I just got this email re: NOLA from my RW relative...

[SledDriver]

A relative of mine sent this to me. He tends to lean to the RW, but I think it's an issue of (1) his believing that Faux News is actually fair and balanced, and (2) that whole "it's unpatriotic to question or criticize the president, especially in time of war" mentality...

********************************************************************************************************************************************

In case you aren't familiar with how our government is SUPPOSED to work, the chain of responsibility for the protection of the citizens in New Orleans is:

1. The Mayor
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee of the Governor who reports to the Governor)
3. The Governor
4. The Head of Homeland Security
5. The President

What did each do?

1. The mayor, with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). Then he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.

2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for political appointees)

3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2 DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.

4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be ready when the Governor called for them.

5. The President urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal assistance, should the Governor decide to use it.

Oh and by the way, the levees that broke were the responsibility of the local landowners and the local levee board to maintain, NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

The disaster in New Orleans is what you get after decades of corrupt (democrat) government going all the way back to Huey Long.

Funds for disaster protection and relief have been flowing into this city for decades, and where has it gone, but into the pockets of the politicos and their friends.

Decades of socialist government in New Orleans has sapped all self reliance from the community, and made them dependent upon government for every little thing.

Political correctness and a lack of will to fight crime have created the single most corrupt police force in the country, and has permitted gang violence to flourish.

The sad thing is that there are many poor folks who have suffered and died needlessly because those that they voted into office failed them.

For those who missed item 5 (where the President's level of accountability is discussed), it is made more clear in a New Orleans Times-Picayune article dated August 28:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin.

Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort for people to go, including the Superdome.

The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding. (emphasis mine)

The ball was placed in Mayor Nagin's court to carry out the evacuation order. With a 5-day heads-up, he had the authority to use any and all services to evacuate all residents from the city, as documented in a city emergency preparedness plan. By waiting until the last minute, and failing to make full use of resources available within city limits, Nagin and his administration f**ked up.

Mayor Nagin and his emergency sidekick Terry Ebbert have displayed lethal, mind boggling incompetence before, during and after Katrina.

As for Mayor Nagin, he and his profile in pathetic leadership police chief should resign as well. That city's government is incompetent from one end to the other. The people of New Orleans deserve better than this crowd of clowns is capable of giving them.

If you're keeping track, these boobs let 569 buses that could have carried 33,350 people out of New Orleans-in one trip-get ruined in the floods.
Whatever plan these guys had, it was a dud. Or it probably would have been if they'd bothered to follow it.

As for all the race-baiting rhetoric and Bush-bashing coming from prominent blacks on the left, don't expect Ray Nagin to be called out on the carpet for falling short. You want to know why? Here's why:

It's more convenient to blame a white president for what went wrong than to hold a black mayor and his administration accountable for gross negligence and failing to fully carry out an established emergency preparedness plan.

To hold Nagin and his administration accountable for dropping the ball amounts to letting loose the shouts and cries of "Racism!". It's sad, it's wrong, but it's standard operating procedure for the media and left-wing black leadership.

Mark my words: you will not hear a word of criticism from Jesse Jackson Sr., Randall Robinson, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, or Kanye West being directed toward Clarence Ray Nagin Jr. Why? Because he is just another black politician instead of a responsible elected official who happens to be black. In the mindset of more-blacker-than-thou blacks, black politicians who are on their side can do no wrong.

********************************************************************************************************************************************

Just thought I'd put this up as an example of the propaganda that's being spread around. I'd like to open the floor for comments...
Have fun shooting holes in this one!

[liberal N proud]

1. That has to be a straight cut and paste from the talking points!

And they didn't want to play the "Blame Game"?

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. How pathetic. The right-wingers are so lazy they have to chain letter

the talking points. I guess their voters are too lazy to find out for themselves.

[liberal N proud]

4. I have always said that is the major difference between liberals and cons

Liberals think and are able to do analyze the situation themselves, whereas conservatives have to be told what is good for them and the nation. The are too lazy to question anything said by the leaders of their party.
This is specially true for those repukes who are not part of the wealthy elite.

[rosesaylavee]

3. What's missing from that are the calls for help

from the National Guard and North Comm who were not deployed to assist until 5 or more days after the hurricane hit.

Which city has 569 bus drivers willing to drive to who knows where with 40 people - possibly leaving their families behind?

