I Hope Bush Talks to These People.

[Spurminator]

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash9.htm

Katrina Evacuees and MoveOn members March on White House
Thu Sep 08 2005 10:17:28 ET

PRESS RELEASE:

*****Excellent Visuals - Signs reading*****
"Shame" and "Help Hurricane Victims"
MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION

ADVISORY FOR CONTACT: Trevor Fitzgibbon, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2005 Kawana Lloyd, Alex Howe,

Rally At White House Thursday at 1:00 pm

Katrina Evacuees to Tell President Bush His Administration Let Them Down

Request Meeting with President to Demand Accountability

Why Was Federal Funding Cut For Levee Maintenance?

Washington, DC -- Hurricane Katrina evacuees flew into the nation's capital to tell President Bush to stop blaming local officials for his mistakes and acknowledge that budget cuts and indifference by his administration led to the disaster in New Orleans and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

They intend to ask him why he diverted over 40% of federal funding between 2001-2005 away from New Orleans. Hundreds are expected to rally in front of the White House at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday.

"The President of the United States and his appointees let us down," said Christine Mayfield, a New Orleans public school teacher and mother of three who was dislocated and now is staying in North Carolina.

The evacuees are also seeking a meeting with Rep. Henry Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the Government Oversight Committee.

According to Rep. Waxman, "the budget of the Corps of Engineers for construction projects in New Orleans district was cut by over 40% between 2001 and 2005, apparently to free up funds for the war in Iraq and homeland security projects. In 2004, for the first time in 37 years, the Corps halted all work on the New Orleans levee system."

New Orleans native Michelle Augillard, one of the evacuees, was working toward her Masters degree at the University of New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit. Now, she is staying with a friend in Houston, trying to pick up the pieces of her life, along with her family. Both Michelle and Christine will appear at the rally.

"It is inhumane to have treated citizens of the United States like we were treated," she said.

Members of MoveOn.org Political Action are scheduled to hand-deliver thousands of petition signatures to the White House after the rally. The petition says, "President Bush should stop blaming the victims of Hurricane Katrina and get to work helping them."

Fuck MoveOn.org. I hope the people in charge of exploiting these people's poverty and anger get the most painful form of cancer and die.

That said, Bush needs to step up here. MoveOn is calling his bluff, hoping he will ignore the protest like Cindy Sheehan. Bush needs to address the crowd and tell them they are being exploited. He needs to lay out the evidence that the levee failure was not related to budget cuts, and that those funds likely would not have prevented New Orleans from being flooded.

If he can't do that then maybe he doesn't have a case.

He also needs to apologize for the failure to provide food and help for people on behalf of all levels. He should explain the failures at all levels, including FEMA, the Governor, the Mayor, the National Guard... Wherever the relief effort was lacking. I realize an investigation is underway, but he should be able to summarize breakdowns. And without placing "blame" on one entity or the other.

An explanation may not satisfy the victims, and nobody expects it to satisfy MoveOn.org and their flock of partisan sheep, but it will squash MoveOn's primary motive of using the plight of hurricane victims to turn more of mainstream America against a Republican President.

It's such an obvious political move that any competent leader should be able to squash it and expose MoveOn for the exploitive assholes that they are. Surprise us, Mr. President.

[boutons]

"He needs to lay out the evidence that the levee failure was not related to budget cuts, and that those funds likely would not have prevented New Orleans from being flooded."

Where is that evidence? All I've seen in the last 10 days is that city, state, LA officials/Congressmen and ACoE were bitching about cuts in funds for levee maintenance by shrub's OMB in the last and preceding years.

There were not MASSIVE failures of the levees, esp those worst-exposed on the open-water L. Ponchartrain side, indicating the levees, overall, were in pretty good shape, in spite of budget cuts and abandonment. A conscientious, funded program of levee testing, inspection, repair would have very probably avoided the levees failing at all.

And what kind of rapid-response, emergency levee repair system was in place to monitor the levess, esp during storms, and to detect leaks and initial breaches before breaches spread in 100's of feet of washed out levee?

And yes, the press and BOTH sides of Congress, not only Dems, are on shrub's case. He vowed to make and keep America safe, but like all his vows, slogans, sound bites, they are nothing but a bunch of hot air vented from an empty head.

