BREAKING NEWS: Bush Takes Responsibility

[Anonymous]

Bush: Gov't Didn't Do Job Right, I Take Responsibility

Some Evacuees Could Be In Temp. Housing Until 2010

UPDATED: 9:22 am PDT September 13, 2005

BILOXI, Miss. -- President George W. Bush says Hurricane Katrina exposed "serious problems in the response capability at all levels of government."

He told reporters that to the extent the federal government didn't "do its job right," he takes responsibility.

Bush, at a news conference with the visiting Iraqi president, said he wants to find out if the nation is capable of dealing with another storm or a severe attack.

He said, "I want to know what went right and what went wrong."

Meanwhile, New Orleans is showing a few more signs of recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport plans to reopen to limited passenger service. An airport triage center that has seen thousands of patients has shut down. The doctors who've been working there are now backing up overworked staffers at area hospitals.

And dozens of the 174 permanent pumps are back in operation. Engineers estimate flooded portions of the city are due to be drained by Oct. 8. A contractor was back at one of the previously repaired levees after water was found to be seeping through. The seepage is said to be minor. Officials estimate the water system will take three months to repair.

A tourism official hopes visitors will be back in town in six months.

A National Guard engineer said it will be at least three months before New Orleans' public water system is fully operational.

Running water has been restored to some homes, but it's mostly untreated. The engineer says taking a bath right now is like jumping into the Mississippi River.

Southeast of New Orleans, residents have received disheartening news. A councilman in St. Bernard Parish says no one should expect to live in the parish again before next summer. Before Katrina, its population was 66,000.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expecting to house thousands of hurricane survivors in "temporary cities" made up of trailer homes. Most would be in Louisiana.

Autopsies Planned On Dozens Of Bodies Pulled From Hospital

A coroner said autopsies will be done on more than 40 bodies found in a flooded New Orleans hospital.

Search teams found the corpses, many of them elderly patients, inside a hospital that was abandoned more than a week earlier after it was surrounded by floodwaters unleashed by Hurricane Katrina.

Dr. Frank Minyard, of Orleans Parish, said it isn't clear yet how the patients died. Other officials have said some were dead before Katrina arrived but high temperatures after the storm could have led to other deaths.

A "Help Please" sign was left on the window of Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans, where more than 40 bodies were recovered after Hurricane Katrina.

Dave Goodson, assistant administrator of Memorial Medical Center, said the patients died while waiting to be evacuated over the four days after the hurricane. He said temperatures in the hospital rose to 106 degrees. The bodies were recovered Sunday, but the exact number is unclear.

Bob Johannesen, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Hospitals, said 45 patients had been found; Goodson said there were 44 plus three people found on the hospital grounds.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Ray Nagin said the city knew there were people in hospitals who needed to be evacuated. The city's first priority had been to evacuate patients in critical care units.

Minyard said the hurricane death count in New Orleans could rise significantly because searchers haven't gotten into some areas of deep flooding.

He said what they could find is a "very scary thought." But he added that the body count -- about 300 in New Orleans -- may be a reflection of successful evacuations before Katrina.

Officials initially speculated the hurricane might have killed as many as 10,000 people.

Mississippi Death Toll Begins To Slow
Even as military and civilian contractors step up excavation in the most devastated neighborhood in Biloxi, Miss., emergency officials predict the pace of finding corpses along the Mississippi Gulf Coast will continue to slow.

Gov. Haley Barbour said Mississippi's death toll is 218.

Joe Spraggins, emergency-management director in neighboring Harrison County, said crews are finding fewer bodies each day and he does not expect another spike in the death toll.

In a visit to the area on Monday, President George W. Bush told reporters in Gulfport, Miss., that there are a "lot of lives to be lifted up, (a) lot of hope to be restored."

In Biloxi, contractors began excavation efforts at the waterfront edges of Point Cadet, a largely blue-collar neighborhood of Vietnamese fishermen, casino workers and families who trace their roots to eastern Europe. Many tried to ride out the storm in 50- to 80-year-old homes.

Parts Of N.O. Might Not Be Safe For Years

Even amid reports that New Orleans could be drained of its floodwaters by Oct. 8, there are signs some evacuees might have to live in temporary housing for up to five years.

Brad Fair, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's housing effort, said FEMA is planning to house as many as 200,000 hurricane victims until 2010. Most of them would be housed in temporary cities in Louisiana, some with populations of up to 25,000.

Fair gave no cost estimate for such an operation. But he said while it might not be on the scale of building the pyramids in Egypt -- "it's close."

Tens Of Thousands Need Housing
In Mississippi, the most pressing need is for housing for families left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.

