Dean Statement on Administration's Political Response to Hurricane Katrina

[speedoo]

http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/09/dean_statement_6.php

(snip)

"Based on today’s reports, it seems clear that President Bush’s visit today is just another callous political move crafted by Karl Rove. It’s just appalling to see how quickly President Bush and Karl Rove have mobilized a political strategy in their own defense, but simply failed to mobilize a swift response to either keep the people in the Gulf Coast region safe in the first place or aid the victims in the aftermath of the storm.

"Thousands of people have lost their lives. Our nation faces difficult times as we address the painful aftermath of Katrina, yet President Bush is worried about shifting blame and passing the buck? Shouldn’t he be worried about restoring stability, plans to evacuate survivors, and ensuring that our communities have the resources they need to help the victims of this tragedy rebuild their lives? Now is a time for leadership not partisanship. This is one failure we will not allow Rove and the GOP attack machine to spin away with their usual barrage of photo-ops, misinformation, smear campaigns and press conferences."

(snip)

[longship]

1. Recommended. This is crucial.

:kick:ed.

[berni_mccoy]

2. Go DEAN GO!

:kick:

[wryter2000]

3. All right

I was disappointed we had to wait so long to hear from the good doctor, but his response doesn't disappoint. I hope he's busy figuring out how to boot any Repug who still supports Nero* out of the Congress.

[Trevelyan]

26. I don't see any practical plan to get rid of bush, Dean doesn't

even mention the RESOLUTION OF INQUIRY sponsored by Barbara Lee and which is the beginning of Impeachment process.

I believe that afterdowningstreet.org said that Sept. 15 is the deadline for co-sponsorship and requested that we contact the names on the committee to investigate to co-sponsor not just sign Rep. Conyers letter.

Please also go to Conyers Blog, he is asking for suggestion on how the Congress should respond to helping the victims of Katrina and is sponsoring legislation to stop price gouging of gasoline and wants to know your thoughts on other legislation to respond to the lack of response from Bushco on this crises and tragedy.

Rep. Conyers was the one who first wrote the letter on The Resolution of Inquiry and you can help him by at least asking your own Congresspersons to sponsor THIS FIRST STEP OF IMPEACHMENT. There is an easy link to contact your reps on the after downing street site and much more information on what you can do on a practical level to get rid of these monsters.

[saigon68]

4. I'm surprised ROVE isn't there yet Looting the CORPSES

He's fully capable of cutting off the fingers of the deceased to get their RINGS

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Now is not the time to be pointing fingers.

Not until the Puggies get their spin machine cranked up.

[BiggJawn]

15. I disagree.

We've sat back and let Rove, Inc. fire the first shot for the last 6 years. And we NEVER learn that that mother-fucker hits us square in the magazine EVERY time on the FIRST volley.

[eyepaddle]

35. That's as succinctly put as I've ever seen it.

I'm with you.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

36. Rule Number One in a fight:

Get the first punch in.

Rule Number Two in a fight:

Get the second punch in.

etc...

[marbuc]

6. We don't need statements and petitions that are only read by the

politically aware. We need Dean and Dem leadership to "take it to the streets," to reach out to Main St America and let them know we're not going to take it anymore, and articulate an agenda to fix the problems this administration has created.

[understandinglife]

7. I've sent a copy of the following letter to Gov Dean and requested ..

... he make the calls to each Member of Congress, today, and insist that they go to the White House and demand the resignation of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney.

September 6, 2005

Dear (Member of Congress name),

I call on you as a Representative of the People of the United States of America, to meet your Constitutional duty to defend the Republic against all enemies – domestic and foreign. Thus, I request that you go to the White House today, and demand that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney resign.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney are responsible for the colossal destruction of the infrastructure of the United States of America.

The culmination of their coordinated indifference and willful neglect of the protective infrastructure of New Orleans and the appropriate actions to protect the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is now fully visible to all.

The whole world is not merely watching they've made it clear they know exactly who are responsible.