[Marcus Bryant]

Hey boutons even a Bushatinbot like you should be able to understand that the disaster was centuries in the making. No amount of funding over the last few years was going to prevent what went down.

Fuck, sometimes I wonder why I waste my time reading what some of you dumb motherfuckers have to type.

[Spurminator]

same shit as always

If there is a case, I want to hear it from the President. Not from partisan nutjobs on either side. I don't even have to read your post to know you don't think he has a case. I don't care what you have to say on the matter because you and plenty of other people have shown time and time again that your takes on issues like this are as predictable as the last episode of Friends.

If Jeb Bush was the governor of Florida and Hillary Clinton was the President of the United States, boutons, TRO, NBADan, MoveOn.org, Matt Drudge, Jon Stewart, Sean Hannity, Al Franken... all of you motherfuckers would have the exact opposite takes.

The President needs to step above that and be a leader. Expose bullshit.

[boutons]

What's a matter, you red-state conservative super-patriot motherfuckers?

The Repugs have been mercilessly dishing out, intensely partisan, divisive, scorched-earth, no-holds-barred shit for 15+ years, and even went so far as to impeach a president for a fucking goddam blow-job, and spend $60M on Whitewater that turned up absolutely fucking nothing, but when dissenters, and now the media, stand up and throw your shit back in your face, calling your bluff, you start bitching and whining like the bunch of pussified, hypocritical wimps that you really are.

In my case, your bullying and attempted STFU intimidation is a waste of your time.

"I want to hear it from the President"

Nobody believes the mofo anymore. His/Repug credibility is in shreads, starting with his BS Iraq and its moveable rationales, and now NO and FEMA fuckups are the last nail the coffin. The "CEO" / Misson-Accomplished competence was total BS, as so many suspected, and as a lot of knew, from day one.

It's over motherfuckers, shrub/dickhead and Repugs are road-kill. Get a glimpse now before they are hidden away in body bags, and written off as one of the most lie-spewing, incompetent, divisive, money-grubbing, govt-destroying, murderous administrations in US history.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Dude, when did you become such a hateful, spiteful little bitch? Go get laid or something bouton, you need to take off that bitter, vindictive edge you've got going on.


Where is that evidence? All I've seen in the last 10 days is that city, state, LA officials/Congressmen and ACoE were bitching about cuts in funds for levee maintenance by shrub's OMB in the last and preceding years.

The funding cut was for a project that would have been in the planning stages for six years, with the physical portion of the project taking upwards of 30 years.

But yeah, it's "Shrub's" fault the levees failed. I guess you expect him to be a miracle worker, because even if the funds were approved in 2001, the plans still would have been on the damn drawing board when Katrina hit.

[whottt]

Dude, when did you become such a hateful, spiteful little bitch? Go get laid or something bouton, you need to take off that bitter, vindictive edge you've got going on.

He's had that hateon for W since the first time he posted here...He's a totally different poster in the basketball forum..

[boutons]

"the disaster was centuries in the making"

yes, it was bad idea to locate NO there, but the city whistled past the graveyard for 300 years. Nobody disputes that. Sooner or later .....

But please pay attention: a couple tiny sections of the 100's of miles levees failed, and were left, on live TV, to open up to much larger widths. THAT was not inevitable. Those levees, properly maintained, and properly backed up by emergency repair, did not HAVE to fail in THIS particular storm. For a few $100M/year (ie, peanuts compared to the pork in shrub's recent Transportation bill), those levees would have held. But now we have $50B toilet bowl on our hands.

Had Katrina passed just to the west of NO, instead of just to the east, and been an Andrew Cat5 while doing it, then very probably, even excellently managed levees would have failed.

Katrina is natural disaster, not totally unlike Andrew and other hurricanes. BFD, those other hurricanes were handled heroically well, esp fy FEMA, run by career emergency professionals, as it had been built up and manged in the 90s.

On the other hand, the New Orleans levees failure is a man-made disaster. And shrub/Repug have gutted and buried FEMA in HLS and gave it ridiculously incompetent
managers.

And it finally looks like the press and the American people are demanding accountabilty from shrub/Repugs.

