As Hurricane Katrina obliterated cities, razing the entire city of New Orleans and taking 1,836 lives with it -- not including the 705 missing persons -- President George W. Bush sat in the comfort of his ranch in Crawford, Texas. As he practiced his rifle-aim and lounged around his home, millions of Americans suffered -- and billions of dollars were lost. This isn't the first time Mr. Bush failed to even flinch at the notion of thousands of Americans dying; nor would it be the first time he ignored a national catastrophe.
On September 11th, 2001, President Bush stared at a wall of finger-paintings amongst a class of elementary students for more than 7 minutes after being informed of the terrorist attacks in New York City -- as the World Trade Centers swallowed thousands of gallons of jet fuel, and endured the blazing conflagration.
While Bush sat, motionless, hundreds leapt 100 or more stories to their deaths; thousands more rushed down 80 flights of stairs. While Bush was on his care-free vacation in Texas, thousands of New Orleans residents clung to whatever was in reach, hoping to avoid being swept away by the violent water currents -- those who could not hold on were engulfed by the current and drowned.
Either President Bush has an extremely good poker-face, or the man has no remorse for the deaths of American citizens. He's either casually watching them suffer, or shipping them off to the lost cause of the War in Iraq -- destroying the economy, or approving the unconstitutional invasion of privacy.
An editorial which appeared in the New York Times on September 1, 2005, one day after Bush appeared to be smirking during a speech to a troubled American public, pointed out, "George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end."
And now, whatever was left of the Bush Administration's thin-line of credibility has been brought into question. In an article in the United Press International (UPI), former FEMA Director, Michael Brown has admitted that the government -- President Bush, in specific -- told him to lie about FEMA's lackadaisical response to Hurricane Katrina.
"The lie was that we were ready and that everything was working as a team. Behind the scenes, it wasn't working at all," Brown stated in an interview with ABC News. "There were political considerations going into all the discussions. There was the fact that New Orleans did not evacuate and the mayor (Ray Nagin) had no plan.
"[It's natural to] want to put the spin on that things are working the way they`re supposed to do. And behind the scenes, they're not. Again, my biggest mistake was just not leveling with the American public and saying, `Folks, this isn`t working.`"
Natural? I guess that's what this administration has culminated to; better to lie to the American public than to admit yet another error of a misguided, mishandled presidency.
"####, you're doing a heck of a job," Bush once said, referring to Michael Brown and FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina.
You don't think Bush's tribute to the work of Brown had anything to do with the fact that Brown was taking all of the blame, do you? Certainly not.
Instead of concentrating on helping the thousands of homeless in and around New Orleans, President Bush decided to take a different route and offer up a bit of advice for the American Public. "Don't buy gas if you don't need it," Bush asserted in an article by John Rentoul.
Sadly, we've fallen to the point where the public knows little-to-nothing about what goes on in today's government -- although the corruption, irresponsibility, and unreliability seem to shine through just fine. And as this great country sinks further and further into debt while it continues to lose essential professions in product development, we have no one to blame but ourselves for turning our back on what was so blatantly obvious; George W. Bush doesn't have what it takes.
The worst of it is -- not only is our government incompetent, now they're incompetent liars. Brown's comments seem to confirm what many 9/11 skeptics have been believing for the past 5 years; this government is capable of lying to the American people.
Brown referred to an email which was "from a very high source in the White House," and revealed that, "the president at a Cabinet meeting said, `Thank goodness Brown`s taking all the heat because it`s better that he takes the heat than I do.`"
That's a great philosophy, George -- good luck with that one.
All we can do now is throw up the white flag, and cross-our-fingers that this administration hasn't caused any imperishable damage to what once was a powerful country.
people will come on and bash - but that doesnt change the fact that our president is a ####. i remember the good old days when all we had to worry about was blow jobs and new taxes. this guy is a ####. i'll give him some credit when he pronounces nuclear correctly. though my hypocrisy knows no bounds for both my wife and i train every month to fight in the that man's army.
