The Future of our Country?

Conservatives are missing the point that the federal government was not at all prepared for New Orleans--a disaster for which we had a LOT of warning. HOW can we feel safe from anything else? Let's think about what would happen, given recent events:





Future headline: Response to terrorist blowing up White House.



Washington--Much has happened since a terrorist blew up the White House three days ago. Luckily, the president was not there. He was away, giving a speech later that day, promoting the "prescription drug benefit," which is expected to be a windfall for major drug companies.



Yesterday, when the last of the White House collapsed, endangering staff and rescue workers, Mr. Bush was giving a speech in California, promoting the war in Iraq, which has taken the National Guard away from its post in the States.



When asked about the attack on the White House, Mr. Bush said that "no one could have foreseen that," adding that no one should blame him--he wasn't even there! One reporter said that the bomber actually walked up to the front door, after calling a few days in advance to say he was coming, Mr. Bush said that people come to the White House all the time--why should they think the bomber was any different?



Reporters continued to press the president on how such a thing could be allowed to happen, four years after 9/11. Mr. Bush said that NO ONE has attacked the World Trade Center since 2001, and THAT is sufficient proof that he is doing his job.



Meanwhile, Barbara Bush said it was no big deal--that house was way too old, and somebody as important as the president should live in a NEW house, anyway. And Laura Bush said the media is making too much of this--they're showing the same pictures of the rubble, why don't they show NEW pictures of the rubble??



When asked why the bomber was allowed to walk away after delivering the bomb, Mr. Bush said that Michael Brown, formerly FEMA chief, had been reassigned to White House security, and that the important thing to remember is that no one has looted the White House rubble since the bombing, adding, "Brownie is doing a heck of a job!"



Vice President Cheney is still on vacation and was unavailable for comment. Secretary of State Rice was located, but she was too busy buying shoes to give a comment.

Hifrigginlarious

That was beautiful Shelly!!! You should write children's books!

Let me get on my soap box here for a moment...But first I must put in this disclaimer that I am neither a Republican or Democrat..I am a registered "Independent"

To avoid future "knuckleheads" in the White House, everyone needs to make sure they get off their lazy butt and VOTE!! VOTE PEOPLE!! Bush won this last election by the skin of his teeth! What does that tell you? Personally I didn't think that Kerry was all that great HOWEVER he was the lesser of two evils.
We can all sit and bitch about this moron ONLY if we all got out there and voted. I did! Therefore I have the right to bitch!

You know I am a hurricane "Andrew" survivor and can tell you that the relief we received was the textbook version of how things should have been done! But guess who was sitting in the White House? Clinton. IMO the best president this country has ever had. Ask me if I care that he got a "hummer" in the White House?!!..the answer is NO! Believe me, he was not the first president to have done this sort of thing, just dumb enough to get caught.

And this hurricane business is not the only thing Bush has handled poorly...he has handled EVERYTHING like crap.

Hopefully we will have 2 candidates next election that we won't go wrong with either way we go because this country needs it.. I will take either Rudolph Giuliani or Hillary Clinton. I don't think we can loose with either one..

AND MAKE SURE YOU VOTE!

It's really a shame when Mrs. Bush doesn't even care enough to know what the hell the name of the hurricane was.

http://ownagevideos.com/page.php?id=498

A village in Texas reported that their "idiot" was missing.. HURRY! someone call The Bureau of Missing Persons! BY GEORGE! (no pun intended) I THINK WE FOUND HIM!!

Originally Posted by South Dixie Dragons

You know I am a hurricane "Andrew" survivor and can tell you that the relief we received was the textbook version of how things should have been done! But guess who was sitting in the White House? Clinton. IMO the best president this country has ever had. Ask me if I care that he got a "hummer" in the White House?!!..the answer is NO! Believe me, he was not the first president to have done this sort of thing, just dumb enough to get caught.

Interesting take on it... considering Clinton wasn't in the White House until five months after Andrew slammed the sunshine state. Also, the response to Andrew was characterized in the same manner as the response to Katrina, even though Andrew paled in comparison.

I'm on a government computer right now, so I'm limited as to what opinions I can post. As such, I'll give my $0.02 to the political side of this discussion either late tonight or sometime tomorrow morning when I'm at home.

opps..you are right , my mistake...The credit goes to George SR for doing an excellent job. Jr could have taken pointers from him on this one... I give credit where credit is due..

As part of the response to Hurricane Andrew, I can tell you from my point of view it could have been better. I was part of one of the Marine Corps Battalions sent from NC to Homestead. We setup and ran one of the tent cities. However, we were not mobilized until approximately 48 hrs AFTER the hurricane struck. We were then bused to Cherry Point, NC to the Marine Air Station. There we sat for another 48 hrs, waiting on a plane to fly us down. We could have driven quicker. It then took us two days to set up the camp and accept people. That's 6 days after the Hurricane.

Granted that is quicker than the majority of the response to Katrina but we didn't have flood waters and snipers to contend with also. But it was still 6 long days that the people in Homestead had nothing.

Dennis,

You were stuck in the middle of hell! I was living in the infamous "Country Walk" area several miles north of the Homestead Air Force base. Pehaps it was because we were in a slightly more populated area or more easy accessable area, but we saw the National Guard within 36 hours and they were handing out K rations, taking people to the Red Cross etc.. Now I will say that it was probably about 6 days before they actually started to search what was left of the homes and doing "body counts".
But all and all I think it was handled very well. It is just very upseting the way this Katrina disaster was handled.

Thank you for helping us in Andrew!!
Semper FI!!!!

Okay, since I was part of JTF Katrina, I'll informally address some issues regarding that operation.

It is not, nor has it ever been, the responsibility of the Federal government to be the first response to a local emergency. The duty of Federal agencies in a situation such as this is to augment/ assist local officials when they are overwhelmed.

As Katrina approached NOLA, Federal assets were prepositioned and took a ready posture. Three hours after she made landfall, FEMA was on the ground in Baton Rouge. That afternoon, 1,000 additional FEMA personell were given their deployment orders. This, despite the fact that the levees hadn't breached, and damage appeared to not be as bad as expected.

Within 24 hours of Katrina's landfall, Air Force Special Operations Command, at the request of FEMA, began moving people and aircraft into the AOR. Active Duty, Reserve, and ANG assets were all used in the rescue ops. In addition to AFSOC, Air Mobility Command supported the mission.

Refugees that could not be immediately rescued were airdropped MRE's and bottled water by the case, as were those who were airlifted to "the cloverleaf."

There's much blame to go around for the response to Katrina, but most of it is misdirected. Local officials in LA screwed the pooch on this one by failing to prepare and faltering in the response.