Lessons Learned?
By on Feb 23rd, 2006 at 10:05 am
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There’s been a lot of lessons learned with this administration. Why, just look at the past two weekends. We learned Cheney is above the law. Shoot a man, have the sheriff come the next day so that all the evidence is gone. Except for the victim. He was full of birdshot and he’s keeping quiet. Read the police report and see the intimidation.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/060216_cheney_sherriff_report.pdf
February 23rd, 2006 at 10:13 amI suspect the real lessons learned are:
February 23rd, 2006 at 10:16 ampoint the blame elsewhere more effectively
control the press coverage more powerfully
promise everything and do nothing, even more than previously.
In other, more mature cultures, a person in a position of responsibility who fails to perform the requirements of the job they have accepted have the honor and sense to step down and make way for another to assume the tasks.
February 23rd, 2006 at 10:23 amSad that positions of responsibility in this country are now bought on the basis of their level of campaign contributions.
The white house seems to show a real inability to learn from anything including a blow upside the head. They ran a disaster scenario with hurricane “Pam”, found some real problems and corrected none of them. Would anyone like to bet a month’s supply of coffee money that the next big hurricane doesn’t show the government unprepared and unorganized? I don’t spend a lot of money at Starbucks so this isn’t a huge amount.
February 23rd, 2006 at 10:24 amHis Hineyness plucks…
as New Orleans floods…
The next storm season is not all that far away, and it will wreak havoc again on the Gulf, and will no doubt be used in nefarious other ways to wreak havoc with the elections as well…
February 23rd, 2006 at 10:29 amThe Federal Eviction Management Agency is now using the National Guard to evict homeless victims of Hurricane Katrina, while housing trailers sit empty or occupied by Bush cronies along the Gulf coast. From Stan Goff:
——
The National Guard is now being empolyed to assist the extremely sketchy New Orleans Police with these hotel evictions; and some of the troops don’t like it a bit.
Said this distressed young man on the telephone, “This is fvcking unbelievable. We were given an operations order to herd our fellow New Orleanians onto buses like cattle or convicts in the middle of the night. They weren’t even allowed to pick up their belongings. We [the National Guard] were responsible to inventory their stuff and bag it up.”
February 23rd, 2006 at 10:34 am—–
http://stangoff.com/?p=260
I watched Democracy Now the other day. Amy Goodman had a report on her show about a woman who had a lung transplant that couldn’t move into their trailor because there was no electricity yet. She needed the electricity for medical needs. A trailer and an electrical pole. There is always a disconnect with this administration.
February 23rd, 2006 at 10:41 amIt’s interesting to note that the report done by Republicans in House said: “…earlier involvement by President Bush would have speeded up the federal response.”
I wonder why the White House report doesn’t include that language?
I guess this new age of Republicans no longer includes “taking responsibility for your actions.”
February 23rd, 2006 at 10:42 am“Them black people sure don’t swim too well.”
not a word of this report can be trusted, since it was drawn up by the guilty parties!
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:01 amThe apparently will never learn the lesson of taking action. Thousands of former New ORleans residents are still homeless. They sit at relatives houses, or worse on the street while FEMA trailers lie rusting in Arkansas.
From the alleged Lessons Learned Report:
Another hollow platitude from the Bushistas. The fix is taking action, something they only do when oil interests are in the balance.
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:01 amI think it’s rather interesting how fast and in what manner the blame game began. Almost instantaneously, governor Blanco blamed Bush and FEMA for mistakes that occured on the local government side of the fence. Governor Blanco failed to declare a state of emergency soon enough, and also failed to ASK for federal assistance. However, I will admit that Bush made one mistake: he actually trusted the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans to do their job. He should of pushed the authorities aside and took matters into his own hands. Although, had he done that, I’m there would be critism from the left for his intervention. Either way, this is a no-win situation for Bush and has exposed a bigger problem when a government tries to eliminate poverty with handouts. The state and local governments in Louisana have been notorious for their corruption and greed and now they are trying to pass the blame to Bush. If they had spent the money on reinforcing the levies the way they should have, we wouldn’t be dealing with this disaster.
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:10 amYes, they can’t keep to the subject at hand: they have to throw in “natural or MAN-MADE”
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:11 am…got to keep the terrorism threat alive and foremost in the hearts and minds of Americans…
The real lessons learned should be the geinuses in DC are clueless about Katrina, Iraq, medicare part D, the american poor, the global warming situation, coming energy crisis, deficit, destruction of the middle class by outsourcing and illegal immegration, etc… we don’t need a plan for Katrina as bad as we need a plan to move this C+ crowd out and get some competent people in place.