[Hook Dem]

"And it finally looks like the press and the American people are demanding accountabilty from shrub/Repugs."................I don't know what you're smokin, but you've got it backwards. The investigation will reveal that the Governor and Mayor dropped the ball at the insistance of the left wing and moveon.org

[The Ressurrected One]

"the disaster was centuries in the making"

yes, it was bad idea to locate NO there, but the city whistled past the graveyard for 300 years. Nobody disputes that. Sooner or later .....

But please pay attention: a couple tiny sections of the 100's of miles levees failed, and were left, on live TV, to open up to much larger widths. THAT was not inevitable. Those levees, properly maintained, and properly backed up by emergency repair, did not HAVE to fail in THIS particular storm. For a few $100M/year (ie, peanuts compared to the pork in shrub's recent Transportation bill), those levees would have held. But now we have $50B toilet bowl on our hands.
There's a possibility the 17th street canal levee was struck by a barge, during the storm, and that's why it failed. Not due to it being in disrepair. In fact, the Army Corps of Engineers have already stated the portions of the levees that failed were in excellent condition -- had already been "upgraded" and were not currently part of any construction project.

Had Katrina passed just to the west of NO, instead of just to the east, and been an Andrew Cat5 while doing it, then very probably, even excellently managed levees would have failed.

Katrina is natural disaster, not totally unlike Andrew and other hurricanes. BFD, those other hurricanes were handled heroically well, esp fy FEMA, run by career emergency professionals, as it had been built up and manged in the 90s.

On the other hand, the New Orleans levees failure is a man-made disaster. And shrub/Repug have gutted and buried FEMA in HLS and gave it ridiculously incompetent managers.
First of all, FEMA isn't in charge of the levee system in Louisiana. Second, the federal government has sent more funds, $2 billion dollars to be exact, to Louisiana for flood control and levee maintenance, than any other state. California ran a distant second at $1.4 billion.

Finally, it appears that what money was sent has been diverted for pet projects; either by local or state officials and, in some cases, by Congressmen from that state (all Democrats BTW). Also, were you aware that in the 5 years Bush has been President the federal government has funded Army Corp of Engineer projects in Louisiana more money than in the entire 8 years of the Clinton presidency?

And it finally looks like the press and the American people are demanding accountabilty from shrub/Repugs.
Then they are misguided in their demands.

[Spurminator]

What's a matter, you red-state conservative super-patriot motherfuckers?

The Repugs have been mercilessly dishing out, intensely partisan, divisive, scorched-earth, no-holds-barred shit for 15+ years, and even went so far as to impeach a president for a fucking goddam blow-job, and spend $60M on Whitewater that turned up absolutely fucking nothing, but when dissenters, and now the media, stand up and throw your shit back in your face, calling your bluff, you start bitching and whining like the bunch of pussified, hypocritical wimps that you really are.

In my case, your bullying and attempted STFU intimidation is a waste of your time.


Because I've called out MoveOn.org, you conclude that I supported the Whitewater investigation and partisan Clinton-hate in the nineties. That pretty much sums up you and your partisan compatriots' view of the world, and it's why you don't have a fucking clue about what people really believe.

By being a nutjob equal to the Clinton haters of the Nineties, you support those Clinton haters. Regardless of how your views on particular issues compare, your overall view of the country is exactly the same: Republican vs. Democrat. Which makes you as much of an idiot as they were and are.

If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for you, you say. And that makes you one of them. Congratulations.

[Marcus Bryant]

"the disaster was centuries in the making"

yes, it was bad idea to locate NO there, but the city whistled past the graveyard for 300 years. Nobody disputes that. Sooner or later .....

But please pay attention: a couple tiny sections of the 100's of miles levees failed, and were left, on live TV, to open up to much larger widths. THAT was not inevitable. Those levees, properly maintained, and properly backed up by emergency repair, did not HAVE to fail in THIS particular storm. For a few $100M/year (ie, peanuts compared to the pork in shrub's recent Transportation bill), those levees would have held. But now we have $50B toilet bowl on our hands.

Had Katrina passed just to the west of NO, instead of just to the east, and been an Andrew Cat5 while doing it, then very probably, even excellently managed levees would have failed.

Katrina is natural disaster, not totally unlike Andrew and other hurricanes. BFD, those other hurricanes were handled heroically well, esp fy FEMA, run by career emergency professionals, as it had been built up and manged in the 90s.

On the other hand, the New Orleans levees failure is a man-made disaster. And shrub/Repug have gutted and buried FEMA in HLS and gave it ridiculously incompetent
managers.

