The “Blame Game”

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

The Bush administration has embraced a term that truly sets my teeth on edge: The Blame Game.

Yet again, the administration trivializes that which it wants to draw attention from or diminish, finding new and innovative ways to dodge questions and avoid responsibility.

I have no clear idea yet, for certain, if lapses in administrative judgment can be blamed for everything from siphoning money away from shoring up the levies in order to support the war and Bush’s tax cuts, to slow response to the emergency. But these are questions that must be asked. Clearly, the Bush administration embraces this notion with the same enthusiasm and thirst for truth that it did the 9/11 panel. Instead it endeavors to sprint along the obvious “high road”: The Bush administration will not play “the blame game” when people need to be helped.

You know what? The government is large enough to multitask. There’s no reason it can’t help people AND investigate. Not play “the blame game.” It’s not a game, Mr. Bush. Perhaps much of your life has been thus far. Play with toys such as corporations, governments and armies, run them into the ground, and then wait for others to clean up your mess. But it’s not. A game. It never has been, and that’s something that this administration has yet to comprehend.

One thing guaranteed, though: They’ll try to find a way to blame it on Clinton. But Clinton shouldn’t take it personally. It’s all part of the game.

UPDATED 10:45 AM. Maggie Thompson sent me the following link: http://www.thisisnotover.com/archives/2005/09/heres_what_gets.html This is one of those “I wish I’d said that” entries.

PAD

448 comments on “The “Blame Game””

  1. Just to show that both heroism and almost criminal stupidity are not limited to military and government officials:

    http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_09.html#078275

    Doomed nursing home had offer of bus transport
    Coroner says owner snubbed help until it was too late

    By Paul Rioux
    Staff Writer

    Less than 24 hours before Hurricane Katrina began ravaging St. Bernard Parish with 140 mph winds and a 20-foot storm surge, Coroner Bryan Bertucci made an urgent call to the owner of St. Rita’s Nursing Home near Poydras.

    “I told her I had two buses and two drivers who could evacuate all 70 of her residents and take them anywhere she wanted to go,” he said.

    But Mabel Mangano refused the offer. “She told me, ‘I have five nurses and a generator, and we’re going to stay here,'” Bertucci said.

    It turned out to be a tragic decision.

    On Wednesday, nine days after the storm had passed, Bertucci watched as a dozen workers from a federal agency that specializes in handling mass casualties began the gruesome task of removing about 30 decomposing bodies from the still-flooded nursing home.

    I couldn’t believe it when I heard about the dead bodies at the nursing home, that nobody thought to get those people out. Now it turns out that somebody did. For all the good it did.

  2. And the big picture is this: This was the first test of the government responding to a major emergency in four years, and it was bungled up on side and down the other.

    Has everyone forgotten the three major hurricanes that hit Florida last year? Plenty of damage across the state. No one seemed to think that FEMA director or the state governments were incompetent then. However, this was not a major event, but a catastrophic one. That fact has to be considered when assessing response.

    Nagin was just on MTP saying that the basic assumption for hurricane relief is that it would take 2-3 days before the cavalry would come in (hmm, echoes of Tom Ridge again). Given the magnitude of the event, is four days totally unreasonable?

    I’m not saying this was a success, there has been plenty of bungling. However, I don’t think categorizing it as failure is accurate either.

  3. Just out of curiosity, how is a Demo-crate different from a normal Crate? Do Demo-crates lord it over all the other storage containers and packing boxes, or just the ones that can’t spell very well?

  4. No, demo crates are the crates they have in the aisles at Crates “R” Us. Sometimes they sell them at a cheaper price than the boxed crates.

  5. Has everyone forgotten the three major hurricanes that hit Florida last year? Plenty of damage across the state. No one seemed to think that FEMA director or the state governments were incompetent then. However, this was not a major event, but a catastrophic one. That fact has to be considered when assessing response.

    Nagin was just on MTP saying that the basic assumption for hurricane relief is that it would take 2-3 days before the cavalry would come in (hmm, echoes of Tom Ridge again). Given the magnitude of the event, is four days totally unreasonable?

    Well, it depends on what. There’s nothing to excuse the dithering of Blanco and Nagin’s panicking. And there’s nothing to excuse the power games before the hurricane hit. And there’s nothing to excuse the red tape on the FEMA level to slow response (which some people were reporting occurred in Florida as well). And there’s nothing to excuse the lack of planning and lack of disaster plans [mostly state and local, but apparently the evaluation and upgrade of those plans may have gotten lost at the FEMA bureaucracy….].

