Laura Bush’s Katrina Amnesia: Slams Burmese Govt. For Ignoring ‘Warnings’ Of Impending Natural Disaster
Laura Bush’s Katrina Amnesia: Slams Burmese Govt. For Ignoring ‘Warnings’ Of Impending Natural Disaster
In an “unusual foray into foreign policy” yesterday, First Lady Laura Bush admonished the Burmese government for its “inept” response to the recent cyclone that killed over 20,000 people. The First Lady heaped particularly harsh criticisms on the Burmese government for not adequately warning residents about the incoming storm:
It’s troubling many of the Burmese people learned of this impending disaster only when foreign outlets such as Radio Free Asia and Voice of America sounded the alarm. Although they were aware of the threat, Burma’s state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm’s path.
Watch it:
In fact, equally harsh criticism could be leveled at President Bush. As Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck in 2005, Bush was on vacation, and the White House ignored warnings about the dangers ahead:
2001: FEMA ranked a major hurricane strike on New Orleans as “among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country.”
Two days before landfall: Federal officials told the White House “that the city’s levees might be overtopped or breached.” Bush later famously said “nobody could have predicted” the breaches.
Hours before landfall: Federal officials warned the White House that flooding “could leave the New Orleans metro area submerged for weeks or months.”
Laura Bush added, “I hope that the military will realize they have to accept aid from everybody they can possibly accept it from.” The White House, however, turned down aid from other countries offering to help after Katrina:
Turned down foreign aid: After Katrina, the administration rejected many “allies’ offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars,” the Washington Post reported. The most common responses: “sent letter of thanks” and “will keep offer on hand.”
“The response to the cyclone is just the most recent example of the junta’s failure to meet its people’s basic needs,” she concluded. Yet the Bush administration has also turned its back on the hurricane survivors:
Undermined workers: President Bush issued an order in 2005 suspending application of the Bacon-Davis Act, allowing contractors to pay less than prevailing wages in Katrina-damaged areas.
Toxic trailers: FEMA “suppressed warnings” about levels of formaldehyde in FEMA-provided trailers to Katrina refugees.
Laura Bush’s Katrina amnesia went unchallenged by the press corps, who instead proceeded to ask about daughter Jenna’s upcoming wedding.
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Oh, the irony!
May 6th, 2008 at 5:00 pmHeck of a job, Laura!
May 6th, 2008 at 5:00 pmThe entire concept of irony depends on the concept that one or more of the listeners has an active brain cell in their head. Since she was talking to the Press Corps… the silence is understood.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:01 pmDoes anyone really care what this LIEbrarian says?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:01 pmTalk some more about Jenna’s wedding, would you, LIEbrarian?
This is just so weird.
Are the Bushes so tone-deaf that they didn’t see the irony of this statement?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:01 pmanymouse19 Says:
——————————————————————————–
The people of New Orleans had days of warnings that a CAT 4 or 5 hurricane was approaching. The Burmese people weren’t even given one solitary minute of warning. There is no comparison.
In a way, that makes the response of the government of the United States and President Bush all the more alarming.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:02 pmFirst Lady Laura Bush admonished the Burmese government for its “inept” response.
Oh this is rich, the pot calling the kettle black.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:02 pmThat’s weird. I had thought Burma was a pretty tight lipped place yet anymouse19 knows exactly what went on down to the minute or lack thereof.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:08 pmIF THERE IS EVIL IN THIS WORLD….IT IS THE INABILITY FOR THESE IDIOTS TO HAVE ANY EMPATHY FOR PEOPLE.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:10 pmYou know the hypocrisy of the Pharisee is the only thing in the Gospels that made Jesus get violent.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:10 pmanymouse19 Says:
The people of New Orleans had days of warnings that a CAT 4 or 5 hurricane was approaching. The Burmese people weren’t even given one solitary minute of warning. There is no comparison.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
The obvious comparison is about the leaders, not the people. A little dense today, are we? Eh?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:10 pmThat classmate of Laura’s had no warning whatsoever when she ran the stop sign and killed him.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:11 pmAnd btw, like Bush, the Pharisees didn’t know they were Pharisees, for their hearts were Godless.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:12 pmGuido the Loving OBGYN Says:
You know the hypocrisy of the Pharisee is the only thing in the Gospels that made Jesus get violent.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Well, noted! And I’m a Secular Humanist, not a believer.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:12 pmMrs pot, meet Mrs kettle
Mrs kettle, meet pot
May 6th, 2008 at 5:12 pmThe president and his administration did all that was legally or morally required. The people had adequate warning to leave New Orleans. It is their own fault if they failed to leave or have sufficient money on hand to obtain transportation out of the city. It was the local government’s responsibility to meet the disaster.