As much as I'd like to believe Brown, and as much as it would pad my distaste of Bush... Brown has zero credibility in my eyes. I take everything he says with a grain of salt.
Besides, Bush has pretty much told everyone to lie. It's not a big secret and no one should be surprised about it. Brown is basically saying it to try and recover what little credibility is still out there for him.
Ah yes, NorthSider resurfaces after a brief hiatus. Can UltraMega be far behind? Oh, there he is. What a shock. Haven't seen either of them in over a week.
"On September 11th, 2001, President Bush stared at a wall of finger-paintings amongst a class of elementary students for more than 7 minutes after being informed of the terrorist attacks in New York City -- as the World Trade Centers swallowed thousands of gallons of jet fuel, and endured the blazing conflagration.While Bush sat, motionless, hundreds leapt 100 or more stories to their deaths; thousands more rushed down 80 flights of stairs."
Hmm. "Thousands of gallons of jet fuel" in seven minutes? "While Bush sat, motionless, hundreds leapt 100 or more stories to their deaths; thousands more rushed down 80 flights of stairs." All this in seven minutes. Let's just suppose that all this is true. Okay, fine, I'll give you roughly double the time-15 minutes. What could Bush have done in those seven minutes, I'm sorry, 15 minutes, to alter this outcome?
"There were political considerations going into all the discussions. There was the fact that New Orleans did not evacuate and the mayor (Ray Nagin) had no plan." Obviously George Bush's fault, right? I mean, why wouldn't it be?
"[It's natural to] want to put the spin on that things are working the way they`re supposed to do. And behind the scenes, they're not. Again, my biggest mistake was just not leveling with the American public and saying, `Folks, this isn`t working.`" And what would have worked, considering the mass devastation of hundreds of square miles?
Last edited by ricko on September 1st at 10:09 PM.
It's funny how you speak out of both sides of your mouth. Bush is apparently quite ignorant in what he says and does, yet crafting and cunning enough to, for some reason, choose to dupe the American people. The fact that he is not a good president is echoed in the public opinion polls. History may, and I stress may, paint a different picture of him. It has for many of our presidents.
"Sadly, we've fallen to the point where the public knows little-to-nothing about what goes on in today's government -- although the corruption, irresponsibility, and unreliability seem to shine through just fine." No way. You think? Can you say "Lyndon Johnson?"
"Brown referred to an email which was from a very high source in the White House,' and revealed that, the president at a Cabinet meeting said, `Thank goodness Brown`s taking all the heat because it`s better that he takes the heat than I do.'"
Um, okay. I'm sure in this day and age of instant information, the president said exactly that.
I hate to do this to you again, NS, but here goes your credibility. FFFLLLLUUUUUSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
demon - for what it's worth, I don't consider you a hypocrite. You serve in the United States Army, not the George Bush Army, right? :)
Northsider - I still don't understand why Bush's failure to spring into action immediately following the WTC attacks is used as an indictment of the man's ability as a leader. He sat for seven minutes upon hearing about the attacks - seven minutes to gather his thoughts might seem like a long time, but I'm not sure that you or I would have handled it much differently. For that matter, what was Rudy Giuliani's immediate reaction to the news? George Pataki's? How long did either of them take before doing something? Both of those are just as pertinent as the reaction of Bush.
It's not that I believe Bush is a great leader - I don't. I just think that the "seven minutes" example is not the best one available to illustrate that belief.
In this piece, for example, you had more than enough negative fodder to use from the Katrina mess alone, without bringing September 11th into the mix.
Ricko, I'm sure you've heard of the "Butterfly effect." Very briefly, the general point is that if a butterfly flaps its wings, it can cause a hurricane hundreds of miles away. One small thing can build up to bigger events. In this case, it's the loss of human life. What could he have done in the seven minutes he chose to use for inactivity? Whatever he did after those seven minutes. It might have been seven minutes that would have saved a few lives here and there -- certainly worth it, no?
