Don't Blame Bush for Katrina

[sniffa]

George Bush and the federal government are not to blame for the disaster we have witnessed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In fact, the primary responsibility for the disaster response lies with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and other local officials.

Yet leading Democrats and their allies in the major media are clearly using this disaster for political purposes and ignoring one obvious fact.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/4/151327.shtml

oh, ok then. these peopLe need to be stopped now, by any means necessary.

[shoelace414]

1. It's the Mayors fault

even if he had 80% of his city obliteriated.

[Imagevision]

25. Nope! all news accounts point to Bush administration...

Even Republican Senators pleaded with Bush to respond to no avail...!
If terrorist's had bombed the levee? the results and response still would have been the same!

[Imagevision]

26. Mayors fault? No! not at all, he asked to declare martial law 3 days

before Bush arrived for photo-op!

[reprehensor]

2. Jeezus Mister... Bush is just a little girl... n/t

[bicentennial_baby]

3. seriously, i'm screaming inside my head

safer than doing this: :banghead:

[Cocoa]

4. right, this is clearly a municipal problem

the worst fucking disaster in the nation's history, and it's the fucking CITY GOVERNMENT'S fault.

And a POOR city at that.

:eyes:

[KaryninMiami]

5. I was about to respond but am so outraged by that asshole I refrained-

The thing is, that is the current right wing spin and it's exactly what we will continue to hear from now on. Rove may be quietly sitting on the sidelines, but I can assure you, he's being a very busy spin machine right now.

[Maestro]

6. Good ole NewsMax

the bastion of unbiased journalism. What losers! They are classic butt kissers to this admin.

[Radio_Lady]

19. Who the hell is Christopher Ruddy -- and what payoff list is he on?

Let's look it up...

Biography of Christopher Ruddy
Editor, NewsMax.com

President & CEO of NewsMax Media, Inc

Christopher Ruddy is one the nation’s premiere journalists. In recent years, a Newsweek cover story named him one of America's top 20 new media personalities.

Today, Mr. Ruddy heads NewsMax Media, Inc., a new and significant media publishing company based in West Palm Beach, Florida. NewsMax publishes NewsMax Magazine – with more than 300,000 monthly readers. Yahoo calls NewsMax's Web site, NewsMax.com, "one of the hottest sites on the web." NewsMax also co-publishes books with Random House's Prima Publishing.

Previous to founding NewsMax Media in 1998, Mr. Ruddy had a distinguished career as a journalist.

As an investigative reporter Mr. Ruddy has broken numerous stories that received national acclaim. In 1992 he exposed revelations that a PBS documentary had fabricated key facts – causing PBS to withdraw its support for the film – the first time the organization had made such a move.

At the New York Post, Mr. Ruddy’s series on abuses of the Social Security Disability programs led to national media attention and congressional reforms. Also while at the Post, Mr. Ruddy broke several stories relating to the death investigation of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster.

He continued his reporting on that case and on the Clinton-Gore scandals as a correspondent with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. In 1997, Mr. Ruddy authored The Strange Death of Vincent Foster: An Investigation, published by Simon & Schuster's Free Press.

The book received the endorsement of former FBI Director William Sessions, who said Mr. Ruddy's reporting "argued a persuasive case that the American public has not been told the complete facts" of the Foster death.

Mr. Ruddy has co-edited two books published by NewsMax, Bitter Legacy: NewsMax Reveals the Untold Story of the Clinton-Gore Years and Catastrophe: Clinton's Role in America's Worst Disaster.

A much-in-demand media commentator, Mr. Ruddy has been a featured guest on radio programs around the world as well as numerous TV programs, including:

CNN International
CNN Sunday Morning
MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews
CNBC's Rivera Live
FOX News' In Depth
FOX's Hannity and Colmes
NBC's Unsolved Mysteries
CBS's 60 Minutes
C-SPAN's About Books
PBS's Tony Brown's Journal
BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley
Christopher Ruddy is a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. He holds a B.A. summa cum laude in History from St. John's University in New York and a Master's Degree in Public Policy from the London School of Economics.

[Radio_Lady]

20. Now, follow these links for MORE on RUDDY...

http://slate.msn.com/id/3016/

Books Reading between the lines.