    On the other hand, there may have been a chokepoint in getting resources in at the New Orleans airport and getting heavy equipment in may have been harder due to the magnitude of the event. There may be others that were unavoidable, but it looks like a lot of it was certainly avoidable…

  6. PAD,

    I read your post with profound disappointment. I thought you were better than this. You complain that the Bush administration is playing the blame game, but the reality is that ALL segments of government, local, state and federal are doing so. You say his admnistration was slow to react and say absolutely nothing about the FACT that short of breaking federal laws or invoking an insurrection act (that would not appply in this situation), the federal government is very limited in what they can do.

    I am not defending the many failures of FEMA or the rest of the Bush administration. Hard questions need to be answered. But it absolutely absurd to throw stones at Bush as if he was the only one involved. The reality is, the federal government is THIRD in line, not FIRST, in handling these situations. It was the utter incomepetence of the city and state that led to this disaster. Even if Bush and/or FEMA did everything right, it would have been a debacle of the highest degree because of what the failure of the local and state officials.

    Here is a link to but one of many newstories (not administration press releases) that clearly states the failures on the local and state level:

    http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/content/state/epaper/2005/09/10/m1a_response_0910.html#

    By the way, I am very plugged into so called “right wing” talk radio, etc. There has been very little blaming of Clinton by Republicans. I have heard far more criticism of Bush than Clinton. And even more criticism of the mayor and governor of New Orleans and Louisiana.

    Please name for me the specific “blaming” that Bush administration has engaged in? In just listening to the news on tv and radio and reading the paper, the overwhelming majority of criticism and blame has been by Democrats and local and state officials blaming Bush.

    It is you, not the Bush administration, who are actively engaging in the blame game. And that is very disappointing. Your additional post shows a true ignorance of how our government works. Bush, by law, cannot send in the troops until the governor of the state authorizes it. The governor delayed doing so. To say Bush did not care is to read into his motives without even looking at why the mayor failed to use every resource available to get the people out of the city and how the governor refused to allow in the people who could immediately help the situation. The War in Iraq did not cause the most crucial delay in response. Incompetency in the state and city governments caused the delay.

    I do believe Bush and FEMA could have done more. But the truth is they could have done everything perfectly and things would still be a mess. The mayor and governor are in charge in a local situation such as this. THEY should have been the ones doing more, not just Bush.

    Iowa Jim

  7. In the midst of all this, one things has been true and is only now getting coverage in the media. Other than the Red Cross, it was local churches and Christian charities that have been the most involved in helping with this crisis. For those of you who complain about Christians and say we don’t actually show the love of Christ, here is a clear example where that has happened in a very personal and immediate way. (There are many other organizations who have been involved, and this is not to diminish their contribution. It is simply to point out that local churches and Christian charities were at the leading edge of getting involved, as they should have done.)

    Here is one link that tells just one piece of this story:

    http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/136/52.0.html

    Iowa Jim

  8. “By the way, I am very plugged into so called “right wing” talk radio, etc. There has been very little blaming of Clinton by Republicans. I have heard far more criticism of Bush than Clinton. And even more criticism of the mayor and governor of New Orleans and Louisiana.”

    That’s only because they literally CAN’T blame Clinton. If they could, they would. But Bush is the one that authorized FEMA to act pro-actively, and Bush is the one in charge of the DHS, the new agency which Clinton wasn’t a part of. To blame Clinton would be to blame him for something he literally couldn’t have messed up because the problems didn’t exist prior to Bush’s administration.

    So what is their new strategy? To lie and place ALL the blame on state and local officials. The New York Times just did a piece on how Karl Rove was responding to this crisis (Karl Rove being on the ball more than FEMA is a perfect example of what is wrong with this administration BTW) His answer: Place all the blame and state and local officials by propogating the false idea that FEMA isn’t allowed to do anything until state and local officials let them, and then refuse to answer any questions about past mistakes while focusing on the future. That’s why the administration keeps saying blame game. It keeps them from talking about the past. “You want to talk about mistakes that have been made? That’s the blame game…”

    Your points about talk radio only confirm its going well.

