Presidential response to Gulf Coast tragedy

Democrats are going to blame Bush for this and make it a political issue all the way.

 

And the Good News is "Cindy Who?"

 

C4K

You will have to show me an LZ on a map ... the only one close would be the airport ...

I would not want any of "our boys" to drop on tarmac ... Do you have any idea how many causulties there would be?

I pray that our president continues to remember ... this was "AN ACT OF GOD".

 

The failure to respond adequately begins at the state level. Louisana is not doing as good a job as Florida did when they were hit by one hurricane right after another. The devastation was just as bad. Remember that?

Florida was at least as bad off as the NOLA area. The difference; the readiness of a state to deal with disasters and it comes down to leadership. The National Guard, I believe, is also under the control of the Governors of individual states and it is their duty to mobolize their own troops.

I,too, am saddened and a little angry by the response , but I am more angry with the citizens of what is apparently a decadent, self-indulgent city and their inability to maintain any kind of order. You can't blame it on law enforcement agencies. They're badly outnumbered. The citizens of NOLA have to accept the lion's share of the blame.

When I read of panicked people rushing a supply helicopter and stopping them from landing. That makes me angry...and sad. When I read of evacuation helicopters being shot at, it makes me angry. When I find out there have been several murders and three times as many rapes inside the Superdome, it makes me angry.

The city of New Orleans or the state of Louisians should have repaired those levees years ago. To complain that they didn't get enough federal funding to do the job is trying to shift their responsibility to you and me.

If the city I live in which has a population of 30,000 can pass a $36 Million dollar bond issue to build schools. New Orleans should be able to come up with the money needed to protect their citizens and repair their levees.

The federal government did not take me to raise. I have some responsibilities of my own and so do the citizens of NOLA.

So, blame it on Bush! That's convenient. Give me a break!

 

Without bothering to load a thing I could get in my car and be in New Orleans in about half a day. Its going to take longer if I load up enough supplies to sustain just myself for say two weeks. Longer yet if I get together supplies to sustain anyone else. Those people need help and three days probably seems like a lifetime to them but in practical terms its not been long at all. Its going to take many days and weeks to solve this.

 

Let's not forget Louisiana and Mississippi are among the poorest states in the nation, even with the gambling and booze. They don't have the state resources that other states would have.

I'm just waiting for someone to come out and say Bush caused the hurricane. That would be the political icing on the cake. I hate the opportunism running rampant through things like this.

Bush did not cause people to stay in the city though told to evacuate.

Bush did not cause people to loot and kill.

Bush did not cause the city to be underwater for several days (weeks?), making any work down there very difficult, if not impossible.

Let's not forget- our government is not God. There are things they simply cannot do, and certainly not in time to save everyone or ease their pain or give them what they need.

As I recall, within 48 hours, he was already announcing the help that was on the way- I think I remember that including 500,000 meals and 3,500,000 pounds of ice, among many other things. Let's not forget, for the first 24 of those hours, we all thought New Orleans had dodged a bullet in some ways and would not have the flooding problems that they are experiencing now. For the first day, we were talking about how fortunate NO had been. But not so now.

The media is twisting our perception not only of what is happening, but what can and IS being done to help out.

Our human nature is being exposed through our impatience and our tendencies to blame.

 

Carpro

I am saddened by your statement.

Bad is BAD, but comparing the devastated areas in Florida to N.O. is not a fair assessment. I would guess that this will be evaluated as the worst disaster since Galveston.

Just remember this one could have been MUCH worse.

 

Canada has had a ship waiting in Halifax Harbour since the beginning, and still awaits Mr. Bush's approval for a foreign nation to set foot on American soil. Bush is not to blame? I don't understand this blindness...I have no political axe to grind!

These ships have the famous Canadian generators that have been flown around the world in disaster relief. They have dry, ready-to-eat rations and other supplies.

Please don't cry about other nations failing America in need..We wait...even with available troops for police action.

Only one person can give the word..Mr. Bush! How do you not fault Mr. Bush on this one? Put pride aside, Mr. Bush, and allow help from foreign nations, for these poor folks, literally up to their heads in high waters.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Cheers Jim ...

Maybe the next time you are not grinding that axe, you could remember:

Mr. Bush cannot do anything for you or US, but President Bush can.

;o) just couldn't resist pointing out the obvious.

Cheers,

Wayne

 

He is your president, not mine. Mr. Bush is a polite term. We use the same title for our prime minister, Britain's prime minister and the leaders of other countries. No slight intended. I assure you it is proper protocol.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Jim1999, you make a good point. I was wondering why there was no aid from our friends around the world. We are always there for disasters in other nations, but I have not heard of any country stepping up to offer assistance to the people of Louisiana and Mississippi.

 

I also cannot understand those who blame the victims, saying they should have evacuated. Most of these are extremely poor people who had no cars, and no money to evacuate. They were stuck, and told by their government to go to the Superdome and to the Convention Center. These venues should have been stocked with food and water. It is a massive failure of the state and local officials. The National Guard and Reserves should not be in Iraq...they should be along the Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida Gulf coasts helping the victims of this horror. Bush bears full blame for that, and as leader of the government, he should have been proactive and where necessary, reactive-albeit with greater expediency.

 

Magnetic Poles,

When the disaster struck NY, citizens of Canada acted on their own and drove even city owned vehicles to NY to assist where they could. Even then, Canada, as a nation, could not respond without presidential approval. Literally thousands of men and women responded to NY.. La is a little distant for the same reaction, but we do feel the need, and are responding.

Organizations here are calling for donatations to various aid groups, such as the Red Cross. Despite the political rhetoric, when America bleeds, we instantly run for the bandaids.

We disagreed with war in Iraq, but we did have 1200 troops still in Kuwait on peace keeping duties. We had some special forces working with AMerican Forces in Iraq, and their postings remained. We also had substantial forces in Afghanistan, and still do. I think we do rather well for a small nation of only 27 million, men women and children.

Cheers,

Jim

 

There is no shortage of guard troops to handle this crisis.

 

Magnetic,

God commands the weather. President Bush can only react. He is just a man like his predecessor President Clinton. Neither man is a little god, much less the God.

I pray that the next president of these united states remembers that he (someday she).

No one was expecting the levees to break.

No one expected to need to evacuate as many as 100,000 people ...

 

CMG

Those that have never volunteered to protect those less fortunate, cannot understand that it takes days to move personnel.

Wayne

 

Jim

And as a post script, everyone will experience pain as they try to handle the devastation. We will all feel powerless in some way or in some manner.

And this devastation is so small compared to what will come ...

 

Er...we haven't been asked. Your government has put out no request for aid either from our government or international relief agencies or NGOs. We can't go where we're not invited or wanted. Plus, there is the perception, rightly or wrongly, that as the US is the richest nation on earth, that there is little that we can give you that you don't already have; the problem I think is the failure to get what you do have sufficiently quickly to the people who need it.

 

Jim, I appreciate our Canadian neighbors, and I understand Canada has stood beside the U.S. in times of need. I do wonder though about the rest of the world. Maybe they are offering aid and it just isn't being reported. Or perhaps, our own bullheaded government feels it doesn't need help.