A SOLDIER'S PERSPECTIVE
THE WEB'S LEADING MILITARY BLOG SINCE 2004
UPDATE: Good news everyone! President Obama issued a major disaster declaration for Kentucky yesterday. This frees up federal aid. Good thing too. With over 157,000 resident STILL without power and heat, it only took the President a whopping 11 days to make this declaration!! Considering this storm “doesn’t compare to Katrina” I’m a little surprised it took so long.
Democrats Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Barack Obama and others were all over President Bush after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Of course, President Bush was a Republican and Louisiana is a Democratic state, so naturally President Bush didn’t care about them and allowed them to suffer. At least that’s the byline they want you to hear. Katrina was the state’s worst natural disaster in modern history.
Since a state disaster like Katrina is obviously the failure of the United States President, why isn’t President Barack Obama taking heat for what has been happening in Kentucky?
Chilling winds and more snow were expected for Kentucky on Tuesday, bad news for more than a quarter of a million people still without power after an ice storm.
…
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has called the ice storm “the biggest natural disaster that this state has ever experienced in modern history.”
Photo courtesy of Daniel Patmore, AP
It’s so bad, the National Guard has been called up to assist. Dozens of people have died in the storms, with more terrible weather on the way. My own Soldiers have been without power for over a week in places, unable to even get to work. Fort Knox was completely knocked out for nearly five days. Friends of mine made plans to come live with us in the meantime.
Some areas of Kentucky may take up to two months to restore power because of conditions. Where is President Obama and FEMA to assist these people? Or is it because Kentucky is a Conservative Republican state and not entitled to help? Or, is it because – like Louisiana – it is a STATE responsibility to request federal assistance and Kentucky actually has a plan? In any case, has the President even mentioned the disaster? No. Have the same people who blamed the disaster on the lack of federal response during Katrina made the same accusations with respect to Kentucky? We’re talking extremely cold temperatures and no electricity here.
At its height, the storm knocked out power to 1.3 million customers from the Southern Plains to the East Coast. By Monday, numbers had dropped to ess than 350,000 in Kentucky, 54,000 in Missouri, 3,000 in southern Illinois, and 114,000 in Arkansas, with scattered outages in other states.
Where is the outrage? I’ll tell you where it is. This is Democratic administration and Congress and since it would make them look bad, they realize reality here – that this is a state problem until they REQUEST federal assistance. This is where Louisiana failed, although President Bush put FEMA into action PRIOR TO said request in 2005.
One of two things must happen here. Either President Obama must accept failure for allowing the people of Kentucky to suffer or they must apologize to President Bush for laying the blame upon his shoulders for Katrina.
(60) Readers Comments
Leave a Reply
![[UPDATE] The “Face” of Military Dating Scams – The Wall of Shame](http://militarygear.com/asp/wp-content/themes/LondonLive/thumb.php?src=http://militarygear.com/asp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/2.jpg&w=53&h=41&zc=1&q=100)
Anatomy of a Military Dating Scam
Lisa: I also met him on Are You Interested... and got the poems :-) If
Troy
CJ, it wasn’t just that the National Guard was called up, it was THE ENTIRE Kentucky National Guard. The Governor has mobilized every single solders that is not deployed to help support the people of his state.
Al-Jubory
There is no comparison between Louisiana and Kentucky! Louisiana was much much worst. Beside President Obama just started what last month? Give the man a chance!
Am not taking President Obama’s side, but the truth must be told, President Bush did react very late, i refer to Katrina…
CJ
So, Jubory, we should let the country suffer until Obama has more time in office? Is that your solution. Should all national disasters wait until “the One” has said it’s okay to rain, hail, ice, hurricane, quake, etc?
Under President Bush, it took FEMA four days to get into the city with evacuation buses to remove resident. It’s been nearly a week in Kentucky! It took the governor of Louisiana TWO DAYS after the levees were breached to call up National Guard troops. It took Kentucky ONE day after the STORM (And they called up THE ENTIRE NATIONAL GUARD to handle the crisis, unlike Louisiana).
Bush visited Louisiana two days later. Obama has yet to visit Kentucky.
Again, if Bush reacted slowly, then so did Obama! Maybe Bush wasn’t so bad after all…
Al-Jubory
Oki fine, but still there is no relevance between the two. As for president Bush, i supported him, when he was in office and i still do, but i can’t blame Obama for anything yet, i got to give it time.
