Bush “Did Not Want to Interfere” With Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts
By on Sep 12th, 2005 at 10:34 am
Bush “Did Not Want to Interfere” With Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts
Buried at the end of a Washington Post article today, presidential aides offer a reason for President Bush’s delayed response: “[H]e did not want to interfere.”
While the President of the United States may not have wanted to cut short his vacation, Governor Blano, Mayor Nagin, and local officials specifically asked for his involvement.
Newsweek also reports that the President didn’t even understand the severity of the disaster until Thursday evening, four days after the hurricane made landfall, so it’s unclear whether or not he had even thought about “interfering” until then.
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Oh please. Bush never has a problem interfering. Ever hear of Terri Schiavo?
September 12th, 2005 at 10:41 amI’ve been mentioning the James Kroeger article, The Republican Nemesis, on the blogs because I feel so strongly about its potential to make the Democrats the majority party again.
It’s lengthy, but it’s packed with insights into why Democratic campaign strategists fail when they go up against the Republicans.
Here’s what others have been saying about The Republican Nemesis:
September 12th, 2005 at 10:42 amhttp://www.taxwisdom.org/what_others_are_saying.htm
Bush was so far removed from the disaster response, that maybe he WILL be a good independent investigator into what went wrong…
September 12th, 2005 at 10:46 amI’m sure that came from a Senior White House Official™ – who of course did not want to be identified for posterity.
Why do they print Rove’s bullshit day after day after day after day?
September 12th, 2005 at 10:47 amThere are times for POLITICS and time for action. When Hurrican ANDREW hit Florida, there was NO hesitation by the (current) President and his staff to mobilize and prepare for the worst case scenario. So why should it be different here?
The fact that the deferral of resposibility would even be considered is a testiment to the “new” segregation tactics employed by this administration. There was NO Republican or Democrat for HUGO or ANDREW, or other hurricanes? It was AMERICANS!
Now, we are so polarized to defend incompetance and lay blame, that we lose sight of what is really important. Local, state, and federal leaders failed MY people!!! But, at the end of the day, even Bernie Ebbers, Martha Stewart, and Kenneth Lay were broght before justice for failing their people?
Why are we giving a free pass to this President for his failure? Again, if ANY REPUBLICAN was in my shoes, would they not want justice for murder?
September 12th, 2005 at 10:49 amUnless you know the hours of the day, I think it was three days, not four.
Monday -> Tuesday = 1 day
Tuesday -> Wednesday = 1 day
Wednesday -> Thursday = 1 day
1 + 1 + 1 = 3
Now, if someone could just explain that part about Jesus rising three days after he was crucified we should be able to get this New Math things down pat.
September 12th, 2005 at 10:57 amFrom Monday morning to Thursday evening is about 3.6 days. The real reason that the delay is a problem is that W was not aware of a problem in the same time zone. Is that the reason he is so uninformed about events half a world away? We may have an explanation for the mess in Iraq.
September 12th, 2005 at 11:09 amPeople, don’t you understand? It would have interfered with the relief efforts if they had to hastily evacuate the Superdome and Convention Center so that Bush could tour that region.
September 12th, 2005 at 11:12 amFrank,
Does it matter? People died after the 2nd day? So DO YOU HONESTLY think the people care about your callous mathematical equation?
The fact remains is that the help was not on site when it should have been and as a result 197 (and climbing) are dead?
Can YOU justify that for my two nieces? Do you think my dad gives a damn about your excuse for incompetence? You want a day, then fine here is one back! Nevertheless, if you have nothing more intelligent to say, then do not say anything at all!
If YOUR incompetent leaders cannot take RESPONSIBILITY to say the screwed up, then I see you are in good company! Because, in my opinion, no matter is if was 3 days or 4 days, they should have been that THE FIRST DAY!
Ignorance is a futility of incompetence! I see by your comment that you fit that description perfectly!
It is my duty to make ANY and EVERY attempt to destroy Pres. Bush and his cronies! I will KNOCK on EVERY DOOR, GO TO EVERY BUSINESS, and VISIT EVERY SCHOOL to let everyone know that their Gov’t DOES NOT care about them!
September 12th, 2005 at 11:12 amRumor has it that the President will visit the Houston Astrodome as soon as all the evacuees have left. He does not want to interfere with the handing out of Red Cross debit cards.
September 12th, 2005 at 11:14 am“Thre is only one President. And he does not have the 80% approval he did after 911.” (From Diane Rehm today)
That’s all you need to know.
He took credit for being strong on 911. He did not deserve it. The people now know he is a poor leader with a fake swagger.
September 12th, 2005 at 11:20 amGeorgie interferes with my peace of mind every day. Wanker.
September 12th, 2005 at 11:31 amBush’s Katrina Marketing Problem: No Lisa Beamer.
