Like many of you, I’ve been sitting around waiting for someone else to interpret the 100,000 page snow-storm the launched by the office of Kathleen Babineaux Blanco late last week. Fortunately, our man in the field, completely rested from her behind-the-scenes work at the GodBlogCon was able to intercept an incoming email from Blanco’s man behind the curtain:
Received: from alpha.bubbabill.org (alpha.bubbabill.org [127.0.0.1])
by mail.bubbabill.org (8.8.5) id 004A21; Sun, Nov 04 2005 04:36:17 -0800 (PST)
From: Big Kahna <bigkahuna@bubbabill.org>
To: Kathleen Babineaux Blanco <lagov@linknet.net>
Date: Sun, Nov 04 2005 04:36:14 PST
Message-Id: <bigkahuna031897143614-00000298@mail.bubbabill.org>
X-Mailer: Agripak AG-26
Subject: Effective use of victim card – part deux
Way to go Babs!
Even if your latest ‘Blame Bush’ salvo doesn’t rehab your sagging poll numbers, I’ve mentioned to Hillary that it may be ‘diplomatic’ to have a French-speaking Creole team player ’ in 09, if you know what I mean.
I see you took my advice to launch an avalanche of white stuff on the eve of a weekend. Not only did it have the desired effect of keeping the pajama-bloggers and Limbaugh offline, but looks like the WaPo in hopes of beating the NYTimes to the punch just parroted your cover sheet. Cool beans!
That said, now you need to prep for the counter-punch. At some point, someone is going to read all 100,000 pages and realize that you only selected transmissions occurring after the hurricane hit. Let’s hope no one puts together stuff such as your request for your non-Nagin busses occurring after the streets were flooded.
The way to do this is to keep the focus on Bush. Even though it’s not his job to micromanage the details of individual state emergency planning, my eight years in office has trained the public well in thinking the Potus as their ‘Sugar Daddy.’
But enough about me, here are the type of things those knuckle-dragging red-staters might bring up, and here is how you respond:
When they mention mismanagement of the levee funds, ignore indiscretions such as diverting 2.5 million to various Mardi Gras concerns, instead, focus on Bush’s cuts to the Lake Pontchartrain project. Link it all to Iraq if you can … just hope no one realizes that this project, though 90% done since 1965, wasn’t slated for completion until 2010 … and of that, most for a Cat 3 hurricane … But I digress …
BTW, get back to me next week if I don’t offer you some spin for the millions donated – and the millions more in pork headed your way.
Speaking of gimmee, gimmee, gimmee – if and when someone understands your request “to send us everything you’ve got†as a request for Federal resources without Federal oversight, just make an emotional appeal like “while they’re lawyers were busy playing with posse comitatus as a means of making GW look like the hero, we were hard at work emailing requests …†Hopefully the mention of lawyers and legal gibberish will enrage the public and get them to ignore the fact that you could have picked-up the phone anytime – provided GW hadn’t called first.
If blaming GW doesn’t get it done, or if people demand pre-hurricane documents, I suggest placing the blame on that republican-loving ninny Nagin. This tactic is especially important if and when people make the argument that Louisiana was already broken.
For example, if some blogger mentions that LA was 2nd worst in crime, blame it on the murder rate in New Orleans. For good measure, go ahead and throw in the New Orlean’s residency requirement for police officers – the public is usually too dumb to realize the impact of trying to obtain officers from the most crime-ridden neighborhoods.
Likewise, if someone mentions that the LA economy was 2nd to last in GDP, blame the loss of 22,000 residents since 2000 – blame it on Katrina. Seriously! I mean who other than wonks care about growth rates? Even if they do, just deflect their attention to the New Orleans unemployment rate and that meme about people waiting for their welfare checks.
I know it sounds like a lot of blame-shifting, but take it from someone who’s been there and done that, the only way you’re going to shake that the Nation’s worst governors label is to pass the buck, pass the buck, pass the buck.
Oh, while it’s on my mind, make sure you get your employees chargeable hours in order – Hillary can give you more details on how all this works.