Seven minutes is a long time to sit when you've been told the country in which you lead and represent has been besieged by renegade airplanes. Then add in that Bush didn't cease vacationing on his ranch until five days after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast region.
If Bush was ever trying to show that he cared about anyone other than himself and those that pull his strings, his lagging responses certainly don't show it.
I don't know how you can justify Bush's lack of reponse for seven minutes. One minute would have been too long. When you're told the country is under attack, the President had better jump to his feet and get in a car or get on the phone. I know Bush really enjoyed "My Pet Goat," but come on...
Remember, we're talking about a guy -- the President of the United States -- who has claimed to have caught a perch (a fish) twice as heavy as the largest one on record.
Furthermore, he recently claimed to have read 60 books this year. I haven't read 60 books in the past five years, and I have (and should have) much more free time than the President of the United States.
Add in the vacation time the President takes, the time he takes each day to exercise, to eat, and to sleep, and then factor in the time it would take to read 60 books, and suddently, Bush doesn't have so much time to be the President of the United States.
That's either proof that he's lying about reading books (he's already lied about the whole gamut from dangerous WMD's to harmless perch), or that he really isn't the President of the United States -- just a puppet of #### Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Karl Rove's.
60 books divided by 8 months is 7.5 books per month. Unless these books are extremely thin, written in large fonts, or laden with illustrations... he's lying once again.
Last edited by UltraMegaOK1988 on September 1st at 10:22 PM.
Ultra/NS-"Whatever he did after those seven minutes. It might have been seven minutes that would have saved a few lives here and there -- certainly worth it, no? . . .
"I don't know how you can justify Bush's lack of reponse for seven minutes. One minute would have been too long. When you're told the country is under attack, the President had better jump to his feet and get in a car or get on the phone."
And do what? I'm not justifying anything Bush did. I'm not a big Bush fan. I did vote for him (which is more than you did, since you don't vote), but the question I asked was, what could have been done in that time frame to prevent what followed?
Do you have an answer?
"Add in the vacation time the President takes, the time he takes each day to exercise, to eat, and to sleep, and then factor in the time it would take to read 60 books, and suddently, Bush doesn't have so much time to be the President of the United States."
So you're saying he doesn't have time to read. Excuse me, I'm in the wrong here. I didn't realize you were so in touch with Mr. Bush's schedule. So tell me, is he a boxers or briefs kind of guy?
And, oh by the way, I believe he was joking about the size of the perch, kind of like your Jamie Moyer post. Should we pick on you for that?
Last edited by ricko on September 1st at 10:42 PM.
The fact that you even thought to mention "this is a sports blog" as the first comment shows your total disrespect for the other people who want to blog here.
The fact that you re-named Fox Sports Blogs to what you called "a blogging website" does not make it so.
This post was listed under NFL. Not "ATTENTION WATCH OUT FOR MY OPINION ON HOW I FEEL ABOUT THE PRESIDENT"
ok, no one can argue that he's a smart man. so dont.
when i heard my son was sick, i was in my vehicle and driving inside of 3 minutes. when i saw the planes on TV way back when, i had my roommate (he was an army ranger) awake and coffee started before Bush got up. by the time he'd found anything out, i'd already called my commander - and i was in VA. so no, bush doesnt get a pass on that.
Post Katrina, TO - among other assorted famous people - was spotted in New Orleans before Bush.
no he's attempting to take away our rights. pay attention. if you wanna be monitored and tracked - join the army. leave us free people alone. i love my constitution. you can forsake yours cuz your a coward. you can give you YOUR rights because of one horrific event, but not me. you need to worry about white guys with guns more than arabs with gel-bombs. statistically speaking, discontent middle aged white men blow up more building and go on more shooting rampages. so when bush get around to doing something about THAT - i'll be here. other wise, he's blowing smoke and ya'll fools are believing it all.
Way to blog about sports after a disappearing act North & you to Ultra.