Remember, FEMA was never designed to handle this sort of disaster. It would have been different had it involved quarter horses.
Besides, the flooding created an excellent opportunity to invest into new casinos and business property. Face it, those poor, minority people are a drag on tourism. Now they are gone and not coming back. This will also ensure that the right people (white and wealthy) will have a majority vote for local and state politicians.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:13 pmThe massive scale of the human tragedy in Burma, the actual fascist murder and repression perpetrated by its government against its citizens as opposed to the Chicken Little kind I hear Bush accused of….maybe it is me, but this thread seems a little tasteless.
Laura Bush reminds me of the do-gooder Rotarian type, but I think her heart is in the right place. And there are 50,000 dead people who haven’t even been buried yet…not a time for politics.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:14 pmLaura Bush admonished the Burmese government for its “inept” response to
Is this a classic case of projection? Who is inept? She and everything/everyone that surrounds her?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:15 pmAnd for God’s sake, what is that woman on?
Just like the Indonesian Tsunami, we are offering an extremely small amount of aid. I predict that after the administration increases it, they will deny how small it was to begin with—just like after the tsunami.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:15 pmMy oh my. Doesn’t Pickles look absolutely human today? God, it must suck to have to lie underneath W every once in a while. Thank God for Xanax, huh Laura?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:15 pmJMOHR Says:
May 6th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Beautifully stated!
May 6th, 2008 at 5:16 pmThe Bush Administration was prepared PERFECTLY for Katrina.
They knew what they were doing, what would happen. The poorest neighborhoods and people, some of our country’s poorest, have NEVER received the proper response to this disaster. This includes the many veterans who had been stationed in the Gulf Coast region and lived there.
The “good parts” were immediately rebuilt and the slums are untouched. Where it will suit them, the rich will take the property of those who are (often forcibly) displaced and sell to new “improved” residents.
Let them eat water… or, as they say, “So?”
May 6th, 2008 at 5:17 pmAlejandro Says:
That classmate of Laura’s had no warning whatsoever when she ran the stop sign and killed him.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I believe that was the boyfiriend who just dumped her. But I’m not saying she deliberately killed him.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:17 pmLaura Bush reminds me of the do-gooder Rotarian type, but I think her heart is in the right place. And there are 50,000 dead people who haven’t even been buried yet…not a time for politics.
Keltoi, if now is no time for politics, why did Pickles get the job of insulting the Burmese government? Why not a nice and easy commitment of US funds and be done with it (Perino could have easily done that)? Pickles made it a political issue with her undiplomatic words and accusations. And I don’t believe she actually works for my government.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:18 pmPeople knew New Orleans, below sea level, couldn’t handle this. Mississippi is too impoverished to handle this. The experts at LSU told all about this but they were silenced, because that would require a responsible plan and not “drive to Atlanta, Houston or Memphis in your car.”
They knew the levees were toast but wouldn’t tell emergency relief workers and staff.
See Big Easy to Big Empty.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:21 pmKeltoi, Bush did cause the deaths of 1.2 million Iraqis, 4,060 Americans, and a cost of $3 Trillion plus a boon to our enemies.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:22 pmShe took advantage of the opportunity to capitalize habitual criticism of the Burmese government, but couldn’t garner the adrenaline rush to drag herself to the podium when thousands of poor people were living like animals and her husband was in Arizona eating cake.
The time where she could have taken a meaningful stand as an active first lady, she blows on a bland, purely political appearance.
I watched this on the news last night and should have brought it up on Thinkfast. Thank you, TP, for posting on this.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:23 pmI’m sure I’m not the only one, but as soon as I saw this on the news, I saw this thread coming.
After all the criticism over Katrina, the White House should have kept quiet.
And why would you want the first lady embroiled in heavy accusations like this? If anyone should be above the fray, it should be the first lady.
This was an ignorant idea on the part of the white house; on both counts.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:23 pmShe could have talked about how poor the Burmese people were and how the military dictatorship’s response was working out quite well for them; and, still the press corp would be sleepwalking through the press conference.
