>From the New York Times -- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html
Op-Ed Columnist United States of Shame By MAUREEN DOWD Stuff happens. And when you combine limited government with incompetent government, lethal stuff happens. America is once more plunged into a snake pit of anarchy, death, looting, raping, marauding thugs, suffering innocents, a shattered infrastructure, a gutted police force, insufficient troop levels and criminally negligent government planning. But this time it's happening in America. W. drove his budget-cutting Chevy to the levee, and it wasn't dry. Bye, bye, American lives. "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," he told Diane Sawyer. Shirt-sleeves rolled up, W. finally landed in Hell yesterday and chuckled about his wild boozing days in "the great city" of N'Awlins. He was clearly moved. "You know, I'm going to fly out of here in a minute," he said on the runway at the New Orleans International Airport, "but I want you to know that I'm not going to forget what I've seen." Out of the cameras' range, and avoided by W., was a convoy of thousands of sick and dying people, some sprawled on the floor or dumped on baggage carousels at a makeshift M*A*S*H unit inside the terminal. Why does this self-styled "can do" president always lapse into such lame "who could have known?" excuses. Who on earth could have known that Osama bin Laden wanted to attack us by flying planes into buildings? Any official who bothered to read the trellis of pre-9/11 intelligence briefs. Who on earth could have known that an American invasion of Iraq would spawn a brutal insurgency, terrorist recruiting boom and possible civil war? Any official who bothered to read the C.I.A.'s prewar reports. Who on earth could have known that New Orleans's sinking levees were at risk from a strong hurricane? Anybody who bothered to read the endless warnings over the years about the Big Easy's uneasy fishbowl. In June 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, fretted to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us." Not only was the money depleted by the Bush folly in Iraq; 30 percent of the National Guard and about half its equipment are in Iraq. Ron Fournier of The Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans last year. The White House carved it to about $40 million. But President Bush and Congress agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-filled highway bill with 6,000 pet projects, including a $231 million bridge for a small, uninhabited Alaskan island. Just last year, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials practiced how they would respond to a fake hurricane that caused floods and stranded New Orleans residents. Imagine the feeble FEMA's response to Katrina if they had not prepared. Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center. Was he sacked instantly? No, our tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue and attended "Spamalot" before bloggers chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked empathy but could get the job done. But it is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode. When the president and vice president rashly shook off our allies and our respect for international law to pursue a war built on lies, when they sanctioned torture, they shook the faith of the world in American ideals. When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700 guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us ashamed. Who are we if we can't take care of our own? E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Begin forwarded message: From: Ted Dolotta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: September 3, 2005 4:19:48 PM EDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [IP] "United States of Shame" Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I urge everyone to read the whole of Maureen Dowd's column. She's (as usual) outrageous, but also clearly outraged -- and rightly so. Just click on the URL below. Ted Dolotta http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html?pagewanted=print ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Norman MacLeod <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: September 3, 2005 5:41:58 PM EDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [IP] "United States of Shame" Certainly an interesting read. Once again, it's all the fault of the Bush administration. Let's see...1953...more than 1,800 Dutch citizens die when a massive storm hits The Netherlands. They respond by completing the Deltawerk in about ten years. Do we build a levee system around New Orleans that will protect the city against a Category 5 hurricane? We didn't then, and 52 years later the answer remains no. We know the technology that would have prevented a substantial portion of this disaster existed more than 50 years ago. After all, a nation only eight years out of being completely trashed by WWII was able to use it to protect its citizens. Nine successive U.S. administrations and multiple Congresses dominated by both of our major parties at one time or another failed to come up with a similar project as a priority in the wealthiest nation in the world. Where were the primary leadership lapses that exacerbated the scope of the disaster in New Orleans? In New Orleans and Baton Rouge. If