More than 115,000 evacuees are in shelters or temporary locations arranged by the Red Cross. Many more are in hotels and private homes.

To give you a sense of the destruction, the coastal town of Pass Christian needs temporary housing for nearly its entire population of 8,500.

Housing also is needed for relief workers and those beginning the reconstruction.

More than 1,200 trailers or mobile homes are in Mississippi for distribution but the next challenge is finding a place to put them. One official said homeowners may be able to put them on or near their properties. Officials also are looking for spaces for mobile home parks.

Evacuees Wait Hours To Apply For Aid

Katrina evacuees in Houston are growing increasingly frustrated at the long wait for financial assistance.

There are an estimated 200,000 evacuees still living in Houston, and only one Red Cross processing center where many of them can get financial assistance. That's had hundreds of people lining up overnight to guarantee they will see a counselor.

On Monday, there were 8,000 people in line 90 minutes before they were allowed to file into the building, and police cut off the line before it could get any longer.

The Red Cross is urging evacuees to call a toll free hotline for aid instead. A Red Cross spokeswoman says it averages 25,000 calls an hour. Some evacuees said they've tried to call several times, only to get a busy signal.

[Anonymous]

Interesting.....

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

Go to CrooksAndLiars to watch this ridiculous video of our completely insane and self-congradulatory prezboy. Can someone please explain to me what it is to "pre-sign" an "emergency declaration"? And, wait a
minute, last week the story was that he was "pleading" to no avail with the governor. Didn't she get a copy of that pre-signed emergency declaration?

************************************************

Bush thinks he was "Extraordinary" with Katrina

President Bush was very happy with himself today as he told reporters that he had pre-signed emergency declarations in anticipation of the big storm coming.

Bush: "I spoke to the American people.  I
said,'There's a big storm coming'. I pre-signed
emergency declarations"

Bush: "Which is by the way, extraordinary."

Bush: "Most emergencies- the President signs after the storm has hits"

[Anonymous]

It's starting to be obvious to everyone that he is a liar.

[Antigen]

Ludwig von Mises Institute

Katrina and the Never-Ending Scandal of State Management

by William Anderson
[Posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2005]
For the most part, we know what happened ? and what did not happen ? after Katrina had battered parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast and flooded most of New Orleans. Despite promises of aid "around the corner," adequate government assistance did not reach many of the refugees, and especially the people of New Orleans who were stuffed into the Superdome, the New Orleans Convention Center, not to mention nursing homes and roofs of houses.

As we now know, government agents stymied attempts by private individuals and organizations to bring provisions to people who had none. People languished for about five days before the "cavalry" arrived, bringing provisions and some bit of hope.

More: http://www.mises.org/story/1909

History does not record anywhere or at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unkonwn without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.
--Robert A. Heinlen, American science-ficiton author

[Anonymous]

washingtonpost.com
End of the Bush Era

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005; A27

The Bush Era is over. The sooner politicians in both parties realize that, the better for them -- and the country.

Recent months, and especially the past two weeks, have brought home to a steadily growing majority of Americans the truth that President Bush's government doesn't work. His policies are failing, his approach to leadership is detached and self-indulgent, his way of politics has produced a divided, angry and dysfunctional public square. We dare not go on like this.

The Bush Era did not begin when he took office, or even with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It began on Sept. 14, 2001, when Bush declared at the World Trade Center site: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." Bush was, indeed, skilled in identifying enemies and rallying a nation already disposed to action. He failed to realize after Sept. 11 that it was not we who were lucky to have him as a leader, but he who was lucky to be president of a great country that understood the importance of standing together in the face of a grave foreign threat. Very nearly all of us rallied behind him.

If Bush had understood that his central task was to forge national unity, as he seemed to shortly after Sept. 11, the country would never have become so polarized. Instead, Bush put patriotism to the service of narrowly ideological policies and an extreme partisanship. He pushed for more tax cuts for his wealthiest supporters and shamelessly used relatively modest details in the bill creating a Department of Homeland Security as partisan cudgels in the 2002 elections.

He invoked our national anger over terrorism to win support for a war in Iraq. But he failed to pay heed to those who warned that the United States would need many more troops and careful planning to see the job through. The president assumed things would turn out fine, on the basis of wildly optimistic assumptions. Careful policymaking and thinking through potential flaws in your approach are not his administration's strong suits.

And so the Bush Era ended definitively on Sept. 2, the day Bush first toured the Gulf Coast States after Hurricane Katrina. There was no magic moment with a bullhorn. The utter failure of federal relief efforts had by then penetrated the country's consciousness. Yesterday's resignation of FEMA Director Michael Brown put an exclamation point on the failure.