  9. >>Has everyone forgotten the three major hurricanes that hit Florida last year? Plenty of damage across the state. No one seemed to think that FEMA director or the state governments were incompetent then, Given the magnitude of the event, is four days totally unreasonable?

    Yes, it is unreasonable. I live in central Florida in an area that was directly affected by 3/4ths of those Hurricanes last year. FEMA was here within 24 hours for Charlie, and within a day for the remaining storms (No 3 to 4 days B.S. like what happened with Katrina). Everyone here now knows why we got help here so fast. The Presidents Brother runs the state, the storms came 2 months before election day, and this was a swing state.

    Also, this is Florida, we see Hurricanes hit here more than anywhere else here in the country. We also have Emergency Teams and officials who are exsperienced in dealing with storms every year.

    I can tell you this, if FEMA’s responce last year had been anywhere like what just happened in Missisippi and NOLA, Bush would not have won the Election. And that is why you cannot compare Florida with what happened to the victoms of Katrina.

  10. I read your post with profound disappointment.

    Sorry, Jim, but my mind reads that and immediately jumps in one of two directions:

    “Get used to disappointment.” “Okay” — from The Princess Bride

    or

    “Ðìçk, I’m VERY disappointed.” — Robocop

    We now return you to your regularly scheduled bloodbath.

    P.S. I don’t know that anyone here “complains about Christians” as a monolithic group. Me, I complain about Christians who talk a good game but refuse to actually engage in any action that’s good for their community: unfortunately, this includes many of the Christian community’s so-called leaders. Your post here does a good job of reminding everyone that those folks are, however powerful, generally the exception and not the rule.

    TWL

  11. Anybody have a subscription to TIME magazine? I’d like to see the context for this paragraph about Gov. Blanco quoted by several bloggers:

    The day the storm hit, she asked President Bush for “everything you’ve got.” But almost nothing arrived, and she couldn’t wait any longer. So she called the White House and demanded to speak to the President. George Bush could not be located, two Louisiana officials told Time, so she asked for chief of staff Andrew Card, who was also unavailable. Finally, after being passed to another office or two, she left a message with DHS adviser Frances Frago Townsend. She waited hours but had to make another call herself before she finally got Bush on the line. “Help is on the way,” he told her.

    Yeesh. I REALLY hope that this isn’t true….that the White House is more organized than this…or that the response plan was better conceived than this….

  12. I can’t find anything with those direct quotes but it may be a new enough story that it has not hit the web yet (so how did the bloggers get it?). I do wonder about the timing–asking for help “the day the storm hit” seems odd–until the storm passed there was not much anyone could do. Nobody should expect fireman, cops, military etc to be out there during a hurricane.

    Well, if nothing else, this will put the lie to the old saw about failure being an orphan. Looks like this one has quite the extended family.

    Iowa Jim–If I’m reading PAD right it isn’t that he thinks that the Bush Administration is playing the Blame Game, it’s that they are NOT seeking out who deserves blame. In other words, the term “blame game” itself is used as an excuse not to seek blame (presumably because much of it will fall on them).

    Your points about the efforts of religious groups is valid; too bad we will hear much more about the puny efforts of celebrities. But that’s the way things are. Tim’s points are also, as usual, good ones and illustrate that while we may disagree on who will end up deserving the lion’s share of the blame, people of good will should at least be able to recognize those who have done well in this disaster. It would be too bad if their decency and heroism got lost amid the angry calls for accountability. (as PAD says, we should be able to do both).

  13. “I do wonder about the timing–asking for help “the day the storm hit” seems odd–until the storm passed there was not much anyone could do.”

    Not really that odd. Since the start of Gulf War Two there have been a number of protests held in the Richmond area and at the Capitol itself. We’ve only had one that was really large and got out of control in all that time. But for each one we’ve pulled our riot team together for briefing at least two days in advanced and, for one group’s protest, contacted the State Police the day before and requested backup. We always have medical and other resources on standby for the “oh, s**t!!!!!!!!!” chance an hour before.

    Not quite the same thing here but close. Give us what you’ve got now. They don’t need to go in but they need to be headed our way or just shy of here and on stand by. We’ll use them the second we can but get them to us before we need them. Waiting until after the event to set that stuff up will only create a late response and cost lives.