BTW what color gown will Jenna be wearing?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:26 pmThe people of New Orleans had days of warnings that a CAT 4 or 5 hurricane was approaching. The Burmese people weren’t even given one solitary minute of warning. There is no comparison.
The 9th Ward had no idea that the levee could breach flooding square miles and their homes “for weeks if not months.” No, Bush failed to share that juicy tidbit with all those who consequently drowned, lost loved ones, lost their homes and futures.
BTW, that school mate that Laura Bush slammed into and murdered without warning wasn’t just any school mate, he was her ex-boyfriend, perhaps the victim of their recent breakup more than of a fortuitous accident. She ran a stop sign at 60 MPH is a 30 MPH zone. No investigation.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:26 pmWhat IS it about Bush women and disastrous acts of God? Is there something about a hurricane or a cyclone killing and displacing many people that inspires them to say truly stupid things? Wasn’t it bad enough when Mama Bush looked at all the displaced hurricane victims who had been relocated to the Houston Astrodome and made some remark about how this was “good” for them????
I suspect that if some clueless First Lady of some other country had made similar remarks immediately after 9/11 about our lack of preparedness for such an emergency and why couldn’t our firefighters talk to our police officers on radios blah blah blah, we would regard that as completely tasteless and inappropriate while our people were suffering. Whether it was true or not.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:26 pmCap’n, I agree.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:26 pmStratRat Says:
Keltoi, if now is no time for politics, why did Pickles get the job of insulting the Burmese government?
She is playing above her bracket, I will grant you. I do happen to think she wants to help. But it isn’t worth arguing over, this situation is pure tragedy and conflating it with Katrina for a round of Bush-bashing seems gratuitous.
I pity the people of Burma.
Have a good day, all.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:30 pmKeltoi Says:
——————————————————————————–
The massive scale of the human tragedy in Burma, the actual fascist murder and repression perpetrated by its government against its citizens as opposed to the Chicken Little kind I hear Bush accused of….maybe it is me, but this thread seems a little tasteless.
Laura Bush reminds me of the do-gooder Rotarian type, but I think her heart is in the right place. And there are 50,000 dead people who haven’t even been buried yet…not a time for politics.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:14 pm Recommend (0) | Report Abuse
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Maybe we should consider bringing democracy to these poor folks or do they not have anything we are interested in exploiting
May 6th, 2008 at 5:30 pmWell, after all ,those Myanmarians are underpriveleged, so it’s working out nicely, they’ll get new homes someday!!
May 6th, 2008 at 5:30 pmI was watching the news report about this on TV with my wife. We both made the exact same observations pointed out in this report, especially about the refusal of help from other countries when it was offered. We are amazed at how fast they want to go help in Burma. Hello… We could still use a little help down here in Louisiana.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:31 pmI stated that it would have had to have been Laura Bush to come out and make that statement. No one else in the administration could have come out with any kind of integrity intact.
BTW, that school mate that Laura Bush slammed into and murdered without warning wasn’t just any school mate, he was her ex-boyfriend, perhaps the victim of their recent breakup more than of a fortuitous accident. She ran a stop sign at 60 MPH is a 30 MPH zone. No investigation.
And an old friend of mine used to buy dime bags of weed from laura. She was quite the party girl in her day.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:31 pmHey anymouse,
We’re not here condoning corrupt governments — between any extremes. We’re pointing out this administration’s levying of criticism toward other nations when they can’t run their own. Please notice the difference.
And you can give all the notice you want. If people are barred from leaving their area for whatever reason — most commonly, financial reasons — then it goes beyond notice and requires government to deploy a rapid response to aid those who can’t help themselves.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:34 pmStratRat ~ Are you ins!utting our first laidy?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:35 pmArt, I thought the same thing about refusing offers of aid when I heard this story on NPR this morning. Didn’t Bush flat-out refuse Hugo Chavez when he offered aid to help Katrina victims?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:37 pmBut it isn’t worth arguing over, this situation is pure tragedy and conflating it with Katrina for a round of Bush-bashing seems gratuitous.
I pity the people of Burma.
Have a good day, all.
Good response Keltoi. Agreed.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:37 pmmisshusseinmolly Says:
I suspect that if some clueless First Lady of some other country had made similar remarks immediately after 9/11 about our lack of preparedness for such an emergency and why couldn’t our firefighters talk to our police officers on radios blah blah blah, we would regard that as completely tasteless and inappropriate while our people were suffering. Whether it was true or not.
