Maybe it was a French flak jacket?
So things have improved in 13 years? I’d bloody hope so. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t a total clusterfuck. Just less of a clusterfuck than it conceivably could’ve been if no-one had done anything in the past 13 years.[/quote]
Why don’t you tell us about the 2 month power blackout in Auckland. Was Bush responsible for that too?
But, wouldn’t white be like a target color? Seems to defeat the purpose of the flak jacket. .[/quote]
Style over substance? A fashion statement? :loco:
OMG, hell must have frozen over…because I agree with Fred. 
If you look at the Bush’s first year in office, he hardly meantioned having any inclination to become invovled with the Middle East conflict. Most Presidents that I can recall, usually make that apart of their agenda and are quite vocal about it. I actually like that Bush was going to stay out of it. I took it as a sign that he was going to focus on resolving issues closer home .
Hee hee hee. Now, about those vouchers…
[quote=“The Grateful Dead in "Scarlet Begonias”]
Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places if you look at it right…[/quote]
That’s right. In fact, the Bush bashers back then derided him for having no plan re foreign policy.
Now, the same Bush bashers claim that Bush had this secret plan all along going way back… 
The New York Times has been beating on Bush over his supposed inaction over the hurricane and flooding. But…look at this NY Times editorial dated April 13, 2005. 
[quote]Anyone who cares about responsible budgeting and the health of America’s rivers and wetlands should pay attention to a bill now before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The bill would shovel $17 billion at the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control and other water-related projects – this at a time when President Bush is asking for major cuts in Medicaid and other important domestic programs. Among these projects is a $2.7 billion boondoggle on the Mississippi River that has twice flunked inspection by the National Academy of Sciences.
The Government Accountability Office and other watchdogs accuse the corps of routinely inflating the economic benefits of its projects. And environmentalists blame it for turning free-flowing rivers into lifeless canals and destroying millions of acres of wetlands – usually in the name of flood control and navigation but mostly to satisfy Congress’s appetite for pork.
This is a bad piece of legislation.[/quote]
A few days ago, a link was posted to a good Scientific American article about the potential flooding of New Orleans from 2001,
"But furious state and local officials insisted that the real problem was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Mr. Chertoff’s department oversees, failed to deliver urgently needed help and, through incomprehensible red tape, even thwarted others’ efforts to help.
“We wanted soldiers, helicopters, food and water,” said Denise Bottcher, press secretary for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana. “They wanted to negotiate an organizational chart.”
“Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired?” asked Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, south of New Orleans.
Far from deferring to state or local officials, FEMA asserted its authority and made things worse, Mr. Broussard complained on “Meet the Press.”
When Wal-Mart sent three trailer trucks loaded with water, FEMA officials turned them away, he said. Agency workers prevented the Coast Guard from delivering 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and on Saturday they cut the parish’s emergency communications line, leading the sheriff to restore it and post armed guards to protect it from FEMA, Mr. Broussard said. . .
Ms. Bottcher was one of several officials yesterday who said she believed FEMA had interfered with the delivery of aid, including offers from the mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, and the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson.
Adam Sharp, a spokesman for Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, said the problem was not who was in command. FEMA repeatedly held up assistance that could have been critical, he said.
“FEMA has just been very slow to make these decisions,” Mr. Sharp said. . . .
Nearly every emergency worker told agonizing stories of communications failures, some of them most likely fatal to victims. Police officers called Senator Landrieu’s Washington office because they could not reach commanders on the ground in New Orleans, Mr. Sharp said.
Dr. Ross Judice, chief medical officer for a large ambulance company, recounted how on Tuesday, unable to find out when helicopters would land to pick up critically ill patients at the Superdome, he walked outside and discovered that two helicopters, donated by an oil services company, had been waiting in the parking lot. . . .
Mr. Chertoff said he recognized that the local government’s capacity to respond to the disaster was severely compromised by the hurricane and flood.