Some of the talking points 'sound' plausible. I think the dem leadership needs to start addressing each point to counteract its effects.

An effective way of persuading is to pepper the overall lie with small truths - you get a lot more believers that way.

And, who wants to think that the FEDs can't protect us. Easier to blame local and state because that is less frightening.

[Annamaria]

12. Easier? Less frightening?

I personally find it frightening to know that the mayor, who knew thousands of his citizens (and hundreds of tourists) had no transportation, didn't have a plan to bus people out of the city before the hurricane hit. They went through this same scenario last year when Ivan threatened New Orleans and Nagin joked about what tourists should do. http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL091404nowheretogo.119ed4228.html

As far as the families of the bus drivers are concerned, how many families are now displaced and not in contact with each other because of the way the evacuation had to be carried out AFTERWARD? You seem to be insinuating that chaos caused by evacuating the city before the hurricane would have somehow been worse than the chaos caused by evacuating the city afterward.

While I agree that there is plenty of blame to be spread around, I do not agree with those who continually choose to ignore Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco's roles in all of this. Had either of them chosen to evacuate on Sunday morning before Katrina hit, using 500 buses with 50 people per bus, there would have been 25,000 fewer people left in the city. (Surely Jabbar Gibson isn't the only one who could figure out how to drive a bus.) They didn't do their jobs which made the rescue mission even more difficult, but they should be excused because...why, exactly?

The argument that the federal levels should be held "more" accountable or is somehow "more" responsible doesn't hold water with me. Of course, I've never been one to blindly support my party. And I certainly don't intend to start doing so now.

[roseBudd]

16. and where exactly were those buses to drive to? A rest stop? an overpass?

As far north as Tennessee the rain was torrential. Hurricanes spawn tornadoes and flash floods. Buses are only one very minor piece of an evacuation. The bus critics have cited no credible plan for what NO would have done with the evacuees after driving them inland.

[Annamaria]

18. No credible plan

is the whole point. Nagin and Blanco had no credible plan to evacuate the city of New Orleans, even after the close call of Ivan last year. They had a year to set up pick up points across the city, and arrange drop off points at shelters (school gymnasiums, national guard armories, convention centers, etc.) to the west or east, depending on which way the storm ended up traveling. In the case of Katrina, the buses could have traveled west on I-10 to Baton Rouge and Houston, some could have gone on to I-49N, to Crowley, Alexandria, Natchitoches, Mansfield, Shreveport.

How is is that the state of Texas was prepared to take on thousands of its neighbors, while the state of Louisiana's lack of planning to do so is not only IGNORED, it's EXCUSED?

[roseBudd]

21. Texas stepped up to the plate after days of stranded evacuees were seen

on the news. Texas stepped up the plate to help Bush's battered reputation, not because they truly cared about the evacuees.

Nagin has jurisdiction over NO not other cities or states.

[Annamaria]

25. Still waiting

"Texas stepped up the plate to help Bush's battered reputation, not because they truly cared about the evacuees."
:eyes: It's obvious you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

I'm still waiting for someone to tell me why Blanco and Nagin didn't have a plan to provide transportation out of the city for people they knew had no way out.

I'm still waiting for someone to tell me why Blanco and Nagin didn't have a plan in place to shelter those people in the event that such an evacuation was ever carried out.

I'm still waiting for someone to tell me why so many people on this board are willing to ignore and excuse them for not doing their jobs.

As I said before, I've never been one to blindly support my party. I don't have a problem pointing out when someone doesn't do their job, whether they are a Democrat or a Republican. Obviously, I'm in the minority when it comes to feeling that way.

[ClassWarrior]

27. Apparently you're not one to blindly support the law, either. See post #22

NGU.

[Lithos]

35. Gosh, they really did a bad job

Nagin and Blanco got 80% of the people out of NOLA, when the best estimate was 60%. Nagin also managed to get a good portion of those residents who wouldn't have left the city proper into shelters such as the Superdome which according to plan was to have been resupplied by the Federal government a couple of days later.

I guess Nagin and Blanco sent too many letters and request for help to Bush, Chertoff and Brown that Chertoff didn't bother to actually activate the FEMA response until several days after the hurricane and 5 days after the initial declaration of a Federal disaster by Bush which was supposed to be when they started into action.