We do not need to await leaked classified documents or whistle blowers or any form of insider information. We have all the facts we need to demand the immediate resignation and subsequent retribution by Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and many of their minions.

The only Members of Congress for whom this is a ‘political issue’ are the Republicans. They must confront the decision of saving some vestige of the Republican Party, just as Senator Goldwater and a few of his colleagues confronted in August of 1974 when they went to the White House and told President Nixon to resign. I have communicated that reality to the respective staff of senior Republican Senators.

The whole world is watching and their revulsion is not confined to one political party or another, it is directed at the vast inhumanity demonstrated by Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and all those aligned with their criminal neglect of the people of New Orleans, their unbounded avarice, and their total disregard for the law.

Thank you, in advance, for requesting the resignation of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, today.

Sincerely,

Feel free to use it ....


Peace.

[classof56]

17. I like it. Just printed it off. Thanks! n/t

[Pacifist Patriot]

33. I would change one little thing...

Their criminal neglect is not restricted to the people of New Orleans.

Beautiful letter!

[daninthemoon]

8. OK, that's a start. The press is already losing interest.

[endarkenment]

9. Thank You Dr, Dean. EOM

[Dr Fate]

10. Is he going to say this on TV, or is this for donors eyes only?

Where can red-staters who dont go Liberal websites find these great quotes?? Or is that the idea- that only "the choir" with check books sees this.

[Trevelyan]

30. Why isn't Dean commenting on the ongoing genocide and

helping to get medical aid to these people. HE IS A DOCTOR, FOR GOD'S SAKE, HE KNOWS THE DANGERS OF DISEASES WHICH ARE JUST BEGINNING, WHY DIDN'T HE SAY SOMETHING SPECIFIC? WHY ISN'T HE DOWN THERE WITH THE REST OF THE DOCTORS, AT LEAST TO FIND OUT WHY THESE DOCTORS WHO VOLUNTEERED ARE STILL NOT BEING ALLOWED IN THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. REPEAT THE GENOCIDE IS STILL GOING ON, I READ ANOTHER STORY SAYING THE SAME AS THE FOLLOWING BUT AS OF YESTERDAY THESE DOCTORS ARE STILL NOT ALLOWED IN THE CITY, WRITE DEAN, WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSON. ASK WHY???

Doctors banned from helping Katrina Victims
by AHiddenSaint

Mon Sep 5th, 2005 at 01:27:22 PDT

It is late here and I'm about to head to bed, but this story is scary. I'll try to stay up to see a few responses and change this dairy if need be, but the moderators at dailykos I give permission to delete if this dairy is a repeat or change if need be in order to help the information. What matters most is that these facts get out and people see them.

Victims of Katrina might have been helped, but red-tape kept the doctors who wanted to help out.

Among the doctors stymied from helping out are 100 surgeons and paramedics in a state-of-the-art mobile hospital, developed with millions of tax dollars for just such emergencies, marooned in rural Mississippi.

"The bell was rung, the e-mails were sent off. ...We all got off work and deployed,"said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


AHiddenSaint's diary :: ::

"We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," he said. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said.

While the doctors wait, the first signs of disease began to emerge Saturday: A Mississippi shelter was closed after 20 residents got sick with dysentery, probably from drinking contaminated water.

How many lives could have been saved if these doctors were allowed in to help Katrina victims?

"How crazy is that?" he complained in an e-mail to his daughter.Dr. Jeffrey Guy, a trauma surgeon at Vanderbilt University who has been in contact with the mobile hospital doctors, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, "There are entire hospitals that are contacting me, saying, 'We need to take on patients," ' but they can't get through the bureaucracy.

"The crime of this story is, you've got millions of dollars in assets and it's not deployed," he said. "We mount a better response in a Third World country."Could this be one of many reasons why the response to Katrina was so bad?

As hurricane survivors died along roadsides and at shelters where they were told to take refuge, or pleaded for food and water or a ride to an overcrowded shelter, members of Congress called for hearings to find out how the response to this disaster could have failed so badly when the nation has spent unprecedented billions of
dollars in the name of homeland security.