  14. Here’s what happened:

    In 2000, George W. Bu$Hitler & Ðìçk Cheatey looked into their Future Prediction Globe and saw that George would be re-elected by a small margin in 2004. So Ðìçk Cheatey got his friends in Halliburton on the phone. Together, they planned to set up faux-oil platforms off the southern coast of AmeriKKKa. The platforms were actually set up to test atmospheric electromagnetic experiments. Bu$Hitler and Cheatey knew that they could re-direct horrific weather patterns using this Tesla-derivative technique. They chose New Orleans because of its history of Mardi Gras debauchery. The fact that towns along the southern coasts of Mississippi and Alabama were also hit did not matter to Bu$Hitler and Cheatey. They got what they wanted for their friends in Halliburton:
    Lucrative rebuilding contracts and higher oil prices.

    http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

    Buy one. It will keep the Mind Control Telepathy of KKKarl Rove from invading your minds!!!!

  15. Yeah because arguing that our federal government should do its job, as well as wanting to hold Bush accountable for being the head of a federal government that didn’t do it’s job is similar to what you’re saying.

    If you’re so partisan you equate the two, then you need to take a moment and reflect about your worth as a human being.

  16. “Now I see that Bush is being blamed for FEMA tardiness… to do so, I think, would require forgetting that FEMA is not intended as a first response”

    No, to do so would be to remember that Bush took steps to make DHS a pro-active agency in times of natural disaster as seen in the DHS’s own plans and documents. The “not a first response” thing is just spin, spin, spin, spin.

    I have a question for all the Repubs. on the board.

    Why is it OK, for all you government waste haters, for a federal agency to exist that doesn’t even do ANYTHING before it is begged by a state/local government? Are you telling me that you are fine that tax dollars are going to an agency to basically do nothing with faced with days and days of knowledge that a hurricane may hit a major US city?

  18. It’s rather odd that nobody on the right wing seems to want to realize that Gov. Blanco asked for Federal Assistance *over 24 hours before the hurricane even made landfall!*

    http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976

    And she had declared a “State of Emergency” the day before!

    Now, just *when* did any assistance start arriving? Almost a week later? And how long did it take for assistance to arrive to Brother Jeb when hurricanes hit Fla? About 24 hours?

    Yet all the idiots on the right can say is “She didn’t ask for the help”.

    Sure. Pull the other one.

  19. >>It’s rather odd that nobody on the right wing seems to want to realize that Gov. Blanco asked for Federal Assistance *over 24 hours before the hurricane even made landfall*!

    They have been, till at least they are confronting this information, then they shift the finger in another direction.

    I dont get all this denial, is it that hard for some people to admit the President being a lousy leader got more Americans killed, this time poor civillians? And its not like the storm killed these people, it was the dámņ aftermath and the lack of help these people got. Its like if they admit that Bush screwed up, the sky is going to open up and rain fire and homosexuals down upon them.

    Guess what Republicans and anyone else who thinks the Goverment is using our Tax dollers to protect us better after 9/11. We’re F**ked. If something did happen, the initial incident may be the least of your worries.

  20. Its like if they admit that Bush screwed up, the sky is going to open up and rain fire and homosexuals down upon them.

    It’s raining men

  21. I have a question for all the Repubs. on the board.
    Oh great. And I didn’t study at all…

    Why is it OK, for all you government waste haters, for a federal agency to exist that doesn’t even do ANYTHING before it is begged by a state/local government?

    It isn’t.

    Are you telling me that you are fine that tax dollars are going to an agency to basically do nothing with faced with days and days of knowledge that a hurricane may hit a major US city?

    No, I’m not.

    Hey, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

    Now, just *when* did any assistance start arriving? Almost a week later?

    Umm, I’m pretty sure that isn’t true. It’s too late to look it up but I’ll check it out tomorrow. Claiming that nothing was done for a week is as wrong as claiming that everything was done.

    And its not like the storm killed these people, it was the dámņ aftermath and the lack of help these people got.

    Since we don’t even have a count of the dead it’s a bit early to say what killed them, don’t you think? Most of the dead I’ve seen confirmed were killed by the storm.

    Its like if they admit that Bush screwed up, the sky is going to open up and rain fire and homosexuals down upon them.

    Bush screwed up.

    (pause)

    Ðámņ! A burning homosexual just landed on my roof! Thanks a lot nivek!