DNR
Maybe if Obama had more experience…
Maybe it’s because they are backwards, Bible hugging, gun toting southerners…
Sorry, I’ll go back to my blog now.
Critical Facts
cj:
You have too much time on your hands!
CJ
Says the man with nothing to offer.
Kat
Amen to that CJ!
Mary
Think of how the response would be different if the power outages and death tolls were happening in a California wildfire. All it takes is a few flames within binocular distance of some high-dollar SoCal homes and it’s all over the news getting heaps of attention. Seriously, what if even one dozen people died in a wildfire out here? It would be a national incident. The nonchalant treatment of the storms in Kentucky is a little…..glaring.
Last November I visited Kentucky and Ft. Knox for my brother’s AIT graduation. I’m sorry to see this happening, and I hope everyone is hanging it there.
And yes, I am talking about my own state when I refer to California. I’m way up in the northeast part of the state, away from a lot of the kookiness but close enough to see things as they are.
Hang in there, Kentucky.
brat
Didn’t now president BO say he would be ready “to hit the ground running on day one”??? And wasn’t that HRC too? Guess not so much. Just sayin’..
jessdawn
I found a website recently that talks about promises that Obama made on the campaign trail and how he has already broken one of his promises. I wonder if his lack of reaction would be promise too since his hit the ground running days.
Just do a search for the Obameter it should be the first one to pop up.
Critical Facts
jess:
I’d rather have broken promises than lies, incompetence and gross negligence, which is what we were treated to by Obama’s predecessor!
Derek
Hey, Critical Facts? Would you like to back up your statement with “Actual Facts”?
I doubt you can.
Critical Facts
Derek:
Do a google search using the following phrase: “bush lies.” You might be somewhat surprised by what you find.
Derek
You’re kidding, right?
The first page of the search is nothing but President Bush’s so-called lies about Iraq. One of the links has a thumbnail of Kieth Olberman for cryin’ out loud! That actually made me snorfel.
I asked YOU to “…back up your statement with “Actual Facts”.
YOU give me one actual fact of Bush’s lying.
I’ll check back later.
Oh… Do you think 9/11 was an inside job?
My brother the truck driver brought home an entire case of tin foil last month (the box was damaged so it was a freebie for him). I’d be glad to send you a few rolls. I think you need them.
Critical Facts
Derek:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20031013/corn
Pretty much sums things up, eh?
CJ
CF has never been able to back up his claims of lies and asks us to rely upon partisan sites to work for him.
jessdawn
How is a broken promise not a lie? In my opinion, he made a statement (or promise) and then went against it in his first weeks of office. That is a lie. What is even scarier is looking at the promises that he made and has not gotten to yet. I am concerned for the future on more than just an economic level.
Doug
Just to start off with two (I could spend all day at this):
About the two “mobile BW labsâ€:
“But for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they’re wrong. We found them.”
They had already turned out on a few minutes inspection to be what the Iraqis said they were, hydrogen generators for weather balloons – for example, there were no drains to retrieve agent.
Asked if there were new and conclusive evidence of Hussein’s nuclear weapons capabilities, Bush cited a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency saying the Iraqis were “six months away from developing a weapon.” There was no such report by the IAEA. –10.22.02, Washington Post
CJ
Oh, little boy, if you only you knew everything there was to know. But even if you did, you’d still choose not to believe it.
Doug
Another example, one of many sins of omission:
In his address to the U.N. General Assembly on September 12, 2002, the president asserted, “Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon.”
On October 7, 2002, he said in a speech in Cincinnati: “Evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program…Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.”
Delivered to Bush in early October 2002 was a one-page summary of a National Intelligence Estimate that stated that the Energy Department and the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research believed that the tubes were “intended for conventional weapons,” disagreeing with of other intelligence agencies which believed that the tubes were intended for a nuclear bomb.
The disclosure that Bush was informed of the DOE and State dissents is the first evidence that the president himself knew of the sharp debate within the government over the aluminum tubes during the time that he, Cheney, and other members of the Cabinet were citing the tubes as clear evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program. Neither the president nor the vice president told the public about the disagreement among the agencies.
CJ
Hey, genius, notice something about that post. “evidence indicates”. There’s a difference between being wrong and lying. If you’re presented with conflicting intelligence, it’s better to err on the side of security. It’s not the public’s privilege to be privy to intelligence they aren’t cleared for. A “sin of omission” is FAR from a lie. But, I realize you aren’t intelligent enough to decipher that distinction.