I see you put some blame on Nagan, but still slammed Bush more. SO who why not write a post about how Nagan and Blanco sat on their hands more so then the Federal Government?
Oh that is right I forgot. Bush is the issue, always has been and always will be. Gore and Kerry lost North, get over it. You guys should come to Louisiana and see things for yourself, instead sitting back and bashing the President. You are basically sitting back, just like you say the President did.
Liberals have been wrong about NAtional Security stuff for decades. WHy should we listen to liberals. They say pull out of Iraq but don't think about the consequences of that action. Remember Cambodia??????? No probably not, b/c history started 6 years ago...lol.
I read and promptly dismissed the entire article as a typical rant of a "Bush Hater" and an obvious "blame America first" person. The writer of this post has failed in his assignment to examine the world stage without a set of blinders on his head. ***There are a lot of people in this world that wish to kill you*** Not you by name but you by nationality. They wish to abolish our way of life and they and their agents are attempting to do so within our country and our allies countries. They hated us before 9-11 (Kobar Towers, Trade Center I, The Cole, Kenya, Tanzania, Beirut)We are not creating new terroists we are keeping them in check. They do a good enough job creating their own terroists with a good brainwashing and a lot of propaganda. (http://www.palestinemonitor.org/me dia/media.html)
(http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/index.a sp)I only hope is that you will open your eyes and realize that this is a dangerous world and it was dangerous before January 20, 2001 and it will be dangerous until true freedom exists throughout the world. As a side note place yourself in say Iran (or Syria, or North Korea) and change the name of the leader to the one in charge of that country. Now ask yourself "How long would it be until the State Police came and picked me up?" If the United States was in as bad a shape as you are stating, you would not be reading this reply. Thank you for reading this comment and have a great weekend. Go Noles...
Ricko, I already explained this. Re-read my comments.
"I did vote for him (which is more than you did, since you don't vote)"
Thanks for that, by the way. Your vote definitely made a difference.
"So you're saying he doesn't have time to read. Excuse me, I'm in the wrong here. I didn't realize you were so in touch with Mr. Bush's schedule. So tell me, is he a boxers or briefs kind of guy?"
Simple math will tell you he's lying about the amount of books he reads just like he lies about fish he catches and WMD's in Iraq. There's nothing he won't lie about.
Don't believe him about the perch? He was serious, click here to read about it.
"This is a Sports Blog."
evilquacks, there is no rule that says one cannot post non-sports-related blogs. When there is, give NorthSider a buzz and I'm sure he'll be happy to oblige.
"You expect politicians to do other people's jobs?"
No, ed, I expect them to do THEIR jobs, and they haven't since they took over in 2000.
"They say pull out of Iraq but don't think about the consequences of that action."
I'm a liberal and I think we shouldn't just pull out of Iraq because that would send a bad message to them and the rest of the world. I do think we should gradually pull out and plan to have all of our troops home by about this time next year.
"They wish to abolish our way of life and they and their agents are attempting to do so within our country and our allies countries."
That's just what the fear-mongering Bush administration wants you to think. The only time they want to kill us is when we're interfering with their way of life, i.e. having military bases in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. thinks it's the world's police officer and sticks its nose in everyone's business, and that's why 9/11 happened.
If the U.S. wasn't so quick to level third-world countries, we wouldn't be the target of so much hatred from other countries.
"We are not creating new terroists we are keeping them in check."
That would explain that Al-Qaeda is stronger than it was pre-9/11? Bush is creating new terrorists because they're becoming restless with our ignorance to their requests -- which is just to leave. They don't want Western influence. So we should leave.
"They do a good enough job creating their own terroists with a good brainwashing and a lot of propaganda."
I can't tell if you're talking about those in the Middle East or George W. Bush.
