The Hurricane Katrina thread

[SLCPUNK]

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

Oh wow, I thought they fired him. Why would they just send him away and let him keep his job?

I swear I saw he was fired on CNN, but I just went to yahoo news and it says he was sent home like you said.

So I changed the title. Thanks for the correction.

To add: it is funny Bush said he was going a great job the other day alright, I saw that last night. Gave him a nice pat on the back.

[Sterlingdog]

Chertoff was on tv today saying Brown had done a great jobing coordinating relief efforts.  They won't take any real action against him because they aren't ready to admit that the feds did anything wrong.  They are still hoping to transfer blame to state and local officials.  Brown will probably get a promotion. 

[Surfrider]

Chertoff was on tv today saying Brown had done a great jobing coordinating relief efforts.? They won't take any real action against him because they aren't ready to admit that the feds did anything wrong.? They are still hoping to transfer blame to state and local officials.? Brown will probably get a promotion.?

Are you surprised?  No one is, nor will take responsibility for any of this.  It is simply a failure at all levels, yet everyone is pointing the finger somewhere else.  I know nothing about the job this guy has done to comment on whether he has performed adequately or not, but, if he has not, it sure is sad that it takes a tragedy to point out the problem of political favors in our system.  On a side note, are people on this board still calling for Nagin to run for President?  Those were some of the most ridiculous comments I had read in some time.

[Sterlingdog]

Gore airlifts Katrina victims out of New Orleans
Former vice president chartered 2 private aircraft

Friday, September 9, 2005; Posted: 5:46 p.m. EDT (21:46 GMT)

 KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- Al Gore helped airlift some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans, acting at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of the former vice president's son.

Gore criticized the Bush administration's slow response to Katrina in a speech Friday in San Francisco, but refused to be interviewed about the mercy missions he financed and flew on Sept. 3 and 4.

However, Dr. Anderson Spickard, who is Gore's personal physician and accompanied him on the flights, said: "Gore told me he wanted to do this because like all of us he wanted to seize the opportunity to do what one guy can do, given the assets that he has."

An account of the flights was posted this week on a Democratic Party Web page. It was written by Greg Simon, president of the Washington-based activist group FasterCures. Simon, who helped put together the mission, also declined an interview.

On Sept. 1, three days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, Simon learned that Dr. David Kline, a neurosurgeon who operated on Gore's son, Albert, after a life-threatening auto accident in 1989, was trying to get in touch with Gore. Kline was stranded with patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.

"The situation was dire and becoming worse by the minute -- food and water running out, no power, 4 feet of water surrounding the hospital and ... corpses outside," Simon wrote.

Gore responded immediately, telephoning Kline and agreeing to underwrite the $50,000 each for the two flights, although Larry Flax, founder of California Pizza Kitchens, later pledged to pay for one of them.

"None of the airlines involved required a contract or any written guarantee of payment before sending their planes and volunteer crews," Simon wrote of the American Airlines flights. "One official said if Gore promised to pay, that was good enough for them."

He also recruited two doctors, Spickard and Gore's cousin, retired Col. Dar LaFon, a specialist in internal medicine who once ran the military hospital in Baghdad.

Most critically, Gore worked to cut through government red tape, personally calling Gov. Phil Bredesen to get Tennessee's support and U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to secure landing rights in New Orleans.

About 140 people, many of them sick, landed in Knoxville on Sept. 3. The second flight, with 130 evacuees, landed the next day in Chattanooga.

[SLCPUNK]

How about that!!!

[journey]

This may have already been posted.

The Rolling Stones donated a million dollars to the Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund.

That's awesome of them.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

It is nice to see that more and more people are contributing, regardless of their political views, to the victims of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. It is not about politics, it is about helping our own citizens. American helping American. We are all on the same team. Blue states VS red states is bullshit compared to this catastrophe.

[Surfrider]

It is nice to see that more and more people are contributing, regardless of their political views, to the victims of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. It is not about politics, it is about helping our own citizens. American helping American. We are all on the same team. Blue states VS red states is bullshit compared to this catastrophe.

What would ever make you think that someone would not donate just because they came from a blue state?  I donated a hefty sum, and I definately do not come from a red state.  I couldn't even fathom the possibility that someone might not donate because of their political views.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Sometimes politics gets in the way of the greater good.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

My name is Mike Brown and I feel embarrased by the similarity to the name of the (former) FEMA director.

[SLCPUNK]

Brown will probably get a promotion. 

Or a medal...

[SLCPUNK]

Nationally syndicated right-wing ranter Glenn Beck comments on hurricane victims:

BECK: Let me be real honest with you. I don't think anybody on talk radio -- I don't think anybody in their right mind is going to say this out loud -- but I wonder if I'm the only one that feels this way. Yesterday, when I saw the ATM cards being handed out, the $2,000 ATM cards, and they were being handed out at the Astrodome. And they actually had to close the Astrodome and seal it off for a while because there was a near-riot trying to get to these ATM cards. My first thought was, it's not like they're going to run out of the $2,000 ATM cards. You can wait! You know, stand in line. Maybe it's because I'm the kind of guy, when I go to a buffet, I either have to be first in line, or I'm the very last. Because I know there's going to be extra food, and I just won't stand in the line. I'll wait until all the suckers go get their food, and then I'll go get mine. Or if I'm really hungry, I hate to admit this -- and really, I don't even have to be really hungry. If I'm really being a pig, I will kind of, like, hang out around the buffet table before the line is -- you know, chat with people right around the table: "Oh, they just opened the line! Let's go!" And then you're first in line.