Mary
Newsflash: we have a new president.
Mary
What I meant to say to C.Facts and Doug (any more?) was this: Dude. Your guy won. I know it probably hurts that Bush never got impeached or that people still support the good things he did, but come on guys! Enjoy your victory. While you’re at it, pony up and realize that the guy you elected is now a president which means that his actions are under scrutiny for the next four years. Get used to it!
On the other hand, how fun that there’s trolls. I’d never noticed that in this blog before!
Now, back to my regularly scheduled reading of the blog posts which is what I come here for in the first place.
Kat
Who dares to questions the great and powerful OzBama?
After all, look at what happened to Joe the plummber! Tim Geitner faired better…
Gene
CF Stated “I’d rather have broken promises than lies” maybe it is just me but I was under the impression that broken promises are lies. What you are really saying is that you would rather have lies from BHO than lies from GWB. This is probably because it is still socially acceptable to believe the lies from BHO while it is not acceptable to believe any thing said from Bush truth or lie.
Incompetence is an easy label to place on someone once the press gets in on it. They take anything said or done and run it against there databases and PR guys until they find something wrong with it. Here is the cool part for the press if there is nothing wrong with it they just ignore it and claim that it was not newsworthy.
And finally gross negligence – I imagine that you are referring to Katrina. Funny thing is I have spoken to several FEMA workers that have stated that they were placed on alert before the storm hit and moved into hotels prior to the call for help. Then they sat there for days waiting for the governor to call for help, as is required. So there was gross negligence but it did not stem from Bush.
I can’t really blame you for the second to comments made in one short post because that is the way the press spins it and just like the majority of Americans out there you believe what the press tells you. But the first part about the lies, that is all you. I’m sure in time your belief in your savior (BHO) will be put to the test and you will fall in with the rest of the crowd that will eventually hate BHO.
jack markham
From what I heard, Obama actually called the governor to ask if he wanted to declare an emergency.
A local caterer offered to feed out-of-state line workers for free but LG&E told him they didn’t need his help.
Many of those workers had numerous complaints about out of date maps, poor planning etc.
In this case, FEMA was/would have been irrelevant.
CJ
Interesting. So a conservative state is able to take care of itself, but a liberal one…
Kat
CJ
Isn’t that always the way. The conservatives aren’t drinking the Obama kool-aid.
Critical Facts
cj
Let it go. You are comparing apples to oranges. Not even a close one.
jessdawn
Again, you make a statement that I do not see any logic in. How is it apples and oranges? I am tired of hearing the whole numbers issue. So the lives that were in New Orleans are more important the lives that are going through this crisis now? Because, that is what I am hearing, reading, whatever.
It sucks to be on the other side now. I just wish that people would be objective. I know how hard it is, because I am doing it. Bush was not perfect, but Obama is not the messiah either. He wanted to be president then he should have to do with the same media, political and private scrutiny that Bush had to deal with.
Critical Facts
jess:
It has snowed in Kentucky before, it has ice-stormed in Kentucky before, and the power has even gone out in Kentucky before. Indeed, this combination of events has occurred in Kentucky, the Northeast, the Northwest and other parts of the nation. Folks suck it up and deal with it – get out the candles and extra blankets, look out for the neighbors and wait it through. On the other hand, New Orleans and the surrounding areas had not before dealt with the total collapse of levees during a hurricane leading to massive wide-scale flooding and destruction of basic infrastructure and homes. There was no waiting it out and no neighbors to rely on, as the damage was complete, total and devastating.
Apples and oranges, my friend, apples and oranges any way you look at it.
jessdawn
My gosh, it has snowed in KY before what was I thinking. I guess now that New Orleans, lets through in just about every other place on the gulf coast, has had a hurricane (or hurricanes) hit it, this must mean that the next time it happens it will be okay for Obama to ignore those places also. I mean it has happened and now they know.
Storms of this nature do not happen to KY every year and this is considered a crisis area now, so hurricanes do not hit New Orleans every year.
Maybe I am too companionate, because as David wrote the people in KY can just through another log on the fire. Hmmm, that is assuming that every house has a fire place or wood burning stove. Just like it would be to assume that every family owns a canoe in New Orleans. Since they are right between the ocean and another body of water that could flood them.
