Moore to Bush

[August1991]

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

----

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

michaelmoore.com

Even David Frum admits this has not been the finest hour:

Now let me declare at the onset: Katrina has obviously not been the finest hour of American emergency management. There may well be fault on the part of the federal government and this administration. I'm certainly open to evidence on that point.

Frum NR

I would say that this has been a PR disaster for Bush. Clinton would have handled it much, much better.

[mirror]

I think that Katrina may well be the turning point in US politics that puts the Democrats back into power even possibly retaking control of Congress in 2006.

The reprecussions are coming and they are going to come very quickly. This isn't an enemy attack so there will be no need for unity once people's lives have been saved. Bush will be politically savaged by the attack.

United States of Shame

A Can't-Do Government

[Montgomery Burns]

Must be a full moon today. I see links to Michael Moore, Paul Krugman (again using anonymous sources), and Maureen Dowd.

They don't seem to be asking any questions about the mayor of New Orleans or the Democrat governor - it's all Bush's fault.

What a bunch of agenda-driven drivel.

I can't wait until Black Dog appears to tell us that the NYT is not liberal.

[Argus]

Must be a full moon today.  I see links to Michael Moore, Paul Krugman (again using anonymous sources), and Maureen Dowd.

They don't seem to be asking any questions about the mayor of New Orleans or the Democrat governor - it's all Bush's fault.

What a bunch of agenda-driven drivel.

I can't wait until Black Dog appears to tell us that the NYT is not liberal. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How about you try and tell me I'M a liberal? :angry: I bet you'd get a lot of laughter around here. I don't give a crap how liberal the NY Times is, or what their agenda is. Nothing they said was untrue. Bush and his idiot cohorts have been criminally negligent in every aspect named. You can't afford to shore up the levees in one of America's greatest cities but you spend a quarter billion to build a bridge to an uninhabited island in Alaska!? What!? Excuse me!? This whole scenario was utterly, utterly predictable, absolutely certain. And the locals and their federal representatives have been screaming about it for years. There is no possible excuse but complete and utter ignorance and stupidity for those levees not being upgraded.

Bush, in his first interview after the scope of the disaster became pretty damned clear, was casual, relaxed, even grinning. Jesus H Christ! Did we see him grinning and relaxed in public the day after 911? How immensely stupid is this man or how immensely out of touch can he and his people be? A hundred thousand people are left without food, water or shelter and it takes 5 days before aid starts coming in any real amount? In the United States? How many soldiers were there within a two day drive to New Orleans? How many military bases?

The Mayor of New Orleans? Are you kidding me!? This is one of the poorest cities in America in one of the poorest states in America, with what little infrastructure it's got torn apart by a hurricane and major flood, the communication towers which allowed the police and fire department to talk to their people washed away, no power, and all their own homes wrecked, along with what equipment the city had, and you are going to snivel about why the mayor didn't do a better job looking after his washed away city without outside help!? Christ! The mayor of Toronto screamed for federal troops when they got three inches of snow! And that's our biggest, richest city!

This was a catastrophic collapse of leadership at the federal level over a number of years, and no one who calls himself a conservative should be trying to defend any part of it on the basis that the people complaining are suspected liberals. Thousands dead, tens of billions lost just in infrastructure and repairs, and the cost to the nations economy incalculable. Do you know that five of the 12 biggest ports in America are in Louisiana? What is this going to do to their exports? Nothing damned good. I can tell you that. And all this cost because of a short-sighted, ignorant, criminally stupid federal government which should have been doing everything possible to shore up those levees and build the dikes higher to make sure that when a category 4 storm arrived - which was an absolute certainty - it wouldn't destroy the city of New Orleans and half the Gulf coast.

In other countries Bush and his cabinet would be shot for this, and at the very least the idiots in charge, like the FEMA head, would be arrested. But Bush is shrugging off any hint that he and his people should carry any blame, and they don't need any help doing it! :angry:

[Montgomery Burns]

Says Argus who links to the dishonest thoroughly disgraced Michaeal Moore.

The fact is that it IS the mayor's job to protect the citizens of NO.

Instead of regurgitating Michael Moore pablum, you might want to educate yourself about the broken levee:

Corps officials: Funding levels not to blame for flooding

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane-protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.

In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way--inundating much of the city--were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.

However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and couldn't handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline. The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis.

"I don't see that the level of funding was really a contributing factor in this case," said Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of engineers for the corps. "Had this project been fully complete, it is my opinion that based on the intensity of this storm that the flooding of the business district and the French Quarter would have still taken place."

Strock also denied that escalating costs from the war in Iraq contributed to reductions in funding for hurricane projects in Louisiana, as some critics have suggested. Records show that corps funding for the Louisiana projects has generally decreased in recent years.

And just in case you're not sure, a link to the Chicago Tribune is worth more credibility points than a link to Michael Moore. Just trust me on this.