Bingo, as usual. Imagine it coming from Mrs Hugo Chavez (if there is a Mrs Chavez). The pundits would be spinning and foaming and demanding we bomb Venezuela.
Not to mention Laura got it wrong (see Froomkin), because the Generals are, in fact, welcoming foreign aid.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:38 pmRUCerious Says:
StratRat ~ Are you ins!utting our first laidy?
Hell no….She had some of the best Skunk this side of Vancuover. Make your head spin - hmmm, maybe she gave some to W.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:39 pmStratRat Says:
And an old friend of mine used to buy dime bags of weed from laura. She was quite the party girl in her day.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Sounds like my ole best bud Wayne LaPierre (NRA).
May 6th, 2008 at 5:40 pmNo way Laura was ever that cool. No way.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:41 pmMost Katrina Aid From Overseas Went Unclaimed
By John Solomon and Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042907F.shtml
May 6th, 2008 at 5:45 pmHey, reading Dan Froomkin’s article linked above made me think of something — he quotes colleague Dan Eggen thusly:“The remarks underscore the first lady’s uncommon emergence as the administration’s most visible spokesman on Burma, also known as Myanmar, which is ruled by a junta that is widely criticized as one of the world’s most oppressive and corrupt regimes.”
Doesn’t that just sound like the type of nation that Bush should want to liberate?
I mean, isn’t that why we went into Iraq? Because of the oppression of the Iraqi people? It sure wasn’t for oil, right?
So here’s another brutally oppressed nation, living under a repressive military junta… what’s stopping us from spreading democracy there, too?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:46 pmResponse to Keltoi:
No, actually the thread is no where near tasteless. What is tasteless are the antics of conservatives who show little or no compassion to their fellow citizens. Start with the fact that somehow the bar is set so low for the level of concern that we owe each other. Yes, conservatives believe that any level of assistance marginally above that of a third world, corrupt government is adequate. The fact that the United States had the resources, the equipment and had even gamed out the kind of disaster that befell New Orleans does not matter. We just did better the Myramar.
I like the referrence to fascism. I am sorry, but Bush advocated and approved torture under any reasonable definition of the law. He has violated international and he has violated US criminal law with regards to his surveillance programs. I find that scum is scum. Fascists are fascists. It is only a matter of degree. Bush is even guiltier since he is destroying what had been the brightest beacon for human rights in the world. He deserves to burn in hell as do those who support him.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:48 pmGood Grief! Is this woman also psychologically impaired? She’s been a sad disgrace as First Lady and has been basically absent for the past 4 years. Obviously, she’s about as unpopular as her hubby not merely by association but by the fact that she’s accomplished absolutely nothing during her 8 years as First Lady.
This remark is callous and criminal coming from the lips of someone who was involved in it taking 4 days to get water to the people of New Orleans, ignored the warnings, and sat there at Crawford watching people drowning while painting her fingernails. I’d love to know more about her vehicular homicide situation back in the 60’s.
It’s apparent that one sadist married another. What a couple of buffoons.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:48 pmLaura Bush = CHIMPETTE
May 6th, 2008 at 5:49 pmThe Bush’s are sociopaths. They have no concept of human suffering. They only see the tragedy of the poor and disenfranchised as an opportunity for their cronies to benefit from no-bid reconstruction contracts, or where that won’t happen to bully, insuring that any assistance America might offer will surly be rejected. . . a pre-emptive strike.
Winning hearts and minds the world over . . . it’s sad for the good-hearted people of America who would love to help, and the people of world who would benefit from the generosity of the American public.
Laura’s halo is window-dressing. Her horns are as sharp as dubya’s.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:50 pm#13 Please tell us more about Laura’s vehicular homicide. It involved her ex-beau at an intersection if memory serves me correctly. And what about the ensuing investigation? And how was it expunged from her “record” so handily?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:51 pmStrat_92117 Says:
May 6th, 2008 at 5:51 pmAre you sure it wasn’t oregano?
RockyRoad: Yes, indeed, in their drug-induced sociopathy, they are quite kindred spirits. She was a doper in college as weas he, him bragging about doing it in the oval office and her “peddling”. Two nutjobs who deserve each other. Both with drug-addled brains who are sick, twisted sociopaths.