Hopefully the plan we need will start in november 06, and be completed in November 08
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:18 amHey Randy- Let’s put this into perspective for ya: Congress approved the initialEmergency Spending a few days after Katrina at $15B. The budget for the entire state of Louisiana for 2005 was about $9B. Bush can blame the victim all he wants, but the Federal Government showed exactly how unprepared it is for a predicitable and predicted event….so how much do you trust that Dear Leader and his sycophantic fundraiser appointees have us prepared for a terrorist attack?
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:24 amFunny Randy… but really back when the Democrats were running the show and there were major national disasters FDR had no problem taking action and calling up the local government and working together to get peoples lives back on track. But I guess when you are a lieing asshat like this entire neocon admin is they cant call anyone any more and organize anything.
P.S. all your points have been debunked and so you look like a fool bringing them up yet again. But hey looking like a fool means nothing to neocons …a little PR/denial makes all those lies into truths…now doesnt it…
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:27 amTake the slab of any failure in one hand and the knife of Congressional inquiry in the other. Use the knife to spread the failure thinly and evenly over everybody involved in the debacle.
Nett result: Nobody bears a higher burden of responsibility and thus nobody is held accountable. Call it lessons learnt and move on.
It works in exactly the same way for all past failures: the failure to stop the well-telegraphed 9/11 attacks or the “intelligence failures†that took us to war in Iraq or how “we all†failed to see the eminent collapse of Enron.
It will also work for all future “failures†for as long as the people and the opposition swallow the bullcrap. This system ensures that nobody, least of all the President (where the buck was supposed to stop), is ever held accountable. Unfortunately it also ensures that the same “mistakes†will be made over and over again.
“Lessons learnt†is for children and adolescents. Adults are supposed to have learnt those lessons and must be held accountable.
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:28 amRandy-
So Blanco didn’t issue a State of Emergency soon enough?
http://www.gov.state.la.us/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&catID=1&articleID=776&navID=3
I would think that giving the Federal Government 3 days notice of imminent disaster would be enough.
Does it hurt when you lie?
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:28 amhttp://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/business/13942699.htm
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:29 am-Randy
Geez- your argument is REALLY coming apart now:
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:32 amhttp://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18447
Just in case you didn’t bother to read the above link, Randy- here’s a quote from Brownie’s press release issued the 27th (two days before landfall):
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:35 am
Smile, Randy!
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:37 amI would be much happier if, instead of learning so many lessons the hard way, Bush and his administration knew what they were doing in advance.
That would be nice.
Instead a Republican Majority has turned the entire political process nito something resembling an after school special. Where no matter how terrible the situation, or how tragic and avoidable it was, the administration does the wrong and stupid thing but comes out learning a valuable lesson.
February 23rd, 2006 at 12:05 pm“He should of pushed the authorities aside and took matters into his own hands”
Oh there’s a great idea – ’cause everything he touches turns to gold right?
February 23rd, 2006 at 12:12 pmWell, Randy, we are all waiting for a retort…
February 23rd, 2006 at 12:20 pmThat’s exactly what his “authorities” (read handlers, string pullers, etc.) fear the most is his pushing them aside in the belief that he actually could make intelligent, timely decisions……..
February 23rd, 2006 at 12:21 pmIf they had spent the money on reinforcing the levies the way they should have, we wouldn’t be dealing with this disaster.
Comment by Randy — February 23, 2006 @ 11:10 am
This one is bogus too: The levies are the responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers, and it is Congress that authorises the projectgs & budget.
Think Progress had a good coverage on the matter:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Funding Shortfall Jeopardizes New Orleans Flood Control
Bush Slashed Hurricane Funding For New Orleans
Also, please take a look at the timeline here:
Katrina Timeline
You will see how federal assistance was requested and when.
February 23rd, 2006 at 12:59 pm“From 2001 through 2005, the Bush administration battled with Congress to cut a total of approximately 67% from the budgetary requests from the Army Corps of Engineers for levee augmentation projects in the New Orleans area, but ultimately settled with Congress on a mere 50% cut in these budgetary requests.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funding_for_hurricane_preparedness_of_New_Orleans
Randy has achieved a level of Brainwashing that would require a Reality-Rinse-Repeat cycle to last through January 2009.
February 23rd, 2006 at 1:19 pmI know I am right – I was in New Orleans about ten years ago and I heard first hand from area residents about how much danger they would be in if a major huricane hit. Between the democrats and the liberal media, this has become a public relations fiasco for the Bush administration that no amount of our tax dollars will make go away. I hope that we don’t rebuild on the same site. I think they call doing the same thing and expecting different results, insanity.