Another link to educate Argus

Nice try, though, and thanks for playing.

You can now go back to your "Bush and his cabinet would be shot for this" agenda-driven drivel. :angry:

[kimmy]

Says Argus who links to the dishonest thoroughly disgraced Michaeal Moore.

That was August1991, not Argus, that linked to Moore.

-k

[Argus]

Says Argus who links to the dishonest thoroughly disgraced Michaeal Moore.

The fact is that it IS the mayor's job to protect the citizens of NO. 

Who hasn't got the resources to do it. Right. Sure.

Instead of regurgitating Michael Moore pablum, you might want to educate yourself about the broken levee:

I know that Michael Moore is the arch demon of many of those who pretend to be conservatives these days, but I haven 't read anything from Moore but a sarcastic rejoinder about Bush staying on holidays. What I have been reading are newspaper stories and editorials from Texas, Georgia and Virginia, solid Bush country, and you know what, they ain't happy.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane-protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.

This would be the new head of the army corps of engineers who replaced the one who quit after Bush slashed the budget, right? Yes, I am vastly reassured, just as I am when I hear Canada's own Chief of Defense staff saying things like "The military is in better shape than it's been for decades". Because everyone knows that military leaders are eager to publicly contradict their political leaders whenever they disagree. I'm sure his statements weren't written by White House political aides. Because that never happens.

In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way--inundating much of the city--were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.

However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and couldn't handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline.

This is all so much bluster. It's excuses and butt covering. I'm blaming Bush because he is the man in charge, and it was the White House which slashed flood protection budgets over the last four years. I could equally blame the Republican congress which has ignored the problem for the last fifteen odd years they've been in control. Or go back farther than that.

The point is not that nothing was done twenty years, ago to raise the levees and strengthen them. The point is that what work was being done was slowed and curtailed by the White House over the past four years - Why?. The point is that nothing was done to protect the people of New Orleans, and precious little was done afterwards until this became a public media scandal. Why?

And I'm sure that had nothing to do with this being a poor, black democratic district.

[Guest eureka]

Now, now, Argus!. Bush broke into his holiday time to assure the American people that he was "working hard" and that the people "on the ground" were "working hard."

What more could you expect. He must have sacrificed at least two rounds of golf; maybe more to pore over his book of cliches.

[Montgomery Burns]

Argus:

Who hasn't got the resources to do it. Right. Sure.

The mayor and New Orleans are supposedly "broke". The feds "shut them off" of money.

It's Bush's fault!

I know that Michael Moore is the arch demon of many of those who pretend to be conservatives these days, but I haven 't read anything from Moore but a sarcastic rejoinder about Bush staying on holidays. What I have been reading are newspaper stories and editorials from Texas, Georgia and Virginia, solid Bush country, and you know what, they ain't happy.

The Loony Left: It's Bush's fault. I read it in a newspaper. And the people on TV blaming the mayor and governor are liars.

This would be the new head of the army corps of engineers who replaced the one who quit after Bush slashed the budget, right? Yes, I am vastly reassured, just as I am when I hear Canada's own Chief of Defense staff saying things like "The military is in better shape than it's been for decades". Because everyone knows that military leaders are eager to publicly contradict their political leaders whenever they disagree. I'm sure his statements weren't written by White House political aides. Because that never happens.

Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of US Army Corps of engineers is a so-called conservative, who is lying. Bush and Karl Rove put him up to it.

In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way--inundating much of the city--were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.

This is all so much bluster. It's excuses and butt covering.

Lying liars who lie!

I'm blaming Bush because he is the man in charge...

Blame Bush instead of accepting responsibility for one's own inactions.

How socialist

and it was the White House which slashed flood protection budgets over the last four years.

But Carter, Bush Sr, Reagan, and Clinton are blame-free. It's all Dubya's fault.

I could equally blame the Republican congress which has ignored the problem for the last fifteen odd years they've been in control.

Too bad the Republicans haven't controlled Congress for the last 15 years. But what's another lie, huh?

And I'm sure that had nothing to do with this being a poor, black democratic district.

Right. I forgot what you said on another thread. All Republicans are racists.

We's gots to keep dem darkies down unlike dem enlitened libruls.

[Montgomery Burns]

Says Argus who links to the dishonest thoroughly disgraced Michaeal Moore.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That was August1991, not Argus, that linked to Moore.

-k

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're right. August1991 started this loathsome thread.

[I Miss Trudeau]

You're right.  August1991 started this loathsome thread.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey now. Don't tarnish the entire thread. It was going well until the third post.

[Montgomery Burns]

You're right.  August1991 started this loathsome thread.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey now. Don't tarnish the entire thread. It was going well until the third post.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually it was the 10th post that made this thread jump the shark.

[August1991]

If you can keep your head when all about you,

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.