The source of Bush's political success was his claim that he could protect Americans. Leadership, strength and security were Bush's calling cards. Over the past two weeks, they were lost in the surging waters of New Orleans.

But the first intimations of the end of the Bush Era came months ago. The president's post-election fixation on privatizing part of Social Security showed how out of touch he was. The more Bush discussed this boutique idea cooked up in conservative think tanks and Wall Street imaginations, the less the public liked it. The situation in Iraq deteriorated. The glorious economy Bush kept touting turned out not to be glorious for many Americans. The Census Bureau's annual economic report, released in the midst of the Gulf disaster, found that an additional 4.1 million Americans had slipped into poverty between 2001 and 2004.

The breaking of the Bush spell opens the way for leaders of both parties to declare their independence from the recent past. It gives forces outside the White House the opportunity to shape a more appropriate national agenda -- for competence and innovation in rebuilding the Katrina region and for new approaches to the problems created over the past 4 1/2 years.

The federal budget, already a mess before Katrina, is now a laughable document. Those who call for yet more tax cuts risk sounding like robots droning automated talking points programmed inside them long ago. Katrina has forced the issue of deep poverty back onto the national agenda after a long absence. Finding a way forward in -- and eventually out of -- Iraq will require creativity from those not implicated in the administration's mistakes. And if ever the phrase "reinventing government" had relevance, it is now that we have observed the performance of a government that allows political hacks to push aside the professionals.

And what of Bush, who has more than three years left in his term? Paradoxically, his best hope lies in recognizing that the Bush Era, as he and we have known it, really is gone. He can decide to help us in the transition to what comes next. Or he can cling stubbornly to his past and thereby doom himself to frustrating irrelevance.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

[Deborah]

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/ne ... 629945.htm
 
Posted on Tue, Sep. 13, 2005

Bush says he may need more power in disasters  :scared:
 
He wants Congress to look into whether presidential authority should be expanded in times of catastrophes like Katrina
By STEWART M. POWELL
Hearst Newspapers

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday urged Congress to examine whether the White House needs stronger powers to deal with catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina.

Bush's backing for the congressional inquiry raised the possibility that lawmakers might expand
presidential authority to:

. Order mandatory civilian evacuations
. Dispatch U.S.-based armed forces for emergency
search-and-rescue operations
. Grant wider leeway for active-duty U.S. military
personnel to carry out law enforcement operations.

"It's really important that as we take a step back
and learn lessons - that we are in a position to
adequately answer the question: 'Are we prepared for major catastrophes?"' Bush said during a tour of hurricane damage in New Orleans.
>
He said if there was a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction, such as germ-warfare agents, "we've got to make sure we understand the lessons learned to be able to deal with catastrophe."
>
Asked whether the federal government needed broader authority to "come in earlier or even in advance of a storm that (is) threatening?" Bush replied: "I think that's one of the interesting issues that Congress needs to take a look at."
>
Bush's comments came as outside experts urged a
variety of changes they said could improve the
federal government's ability to respond to natural
disasters or terrorist attacks.
>
Richard A. Falkenrath, a former homeland security
adviser at the White House during Bush's first term, said officials "need to look very, very closely" at expanding presidential authority to override "a delayed and ineffective evacuation order at the state and local level" that he said had occurred before the hurricane.
>
"It's entirely possible we would need such authority in a biological weapons attack and the destruction of a chlorine tanker and nuclear weapons attack, where local and state capabilities would be instantaneously overwhelmed, and so it would be good to get this one sorted out," said Falkenrath, now a scholar at the Brookings Institution.
>
Michael O'Hanlon, a national security scholar at
Brookings, said the White House ought to create an
emergency response team within the armed forces that could be rushed to disasters "where every hour counts."
>
O'Hanlon said it had taken too long to get Navy and Air Force helicopters into the New Orleans area to assist early search-and-rescue operations by police and the U.S. Coast Guard.
>

[Antigen]

We watched ABC's wall-to-wall coverage last night. Part of that, of course, was Büsh's speech. You're right. His entire take seems to boil down to "just give us more power, since we're so damned good at handling things like this."

But the next segment, can't find the name right now, carried a much more sensible message; "You are your own first responder, be prepared w/ water, food and a plan." That's what the authorities in Florida used to instruct us to do. Now they only tell us to do whatever FEMA tells you, whether it makes sense or not. And, more often than not, it doesn't make any sense at all.

One does not have to appeal to God to set the initial conditions for the creation of the universe, but if one does He would have to act through the laws of physics.
--Stephen Hawking, English scientist

[Anonymous]

I find it so interesting that people are not more up in arms and just saying do your fxxking jobs.

