moderateamericain

Disaster recovery is one of _the_ primary benefits of belonging to large nation-states like the US. It is rediculous to suggest that any level of government other than the feds should provide the funds to rebuild. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> As an American i have no problem seeing my tax dollars going to rebuild a major hub of American economy.

Hahah, retaliate? How bout all the canadian garbage thats trucked down into michigan and dumped the US garbage dumps? As far as im concerned you already have. I stand corrected and here is why http://www.michiganwasteindustries.org/news/trashtalk.html

i consider myself cynical of religion. the question you have to ask yourself is "Their are thousands of religions out there that say they are right. So which one is?" Now if you wanna read a compelling book that is fact based is "The case for Christ" by lee stroblel? i think his name is. its 12 or so inverviews with biblical scholoars. he ask some very pointed questions, and they give some fairly good answers. The reason i bring this up is because if you are borderline or find yourself questioning your beliefs this is a good fact base book about christianity.

, of that there is no doubt. There are still a lot of great people there, but the overall values of the nation have gone in the toilet. Instead of god, freedom or equality, they generally worship the Golden Calf, 'bling', and Mammon. Instead of 'democracy and fairness', they worship guns, death and 'sue or screw thy neighbour' at the earliest possible opportunity. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Gotta love the freedom to right an article like that, wait a second....Wasn't it the United States who succesfully prosecuted a 2 front war against the the Japanese and Nazi Germany and liberated most of Europe and parts of asia from conquest. And by proxy defeneded canada? I guess are war mongering ways are ok, just so long as it protects canadian freedom of speech. But heck, Maybe some of canadians would rather speak japanese of german. Note: i realize all candians dont feel this way

to the original poster. i can tell you have never served a day in your life in the military. People at home may call us heros, but we dont think about it that way. The people who make a big deal out of being in a wartime unit are those who are not there. I would never expect a canadian to "hero worship" an American. You have your own soilders in Afghanistan to worry about. I served in "wartime" arenas in Kosovo(border of), Mogadishu, and Kuwait. Their is nothing glorous about warfare. Heros are ways for people to grieve for the loved and lost, so they may live on forever.

Quoted for truth.

http://www.fema.gov/about/bios/brown.shtm professional biography on Brown, i think its pretty apparent as to why he was appointed head of FEMA. He handled the 4 hurricaines that came through florida very well. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, he may have been a bush buddy, and obviously he was not up to the task, but based on his handling of last years hurricaine affected areas, and on paper their was no reason for anyone to believe he wasnt.

http://www.fema.gov/about/bios/brown.shtm professional biography on Brown, i think its pretty apparent as to why he was appointed head of FEMA. He handled the 4 hurricaines that came through florida very well.

"Even your own president has condemned these people. Your logic boggles the mind." As you remind us time and time again, our own president has commited gross errors in judgment in the past, why would this be any different? Whats so mind boggling to understand. That to assume all border patrols down there are white supramicist? what if some of the border patrols are black or latino? kinda throws that out of the window doesnt it. The 2nd amendment protects are right to bear arms. Yep last time i checked thats what it said. Mind boggling. Yes i understand that some white supremicist groups see this as an oppurtonity to commit violence, i just choose to defend those who are really there to do good work, like save a life.

This is the end of what began in the Reagan era which has been a disater for so many Americans. When in the world is the greed going to stop? And US unemployment is at a 10 year high as well. The US needs to go through some wholesale changes in their leadership before it is too late. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> dont worry, you will get your chance next election, well unless your not a citizen of the united states.

First off, to say they are all white supremacist is an opinion at best. 2ndly the right to bear arms is protected by the 2nd amendment. Third, according to el paso sheriffs office crime in his jursidiction has gone from 30 calls a month to less then 10 since this has started. Also your "white suprmacist" saved somebodies life recently that otherwise would have surely died cross the rio.

How ever you wanna justify it so you can sleep at night.

thats too bad, CNN is far more balanced then most of the others. Fox news can some times be neutral but several of their "talking heads" are obviously pro conservative. CNN in my opinion is still the most honest, or attempt to be honest network news.

You know youve won an argument when they decend into personal insults.

ive given up on seeing anything semi-logical out of this thread, i post a well thoughtout post in BOTH subjects complete with sources and nobody even addressed it, all that was said was "we dont know how local Lousinia government is run" well DUH! thats why i posted what i did it gives you a great glimpse at how its run. Oh please! It did nothing of the sort. It was a highly partisan rant with carefully chosen examples of alleged wrongdoings. No one but a fool would take that as evidence of anything. Why did Bush cut funding for flood control in New Orleans? You never addressed that. Why did Bush appoint completely inexperiened people to run FEMA? You never addressed this either. None of you Bush supporters has. Because even in your fanaticism you can't think up a halfway decent excuse for Bush you simply ignore the questions and then throw accusations on people who are democrats. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Argus are you going to back up your rhetoric with any facts? or just blow smoke up are toosh.