  22. Having put out my roof and sent the homosexual (nice guy btw) on his way, a few last links of the day:

    Senator Landrieu, Democrat, in an appearance where she says that we should not point fingers, seems to be blaming Mayor Nagin, saying several times that he “”had trouble getting his people to work on a sunny day”
    http://thepoliticalteen.net/2005/09/11/landrieufns/

    “his people”??? What is she, a racist?

    Those who want Bush to be the source of all trouble should avoid http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/10/AR2005091001529_4.html which includes the following mind blower:

    Nagin said that by daybreak, he might have to order the first mandatory evacuation in New Orleans history, although his staff was still checking whether that would pose liability problems for the city. Nagin did not tell everyone to leave immediately, because the regional plan called for the suburbs to empty out first, but he did urge residents in particularly low-lying areas to “start moving — right now, as a matter of fact.” He said the Superdome would be open as a shelter of last resort, but essentially he told tourists stranded in the Big Easy that they were out of luck.

    “The only thing I can say to them is I hope they have a hotel room, and it’s a least on the third floor and up,” Nagin said. “Unfortunately, unless they can rent a car to get out of town, which I doubt they can at this point, they’re probably in the position of riding the storm out.”

    In fact, while the last regularly scheduled train out of town had left a few hours earlier, Amtrak had decided to run a “dead-head” train that evening to move equipment out of the city. It was headed for high ground in Macomb, Miss., and it had room for several hundred passengers. “We offered the city the opportunity to take evacuees out of harm’s way,” said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black. “The city declined.”

    So the ghost train left New Orleans at 8:30 p.m., with no passengers on board.

    Meanwhile Jack Kelly claims that compared to earlier disasters, the Feds did pretty well here
    http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05254/568876.stm

    Exhibit A on the bill of indictment of federal sluggishness is that it took four days before most people were evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.

    The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris-strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me.

    A better question — which few journalists ask — is why weren’t the roughly 2,000 municipal and school buses in New Orleans utilized to take people out of the city before Katrina struck?

  24. Incidentally, there are 21,000 registered buses in New Orleans.

    Not according to the link you posted, there aren’t. It says there are 21,000 in all of Louisiana.

    A little more digging shows that there are (were) something between 1500 and 2000 buses in New Orleans and environs; there’s not yet any reliable information on how many were used, could have been used, and so on.

    Somewhat related: regarding the infamous submerged school buses, the only information I’d trust at this point is that from Snopes. http://www.snopes.com/photos/katrina/buses.asp

  25. Not according to the link you posted, there aren’t. It says there are 21,000 in all of Louisiana.

    Oops! You are correct, sir. I’ve had to catch myself from calling it the state of New Orleans more than once.

    Still, it would seem that there were plenty of buses available before the storm hit. The New York Times portrays a frantic Gov. Blanco asking for buses after the flooding, when they were considerably less available (and, given the state of the roads, considerably less useful).

    The question I still haven’tr seen answered is why the New Orleans emergency plans were not followed. Were they no good to begin with or did the people in charge just not follow them?

  26. The question I still haven’tr seen answered is why the New Orleans emergency plans were not followed. Were they no good to begin with or did the people in charge just not follow them?

    It’s a question Nagin will have to answer when he goes before the voters again – if and when there is a city for him to govern again.

    “his people”??? What is she, a racist?

    Honestly, Bill, your efforts to tag all democrats as racist is getting desperate now. Lawson’s actions are despicable. But first you say that democrats are too “on message” to ever criticize other democrats, and then you quote a democrat criticizing another democrat.

    I watched the video. She was speaking of mayors of major cities in general (“Mayor Nagin and most mayors in this country). When she said “his people”, she was clearly referring to getting city employees to work, not “his people” as in his race. And looking at the full context, she wasn’t calling city employees to lazy to get to work. She was talking about the mass transit problems that majory cities often face.

    That’s a real reach, Bill, and I expected better from you.

  27. The question I still haven’tr seen answered is why the New Orleans emergency plans were not followed. Were they no good to begin with or did the people in charge just not follow them?

    Yeah, good question. the Suspect device blog mentions that the New Orleans and Louisiana plans were known to be bad, and their revision was outsourced to a private firm. Funding for the revision was cut. However, the state head of disaster preparedness was indicted for corruption, and the current plan seemed to have joined the revised plan in limbo.

    I don’t know how much stock to put in that, but it still shows the local people to be sleeping on the job (with the feds not taking things too seriously….)