And it finally looks like the press and the American people are demanding accountabilty from shrub/Repugs.


What a tired one-track bore.

Please pay attention: the majority of Americans are not whiney bitches who expect the impossible due to their mindumbing partisanship. Apparently for some there are no national tragedies immune from attempts to exploit for political gain.

BTW, I could care less about Bush.

The rush by the left to pin this on Bush is already backfiring. It's only a matter of how deep they are going to dig their political graves.

Man, this is just like the GOP and the hatred among its base for Clinton back in the 90s. As long as your political program is based on a personal vendetta against the president, you are going to lose and lose again.

[Spurminator]

There are defenders and detractors of the government's response to Katrina all over the Internet.

I want to hear the President of the United States of America answer to them. I'm tired of his policies being explained to me by analysts, columnists, journalists, bloggers and pundits.

If this catastrophie could not have been avoided, I want him to explain why. If there were crucial failures, I want him to explain how they affected the relief effort.

I don't care how the far right and the far left react to his statement. I already know what their reactions will be. But it would be nice to see our Commander in Chief rise up above the partisan bickering that has poisoned this country and speak to those of us who haven't become cynics or sheep.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

But please pay attention: a couple tiny sections of the 100's of miles levees failed, and were left, on live TV, to open up to much larger widths. THAT was not inevitable. Those levees, properly maintained, and properly backed up by emergency repair, did not HAVE to fail in THIS particular storm.

No amount of repair/upkeep would have kept the levees from failing the way they did.

The water came over the tops and washed away the base of the support on the backside of the levees, undermining support for the walls.

About the only thing that would have prevented that would have been a 15 foot higher levee.

As for simply "plugging the holes", you're talking about a 400 ft. wide chasm with water rushing in.

If you think that's such a simple thing to fix go out to the Guadalupe next time it's in flood stage and try and damn up the river at one of the rapids. If you get that to work get back to me.

[AFE7FATMAN]

There are defenders and detractors of the government's response to Katrina all over the Internet.

I want to hear the President of the United States of America answer to them. I'm tired of his policies being explained to me by analysts, columnists, journalists, bloggers and pundits.

If this catastrophie could not have been avoided, I want him to explain why. If there were crucial failures, I want him to explain how they affected the relief effort.

I don't care how the far right and the far left react to his statement. I already know what their reactions will be. But it would be nice to see our Commander in Chief rise up above the partisan bickering that has poisoned this country and speak to those of us who haven't become cynics or sheep.

Don't hold your breath, waiting for an answer.
I also want to hear how the unacceptable response will never happen again in America and I'm not holding my breath but I am real close to being a cynic.

[Clandestino]

so, what? now anytime a group wants something they camp out in front of where the president is? :lmao

[Spurminator]

They don't want a response. They're not expecting one. They're expecting to use his refusal to respond as political leverage against him.

Call their bluff.

(Note, I'm now skeptical of the credibility of this story, since it's no longer on Drudge and I haven't seen anything about it elsewhere. I should've known better, but it looked like an authentic press release rather than one of Drudge's usual sensationalist breaking stories.)

[SpursWoman]

I've seen pictures of the protestors with their signs ... on the internet, FWIW.

[Useruser666]

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/douglasamericanpresident.JPG

For the last couple of months, Dan has suggested that being President of this country was, to a certain extent, about character. And although I've not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I've been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being President of this country is entirely about character.

For the record, yes, I am a card carrying member of the ACLU, but the more important question is "Why aren't you, Dan?" Now this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question, why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the constitution? Now if you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter that I am, because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago.

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.

I've known Dan for years. And I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Dan devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well I was wrong. Dan's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. Dan's problem is that he can't sell it!

[SpursWoman]

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/douglasamericanpresident.JPG

For the last couple of months, Dan has suggested that being President of this country was, to a certain extent, about character. And although I've not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I've been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being President of this country is entirely about character.

For the record, yes, I am a card carrying member of the ACLU, but the more important question is "Why aren't you, Dan?" Now this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question, why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the constitution? Now if you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter that I am, because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago.

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.

I've known Dan for years. And I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Dan devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well I was wrong. Dan's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. Dan's problem is that he can't sell it!



:wow :wow

I was just looking for that quote!!


:lmao :lmao