But the answer may not be much of a mystery.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, once a powerful independent agency focused solely on responding to earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters that occur on average about four times a month, was placed within the huge Department of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Homeland Security sends $1.1 billion each year to states to combat terrorism, but $180 million to help prepare for such disasters as Katrina. Much of the terrorism grant money is given under conditions that specifically exclude spending it on items or personnel that would be used in responding to hazards other than terrorism.

Could this have been prevented?

On the sixth day of disaster and despair, an urgent new problem erupted: disease. A suspected outbreak of dysentery compelled authorities in Biloxi, Miss., to hurriedly evacuate hundreds of people from a shelter. Medical experts have warned of epidemics sweeping through crowded, unsanitary shelters.

Thousands were believed dead throughout the region, and authorities said dozens were dying each day from the cumulative effects of Hurricane Katrina.

How many is the question?


http://dailykos.com/story/2005/9/5/42722/21410

[Dr Fate]

42. I'd like to see Dean & other DEMs on TV repeating the original post. n/t

n/t

[yurbud]

11. Howard for President: an honest democrat with balls

[Trevelyan]

32. Is there more to the administration's lack of response

than simple ineptitude?"

I don't know, but there are several good reasons to ask the question. If it's just ineptitude, the degree is so enormous that there's no word strong enough to express the magnitude of incompetence. It's unprecedented. There have been hundreds of oversights and errors and dozens of examples of authorities withholding, and even actively stopping, basic care from reaching the victims.

