Get Off His Back

American Spectator ^ | 9/4/2005 | Ben Stein

[roaddog727]

True enough.


But at least he had the intestinal fortitude and strength of conviction to put it in writing and publish it.

[bethtopaz]

Shows that the left really want a KING.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the heads up.

I was trying to copy your posting of Ben's article to email it and it got here instead of you getting a thank you for posting it.

I have asked the admin moderator to remove my extra posting.

[WhiteGuy]

Have we heard comments from Jimmy Kimmel?

[Les_Miserables]

He can remove mine also #64) but the original post is not mine. It belongs to visagoth... and is replicated in at least two other threads.

[Grampa Dave]

I was having a problem with the original site trying to copy Ben's oped, and what you posted was clean without ads and other stuff.

Sorry about what happened.

[ladyinred]

They were certainly warned. It's not George Bush's fault that there were sick people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. His job description does not include making sure every adult in America has a car, is in good health, has good sense, and is mobile.

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! Now will you please tell my neighbors this please!!!!

[thoughtomator]

George Bush is simply "the Jews" for the Democrat party. Anything negative that ever happens that relates to the USA in any way is "George Bush's fault"; anything negative that ever happens in the Arab world is "the Jews' fault". I can no longer see a spit of difference between the two approaches.

[hripka]

Interesting.

Heirs question levee board's efforts
By Amanda Furness
May 21, 2001
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:cuvo6ETx5KQJ:www.louisianaweekly.com/cgi-bin/weekly/news/articlegate.pl%3F20010521f+levee+board+casino&hl=en

[SFConservative]

24 hrs after Bush said get NG-MPs into NO they were there. 3 days too late.

What do you think they were doing the first two days - sitting around with a six-pack and watching game shows until the President finally gave an order? An awful lot of logistics and staging was accomplished in those two days, with huge amounts of equipment, supplies and people being flown into the staging zones and getting prioritized and loaded. Converging all of these capabilities toward the disaster zone but sufficiently holding them back to not lose them to the hurricane started following the federal disaster area declarations on Saturday.

[jveritas]

Great article.

[jveritas]

Excellent points.

[Les_Miserables]

Vast amounts of resources were already staged before Monday. The chopper ride from Baton Rouge is about 1 hour, from Jackson Mississippi around 2 hrs max, and from Shreveport a little over 2 hours...It is my opinion (to which I think I am entitled without derision) that the BS agrument about how difficult it is to mobilize doesn't hold water (sorry about the reference) in the 21st century. If that is the way relief efforts are to be expected to respond they are worthless. After the Mayor failed to properly implement the evacuation plan and implement it early enough, the basic problem was the miserable failure of the LA governor to properly deploy and yes pre-deploy the LANG with the dual mission of security and relief and to execute quickly behind Katrina. (I don't relieve the LANG leadership either) Second major failure was The same incompetent Governor failing to request federal help when it became immediately apparent it was needed. Third comes the inadequate early response by FEMA and federal deployment of major military resources by the President. But to propose that the military (NG and Active) and FEMA moved as quickly as they could given the technology available to them and that Bush focused like a laser as early as he should have is just not right in my opinion. This is obviously a debate that will not go away and the facts are the facts. Believe what you want. I chose to believe we could have executed better. I think even I could have and I am sure if the problem were posed to the family of Freepers before not after the fact we all would have demanded faster movement on the spot. Now that the blame game has started positions have to be taken and protected. We will see. Meanwhile the suffering continues.

[Eagle Eye]

Maybe Bush should have acted 10 days earlier. Would that have been early enough for you?

He opened the door for the locals to do their job AND to have immediate access to the full support of the federal government.

The locals did neither.

It is NOT the President's place to usurp authority from the Governors.

FEMA is not designed to be onsite within 24-48 hours and to expect that with devastaion as widespread as Katrina is sheer lunacy.

Yes, you may cling to your opinions no matter how silly they are.