  28. Question: does anybody have a link to the news story from over the weekend about how all these companies with links to Bush are getting these nice “rebuild NO” contracts from the government?

    The ones about Halliburton getting a contract right away (perhaps even before FEMA could show up in NO) are easy to find, but not the others.

    Also, while trying to search news articles through Yahoo, I came across an interesting comment about the fact that, 4 years after 9/11, we have yet to rebuilt anything on Ground Zero, yet we some how expect to rebuild the entirity of NO.

  29. Heard on news radio this morning, I’m skeptical, but not yet in my outright condemnation mode on the contracts, yet. A number have apparantly been awarded, and this morning’s TV news had a listing of some of them, and the connections to the current administration.

    Now, nothing wrong with contracts going to guys the President knows and trusts…when those contracts are awarded after a bidding process, are fair, and don’t last forever and a day. These contracts are being reported as short term, although I didn’t catch if it’s known what work they are for.

    Here’s where I have concerns: first, it’s being reported that these contracts are not part of a proper bidding process, and also are not part of a larger planning effort. The problem with the first is that it’s improper: this is tax-payer money being handed to a private firm, without a competitive bidding process to prevent waste and fraud. The problem with the second is that this kind of rapid contracting leads to waste and inefficiency. We’re liable to end up with 2 or 3 contractors working on the same thing, or worse, working on conflicting projects, leading to a lot of wasted taxpayer dollars.

    And maybe the most troubling aspect of the early reports (on the radio again, so don’t go asking for web links) is that these contracts have guaranteed profit clauses, meaning that no matter how much the company spends over the amount set forth in the contract, they are guaranteed some profit, from the taxpayers. If this is true, this is the worst kind of government administration possible.

    On the plus side, these contracts are reported as being short term, so that lessons the chance for abuse. It does strike me as an administration attempting to react to all the negative comments it’s gotten on a slow initial response, by reacting too quickly in order to appear to be making progress. If the contracts are to provide temporary homes for the displaced, then I would agree that there’s a need for urgency. But if it’s to rebuild the casinos, hotels, and other damaged buildings in town, why the rush? What harm would there be to take a week to develop a comprehensive rebuilding plan, including what to do about the levee and future flooding issues, and then take another 3 or 4 weeks to hold a competitive bidding process? The government doesn’t have to take the lowest bid, as it can consider other things like quality of work and such. But at least have an open process to reassure the public that this administration isn’t just abusing this disaster to make even more money for their corporate buddies.

  30. “Also, while trying to search news articles through Yahoo, I came across an interesting comment about the fact that, 4 years after 9/11, we have yet to rebuilt anything on Ground Zero, yet we some how expect to rebuild the entirity of NO.”

    Well, I think that’s partly from the fact that no one can agree on what should go in to the area of the WTC, to say nothing of special interest and protest groups who all have their own POV as to what’s appropriate and respectful since we’re talking about three thousand murder victims in the heart of the city. I really don’t think anyone’s going to grind the rebuilding of New Orleans to a halt for a year over, for instance, a proposed exhibit in a museum.

    PAD

  34. Bill –

    I think I’d buy you a drink. For a Republican, you’re pretty darn funny.

    Everyone Else:
    There should be accountability. Everyone says “Blame Bush” or “Don’t Blame Bush.” But as one of my Heroes, Harry S. Truman, had on the White House desk: “The Buck Stops Here.”

    But somehow, the buck hasn’t stopped there for the last forty or so years….

    Travis

  35. Now, nothing wrong with contracts going to guys the President knows and trusts…

    I think there is – we’ve seen what happens when Bush is more interested in appointing those he knows and trusts to positions of authority, like Brown as head of FEMA.

    It’s also a continual blatant conflict of interest that dates back to Halliburton & other Bush-friendly companies getting no-bid contracts for Iraq.

    Not to mention the fact that Halliburton THEN overcharges (and thus commits fraud against the taxpayers) the government… but are continually awarded new contracts.

    The Bush Administration just keeps finding ways of fûçkìņg things up and fûçkìņg this country over in the progress.

  37. “I think there is – we’ve seen what happens when Bush is more interested in appointing those he knows and trusts to positions of authority, like Brown as head of FEMA.”