Laura is the biggest “conjob” on the planet with her sweet southern, exaggerated southern drawl which purrs from those nicotine stained lips, lined excessively with the toxicity of decades of lighting up….she’s downright appalling in her level of ignorance. The american people will dance in the streets to not have to see her flat, disgusting derriere waltzing around the lawn of the white house.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:55 pmA little off topic, but, it’s stories like this that highlight to me, how often we (Americans) can be self asborbed.
I heard estimates yesterday of about 15,000 Burmese causualties.
I started to think about American causualties in the last quarter century (if I’m forgeting some, please remind me). But, I bet if we counted up all the acts of terror against us (9/11, cole, kobar, okc bombing, etc), the troops we’ve lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we added up all our recent natural disasters (tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, earthquakes) and then we threw in riots and civil unrest; I’ll bet it still wouldn’t total 15,000 American causualties.
We’ve got serious problems in America, but sometimes I believe the attention we give them - isn’t rational when you consider what much of the rest of the world has to deal with.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:56 pmDoes anyone else get the image of “porky piglet” when they see this woman waltzing around the lawn in her heels and ugly suits? Those piggy legs and wide derriere - you’d think that a handler or makeover artist would help this woman out.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:57 pmMisshusseinmolly - re #33, you said a mouthful. Spot on.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:59 pmanymouse19 Says:
The people of New Orleans had days of warnings that a CAT 4 or 5 hurricane was approaching. The Burmese people weren’t even given one solitary minute of warning. There is no comparison.
Bush said help ws on the way. He lied to NOLA. He and you and the rest of the republican scumbags didn’t and don’t give a rats ass about brown people dying. And since you’re only choosing to respond to Keltoi, Laura made this a political issue with her comments you inbred moron.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:00 pmMonkey see - monkey do.
When the collective IQ of that whole family (all generations included) reaches 10 (ten) the they would hold a national day of celebration. (or a national day of mourning)
Condi must have coached her… nice shoes in Burma…..
May 6th, 2008 at 6:01 pmWonder if McCain will chant the Bush mantra at his next presser? “Your scum bag government is so irresponsible that it didn’t protect its people against a cyclone (hurricane) that it could see coming, that it knew could flood miles of your coastline and result in the destruction of entire neighborhoods with flooding that could last for weeks if not months. It’s your own stupid fault. We insist that you let our troops come in to assess the damage. You would be idiots not to embrace our offer of assistance. We could even build you a Disneyland to ease your pain.”
Between McCain and Joe Lieberman, it would not be remotely suprising for these hacks to justify Laura’s crass comments.
But, getting to what’s really important, what’s Jenna’s color scheme?
May 6th, 2008 at 6:12 pmrobbez_92107 Says:
Strat_92117 Says:
Are you sure it wasn’t oregano?
No man, it sure wasn’t oreganooooooo.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:14 pmI lived down the road from this clan in Kennedrunksnort and although I have met many of this ill begotten clan, I have never met Laura. Still I am inclined to go with StratRat on this one
May 6th, 2008 at 6:17 pmWhere was the Great Lady Laura when people were dying in the attics in New Orleans?
May 6th, 2008 at 6:18 pmEnough,
I believe she was in Crawford painting her nails.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:31 pmEnough,
Probably mixing appletini’s with Jenna and Barbara and discussing the pros and cons of their after-life in Paraguay.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:34 pmThe Jerusalem Post had this to say about the First Lady:
The wife of the US president said her country was ready to pump aid into Myanmar for recovery efforts, but that the ruling junta must accept a US disaster response team.
First lady Laura Bush, who has been the administration’s chief voice on human rights and political conditions in Myanmar, faulted the junta for proceeding with the constitutional referendum, and criticized government leaders for not sufficiently warning citizens about the storm. “We know already that they are very inept,” she said.
And I thought she was talking about New Orleans and her husband’s sorry Katrina response. His promised “robust” Lessons Learned report was a shameless coverup, definitely a bust.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:08 pmWhy is this brain-dead, lame duck, stepford bimbo getting any air time?
May 6th, 2008 at 7:22 pmis it just me or does this chick look like she has mild down’s syndrome? look at the big ole moonface, her upturned eyes. someone get her to stick our her tongue so we can see if it’s thick.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:30 pmAccording to the two-page accident report, Laura Welch was driving her Chevrolet sedan on a clear night shortly after 8 p.m. on Nov. 6, 1963, when she drove into an intersection and struck a Corvair sedan driven by 17-year-old Michael Douglas.