One other thing to avoid, next time you do that inauguration thing? Avoid the French speaking thing, at least until we can figure out what to do with the Kerry problem.
xx00
Bubba 1
p.s. – when you get a chance, could you drop in a kind word about me to Mary Landrieu? There’s something so Monica about her that I find irresistible!
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Well done! Good piece of writing with lots of excellent links (and quite funny to boot).
CLASSIC!!!
Hmm, let’s see..Governor Blanco took office in what year? She was elected on November 15, 2003, and took the oath of office on January 11, 2004.
How on earth is she responsible for the generational problems of state of Louisiana?
Use your heads, right wingers.
Blanco made all the official and unofficial requests for federal aid possible. There is an ASTOUNDING paper trail as proof. There are far too many people who can actually READ THINGS FOR THEMSELVES in 2005, and not simply have Fox News or right winged hate radio spin it for them to let y’all get away with swift-boating Blanco.
Bush Response
–Cobra
Yes Cobra, everyone knows that Louisiana was a Repbulican bastion since when … hmmmm … Reconstruction?
I mean speaking of using your head – so we’re supposed to give a four year governer what, one year for a mulligan?
Let’s face it, in Louisiana, everything that should be up is down, and everything that should be down, is up.
As for swiftboating – no need – Blanco has proved your thousand points of documents and has made it crystal clear, her administration was more concerned with public image than public service.
The records also show – she was late – very late in her requests (e.g. busses for flooded streets). It’s called being proactive.
And the blame game continues….
I have to say I’m disappointed.
Does it bother anyone here on a “conservative christian” blog that maybe thousands of lost people died during Katrina?
Bush talks about rebuilding New Orleans the way it once was, Ray Nagin brings in gambling to boost the economy. Mardi Gras is trying to regroup for next year. These are all wrong!
Nope, everyone here is bashing democrats and republicans on the response to Katrina, which makes not one iota of difference in eternity.
LukeNC, I love it! The entire weight of eternity is aimed at a mere blogger for pointing out that Ms.Blanco, who is in a well-funded, well-staffed and politically potent position of authority, is expending resources on fire control versus the people to whom she’s sworn to serve …
… as for this ‘conservative Christian’s iota of real response’ … I’d tell ya but I want my rewards in eternity. And I’m not talking about the multiple charity postings over at blogs4God.
I’m curious why she has chosen now to come out with this “papertrail”. Wouldn’t it have been much better (for Democrats in general) to have bludgeoned Bush over the head with this stuff the week or so following Katrina? Interesting that she would wait so long to spring this stuff when it could have been better used when Bush was on his heels over this.
Ray writes:
>>>”Wouldn’t it have been much better (for Democrats in general) to have bludgeoned Bush over the head with this stuff the week or so following Katrina? Interesting that she would wait so long to spring this stuff when it could have been better used when Bush was on his heels over this.”
Maybe because people were still in desperate need of assistance a week after landfall?
Oh, I guess right wingers are too busy trying to pin a four state disaster on ONE black mayor and ONE female governor.
–Cobra
Ding, Ding, Ding!
Two points for Cobra for playing the minority card TWICE!
Hmmm … wonder how many I’d get for playing the insufficient contingency planning at the city and state level, reactive v. proactive card? Any bonus if I played the ‘States rights’ v. ‘creeping Federalism’ gambit?
Hmmm …
MEAN DEAN!
Don’t you just love it! A female Gov and a black mayor – both minorities. Picture President Bush assuming these two don’t know what they are doing and sending in troops. The left-wing moonbats then call Bush a rascist and anti-feminist for not giving them the chance to show their ‘courage under fire’ a la Guiliani!
Give me a break! Then they play their trump card about how they are the victim in all this behind a blizzard of cherrypicked e-mails sent after the fact. The key word in all this is “PROACTIVE” which they were not.
Mardi Gras (beads, boobs, gambling) in an arena beneath sea-level and in hurricane alley sealed their fate!
The Louisiana Kingfish lives on and is undoubtedly laughing from the grave!