North: Fantastic post! Thank you! I, from the very beginning when Bush was yapping about how Iraq and the terrorists were plotting yada yada, KNEW he was lying. Last week Bush had yet another speech and in it, a reporter asked him what Iraq had to do with 911. The answer Bush gave was "Nothing!" Certainly not what we heard when this man wanted so badly to start a war his daddy didn't finish. Problem with Bush is, he's a liar. And the American public is so apathetic that they won't stand up and say something! I remember the last president who lied outright to us (disregarding Clinton and his sex life..who cares?)...We showed our displeasure with Nixon and his lying to us by threatening to impeach him, and he resigned. What happened to Americans? Who's country is this? Is this OUR country...or the President's???
I could care less what you write on your blog. My only comment would be that this is old news. You haven't gone over any new or interesting territory.
I knew on September 12, 2001 that Bush hesistated at the critical moment because one of my father's business associates had a child in that classroom. Possible reasons: 1) shock 2) clueless 3) he set the whole thing up. No one can prove 1-2-3 or any other scenario. You'll drive yourself crazy trying.
"but the question I asked was, what could have been done in that time frame to prevent what followed?
Do you have an answer?"
Yes. Seven minutes earlier, he could have ordered the shooting down of the flight which hit the Pentagon -- and God forbid there were more planes (which obviously wasn't known at that time), in seven minutes 7 more buildings could have been hit.
In a time of emergency, one does not have 7 minutes to sit and gather his or her thoughts.
If I'm sitting in my room, and I hear a burglar break into my house -- armed, I can't say, "Let me take 7 minutes to think my course of action over."
I realize that's a stretch of an analogy, but consider that all the three planes which hit their targets did so in the time frame of 50 minutes, and 7 minutes doesn't sound like such a short period of time anymore.
Bush wasted 14% of the time he had to react, and that is too much time to waste in a time of emergency, it's as simple as that.
"The fact that you re-named Fox Sports Blogs to what you called "a blogging website" does not make it so."
I specifically noted this was a political blog. I have a very hard time believing that you're as passionate about exclusively-sports posts on this website as you try to sound. Please, save the melodramaticism somewhere else. I'm not disrespecting anybody -- I noted the content of this post -- and I write most of my posts discussing sports. Take your whining somewhere else -- if you don't like what's written, don't read it.
Let FoxSports take care of their blogging website.
"You guys should come to Louisiana and see things for yourself, instead sitting back and bashing the President. You are basically sitting back, just like you say the President did."
LSU, maybe you didn't realize -- I'm not the President of the United States. I'm not in charge of the response to Hurricane Katrina. My family did what they could to help the victims. Bush sat in his vacation home for 5 days, chosing to fly over New Orleans from 2,500 ft., instead of taking charge of the response.
Ultra and I are doing what the press was originally intended to do -- provide information, and act as a check on the government, no matter how significant or insignificant the result is.
"I only hope is that you will open your eyes and realize that this is a dangerous world and it was dangerous before January 20, 2001 and it will be dangerous until true freedom exists throughout the world."
Well the fact that you only skimmed the post, made a hasty generalization about the content, then decided to comment really makes me question your credibility when you criticize me for not "opening my eyes." But nice try.
As far as terrorism goes -- why do you think the world holds such hatred towards the American people? We've put ourselves in the place of the proverbial ATM Machine for other countries, and when we don't fix another country's problem -- we've somehow "failed the American public." On the contrary, these foreign countries don't want the arrogance of the American government place on their country. We invaded Iraq with no just cause. They had no WMD's, and we had faulty intelligence. They were not a threat to us -- so we decided to force upon them the democratic government -- a complete failure, I might add.
Think before you post such ignorant and arrogant posts on other's blogs. You seem to think you're so much better than me, categorizing me as a 'bush hater', and even putting my categorization in quotations. Come back down to Earth my friend, then I'll take your comment seriously.
"I could care less what you write on your blog. My only comment would be that this is old news. You haven't gone over any new or interesting territory."
Firstly, get your explicative correct. You "could care less?" Really? What would make you care less? The correct saying is, "I couldn't care less."
