Red State letters to the editor concerning Katrina.

[alfredo]

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/editorial/letters/12608680.htm

If we are our brother's keeper, then shouldn't we also work for policies that provide a better safety net or, in this case, a safety plan for the most vulnerable in our society? Today it's them; tomorrow, it may be you or me.

With a president who can operate only in friendly crowds and scripted settings, I guess some natural disasters just can't be scheduled to occur after the first of the month.

I doubt that the richest 1 percent we heard so much about in 2004 were at the Superdome or the convention center. I guess the old saying is true: The well-fed know little about the lean.


Read these, then look at you local paper and post a link

[babylonsister]

1. Houston Chronicle:

Lots of letters from volunteers that are heart-warming, but this caught my eye:

Rescue delays unacceptable

In 2003, when the Columbia space shuttle exploded on entering the Earth's atmosphere, killing seven and leaving debris across several states, the response of emergency crews searching for evidence, was immediate.

The delay in dispatching rescue teams to New Orleans was unconscionable.

As a government, we should not launch so much as a paper airplane until we are sure that the infrastructure of our nation is sound enough to protect our people.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/3347186

[iamjoy]

2. This One Is Glad She Isn't Black

"If I were, I could be left without food and water in 100-degree heat for three days...Any feeble rescue efforts would be suspended at the first rumor that someone of my race had fired a gun, and the mostly white media would speak breathlessly of chaos and violence as they rolled the tape of my frustrated face."


:wow:


added on edit: from same paper as original post

[Nothing Without Hope]

23. YES!!! She gets it!!! Oh, if only more people realize this!

:kick:

[NMDemDist2]

3. here's one from Phoenix

Let impeachment begin

Sept. 10, 2005 12:00 AM

In light of repeated incompetence in the Bush administration, in light of the thousands of Americans who have now perished both in Iraq and in the Gulf Coast as a directly result of President Bush's decisions, priorities, policies and staff appointments, I ask all patriotic Americans to write their representatives and request they initiate impeachment proceedings against the president and his entire administration.

America deserves and needs better! - X. xxxx, Peoria

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0910satlets2-106.html

and then there is the incomparable Steve Benson (our local political cartoonist)

[alfredo]

8. short and sweet.

That needs to be echoed throughout the country.

[Glenda]

4. "The poor are less likely to vote, particularly if they are dead."

says one woman.

All these are pretty damning! Thanks for posting!

[alfredo]

6. the ones that did vote in New Orleans, voted blue.

I wonder if New Orleans had voted bush in 2004?

[Melinda]

5. Sacramento Bee:

I noted with some (dark) humor President Bush's statement that he will conduct an inquiry into "what went right and what went wrong" with the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina. He has also said, more than once, "We will not allow bureaucracy to get in the way of saving lives."

Does he not understand that he has been president for five years and that the "bureaucracy" is, in fact, now his? Unlike 9/11, when he had been president for only a few months, he cannot now suggest that the bureaucracy's failure was someone else's responsibility.

Does he not understand that his reorganization of the "bureaucracy" placed FEMA under his Department of Homeland Security? Does he not understand that the FEMA administrator is his political appointment? Even Bush's attempts to deflect blame for the federal government's response to this disaster onto someone else is pathetic.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/13543679p-14384006c.html

[alfredo]

7. Sacbee needs one to be registered.

It's free.

[Sapphire Blue]

21. Go to bugmenot.com

[alfredo]

22. I went ahead and registered.

[AlCzervik]

27. I have been amazed by the number of negative letters coming from Placer co

the most gop populist county in Ca. If gives me hope that some of them have woken up.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. Anchorage Daily News

two days ago devoted a whole page to Katrina letters. Every single one of them slammed the federal government.

[sandnsea]

10. Zero tolerance for poverty - Eugene

Zero tolerance for poverty

Zero tolerance for looters, shoot to kill, says the governor of Louisiana. Zero tolerance for looters, says White House spokesman Scott McClellan. When asked if that meant zero tolerance for stealing such things as food and water for survival, McClellan answered, "Zero tolerance."

What shameful policies that put property before people! How about zero tolerance for racism and zero tolerance for poverty? Does that politicize the issue? If it does, so be it.

CHARLES GRAY

Eugene

Don't judge the poor so harshly

When I moved to New Orleans from Eugene in 1993, I was 23 and a recent University of Oregon graduate. The eclectic mixture of cultures, the heat and the vibrant music scene seduced me.

There is another side of New Orleans, too - a desperately impoverished side, a side that reminds us, as citizens of the United States, that we have a long way to go.

It's easy to pretend that equal opportunity exists if you don't live in New Orleans. I returned to safe, insular, more fortunate Eugene in July of 2004. But I returned with the awareness that the Third World exists in the United States.

I have had the misfortune to overhear some fellow Eugeneans discussing the largely African-American refugees of Hurricane Katrina, specifically those in New Orleans. In the words of one Eugenean, "I am tired of hearing all of these black people complain. They stayed!"

Another said, "Why would anyone choose to live there?" Several Eugeneans smugly characterized New Orleans as terribly racist. To such people, I would like to say that those who stayed behind in New Orleans did so without another alternative. For the most part, they are the dispossessed, who under ordinary circumstances live their lives merely trying to survive. That is their reality.

The problems there are complex but, obviously, racism, classism and other "isms" are not problems unique to New Orleans. Rather, these problems - racism leading the pack - belong to this nation, Eugene included.