    This points out the rest of my quote, the part hinting that if the guy that wins the contract just happens to be the guy that the President knows, but also because his bid was reasonable, fair, and demonstrated a capacity to complete the contract, there’s no problem. But all too often we’ve seen this adminstration award contracts without a public bidding process, blatantly mis-managing public funds, seemingly without accountability. It seems criminally reckless in my mind for an administration that touts moral and religious ethics as a way of generating votes to then turn around and essentially transfer public funds into the hands of a select few private enterprises.

    And I know that this isn’t something really new to politics: Friends of the President always do well. I’d be interested in seeing what people that were paying attention during the Clinton years recall of contracts and awards given out then…none come to my mind, but then again, we didn’t invade another country, destroying it’s infrastructure, we didn’t suffer a devastating terrorist attack in the heart of New York, and Mother Nature didn’t do her best to wipe out the most vulnerable city on the face of the planet.

    One of the sites on the contracts awarded does indicate that at least one of them seems to be for emergency housing…which truly cannot wait, and has a basis for avoiding a public bidding competition.

  38. http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/09/katrina.natguard.ap/

    Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said that “arguably” a day or so of response time was lost due to the absence of the Mississippi National Guard’s 155th Infantry Brigade and Louisiana’s 256th Infantry Brigade, each with thousands of troops in Iraq.

    “Had that brigade been at home and not in Iraq, their expertise and capabilities could have been brought to bear,” said Blum.

  39. I just wanted to ask if you have ever heard of “State Sovereignty”? Which gives the Governor or ruler of that state supreme power.

    The facts are the President calling the Governor (of everybodies new favorite state ;/ ) on Sunday morning and calling for an emergency evacuation, which she did not make till late evening.

    The Governor also did not make any call to the National guard until Wednesday evening until till further talks with Bush after complaints from Fema scapegoat.

    Let alone have any plan for the people she sent to the dome!!! No porta- potties, No food( she had not even contacted the local chain stores and requested the donation of their goods to temporarily feed the survivors before looting started!!)

    I guess this would have been hard for her to do though since she has had little contact with the mayor of New Orleans ; after he endorsed her opponent of the last election!!!

    And heck were was the mayor in all this , we now he saved his bony ášš, we heard him screaming like the steward of Gondor ” run flea were is the government?!!” I thought he was part of the Government?? And were where they??

    Well they were trying to convince someone( our innocent Democrat) who was a political opposition, to give federal jurisdiction or at least take command of the situation but she was to busy talking through her lawyers!!! But hey every body knows that it doesn’t matter who messed up because the Democrats control all the major networks (Fox news is one station on cable morons!) and the Democrats dont’t turn on their own like Republicans do Even when A democrat compares the U.S. Military to Nazis or Bush to Hitler but or Hilary Clinton says she saw Gandi working at a gas station!!! Because if you want to hate a Republican President thats all that matters it does not matter Right Pete, Fûçkìņg Right!!!ÃSS-Hølë!!!

  40. By the way Louisiana, received more Federal funding this year than any other state in the union and decided to use that money on 2 new casinos instead of taking care of business!!

  42. Well, the good news is that Bush’s little buddy “Brownie” has resigned as head of FEMA.

    Now… what will his promotion be?

  43. Apparently “nick” has some reading comprehension problems.

    “nick”, the governor of LA asked for federal help *the day before the hurricane arrived*, and had declared the “State of Emergency” two days prior…

    The evacuation of *over one million people* was *already under way* before the Shrub *even became involved*.

    And I’ve yet to see anybody answer the question of when good ol’ Brother Jeb had to sign away anything to get FEMA to show up *less than 24 hours after FL got hit* by the hurricanes last year…

    “nick”, next time, wait until you finish kindergarden before asking mommy if you can post on the internet… you won’t look like that much of a jerk…

  44. The facts are the President calling the Governor (of everybodies new favorite state ;/ ) on Sunday morning and calling for an emergency evacuation, which she did not make till late evening.

    Except, of course, that she and the other gulf coast governors made their first request for aid the previous Friday. I know, I know. Why mess up your hate-filled rant with facts?

    http://www.dod.gov/transcripts/2005/tr20050901-3843.html

    As for Brownie’s promotion, I’m guessing he’ll get a recess appointment to a nice cushy post somewhere in the Pentagon.