The Government investigation cannot change the facts about Katrine.
The photo of the flooded buses say it all – no cries for FEMA buses can make up for this mess.
For Cobra, YES – many Black people were “left behind” – they left themselves behind.
In contrast , many more Black and Mexican and Cajun and Asian people got out early. They didn’t wait to be “left behind”.
Yes – there is a “paper trail” and a film trail (photos of flooded buses) and there just is no way Blanco and Nagin can be made to “look good” when all the facts are in place.
And in FL and AL and MS many fewer people were “left behind”. Could it be that there is something “different” about people in New Orleans?
The same Hurricaine hit these people, with different results.
MS and AL got hit by Katrina. MS more so, but AL got it, too. Both of them had remarkable recovery, evacuation, and overall preparedness and responsiveness.
TX prepared for and responded to Rita very well, too. As did FL with Wilma, which did more monetary damage than did Katrina…yet was far less newsworthy.
MS, AL, TX, and FL all had one thing in common that LA (and N.O.) did not have…Republican governors!
Seriously, though, this goes farther than political parties. It comes down to mindset, and the mindset that didn’t exist in LA (that DID exist in the other states) was that a local and state response clearly and obviously (to anyone with a brain) is more important than the imperial federal government’s response.
You can make a black or female issue out of it if you want. Whatever gets you through the night, I suppose. However, it’s irrefutable that the state and local response was grossly (and fatally) negligent in LA and was not in the other aforementioned states.
Cobra,
I spent a week volunteering at the Astrodome. The evacuees KNEW who was responsible for this fiasco much better than… you. They lived through it, unlike you who probably spent that time sitting at Starbucks making snarky comments while not lifting a finger to help.
Guess what, Cobra?
There was a reason you NEVER saw Nagin or Blanco go visit their citizens at the Astrodome. Want me to tell you the reason? Because those evacuees would have KILLED them ON THE SPOT and there would have been no way for HPD/Harris County Sherrifs/Texas DPS/Rangers to prevent it. You did not hear what they had to say about Nagin, Blanco and Landrieu’s (Sen. Mary, her brother the Lt. Gov. and her aunt on the Orleans Parish School Board) in any “news report” because it was not what the MSM wanted to hear. Why? Because these people were not “bashing Bush”. Remember when ABC interviewed evacuees live at the Astrodome after Pres. Bush’s speech and they cut it short because those evacuees were not bashing Bush but Blanco and Nagin? ABC can’t edit live content so they just cut them off because it was not consistent with the “spin”. I am sure you don’t.
So, Cobra…
I don’t care what the blizzard of whitewashing papers from Blanco’s and Nagin’s offices say. The people who were there and lived through it know who is to blame.
I’m not surprised that many in here choose to see non-white male boogeymen at the heart of all the world’s problems. After all, the very core of American conservative ideology is the perpetuation of such themes.
Too bad that in 2005, as I said before, people can see the results of such principles before their own eyes, and those who embrace it are either in denial or conspiratorial accomplices to homogenized monoculturalism.
–Cobra
It is goods to see everyone one here has read all the documents the Gov Blanco released. Funny thing is she released all her documents, sadly we can not say the same for our Federal Government. On a simpler note for future reference do we really expect local and state officials to handle catastrophic events alone? Our government at every level failed period. Just keep pointing fingers until the next emergency hits us and see if anything changes. Oops wrong place to asking to anyone to hold every public servant accountable not just the ones you do not like.
PS
Jonathan, Ask the folks in Texas who ran out of fuel or sat on the highway for 24 hours were they pleased with that evacuation plan.
Cobra “I’m not surprised that many in here choose to see non-white male boogeymen at the heart of all the world’s problems.” — trolling and race-baiting is not really the best marketing model to pimp mediocre political cartoons.
Clayton “It is goods to see everyone one here has read all the documents the Gov Blanco released. Funny thing is she released all her documents, sadly we can not say the same for our Federal Government. ” — Funny, I thought access to Blanco’s documents were password protected and released only to select press outlets.
P.S. ask folks in Texas how many of the cars creating the traffic jam were incoming from Louisiana.