Coincedentally enough, this Federal Disaster declaration was the first time where specific language was used by Bush which gave him the authority and the responsiblity via the Stafford Act to fully and proactively utilize the Federal government to minimize and prevent the loss of life, human suffering and property damage. It was not his option, it was his duty, but he did nothing until well after the hurricane had hit and the Press was getting bad. His department heads also were asleep.

I also guess Nagin and Blanco and not Rummy (contrary to the provisions of the Stafford Act) told the USS Bataan to sit off the coast of Louisiana with a full complement of helicopters, medics, hospital, and water distillation capacity of 100,000 gallons for several days following, despite the pleas of the Captain. The Defense Department actually were charged by the Stafford Act (above) to provide these types of resources in this type of disaster which they did not.

And that paperwork I'm sure caused FEMA to stop doctors from operating on people because of responsiblity, to not send supplies to the surrounding areas (why do people focus on NOLA? The failure was in a three state area).

Don't forget the money Bush diverted to Iraq that would have been used to maintain the levee system. (It failed not during the hurricane, but afterwards which points to a maintenance failure).

Don't forget too that the Stafford Act of 2000 and amended by Presidential order in 2003 put the full scope of responsibility on the President to "proactively" manage a disaster and gave him the powers he currently claims he needs now to bring in Federal troops. He had the power to bring in the 82nd Airborne (450 miles away) to organize and deliver supplies. In that same vein, I guess they also kept him from actually using specifically mentioned powers to activate and enlist volunteer groups such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army into the relief effort. (Yes, Bush had the specifically mentioned authority to bring in the Red Cross which would have superceded anyone else).

And of course, Nagin and Blanco were on vacation in Crawford the days leading up to what was described as one of the three worst potential disasters for the US and then elect to take a quick trip to California and Arizona for fund-raising and photo-ops.

Oh and don't mention that during at least two of his trips to the area, Bush has staged obvious photo-ops where aid stations were erected for the reporters (and taken down an hour later), people brought in who were not refugees to serve as objects of fake compassion, power turned on and off when the reporters were there.

Don't tell me that Blanco or Nagin did this or that and are to blame. Yeah, they were not perfect, but at least they were doing something. Bush was once again AWOL during a time of national need.

[flamingyouth]

37. Excellent response

:thumbsup:
I want to print this out and give it to my employee's husband, who has been defending Bush right and left (well, mostly right) since the hurricane hit. This is an excellent response.

[agincourt]

44. Blanco needs a bigger hoop skirt every day,

to house all those GOP mice hiding underneath it. There's plenty of explanations on this board if you look around, but instead you want to shove right-wing finger pointing down our throat.

[roseBudd]

50. Looks like FEMA pledged 500 buses then failed to deliver...

Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina raged ashore, Gov. Kathleen Blanco still wants one question answered.

Where were the buses?

Hours after the hurricane hit Aug. 29, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a plan to send 500 commercial buses into New Orleans to rescue thousands of people left stranded on highways, overpasses and in shelters, hospitals and homes.

On the day of the storm, or perhaps the day after, FEMA turned down the state's suggestion to use school buses because they are not air conditioned, Blanco said Friday in an interview.

[ClassWarrior]

17. Bush** is the one who promised to keep the US safe, not Ray Nagin.

Are you saying you're fine with Bush** outsourcing his campaign promises to Nagin?

NGU.

[Annamaria]

19. I'm saying

Do you honestly believe that it's ok that local and state levels didn't do their jobs?

[calimary]

23. Welcome to DU. Please see post 22. It's situated not far below your own.

n/t

[ClassWarrior]

24. It's NEVER okay for our elected representatives not to do their jobs.

But I'll say it again. If local and state officials screw up, then it's the responsiblity of the FEDS to do an EVEN BETTER job. Especially since these criminals EXPLICITLY PROMISED US they would.

It's NOT an excuse for them to strum guitars and eat birthday cake.

NGU.

[calimary]

22. And the Department of Homeland Security website declares, flat out,

that IT has responsibiity over national disasters.

All those entities and levels of authority are tasked to work under the decrees, policies, and directives set/given by THOSE WHO SET THOSE POLICIES AND DIRECTIVES IN THE FIRST PLACE. Sorry, but the mayor and/or governor of whatever specific area is affected - DOES NOT call the shots in the big picture. DOES NOT.

ESPECIALLY when it's a crisis of THIS MAGNITUDE, that easily overwhelms whatever resources the locals have at their command.