Although previous news accounts have reported Douglas was thrown from the car and broke his neck, those details were not in the report.
The speed of Laura Bush’s car was illegible on the report. The speed limit for the road was 55.
Laura Bush and her passenger, Judy Dykes, also 17, were taken to a hospital and treated for minor injuries, according to an accident account printed at the time in the Midland Reporter-Telegram.
The police report indicates no charges were filed. That section of the report was left blank.
”As far as we know, no charges were filed,” said Midland city attorney Keith Stretcher. ”I don’t think it’s unusual that charges weren’t filed.”
The speed limit on the road that she was on was 30 mph. No investigation was undertaken and no citatations were issued although it was agreed by all that she was flying when she ran the stop sign and T-boned her former boyfriend’s car. Witnesses said that he was thrown from the car and broke his neck.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:14 pmYou must understand that this land is flat as a pancake. You can see anyone coming for miles. You can also time your impact for minutes in advance. He lived two to three blocks away so it was fairly predictable that if he planned to go anywhere that night, he would turn onto that highway . . . and his presence would be visible for miles.
You are talking Texas plains . . . not treed urban areas.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:31 pmGenerally, blocks are measured in miles.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:37 pmFrankly, this is chilling and makes me want to puke.
I’m going to a happier place. . . don’t want to think about this anymore.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:50 pm.
N. O. L. A. means nothing to the ignorant!
.
May 7th, 2008 at 1:39 amN.O.LA.
Means nothing but to the intelligent. NOLA means little ot anyone.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:14 amOt anyone?
Ot we understand your poor acronym for New Orleans?
Ot you have attended grade school so that your crummy acronym makes sense?
What the hell is your point?
The correct acronym for New Orleans is N.O., La. or NOLa.
Get over yourself.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:22 amPlease forgive me,
The topic of conversation was Laura Bush’s comments on Myanmar . . .that’s where the conversation should go. . . an important topic . . . getting back . . .
May 7th, 2008 at 3:16 amThe stepford wife speaks out. But who’s pulling the strings, the RNC? She better look in the mirror at her husbands Katrina disaster before criticizing others.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:11 amNew Orleanian here… one of hundreds of thousands who lost everything when the federal levees fell down without even being overtopped.
Y’all make me mad - both those of you on the right and left. Our losses should never have become a partisan issue!!!
And, BTW… 1) 92% of Southeast Louisiana evacuated before Katrina! Give us some credit - I bet your community couldn’t do that with two days notice!
2) It was not a ‘natural disaster’ that caused our losses. We lost everything because of the worst engineering disaster in US history by the US Army Corps of Engineers. We maintained those levees just fine.
Now instead of arguing about our fate in New Orleans, please consider the people in Myanmar.
That storm sure took a deadly track. The north-east side of a Hurricane is the most vicious and pushes the greatest storm surge and the storm ran on a north east track along their coast - bad, bad, bad. The region normally has all the fresh water they could ever want, but it might be quite a while before that isn’t an issue. With all the news about rice shortages, their whole country might suffer food shortages for the next year or so since this region was a major producer of their rice.. Loss of livestock, boats, docks… 20,000+ deaths? The grief! mass confusion! Unidentified bodies. Infections! Everything caked in mud. Debris everywhere. Heat & humidity. Stench! Housing? Electricity? communications? Mosquitos & coffin flies! decimated graves. Nothing left to even loot for survival. Broken sewage systems? The bigger the effected region, the harder and longer it takes to recover or even get initial aid. I mean, how can you really help your cousin when you lost everything too along with your whole village and region, your livlihood, your local government, medical facilities, churches, hardware & grocery stores, fuel sources… I sure hope those survivors somehow get some help or a bunch more will likely die miserably in coming weeks and months. food, water, shelter, clothes, fuel, building material or a ride away from the problems. Man oh man, I wouldn’t want to be one of the survivors along that Myanmar coast.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:39 amCrescentCityRay Says:
New Orleanian here… one of hundreds of thousands who lost everything when the federal levees fell down without even being overtopped.
Y’all make me mad - both those of you on the right and left. Our losses should never have become a partisan issue!!!
. . . .
Now instead of arguing about our fate in New Orleans, please consider the people in Myanmar.