The Strange Case of Christopher Ruddy
And the crime against logic being passed off as a book.
By Michael Isikoff
Posted Sunday, Oct. 19, 1997, at 12:30 AM PT

The Strange Death of Vincent Foster: An Investigation

By Christopher Ruddy

The Free Press; 316 pages; $25


On the off chance that you haven't followed every twist and turn of the case, there are two ways to reassure yourself that former Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster killed himself in Fort Marcy Park. One is to read Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's just-released report on the subject--a briskly efficient 114-page document that makes an already overwhelming case for suicide about as close to airtight as you can get. The other is to read Christopher Ruddy's new book, The Strange Death of Vincent Foster. Ruddy, of course, is the Inspector Clouseau of the Foster case--a determined, if bumbling, former New York Post reporter who has virtually single-handedly spawned a cottage industry of conspiracy buffs dedicated to the proposition that a foul and monstrous cover-up surrounds the circumstances of Foster's death.

Financed by a cranky right-wing philanthropist, Richard Mellon Scaife, Ruddy's repeated bromides about the Foster case have been republished in newspaper ads across the country; his sheer persistence has led some casual observers to conclude he might be on to something. The Strange Death, published by The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, is endorsed as "serious and compelling" by former FBI Director William Sessions. In the New York Times Book Review, National Review senior editor Richard Brookhiser chides political journalists for failing to pursue Ruddy's many "unanswered questions" about the case.

Don't worry, when it comes to how Foster died, there aren't any--or none that matter. Ruddy's book--and the entire movement he has helped create--is utterly preposterous. Turgidly written and dense with 534 footnotes and seven appendixes, Ruddy's plodding book repeatedly confuses the evidence and chases after scores of imaginary holes in the official verdict--without ever positing an alternative scenario that makes the least bit of sense.

[Radio_Lady]

21. From the Taipei Times (Taiwan) this year 2005

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , WASHINGTON
Saturday, Jun 18, 2005,Page 7
"The people who buy tabloids with Hillary on the cover are buying it because they are intrigued by her, not necessarily because of the politics."

Christopher Ruddy, president and chief executive of NewsMax Media

Republican and conservative activists are behind a vigorous campaign to promote a controversial new biography about Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton, with some even suggesting that the book will help dash any presidential aspirations she might have.

The prospect that Clinton, who is up for re-election next year, may run for the presidency in 2008, has re-energized her opponents, who are seizing on the book, The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President, as it approaches its release date next week.

Gopusa.com, a Republican Web site and news service, sent 500,000 e-mail messages with a line saying, "Publishing insiders say the book and its revelations could destroy her bid to run for the presidency in 2008."

The publisher, Sentinel, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) that focuses on conservative views, has added to the atmosphere surrounding the publication. In a catalog sent to bookstores, the publisher compared the book with the campaign by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that attacked the Vietnam record of Democratic Senator John Kerry in last year's presidential race.

In addition, the financing for a conservative Web site that is promoting the book comes partly from Richard Mellon Scaife, a long-time foe of the Clintons who tapped his fortune in the 1990s to finance a project at the American Spectator magazine to dig up damaging information about the couple.

The publicity surrounding the book, which reportedly includes sensational assertions about Clinton's personal life, has stirred a fierce reaction among some of her staunchest supporters and others, who, legitimately or not, see a coordinated campaign to undermine Clinton at a time when she is taking more of a hand in national politics.

"It has all the feel of a ginned-up, right-wing effort to smear anybody who is seen by the right as politically threatening," said David Brock, a former right-wing journalist who has become a critic of conservatives.

A spokesman for Sentinel strenuously denied that the book was politically motivated or that Sentinel was coordinating publicity with conservative and Republican groups, a contention Clinton's backers doubt.

"They are treating it like a right-wing hit job," a spokesman for Sentinel, Will Weisser, said in referring to Clinton's supporters. "It's absolutely not a right-wing hit job."

Nevertheless, the book has captured the attention of conservatives, including the Web site of the Conservative Book Club.