a Category 5 hurricane has its sights on your city, and you know that it will take three days to accomplish a reasonably complete evacuation of your citizenry, should you wait until the morning before that hurricane hits to get the mandatory evacuation under way? Probably not...but that's what happened in New Orleans. The city also now has a fleet of ruined school buses sitting in their parking lots. Why were they not used in evacuating the city? They could have been used to get thousands out of harm's way, and they would still be on the road, helping accomplish the needed relief missions. When you are the governor, and the governors of the two other states the hurricane are going to hit are federalizing their National Guard resources, why do you wait for the President to call you and urge you to do what it takes to allow the federal government to start prioritizing resources in your direction? I don't know whether Governor Blanco will ever provide us with an adequate answer for that one. Once it's apparent that you need every resource at hand to help get the rest of a city's people out of the catastrophe zone, should you tell the Red Cross that they can't put resources into your city? Up to last night, at least, the Red Cross was being held out of New Orleans. Certainly they should not be setting up shelters in New Orleans itself, but they should be allowed in to help coordinate the evacuation. The federal government's disaster response responsibilities generally ramp up after the initial local and state responses are overtaken by events. The federal government's responsibility is to sustain the recovery operations over the long haul. One of the things that bothers me the most is that the same challenges that New Orleans faced in evacuating the city on this occasion happened only a year ago in the run-up to Hurricane Ivan. Fortunately, Ivan spared the city a serious blow. Katrina was not as kind. How come the leadership in New Orleans and Baton Rouge didn't fix the problems after the preview they had last year? There was serious destruction in Mississippi and Alabama. That both of those states are coping better than Louisiana points to the impression that there are some serious leadership problems in Louisiana, and that you can't blame it all on the administration in Washington. Norman ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: September 3, 2005 8:36:53 PM EDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Ip Ip <ip@v2.listbox.com> Subject: Re: [IP] more on "United States of Shame" Dave Thanks for forwarding Norman's note....appears to be the thoughtful work of a somewhat non-partisan commentator. Easy to pick apart "weird" comments from all sides....like a reported Kennedy comment that God was punishing the Mississippi Governor or the weird "an atomic" bomb in the mix was not contemplated by the Director of Homeland Security! Look at the history folks,big # 4 or 5 storms have been banging the gulf coast since way before "global warming" and large concentrations of populations on the coasts! Admittedly,the underlying problems are truly horrific in an area the size of the UK and many of your post's correctly highlight potential contributing factor "politics as usual" reality such as the $232M Alaska "bridge to no where" funding appropriation in the recent Congressional transportation bill vs alledged Corps of Engineer budget cuts in New Orleans as a classic example. We gotta find a better way to allocate budget resources....current "bring home the bacon" for a bingo museum mentality has become too bizzare.....because recently neither political party appears interested in taxpayer "bang for the buck" So,I have not been active on you IP site for many years,but as I recall from very early days,used to be mostly folks of science and technology. Accordingly,I am somewhat dismayed to see people casting specific pin point blame without emperical evidence or certainty! [ this is indicative of the general hostility the previous two administrations have caused in the USA the blues hated one president and the reds the other. djf] Yea,so the President did not tear up like perhaps Bill Clinton might have during a speech....is that proof positive that he does not care about the plight of the homeless poor people in NO?? This is a big country with complex governmental structures and probably way too much bureaucracy....even the much debated requirement that New Orleans Police department officers must reside in the city limits probably had an impact. However, as Norman implies below,viewed as comparative case studies,the Mississippi governor appears to have better anticipated the scope of the challenges than counterparts to the west next door. Admittedly,the subsequent flooding in NO makea an absolute comparision somewhat bogus. For the record it would be interesting to know, how many previous administrations of either party have been declared or designated geographical disaster areas before the disaster? Not trying to start a fight here,let's just get the folks rescued and safe before tossing the political grenades in our red state vs blue state battles! At the end of the day,what counts is learning from the mis-judgements of all stakeholders and never repeating the same mistakes again. Jim ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Warren