I watched plenty of news from New Orleans after the storm MCG. But the difference is that I wasn't watching it with the idea of finding a lot of crap to lay at Bushes doorstep. And the topic here was truth in reporting, you somehow turned it into another MCG Bush bash. Which I expected by the way. Now back to the topic, accurate reporting. The MSM is so biased it is unbeleivable, but that's just my opinion.
From your article Bill: "None of this is to say that the federal government and the Bush administration didn't make mistakes. But if we're looking for poster children for arrogant incompetence in response to Katrina, there are better candidates than George W. Bush." RE: the "Bush Bash" I guess the "federal Gov't." boils down to Bush? Hey...he's the head cheese but there were plenty of culprits to go along with him. RE: 4 days on rooftops: Are all of you convinced then that FEMA and Brown and yes Bush were all very competent, timely and couldn't have done better? Really?
One thing that has to be kept in mind is that the Katrina damage wasn't over the minute the storm moved on. The city of NO began flooding when the levees were breached and the city flooded during the next half week. Some of the folks on the rooftops may not have been originally under water after the storm. It was only days later that the city flooded. But don't let the facts get in anyone's way. When Bush built the levees he did a terrible job.
Let us not forget that the residents in those areas were under mandatory evacuation orders.....which means that you need to get f@*k out of dodge. Those that make the personal decision to not evacuate are necessarily left to their own devices. Here in SE North Carolina where we have competent local administrators who develop, communicate and execute well-conceived hurricane emergency plans, they explain clearly why the evacuations are mandatory....they are mandatory because the nature of the storms fury and resulting chaos is such that emergency services will be unable to respond and assist and therefore those that CHOOSE not to evacuate have no one to blame but themselves....... Terry
The same folks who complain that the feds came up short in their response to Katrina are the first to complain about "Big Brother" and infringement of rights. Ironic.
I'll venture that the levees and subsequent flooding were finished doing their job on New Orleans with 36 hours after Katrina hit. On the failure to evacuate....some of these people had no means to go somewhere else and the Superdome proved to be a hellhole. There are some very, very poor people in this country and certainly the 9th ward in NO held some of that group. If you don't have 2 dimes to rub together you may think twice about heading out on the highway with no place to go. At least BEFORE Katrina you may have felt that way.
"Now back to the topic, accurate reporting. The MSM is so biased it is unbeleivable, but that's just my opinion" That's quite a statement Bill when you would rather believe a publication that makes no bones about representing special interests...the NR. If mainstream media only reported warm, fuzzy news that fed into the "right" you would embrace that then as the "truth" Gimme a break.
Let me clarify something I said earlier, not that anyone cares. I said that all levels of government were incompetent in dealing with the disaster, primarily because of the lack of preparedness on all levels. I don't believe for a second that it has anything to do with politics. If we had a democratic president, a republican LA governor, and a republican NO mayor, nothing would have been different. It was a DISASTER (Cue Sam Kinnison). Those who would assign blame are wasting the time of those who are stepping up to provide aid and comfort. MCG, it's not your political beliefs that costs you credibility in this debate. It's your unwavering tendency to always blame someone or something when things don't go your way, from football referees to republican presidents. Although the "your way" is not applicable in the discussion of the Katrina disaster, the tendency still applies. It makes you infinitely more myopic and prone to self-serving logic than your conservative opposition in the debate.
MCG wrote: If you don't have 2 dimes to rub together, where are you coming up with the guns to shoot at the people that are trying to help you? People were shooting at the rescue helicopters. Now could that possibly be a reason for slowed response in getting people off of roofs?
The means existed...... The Superdome was administered by local authorities.....the incompetent buffoon of a mayor got re-elected. Go figure..... Terry
Quite a collection of weak arguments. Sid, my response was to the original article posted by GB that in essence says that the whole thing is just a figment of the public's imagination cooked up by the clandestine leftists media masquerading as mainstream media. Excuse me but I have always thought that unusual, almost paranoid thinking to be a little over the top and that is why I even responded to this topic. Tom...Tom...everyone without two dimes was shooting the place up? Guys...there was some real tangible suffering in post Katrina New Orleans that still goes on today and it was not a fallacy, a dream, a hallucination or a big lie made up by the mainstream media.
No ****? Really? The city was devistated by a very powerful hurricane. I think everyone on this board realizes that. The only difference is that some of us are not so warped and delusional that we blame every damn thing on the guy in the White House. Talk about paranoid....why not look in the mirror. You might just find what you've been preaching about.
MCG, Gipper and Sid have it right. Of course there was suffering, it was the biggest natural disaster in the history of the country. Sometime another one will exceed it and there will be more suffering. But the unfortunate thing is that as long as we get hung up on placing blame then it becomes a pi##ing match and takes away from the effort to make things better. Like Gipper said, it's Bushes fault, he built the levy. And as far as the source for the article I posted, big deal. So it's a conservative site. Good thing some exist because you sure won't get the true story in MSM.
"And as far as the source for the article I posted, big deal. So it's a conservative site. Good thing some exist because you sure won't get the true story in MSM." Bill, this viewpoint of yours is held by most conservatives on this board. My view has always been that any outlet of the media that is unbashedly, philosophically left or right of center and actually sells itself as such is not a media source I can trust. Any media organization with an agenda to promote will always enhance it's own views and interests and minimize the other side. Now, you may strongly disagree with this but that's just your opinion and not necessarilty the "true story".
MCG wrote: Have you ever worked a rescue? Innocent people do suffer due to the actions of a few. When we (fire department medical responders) are called out to the scene of a medical emergency, if gun play is involved, we have to stage in a safe zone to wait for the police to clear the scene. All it takes is for one of these idiots to start shooting at helicopters for all helicopters to be pulled back and wait for area assessment. That causes real delays. Rescue workers, volunteer or otherwise, are taught that the safety of the rescuers is priority number one. You do NOT become another victim to be rescued.
Tom, I can see where the actions of a very few can disrupt rescue operations but of course the blame for that rest with those very few and not the innocent masses.
MCG wrote: RIGHT!!! The blame for the delay in getting people off the roofs rests with those few. So give FEMA and the President a little slack.
Fair enough MCG, however the problem as I see it is how much of the main stream media try to make us believe they are objective when in fact they have a very liberal bias. So I have to turn to some other areas to get truth. Just my opinion.