If I said, "Bush killed these people," would I be crossing the line?

[expatriot]

I don't care if it is. I don't care if the mods feel it necessary to delete this thread. I am so full of rage and despair this morning.

He cut funding for FEMA's community disaster preparation programs in his first budget to pay for his tax cuts to the wealthy.
He cut funding for the Army Corps of Engineers.
A large proportiong of Louisana Gaurd units are bogged down in his Iraq debacle.
On Sunday, he was obliged to release a statement telling people in New Orleans "to get to higher ground" and then once he had sad that he went on his business of selling his snakeoil to the American people (i.e. Social Security scheme and Iraq) and staying at plush resorts on the other side of the country.

Our country longs for leadership and suffers gravely for the lack of it.

On cnn.com, Click on "You can't hold me. Take care of the kids." Watch that video and tell me if you are not filled with the same despair, frustration and rage towards the failure of the system that I feel. Bush killed this man's wife and his children's mother and he shall face the fury of a nation betrayed.

on edit: Of course I am not blaming Bush for the storm, but rather the lack of action taken to get people out of there. If it had been a priority for him he could have had the millions of people in N.O. and the coastal regions of LA/MS/AL all out of there by midnight Sunday. Easily. Police and Emergency officials currently have the authority to commandeer private boats right now to help transport people, if he would have signed an Executive Order Sunday afternoon and had every military cargo plane and chopper in the nation go down there, had the governors (of the lower 48) call up all available NG, fly in all active duty Marines around the country, commandeer school buses, city buses, tour buses, semi trucks and trailers, freight trains, mail trucks, anthing to haul people out en masse, have c-130's and chinooks lifting people out.... having tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Gaurd, Marines, police, park rangers, civil servants... going door to door FORCING people to leave (i.e. arresting them for violating mandatory evac orders)... we could have spared what I am afaid will be THOUSANDS of lives. It could have been done and it could have been done in less than 12 hours.

[dogday]

1. You can certainly blame him for the lack of guard

not just in NO, but Miss and Alabama all have a shortages of our precious guardsmen. Charley killed a lot of old people last year because there was not enough guard in Florida to help get the elderly out in time. Yes I think we can safely lay a portion of the blame at his feet. The storm and nature have to take some responsibility as well...

[expatriot]

3. I am not blaming him for the storm, but for the lack of action and prep.

If he put all his power into it, every person in N.O. and the gulf coastal regions of MS and AL could have been evacuated by midnight Sunday night if it would have been a priority for him

[jobycom]

7. That's just wrong

I can't even begin to explain. People won't leave. There were places to put people but they chose to stay. There are logistics problems with that, too. Where would the gaurd stay? Where would they come from? How many would be needed? How much would that block up the roads to get people out? Could they be mobilized in twenty hours and still have time to go door to door and force people out?

Bush is a lousy leader, and his short-sighted policies and lack of leadership have made things more difficult. But the National Guard couldn't evacuate a hundred thousand people and they couldn't hold back a twenty foot wall of water. Bush killed 100K people in Iraq. Nature killed the undetermined numbers of people here.

[expatriot]

10. So what is the difference between "mandatory" and "voluntary" evacs?

If an evacuation is declared mandatory, law enforcement should have the legal authority to enforce the order. If they don't have the power to enforce the order than they should stop calling it mandatory.

[dogday]

19. Also there were people who did not have the resources

to leave. Elderly and infirmed and the poor could just not take off. People don't have the money to pick up and leave, it is a fact of life....And some people just don't get that

[expatriot]

20. exactly what I am talking about. Bush should/could have provided means of

evacuation... even within 12 hour time frame.

[rodeodance]

2. Katrinia should call the BushCo policies into question--its emphasis on

material wealth for a few, its emphasis on violence vs peace.

But is say 'killed' shuts down conversations.

[NicRic]

4. Commpassoinate Conservatism ?

Survivial of the strong ,all others can swim or die. Of course if your lucky enough to be born into wealth you just have daddy's friends send a helicopter to pick you up. Or better yet fly on your pivate air liner to a safe place ,and pretend you care. The sad thing for me is I actually had some friends ,I say had some ,becaiuse as hard as I try, once I found out they are actually bush supporters ,I just dont like them anymore, believe they are ingnorant selfish people ! I never thouht I could hate a President more then Regan ,well now I do ! Whats going on with my country ?

[benburch]

5. Yeah, that would cross the line.

He is not responsible for what the storm did... But the deaths in the aftermath, those you can blame on him as in those the National Guard would have made a big difference.

[expatriot]

6. I am not blaming him for the storm, I'm blaming his "stewardship"

of the government and the resulting inaction and lack of preparation.

[wli]

8. not at all, and I have six URL's to support your assertion

one
two
three
four
five
six

[barbaraann]

12. Link six isn't working.

?

[wli]

13. not clear that's my fault... looks like the site is messing up n/t

[barbaraann]

14. Scrubbed?

n/t

[wli]

15. looks more like a timeout or server load on my end

Are you getting a 404 or something?

[barbaraann]

16. I'm getting an alert "www.bestofneworleans.com cannot be found."

I can't find caches and I can't find the page from IEM that had Wesley Clark and James Lee Witt either. This was the stuff I was working on yesterday morning. Also, when I click on various "mitigation" links on the FEMA website I get practically nothing.

[wli]

17. holy crap, it really does sound like they're scrubbing n/t

[barbaraann]

18. Can you find Wesley Clark on the IEM website?

I can't and it was there yesterday.

I'm getting frightened.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. I agree with you

I don't know that I'd carry the rhetoric as far as you did ... at least not for public consumption (I happen to agree with you that this is yet more blood on his hands).

I made a post similar to yours yesterday (or maybe Sunday) ..... about our lack of a leader and how a **real** leader would have done **something**. I had postulated a commandeering of the civil aviation fleet to airlift every last soul out of the entire region.

[atommom]

11. I have to agree with you ... he just doesn't "get" that he's supposed

to play a part in catastrophes like this. He has plans, he has to get on with his life, and he'll appear on national TV and tell us all to pray for the victims later, when he damn well feels like it.

Yes, even if he'd acted, some people would have stayed behind and lost their lives. But this all could have been handled so much better.