I am so tired of people on this website pretending to be residents of places they do not live. The levees were undermined from the bottom and then were topped when the bottom fell out. Clearly this is not a partisian issue. This is an issue of the structural integrity of America’s infrastructure and of the failure of an Administration to take responsible pre-emptive action.
Where you get your 98% figure boggles the brain. I lived in New Orleans for years and went down to help friends pack up and leave before the storm. Many residents of the 9th Ward had no place to go. For so many of us who have lived through multiple hurricanes in New Orleans, it was not completely unreasonable to ride out the storm. The storm wasn’t the problem. The levees were. Bush knew about the problem with the levees and relaxed in Crawford even after having been briefed about it. No one considers this a partisian problem. It is an ongoing disaster for which the vast majority of Americans of every persuasion view harshly.
For you to suggest that we should forget New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and focus on the disaster in Myanmar is ludicrous. The latest tragedy does not trump the prior tragedy. We should learn from the former to minimize the damage from the latter. From Katrina, this Administration has learned nothing, except to to repeat the blame/shame that they encountered from a ruthless, coldly calculated dismissal.
Would you have us send our formaldyhide polluted trailers to Myanmay along with our troops. Perhaps we can quietly kill their population and set up bases there.
Like Laura, you are a wolf in sheeps clothing . . . but even a quick read of your post shows that you are all over the page in your insincerity. New Orleans cajuns don’t even say “ya’ll.”
May 7th, 2008 at 5:31 pmrockyroad Says:
‘Where you get your 98% figure boggles the brain.’
I said 92% - not 98% - It is a fact. It was the second time we evacuated in 2005. Ever since Hurricane Georges it has been a family tradition for us. By Sunday evening, we Southeast Louisiana evacuees filled nearly every hotel room in Houston, Lafayette, Lake Charles, San Antonio, Beaumont, Dallas, Memphis, Jackson, Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, Monroe, Shreveport, Alexandria and dozens of other places. Every single family on my block in Lakeview evacuated before the storm. Every single relative I have here evacuated. All of my wife’s extended family evacuated. Chalmette, New Orleans East, Gentilly, Lakeview, all of Metry, the west bank, Slidell all looked like ghost towns by Sunday afternoon. We moved back to a rental in the warehouse district 10/14/05 and have been here since and of everyone I knew before the storm, only a small handful did not evacuate. Of course, since the storm, I’ve gotten to know a bunch of people that did not evacuate. The misperceptions about our evacuation, widespread destruction, the levees, our recovery and ‘lifestyle’ seem endless.
Here is another fact you probably don’t know: Over two thirds of us had flood insurance, but rarely enough to afford to get back in our severely flooded homes.
‘The levees were undermined from the bottom and then were topped when the bottom fell out. Clearly this is not a partisian issue.’
This is true and I agree. But both the left and right have made every effort to turn it into a stupid political issue rather than the human tragedy that it was and continues to be.
And, our government refuses to be accountable for their negligence that caused our losses. It is infuriating.
‘I am so tired of people on this website pretending to be residents of places they do not live.’
I’m sitting on my couch in my rebuilt home in the 6400 block of Vicksburg Street in NOLA, 70124. We rebuilt with our living area above the Katrina flood line - parking and storage underneath in our concrete ‘raised basement’. It was not easy or cheap getting home. Our mortgage is much larger than it was and for another thirty years rather than just the eleven we had left pre-k. Insurance and utilities cost a *lot* more than they used to. We’re very lucky in that we have a few neighbors in our block. Look out my window and you would see a few rebuilt homes, a few empty lots where homes stood pre-k and three flooded, but at least gutted abandoned homes where no one knows whats going on. Our zip code still has no post office or public school and just this week we finally got a little bit of public transportation.
For you to suggest that we should forget New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and focus on the disaster in Myanmar is ludicrous. The latest tragedy does not trump the prior tragedy. We should learn from the former to minimize the damage from the latter.
I reckon I was not clear, but I never said ‘forget New Orleans’. Having gone through this, I find it appalling that while 100k people just drowned and about a million more have been suddenly made homeless, US Citizens want to use it as just another excuse to argue about politics.
You think I hate lefties? You are correct, but I hate right wingers just as much. At this point, there are very few politicians I respect. They have all failed us.
We should learn from the former to minimize the damage from the latter.
