www.wwltv.com right now has a Parish official telling us that they planned for this disaster and the feds did not live up to their part in the plan and even ordered them to abandon the resue efforts they were making, that according to play they were supposed to make using boats they had for that purpose.
Same question applies. What disasters and/or terrorist attackes are we discussing now, have been for years, and are going to happen shortly? Again, please be specific.
Regards,
Shodan
The Bush plan: Prepare for nothing, hope for the best.
Go Team Bush!
-Joe
As much as I agree that the government’s (Federal, State and Local) response to this has been too little and too late, can you provide a cite for this? If FEMA is stating that they only found out about Katrina’s devastation days after the event instead of anticipating it days before, then they truly deserve to be pilloried.
I appreciate the request for a cite, but that is how I remember the conversation he had with a reporter. I don’t even remember what network it was since I watched CBS evening news and then right after that the special edition of NBC news. I’ll try to track it down.
While you might have seen a different interview - this sounds exactly what was said about the situation at the convention center. There was a CNN interview yesterday evening with the FEMA head in which he said that they were unaware of the large number of people at the convention center and that help was sent as soon as he heard about it (and that he heard about it from the news). There were many pronouns involved and it would’ve been very easy to miss the specifics of what he was talking about.
A quote from the mayor of New Orleans.
You’re probably right. What struck me is that why does the head of FEMA have to get his info from the news? It sounds like communications have broken down. The NO police certainly were aware of it, it just seems logical that information such as this would have been shared with the state police and FEMA. I think the news crews should get their information from the newsmakers, not the other way around.
The initial kneejerk criticism for Bush was unnecessary and uncalled for. However, the current situation, IMO, throws a whole lot of blame the administration’s way.
Seems to me that they are saying that past Presidents used the Corps budget as expendible cuts. I think the blame is like peanut butter on bread, spread out. As for me, rather then blame Bush, or anyone else, I would rather try to fix it before something like this is able to happen again.
If it is Bush’s fault directly what are you going to do, not vote for him in 2008? I think the laws take care of that already. If it is Clinton’s fault, are we going to hold a special election with his name on the ballot so we can not elect him. Yeah that will show them.
If your an American and are you more concerned about laying blame on a politician on a natural disaster, before the people are even saved, I pity this country.
Well, as I understand it, Bush’s own FEMA, in 2001, ranked the top the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters as a terrorist attack on New York City, a hurricane in New Orleans and an earthquake in San Francisco.
Maybe Bush will hit the trifecta? ::smirk smirk::
How much of a roadmap do you and he need, Shodan?
Leaders lead. Their actions or inactions have consequences. Major changes are necessary, and I pity this country if we blindly lurch from disaster to disaster without understanding that.
I mentioned hurricane Andrew previously, and that is a perfect example. Bush I was blamed for part of the slow response, Clinton was elected, and he changed FEMA into an organization that did a lot of good to help mitigate the consequences of disasters, vastly improving, if not saving, peoples’ lives.
“Well, hmmm, what’re ya gonna do?” is not an appropriate response if you want leaders to actually do things.
A roadmap is exactly what I am asking for. A clear one.
You (and others) are implying that it was clearly obvious that Katrina and 9/11 were coming, when and where and how they did. Now I am asking for an equally clear “roadmap” on the next disaster.
If predicting 9/11 and Katrina was so painfully easy - after the fact - I am asking you to put your money where your mouth is and show that it is equally easy before the fact. So tell us all, what will be the next major disaster and/or terrorist attack? Predicting 9/11 was easy, since everybody knew that bin Laden was going to use airplanes as weapons, but Bush did nothing to prevent it. Predicting that Katrina was going to be the greatest natural disaster of the last twenty years was also clear and obvious, but Bush did nothing.
OK - prove that this is more than just politically biassed Monday morning quarterbacking. You are claiming that Bush should have known about both 9/11 and Katrina, and that the fact that he did not shows that he is incompetent.
Fine - show that a competent person can predict similar disasters. If Bush should not be President because he did not predict these disasters, then demonstrate that someone else is better qualified by predicting the next ones. That way we can tell that “incompetent” in this context means something more than “lacking prophetic powers”.