The club is owned by Eagle Publishing, parent of Regnery Publishing, which issued Unfit for Command, a book about Kerry's military service that was written by one of the primary leaders of Swift Vets.

The Conservative Book Club Web site has placed the book, by Edward Klein, a former editor of the New York Times Magazine, at the top of a page devoted to books critical of the Clintons.

The book also has a patron in NewsMax.com, a Web site operated by a company that Scaife has a stake in.

The site has been offering the book free with subscriptions or renewals to NewsMax magazine.

"Hillary has good reason to be worried about this book," the Web site says.

"Publishing insiders say the book and its revelations could destroy her bid to run for the presidency in 2008," it says.

Promoting the book has less to do with ideology and more to do with generating business, said Christopher Ruddy, president and chief executive of NewsMax Media.

Ruddy said Scaife was not involved in its day-to-day decisions.

He noted that the company made money from book sales generated on the site and predicted that the book would be popular not just among Clinton's opponents, but also readers of sensational publications who are fascinated by her celebrity.

"The people who buy tabloids with Hillary on the cover are buying it because they are intrigued by her, not necessarily because of the politics," Ruddy said.

Clinton's advisers have struck back forcefully, apparently mindful that the Kerry campaign's failure to respond quickly to the attacks last year took a major toll on his campaign.

Her advisers have dismissed the book as one "full of blatant and vicious fabrications."
This story has been viewed 511 times.

[Radio_Lady]

22. This is just another Red-Faced (RUDDY) Right Winger ---

who CLAIMS to be a Carrier of Christ (CHRISTOPHER).

I never heard of him before tonight, and I hope I won't in the future.

Write this article off to someone who had a BIG FAT AGENDA BEFORE Katrina blew in...

[Rex]

7. What a blowjob article

The author should comment on "how it tasted".

[bring_em_home_bush]

24. That truly made me laugh out loud.... thanks, I really needed that

[uppityperson]

8. if I didn't know you, you would have had me worried sniffa

impeach, indict, imprison

[sniffa]

9. heh, not my words

read my concLusion (written LightLy so this post won't get zapped).

agree - impeach.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. No electricity, no phones, no cell towers, roads blocked,

80% of the city under water. But the mayor of New Orleans is to blame??

[Quixote1818]

11. Of course, New Orleans had perhaps 500 police that should have

gotten a handle on perhaps the biggest natural disaster in American history. So what if the streets were totally flooded in a city of 600,000 the city police should have just swam!!!

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. Hurricane Pam

Does this moran know about this little exercise conducted july '04 by DHS and FEMA?

[melody]

13. Newsmax is a whore for the NeoNazis

Pravda of the new "right". I'm not surprised that they'd regurgitate the party line.

[Igel]

14. Of course, the "proper" response is to say that * should

have assumed control for NOLA and Louisiana Monday morning. Instead of asking for it Friday night.

But we applauded Blanco's rejection of that request Friday night. That means we want her to have primary control.

Nagin's back is against the wall, but he still gets to ask for stuff and say what he needs where. unless he's removed from responsibility, or steps down. Same with Blanco. FEMA's supposed to fulfill the requests, coordinating things as necessary.

What we need to do is document the specific, fulfillable requests that Nagin and Blanco made to FEMA and other states (not to CNN, not to Fox, not to the Times-Picayune), and when they were fulfilled.

[hyphenate]

15. Good one

I think it needs to be drilled 24/7 for the next goddamned year how completely ineffectual and completely fucked up this whole disgusting mess has become.

And while I am with the people of NO, I wonder how many of those people, rich, poor or indifferent, voted for GWB and now have their lives ruined for their faith in him?

Someone I know on another board used to tell me they hated John Kerry and would be voting for Bush just to spite Kerry. I wonder how many of them are dead now, or among those in the Superdome, or suffering in some other way as a result? I'm not saying they deserved it, but I question the logic behind voting for a man who has been known to lie continuously since he took office.

[bribri16]

16. And i won't blame Katrina for Bush! n/t

[rocktivity]

17. Blame Bush indeed

If he hadn't pulled the financial plug on strengthing the levees, maybe they would have held. I guess he thought that the de-funding would be enough to stop a Category 4 hurricane from coming.

