Quote: Cedric wrote in post #26

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Quote: The_Nevadan wrote in post #25

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Quote: nerd wrote in post #22

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Quote: The_Nevadan wrote in post #19

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Quote: musiclady wrote in post #16

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Quote: The_Nevadan wrote in post #8

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Quote: musiclady wrote in post #6

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Quote: The_Nevadan wrote in post #5

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Mixed bag problems. This article clearly does not delineate between the immediate response by Blanco(disaster of the disaster) and the clean-up, rebuilding efforts championed by W. The initial response by FEMA was a mess as run by "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" and when General Honore took over things got moving. Under Brownie trucks with badly needed supplies sat for days in surrounding states. FEMA clearly fell down on the job.

FWIW I heard some stories over the weekend critizing the Federal resposne ot Sandy, in spite of Governor Krispy Kreme's comments.

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But that doesn't negate the fact that Bush was warning LA before the storm and providing help immediately after (which the Gov of LA refused).

The hysteria that it was Bush's fault was a complete lie, as was the refusal to cover the Gov and Mayor's fault in the mess.

And Fox was complicit in it.

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Pretty sure I covered that in the second sentence.

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But the "heck of a job" line you used, used primarily by leftists to skewer President Bush, was actually his repeating a line said by Governor Bob Riley of Alabama, who was praising Brown for the federal response (as was Haley Barbour in MS).

Governor Blanco was the problem in LA, not President Bush.

But the left used the response to a horrific storm as a political shotgun to destroy the President.

And clearly, many conservatives fell for it.

And haven't figured it out yet.

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Interesting history you have there. So your defense is W parroting someone else? W exhibited poor leadership in two aspects.
1. Putting Brown in charge in the first place as a politcial payback.
2. Not getting rid of him soon enough when it was clear to the whole country Brown sucked at the job.

Those are undeniable truths. Try and spin all you want about Blanco and company but FEMA failed at the Federal responsibilty in the period right after the event - period end of story.

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Next thing you well see is how great it was we paid all those billions for the sorry job Fema did.

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NOLA-graft-levees-pumps-houses-unlimited funds. What could go wrong?

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Prediction: Nerd will agree with you.

{Despite the FACT that you didn't really say anything. PERIOD. EXCLAMATION POINT!}

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Cedric, stop yelling. First request.

Quote: Cedric wrote in post #30

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Quote: musiclady wrote in post #29

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Successful hijack from the essence of and discussion about the article.

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The message to take from all this is that the MSM and the Democrats have decided that only Democrat presidents handle disasters effectively, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

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Apparently so.

Either that, or Republicans are the source of all evil in the world (all evidence to the contrary).

It must get wearisome to say the same things in response to every issue, regardless of the facts.

But then again, it saves one the trouble of actually THINKING..........

Quote: Cedric wrote in post #30

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The message to take from all this is that the MSM and the Democrats have decided that only Democrat presidents handle disasters effectively, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

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Political parties do not handle disasters. Individual humans do.

No individual human is perfect and no individual human that is capable of rising to a non-hereditary position of leadership in life will get things 100% wrong. That is just the reality of the human condition.

Dealing with disasters (both natural and man-made) is both an art and a science and the goal of a responsible leader should be to focus on learning what went right and what went wrong in order to do a better job next time. That is why competent militaries conduct serious After Action Reports and competent medical staffs conduct serious Morbidity and Mortality Conferences.

In any military action large enough and in every medical case serious enough to merit review, some things will be found to have been done well and other things will be found to have been done poorly. Anybody that claims that Colonel Jones or Dr. Smith made no mistakes is simply blowing smoke.

The politicians of BOTH parties made a lot of mistakes in the handling of Katrina.

For one thing, a predicted Category 5 hurricane was headed straight for a below-sea-level city, in a storm surge zone (moving water is one of the most destructive natural forces on Earth), that was protected by levees rated for a Category 3 hurricane.



The imperative need to completely evacuate New Orleans was not rocket science. The human disaster was absolutely predictable if thousands of people stayed in the flood surge zone.

Yes, Bush urged the Democrat Governor to evacuate everybody (leadership) but she refused (stupidity).