I’m damned tired of people ‘learning’ stuff as a result of our losses. F learning. We are still all messed up here. We’re still waiting for and deserve a rescue. I’m going to be real mad when a big disaster happens somewhere else in this country and they actually get treated like US citizens because of all the ‘learning’ that was done at our expense.
New Orleans cajuns don’t even say “ya’ll.”
Generalizations? I’ve been saying y’all all my life. And, I am a yat raised in Gentilly. Most Cajuns don’t live in New Orleans, but I was born and raised here and I do happen to be of Cajun descent, but I don’t speak French. As a matter of fact I am one of the few remaining male direct descendant of Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil who led 58 of the first Acadian families to Louisiana in 1765. No one really liked him. He was a crazy drunkard rebel rouser, like I’ve been since those levees fell down. Before this, I was never any kind of ‘activist’ for anything. Since the storm, I’ve done everything I can manage, and then some, to try to help all New Orleanians get home and to get us some reliable flood protection and federal money to help pay for our recovery. While we’ve mostly failed miserably in our efforts, I find it amazing the positive changes that can result from efforts by small groups of people.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:18 pm100,000 people are dead because their government gave them no warning a cyclone was coming.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:03 pmThat has literally nothing in common with Katrina and you are a POS for using loss of life on that scale for pissweak political point scoring against a first lady.
‘100,000 people are dead because their government gave them no warning a cyclone was coming.
That has literally nothing in common with Katrina and you are a POS for using loss of life on that scale for pissweak political point scoring against a first lady.’
Amen.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:39 pmI wish I could have said it that clearly.
Oh come on,
Is there noone on this website willing to join me? Yeah, Katrina was due to a Gay Pride Parade?
May 8th, 2008 at 12:12 amZooey,
I just want to call you at home!
May 8th, 2008 at 12:14 am92%?
Don’t think so . . . substantiate that number. You can’t.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:18 amLook you crack pot,
Fact is, this Administration supremely f’d Katrina. Now it’s trying to allay its wrongdoing by blaming another regime of duplicating its wrongs.
Pretty simple.
Dead poor people. Dubya doesn’t care, Laura doesn’t care, the Myanmar regime doesn’t care . . . who can make political hay out of the deaths of thousands? Dubya and Laura. Dubya is responsible for the deaths of thousands in Iraq and Laura has murdered at least one old boyfriend . . . who really gives a flying f**k?
May 8th, 2008 at 12:24 am‘who can make political hay out of the deaths of thousands?’
May 8th, 2008 at 7:48 amrockyroad can
rockyroad Says:
Look you crack pot,
Look in the mirror if you want to see a crack pot.
And, stop calling me names and stop blaming us Katrina victims for doing an evacuation as best we could. Like I said, I bet your city couldn’t evacuate as well as we did Pre-k. We deserve credit.
And, these poor souls in Myanmar, and even their government, should be somewhat forgiven for not performing better before their storm or even now. Things are not as easy or as simple as they appear. Just look at how such a thing was handled by a ’superpower’.
Again, I’m glad I’m not there or have friends or family there. The Burmese are going to have it even rougher than we did - by far.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:22 amrockyroad Says:
92%?
Don’t think so . . . substantiate that number. You can’t.
92%? say…
80,000 stayed in region / 1,000,000 population in region = 0.08 –> that means 92% evacuated from southeast Louisiana, such as was my claim.
Officials report 66,000 were actually emergency evacuated post-k. And, some officials claim 1,200,000 southeast Louisianians evacuated pre-k. Do the math and give us the credit we deserve.
Some say only 80% evacuated Pre-k from Orleans Parish.
What percentage do you think evacuated Rocky?
The mis-perceptions by lefties and righties and nearly everyone else about our very successful Katrina evacuation is very insulting to the 1,000,000 of us that evacuated before the storm. We should be commended for our efforts. IT was the second time we evacuated that summer. Furthermore, while I’m not a fan of Nagin or Blanco, in regards to the pre-k evacuation, they performed about as well as can be expected - So did surrounding parish leaders. It was the best evacuation the city has ever had. Our local weather reporters and news media did a great job encouraging us to leave too. NOAA’a National Weather Service really deserves special credit and recognition for their Pre-K performance. You and everyone else who shares your ignorance should apologize for your insulting misperceptions.
’substantiate that number’?
I wish you had been in that traffic jam that took everyone about six hours just to get as far as Baton Rouge. Substantiation:
my post with urls is
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