However, I think we are kind of focusing on the direct issue at hand. The way emergencies are handled and not the underlying thought about how the media is showing preference in treatment to Obama that they did not really give Bush. I do not expect people to sugar coat the person or people that I want in office. What I do want is equal treatment amongst all parties. Unbiased reporting should not be too much to ask. It is not like I am asking that gossip magazines do it, just the ones that we are supposed to take seriously.
CF I think this “conversation†would have sounded my intent better by voice instead of writing. I am really not as snotty as my text sounds. However, I am frustrated with the disparity I am seeing in the treatment of the leader of the free world, from the last. You might have noticed that I do not often get involved in these types of posts. Because I do not believe for one minute, that anyone has a wrong opinion. Just a different one, but here this is more based off the fact that the press likes Obama so they are not as critical as they would be if the person in office was some one different.
I relinquish the soapbox until my passion in politics is once again flared.
Thanks CJ for the chance to see if I can still get opinionated. (not that you did not know how opinionated I can be)
Critical Facts
jess:
The implied premise of your above comment, first paragraph, is that the magnitude of destruction to New Orleans and surrounding areas because of Katrina has occurred before due to other hurricanes. That is simply not the case. While Force 5 strength hurricanes may well have hit the area before, none of those storms unleashed the destruction that Katrina did. Kentucky, on the other hand is not suffering from widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure as was the case in New Orleans.
I still maintain, thus, that comparing Kentucky with New Orleans is comparing apples to oranges – there is really no comparison at all.
CJ
Okay, we’ll just settle that is a failure – but on a different level.
NY-David
Sorry, but there was a lot that could have been done for Katrina that wasn’t, regardless of who was in charge. At least the good people of Kentucky had the option of throwing wood on the fire. The people from Lousiana had no choice but to move. Very different, indeed.
NY-David
sue05
As long as we are talking about Katrina, I found an interesting article about New Orleans. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1590/is_3_59/ai_95845370 I think the interesting part of the article,aside from the fact that it talks about a storm just like Katrina and predicts with eerie accuracy the devastation, is the fact that it was written 7 years ago.
So why was New Orleans so ill prepared? Why didn’t they have contingencies in place? Why was it supposed to be the responsibility of the Federal Government, President Bush in particular, to “throw that extra log on the fire”, when these people all knew where they were living. After all, New Orleans had been hit by Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and it submerged parts of New Orleans under over 7 feet of water, killing 74 people. By your twisted logic, they should have just gotten bigger pails and bailed faster.
People that live in a flood plain, KNOW they are living in a flood plain. They pay their flood insurance or they dont and they take that gamble each and every year against the odds that there will be the big storm that will come and devastate everything they own. Most years they get lucky. Some years they dont. So, as you said, it snows in Kentucky, they have ice storms in Kentucky, but by the same token, it rains in New Orleans, and they get hurricanes there too. So the apples to oranges crap is out too.
Critical Facts
sue:
As expected, but thanks for your input nonetheless.
CJ
Absolutely. The truth and facts. As expected. Thanks Sue.
sue05
CF you are the epitome of Col Jessop in A Few Good Men.
Critical Facts
I think you meant to say: Col. Jessup.
sue05
you are so ridiculous.
Bob the Liberal
Sorry, CJ. I have to disagree with you on this.
This is nowhere near the scale of Katrina. it doesn’t even come close.
How many hundreds died from Katrina? How many people were made homeless from Katrina? Hell, we even have victims from Katrina all the way up here in CT. And N.O. still isn’t recovered yet, and its been 4 years now. Look at the 9th Ward. People haven’t returned. Houses haven’t been rebuilt. People have been living in FEMA trailers for 4 YEARS NOW! Kentucky is a joke compared to that. Kentucky will have its electricity back on pretty soon. I suspect everybody will be back on by next week, and go on with their merry lives. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, were all shattered by Katrina.
Sorry, CJ. But you hit a sore point, comparing Kentucky to Louisiana. I went to LSU, and even though I live up north, it still holds a special place in my heart. and every day I’m disgusted by what it has become.
CJ
I guess by that standard, I live near Kentucky and have lifelong friends that live there without power, heat, or a means to get around. It holds a special place in my heart. Try to understand WHAT I’m saying and don’t get hung up on the analogy. The fact is that this is a failure of an administration – IF you believe Bush failed in Louisiana.
Bob the Liberal
This is a Kentucky failure. They were asked if they wanted help. They refused. Louisiana never did refuse.