September 12th, 2005 at 11:37 amI’m all for it. In fact, the best way for him to stop interfering would be to resign now and resume his private live as drug-dependent white-collar criminal.
September 12th, 2005 at 12:01 pmThe jackass interferes with everything daily. Pokes his nose where it doesn’t belong (Teri Schivo, evolution, religion) and has the huge brass balls to invade Iraq and try to pass it off as a link to 9-11 and when caught says “it was the right thing to do”.
The biggest disaster in U.S. history is headed toward the gulf and he suddenly wants to not interfere. Smells like it, an it is bullsh**t.
The only thing that blows more than Katrina is dumbya and his cronies.
September 12th, 2005 at 12:05 pmIraq Veteran, I don’t think I was being callous, just trying to enforce accuracy. (If you read what I write on my blog, you’ll get a better sense of my leanings.) When we’re inaccurate, we open ourselves up to distracting carping from those who disagree with us.
September 12th, 2005 at 12:07 pmBravo Iraq vetran, I’m with you and doing the same.
September 12th, 2005 at 12:38 pmI think that people here that support Bush are overlooking one thing. FEMA, which is essentially ran by Bush, turned back trucks and people who could have made a difference. At that time, who cares about coordination? Just get the people out, and or provide them with the essentials!
When FEMA feels that they can disconnect state and local radios, or kick people out of hotels because they need the rooms then this is where I really have a problem with. I too was in the military and I know that if the government wanted to have troops there, they could have been there in a day. Maybe not a whole army, but enough to begin helping.
No one can’t tell me that the government did not know about the storm. Bush, before the storm hit, declared a state of emergency to LA and Mississippi. Therefore, the local authorities understood the threat but the Bush boys did not listen.
Yes, some of the fault does go to the state and local authorities, but most falls on the government. There is only so much that the locals have the ability to do, where the government is much more qualified (using this term very loosly in this case) to do the job.
September 12th, 2005 at 12:43 pmSpeaking of Bush not wanting to interfere…
Remember a few years ago when one of our spy planes had to make an emergency landing in China and the plane and crew were held for 11 days? When they were released and were on the way home, Bush refused to go and greet them upon arrival because he did not want to “interfere” with their homecoming celebration.
September 12th, 2005 at 1:05 pmFor those who have heard this, there’s an unedited interview with Mayor Nagin contained (interview is from another program) in this issue of Off the Wall (www.2600.com/offthewall/). Listen to this program (www.2600.com/news/view/article/2370), then ask yourself again whether cutting short a second (or third?) vacation this year is all that much of an inconvenience for the President.
September 12th, 2005 at 1:16 pmMy friend tried to call my Rep. (Hastert) to complain about the lifting of the Davis-Bacon Act in regards to meeting wage standards for government reconstruction projects. He was told to call the White House. The White House said he should call somewhere on Capitol Hill. Think he was getting the run around?
September 12th, 2005 at 2:57 pmIraq Veteran, I know this is an especially bad time for you, yet you post the most logical and articulate arguments against this fool we call president.
September 12th, 2005 at 3:03 pmSince when does Bush “not want to interfere?” He interferes a lot when he wants to (like keeping ships and their crews at sea for an extra day while he does a mission accomplished photo op; like rushing back to sign a bill interfering in the life of a woman win a PVS, for two of many instances.
September 12th, 2005 at 3:08 pmThe man is a phony, he has people lie for him, and while they don’t lie well, they lie often, so people believe the bull baloney that they spout.
Yeah, nice story. Would’ve been nice if he didn’t want to “interfere” with Iraq either. Or Social Security. Or tax reform. But sadly, he did, and he’s got quite the inverse Midas touch.
Thats probably just a misstatement, though. The reality was he just didn’t want that damn hurricane to interfere with his vacation. Its hard work being that incompetent all the time.
September 12th, 2005 at 5:26 pmThis is the same criminal spin that the Punch and Judy at the NY Times had in their lead on Sunday.
Incidently I noticed that the Times made that story free to anybody on the web. I’m not sure what makes them put some stories under registration and some for free access. But it would not surprise anybody if Sulzberger wanted his take on the disaster spread as widely as possible.
There is nothing unamerican about that. Anyone who owns a newspaper should have the right to put out whatever views they want.
The problem is that the war criminals at the Times are somehow believed to be different than other advocacy newspapers.
In fact they should be tracked like the other hate groups.
http://www.splcenter.org/
September 12th, 2005 at 6:15 pmNeoconwatch, you’d be surprised how much of the NY Times is perpetually free and no-registration-required. Go to their RSS pages – - everyone of those links is free and won’t require registration. (Sometimes I wait till there’s an RSS link before writing about something.)
September 12th, 2005 at 11:00 pmThe REAL reason shrub didn’t want to go to New Orleans the first time around is that the people there would have him drawn-and-quartered on the spot.
September 14th, 2005 at 3:23 pm