Secondly, I'm disappointed, that you, like another reader here, threw me into a hasty generalization. I hope you give others a better chance than you've given me. I'm sorry my writing isn't up to your relative-date-requirements -- but, my guess is, you didn't even read the post, otherwise you would realize that Brown's comments were reported on 8/27/2006. I was 3 days late, I apologize -- let me know how recent you require other blogs to be, and I will surely take that to note.
Read before you judge. And, if at all possible, don't judge at all. Have a great Labor Day weekend.
NorthSider – You shouldn't give any credibility to Michael Brown, a proven incompetent and liar. Whose latest propaganda is based on “his word”, the word of a liar. And an “old email” from Sept. 2005. The email does not include electronic tracking data, is based on hearsay, sent by an unidentified person, who was not present to hear the actual comments. Doesn’t sound like a quality document. A year after his firing and he still cannot present a credible story. Brown was in a position of responsibility because he was religious, very loyal, always on time, always had on a suit and a starched white shirt. A perfect example of the Peter Principle, "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence."
Blame the current administration for hiring this fool and CNN for broadcasting old news as something new but don’t compound their mistake by using him to promote your agenda.
Sentence Brown to a lifetime of community service in New Orleans for his incompetents; don’t let him enjoy the limelight of the media.
you know, you dont have to defend bush just cuz he's republican. these issues arent partisan. i would think that business oriented types like you conservatives would hold a man's feet to the fire when he's failed at his job. all youre doing is making but all i hear are excuses. even popular republicans are beginning to tap 'ignor' when the president calls. if you wanna push conservative values - stop being such a party shill and take control of your party. there should be a coup. you should ride to Washington and make your party do something. but youd rather stick with your group than do whats right. hey, you wanna argue security, ride down here to SC and head out with the 108th when they do their second tour in Iraq. you can sit on the plane next to my wife. otherwise, i dont wanna hear about 'national security.' nothing about iraq has anything to do national security. i can think of a thousand different ways to improve security but none of them include tapping phones, skimming emails, warrantless searches or the like. so stop saying it. thats a lie. you feel so serious about security but dont wanna put your nuttz on the line - post youre life on Youtube. if surveillance is ok, let us all see it. our constitution guarantees me protection from a government gone too far. its the reason we have the right to bear arms. you oughtta read that document sometime.
If I didn't want to look like like I had several screws loose, I would have stood up and given you a standing ovation in front of my computer monitor, Demonicume. Well said.
Ryewhiskey, I'm with you on not giving Brown any credibility.
To elaborate on what I linked to above (Bush reading 60 books in one year), I have done a little math.
One of the books mentioned in the article is Albert Camus' The Stranger, which is 144 pages. That's a relatively thin book. If all 60 of his books are thin, I can accept his claim a bit easier.
Let's assume all of his books are about 150 pages long.
60 books times 150 pages is 9,000 pages. 9,000 pages divided by 8 months is 1,125 pages per month.
There are 2,262 sentences in The Stranger (15.7 sentences per page) and 14.5 words per sentence (about 228 words per page).
Using this as the standard for the 59 other books Bush had read as well, this would mean that Bush reads 226,500 words per month, and 8,550 words per day.
The Stranger has 32,756 words in it, which means that Bush reads about 1/4 of the book per day (37.5 pages).
Last edited by UltraMegaOK1988 on September 2nd at 5:12 PM.
The Fog Index was developed by Robert Gunning. It indicates the number of years of formal education required to read and understand a passage of text.
Flesch Index: 73.6
The Flesch Index, developed in 1940 by Dr. Rudolph Flesch, is another indicator of reading ease. The score returned is based on a 100 point scale, with 100 being easiest to read. Scores between 90 and 100 are appropriate for 5th and 6th graders, while a college degree is considered necessary to understand text with a score between 0 and 30.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 6.6
The Flesch-Kincaid Index is a refinement to the Flesch Index that tries to relate the score to a U.S. grade level. For example, text with a Flesch-Kincaid score of 10.1 would be considered suitable for someone with a 10th grade or higher reading level.