Again, be specific, as you are demanding that Bush should have been specific. Not this vague bullshit about “leaders lead”. Actual predictions, of a level of detail similar to the level you are demanding of the President.
It should be easy, if it is so obvious.
Regards,
Shodan
That’s a really, really beautiful strawman you have erected, Shodan, to protect your beloved President. Noone is saying that the specific dates and times of disasters can be predicted in advance. What is being said is that one can recognize the most obvious disasters waiting to happen and try to take actions to prevent the worst from materalizing or being ready to deal with the aftermath. And, according to others in this thread, FEMA had recognized both a terrorist attack in New York and a hurricane hitting New Orleans as two of the three most serious disasters waiting to happen.
Now, is that so hard to understand or is erecting strawmen such a habit now that it is impossible to stop?
A city in California will be destroyed by an earthquake. Will it be the next disaster? Who knows? Will it happen? Absolutely. Should we be prepared for it? Yes, absolutely.
Look, Shodan, it is not rocket science to identify natural disasters waiting to happen. There is no excuse for the govenmental departments charged with being prepared for them to be unprepared. I don’t know that I blame Bush personally, but I certainly blame the head of FEMA and of Homeland Security personally. If heads don’t roll after this debacle, I will blame Bush for that.
Here, by the way, is what your Peerless Leader had to say this morning:
Not even he is falling back on the “we couldn’t predict it” defense.
I agree with Evil Captor that it is bizarre to blame Three Mile Island on the environmentalists. It seems like it was a major failure of the nuclear power industry and the NRC. (I guess your argument might be that the subsequent reaction to it, encouraged by the environmental movement, was way overblown. However, this is an argument that you haven’t actually made but instead want us to believe implicitly.)
Also, it is not clear to what extent that incident did in nuclear power; it may have been the last nail in the coffin…but it seems more likely that it was more a matter of economics, i.e., that nuclear power couldn’t compete with cheaper fossil fuels. And, while it is true that most of the environmental movement seems to oppose nuclear power, it is actually those who have fought for policies to keep fossil fuels artificially cheap and for not paying their environmental costs who may be more at fault for the stagnation of nuclear power in the U.S.
Silly strawman.
There is so much straw in this figure that if anyone within a hundred yards lights cigarette you are going to be sucked into the maelstrom of your own burning effigy.
The original statement to which you objected was
There is no statement that the administration knew of a specific attack planned on New York and Washington in September, 2001 and no claim that anyone knew that this storm would hit this city this year.
The fact that the levee situation in New Orleans was perceived long before the current crisis and people who claim to have “not anticipated” the problem are liars. In the same way, reports of al Qaida looking into ways to hijack planes and use them as weapons were reported to the U.S. intelligence communities over a year prior to the attack (most notoriously from the terrorist-owned laptop recovered in the Philipines).
You can whine that no one knew the date as long as you wish, but the claim that Apos made was only that the events had been anticipated, even if people in authority failed to take action on that anticipated information.
Perhaps the WTC/Pentagon hijackers would have still succeeded even if we had been looking more closely for them, but their task was made easier because we were not looking for them.
Perhaps the levees would have failed even if the rebuilding effort had not been cancelled, but perhaps fewer would have failed.
And, in any event, we would have been making the effort to deflect or prevent the clearly anticipated failure. (We know that it was anticipated because the matter was placed in the top three issues to be addressed before funding was cut.)
Evidently there aren’t any national media outlets in Washington DC. They really ought to think about doing something about that.
Are you implying if Kerry or Gore where the President this would not of happened? Because if thats what your implying I think I need to invest in there new anti-hurricane machine I knew nothing about previously.
Was FEMA supposed to be aware that once tragedy struck the people would resort to anarchy thus blocking aid efforts?
If FEMA did what they could of done to enforce order to get the aid in, they would be getting bashed even worse.
And yes if Kerry where president right now, some of the blind conservatives would be trying to find a way to blame him, just as the blind liberals are attacking Bush now. But that doesn’t make it right.