I’ll admit this was a failure, but don’t blame Obama’s administration for that. Blame Kentucky.
Kat
The people in Louisiana should have evacuated! What part of get out, this could be bad don’t they understand? Buses were running!
Critical Facts
cj:
As mentioned before, let it go. You are trying to make something out of nothing and it is not working; albeit, I admit, you apparently have sue’s support … surprise, surprise.
Simply put, there is absolutely no comparison between the ice storm in Kentucky and the complete and total devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina.
CJ
No, I won’t let it go. That’s exactly what you want. The FACT is that if Kentucky failed (and not the Federal Government) Louisiana failed during Katrina. The Katrina report specifically blamed Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin for delaying an order “for mandatory evacuation of New Orleans until 19 hours before landfall”, which caused a vast clogging of exit routes. Additionally, “The failure to order timely mandatory evacuations, Mayor Nagin’s decision to shelter but not evacuate the remaining population, and decisions of individuals led to an incomplete evacuation.”
Were there national failures? Absolutely – in BOTH cases. President Bush COULD have declared a national emergency when the NWS predicted the storm would be a Category 4 or 5 when it hit, but what good would that have done when the state didn’t evacuate everyone. It was A failure, but not THE failure. Yet you refuse to admit that Obama could possibly have failed even a little here. People are literally freezing to death in the worst ice storm in the history of Kentucky. This isn’t an annual occurance that simply requires “throwing another log onto a fire”. Global warming is a pill!
If it hadn’t been for the military involvement, Louisiana would have descended into further chaos. The local police departments were overwhelmed and ill-prepared (not a federal problem). There were no local communications procedures established at the state or local level, which exacerbated relief.
In the words of Patricia Thompson, a New Orleans Citizen and Evacuee, “We were abandoned. City officials did nothing to protect us. We were told to go to the Superdome, the Convention Center, the interstate bridge for safety. We did this more than once. In fact, we tried them all for every day over a week. We saw buses, helicopters, and FEMA trucks, but no one stopped to help us.”
Before Katrina hit, the National Weather Service issed a warning to Louisiana saying that “most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks…perhaps longer…human suffering incredible by modern standards.” This was 24 hours PRIOR TO the Hurricane and that state did NOTHING. Federal resources are meant to SUPPLEMENT state and local governments, not usurp them.
“A presidential declaration of a major disaster usually occurs after local and state governments have responded with their own resources (such as the National Guard), conducted damage assessments to determine losses and recovery needs, and determined that the disaster is of such severity and magnitude that an effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and local governments.”
I could go on and on. The bottom line is that if Kentucky can be blamed for not contacting the Federal Government, then so can Louisiana. If President Bush can be blames for this, so can President Obama. We will probably NEVER be able to compare to the disaster in Katrina to any other disaster. But you tell the people freezing their asses off in Kentucky that they are in any less danger than those in Louisiana. Or that their situation isn’t as serious. No, it’s not the same thing, but an emergency is an emergency. The only difference here is that you’re an apologist for Obama. That’s all.
I’ll end with this nugget from the report: “primary responsibility for the first response to any potential or imminent incident or disaster begins — and often stays — at the local and state levels.”
Critical Facts
There is little suffering in Kentucky when compared with that experienced in New Orleans due to Katrina. Let’s not lose sight of that fact. Apples and oranges, still!
sue05
THIS ice storm, is the single most devastating natural disaster that Kentucky has ever had to deal with. JUST AS Katrina was the single most devastating natural disaster that Louisiana had to deal with. It isn’t hard to understand the correlation between the two if you take the blinders off.
Kentucky, UNLIKE Louisiana, is helping its own. Kentucky mobilized its ENTIRE National Guard and have asked its citizens to help each other and they have. Louisiana sat on its butt waiting for everyone else to do for them, only mobilizing part of its National Guard, and then pointed fingers when they didn’t get what they wanted or needed.
Louisiana had a full two days notice of the kind of storm that was coming AND that it was going to be a direct hit. Yet they waited to issue an evacuation order to empty the parishes and it wasn’t even mandatory. Louisiana knew YEARS before this happened that it was a recipe for disaster and did nothing. It wasn’t nicknamed the “Soupbowl” for nothing.
The catastrophic failure was the complacency of the State government of Louisiana, and the Local government of New Orleans not only during Katrina, but over the years PRIOR to Katrina, and NOT that of the Federal Government, though I’m sure some mistakes were made on their part. It’s a bureaucracy, its inevitable. But on the local levels, there are no excuses that are good enough. Looking after the people of the state is the job of the STATE not the Federal Government.
