How a leader SHOULD behave...

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 4:14pm

just to give the youngins a little perspective...


Received from a friend. Very salient points.

"In September 1999, Hurricane Floyd -- a category 3 -- was bearing down the Carolinas and Virginia.

President Clinton was in Christchurch, New Zealand - meeting with President Jiang of China (you know, actually working). He made the proclamation that only Presidents can make and declared the areas affected by Floyd "Federal Disaster Areas" so the National Guard and Military can begin to mobilize. Then he cut short his meetings overseas and flew home to coordinate the rescue efforts. This all one day BEFORE a Cat-3 hit the coast. That is how you do it.

During Hurricane Andrew? Once again, President G. H. W. Bush (41) -- August, 1992 -- was in the midst of a brutal campaign for re-election. Yet, he cut off his campaigning the day before and went to Washington where he martialed the largest military operation on US soil in history. He sent in 7,000 National Guard and 22,000 regular military personnel, and all the gear to begin the clean up within hours after Andrew passed through Florida. 'Cause, you know, those people and their stuff was actually where it belonged, rather than being used for insurgent target-practice halfway around the world in a vain effort to make Iraq safe for Iranian takeover.

In August of 1969 when Cat-5 Hurricane Camille hit roughly the same area as Katrina, President Nixon had already readied the National Guard and ordered all Gulf rescue vessels and equipment from Tampa and Houston to follow the Hurricane in. There were over 1,000 regular military with two dozen helicopters to assist the Coast Guard and National Guard within hours after the skies cleared.

Bush 43 - August 2005 - Cat-5 Hurricane Katrina bears down on New Orleans and the Mississippi gulf. Both states are down nearly 8,000 National Guard troops because they are in Iraq -- with most of the rescue gear needed. Bush is on vacation. The day before Katrina makes landfall, Bush rides his bike for two hours. The day she hits, he goes to Johnnie McCain's birthday party; and lies to old people about the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical company welfare boondoggle. People are dying, the largest port of entry in the United States (and fifth largest in the World) is under attack. Troops and supplies are desperately needed. The levees are cracking and the emergency 1-1/2 ton sandbags are ready, but there aren't enough helicopters or pilots to set them before the levees fail. The mayor of New Orleans begs for Federal coordination, but there is none, and the sandbagging never gets done. So Bush -- naturally -- goes to San Diego to play guitar with country singer and lie to the military about how Iraq is just exactly like WWII. The levees give way, filling New Orleans with water, sewage, oil and chemicals. Ten percent of all US exports, and 50% of all agricultural exports ordinarly go through this port. It is totally destroyed. Bush decides he'll end his vacation a couple of days early -- TOMORROW --BECAUSE HE HAS TICKETS TO A PADRES GAME! He goes back to the Fake Farm in Crawford, with every intention of doing something on WEDNESDAY about this disaster that happened starting last Sunday night."

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:11pm

Bill Clinton's momma raised him right.

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:12pm

Clinton is God, didn't you people know that?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:13pm

I wanted to vote for him again but they wouldn't let me.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:14pm

But Bush did not do any of that. We get the point.

The fact that he reacted slowly is in the past.

Please stop laboring on that fact.

I, too, do not support the guy but I am sick of people using this tragedy as a way of pushing political viewpoints. Please please please stop focusing on what happened in the past and start focusing on the future.

[Plum]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:19pm

You act like the past and the future are two separate things.

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:21pm

We have to look at the past when making plans for the future.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:22pm

ABSOLUTELY.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:22pm

No but these people are lamenting the fact that he didn't do anything BEFORE the hurricane, when everyone was predicting castastrophic damage. That's a terrible act of negligence, but why belabor it?

[Plum]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:23pm

In case you haven't noticed, 4+ years of this administration has made some of us a tad bitter. Just sayin'.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:34pm

I wanted to vote for him again but they wouldn't let me.

Me too.

[Jon]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:38pm

Georgie can't run for a third term, so he just doesn't care anymore. Why should he innterupt his vacation?

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:43pm

this was a day before katrina made landfall and a day after he'd declared a state of emergency in lousiana and mississippi. disregard the second part of the speech re: iraqi constitution.
bush speech from august 28th

[justme2]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:52pm

I haven't posted for a while, as this whole situation in New Orleans is beyond disgusting and tragic.

But I do have to agree here, this president dropped the ball MONDAY, when it was obvious to everyone watching the news, the news crews themselves, and the politicans from those states that this was a decimation of the city.

And, to agree with many here....I wouldn't blame anyone in New Orleans if they flipped out on the president when he finally shows up at the superdome (which I doubt will happen); he has disgaced the country with his slow response to this situation.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 9:41pm

i just posted this to give folks an idea why people are so po'd at bush & co. even nixon, a very scary president who violated the law and lied to americans repeatedly did his duty and took care of citizens.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 9:52pm

Papa - your point is taken - and that effort did, indeed, match that of previous leadership. However, I do have to wonder what he (or his advisors) were thinking between then and just a very short time ago.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 10:06pm

DG - yes - what did happen between Tuesday and Friday???? Not much!!!!!

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:15am

wednesday, aug. 31st, president returns to dc, meets with cabinet and outlines relief efforts in televised address.

thursday, sept. 1, sends supplemental request for $10.5 billion from congress for relief efforts and asks ghwb and wjc to spearhead relief drive similar to tsunami relief effort.

friday, sept. 2, president travels to al., miss. and la declares relief efforts results "unacceptable."

Updated On: 9/3/05 at 12:15 AM

[Plum]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:20am

First term- President sticks FEMA under the DHS umbrella, removing it from its former Cabinet-level prominence.

Seriously, if some heads don't roll once all this is over the administration will have sunk to a new low, and that's saying something.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:21am

ghwb and wjc

Yes, he well as should have asked some former leaders to help him! Tomorrow, I might support a petition so that Cheney resigns and GWB appoints GHWB as Vice President and then GWB resigns.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:26am

cabinet-level prominence

who was the secretary of fema?

[Plum]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:28am

James Lee Witt.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:30am

However a leader should behave - and it's debatable as to which person at which time should have taken the leadership role - it obviously didn't get accomplished during this situation. The populace as a whole, and certainly the people suffering in the region, have been left with unanswered questions and a rising rage that has been blatantly ignored.

[kjklo]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:33am

Witt was one of Clinton's most respected appointments--a nonpartisan professional in the disaster management field.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:34am

nah, he was the director, who was the cabinet level secretary?