AND PARTICULARLY WHEN IT'S A CRISIS OF THIS MAGNITUDE THAT CROSSES STATE LINES. At THAT point, it's a FEDERAL matter. And a FEDERAL responsibility. And FEDERAL jurisdiction.

PERIOD.

[Annamaria]

30. PRE-Katrina

The responsibility for the evacuation of the city of New Orleans, BEFORE hurricane Katrina hit, rested squarely on the shoulders of local and state officials in the state of Louisiana.

Oh and it turns out I was wrong about Nagin and Blanco not having a plan. Here's the City of New Orleans' Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan.
Section V. (Tasks) Item D specifically mentions the use of evacuation buses.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Interactives/News/US/Katrina/docs/City%20Of%20New%20Orleans%20Emergency%20Preparedness%20-%20Hurricanes.pdf

And here's the State of Louisiana Emergency Operations Plan.
http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/plans/EOPSupplement1a.pdf

Note the following on page 13, Section B, Item 5.
"The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating."

I've just about decided that you guys don't really care what the "truth" is and I'm deeply saddened by that.

PS
Well, looks like they had a plan for shelters as well. Imagine that.
http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/plans/EOPSheltersupplement.pdf

[ClassWarrior]

31. Ironic that you put the word "truth" in quotes.

The truth? See post #24. It's NEVER acceptable for a public official to not do his or her job. But why is it so important to you to highlight Nagin's and Blanco's failures, at the exclusion of Bush**'s?

NGU.

[renie408]

32. It looks to me like you have chosen your 'truth' and are sticking to it

You have decided that it is all the fault of the state and local governments. I don't think anybody here has said that they were blameless or that they could not have done better. But it sounds to me like you are saying that the WHOLE tragedy is the fault of local government because they did not start evacuating people five days in advance of a storm which at that time only had a CHANCE of hitting their area. Look, you are assuming that even two days out they could have convinced people to go with them...to wherever it was they were supposed to take 100,000 people.
For the sake of argument, let's just give you a bad evacuation plan and let's blame THAT on the locals. Honey, that was the LEAST of it. After that storm hit, it was on FEMA and DHS and the feds to handle the care of the people who didn't get out. Rescue is only part of that. How do you account for story after story of how FEMA screwed this up? How they picked people off of roofs...only to deposit them on the interstate in 95 degree weather with no transportation, no food and no water? Is that Ray Nagin's fault? Is it Kathleen Blanco's? Hey, I am all about spreading the blame here, but the worst inhumane treatment was on the feds, not the locals.

[Arkana]

36. Really? Cause I'm gettin' the impression that you aren't gonna be swayed,

truth or no truth.

[tabasco]

41. Tell us how you really feel. It's Clinton's fault !

You hold Clinton responsible for EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN but your glorious leader is blameless in all respects. You are loyal to your party, not your Nation.

If you really think Bush is the messiah, why don'tyou sign up for a real disaster, the war in Iraq. Here's a link:

www.goarmy.com

You see, the Army missed its recruiting quota by 10,000 recruits this year. Why aren't more of you Bush ass-kissers signing up :shrug:

I just don't get it. I'm 47 years old and got called back to active duty witrh a report date next month. I think it is time for Bush defenders to sign up for the war THEY support.

[TankLV]

34. There's that "we" crap again!

I hardly think you're part of "us" or "we", honey.

Just joined up to post that crap?

Nice try - it ain't workin!

"We" don't take seriously any repuke apologists - of which you are a prime example.

Try reading the TRUE timeline, honey.

Maybe THEN you'll LEARN something, instead of spewing rightwing repuke LIES that have been disproven time and again!

[wolvesslasher]

47. How dare you!!

How dare you accuse Democratic politicians of making mistakes! They are perfect and never do anything wrong!! Everything is the Republicans' fault!! Didn't you know? You're supposed to ignore the Democratic politicians in these circumstances unless they do something good. :)

[OneGrassRoot]

5. Couldn't even read through them..........

can't even listen when they're spewed forth.

My response is always that I have no doubt there were mistakes made at every level, before, during and after the crisis. Yet the one glaringly obvious truth is that there were tens of thousands of our fellow citizens begging for food and water, and the ONE PERSON in this country who could have ordered, if nothing else FOOD AND WATER DROPS for those people, did nothing for five days. Even if everyone under him was completely screwing up, he should have BEEN A LEADER and done the right thing and at least drop food and water.

