The politics of Katrina

[Msterbeau]

I'll just start this off with an open letter to the president from Michael Moore. Sure, it's not W's fault that the hurricane hit where it did, but the behavior and performance of the federal government and it's agencies has been a long way from acceptable. As the nation's leader, he has shown less then stellar... um... leadership. I'll say more about the local agencies and personal behavior after people have weighed in on this a bit.....

"Whether or not you agree with Mr. Moore, he has a way of capturing the frustration many of us feel."

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore

MMFlint@aol.com

www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.

[phee]

Very interesting... thanks for the post!

[The_Dark]

I'd only like to point out that the President isn't too happy with the response teams either. FEMA is handling this in a very bad way. it might also help if the local government wasn't the most corrupt in the nation.

People also seem tob e forgettnig that most of those people that are still there were told to leave before the storm hit. The city estimated that 20k people did not leave.. it turns out that it was a much higher number than that. The planed releif effort was for 20k people... not the 60-80k that it turns out didn't leave...

And before anyone goes off that they were poor and didn;t have cars.. that does not explain tourists that arrived there as the storm was starting, people who could not just leave the cat behind or the people that just plane didn't beleive it was happening.

Thsi isn't the Presidents fault. He has no control over the weather nor did he have control over the pre-planning for this storm. Thats the State governers job and the city mayors job....

People need to get over thier hatred and use thier brains for a change.

[phee]

I do believe the first thing I would "blame" is the fact that people didn't leave when they were told to.... but then again many of the people in these areas had no means to leave.

[gothicmom]

I heard that transportation and a place to stay was provided.

[Amerist]

In the event of a predictable disaster, especially by days, simply telling people to evacuate is grossly irresponsible. I don't think I've heard a single thing about what was done to evacuate people from NOLA before the hurricane mowed it down. So, what was done to help the people with no vehicles--what were they going to do walk? How about the people who don't have money or a place to stay after they left?

Why weren't there caravans of busses and transports circling evacuation points in NOLA 24hrs before Katrina hit and moving people out of the city to refugee camps and/or holdings for people further north, away from the coast and away from the primary predicted strike zones? A lot of people could have been pulled out of the area by mechanized and organized means way before the hurricane made landfall with the simple application of man and machine power to the area.

Disaster preparedness doesn't just include the ability to respond to a catastrophe; it should also include being able to organize and quickly implement evacuation and relocation for populations to reduce the impact of a highly predictable disaster.

A category 4+ hurricane striking NOLA is ranked as one of the worst-possible scenarios for destruction and loss of human life. And it's not like everyone couldn't literally see it coming.

I have yet to see thing one about any sort of effort to evacuate people other than telling people to leave and preventing people from entering the affected areas by making the freeways one way. It is not fair to point out that people stayed behind when there are segments of that population who had no way to get out.

Last I checked disasters of this proportion can and will cross state boundaries, the predicted destruction would have forced refugees into other states, further away from the coast. I thought that disaster preparation and putting manpower in to assist evacuations and to react to a destroyed city would be a Federal task not just local. Especially because the local government and resources can so easily be vaporized.

There is supposedly this huge surge of "preparedness for a terrorist strike" going on, and it seems to me that the same things that involve reacting to some sort of disaster that takes out a city via terrorist action shouldn't be too different from the reaction to a city hit by a hurricane. I see this as a gross failure of the Federal government to mobilize, to work appropriately with the to-be-affected areas, and to actually do their jobs when it comes down to pulling in resources from outside a State, and lending aid in the face of a knowable threat.

[Guest Game of Chance]

I realize that there was a complete lack of preparedness in NO. However, I notice that you don't see nearly as many news reports about the devastation in Biloxi or Gulfport. This is despite the fact that devastion initally caused by the storm was nearly as catastrophic as that in NO. I was having a conversation about this today with a co-worker. Is it because Biloxi is a military town and mandatory evacuation really means mandatory evacuation???

[Paint it Black]

Michael Moore makes me sick.

Certainly this disaster has not been handled in the best possible way, but what can we expect? Nothing like this has ever happened before and who of us would have predicted on January 1, 2005 that just 9 months later the entire Big Easy would be destroyed?