Louisiana had been hit by devastating Hurricanes before. New Orleans in particular and they KNEW what could happen and no changes were ever made to correct any of the issues facing them.
Florida was hit with 8 devastating major hurricanes during the tenure of Jebb Bush. With each storm that hit, Florida became more prepared and learned what worked and what didn’t and they implemented changes so that the process went very smoothly. People were educated and made aware. When the hurricanes were coming, Jeb Bush ordered total mandatory evacuations.
Highways were turned into one way streets to facilitate the mass exodus. Public assistance was arranged for those who needed it.
Louisiana did NOTHING. They didn’t even have transportation for the elderly or infirmed to evacuate them. No buses, no taxis, no rental cars. NOTHING.
Kentucky has done everything humanly possible for its own people, and you cannot fault them for their fierce personal pride. Nor can you say that their suffering in the freezing cold with out heat and light, and water and every other creature comfort for more than a week, is any less painful than that of the flooding caused by Katrina. It’s just a different kind of suffering.
And again I will say, the people living in NO KNEW where they were living and what could happen and they played the odds and lost when Katrina hit. If you knew anything about living in a flood area, you would understand that. But you obviously don’t.
You obviously don’t understand how in an at risk area, gross complacency and stupidity on a LOCAL level contributed more to the disaster of Katrina then the actual storm itself. As well as the encroachment on natural wetlands by developers, and the failure to strengthen the levee system protecting them.
Critical Facts
sue says:
“Nor can you say that their suffering in the freezing cold with out heat and light, and water and every other creature comfort for more than a week, is any less painful than that of the flooding caused by Katrina.”
Oh yes I can, and yes I will! The “uncomfortable” suffering of Kentuckians for over a week does not come close in comparing with the suffering of New Orleans residents brought about by the complete and total devastation wrought by Katrina.
CJ
Yeah, too bad the Democrats didn’t do a better job of taking care of its people. If they had, it wouldn’t have been as bad. Not apples and oranges. Just different places with different circumstances. Suffering is suffering.
Critical Facts
cj:
For all the great issues you bring to the table and great arguments you make in support of those issues, this is an all-time worst. There is just no comparison between the situations and the responses or lack thereof.
There will assuredly be times to compare and contrast Obama with Bush, but this is not one of them, particularly as evidenced by the various comments above. Keep waiting, though, as your day will assuredly come when you can properly release your attack dogs against Obama.
CJ
Yeah, well CF, you’ve never agreed with me anyway, so that doesn’t really mean anything to me. We disagree and you’re not going to change my mind. To liberals, the only suffering that matters is theirs, so I don’t expect you to really think that the suffering of others is important. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one. As I said long ago below!
NY-David
I agree on this one. Suffering is suffering. While I don’t think the answer to Kentucky was an evacuation, I think the US government could have been more responsive on it.
I disagree with Sue’s earlier comment that the citizens of NO just waiting on their butts to be rescued. If I had a choice to be in either, Kentucky would have been more managable.
NY-David
NY-David
I might remark that Governor Beshear of KY is a Democrat.
NY-David
CJ
True, David. My purpose was the difference in how blame was all over Bush for “his” disaster and not Obama for “his”.
sue05
Your smugness is not surprising. Why should any one expect you to acknowledge the pain and suffering of any one other than the Gitmo detainees.
NY-David
I’m not sure what that was a reply to, but as CJ said, suffering is suffering. The situation was vastly different. You have more options when you are in your home. You have no options when your home is under water.
While there has been documented cases of police leaving their posts, there were many that stayed, above and beyond. There was many cases of people gathering in the only houses left standing, this whether the government said “help your neighbor” or not.
This while the head of DHS was declaring himself a “fashion god”.
The root cause of the situation was that FEMA became less effective being put into DHS. While I think it was a well intended idea to give it access to more resources, it saddled it with a much larger beaucacy.
I wish the Kentuckians a speedy recovery.
NY-David
Bob the Liberal
Despite what people think, I don’t blame Bush for Katrina.
There are three things I blame.
1. FEMA.
2. The N.O. mayor for not doing forced evacs sooner.
3. The people of N.O. for not leaving sooner.
Had I been there, and I had 36 hours notice, I would have been running as fast as my legs could carry me.