When you are rioting for these tickets, or these ATM cards, the second thing that came to mind was -- and this is horrible to say, and I wonder if I'm alone in this -- you know it took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims' families? Took me about a year. And I had such compassion for them, and I really wanted to help them, and I was behind, you know, "Let's give them money, let's get this started." All of this stuff. And I really didn't -- of the 3,000 victims' families, I don't hate all of them. Probably about 10 of them. And when I see a 9-11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, "Oh shut up!" I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining. And we did our best for them. And, again, it's only about 10.

But the second thought I had when I saw these people and they had to shut down the Astrodome and lock it down, I thought: I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims. These guys -- you know it's really sad. We're not hearing anything about Mississippi. We're not hearing anything about Alabama. We're hearing about the victims in New Orleans. This is a 90,000-square-mile disaster site, New Orleans is 181 square miles. A hundred and -- 0.2 percent of the disaster area is New Orleans! And that's all we're hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones we're seeing on television are the scumbags -- and again, it's not all the people in New Orleans. Most of the people in New Orleans got out! It's just a small percentage of those who were left in New Orleans, or who decided to stay in New Orleans, and they're getting all the attention. It's exactly like the 9-11 victims' families. There's about 10 of them that are spoiling it for everybody.

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

if we had to read and focus on what any random guy is saying ....

[journey]

He seems like a selfish person. Maybe he's never suffered a tremendous loss, and can't relate. Either way, he's lacking some serious sensitivity.

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

He seems like a selfish person. Maybe he's never suffered a tremendous loss, and can't relate. Either way, he's lacking some serious sensitivity.

i lost my nintendo ds charger the other day ... it was very hard, but i found this morning. it was under some book.

[jarmo]

Katrina failings were my fault, Bush admits for first time

? President says hurricane exposed serious problems
? Tests planned for 44 bodies found in hospital

Jamie Wilson in New Orleans and Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday September 14, 2005
The Guardian


For the first time, George Bush yesterday explicitly took responsibility for shortcomings in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Speaking at a press conference at the White House, President Bush said that it had "exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government".

"And to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Mr Bush said. "I want to know what went wrong or what went right ... It's in our national interest that we find out exactly what went on so we can better respond. I'm not going to defend the process going in but I am going to defend the people on the ground saving lives."

Rest of article




/jarmo

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Katrina failings were my fault, Bush admits for first time

? President says hurricane exposed serious problems
? Tests planned for 44 bodies found in hospital

Jamie Wilson in New Orleans and Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday September 14, 2005
The Guardian


For the first time, George Bush yesterday explicitly took responsibility for shortcomings in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Speaking at a press conference at the White House, President Bush said that it had "exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government".

"And to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Mr Bush said. "I want to know what went wrong or what went right ... It's in our national interest that we find out exactly what went on so we can better respond. I'm not going to defend the process going in but I am going to defend the people on the ground saving lives."

Rest of article




/jarmo

I love it when news article paraphrase to come up with more attention getting headlines.

"Katrina failings were my fault, Bush admits for first time" - he did not actually say it like that.

It was not all his fault as that statement leads on. He was at fault along with hundreds on the state, federal and local level. I give the guy credit for taking some blame. Unlike Mr. Clinton with Monica.

[SLCPUNK]

The politicos/pundits who dislike the blame game are usually the ones to blame.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

The ones who like the blame game are the ones without the answer to the problem.

[Sterlingdog]

Katrina failings were my fault, Bush admits for first time

? President says hurricane exposed serious problems
? Tests planned for 44 bodies found in hospital

Jamie Wilson in New Orleans and Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday September 14, 2005
The Guardian


For the first time, George Bush yesterday explicitly took responsibility for shortcomings in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Speaking at a press conference at the White House, President Bush said that it had "exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government".

"And to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Mr Bush said. "I want to know what went wrong or what went right ... It's in our national interest that we find out exactly what went on so we can better respond. I'm not going to defend the process going in but I am going to defend the people on the ground saving lives."

Rest of article




/jarmo

I love it when news article paraphrase to come up with more attention getting headlines.

"Katrina failings were my fault, Bush admits for first time" - he did not actually say it like that.

It was not all his fault as that statement leads on. He was at fault along with hundreds on the state, federal and local level. I give the guy credit for taking some blame. Unlike Mr. Clinton with Monica.

Actually I agree with you.  The media is giving him credit for taking responsibility, but I don't think he really did.  What he said was "to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job..." To me the implied statement is that the federal government isn't really to blame.  But if they are, he'd be responsible.