I like free titties.

And handjobs.

I just lost an iota of respect for Ben Stein.

To maintain the status quo is no longer adequate for the top leader of the top country in the free world.

That's why the national debt is such a scandal -- it's so easy to say it's not our fault, but what they don't realize is, they still need to do something about it.

And I'm not saying it's his fault -- nowhere have I heard that statement. For the most part, the statement goes, "he could be doing more". And do you know what? He could be doing more. And more quickly.

Well put.

fp

I thought this was pretty silly, too. Not saying that Bush is any kind of rascist, but just the fact that he appointed a few black people isn't really proof of anything. I wish I knew Bush's "mind and soul" as well as Ben Stein does.

"Has Katrina saved US media?"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4214516.stm

yeah...its really confusing when you scream for help and no one shows up, or you prepare people to gather at a central point(Superdome and Convention Center) and the feds can't figure a way to immediately bring supplies. He has no authority over over the Guard, he has to ask the state or feds to jump in.

Look I'm not blaming anyone specifically, but don't through mud unless it sticks.

This is good.
http://media.putfile.com/OlbermannSwings

He's the mayor of one of the most crime ridden cities in the country. Obviously he hasn't done a very good job keeping that city safe. The Feds had to first deal with criminals on their way to helping people. If they didn't have people shooting at them, and have to worry about rape, looters, and crime, they might have been able to help a bit sooner.

But yeah, I guess that isn't his fault either.

Governor Blanco failed miserably in her duties as well. This tragedy is the result of failures on the local and state level. But again, it's easier to blame Bush for everything.

I believe it is a mistake to connect claims between Bush policies and global warning and Hurricane Katrina. Whether you believe in global warming or not, the concept precedes the Bush administration by quite some time, and any legitimate worsening of global warning conditions cannot be attributed directly to the past five years, Kyoto Treaty or not.

Global warming was an issue before Bush, and it's not a problem he could have possibly remedied in five years.

But does the same reasoning not apply to New Orleans and crime? Nagin was elected in 2002. I haven't been to New Orleans since around 1998, but it wasn't exactly crime free then either. It's had a number of problems with crime and drugs for many years.

To assert that Ray Nagin should have eliminated all these problems in a couple years is just as vulgar as attributing global warming to George Bush.

After a little research, I also turned up some interesting facts on Ray Nagin I was not aware of:
• Nagin was a registered Republican until February 2002. He switched parties to gain an advantage in heavily Democratic New Orleans.
• His mayoral campaign was primarily financed by his own money.
• Nagin donated to George Bush's 2000 Presidential campaign, and also endorsed Republican candidate Bobby Jindal in the close 2003 gubernatorial run-off, which was subsequently won by Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.

I'm curious to hear more about this guy, because he doesn't seem to be cut from the same cloth as a Marion Barry or Detroit's Kwame Kilpatrick.

you're right. point taken.

Dalen said:



Again, no one is blaming Bush for everything that happened. Clearly the local and state governments failed. But Bush had a job to do too, and he didn't do it well. Government as a whole failed the people.

When did Blanco actually request help from the Federal gov?

Steve

the sunday before the hurricaine hit:
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Rel ... equest.pdf

bush is a whining little pussy who refuses to accept responsibility for any of his mistakes (in order to do that, he'd have to actually admit he ever makes mistakes) i'm just amazed at the partisan pretzel one would have to twist themself into to believe that the federal response to this wasn't seriously bungled.
newsflash: louisiana is one of the poorest states in the nation. blaming the mayor of new orleans is just fucking ridiculous--can the haters name me a single municipality in the country that could deal with a disaster of that magnitude on their own? yes, new orleans is less equipped than say, new york, but there was a massive amount of federal assistance following 9/11. what exactly was the mayor supposed to do when half of his police force quit? i want some specifics, because there's a laundry list of specific things the feds failed to do...
similarly, it ain't the governors fault that louisiana is poor, it was like that when she got there (as opposed to, say, the federal government that was running a surplus when bush took office) louisiana straight-up lacks the resources to deal with this kind of crisis all by its lonesome. thats exactly why we have fema--the calvary is supposed to come swooping in when natural disasters overwhelm limited local resources.
granted, it wasn't bush's fault that new orleans was built below sea-level, it wasn't his fault that the hurricaine happened--and not a single person is arguing that, contrary to ben stein's strawman attacks. but he is responsible for the current head of fema, he is responsible for the fact it was folded into homeland security, he is absolutely responsible for the military response (he seems rather fond of pointing out the commander in chief role whenever questioned about his handling of the war) once again, this administration's bungling and ineptitude has gotten people killed, only this time they're almost all civilians. i just want to see that strong leader all the gun toting homophobes were touting a year ago...