President Bush to speak to the nation 9am

FoxNews

[Dog]

President to speak at 9am ...

[cake_crumb]

Since perception is what drives public opinion (and believe me I'm in a position to say you're 100% correct), why are you purposely or accidentally helping to perpetuate the perception of the president as incompetent and "out to lunch" via your posts?

[ohioWfan]

I haven't lost a single bit of confidence in the military, Peach. I'd rely on them for anything.

The changes in response today are very positive. The rule of the thugs is over.

[ohioWfan]

Yep. It IS weakness.

Sorry New York. You worry too much about media slickness. It's a weakness.

[jveritas]

HitmanNY is an arrogant person who thinks that the majority of the American people are too stupid and they believe what the liberal media tell. He believes that the American people are too stupid to understand that you just cannot wave a magic wand and have everything goes back to normal in 48 hours after the most devastating hurricane ever. He believes that the majority of the American people are not seeing the looting that the subhumans scums are doing in New Orleans and hence the American people according to him are too dumb to take this as a major factor for the problems that occurred in the aftermath of the Hurricane. HitmanNY is the same arrogant person who believed all last year that the American people are too dumb, they believe the media lies, and hence they elect John Kerry. And guess who else see the American people as too dumb and too stupid, yes you are correct, the LIBERALS.

HitmanNY is either a liberal troll, or a Buchananite, or a moronic third party voters, but I guess nowadays they are all a piece of crap split into three.

[jennyjenny]

As for FEMA, I doubt it ever occurred to them in their worst case scenario that they'd face house to house fighting in the streets of New Orleans just to evacuate survivors, feed, clothe and treat them. But that's just IMO. Nobody's pointed that out yet.

It wouldn't have occurred to me and I can't for the life of me figure out why they're doing it now. It's shocking and disgusting.

[roses of sharon]

Exactly, I'll bet Hillary would have the entire military there the day after the hurricane.

And she gets good press too!

Hillary in 08!

Or maybe even you can run in 08.

[mplsconservative]

No I wasn't blaming him but with any national disaster(and this is a national disaster, not a local or state) the leader of that nation should be front and center to address the people. He may not have all the information he needs but regardless he needs to be seen (on TV) telling what is known and what steps are going to be taken. On Monday night they knew the situation wasn't good.

That's total BS and you know it.

Monday night, it appeared NO had dodged a big bullet. All of the networks were trumpeting the good news. You had to have had your head in the sand to not have heard about it.

I stand by my statement that you joined FR today as a seminar poster with the agenda of bashing President Bush. You're just a little more subtle than some of the merry band of trolls trotting around here today. Nice try.

[RightWhale]

The Pres says the results are not acceptable. The Div of Labor has just created 10,000 cleanup jobs with the money they were given. Some Depts are going to do well in the performance review. Some are not. The Pres is demanding effective action from his Cabinet, and heads will roll if they do not respond immediately. Count on it. He won't need Donald Trump to come in and say 'You're fired!'

[oldbrowser]

The criticism is not hyper. It's legit. There isn't much to show for disaster preparedness, as the situation in NO makes clear.

That is an ignorant general statement. Of course they are prepared, but they don't have a magic wand to fix everything instantly.

It takes time to move assets and establish communications, evaluate the situation, formulate a plan.

It is being disingenuous to pretend that without an effective local disaster relief plan the feds could come into a situation where two major disasters (hurricane & flood) happened simultaneously and immediately fix everything.

Any fool can say it could have been done better or quicker.

[RinaseaofDs]

I keep having to give this civics lesson on most of these idiotic threads:

Louisiana is a sovereign state. It has an executive, the Governor. She's sort of the President down there.

The feds can't do a whole lot until the Governor of that state does what is legally necessary for the feds to act as they need to. For example, it is not legal for the federal government to use the Army in a law enforcement capacity - Posse Comitatus. It's a good law, and there for a reason.

The state can deputize the national guard as state police so that they can restore order.