Dear MA Typical of the Bush Republicans to want and take all credit & photo opps when things they perceive in their mind goes right like Bush's photo on that ship saying the War is Over in Iraq. Remember that, what a clown he is. Bush reminds me of Mulroney in some ways, they both will say the most outrageous statements that have no semblance to the truth. People died, a lot of people died, and all you Republicans want to do is avoid taking any responsibility for the disaster. Pathetic really, Republicans are losing huge amounts of credibility over Katrina, and they are continuing to go blinding marching on following Bush's leadership over the cliff. It looks good on them and I think Republicans are going to be absolutely devastated when the 2006 election results come in. Bush should apologise, he should have apologised a long tiome ago and taken some responsibility, and he will have to apologise. He has no choice as he is a major screw-up president. Cheers Did you even take the time to even read what i wrote? All you have here is your opinion and zero facts.

I have responded to this on numerous occasions, to the effect that as this is a national forum and we know little or nothing about local politics in that part of the world we really can't say one way or the other. If local officials were at fault then they will be roasted by the local electorate. But regardless of their degree of guilt in this it does not erase the lousy job FEMA did. It does not take away from the fact that 5 of the top 8 positions in FEMA are Bush cronies with no experience with disaster relief. It does not excuse Bush slashing the budget for flood relief either. In other words, it's irrelevent. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> ive given up on seeing anything semi-logical out of this thread, i post a well thoughtout post in BOTH subjects complete with sources and nobody even addressed it, all that was said was "we dont know how local Lousinia government is run" well DUH! thats why i posted what i did it gives you a great glimpse at how its run. Everything that was in that article was sourced to credible new agencies. Yet all i see is flames on bush or on people who defend him. Consquently, i consider this a dead issue, my points are valid, they have not been contested in a manner other than "OMFG BUSH IS AN IDIOT". Bush was not at fault for the Katrina disaster. END OF STORY

Don't be surprised when the inevitable inquiry into this mess finds that the bulk of the blame in this matter lies with the State of Louisianna and the municipal government of New Orleans Parish, despite every attempt by the Deaniac party and it's sympathizers to blame the whole thing on Bush. I'm also amused that the whole "Bush is a racist" meme still has legs. When I started posting to various forums earlier this year I encountered a LOT of sentiment coming from the left that Colin and Condy were "house niggers" (I quote verbatum) and not representative of Black America (whatever that means) and therefore did not count as evidence that Bush was pro-diversity. To hear the same people now stating without a hint of irony that Bush is a racist, based on the flimsiest of pretexts, is just HILARIOUS. You all make me laugh. I can't wait for the 2006 elections. It's going to be interesting. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Dear BHS Actually speaking of Powell it wasn't until he spoke out and criticised the federal government's response that Bush fired "Browie you're doing a hell of a job". 1171 Cheers <{POST_SNAPBACK}> of course it doesnt make sense, BHS read my long post above, it will show you how and why it was the fault of the City of New Orleands and the State of Lousiana that the city was not protected and evacuated properly. And why aid was slow in coming.

ive notice that not a single anti-bush advocate has addressed the original post, no, the only thing ive seen is attacks on the charachter of bush or attacks on the original poster. Is anyone going to actually address the main point? http://www.mapleleafweb.com/forums/index.p...pic=3829&st=105 i made this post earlier, it goes into detail as to where the blame trully lies for this particualr event.