Last edited by UltraMegaOK1988 on September 2nd at 5:13 PM.
Your opening paragraph about Katrina states, "millions" of Americans suffered. Considering the population of New Orleans is roughly 485,000 and the entire stretch from Biloxi, Gulfport, and New Orleans is less than 1 million, your whole argument is either filled with lies or hyperbole just to make a point.
The argument that in 7 minutes one might have stopped another plane is bogus. In a crisis, one does need to think through steps or we might have had our military blowing up every 747 over Washington and New York. 9-11 was a tragedy and so is every hurricane that hits the US. I lived in FL for 17 years and have been through more hurricanes than most. I have evacuated during one and ridden out every other one. People who live in the Gulf Coast know what it is like and it is not the president who should take care of them. The state of LA failed its people. The city of NO and its mayor failed them.
Last edited by socalsportsfan on September 2nd at 8:46 PM.
Socal, Disasters are FEMA's job. i was in Orlando FLA for andrew - what happened in Miami cannot be compared in any way to what happened in NO. to compare the any Florida Hurricane in the last 100 makes you look foolish. in the history of the US there has never been a catastrophe like this one. you say that the president, the sole American with the resources to handle the problem sat and watched. thats a very callous and pompous thing to say. you could as say that Reagan's war on drugs was a stupid idea. its not the president's job to help druggies. people were dying and this man was on vacation. nearly a quarter million people in danger and he was on #### vacation. children were drowning and their little bodies were floating and contaminating everything - and this #### was on vacation. defending this makes you as bad as he is. then to try to faub blame off on the governor and mayor is even worse. its ok that old people were having strokes and heart attacks and never mind the devastation: it was ok cuz the governor is a democrat and the mayor was black. what was Bush supposed to do? did you expect him to call in the National Guard to help secure the streets or hand out MREs so people dont starve? foolish people. stop asking for hand outs.
Last edited by demonicume on September 2nd at 9:59 PM.
"Your opening paragraph about Katrina states, "millions" of Americans suffered. Considering the population of New Orleans is roughly 485,000 and the entire stretch from Biloxi, Gulfport, and New Orleans is less than 1 million, your whole argument is either filled with lies or hyperbole just to make a point. "
Get your own facts right before criticizing me. Hurricane Katrina affected areas in Alabama, Florida, Kentuky, Louisiana, and Mississippi -- millions suffered.
In fact -- since you obviously didn't research before you called me out -- 900,000 people in Louisianna ALONE were left powerless after Hurricane Katrina.
North- if you and Ultra are doing what the press is suppose to be doing then why don't you talk about Ray Nagan, Gov. Blanco, and who and where all the money for the levees have been going for the past 3 decades??? If you are a proclaimed "journalist" then report on the real story not the media driven one. You don't hear Florida, ALabama, Mississippi, Texas, or the Carolinas ####ing about where is the money do you?? Yet our leaders here in Louisiana are doing nothing but pointing fingers elsewhere instead of themselves. Where are you on that story or how the levee boards in N.O. have pocketed money for so long that the levees were not maintained properly?? No sir before you tell anyone to get their facts straight you need to get yours straight first. You and this article are a joke Mr. self-proclaimed journalist. You have done nothing else but echo the regular media driven story line here.
Last edited by LSUfan on September 3rd at 12:03 PM.
Demon- the president nor the Federal government is allowed to just walk into a state and take over. The local and state governments must sign off all aspects to the Federal government in order for that to happen. Our Gov. Blanco, didnot want to do this, in fact it took her 24hrs after her meeting to think about it, not to mention that she ordered nobody to go to the dome or anywhere else, which means she personally had a stack in those people getting the food, supplies that they needed. Again do you hear Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, or the Carolinas pissing and moaning about where is the money???? NO but that is all you hae heard from us down here. Do you know that the billions sent here has still not been handed out to the people who need it? Just this past week the State Treasurer was wonderng why this money is still being held by the government. Only like 200 hundred families have seen that money so far. In his words, "There are still over 100,000 people and families who need the money." Where are all the rightous blame Bush first people on this outrage?????? Of course I bet this won't even get commented on b/c nobody outside Louisiana hears about this b/c the media won't report it b/c it does not hurt Bush.