Non-white male bogeymen?
Can’t we just be black men or white men or Indians or whatever? This reminds me of the gaffe that had someone describing Tuvok as the first “African-American” Vulcan. (Think about this for a second…”
I’m thinking racial euphemisms and bigotry in general are very last-century, and lately, the only people I see accusing others of racism are the bigots like Sharpton or Coreen Brown and the like.
Ignorance is color-blind and gender neutral. Please, please, consider that Blanco and Nagin are ineffective people who just HAPPEN to be black or female. Maybe that makes me an idiot – but if I am, would it matter if I’m a white idiot or a black idiot or a female idiot? I would still be an idiot, right? Do you see? Are you capable of seeing?
So, Mean Dean you have made no effort to find the documentation yourself on the internet? You have let others read thru it for you and post various portions? But the greater issue is when local and state officials are overwhelmed it is all on them. Did you also know New Orleans flooding by Hurricane was the third biggest threat to our nation. It is good to see only the local and state folks were asleep at the switch. Just yesterday the 9/11 folks said the Feds have done little to fix gapping holes in our emergency preparedness.
Cobra et al:
This IS an issue of color and gender.
An issue of “equality” for people of color and genders.
In a truly free society, people of all genders and colors are allowed to SUCCEED without being obstructed.
But this same freedom also allowe people to FAIL without being obstructed.
Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco were “EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FAILURES”.
“Brownie your doing a Hellava job” Call all the failures out, not just the ones you do not like.
Clayton (Bigsby … like that’s your real name, ahem) …
“So, Mean Dean you have made no effort to find the documentation yourself on the internet?”
I guess you didn’t read the above document and how it was framed/introduced (and how it was hyperlinked) too carefully did you?
Gosh, talk about knee-jerks not ‘getting it’
“It is good to see only the local and state folks were asleep at the switch. ”
Wow, I had heard that liberals are rejoicing in the Nation’s failures as a levering point to win in ‘08, but to be so obvious?
Look ace, for my day job I live, eat, breathe contigencies (did you even bother to visit my links usace.army.mil?) You need only read my published technical articles regarding the hazards for those who plan to fail.
Unfortunately, you seem more bent on blaming Bush for not doing their planning for them rather than getting state and local governments to step up to the plate regarding both hurricanes AND home-defense. Especially if I’m the mayor or governer for a large, southern coastal city – or is it only their job to divert levee funds to insure the trains are running ontime for Mardi Gras?
Guess Bubba was right about his ’sugar daddy’ status after all.
>>> “Maybe because people were still in desperate need of assistance a week after landfall?
Oh, I guess right wingers are too busy trying to pin a four state disaster on ONE black mayor and ONE female governor.
–Cobra ”
Interesting tact but I’ll play. I remember Blanco (as well as every other Democrat on the face of the Earth) trying to point the finger of Blame at Bush every chance they got in the following weeks. Funny that she had plenty of time to Blame Bush (and presumbably help “people still in desperate need of assistance”) but yet she couldn’t have a staffer take 5 minutes to compile the emails to back up her story.
Thanks for the link to my post. By the way Cobra, LA was not hit the hardest, but it somehow mantained the highest death rate. This was a State issue, not a Federal one. Now, I don’t blame it on the fact the people in charge were minorities or Democrats, but on the fact that they did fail, and that corruption is evident in that state.
In no way am I trying to blame solely Bush. It is simple, what we watched during Katrina was a massive failure of Government at every level. They say things roll down hill, I just hope people do not let accountability do the same. But, anyone who does not want to place the proper blame on the proper people for the things they are responsible for just is blind. The failures during Katrina has nothing to do with politics. At the end of the day the people who are suppose to plan and handle disasters will have to ask themselves “Did I do my job to the best of my ability”. So, put your pom-poms away and ask yourself if my city has a disaster has anything been learned from Katrina. In short quite preaching personal responsibility and demand it from your public officials no matter what political party they belong to.