The Bush administration is being widely criticized for the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina and the allegedly inadequate protection for “the big one” that residents had long feared would hit New Orleans.
But more than ten years of research and reporting on hurricane and flood damage mitigation efforts in and around New Orleans indicate that local and state officials did not use federal money that was available for levee improvements or coastal reinforcement and often did not secure local matching funds that would have generated even more federal funding.
The Orleans Levee Board, the local government entity that oversees the levees and floodgates designed to protect New Orleans and the surrounding areas from rising waters, bragged in a supplement to the Times-Picayune newspaper in December 1995 about federal money received to protect the region from hurricanes.
“In the past four years, the Orleans Levee Board has built up its arsenal. The additional defenses are so critical that Levee Commissioners marched into Congress and brought back almost $60 million to help pay for protection,” the pamphlet declared. “The most ambitious flood-fighting plan in generations was drafted. An unprecedented $140 million building campaign launched 41 projects.”
The levee board promised Times-Picayune readers that the “few manageable gaps” in the walls protecting the city from Mother Nature’s waters “will be sealed within four years (1999), completing our circle of protection.”
But less than a year later, that same levee board was denied the authority to refinance its debts. Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle “repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores public bid laws,” according to the Times-Picayune. The newspaper quoted Kyle as saying that the board was near bankruptcy and should not be allowed to refinance any bonds, or issue new ones, until it submitted an acceptable plan to achieve solvency.
Blocked from financing the local portion of the flood-fighting efforts, the levee board was unable to spend the federal matching funds that had been designated for the project.
By 1998, Louisiana’s state government had a $2 billion construction budget, but less than one tenth of one percent of that – $1.98 million – was dedicated to levee improvements in the New Orleans area. State appropriators were able to find $22 million that year to renovate a new home for the Louisiana Supreme Court and $35 million for one phase of an expansion to the New Orleans convention center.
The following year, the state legislature did appropriate $49.5 million for levee improvements, but the proposed spending had to be allocated by the state bond commission before the projects could receive financing. The commission placed the levee improvements in the “Priority 5″ category, among the projects least likely to receive full or immediate funding.
The Orleans Levee Board was also forced to defer $3.7 million in capital improvement projects in its 2001 budget after residents of the area rejected a proposed tax increase to fund its expanding operations. Long-term deferments to nearly 60 projects, based on the revenue shortfall, totaled $47 million worth of work, including projects to shore up the floodwalls.
No new state money had been allocated to the area’s hurricane protection projects as of October of 2002, leaving the available 65 percent federal matching funds for such construction untouched.
“The problem is money is real tight in Baton Rouge right now,” state Sen. Francis Heitmeier (D-Algiers) told the Times-Picayune. “We have to do with what we can get.”
Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Mark Drennen told local officials that, if they reduced their requests for state funding in other, less critical areas, they would have a better chance of getting the requested funds for levee improvements. The newspaper reported that in 2000 and 2001, “the Bond Commission has approved or pledged millions of dollars for projects in Jefferson Parish, including construction of the Tournament Players Club golf course near Westwego, the relocation of Hickory Avenue in Jefferson (Parish) and historic district development in Westwego.”
There is no record of such discretionary funding requests being reduced or withdrawn, but in October of 2003 nearby St. Charles Parish did receive a federal grant for $475,000 to build bike paths on top of its levees.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/7/90925.shtml
February 23rd, 2006 at 2:52 pmClassic. Not a stitch of research other than quoting “Newsmax”. I can cite sources on http://www.randyisasheep.com with absolute certainty as well. Not that NewsMax has any issues with accuracy. So, do you rely on The Weekly World News for planning major events for 2006? If so, be warned- the 800lb gorilla Lovechild of the revived body of Betty Ford is running for the Republican ticket in ‘08.
And this piece of propaganda does not address the full ownership of your sorry ass vis-a-vis the plain facts clearly laid out in response to the shit you made up.
Now, don’t you feel like a big ‘ol Tesas-sized Dumbass? Don’t worry- that means you can still be president.
February 24th, 2006 at 12:38 am“Grab my pocket, Randy!!”
February 24th, 2006 at 12:44 amAPRIL FIRST IS IMPEACH THE FOOL DAY …
get out and get heard, plan a rally or a march, put signs in your yard and on your car…
IMPEACH THE FOOL ON APRIL FOOL’S DAY!
a day of protest and civil disobedience
pass it on!
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