Instead, as we all know, he had cake with McCain, played a guitar with a big smile on his face, and on the same day he finally returned to DC (Wed., 9/1) Halliburton got their contract. Before our fellow Americans got food and water.

Inexcusable. End of story.

[freeplessinseattle]

6. If you've been reading this is easy to do yourself

why should we bother shooting holes in this simply to help you with your family issues? these are so easy, and such a lengthy letter. you might want to specify the ones you aren't familiar with, or intrinsically know there's something wonky with a point, that while true, is pointless. for instance, Nagin having 5 days advance notice but waiting until two days before to order evacuation. If you think about it, it would be an unusual measure to evacuate so far in advance without knowing yet how severe or how close the risk will be. It could have bypassed them altogether at that point, it wasn't until within the couple days ahead that the storm was on track and up to a 3, then a 4 or 5 hurricane (at 2 am, and Nagin ordered evacuation at 10 am. so he could have ordered it a couple hours or so earlier at daybreak but wouldn't have made much of a difference. especially for those with no means to leave. (you should know the bus rebuff by now, too, have fun!)

[moobu2]

7. This fake email scam as been going around for

a pretty long time. Daily Kos did a thing on it on the 6th with the exact email text.

Just got this mass email that is making the rounds. This is the script that I'm hearing on talk radio this morning as well. Funny how everyone gets the same message and expresses their talking points in exactly the same way. Could there be a party memo involved here?

We need to get this up on snopes.com ASAP since there are more lies in here than truths.

dailykos.com

[smoogatz]

8. The Times-Picayune article is a fake.

It's been widely debunked. The timeline is well established (see Newsweek), and blows items 1-5 out of the water. As for the rest: the levees were an ongoing flood-control project involving local, state AND federal agencies and funds. Federal funding for New Orleans flood control was slashed by the Bush administration--a well-documented fact. A disaster on the scale of Katrina would overwhelm any local government in the country, including those run by Republicans. Imagine 80% of Manhattan underwater, with no power, no food and no water for months, and tell me with a straight face there'd be no looting and chaos. New Orleans has NEVER had a socialist government--that's just silly. New Orleans is one of the poorest major cities in the U.S., and its police force is notoriously undermanned and underequipped as a result. Why people insist on posting this freeper bullshit here is beyond me.

[Gman]

9. 5 days ahead Katrina had not even made its first landfall on Florida's

southeast coast. At that time, there was only one model of the (I think) 14 models that had Katrina moving as far west as New Orleans. 5 days before Katrina hit New Orleans, it could have been just as likely forecast to have hit Brownsville, TX 6 days later.

The biggest point here is how the RW preys on people's ignorance.

[Gman]

14. Forgot to add that

The average error on hurricane tracks 5 days out is 325 nautical miles.

[thefloyd]

10. Christ

The leaders of NOLA do not answer to 49 states of America. However, Bush answers to all 50 states

[tanyev]

11. Is there any way to track the original author/distributor of these

things? You just know it's a Rovian operation.

[NYCGirl]

13. You might want to send them this exhaustively researched timeline:

http://www.thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline

[ClassWarrior]

15. I'd say, "So a lot of people fucked up. Isn't that even more reason...

...for Bush** to have been on the ball?? Hell, he** promised to keep us safe during the campaign. Are you say it's okay he** outsourced the job to Ray Nagin?"

NGU.

[verdalaven]

20. I got this from a RW nutball too

and when I say nutball, I mean a real live nutball. The type you cannot talk to because she doesn't believe anything unless it is put out by the GOP. I did not reply, just DELETED, as I do most of her emails.

My more reasonable republican friends are starting to wince when I mention bush. I am starting to believe that all he has left as far as supporters go are the extreme (ignorant) nutballs.

[Erika]

26. The GOP don't want to face their guilt for voting for W

W was pathetic in his lack of leadership. Again, the day after Ivan he was handing out water bottles to white affluent areas.

[butterfly77]

28. Every since I can remember ...

When there is a disaster the President is always the one to send in the troops. Regardless of when the President was told he knew what was going on days ahead,even if he didn't his cabinet members did. He knew when the hurricanes hit florida. It did not take five days to get food and water to the people. Big dummy waited and didn't care, he wanted it to look like he was a hero bringing in the calvary that is why he showed up on the same day as the troops. The repubs are trying to shift the debate to lower levels of government or the people themselves. Lower levels of government may be a fault but he knew and did nothing. I don't care what anyone says if all or most of those faces would have been white some help would have been there days earlier.