Clayton Bigsby (btw, say hellow to Chappelle for me) “Did I do my job to the best of my abilityâ€
Point is they didn’t. As a result, the put an undue burden on the citizens (which btw, was actually part of the published N.O. contigency plan) and maked the Fed’s job almost impossible because the people responsible for protecting their constituents did not create, NOR REHEARSE, an effective hurricane disaster plan despite their obvious geography.
Had Nagin and Blanco been more proactive, things would have been uncomfortable, as they were in other states, but at least manageable.
So who provides guidelines and funding on how local and state government should handle disasters? So even after 9/11 we have spent billions of federal tax dollars and we still failed to perform basic tasks in a disaster. But, as you claim it is all Nagin and Blanco fault. In short what you are saying is during a natural disaster it is all on the local and state governments.
In the business world when you have a DR plan that fails due to inept people and processes. Those people all the way up to the CEO are fired. All the way up to the CEO, it rolls up hill when it is not our tax dollars. It is good to see you are proud of your federal government in disaster planning and execution.
Clayton – you seem to build your last argument on the assumption that the Fed had only to respond and aid the New Orleans victims of Katrina rather than a 90,000 square mile area half-way into one of the busiest hurricane seasons in recent meteorological history. Make that about 500 square miles if you count the entire land mass of all the affected gulf states.
Such myopia that often compells a CEO reasonably and correctly fire the managers one or two levels below in favor of others capable of understanding the need for the effective delegation of responsibility and authority and how it plays into a healthier bigger picture.
You also seem to throw into it an implication that Bush should have somehow been involved in Nagin’s and Blanco’s disaster planning process.
Such micromanagement indicates that the delegation of authority and responsibility is either unwarranted, the energies of the chief executive misapplied, and/or the managers one or two levels below are incompetent.
Both scenarios indicate upper-level managers who are not team players and who likely do not understand their core responsibilities.
I am a resident of Southwest Louisiana. I want to go on record that each and every blast of our state leadership and the local leadership in New Orleans is right on target. But for my own benefit and the benefit of my neighbors as well, I would like to make one observation — New Orleans is not the entire state.
My area was the hardest hit by Rita — remember that one? It’s the one that came three weeks after Katrina and was actually a more powerful storm than Katrina when it hit.
But you don’t hear too much about that storm or the devastation that it left behind in my part of the state. Why? Because we aren’t a bunch of whiners over here and we don’t expect the Federal Government to come over here and wipe our posteriors. We are simply rebuilding and sharing what we have with our next door neighbors until we can all get back on our feet.
So when you discuss the ineptitude that is so apparent from the Katrina mess, try to limit the focus where it belongs — New Orleans and surrounding areas and the boob in our Governor’s Mansion.
I also cannot agree with Clayton’s CEO analogy. The President isn’t the CEO of a disaster preparedness operation. Trite as it might seem, it bears remembering that we are a federation and states rights are preeminent. The only “control” the Feds have over the emergency preparedness of any particular state or locality is the extent to which it gives dollars to the state or locality to develop those plans. Remember the document that apparently Ray Nagin never realized he was really supposed to know and understand? The one that detailed what they were supposed to use when a hurricane had NOLA in its cross hairs? The one that he and his Office of Emergency Preparedness apparently used as a doorstop? They wrote that thing not because they ever thought they would have to use it, but because that’s what it took to get Federal money. It never occurred to those boneheads that the thing really was supposed to be a plan and a workable one at that.
As this drama unfolded in September — and as I am certain it will continue to unfold in the release of documents by the local, state, and federal entities involved — it will become increasingly apparent that between Nagin and Blanco they had no earthly clue what to do. I remember seeing early on criticisms being leveled at the Feds by our governor, something to the effect of “we need help and all they want to do is talk organizational charts.” She still doesn’t understand, apparently, the need to approach these disasters methodically and perceives attempts to organize and be clear on areas of authority as bureaucratic ridiculousness.
