BuzzMachine

If an incompetent surgeon were operating on your child, and he was botching it left and right would you say cluelessly

“there will be plenty of time later for blame and to figure out what went wrong, right now lets just concentrate on letting the buffoon doctor finish botching the operation and save my son?”

Hell no!!! You would have him ripped away from the operating table and replaced on the spot.

Same thing with Fema and Chertoff

Ah, America, where the blame must be fixed before the problem is.

I believe the blaming and anger — on national TV, creating a PR crisis — is what led to help finally reaching New Orleans and survivors finally being taken out.

Do you honestly believe that had national TV simply aired the images without blaming and anger that no help would have reached New Orleans by Thursday/Friday and that the Superdome would still be full of evacuees? Do you honestly believe that even though President Bush declared the region a disaster zone prior to the storm’s landfall that boots would not have hit the ground without the OUTRAGE?

–“There will be 50k troops there by mid-week, a combination of active duty and National Guard. Including elements of 82nd Airborne Division, First Cavalry Division, and two Marine brigades. That’s in just over a week. That’s amazing. But no one realizes it. They had to trot General Honore out this morning to try to explain to the media how you move troops. There were National Guard pre-positioned in the north part of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana two days the storm, watching the storm, seeing which way it was going to go, and once the storm hit, moving troops in immediately. There was a flow-plan that’s been working since.” (Corner on Natl Review)

I seem to recall the hurricane passing over New Orleans around Monday, 6:30 am EST. I seem to recall believing that New Orleans had a near miss. It was thought Mississippi and Alabama bore the brunt of the storm. Although I am now told that the breech in the levys was known early on Monday, I first became aware of the breech on Brendan Loy’s blog at 3:30 am EST Tuesday (I had insomnia.) The flood waters rose steadily through the day on Tuesday.

50,000 troops positioned there by mid-week. And in one day, General Honore got 20,000 people evacuated from the convention center. I don’t think General Honore got his marching orders from the media.

Did they have fuel for the buses? How much? They’re school buses, for heaven’s sake and not really used in most situations for long haul trips. I sincerely doubt that they keep enough fuel on hand to have every one of those buses (or even a majority of them) make a long enough trip to gather up people and then get them far enough away to do some good. No one was going to donate that fuel and the local and state governments can’t borrow it. These are questions I have not even seen mentioned by those right wing web sites that are exulting in showing the pictures of the buses and trying to shift all blame away from their Chosen One and onto the Democratic local officials.

I believe the blaming and anger — on national TV, creating a PR crisis — is what led to help finally reaching New Orleans and survivors finally being taken out.

Yeah, give yourself a pat on the back for running around in circles screaming helplessly. The virtues of “blaming and anger” is just more magic New Age BS. Oh, and while you’re at it, why not give yourself a medal or something?

I think it depends on how you define “blame.” Usually, blame turns into partisan-bashing. We’re already seeing idiotic things like, “Bush wants black people to die;” RFK Jr.’s comments that Haley Barbour is at fault for the hurricane; etc.

Realistically, blame can be affixed all around here. The governor still has not authorized federal control of the local troops. Why not? The mayor could/should have had school buses take people out of the city. Martial law can’t be declared without Congressional approval. Well, Congress isn’t in session right now–it would have taken a couple of days just to get them together to vote on such a resolution, not to mention all the inevitable political posturing bullshit that would have taken place. We’ve known since the 1920s that New Orleans is not safe from flooding–we could blame every Presidential administration since then for not building high enough levees. Last year, Florida faced two huge hurricanes. Jeb Bush had everyone from southern to central Florida evacuate (my Mom was one of them). Well, both storms bypassed southern Florida–& he was subjected to much harping & politically motivated criticism from media for being too “alarmist.” Hmmm–maybe after reviewing things now, we can all realize it perhaps wasn’t alarmist. Locals themselves were to blame for not heeding the warnings, some of whom could have gotten out. Even you, Jeff, & others are to blame for localizing this to New Orleans. One interesting newscast had an emergency worker from one of the surrounding parishes. He was very frustrated because he said everyone was focusing on New Orleans & turning it into a race situation–but people were “dying on the rooftops” (his exact words) in the parishes with no help in sight–& those folks were/are white. Another newscast pointed out that the area actually under water is bigger than Great Britain. I defy anyone to show me any country/political party anywhere that can effectively & immediately deal with a natural disaster affecting an entire country–which is the equivalent of what we’re seeing right now. (Should I mention the hideousness being seen on many Democratic blogs where posters are saying that blue staters should just plain let red staters die because they voted for Bush?)

What is certainly warranted is realistic examination, once the immediate crisis is over, of what happened & what can be done in the future. It is inevitable that there will again be a category 5 hurricane (& save me the bullshit about global warming–there have been category 5 hurricanes that have devastated Galveston, Massachusetts, & other places as long ago as the 20s.). Most of the Atlantic Coast is heavily populated, so a category 5 hitting Miami/FLL or NYC or New England or the DC region is bound to cause major major havoc. Certainly FEMA procedures need to be revisited & their ability to respond to 2 huge natural disasters at the same time. So do the procedures for bringing in martial law immediately. While it’s understandable that we don’t want to give a President (of any party) arbitrary authority to impose martial law without outside restrictions, maybe we need to rewrite procedures to allow a President to declare martial law under extraordinary circumstances like this–with the understanding that Congress & local governors would be allowed to review the situation within a few days. However, in a case like we currently have–where the governor is refusing to allow the President to do so–what should be done?

