaison officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the agency has no additional plans to transport people to shelters in other states.

 

``There were several states that offered opportunities for people to go via plane and bus,'' he said. ``There just weren?t any takers. We can?t force people to leave.''

 

Four people may have died from rare bacterial infections caused by contaminated water that entered open wounds, federal health experts reported. Initial tests of New Orleans? water detected levels of diarrhea-causing bacteria far exceeding safe levels.

 

As the dimensions of the human disaster became clear, forensic pathologists streamed to New Orleans. The official death toll there and throughout the region assaulted last week by Hurricane Katrina stood at 294, but estimates reached into the thousands.

 

New reports spoke of 30 people dead at a flooded nursing home in Chalmette, near New Orleans, and more than 100 people dead at a dockside warehouse.

 

Nevertheless, the rescue squads that patrolled deeper into New Orleans - as well as relief workers in Texas, South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia - found themselves confounded by the reluctance of many survivors to leave their homes or move to distant shelters.

 

The relocation difficulties flared as officials turned their attention to other problems and, in some cases, to solutions:

_ Federal officials prepared to distribute debit cards worth $2,000 each to displaced storm victims to offset the cost of food, clothing, gasoline and other commodities.

Michael Brown, FEMA?s embattled director, said the plan would "empower hurricane survivors to really start rebuilding their lives."

_ Katrina could cost as many as 400,000 U.S. jobs and slash economic growth by as much as 1 percentage point, the Congressional Budget Office reported.

_ Repair crews inspected bridges and roads wrecked by Katrina, including 90 bridges in southern Louisiana alone. Contractors were hired to clear debris-blocked roads.

_ Inch by inch, flood levels continued to drop in New Orleans as more pumps came back to life, but engineers still faced a Herculean task. Only 23 of the city?s 148 pumps were working. One major pumping station, however, was draining 2,000 cubic feet of water out of the city every second.

 

Though the mayor of New Orleans authorized force to evacuate those remaining, the priority for rescue crews was still to search for residents willing to leave but trapped.

 

?We have thousands of people who want to voluntarily evacuate at this time,? Police Superintendent Eddie Compass said. ?We?re using our resources at this time to save those who want to be saved.

 

?Once, the voluntary evacuation has taken place, we will concentrate our resources and our forces on the mandatory evacuation.?

 

Representatives of the regular military and the National Guard said they had no plans to compel departures from the city.

 

In fact, Army Gen. Russel Honore, leader of the military task force, said his work in New Orleans differed dramatically from the operations he usually directs.

 

"We normally try to go break things," he said. "In this case, we're trying to fix things."

[rogueyam]

Dude! I would never tell anyone to take off their rose-tinted glasses. After all, "where ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise." That said, there are many, many first-hand accounts of abject savagery that occurred in N.O. in the aftermath of Katrina. If you decide to find out what really happened, you will have no problem doing so. Have you ever been to New Orleans? Do you know any long-time natives? The breakdown of civilization among certain segments of the population, and the abdication (and worse) of the NOPD, come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows this city. But again I say, don't bother yourself. Here's some advice though. When New Orleans rebuilds, if there are still slums in the Treme, the Ninth Ward, and the Bywater, stay completely out of these areas! Preying on the naive has been a tradition in these neighborhoods for generations. Stick to the Quarter and Uptown and "Have Fun!"

[BelgianBoy]

Evel_Penivel said:

In fact, Army Gen. Russel Honore, leader of the military task force, said his work in New Orleans differed dramatically from the operations he usually directs.

 

"We normally try to go break things," he said. "In this case, we're trying to fix things."

The general is just back from Iraq I guess ???

[Flashermac]

Is it the "largest relocation of Americans in modern history"? Wonder how many Japanese-Americans got "relocated" by FDR during WWII.

 

p.s. And what was the largest relocation BEFORE modern history?

 

::