Then, however, Bush did not push the issue (a failure of leadership).

What would Ronald Reagan, The Great Communicator, have done?

Reagan would have been on national TV explaining the danger to the entire nation. He would have stated that if the Democrat Governor did not order an evacuation, he would declare a National Emergency and take responsibility for the evacuation himself.

Ronald Reagan would have demonstrated true leadership and he had the skills and the guts to do it. By contrast, Bush curled up into the fetal position and allowed the Democratic Governor to cause a human disaster. Afterwards, not a word was spoken about how that disaster could have been averted.

The Katrina tragedy could have been a great learning experience for everybody living in Hurricane Alley. However, the focus has been and still is the Blame Game. Hatchet job politics and “Hurray for our guy” politics are all that most of the public remembers about Katrina.

That is the second area where George W. Bush failed miserably. If there were mistakes made by the Democrat Governor that caused so many deaths, it was the President’s duty to force a discussion of those mistakes so that they would not be repeated. Instead, Bush again played “Nice Guy”. Bush played the “Nice Guy” role to such an extreme that it became ridiculous.

“President Bush. In your last visit to New Orleans to see the Katrina damage, Mayor Ray Nagin claims that you . Do you have any comments?”

“I would like to say that Mayor Nagin and the people of New Orleans are in my prayers. All of America sympathizes with their suffering.”

If after absolutely refusing to defend himself, the majority of American voters were left with the unopposed Democrat talking points that Bush was a 100% total idiot in the handling of Katrina, then Bush has nobody to blame but himself.

Say what you will about Bill Clinton, he was a very competent politician. A “War Room” was ready to answer any accusation with a few hours. The answers may or may not have been honest but, at least, unlike Bush, Clinton fought back.

True leaders lead. True leadership often requires the banging of heads, including your own . True leaders do not just stand there, like a blow up punching doll, in order to win the “Just as Humble & Nice as Jimmy Carter Award”.

Quote: Cedric wrote in post #33

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As potholes are to a city Mayor, so are hurricanes and floods to a President.

I really don't want my Mayor marchin' up and down Main Street with a brass band and a bucket of asphalt.

...... approach to dealing with strong winds and rain.

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The death toll of Katrina equaled 76% of the death toll of the Pearl Harbor attack.

Do you truly believe that the American people consider that to be the moral equivalent of a “pothole”?

As explained in my last post, the magnitude of the human tragedy was predictable and avoidable. Bush warned about the tragedy but then did not have the guts to assume the leadership necessary to prevent it.

Comparing the storm surge of a Category 5 hurricane headed to a major below-sea-level metropolis, protected by levees rated only for a Category 3 storm to "dealing with strong winds and rain" is the very definition of political demagoguery.

Storm surge destroyed Galveston, Texas in 1900.


A "pothole" in Galveston, Texas, 1900
(Over 8,000 Americans died in that "pothole"
which is twice as many as in the entire Iraq War.)

When accountability flies out the window and 1,803 Katrina deaths are compared to a “pothole” so that the focus is CYA for a favorite politician, you become part of the problem and not the solution.

True leaders admit their mistakes and learn from their mistakes. Political hacks make excuses for them.

Quote: The_Nevadan wrote in post #5

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Mixed bag problems. This article clearly does not delineate between the immediate response by Blanco(disaster of the disaster) and the clean-up, rebuilding efforts championed by W. The initial response by FEMA was a mess as run by "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" and when General Honore took over things got moving. Under Brownie trucks with badly needed supplies sat for days in surrounding states. FEMA clearly fell down on the job.

FWIW I heard some stories over the weekend critizing the Federal response ot Sandy, in spite of Governor Krispy Kreme's comments.

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Initially Krispy got big praise across the board for the manner in which he handed the aftermath of Sandy. It was very practical and geared to getting as much as possible up and running as soon as possible. His press conferences were honest and to the point acknowledging the massive under reported damage to NJ. It was a stark comparison to the way things were handle in NY.

However I've heard complaints about FEMA from the onset of their involvement. Interestingly those complaints were directed toward Zero, FEMA being Federal.

This statement will not endear those screwed by FEMA to Krispy.