The Hurricane Katrina thread

[SLCPUNK]

Condi Rice: "We had no specific knowledge that Hurricane Katrina had any plans to hit New Orleans.

Chairman: Ms. Rice, could you tell us the title of the White House briefing book given to President Bush last Thursday?

Condi Rice: "Hurricane Katrina to hit New Orleans directly and cause massive flooding and loss of life".

 

[Surfrider]

Condi Rice: "We had no specific knowledge that Hurricane Katrina had any plans to hit New Orleans.

Chairman: Ms. Rice, could you tell us the title of the White House briefing book given to President Bush last Thursday?

Condi Rice: "Hurricane Katrina to hit New Orleans directly and cause massive flooding and loss of life".

 

Is that a real exchange?  Oh my gosh

[Christos AG]

Condi Rice: "We had no specific knowledge that Hurricane Katrina had any plans to hit New Orleans.

Chairman: Ms. Rice, could you tell us the title of the White House briefing book given to President Bush last Thursday?

Condi Rice: "Hurricane Katrina to hit New Orleans directly and cause massive flooding and loss of life".

 

Is this a joke, or a real dialogue?

[Christos AG]

What do these people want Bush to do? Go down with a large hose and suck the water out?

I mean seriously, u cant land a plane in N.O. u cant drive a car, It took some time to get there basically because of stuff like that

I do like the Cruise Ship idea SLC and wonder if any of them have thought of that?

Well, Greeks thought of it sooner than everyone else, at least it was announced sooner than anyone else.

Also, and I suppose most countries did, we donated a lot more than Cruise ships but I guess they wanna show as less as possible...

[SLCPUNK]

Condi Rice: "We had no specific knowledge that Hurricane Katrina had any plans to hit New Orleans.

Chairman: Ms. Rice, could you tell us the title of the White House briefing book given to President Bush last Thursday?

Condi Rice: "Hurricane Katrina to hit New Orleans directly and cause massive flooding and loss of life".

 

Is this a joke, or a real dialogue?

It's a spoof based on the 9-11 investigation.

She claimed there was no information that made them believe an attack could occur.

Then they asked her the title of the memo given to the white house prior to 9-11, and she replied "terrorists plan on taking planes and crashing them into buildings in USA".

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Thank goodness we still have Michael.?

It is nice that he is offering this. But after so many surgeries you can barely recognize the guy anymore....

 

This almost looks like a pic that was real, nothing would shock me regarding MJ.

I do have one question though, do you like or dislike Bush? I  find your posts throughout the forum a little vague on that subject. 

[SLCPUNK]

haha, that is not white enough to be MJ, anybody can see that....

No comment on the rest...

[SLCPUNK]

How come nothing suprises me anymore?

 

**********

 WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush issued an executive order on Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.

In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Bush's action came as the federal government moved to provide billions of dollars in aid, and drew rebukes from two of organized labor's biggest friends in Congress, Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats.

"The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities," Miller said.

"President Bush should immediately realize the colossal mistake he has made in signing this order and rescind it and ensure that America puts its people back to work in the wake of Katrina at wages that will get them and their families back on their feet," Miller said.

"I regret the president's decision," said Kennedy.

"One of the things the American people are very concerned about is shabby work and that certainly is true about the families whose houses are going to be rebuilt and buildings that are going to be restored," Kennedy said.

The Davis-Bacon law requires federal contractors to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is conducted. It applies to federally funded construction projects such as highways and bridges.

Bush's executive order suspends the requirements of the Davis-Bacon law for designated areas hit by the storm.

[journey]

How come nothing suprises me anymore?

 

**********

 WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush issued an executive order on Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.

In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Is it temporary?

It may be necessary in order to have enough funds to rebuild. If that's the case then the loss of wages should be compensated near or after the restoration of the communities.

[SLCPUNK]

If the funds were not "elsewhere" (rhymes with "My back") they wouldn't need to cut them.

Plus, are the contractors getting a cut as well? Halliburton? I doubt it.

[journey]

If the funds were not "elsewhere" (rhymes with "My back") they wouldn't need to cut them.

Plus, are the contractors getting a cut as well? Halliburton? I doubt it.

I doubt it too.

This decision is like a slap across the face. The victims of the hurricane need to be given the appropriate funds to rebuild their lives.

[SLCPUNK]

Looks like Mike Brown got shit canned today.

Whudda thunk?

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

too late maybe.

[SLCPUNK]

Turns out all of Bush's buddies (with little experience regarding disaster relief) were given high up posts with FEMA, while those with the experience...were not. Imagine that?

"The Washington Post reported that five of the top eight FEMA officials had little experience in handling disasters and owed their jobs to their political ties to Bush.

As political operatives took the top jobs, professionals and experts in hurricanes and disasters left the agency, the newspaper said."

[gilld1]

I guess Brownie didn't do such a good job afterall.  It's noce to see Bush with his head out of his ass for once!

[SLCPUNK]

He's trying to save it (his ass) while he still can. His ratings for how he handled this are pretty bad.

[Doc Emmett Brown]

"The Washington Post reported that five of the top eight FEMA officials had little experience in handling disasters and owed their jobs to their political ties to Bush.

I didnt realize "little experience" was an understatement until I learned of their previous employment:


The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced this week that it didn't want the news media taking photographs of the dead in New Orleans. A FEMA spokeswoman talked unconvincingly about the dignity of the dead. But the bizarre demand, a creepy echo of the ban on news media coverage of the coffins returning from Iraq, is simply the latest spasm of a gutted federal agency.

It's not really all that surprising that the officials who run FEMA are stressing that all-important emergency response function: the public relations campaign. As it turns out, that's all they really have experience at doing.

Michael Brown was made the director after he was asked to resign from the International Arabian Horse Association, and the other top officials at FEMA don't exactly have impressive r?sum?s in emergency management either. The Chicago Tribune reported on Wednesday that neither the acting deputy director, Patrick Rhode, nor the acting deputy chief of staff, Brooks Altshuler, came to FEMA with any previous experience in disaster management. Ditto for Scott Morris, the third in command until May.

Mr. Altshuler and Mr. Rhode had worked in the White House's Office of National Advance Operations. Those are the people who decide where the president will stand on stage and which loyal supporters will be permitted into the audience - and how many firefighters will be diverted from rescue duty to surround the president as he patrols the New Orleans airport trying to look busy. Mr. Morris was a press handler with the Bush presidential campaign. Previously, he worked for the company that produced Bush campaign commercials.

So when Mr. Brown finally got around to asking Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for extra people for Katrina, it wasn't much of a departure for Mr. Brown to say that one of the things he wanted them to do was to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public." We'd like them to stay focused on conveying food, water and medical help to victims.

Political patronage has always been a hallmark of Washington life. But President Bill Clinton appointed political pals at FEMA who actually knew something about disaster management. The former FEMA director James Lee Witt, whose tenure is widely considered a major success, was a friend of Mr. Clinton's when he took office in 1993, but he had run the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services. His top staff came from regional FEMA offices.

(from NYTimes)

[D]

I dont know if u can give Bush credit for firing him when he hired him in the first place, but Im glad Bush came to his senses and did this.

[the dirt]

I dont know if u can give Bush credit for firing him when he hired him in the first place, but Im glad Bush came to his senses and did this.

Yeah, especially when a couple days before he endorsed him by saying he was doing " a great job"

[Sterlingdog]

Was he actually fired?  I thought they just "sent him back to Washington'" but he's still head of FEMA.