New Orleans Times-Picayune to Bush: 'No Question' Federal Response to Katrina Was 'Slow, Shameful'

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Editor&Publisher

In his last official press conference as president George W. Bush vigorously defended the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, denying it had been slow.

Tuesday, The Times-Picayune -- whose staff was forced to abandon its New Orleans headquarters in the rising flood waters and whose reporters were the first to alert the nation that the city had not "dodged a bullet" on Katrina -- begged to differ. Strongly.

"There ought to be no question that the government's immediate response was slow and shameful," the Times-Picayune said in an unsigned editorial headlined, "New Orleanians, and the nation, know what happened after Katrina."

While the paper agreed that the Coast Guard helicopter crews that rescued thousands from rooftops in the initial days did heroic work, it added: "But it's indisputable that the rest of the federal bureaucracy failed miserably in aiding tens of thousands of people who waited days for water, food and evacuation. Even reports by the White House and Congress faulted the federal performance."

The newspaper threw Bush's own words back at him, noting that a few days after the storm hit the president said, "The results are not acceptable."...

The editorial concluded: "This is more than a difference in semantics. Plenty of reforms are still needed at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal disaster-response entities. The last thing bureaucrats in those agencies need is the view that their performance during Katrina was fine. It wasn't. New Orleanians and the nation know it."...

Read more: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_di...

[Spazito]

1. Good for the Times-Picayune!

The federal response was appalling both in it's slowness and it's political hackery and no one knows that better than the citizens of New Orleans.

[DissedByBush]

9. Everybody screwed up

From Bush and the moron he appointed to run FEMA, to the governor, the mayor and many of the citizens themselves.

[uppityperson]

2. k&r. Just because Coast Guard did what they were supposed to do doesn't mean the Fed response

was in any way fast or adequate.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Great paper. Had articles about the weakness of the walls that were

supposed to hold the waters back from New Orleans...way way before the Hurricanes that flooded it.

[EFerrari]

10. They kept reporting and manning their offices long after it was safe, too.

[PearliePoo2]

4. Dimson was so clueless.....

his aides had to draw straws to see who would deliver and plug in the DVD compilation of TV news coverage showing New Orleans drowning.
DimWitt..DimSon...DrunkAss...

[Still Sensible]

5. And the politics were shameful

The Times-Picayune and about 300 million other people with eyes and ears... It's typical Bush to cite the response of the Coast Guard as evidence that the federal government reacted adequately. In Reagan/Bush world, the military is the only part of the government that is supposed to work. In their world, the government is the problem and every damn time they get to steer, they prove it.

But it was the politics the White House played while people were drowning that was most appalling to me. Remember as the admittedly inept Blanco administration begged for help? The White House tried to pull a power play and get her to cede her authority to them. This political bullshit further delayed the federal response. Bush didn't mention that in his presser.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. I remember that political power play. Some things the Bush administration did...

were just dead wrong, and others were pure evil. That was pure evil.

[DonCoquixote]

7. Ok, as a Floridian

Let me say that back before FEMA was shoved under the "homeland security" umbrella, it worked, and was tested to work. When Hurricane Andrew hit Miami, you did not have any of the GOP pundits ask "if" we should rebuild Miami. Miami was poor, Miami was a port city, but of course, the difference is that back then, Miami was the city whose Cuban exiles helped clinch Florida for the GOP, and we all know the mileage they got form that. Point is, Miami came back, and came back stronger. In contrast, the GOP did not want New Orleans to come back, because New Orleans is, was, and always will be a place where Anglo-Saxon values have to compete with other values, as opposed to many other places in the South.

Not that we should excuse the DINOs in that place either. Mary Landrieu not only gave her state to the oil Industry, but she tried taking some of Florida's land, because Florida was refusing to give in to the Oil industry. As much as I despise Jeb Bush, I have to give the devil his due, he knew we would gut him if he allowed the Oil industry to make our Gulf look like Louisiana's. As far as Ray Nagin, he had the Gall to act like a Saint, but I remember when Ivan was supposed to cream New Orleans, people were telling him to properly equip the Superdome to be a shelter. Not only did her fight that, but he fought the idea of it even being used as a shelter!

To cop a riff off Keith Olbermann, want happened in New Orleans "is, and always will be personal." It is not just because a possible Job would have had me living right in the middle of the death zone when Katrina hit, but because I know full well that if Tampa were to be hit, we would not be prepared at ALL. It scares me to think that Charlie Crist actually makes some of the fools I mentioned look good, as he is apparently all for Oil Rigs to be right in the line of a Hurricane. For all those who make comments about "good riddance" keep in mind we Tampa Democrats helped to pry Florida's votes out of the cold, dead hands of the GOP, and YES WE DID!

[struggle4progress]

8. "No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idnit, ay? Beautiful"

"The plumage don't enter into it: it's stone dead"
"Nononono, no, no! E's restin!"

[merh]

11. And damn it to hell - Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast

the hurricane hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast - it practically wiped us out and there are cities in Alabama and around New Orleans that were severely damaged or almost destroyed.

Katrina was two disasters - it was the Hurricane and it was the flooding of NOLA - folks along the MS Gulf Coast are still living in trailers and they take those from them in March of this year.

We don't have enough housing for low income people. We are still having issues and yes, the federal response was too damned slow.

The worst part about it is the misspent monies and the monies that went to GWB's cronies and the repug big wigs friends. Wait until those scandals shake out - the theft of the monies that should have gone to the people.

Oh - the first government authorized bailout was not the banks, it was the insurance companies after Katrina. They didn't have to pay what was owed to the policy holders, the gov gave grants and low interest loans.

If the insurance companies gave what was due the homeowners rebuilding would have happened a lot sooner.

Bush is a demented, he tries to soothe his conscience with his lies.

[Virginian]

12. I never could understand how come...

The families of the 9/11 victims got lots of money but the families of the victims of Katrina got blamed for not being wealthy enough to evacuate.

[DUlover2909]

13. I live in Pasadena, TX and I left when Ike hit recently.

I can remember thinking how grateful I was that I had family in Dallas that could accommodate me and my two cats for a week. I was grateful that I had a car and gas money to get out during the worst of it. The traffic was bad, but not terrible.

If I hadn't had family I would have had to pay for a hotel (which many people can't afford). If I didn't have a car I would have had to either stay or take a bus (which would have been difficult on short notice). If I didn't have gas money I would have been in the same situation. I have a good job and that's the only reason I could afford those things. I recall thinking how even slightly less fortunate people in NO must have felt when they actually couldn't afford to leave for a while, which ended up being weeks, not days. Just having the power out for a couple of weeks was miserbale when I came back. I can't imagine how I would have coped if there was no water or stores to buy ice or gasoline or food. It made me realize just how bad the people in NO had it.

[SpiralHawk]

14. Commander AWOL Bush succeeded in one thing only: lying

the republicon modus operandi...

[percussivemadness]

15. as shown here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...