Katrina - Taking Hypocrisy to a New Level by Alan Burkhart Almost immediately after Hurricane Katrina passed through New Orleans, Democrats began criticizing the Bush administration for the supposed poor handling of the situation. The so-called Mainstream Media constantly aired scenes of death and destruction while depicting heroic rescue efforts as being “inadequate” or “too little, too late.” As with the War on Terror, the left is again attempting to portray President Bush as being both incompetent and uncaring. On the surface it might appear that this is simply another facet of the ongoing Democrat smear campaign against President Bush. There is, however, another reason, and the double hypocrisy involved here is sickening when one takes into account the human suffering involved. It has been my experience that when liberals collectively make an accusation against the right, it is to cover the fact that the left is actually the guilty party. Think back to the recent presidential election, when liberals all over the country were screaming about voter disenfranchisement, and all the while the MSM largely ignored the many findings of tampering and voter intimidation on the part of the Democrats. This is standard operating procedure for the left’s unholy triad in government, the MSM, and the blogosphere. Thus far in regard to New Orleans, the left has accused President Bush of both being too slow to act and then acting improperly. They’ve even hauled in Jesse Jackson to make the case (on CNN of course) that the Bush Administration intentionally delayed its reaction to the New Orleans disaster because the city has a predominately black population. The awful truth behind the left’s newest smokescreen is that it was Democrats who caused the majority of the problems with the relief effort, and they’re scrambling to hide that fact. Fully forty-eight hours before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, President Bush declared the entire region a disaster area in order to speed the process of bringing in federal aid. Two days before Katrina made landfull, President Bush requested that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco order a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans on August 27.. It was not until Blanco called New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin that the madatory evacuation was called, 24 hours before Katrina narrowly missed the Crescent City. After the levees were breeched, in a face-to-face meeting, President Bush requested that Gov. Blanco turn over control of the Louisiana National Guard to the federal government. This is a standard action in a disaster of this size and scope. After waiting 24 hours to make up her mind, Blanco refused. New Orleans’ own evacuation plans specifically include the mobilization of the city’s fleet of buses to evacuate citizens and visitors without personal transportation. Those buses, as everyone knows, now stand in feet of water--unused. Mayor Nagin asked residents who were unable to evacuate to go to the Louisiana Superdome, which after the storm became little more than an island surrounded by poisonous water and floating corpses. Violence and even rapes have since been reported inside the Superdome as people became frustrated and angry at their situation. In an interview with FoxNews, former FEMA Director Joseph Allbaugh stated that when he headed the agency, he refused to allow the Superdome to be used as a shelter during hurricanes. FEMA guidelines clearly state that “supershelters” should be located outside of local floodplains to avoid just the type of situation that occurred in the Superdome. Further evidence of hypocrisy can be found in the venomous criticism of FEMA by congressional Democrats, even going so far as to demand the resignation of Director Michael Brown. But FEMA had fourteen truckloads of food and medical supplies already staged for delivery into the city well before the storm hit. These were delivered to the Superdome between August 29 and August 30 under the supervision of the Louisiana National Guard. After the 9/11 attack, the Department of Homeland Security issued grants for the development of full service mobile hospitals for deployment into regions struck by a natural disaster or terrorist attack. Just such a state-of-the-art mobile hospital, staffed by 100 medical professionals, was left stranded in Mississippi because Louisiana officials would not allow it to enter New Orleans. The Red Cross was also pre-positioned to provide needed supplies to the city, but the state refused to let them deliver, claiming that the Red Cross was not needed at that time. (Huh?) Additionally, the left is blaming President Bush for the collapse of the New Orleans flood protection systems, allowing the gigantic flood that inundated the city. Moveon.org has even bused a group of unfortunately gullible evacuees to Washington, D.C. to protest President Bush’s alleged improprieties in this matter. According to the left, the president cut funds that the Army Corps of Engineers needed to strengthen the seawall and the levee system. Once again, a careful examination of the facts reveal the lies behind the accusations. Records obtained by Cybercast News Service from the U.S. Senate's Energy and Water Development Subcommittee show that under the Bush administration, Louisiana leads the nation in federal funding for Corps of Engineers projects. The state received nearly two billion dollars of the Corps' most recent $22.9 billion budget. That’s half a billion more than second-place California even though California has seven times Louisiana’s population. A Washington Post article reveals that the Army Corps of Engineers had launched a $748 million dollar project at the New Orleans Industrial Canal (the one that flooded the city). This project, however, had nothing to do with flood control. The project’s aim was to build a new lock for the canal to accommodate increased barge traffic even though barge traffic in the canal has been decreasing for more than a decade. Further analysis shows that the existing lock could have been rebuilt at a fraction of the cost of building a new one. It’s worth noting that the levee broke very near the location of this questionable lock project. Another pork-barrel project involved deepening the waters at the Port of Iberia at a cost of $194 million. This project initially failed a Corps of Engineers cost-benefit analysis, but Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (a Democrat) sneaked language into an unrelated spending bill ordering the Corps to redo its calculations. The Corps also spends in excess of ten million dollars per year dredging little-used waterways for barge traffic that has never been as busy as forecasted by state officials. It gets worse. In December 1995, long before the presidency of George W. Bush, the Orleans Levee Board, a local government agency in charge of the construction and maintenance of floodgates and levees, stated in a Times-Picayune article that state officials had obtained over $60 million in flood control funding. This money was intended to fund the launch of a $140 million flood-control campaign including 41 separate projects. The board promised New Orleans residents that the “few manageable gaps” in the levee system would be “sealed within four years, completing our circle of protection.” A few months later, the Levee Board was mired in a scandal regarding the violation of a number of state bidding laws. Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle was quoted in the Times-Picayune that he had "repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores public bid laws.” Kyle further stated that the board was nearing bankruptcy and should not be allowed to refinance any bonds or issue new ones until an acceptable plan for reaching solvency had been submitted. This blatant mismanagement of funds resulted in the levee board being unable to spend the matching federal funds and thus the projects lay dormant. Want more? In 1998 the Louisiana government had a $2 billion construction budget but only $1.98 million of that money was earmarked for flood control projects. During that same period however, the state was able to spend $22 million to build a new State Supreme Court facility and $35 million on an expansion of the New Orleans Convention Center. In 1999, the Louisiana Legislature appropriated $49.5 million for improvements to the levee system, but the State Bond Commission gave the projects a “Priority Five” ranking, grouping it with minor projects that had little chance of getting full funding. In recent years the Bush administration has attempted to shift the emphasis of Corpd of Engineers projects in Louisiana from new construction to needed maintenance, but has had only limited success. Louisiana’s representatives in Washington and local officials have been far more interested in pork-barrel spending projects that kept their approval numbers high while doing little to ensure the safety of the city of New Orleans. Now those chickens have come home to roost, and those same state officials, both elected and appointed, are circling the wagons to protect themselves from any culpability in the loss of life and utter destruction of a beautiful city. New Orleans isn’t a victim of alleged incompetence by the Bush administration. It’s a victim of decades of vote-buying, mismanagement, and criminal negligence by a pack of self-important politicians and bureaucrats who have for years ignored a growing danger to the people they’re sworn to serve. Now those people who survived Katrina are rightfully angry and they’re demanding answers to uncomfortable questions. Will we see honest answers from Mary Landrieu, David Vitter (a Republican), Kathleen Blanco, Ray Nagin, and others? No. What we’re seeing is a typical group of irresponsible politicians seeking to heap the blame on their perceived political enemies. And they do so even while those same enemies are bending over backwards to help the people they themselves failed to protect. Sources: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5090701986.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?nav=hcmodule http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/09/04/katri...e.ap/index.html http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page...T20050907a.html http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page...T20050909a.html http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050909-121037-6314r.htm http://insider.washingtontimes.com/article...07-121729-5097r