Magnus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: September 3, 2005 6:55:06 PM EDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IP] more on "United States of Shame" Dave: I note that there is much finger pointing at the local and state governments by those politically aligned on the right. I suppose this is to be expected, but on August 28, the formal request for FEMA involvement and disaster aid went out. <http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf> The President Declared a disaster nearly immediately after that, making FEMA resources available and theoretically engaging the DHS. Supposedly by Monday afternoon, there was talk of FEMA evaluating damage on the ground, events as unfolded on the Times-Picayune newslog. <http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times- Picayune/archives/2005_08.html#074879>. Even as I write this things are unfolding in a much more disturbing way. The ball has been dropped so badly by this administration that war has essentially been declared on the very people who need the help of the military. <http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077495.php> <http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx? type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-09-03T202355Z_01_FOR373303_RTRIDST_0_USRE PORT-WEATHER-KATRINA-HELPLESS-DC.XML> This is not a rebellion. This is a battle for survival brought about the total inability of the gutted FEMA and its lords at the DHS being prepared for the wrong kind of homeland risk. Terrorism is no threat compared to what can happen due to natural disaster and we as a nation have totally blown it. There is no war on terror that we can win so long as our own people are dying in the streets of their home towns due to disease, dehydration and at the hands of our own defenders. Do I point fingers? You bet. Can we fix things immediately? No, but there needs to be a clear responsibility where the buck must ultimately stop. We have a naval vessel named after Harry Truman heading to the Gulf of Mexico. That man understood where the buck stopped. This President does not and he needs to be held accountable for his bad management. -W ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Marc <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: September 3, 2005 6:04:57 PM EDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [IP] "United States of Shame" Dave; What galls me, is that; after the 9/11 fiasco (the *federal* response was completely uninspired - bordering on lame), after the Iraq fiasco (They lied, and KNEW they were lying, and got caught!!), and now after the New Orleans fiasco (I can't even sum it in one line!); Nobody is calling for this leader's head! I can't imagine any chief executive of any corporation getting away with this level of contempt for his shareholders without being summarily and publicly fired and sued into bankruptcy. I suppose what galls me more, is that I will not be surprised to see the whole thing "spun" and swept under the carpet - Like the Iraq fiasco. I have been asking myself this same question for months now; Where are the American people? And how much more of this are they prepared to swallow, before they vomit?!! Marc -----Original Message----- From: David Farber [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 5:36 PM To: Ip Ip Subject: [IP] "United States of Shame" Begin forwarded message: From: Steve Goldstein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: September 3, 2005 4:27:02 PM EDT To: David Farber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [IP] "United States of Shame" The more I think about our Commander-in-Chief's "performance" in Mississippi, the more resentful and angry I get. I am referring to the two very comely black women whom he hugged profusely and kissed on their heads (which appeared to have been freshly coiffed!) as they cried their tale of woe to him for all the nation to see and hear: "And, we don't have any clothes!" Try to tell me that these women were not carefully selected from crowds of the faithful and "cleaned up" to be both attractive and presentable to the Prez' as foils for his caring performance. I am not criticizing them at all; they were needy and deserving of all the help that they, and others, too, could receive. But, what riles me is that this, like any other public Presidential event appeared to be wholly staged. I mean, you didn't see our Prez' hugging a middle-aged morbidly obese person of either gender whose clothes stank from having to wade through flooded streets and whose hair was disheveled from days of perspiring with no showers, did you? ARGHHH! --Steve ------------------------------- *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The 'johnmacsgroup' Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml "When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra "Always make new mistakes" -- Esther Dyson "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" -- Arthur C. Clarke "You Gotta Believe" - Frank "Tug" McGraw (1944 - 2004 RIP) John F. McMullen [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ: 4368412 Skype, AIM & Yahoo Messenger: johnmac13 http://www.westnet.com/~observer ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back! http://us.click.yahoo.com/VpgUKB/pzNLAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