  45. Honestly, Bill, your efforts to tag all democrats as racist is getting desperate now.

    Ho boy. First off, I thought it was an obvious joke. I mean, isn’t it kind of obvious that by “his people” she meant the people he works with? I’ve heard others get tagged with the racist line for using “you people” or some variation (Happened to Perot oncem as I recall) and I tossed it in. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

    As to my “efforts to tag all democrats as racist”, please elaborate. When have I done so in the past? (and by the way even if I was serious that Landrieu was a racist, how the holy hëll does that somehow translate to “all Democrats”? That’s the problem with partisans on both sides, they see an attack on anyone on their team as an attack on all.).

    Lawson’s actions are despicable.

    Honestly, Den, your efforts to tag all democrats as despicable are getting desperate now.

    That’s a real reach, Bill, and I expected better from you.

    Well, that’s the danger in making a joke. I guess this would be a good time to point out that there really wasn’t a burning homsexual on my roof last night.

    I think I’d buy you a drink. For a Republican, you’re pretty darn funny.

    Could use one. I was up late last night filming a zombie movie. You know what we ended up using for intestines? Pig intestines. Which is better than using real human intestines but not by a whole hëll of a lot. And the actors were complaining. Boy, you get people to work for free and the next thing you know they are don’t want to eat pig intestines. You don’t see Sharon Stone complaining about every nasty thing she had to put in her mouth on her way to the top.

  46. And I’ve yet to see anybody answer the question of when good ol’ Brother Jeb had to sign away anything to get FEMA to show up *less than 24 hours after FL got hit* by the hurricanes last year…

    I can think of several good reasons….but I haven’t heard anything floated so far.

    Nick, even if the local authorities are the first responders….what keeps the federal government from supplying food and water and helicopters when requested by the governor? Why were they screwing around with org charts before the hurricane hit?

  47. Iowa Jim–If I’m reading PAD right it isn’t that he thinks that the Bush Administration is playing the Blame Game, it’s that they are NOT seeking out who deserves blame. In other words, the term “blame game” itself is used as an excuse not to seek blame (presumably because much of it will fall on them).

    Obviously, that is not how I understood PAD.

    I did look at the timeline PAD posted. I find it amusing the way statement are reinterpreted.

    Example: 9AM CDT — BUSH BLAMES STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS: “[T]he magnitude of responding to a crisis over a disaster area that is larger than the size of Great Britain has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need.” [White House, 9/3/05]

    When I heard that, I did not hear it as blaming state or local officials. To portray it as such is to read into it something that I don’t think it is saying. In fact, this statement is a perfect setup to ask what the Federal government is doing to fill the gap.

    And that is just one example of how the quote given does not match the headline assigned to it.

    Bottom line, the bulk of the blame game is happening on the local and democratic side. The governor of LA has refrained from blaming the president personally in a recent press conference, but she seems to be an exception.

    What is fascinating to me is that Bush HAS said mistakes were made, that he was not satisfied, and he did not say the mistakes were all local or on the state level. He even had Brown removed as head of the effort over the local clean-up. For those of you who claim Bush never “learns from his mistakes,” well, he seems to be this time. And I just heard that Brown has now resigned.

    Bottom line, Bush is not perfect. I do think he also made mistakes in this. But I don’t see him as leading the pack in the blame game. When you have a week of everyone and their brother blaming the White House, anything they might say, short of just laying the keys on the desk and resigning, would be seen as shifting blame. And to only point to Bush as playing the blame game is laughable.

    Iowa Jim

  48. Well, Bill, I did think you were serious. I guess I’m spending too much time reading blogs by rightwing nutjobs. 🙂

    I saw your comments about Landrieu in the context with your earlier comments about the sheriff of Jefferson Parish, both of which you made a point of mentioning their party affiliation and mentioned race as a factor. I put two and two together and saw a pattern. So, if the second one was a joke, I apologize for misinterpreting.

  49. Bottom line, the bulk of the blame game is happening on the local and democratic side.

    Baloney. Chertoff was out in force blaming local (democratic) officials last week. And the rightwing pundit class has been beating the “the governor didn’t ask for help” lie for over a week now.

  50. And the rightwing pundit class has been beating the “the governor didn’t ask for help” lie for over a week now.

    To good effect, apparently. Still get people saying that, thanks to a…misquote…by an Administration source.

    No, FEMA shouldn’t get a walk on its game playing or its lack of coordination after it hit the scene nor its dunderheaded inability to use personnel appropriately nor its addiction to red tape. In the wake of a terrorist attack, that kind of performance isn’t acceptable.

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