EVERYBODY, DU included, has IGNORED the elephant in the room

[Walt Starr]

This is the one and only singel fact that needs to be hammered.

The Federal Government was not expected to be the first responder to this disaster. Local authorities did that and did that quite well, but when the time came for the federal government to step up to the plate, they were AWOL!

It took a pissed off mayor, an angry governor, and a DISGUSTED PRESS CORPS to SHAME this administration into taking action as the SECOND RESPONDER!

And that, my friends, is the REAL tragedy in all of this. The Administration had to be SHAMED into doing their goddamned jobs!

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Walt, I don't think we are ignoring this one. Lots of threads on how

the Dept of Fatherland Insecurity are the first responders now and failures in this case.

------------------------------------------------------
Save the Gulf:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=106&topic_id=22507&mesg_id=22507

Then save the nation!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[Bouncy Ball]

2. Yep. After four days, it was starting to LOOK BAD for them,

so they HAD to do something.

That's unconscionable. That's CRIMINAL.

[blm]

3. Exactly....Bush - Always AWOL.

Has to be shamed into doing the right thing.

[Kerrytravelers]

4. And even then, the shame wasn't enough for them to all jump right into it

As of Thursday, our wonderful vp was off mansion shopping. What a wonderful human being (boy, that sure is using the term loosely!)

[opihimoimoi]

5. Unless, and we donn the tinfoils, that this was deliberate/intentional??

And why.... to get Roberts to SCOTUS...as Ch J no less...Rove/Cindy off the Radar too, better yet....then Carpet baggers will own chunks of NO cheap....

then they buy off, with taxpayer monies, the victims with free housing, etc....

[Karenina]

6. There are disaster experts

all over the airwaves across the big pond. The CONTEMPT is palpable.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. We've had quite a few threads since before Katrina struck discussing.....

....that subject on DU, and the media woke up when they started seeing the damage and the non-existent response.

No, DU didn't ignore anything.

[Walt Starr]

15. Nah, but saying it got everybody's attention?

I've made a study of subject heading and DU response.

;)

[JHB]

8. Not missing it Walt. I've noted it at least once, and I've seen others.

They're a bit tough to find with the search features off, but it';s been plain as day.

He didn't consider some overgrown thunderstorm worth his time until it started making him look bad.

[Taxloss]

9. I've read nothing but threads saying that on DU.

It hasn't been ignored in the slightest.

[Onlooker]

10. Actually, I posted a thread a few days ago ...

about what a great victory it was for liberals to have shamed and embarrassed the administration into action. If it was for people like us, FEMA would still not be in New Orleans. Forcing FEMA into action is the first really big liberal victory in quite a while.

[pointblank]

11. The delayed response to this by Chimp...

screams nothing but arrogance, plain and simple.

The "I'll get to it when I'm good and ready" arttitude is so blatently obvious, its disgusting. What kind of leader would go to a birthday celebration in the wake of this?

[ohio_liberal]

12. Right on Walt

I haven't ignored it. I've been saying for days that the good folk of the NOPD and NOFD did their jobs. They held that city for 3 fucking days.

[earth mom]

13. Those bastards have NO SHAME. They do as they please.

The dead are just numbers to them. The sooner all of America realizes it, the better.

:puke:

[SammyWinstonJack]

14. They had to be ANGERED into doing their goddamned jobs.

Shamed had nothing to do with it! They have yet to be ashamed of their lack of response that is why they are playing the blame game. They got angry that they were being blamed for not doing their jobs and that pissed them off! They didn't want Americans to see that they didn't care and that they were incompetent! Remember what the Pentagon said? They were 'hurt' that the media was siding with the victims? There you have it.

[melody]

16. I think that's been what we've all been saying for a week n/t

[RevCheesehead]

17. wouldn't an elephant in the room be a freeper?

[Mairead]

18. There's even a bigger elephant, Walt, and you're ignoring it too

Namely: BushCo has never been trustworthy, never done the right thing. Not once! Whenever there's been a clear choice between the right thing and the wrong thing, they've done the wrong thing.

So why the hell did Norb and Blanco (or whatever their names are) trust them to do the right thing THIS time? Exactly how dim would someone have to be to be willing to trust people who have always proven untrustworthy in the past?

[bananas]

19. FEMA's plan: keep them in, keep food and rescuers out

People here were speculating that it was a quarantine,
that something really bad had been released by the storm,
super toxic chemicals or deadly germs from a research lab.
They may have been following the only plan they prepared for:
quarantine for a dirty bomb or biochem terrorist attack.
Or, more likely, they just didn't want to spend the money on rescue.
Like Bhopal, where their cost-benefit analysis concluded
that it was better to keep the plant running until it blew up and
killed thousands of people when the poison gasses were released.
If Geraldo and Smith weren't reporting live on the scene,
FEMA would have followed it's plan - let them all die.

In the next emergency, the first thing the government will do,
will be to keep the journalists out.

[spuddonna]

20. We haven't ignored it, you just can't find it right now...

We've been screaming since Sunday night that the feds better get there quick because the devestation was going to be horrific. There were posts here on Sunday night, discussing the horribly frightening reports from the National Weather Service Sunday:

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005
..."MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER.... WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS."

If we at DU knew on Sunday night, why the hell didn't our federal government?!