Last edited by LSUfan on September 3rd at 12:13 PM.
Lets set the record straight here folks. Nobody outside of Louisiana has a damn clue what is going on down here. Sure you hear the media reports of Bush this, Bush that, but that is so far removed from what our state government has not done for its own people that every time Bush's name comes up people just laugh it off. We are to blame for this crisis, not Bush or FEMA. We failed to implement our evacuation plan, Nagan, Blanco, Landrieu,a nd Vitter have all said this. Yet it does not get reported b/c the media line is to blame Bush and the Feds. Yet everyone down here understands what has gone on. It is not your guys fault for not knwoing what truly has happened, the media has failed to do its job on all aspects. All you get is Bush's fault, racism, someone blew up the levees, etc. That is all a smoke screen people. The state of Louisiana failed its citizens horribly bu not enforcing its evacuation plan, which by the way has not changed since Katrina.
"North- if you and Ultra are doing what the press is suppose to be doing then why don't you talk about Ray Nagan, Gov. Blanco, and who and where all the money for the levees have been going for the past 3 decades??? If you are a proclaimed "journalist" then report on the real story not the media driven one."
I'm sorry I'm not able to report on every story that breaks -- I'll make sure I take your suggestion to note though. Obviously, any journalist who doesn't report on the aforementioned story can no longer be considered a journalist. That's a good philosophy as well.
"No sir before you tell anyone to get their facts straight you need to get yours straight first."
Well, to have to "get my facts straight", I must first have provided incorrect information, which I have not done. I simply didn't report on the stories you're talking about -- for, if I was to report on every detail of the situation, it would become an unreasonably long article.
so LSU, we let people die because the president respected States rights or because he was vacation. i remember hearing the Mayor crying and beggin for help on TV.
Funny North that you only report the Bush story isn't it? How about show some real journalism and report the whole story not just the media driven one. You did not report on those stories b/c they don't go along with the media driven story, they don;t hurt Bush North so you don;t talk about it. Like I said it is all a big joke. Nobody wants to talk about what has happened down here from the get go, they just want to blame Bush for everything and ignore Nagan and Blanco.
Demon again, look at Louisiana's noninvolvement in the whole thing. What did Nagan do before, during, and after the storm???? Absolutely nothing. He is mostly to blame for those people dying afterall it was his city was it not??????
"Funny North that you only report the Bush story isn't it? How about show some real journalism and report the whole story not just the media driven one."
First off, Mr. I'm-better-than-everyone-who-doesn' t-like-Bush, this is an EDITORIAL. I did not report any news, only commented on current news. Secondly, this story was about Bush in relation to the comments made by Mr. Brown -- how off-topic would I sound if I started talking about who made money off of the levees, why they broke and started talking about the specifics of Hurricane Katrina? Katrina was a tie-in to 9/11 and the Bush Administration, I'm not reporting on the happenings of Hurricane Katrina.
"Demon again, look at Louisiana's noninvolvement in the whole thing. What did Nagan do before, during, and after the storm???? Absolutely nothing."
So perhaps it's to Bush to be the "better man?"
But what you're saying is, Bush simply said to himself, "Oh -- well Nagan isn't doing anything, so I'll just sit back on my ranch and let everyone die. After all, it won't be blamed on me -- and if it is, I'll just tell Michael Brown to take all the blame for it."
No matter what was-or-was-not done by the state officials, Bush could have and should have stepped in and helped before the storm -- and should have had a much quicker response after the storm. But that's just not Bush's style, he likes to "sit back and think things over, when the nation is in peril."
Whether it be 7 minutes or 5 days of inactivity, Bush was wrong. Period.