maybe the can make bumber stickers for ex soilders that say "I got my aids from a 13 year old congo girl that was pimped out to me"

actually the corralation is in the fact that her family are die hard liberals.

I think we can all agree, whether conservative/liberal/ndp, that young people's education is a good thing to improve upon, and Bush has done a great job of doing that. Also of interest is this story, which compares the European education to US/Asia, and how improving Americans education now will help in the future to improve competitiveness. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> yes i agree with the intent however, individuals states, i believe, decided the curriculum that is taught in their schools. So that money should have been split up between the 50 states. The federal department of education does nothing.

no blackdog, the two are not correlated in anyway. Her issues stem from her family. But i could see how what i said inflamed your senses up enough to take a passing shot at me.

That's their entire contribution to the 9-11 anniversary. A rant against a blogger from Time Magazine's 2004 Blog of the Year getting to write a column in a newspaper. Oh, and that "rightwing media" still doesn't get it. 2) The George-Soros funded Atrios (Duncan Black) had a one word statement: Fu*kers with a link. Did the link go to a story about the hijackers and their supporters, those fu*kers? No. Atrios linked to a story critical of President Bush and the military; they were the fu*kers. 3) From MoveOn.org (of Bush=Hitler infamy), we get NOTHING. 4) From MyDD, we get NOTHING. 5) Over at the wildly popular fever swamp known as the Democratic Underground, we see an outraged thread about Sept 11 also being the anniversary of the communist Allende being overthrown in Chile, and lack of media coverage been given to it. However I did find a thread titled "How Did You Mark The 4th Anniversary of 9/11". Some of the enlightened responses: a) Decided to do some leafletting. In a grocery store parking lot, I targeted mostly the big, gas-guzzling urban assault vehicles, and all with yellow ribbons or other such regalia. But later in the day I went into the parking lot of the local fundie church. It was so rewarding placing the flyers under the windshield wipers of all the cars with "W" stickers (some very fresh, at that)." i wrote a poem, had hot sex, drank a lot of whiskey & watched bikini models strut on a fashion week runway below my fire escape -- it's been a good, old fashioned, lower east side, bohemian kind of day -- the best of new york -- i'm a patriot, damnitt. c) I continued to do some work for the Democrats so we can get rid of the type of people who let this and NO happen. I hope they rot in hell! d) I did my errands, was depressed as usual, wanted to beat the shit out of some asshole bad drivers, tooling around in their massively large SUVs with their waste-of-resource huge families, blathering on cell phones with W. stickers on their bumpers. Fat, stupid pigs." e) You know...went shopping, drove past poor people...nothing different. After checking out the reaction to the 9-11 anniversary from the popular leftie blogs, I just cannot understand why so many question their patriotism. Oh right. I forgot. It's "dissent". <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I firmly believe that alot of people become liberal because they hate themselves. Now of course thats not always true, but the vast majority of liberal voting people, including my girlfriend, have some sort of dislike about themselves/ or a part of themselves.