There is no way to completely prepare for a monster storm like this. Especially considering that an area the size of Idaho was hit very hard by this hurricane. It takes time to move men, equipment and supplies to the damaged area and difficult to plan operations when there is no communication networks operating in the city.

[The_Dark]

Amerist... Being prepared for a natural disaster is a local thing because only the locals really know what they need. You also have to remember that Nola's local government is known to be the most corrupt in the country.

[phee]

Amerist... Being prepared for a natural disaster is a local thing because only the locals really know what they need. You also have to remember that Nola's local government is known to be the most corrupt in the country.

I have heard that about Nola as well...

[Amerist]

Amerist... Being prepared for a natural disaster is a local thing because only the locals really know what they need. You also have to remember that Nola's local government is known to be the most corrupt in the country.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I keep hearing that too; but only very recently. The corruption bit. (Let's just wait for someone to start talking about divine retribution.) Err, spoke too soon, I'm googling for information about this well known corruption in NOLA and...well, the very first news article is all about God punishing them for corruption and crime.

Well, not surprising, I suppose, I'm still digesting how corrupt the Detroit government is suppose to be (Phoenix was not known for this.)

On the Michael Moore bit.

It is always extremely easy to be angry at and take swipes at the people who are the most visible for being in charge. However, they are also usually the furthest away from the actual implementation. In the case of the Office of the President the job doesn't work for someone to actually go hands-on with a single situation because there are so many situations that it's not possible; so the President's Office chooses notable and apparently competent people to head up putting together hands-on fixes to possible situations.

Of course, one must also note that celebrity is also its own sorts of shackles. Certain behaviors during times of crisis can create the illusion of any sort of bad behavior. President Bush cutting his vacation short by 2 days (I've heard this, don't know what it means) the flyby in Air Force One ... but keep in mind that he's also gotten up and given speeches as to the situation, he is probably receiving reports on what's going on, he has critically chastised FEMA and the handling. As the President he actually has less power to do things directly, but since he can really affect their jobs and standing he has the ability to shake them into better behavior by essentially glaring.

It is too easy to completely ignore what he has done for the things that he seems to be doing on the outskirts. I don't know why he went to California, Moore says its a party--I don't know if it was really something initially set up before the Hurricane for the President to talk about economics or something.

Frustration and wearing blinders when examining a person usually mock up to very bad judgments of what's going on.

I'm angry with President Bush, yes, but most of my upset with him details with his behavior outside this country. However, I haven't really keenly seen him do anything badly with the crisis in NOLA. He certainly bears a little bit of the responsibility for not quite having the right people in place; but now that it's all in motion, something has happened, his castigating them for poor performance is appropriate. There are a lot more people in positions that are much more closely related to this crisis who are not quite on the ball--I just hope that they're getting there.

President Bush is just a convenient, easy, and quickly accepted target for this sort of invective.

[Head Wreck]

i really dislike micheal more.

anyone with any sense ignores him. he just likes his smug mug on the papers and TV.

using this as something to have yet another go at his most profitable target is just plain low.

i have an ideah mr more. why dont you chip in half the proceeds you earnt of your last two cinema billed sensationalist, deliberatly out of context footage used to insite cash in your wallet, to the relef effort in the form of food clothing pharmecuticals, aid workers, engineers ORT JUST ANYTHING THAT HELPS. i'm sure you can survive quite well on half of those profits.

gah. this guy makes us bleeding heart liberals look cold malicious profateering assholes. and he has a face thats just itching to be pushed and pulled across metal railings to make that really cool sound.

[Scary Guy]

and who of us would have predicted on January 1, 2005 that just 9 months later the entire Big Easy would be destroyed?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

40 years, what part of that didn't you get? This has been a known problem. They should have taken action when Ivan ALMOST wiped them out, but it just missed them.

Sorry those that had the means and ability to leave and the advanced notification who still stayed I'm chocking up to natural selection.

[DarkVampire]

Moores an idiot. The only thing funny about him is watching him make an ass of himself.

[Msterbeau]

A few random comments.