I do think that the President came off as being clueless of what to do or how to handle this. I do not, however, believe his confusion to be the result of incompetence. I think what we saw was him scratching his head in disbelief at the incompetence that he was encountering. Every photo op I saw with him and Blanco and Nagin made me think the president was doing everything he could to not b*#ch slap these idiots and scream “what the *#%^ are you thinking — or are you thinking at all????”
The Feds and FEMA can’t win this argument and they won’t be able to win the next one either. They have no authority to simply jump into the middle of a disaster and take over but get blamed for not doing it. It takes time to assess a situation to effectively manage what relief needs to go where to get the biggest bang for the Federal relief buck, but if the money isn’t there yesterday people scream. So when they attempt to make quick decisions to address a situation quickly (such as chartering two cruise ships to provide housing) and it turns out the decision wasn’t a good one, then they’re beat up for being stupid.
Maybe we should go back to having states and localities take care of themselves and quit expecting the Feds to do anything. Having said that, though, I would prefer that New Orleans secede from the state and Blanco be its governor so that those of us from Louisiana who have sense can continue to live here.
Mean Dean please read FEMA’s mission statement. So, how is oversight, guidance and instruction equal to micromanagement? To me that would seem to promote organization for a proper support system. Also, it is the President’s responsibility to appoint qualified people to run these departments to put policy’s and processes in place. Once again the entire response for the Gulf region was a failure of our ENTIRE government disaster response system. After 9/11 you are happy with the cronies that were appointed to DHS?
Clayton – I did read it. They are to assist. Bit it’s like a burning house, the fire department is going to have a heck of a time helping if you’ve parked your van in front of the hydrant and have stored flammables in the basement.
MOREOVER, what you’re suggesting that FEMA has superceding authority of State and Local agencies with regards to their disaster planning and implementation.
I realize that Federalism v. State Rights was resolved some 1409 years ago, but I didn’t think said powers were so entirely encompassing.
You also continue the ignore the impact the State and Local management had on other agencies and authorities to help … just as the Red Cross.
Now I’m sure you have some final word – and you’ll dig up or blame shift in some other way – but bottom line is, Katrina should be a wake-up call to people at the local level should no more put all their eggs into the Federal basket than individual citizens should put the entirety of their retirment funding in the care of the Social Security Administration.
But you are correct the DHS has no role in disaster support even when a state of emergency is called. FEMA should just give billions of our tax dollars away and provide no oversite or provide no recommendation on how to properly prepare for disasters.
Clayton, what planet are you on? FEMA is held accountable by the GAO, the Dept. of Homeland security and is subject to funding inspection each year by Congress.
Mean Dean writes:
>>>”MOREOVER, what you’re suggesting that FEMA has superceding authority of State and Local agencies with regards to their disaster planning and implementation.
I realize that Federalism v. State Rights was resolved some 1409 years ago, but I didn’t think said powers were so entirely encompassing.
You also continue the ignore the impact the State and Local management had on other agencies and authorities to help … just as the Red Cross.
Now I’m sure you have some final word – and you’ll dig up or blame shift in some other way – but bottom line is, Katrina should be a wake-up call to people at the local level should no more put all their eggs into the Federal basket than individual citizens should put the entirety of their retirment funding in the care of the Social Security Administration.”
Like I said before Dean, it’s 2005. With the internet people can READ FOR THEMSELVES what occured, and make their own determinations.
If you believe that local citizens in the HUNDREDS of towns up and down the Gulf Coast should fend for themselves as far as natural disasters, pandemics, or terrorist attacks are concerned (the area of FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT), then what is the point of having a “nation” in the first place? If you think that the people of New Orleans are the ONLY people who have a problem with the way BUSH’s Federal response was to this disaster, you’re either seriously ill-read, or just CHERRY-PICKING data that will support your argument (a common conservative trait lately.)
>>>”The U.S. Congress must send more money to Mississippi to kick-start efforts to rebuild the region devastated by Hurricane Katrina, Governor Haley Barbour told a congressional committee.
“We are at a point where our recovery and renewal efforts are stalled because of inaction in Washington, D.C.,” he told a panel investigating the botched government response to the storm, which hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. “It is taking the starch out of people who’ve worked so hard to help themselves and their neighbors…
…”“We have to have assistance from the federal government,” Barbour said. “That important federal responsibility in the response to Katrina is needed terribly and it’s needed now.”