And yet again, there is the issue of what warnings do occur before a hurricane. Anyone who lives on the coast (again, I have a mother in South Beach, who’s been there since Andrew, so I have some familiarity with this) can attest that most alarms are false alarms. There is no 100% foolproof prediction of a hurricane’s path at the present time–the best we get are pretty good guesses. Mom has long said that she can tell folks who lived thru Andrew from those who’ve moved there since–the ones who lived thru Andrew freak out over any warnings & leave. The ones who’ve come since tend to be rather blase about the warnings since Miami hasn’t directly been hit with a big one since (& unfortunately, both big evacuations last year proved unnecessary for that area). You can bet that people in central Florida now take hurricane warnings seriously. People probably will take warnings more seriously for a while now that we’ve seen what Katrina did. (We flew Mom out both times last year, but had decided after both of them missing Miami that she was going to ride out hurricanes there. We’ve definitely changed our minds on that!) However, we’re bound to see more warnings that turn out to be “false.” What should be done? Should governors take Jeb Bush’s lead from last year & be cautious–knowing that a hurricane miss means that many people & businesses lose days & $$$, & that there will be inevitable criticism? Or should they wait until a path is more closely known, but realizing that a large city can’t be evacuated in time? That’s a very realistic scenario. Think of a huge category 5 churning towards NYC/Boston, & of all the surrounding low-lying communities in that region. Its exact path isn’t going to be known until probably a day or two ahead. Do we evacuate the entire region early enough to get everyone out–knowing that a large part of that area won’t be affected? Or do we wait until the path is known–realizing that by then, it’s going to be too late to get an entire city evacuated?

I believe the blaming and anger — on national TV, creating a PR crisis — is what led to help finally reaching New Orleans and survivors finally being taken out.

This is quite possibly the dumbest, most ignorant thing you have ever written. To think that help would not have arrived or would have taken longer because blowhards like yourself were screaming is ridiculous. You should be ashamed.

My my my,

I’m amazed that you, Jeff, have so little regard for the many, many hardworking Americans who were saving lives while cops were looting Wal Mart that you would say such a thing. You dishonor their service.

You have a lot to learn about how we need to change our government from officials who bitch and whine, to officials who take charge and DO.

It was painfully obvious to me, and to many other armchair critics who watched the situation in New Orleans unfold that federal officials were being stymied by state officials in attempting to evacuate that city BEFORE the storm, knowing full well what it takes to gear up a rescue operation that will involve tens of thousands of poor, infirm people.

I’m just astonished that you believe that Ray Nagin’s whining is what caused the entire apparatus that appeared the next day to appear.

My word man.

Those who would attempt to shift blame from themselves to some invisible bureuacracy in Washington, D.C.

Why is it that the Federal government is always the bad guy with you Righties unless they actually f**k up?

The worst national disaster in our nation’s history, and our president and vice president stayed on vacation. Our Secretary of State caught a play, did shoe-shopping.

Tell me, who is in charge here?

Also, is Cheney still alive?

I also disagree with Rex Hammock…

The fact that the party of the Seditious & Sleazy have been in charge of New Orleans/state for sixty plus years and just looked how they folded like cheap envelopes when the crunch time came…

Why were the idiotic, asinine, liberal scum whining for federal help and calling Bush names? These scum are part of the entitlement generation of parasitic slugs who can’t do a thing for themselves and need a socialist father figure to call the shots for them…

Who was responsible?
In case you aren’t familiar with how our government is SUPPOSED to work:
The chain of responsibility for the protection of the citizens in New Orleans is:

1. The Mayor
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee
of the Governor who reports to the Governor)
3. The Governor
4. The Head of Homeland Security
5. The President

What did each do?

1. The mayor, with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he
announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). Then
he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even
though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.

2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan
for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he
blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for
political appointees)

3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2
DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of
Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.

4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be
ready when the Governor called for them

5. The President urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a
disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal
assistance, should the Governor decide to use it.

Oh and by the way, the levees that broke were the responsibility of the
local landowners and the local levee board to maintain, NOT THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT.

The disaster in New Orleans is what you get after decades of corrupt
government going all the way back to Huey Long.

well i have read most of these statements made here but heres a fresh approach to everything i have seen. Most of the people are mad at government and Say President Bush is sleaze and that his party is corupt but you liberals and demoncats are proving everything that Rush Limbaugh says every day.

1. Don’t call president Bush sleeze after all do i have to mention MONICA , CHINA ! CLINTON SOLD US OUT!!

2. The mayor of New Orleans stopped F.E.M.A. , RED CROSS, and SALVATION ARMY from delivering food and water to the superdoom because they wanted everyone out of the city not to create a hub for refugees.

3. Public transportation was available to people who did not have vehicles but New Orleans government did not impliment there plan for disaster before it happened. One officiall stated get GREYHOUND BUS LINES here instead of the school busses.

4. I am SICK of hearing OHHHH the poor BLACK people and that the WHITE people including President BUSH dosen,t care. WHATEVER! MR. rapper west hates WHITE people and the BLACK community is turning this into a racial issue. THEN call WHITE people racisit come on give me a break.

5. MY CONCLUSION is this, its not President BUSH’s fault its the MAYOR of New Orleans and its government. Why were’nt those leveys updated? why did’nt they go pick up these people who could’nt travel on their own in the busses that were available before the hurricane hit? Why didnt they impliment the emergency plan already in place for such a disaster hmmmm. BECAUSE the Louisianna government really dropped the ball. NOT OUR NATIONS GOVERNMENT and people who are complaining “YOU” the VOTER put them there!

so go on liberals and demoncats “OOPS” i meant democrats keep holding out your hand and expecting help you will get. Dont get off youre own coutch and help youselfs just blame someone else.