Instead it is typical US blame game and, of course, let's change things, instead of let's do the things
we where supposed to do.

Sadly, the citizens will not stand up and Bush will
come out smelling like a rose.

Republicans know population control, Democrats know how to run the country, but they don't know how to get in charge.

Sad, but true!

[Antigen]

Here's Mayor Ray Nagin's perspective as originally broadcast (unbleeped) from on the ground.

http://fornits.com/sounds/nagin.mp3

I think if you hear the whole 10 min or so broadcast, you'll agree that the media machine is unfairly spinning what the man said.

The age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system.
--Thomas Paine, American revolutionary

[Deborah]

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs. ... 60369/1260
E-mail suggests government seeking to blame groups
By Jerry Mitchell
[email protected]

E-mail sent to various U.S. Attorney's offices:

SUBJECT: Have you had any cases involving the levees in New Orleans?

QUESTION: Has your district defended any cases on
behalf of the Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps' work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation.

District: __________
Contact: _________
Telephone: ________

Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.

The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."

Cynthia Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the Justice
Department, said Thursday she couldn't comment
"because it's an internal e-mail."

Shown a copy of the e-mail, David Bookbinder, senior attorney for Sierra Club, remarked, "Why are they (Bush administration officials) trying to smear us like this?"

The Sierra Club and other environmental groups had
nothing to do with the flooding that resulted from
Hurricane Katrina that killed hundreds, he  said. "It's unfortunate that the Bush administration is trying to shift the blame to environmental groups. It doesn't surprise me at all."

Federal officials say the e-mail was prompted by a
congressional inquiry but wouldn't comment further.

Whoever is behind the e-mail may have spotted the
Sept. 8 issue of National Review Online that chastised the Sierra Club and other environmental groups for suing to halt the corps' 1996 plan to raise and fortify 303 miles of Mississippi River levees in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

The corps settled the litigation in 1997,  agreeing to hold off on some work until an environmental impact could be completed. The National Review article concluded: "Whether this delay directly affected the levees that broke in New Orleans is difficult to ascertain."

The problem with that conclusion?

The levees that broke causing New Orleans to flood
weren't Mississippi River levees. They were levees
that protected the city from Lake Pontchartrain levees on the other side of the city.

When Katrina struck, the hurricane pushed tons of
water from the Gulf of Mexico into Lake Pontchartrain, which borders the city to the north. Corps officials say the water from the lake cleared the levees by 3 feet. It was those floodwaters, they say, that caused the levees to degrade until they ruptured, causing 80 percent of New Orleans to flood.

Bookbinder said the purpose of the litigation by the Sierra Club and others in 1996 was where the corps got the dirt for the project. "We had no objections to levees," he said. "We said, 'Just don't dig film materials out of the wetlands. Get the dirt from somewhere else.' "

If you listen to what some conservatives say about
environmentalists, he said, "We're responsible for
most of the world's ills."

In 1977, the corps wanted to build a 25-mile-long
barrier and gate system to protect New Orleans on the east side. Both environmental groups and fishermen opposed the project, saying it would choke off water into Lake Pontchartrain.

After litigation, corps officials abandoned the idea, deciding instead to build higher levees. "They came up with a cheaper alternative," Bookbinder said. "We didn't object to raising the levees."

John Hall, a spokesman for the corps in New Orleans, said the barrier the corps was proposing in the 1970s would only stand up to a weak Category 3 hurricane, not a Category 4 hurricane like Katrina. "How much that would have prevented anything, I'm not sure," he said.

Since 1999, corps officials have studied the concept of building huge floodgates to prevent flooding in New Orleans from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane.

Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2001 listed a hurricane striking New Orleans as one of the top three catastrophic events the nation could face (the others being a terrorist attack on New York City and an earthquake in San Francisco), funding for corps projects aimed at curbing flooding in southeast Louisiana lagged.

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has said the White
House cut $400 million from corps' requests for flood control money in the area.

In fiscal 2006, the corps had hoped to receive up to $10 million in funding for a six-year feasibility study on such floodgates. According to a recent estimate, the project would take 10 years to build and cost $2.5 billion.

"Our understanding is the locals would like to go to that," Hall said. "If I were local, I'd want it."

[Anonymous]

Today Pres. Bush asked if his visit to the hurricane zone would count toward the service time he still needs for the National Guard?

[Deborah]

Bush was asked his opinion on Roe vs. Wade.
 
He answered, "I don't care how those people got out of New Orleans, as long as they got out."

[Anonymous]

hahahaha

[Anonymous]

On 2005-09-16 18:15:00, Deborah wrote:

"Bush was asked his opinion on Roe vs. Wade.