NOLA Police were reported to be quitting when things started going bad. That's probably a good sign of how corrupt things were.... they really don't care about anything but themselves. Sad.

I find it almost laughable that we have a Hurricane scale that goes up to 5 yet we only make preparations and plans to deal with 3? We KNOW that that Category 5 is going to come along at least once every 100 years... As always , we fool ourselves it'll never come in our lifetime, so why deal with it? :doh

Sooooo... back to Bush. On an intellectual level, I understand that he isn't directly responsible for the failures at the federal agencies in this disaster. BUT, much as a CEO must bear responsibility for what happens on his/her watch at a corporation, so goes the presidency. He sets the tone for policy, he influences it and has the ability to direct and manage resources, and to delegate authority to able leaders. I think this is where he's clearly dropped the ball. Like it or not, his adventure in Iraq has cost this country billions of dollars, untold loss of life and the animosity of the entire middle east.. All of these have required attention and resources that could have been better used here in the US. Also, the whole flyby and party thing smacks of insensitivity. Why didn't he land and survey things firsthand?? A leader should always be seen to be amongst the people when hardship falls upon them. He did it right on 9/11. This time... aaahhh, not so much.

[Jarodaka]

Like it or not, his adventure in Iraq has cost this country billions of dollars, untold loss of life and the animosity of the entire middle east..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree there are many reasons to dislike W., but I'm pretty sure the Middle East had plenty of animosity for us before we invaded Iraq.

[Shade Everdark]

How about the goodwill he's cost us in other parts of the world?

Even Japan has cooled toward us, though to be fair, that started a little bit before W. got into office.

[Msterbeau]

I agree there are many reasons to dislike W., but I'm pretty sure the Middle East had plenty of animosity for us before we invaded Iraq.

True. But I think that has increased tenfold, and that increase has put an additional drag on resources.

[The_Dark]

Sooooo... back to Bush.  On an intellectual level, I understand that he isn't directly responsible for the failures at the federal agencies  in this disaster.  BUT, much as a CEO must bear responsibility for what happens on his/her watch at a corporation, so goes the presidency.  He sets the tone for policy, he influences it and has the ability to direct and manage resources, and to delegate authority to able leaders.  I think this is where he's clearly dropped the ball.  Like it or not, his adventure in Iraq has cost this country billions of dollars, untold loss of life and the animosity of the entire middle east..  All of these have required attention and resources that could have been better used here in the US.  Also, the whole flyby and party thing smacks of insensitivity.  Why didn't he land and survey things firsthand??  A leader should always be seen to be amongst the people when hardship falls upon them.  He did it right  on 9/11.  This time... aaahhh, not so much.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He isn't exactly happy with how FEMA and the local agencys were handling the situation. For the President to say that the way things were being handed is "unacceptable"... well, someone's job status is in question.

As for not landing.. Where exactly was Air Force One sopposed to land? At the airport that was under water? The President doesn't have a choice of where he can land... the people who's job it is to keep him alive make that decision. There was no place to land Airforce on near Nola.. He landed in Mississippi and toured the damage there after the fly over of Nola. He took a helicopter to the outskirts of the devastation in Nola.. I doubt they would let him go in to Nola as people were already shooting at releif workers by that point.

[The_Dark]

True.  But I think that has increased tenfold, and that increase has put an additional drag on resources.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do you realize how much we were hated already in the middle east? Do you forget that we are "the great satan"? Iran hostages, the Cole bombing, Clinton tossing cruise missles at asprin factorys to get people to stop paying attention to him getting a blow job... the list goes on... and something about a couple planes on 9/11... I don't think the level of hatred for us in the middle east is any higher than it was before.

[Guest Game of Chance]

Do you realize how much we were hated already in the middle east? Do you forget that we are "the great satan"? Iran hostages, the Cole bombing, Clinton tossing cruise missles at asprin factorys to get people to stop paying attention to him getting a blow job... the list goes on... and something about a couple planes on 9/11... I don't think the level of hatred for us in the middle east is any higher than it was before.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm gonna have to agree. Don't forget about a little treaty in 1948.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Arab-Israeli_War