GINNY

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/09/10/ed.lettersmain.0910.p1.php?section=opinion

[alfredo]

12. Damn

nails it.

Now we see that they couldn't leave, even if they wanted to leave.

[Mutley]

11. Lot's of good ones in the Baltimore Sun, but this is the best...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/letters/bal-ed.le.07ssep07,1,5865160.story?coll=bal-opinion-letters

Bush is responsible for the loss of life
The federal government's disastrous failure to evacuate New Orleans' impoverished, predominantly black residents before Hurricane Katrina hit and its delayed and inept relief effort caused unnecessary trauma, illness and loss of life.

President Bush must be held responsible; his appointment of Michael Chertoff as chief of the Department of Homeland Security is but one example of his selecting people for critical positions because of their ideological compatibility with him, not their knowledge, competence and experience.

The president has lied about the reasons for invading Iraq, shown cluelessness about how the Iraqis would respond, sent inadequately equipped troops to war and reduced taxes of the wealthy while pouring money into Iraq.

These, sadly, were not enough to cause Congress to impeach the president - his mistakes apparently being judged less serious than President Bill Clinton's sexual escapades.

============================================

This is from two days ago. Everything since is BS. Sometimes I'm embarrassed by my town. :cry:

[alfredo]

13. I like that little dig at the end.

[Mutley]

15. Me, too.

That's probably the biggest reason why I posted that one here. Oh, BTW, I'm not in a red state, but I wanted to participate anyway. :D

[alfredo]

19. That's fine. We need to keep the blue states blue. We need to

keep our representatives on the job of representing us, and we need to media to do their job.

[IDemo]

14. Idaho Statesman

Disastrous Bush

It is hard to imagine the incompetence and venality of an administration so bad that it could make a natural disaster like Katrina worse, but the Bush administration has done just that. Bush slashed funding for Gulf Coast and Lake Pontchartrain flood control projects to fund his unnecessary Iraq war. In spite of his "no net loss of wetlands" pledge, Bush pursued polices that resulted in the continued destruction of the wetlands normally formed at the mouth of the Mississippi River that protects the Gulf Coast and New Orleans from storm surge. NASA satellite photos showed unusually warm gulf surface water that powered Katrina to category five fury, but Bush continues to deny the reality of global warming.

After the storm, thousands of the desperately needed Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama National Guard troops were being misused in Iraq, forcing National Guard and military assistance to be brought in from other places around the nation, resulting in deadly delays.

In spite of the fact that Bush was warned about all of this, federal authorities were unprepared. Instead Bush chose to attack Iraq instead of protecting America. What will it take for America to demand an accounting from this disastrous administration?

[peekaloo]

16. Lakeland Ledger (Central Fl. my parents live there)

This guy has written some of the most nauseating, "support our pResident" Bushbot drivel in the past.

Whoa.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050911/NEWS/509110378/1037/EDIT

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. This is a great idea for a thread! Rec'd!

------------------------------------------------------
Ditch Bu$h and 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://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/electionreform.htm

[flvegan]

18. From the red Tampa Tribune, from red Florida

Lots just like this, too:

Help Thy Neighbor

Published: Sep 12, 2005

I was greatly offended by the letter ``God's Invitation'' from Len Vivolo (Sept. 6). The victims of Hurricane Katrina should be also. Too bad they are not sitting around reading comments about how their wayward ways brought this destruction and devastation upon them. But they have other concerns - like food, water, shelter and putting their lives back together.
Religious naysayers spouting nonsense about a vengeful God should close their mouths and open their wallets, their homes and their hearts. Remember that infants and children not old enough to have lived a sinful life perished in this disaster, while prison occupants were transported to shelters out of state.

Stop wagging your naughty finger and help thy neighbor!<

[GreenPartyVoter]

20. C'mon people, one more nomination please

[ellenfl]

24. Palm Beach Post - a blue county with some red residents

one of whom is a high school classmate . . .

Palm Beach Post

ellen fl

[I Have A Dream]

25. OMG - EVERY letter was against the way the Federal government acted!

I know that Kentucky is red, but is Lexington blue? There was not ONE letter supporting B*, I'm happy to see.

[SW FL Dem]

26. This from a former Bush supporter

The author appears to be the private citizen who intervened on Bush's behalf in Bush v. Gore in 2000.


"George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president," wrote Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a 2003 Rolling Stone magazine piece.

Wrong, Mr. Kennedy. This president will go down as the worst president in a crisis. President Bush has utterly failed the consummate test of a presidency: the ability to defend and protect the nation, against all enemies, foreign and domestic. While certainly not undermining the pain of the 9/11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina has ripped open a horrific view into the utter lack of planning and capability that are obviously the result of five years of George W. Bush's turn in the White House.

While the media ably get their job done in New Orleans, managing for days on end to get reports out showing looting, death and medevac helicopters being fired on by snipers while attempting to land at hospitals, it is clear that a terrorist attack on a major metropolitan area with a weapon of mass destruction could not be met with similar competency from this president.

...

Our vulnerability with refineries and pipelines, and our inability to rapidly deploy rescue and relief assets, is nothing short of humiliating. Mr. President, "he who hesitates is lost." Get your act together or do the honorable thing and step down to let someone capable of leadership in a crisis get it done now.


Matt Butler/Naples

http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/pe_letters/article/0,2071,NPDN_14962_4057341,00.html