 
He answered, "I don't care how those people got out of New Orleans, as long as they got out."

 "

Excellent! LOL

[Anonymous]

Bush Rules Out Tax Hike to Fund Recovery
Sep 16

By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON

President Bush on Friday ruled out raising taxes to pay for Gulf Coast reconstruction, saying other government spending must be cut. "You bet it will cost money, but I'm confident we can handle it," he said.

"It's going to cost whatever it's going to cost, and we're going to be wise about the money we spend," Bush said a day after laying out an expensive plan for rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast without spelling out how he would pay for it.

Bush spoke at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin hours after attending a prayer service in memory of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Addressing religious and political leaders at the National Cathedral, the president vowed to help rebuild the region with an eye toward wiping out the persistent poverty and racial injustice that exist there.

"As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality," Bush said at the cathedral. Polls suggest a majority of Americans believe the president should have responded quicker to Katrina. High percentages of blacks tell pollsters they believe race played a role in the slow response by all levels of government.

Opening the news conference at the White House Friday afternoon, Bush thanked Putin for sending supplies to the Katrina relief effort, saying the gesture would help "lift the spirits" of hurricane victims. The Russian said that Katrina provided "serious lessons" for Russia and other countries. Putin did not specifically mention the criticism of relief efforts in the Gulf Coast.

Also Friday, White House officials said taxpayers at home will pay the bill for the massive reconstruction program and that this will mean a deeper budget deficit.

Bush said it's important that government quickly fix the region's infrastructure to give people hope. Asked who would pay for the work and how it would impact the nation's rising debt, Bush said he was confident the United States could pay for reconstruction "and our other priorities."

He said that means "cutting unnecessary spending" and maintaining economic growth, "which means we should not raise taxes."

Bush also said he wants Congress to consider changing the law to allow the military to step in immediately if a catastrophic disaster occurs again. "It's important for us to learn from the storm what could have been done better," he said. Under fire, the White House has accused state and city officials of not authorizing federal involvement quickly enough, although critics say the administration didn't need approval to act.

In his address to the nation Thursday night from the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter, Bush said the recovery effort would be one of the largest reconstruction projects the world has ever seen and promised that the federal government would pay for most of it.

"There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again," he said.

The government failed to respond adequately, with agencies that lacked coordination and were overwhelmed by Katrina and the subsequent flooding of New Orleans, Bush said. Dogged by criticism that Washington's response to the hurricane was slow and inadequate, Bush said the nation has "every right to expect" more effective federal action in a time of emergency.

The hurricane killed hundreds of people across five states, forced major evacuations and caused untold property damage.

On Friday, Al Hubbard, chairman of Bush's National Economic Council, said the disaster costs _ estimated at $200 billion and beyond _ are "coming from the American taxpayer." He acknowledged the costs would swell the deficit _ projected at $333 billion for the current year before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast.

Some fiscal conservatives are expressing alarm at the prospect of such massive federal outlays without cutting other spending.

"It is inexcusable for the White House and Congress to not even make the effort to find at least some offsets to this new spending," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

Allen said the administration had not identified any budget cuts to offset the disaster expense. Congress already has approved $62 billion for the disaster, but that is expected to run out next month.

In the cathedral, several dozen evacuees and first responders, all from New Orleans, filled one side wing. The president and his wife, Laura, sat solemnly in a front pew along with Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne.

Before Bush's remarks, Bishop T.D. Jakes, head of 30,000-member Potter's House church in Dallas, delivered a powerful sermon in which he called upon Americans to "dare to discuss the unmentionable issues that confront us" and to not rest until the poor are raised to an acceptable living standard.

"Katrina, perhaps, she has done something to this nation that needed to be done," Jakes said. "We can no longer be a nation that overlooks the poor and the suffering, that continues past the ghetto on our way to the Mardi Gras."

Bush, faced with continuing questions about whether help would have been sent more quickly to the storm zone if most victims had not been poor and black, echoed those themes in brief remarks that were rich with religious references.

"Some of the greatest hardships fell upon citizens already facing lives of struggle, the elderly, the vulnerable and the poor," he said. "As we rebuild homes and businesses, we will renew our promise as a land of equality and decency and one day Americans will look back at the response to Hurricane Katrina and say that our country grew not only in prosperity but in character and justice."

Claude Allen, the president's domestic policy adviser, said two of the main storm relief proposals Bush made in his Thursday speech were aimed at addressing the region's poverty: the $5,000 grants for worker training, education and child care and an Urban Homesteading Act in which surplus federal property would be turned over to low-income citizens to build homes.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press