The biggest mistake the governor and mayor made was not insisting that Bush join them in formulating another way to deal with being hit by a Category 4 storm with only Category 3 levees.

:eyes:
rocknation

[Patsy Stone]

18. It was crystal clear to me

that this morning everyone received their Talking Points Memos. The BS machine is back on track and shifting blame after a sluggish response to the disaster spin cycle. Rove, after his ride in the country hugging people, got to a computer and a fax machine and started the phone tree.

It's truly shameful. Orrin Hatch started it on This Week early this morning and they tried to keep it going all day long. Even the Wingnuts know, however, after a major natural disaster it is the Feds responsibility to marshall resources outside of the scope of state and local jurisdiction. The administration figured this out just yesterday, apparently. That dog and pony show this afternoon with Rummy and Dickie and Mikey was ri-goddam-diculous.

This spin just ain't gonna fly.

And, btw... Has anyone seen Condi's new Ferragamo's? Did she wear them to Spamalot? :puke:

[Emit]

30. What you say is so true

I took a look at some of the rightwinger's favorite on line news sources (I know, that's gross, but I firmly believe in knowing thy enemy) and sure enough, this isn't the only story of it's kind, nor is Newsmax the only one spewing the same Orwellian rhetoric.

They are in major spin mode. If you haven't read Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s an article, The Disinformation Society, now is a good time to do so:


http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=874

Norquist has a lock on the media message that is so tight that it’s positively frightening. Kennedy, in his article The Disinformation Society, lays out Norquist’s control of the media using some references from David Brock’s book, The Republican Noise Machine…

… “the cues by which mainstream news directors decide what is important to cover are no longer being suggested by The New York Times and other responsible media outlets, but rather by the “shadowy” participants of a Washington, D.C. meeting convened by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform., an anti-government organization that seeks to prevent federal regulation of business.”

“Every Wednesday morning the leaders of 80 conservative organizations meet in Washington in Norquist’s boardroom. This radical cabal formulates policy with the Republican National Committee and the White House, developing talking points that go out to the conservative media via a sophisticated fax tree. Soon, millions of Americans are hearing the same message from cable mews commentators and thousands of talk jocks across America. Their precisely crafted message and language then percolate through the mainstream media to form the underlying assumptions of our national debate.”

“This meeting has now grown to include more than 120 participants, including industry lobbyists and representatives of conservative media outlets such as The Washington Times and the National Review. According to Brock, columnist Bob Novak sends a researcher. The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan may attend in person. The lockstep coordination among right-wing political operatives and the press is new in American politics.”

A typical meeting might focus on a new tax proposal released by President Bush. Following conference calls throughout the week, the decision will be made to call the plan “bold.” Over the next 10 days, radio and cable will reiterate that it’s “bold, bold, bold.” The result, according to Brock, is that “people come to think that there must be something “bold” about this plan.”

“This highly integrated network has given the right frightening power to disseminate its propaganda and has dramatically changed the way Americans get their information and formulate policy. In The Republican Noise Machine, Brock alleges routine fraud and systematically dishonest practices by his former employer the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times, which is the primary propaganda organ for Moon’s agenda to establish America as a Fascist theocracy. The paper doesn’t reach more than a hundred thousand subscribers, but its articles are read on air by Rush Limbaugh, reaching 15 million people, and are posted on Matt Drudge’s Website, to reach another 7 million people, and its writers regularly appear on The O’Reilly Factor, before another 2 million. Network TV talk-show producers and bookers use those appearances as a tip sheet for picking subject matter and guests for their own shows. And so the capacity of the conservative movement to disseminate propaganda has increased exponentially.”

The article in its entirety can be found here:
http://www.spinwatch.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1517

[Postman]

23. I thought it was Bill Clinton's fault ???

n/t

[RC]

28. Naa, it's Monica's fault.

She should have burnt the dress. She caused the underfunded levees to fail.

[Imagevision]

27. I just hope Bush NO. travesty will cost many Repuke seats in 06

[mzmolly]

29. Well according to the General in NO cleaning up this mess, the Gov/Mayor

were also VICTIMS, and did not have the ability to communicate initially.

Sorry, the spin won't cut it.