This is just one person's opinion, but I wouldn't say it's definitely (key word "definitely") beyond ineptitude. Still, it makes sense to investigate the matter -- especially to insist on finding out why authorities blocked aid to the victims -- and then to hold officials accountable. This country has turned a blind eye to official malfeasance far too many times.

~~~ have been thinking before this happened if there has been an experiment of opression management.

how much does it take to get the current culture up in arms?

how cheaply can they control/ignore/crush them?

how far do we let it go before declaring martial law?

how long do we let them stifle before they are so disoriented they don't ask "you're not taking me to Utah are you?"?

~~The demons at Faux News are having a poll on the handling of Katrina. You know what to do...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168286,00.html#poll

Just found this. Looks like the White House spin is working.

http://www.pollingreport.com/disasters.htm~~~~~~http://www.conyersblog.us/default.htm~~~~

[progressivebydesign]

12. duplicate post

[progressivebydesign]

13. sheesh. another duplicate post. excuse me!

[progressivebydesign]

14. I love Howard Dean... and Al Gore, too. My heroes. And Sean Penn, too n/t

[Politicub]

16. Yeah Dean!

He's going for blood, as he should. The Bush admin's PR to save their own asses is sickening.

If Bush and his supporters truly believe the words in the bible that they are constantly hitting us over the head with, then their punishment in the afterlife will be swift and severe.

Matthew 25:

'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'

Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'

And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,

a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'

Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?'

He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.'

And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

[mark11727]

24. Rudepundit has a scathing take on this...

rudepundit.blogspot.com

God thinks: what you do to the least of these, you know. The last twenty-five years or so have shown that the American government wants God to live in shithole housing with no health insurance, no child care, bare bones job training, no welfare net, facing starvation, violence, and/or imprisonment at every turn. And that's a pretty shitty way to treat God.

[Trevelyan]

27. I like it, I will post it at AOL Messageboards for the true Christians

struggling with this betrayal. But why is it alway the left side that is the bad side, I know the actions are more important that the side but still...

I am outraged and glad to see so many others are also, they are backing off the FReepers on the neutral boards.

Free Republic is avoiding this and their articles talking about other issues like Chavez seizing a church to turn it into a military something.

Has Bush actually allowed any of the help to come through, I know he was still asking for cash money instead of the medical personnel and things people in an emergency need and has he let the Red Cross in yet.

The article with requests for contributions to go to The State of Louisiana website to make sure that they actually get to the ones in need and not the Republican appointed head of the American Red Cross GOP slush fund as in the money meant for 911 families.

[ClintonTyree]

18. It's up to us, each and every Democrat............

to make sure these criminal slime don't crawl out from under this miserable failure that cost thousands of people their lives.
LTTE's, letters and phone calls to our Congresscritters, marches on Washington, EVERYTHING we can POSSIBLY do to make sure Americans are aware that THEIR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FAILED THEM!
They SHALL NOT escape culpability for this, THEY SHALL NOT! :grr:

[libodem]

19. Dr Dean always gets right to the point

he's so spot-on. And i think we can blame the administration for the storm its self in that they have denied global warming and made fun of the environmentalists who have been trying to warn them of the impending problems with the warmed-up water fueling hurricanes....oh, but noooo, there is no such thing as global warming....it's a climate trend that comes and goes with the natural cycles of the planet...my ass....hell let's pollute the sky and air a little more....maybe we can fix the blame on Iran and have an excuse to shock and awe them. That's the big problem with this disaster no other country to blame and punish with a war.

[Stevepol]

20. If Dean would just be absolute emphatic about the DREs!!!

This is the only issue that he tap dances around. It needs to be job #1, the VOTING MACHINES, THE VOTING MACHINES, THE VOTING MACHINES!!!!

If he would start harping on that as number one priority and keep it up until every Dem started doing the same, he would be remembered in ages hence in the same breath with Washington and Jefferson and Patrick Henry and Paul Revere, etc.

None of this matters very much w/o the ability to have a fair election. If an election were to be held right now, Bush would probably win by more than the 2 1/2% he supposedly won by in 04.

Unless the vote counting is transparent and fair, YOU CAN'T HAVE A DEMOCRACY!!!!

REPEAT AFTER ME: We do not have a democracy. We do not have a democracy. We do not have a democracy.

[edhopper]

21. About Fucking Time!

[Child_Of_Isis]

22. Dean always speak the truth

This man has balls. He needs to be our President.

[neuvocat]

23. I'm SO GLAD McAuliff is out.

eom

[shavedape]

25. the doctor is in da HAAAOUUUUSE

and he calls it like he sees it!

[JNelson6563]

28. Standing with Dean

who speaks for me. :toast:

[Up2Late]

29. Amen Brother Dean

Absolutely shameful.

[DoYouEverWonder]

31. Instead of helping the people dying in New Orleans

they only concerned themselves with themselves.

How christian of them?

[Pacifist Patriot]

34. Are we talking about the same type of Christians who

view Katrina as divine retribution? *gag*

[chebychev]

37. The FR bastards have linked to this article.

They're mocking Dr. Dean. They're calling HIM political. I'm just not used to this kind of deceit.

Fuck you, Buck W.! You and your fascist, racist gang will all rot in hell!

[bliss_eternal]

38. Do I even dare hope that THIS is indicative of more to come...?

I sincerely hope so...

[savemefromdumbya]

39. hit the nail on the head

Dean has captured the mood of the nation!

[montjoie]

40. Wow

Dean is truly nuts. Amazing.

[savemefromdumbya]

45. nuts?

what is nuts?

[slay]

41. I really admire Howard Dean

He's a rare breed among politicians - he says what he means and he means what he says. He's not afraid to call out KKKarl on his sinister tactics either. Bravo Dr. Dean! :applause:

[emald]

43. "not allow"?

"This is one failure we will not allow Rove and the GOP attack machine to spin away with their usual barrage of photo-ops, misinformation, smear campaigns and press conferences"

Does this mean that democracts have "allowed" the misinformation in the past? How about showing some backbone and not allowing any of it!

Repukicans, demoshits, whatever. To both sides it's all about the spin. Always will be.:mad: :mad: :mad:

[stickdog]

44. Bush better hope for clear weather because good Americans

disgusted with his murderous negligence have taken all the high ground.