Mississippi emergency officials testified about the need to better coordinate the distribution of ice and food to survivors and improve communications among state, local and federal workers responding to the storm.
Others appearing before the committee include Brian Amy, a state health officer, William Carwile, a former coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency; Robert Latham, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency; Tommy Longo, mayor of Waveland, Mississippi; Gulfport Mississippi Mayor Brent Warr; Benjamin Spraggins, director of the Harrison Emergency Management Agency; and Bobby Strahan, director of the Pearl River County Emergency Management Agency.”
White Male Republican Governor Begs for Federal Help
And look down that list, Dean. You’ll find a whole mess of OTHER white male Republicans who joined Barbour, one of the pro-white Council of Conservative Citizens favorite politicians.
Need more, Dean?
How about the President’s brother?
>>>”Three days after Hurricane Wilma stomped through the region, essential supplies remained scarce Wednesday, government officials apologized for the slow response, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency offered financial relief to individuals…
…”Government officials reminded the public that disaster plans recommended that people stockpile enough food and water for at least three days.
“People had ample time to prepare, and it isn’t that hard to get 72 hours worth of food and water, to do the simple things we ask people to do,” Gov. Jeb Bush said. The governor bristled in response to criticism of FEMA.
“If anyone wants to blame anybody, blame me,” he said. “I’m not going to criticize anybody and I’m not going to let anybody criticize FEMA for something we accept responsibility for.”
Bush acknowledged that early relief efforts could have been more efficient. “This is a chaotic process. We did not perform where we want to be.”
White Male Republican Governor takes one for Dubya, blames citizens, but takes Federal Help anyway
If you want to, Dean, we can walk down the 9/11 funding corruption in New York, a city and state run by more white male republicans.
Bring it on, my friend.
–Cobra
Cobra,
No amount of obfuscation and blustering on your part – nor calling me out like some high-school bully – changes the fact that the primary cause of the post-Katrina problems in New Orleans was mismanagement at the state and local level.
(did he really write bring-it-on? ooooo, I tremble)
Mean Dean,
Again, you run away fraidy-scared from the FACTS and QUOTES of White Male Republican Governor of MS. Haley Barbour and White Male Republican Governor of Florida Jeb Bush.
I can only assume that you have no defense for these White Male Republicans, and will simply parrot the same “blame it all on da’ wimmen and da’ coloreds” strategy that right winged hate radio and Fox News relies upon.
It’s a feckless, shameless tactic without any merit whatsoever.
Checkmate, Dean.
–Cobra
Planet earth I say. This is what you actually wrote in reference to FEMA giving local and state governments funds “FEMA is held accountable by the GAO, the Dept. of Homeland security and is subject to funding inspection each year by Congress.” You have missed the entire point. So the DHS just gives out funds to local and state governments and could care less how it is spent. I for one would like the DHS to enforce that money is spent for the programs they are given the funds for. Your tax dollars hard at work.
It’s more than annoying when I continously see how easy it is for people like “Cobra” to blame Whites for their own lack of preparation.
Indeed, Jeb Bush was right. YOU have to take care of yourself. Waiting for Mommy and Daddy to hold your hand and lead you out of the house is for children.
In Cobra’s world, we brown people need protecting from the big bad Whites. Give it a break…
Ooooh Cobra, Clayton … you know what, you guys are right … especially now that I’ve been checkmated!
I’ve changed my mind! The facts are in, and despite of a lack of a paper-trail and the ability of people to demand accountability through the votes … the real problem here is that Jeb _IS_ in cahoots with George – and both to control the minds of WMR’s like myself!
And worse, they’re using misspent FEMA funds, I now realize both have done conspired to make make sure I’m always putting you down! I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize this until your last posts! How could I have been so blind?!
Guys, seriously I lament, repent and have seen the light. Could you please spare me some of the tin foil from your caps … I promise I’ll use it properly.
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