[rosesaylavee]

33. Hey Welcome to DU butterfly77!

Let's not forget too how concerned he was with Terry Schiavo - came right back from his vacation to deal with that crisis.

Poor thing - what a travesty that was.

[calimary]

49. Welcome to DU! You are correct - everyone always looks to

"Our President" as someone behind whom to unite - someone who speaks to the nation as almost a father figure - one who provides perspective, wisdom, guidance, and a calm, steady mooring against choppy seas. This lazy, uninvolved, apathetic asshole should have spoken to the nation in this manner at least a week earlier.

Yes. The president is supposed to be THE guy we turn to in unstable, fearful times. And yes, it's the president who sends in the big-ticket help. ESPECIALLY when a crisis is this big, and crosses state lines.

It all comes down to ONE guy. ONE unifying voice. ONE general overseer.

As I have repeated to numerous congresspeople, both bad guys and good guys, over the past several days, I do NOT feel safer, even with "Brownie" out of the picture. Because the guy who made the lousy decisions (like placing this guy in the jobs he was clearly unqualified to carry out, and promoting him to even bigger jobs he wasn't up to), and the guy who could issue the big-ticket go-aheads - and was AWOL for days, and the guy who set the bad, cheapskate, short-sighted policies and cut the funding under which "Brownie" and the rest of 'em were tasked to work with, THAT guy is still here. And as long as THAT situation continues, I don't feel safe. We are NOT safe. And we WON'T be safe as long as that negligent, disconnected, uninterested asshole is still "in charge." If you can even call it "in charge."

[Ishoutandscream2]

29. I got it too!!!

I couldn't believe how blatently racist it was. If that's their talking points, lord help them.

[hollowdweller]

40. I think there is some organ of the right wing propaganda machine that

creates and spreads these emails. A lot of time even democrats will forward them mistaking them for emails talking about the good old days or other stuff, but if you look at the ideology that they push, it's straight GOP: blame the victim, favoritisim to criminals and blacks, lawsuit abuse. The right wing spam emails attributed to George Carlin and Andy Rooney.

I think the Dems need to start coming up with some emails to pass around pushing our views. The GOP has us beat hands down in the propaganda war.

[FVZA_Colonel]

38. Did you send him this Los Angeles Times Article?

I'd say it was pretty clear that the Army Corps of Engineers was in charge of the levee system, and that they were unable to act beforehand due to massive budget cuts. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-levee4sep04,0,3450779.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[mbee]

39. The Mayor evacuated 80% of the town of New Orleans. The major

problem occured with FEMA when they refused to let help in. There's a most disturbing article I read on this forum that reports a physician went to NO from PA to lend assistance to the victims and FEMA refused to let him save someone's life and the article stated he saw two people die right there before him. Where I come from they call this murder, but this administration can get away with anything. If you can find the article I strongly recommend you refer your right wing acquaintence to it. Can't wait to hear how they will spin it. If there's a way to blame it on Clinton or Ted Kennedy they'll find it!

[kbm8795]

42. I figured it was part of their orchestrated campaign

too bad they are so used to fictionalizing to pay attention to reality.

[Contrary1]

43. Google this:

"In case you aren't familiar with how our government is SUPPOSED to work, the chain of responsibility"

It's everywhere.

[Patchuli]

45. Blehhhhhhhh

I hear guilt dripping from freep posts.

[Wordie]

46. Tell him that according to the NRP, feds take over when locals overwhelmed

The NRP is the National Response Plan, which was prepared by BUSH'S OWN administration after 9/11, to try to make clear the responsibilities of each part of government, in order to streamline responses and improve preparedness (like most of what Bush does, this was a total failure).

It states very clearly that the feds take over when local resources are overwhelmed. AND that at any time the President can assume authority anyway. (Of course, if the prez is on vacation, and doesn't watch the news, he'll miss the chance to assume responsibility, won't he.)

Read more here (don't worry, not long, and I excerpted only the most relevant parts):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2094479&mesg_id=2094566

[NVMojo]

48. The Repuke Blame Game score card ....

[blondeatlast]

51. OP, where's your opinion?

After 24 hours and numerous rebuttals of the TPs, I'd love to read your thoughts.