“What happened here was that essentially, the demolishment of that state and local infrastructure, and I think that really caused the cascading series of breakdowns,” he said.
But Mayor Nagin said the root of the breakdown was the failure of the federal government to deliver relief supplies and personnel quickly.
“They kept promising and saying things would happen,” he said. “I was getting excited and telling people that. They kept making promises and promises.”
I have a feeling though that when all is said and done, we will find out that Nagin and the governor are most to blame. See link provided on the lessons not learned during Hurricane Ivan last year. AND the same people are mayor and governor. This had nothing to do with federal reponse time which was three days rather than the nine during Hurricane Andrew.
I doubt you’ll persuade any of the anti-Bush zealots here…because Bush is EVIL! 
Oh. And who came up with the name “Bushitler”?
Pot
Kettle
Black[/quote]
George Bush is a zealot because of his well-meaning but hardened and simplistic world view but he’s not even remotely a fascist mass murderer. Anyone who would liken him to Adolf Hitler is peddling fallacious smears.
I believe George Bush is a decent person with good intentions who under normal circumstances would be harmless. He’s just not suited for the presidency because he has a cartoonish view of the world and its problems.
[quote=“spook”]I believe George Bush is a decent person with good intentions who under normal circumstances would be harmless. He’s just not suited for the presidency because he has a cartoonish view of the world and its problems.[/quote]As someone who respects the intelligence and wit of many cartoonists, I find that remark highly offensive. 
Of course, he does provide a lot of material for them to work with.
[quote=“Jaboney”][quote=“spook”]I believe George Bush is a decent person with good intentions who under normal circumstances would be harmless. He’s just not suited for the presidency because he has a cartoonish view of the world and its problems.[/quote]As someone who respects the intelligence and wit of many cartoonists, I find that remark highly offensive.
Of course, he does provide a lot of material for them to work with. [/quote]
I could live with a cartoonist’s view of the world. It’s government by cartoon characters I have a problem with.
Zealots, of course, don’t apologize which is the reason I didn’t bother to ask for one.
Well that is a start. And please leave the well-meaning off. The 4 million refugees who returned to Afghanistan. Those taking parts in elections in the Arab World have concrete things to be thankful for.
And those cartoonish views are what? That Saddam was a threat? That he was trying to develop wmds? That we can no longer ignore the Middle East and must help it reform? Yes, sign me up to
Mickey Mouse
[quote=“fred smith”]
And those cartoonish views are what? That Saddam was a threat? That he was trying to develop wmds? That we can no longer ignore the Middle East and must help it reform? Yes, sign me up to
Mickey Mouse[/quote]
Here’s one:
“I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.”
– George W. Bush, Sept. 1, 2005
A friend sent me this today; thought I’d post it here to share it with you:
“An Open Letter To The President”
– an editorial posted in today’s
edition of the New Orleans Times-Picayune calling for all of FEMA to be
sacked.
And this from CNN:
[quote]Time running out for survivors
Rescuers: Not enough resources to save all in New Orleans
Monday, September 5, 2005 Posted: 0145 GMT (0945 HKT)
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) – Time is running out for thousands of people awaiting rescue six days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, rescuers say.
Officials say they do not have the manpower, the resources or enough time to save everyone. [/quote]
Still? How many days has it been? Why isn’t the manpower in place? Did the State Dept. promptly accept all offers of aid from abroad, including rescue teams?
Maybe the head of FEMA should be sacked. Who hired him? Who has the responsibility for overseeing him?
But you all seem to be ignoring the fact that local officials are first and foremost responsible for their communities. Did you read the lessons NOT learned from last year’s hurricane (near miss?) and did you see how the governor and mayor promised to have a better plan on track. Why didn’t they? Please also show how the response time could have been faster (give examples of other disasters) and please show where (other disaster) federal authorities have been first and foremost responsible above and beyond local ones.
spook, you know that is exactly what they said about Reagan… right? You know that, don’t you?