[Les_Miserables]

Yep. You are absolutely right. Bush acted perfectly...no problem. The feds have no responsibility to save lives if the state structure fails....Do I have the latitude to denigrate your opinion?...Go stuff it. We will see how this sorts out but thank goodness it won't be sorted by folks who are so wrapped up in Bush worship they can't see the truth. It would have been enough for me if he had acted to send in the MPs two days before he did on Thursday. That means Tuesday PM when it was clear things were seriously broken and the Governor was not going to get it together. They would have been in the city Wednesday and the debacle at the Superdome, Convention Center and other places in the city would not have happened. It would have been enough for me if Tuesday FEMA had used Chinooks to airlift food and water in the massive amounts that had been prepositioned to the Superdome. That would have been enough for me..for starters...The fact that the LANG was not prepared to assume security is a MAJOR deficiency that was visible very early on and that is where the support from the feds was truly lacking. I don't blame Bush for anything in this whole mess except that last point. The FEMA thing has the hand prints of Congress all over it. But not putting down the insurrection is something Bush should have moved on fast. It inhibited all other necessary activity. Period. If that seems "silly" to you, too d@mn bad. At least now he is fully engaged and performing well.

[Eagle Eye]

Don't let your ignorance stop you from spouting your opinion.

How many Chinooks does FEMA own?

Under what authority can the President send in troops?

Looting and insurrection are not the same.

Your sarcasm about Bush worship won't fit when you talk to me 'cause cannot substantiate it from anything that I've ever written on FR about him. I didn't even vote for him the first time. Sarcastically claiming that he worked 'perfectly' is the type of immature comment reserved normally for children.

But unlike you I know a bit about emergency management and working in austere conditions.

FEMA is a SUPPLEMENTAL not primary relief source. They are not intended to be on the spot in the first 72 hours.

Other state's national guard cannot just go into LA without the governor's invitation. She didn't do it when she should have.

The result is that the state and local folks failed abominably and folks like you, Al Sharpton, Hillary, etc took pot shots at the wrong target.

Continue keeping your mind free from facts on this.

[Allegra]

Bush declared the affected states disaster areas before the storm even hit and he also mobilized FEMA.

The Louisiana state government and New Orleans city government are culpable in the response problems. It appears they did very little but tell people to "get out." They did not provide any support for those who were clearly unable to get out. They should have had buses at the Superdome before the storm hit and started moving the infirm and the poor to safety.

Hurricanes are not a novelty to the Gulf states. Each state is supposed to have its own emergency response plan for situations just like this. We have always known that a Category 4 or 5 was a distinct possibility and that such a storm would be disastrous, particularly if it hit a major city.

I'm not surprised that the liberal whiners are pointing their fingers at Bush, but they ought to be looking more closely at what the local government in Louisiana did NOT do prior to the storm's landfall. They had ample time to do a better job in preparing than they did.

[Les_Miserables]

You are truly wonderful and not a drip of sarcasm, not a drip. I'm glad you know so much. Is ownership of Chinooks what kept the supplies from reaching the people? Why precisely did it take until FRIDAY! to get the loads of food and water that were PREPOSITIONED to the people? Because they sent them in on trucks? or maybe it was they don't think they have to be there for 72 hours?.(I know, It's because they don't OWN helicopters)..We the people own the helicopters! Don't give me bureaucratic reasons why folks were left on their own. It just won't wash no matter how hard you try to hide behind insults. You offer loads of insults but you are damn short on knowledge. Lord save me from people like you. Have a great day supporting the unsupportable. Just how is shooting at police or raping children equivalent to looting? And where is your support for the statement that FEMA is not supposed to be on site in the first 72 hours. If that is true what is their definition of an EMERGENCY as in Federal EMERGENCY Management?
You would rather argue with hot rhetoric than produce any supportable facts to excuse away why our government did not act faster in spite of an ever building recognition by knowledgeable people across the board including the President himself that that was what happened. No point discussing this with you. Read my first post to see what I disagreed with Bush on then go insult someone else. Call someone else ignorant.