For the record, Mississippi was hit harder by the storm and we aren't hearing much about that. Alabama lost Mobile and Biloxi. They've lost the bridges, refineries, ports, etc.

The reason is that the other two governors actually took advantages of ALL THE PREPARATIONS THAT THE FEDS set up prior to the storm hitting them.

All the docs that needed signing were signed. Alabama declared martial law about 15 minutes into the first night after the storm had passed. The governor had coordinated with FEMA to have supplies and manpower available and pre-staged toward the northern end of the state.

This thing is happening for one reason - Blanco. She should step down and let the adults handle this.

[SweetCaroline]

IMO, these people are not only living up to, but they are PROVING every single stereotype people have ever thought about them.

....remember the riots in Detroit in 1967?

....the Rodney King episode?

Why people are soooo surprised and can't put the blame where it belongs is no surprise to me, they couldn't then either!

[Howlin]

This is all making me sick; I'm running low on compassion today.

I'm sick of ungrateful people.

[RightWhale]

Any fool can say it could have been done better or quicker.

It could be more effective. Any fool can see that. Pres Bush should fire someone in the Cabinet, now.

[Frank_Discussion]

So, you're not actually ging to answer the question? I did not ask you what what has not HAPPENED, I'm asking what you think The Feds have not DONE. Do you or do you not agree that FEMA must abide by the Constitution? If you agree, then FEMA, the NG, and the regular military have done pretty much all they can do until the gov't of the state of LA requests Federal Jurisdiction.

Part of FEMA's preparation is the very good assumption and REQUIREMENT that the local authorities must be part of the team. They've refused to play their part, and now you want the Feds to start override the Constitutional protections? Your anguish is blinding you to reality.

[Kay]

Homeland security is not about the West Nile virus, tornados, hurricanes, floods, heat stroke, gas prices, etc. Homeland Security is about SECURITY. When have they ever had to respond to a hurricane before? Maybe I missed it.

I don't get you guys who are totally ramped. You are the verbal snipers -- when people are doing their best in a dreadful situation, you guys (many, not just you) are taking them out with sniper fire. How is that different than the depraved idiots who shot at the helicoptors on top of Tulane hospital?

[Peach]

Oh, watching the military taking over today is what we've been waiting for and needing. Desperately. I have faith in the military; it's getting them where they need to be that we can't any of us ever wait for.

My comment about not having faith is that most of us couldn't have held out against the rapes and murderous SOB's without food and water for so long. We have to watch out for ourselves.

[Soul Seeker]

My POINT is that you are presenting New orleans as the definitive marker of Homeland security while ignoring the vast majority of cities and states that are under control. Why is that? Why do you choose one city, only one, that is a disaster zone to denounce HS completely?

In point of fact what it says to ME is the vast number of our officials elsewhere are competant and able to rise to the expectations. The officials in new Orleans direct to Governor were not. Does this introduce a chink in HS? Absolutely. But it doesn't cast it as a failure in sum. What it does show is that we need procedures to assess those that are incompetant in advance, and to override in case of emergency which would mean more federalization which some people would have a heart attack over. But clearly had we been able to override the Governor and mayor a few days ago some of these problems could have been lessoned.

MISS isn't having these problems. Alabama isn't having these problems. Other parts of LA, that coincidentally, have high REP voting rates seem self sufficient. This tells me the most vulnerable chinks in our armor are apparently areas like New Orleans or, my inclusion, Seattle where incompetance is rampant at a political level.

[subterfuge]

"This thing is going to torpedo Bush's presidency"

Overreaction. The people who hate and attack W can't get any more nasty. They can't attack him more than they already have been. Sounds as if some, like Joe Voter and You, might be swayed by the MSMs spin that "its all Bush's fault."

[Yasotay]

Yes I do.The Mayor and the Governor aren't leading. If the SS had it's way, Bush would not have left his nuclear command bunker on 9-11. He left and did a great job. The SS and the National Guard should be able to secure an area for him in NO. If they can't, the President needs to know that also.....