1. An Open Letter To Bushbashing Hippies | 9/5/2005 7:45:37 AM CDT

Dear WoW-forum raging teenangster wannacommies,

I come before you today to plead for rational thought. Given that you probably blame your ping problem and shocking single digit rolls in MC on Bush, Big Oil and his refusal to ratify Kyoto, I by and large expect this to fall on deaf ears.

But before you begin your rant to counter my rant - there are a few things I'd like you to think about. For many of you, that concept may be a little overwhelming, so please ensure you are seated.

First, you are angry at Gorgeous George because he was on holidays, and didnt immediately cancel his plans to.... do something else you are now widely criticise him on: Take grandstanding photo-ops and pontificate on what a tradgedy this is. Do you understand that as President, in a time of national disaster, you ask the FEMA head guy if everything is being done, he replies "Sir yes sir", and that you have now reached the limit of your usefulness? You could grab a hat, leap on a helicopter and head on down to rescue some refugee's, but you'd probably be a hinderance, given all the security you'd need.

Second, you are angry that this is somehow related to global warming. I implore you to recognise, as those of us who arent currently browsing through a haze of smoke from a 30ft bong, that GWB has only been in office for 5 odd years, and even if he'd completely destroyed every single industry in your nation, there was no way he could have had any impact on the environment to reduce the impact of Katrina.

Third, you somehow feel that Federal incompetence is to blame. This is remarkable, given that preparing states for natural disasters, especially predictable ones like a big bloody hurricane, is a Local and State affair, not Federal. If you stopped screaming at Bush for 30 seconds, you might recognise that your beloved Democrat overlords failed you in ways far more tragic then taking an extra 24 hours holiday before pracing around on TV:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html

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Q u o t e:

Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.

The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.

Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.

"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."
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Fourth, you might wonder why people were left in the Superdome for so long without being evacuated. But here is the good news - your friendly State and Local Democrats had a superb plan in place. Here it is: Tell everyone to rally at the Superdome, store up exactly %@$% all water and food there, and then bus everyone out to safety. Ingenious! But where were all the buses?

Right here:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=17362_The_Ray_Nagin_Memorial_Motor_Pool&only

Your tax dollars hard at work folks. They left all the buses exactly where they would get flooded. Good thing only smart people are Democrat...

Fifth, you cant have a crack at Bush and somehow not bring in Iraq. You are probably thinking that somehow the deployment of National Guard in Iraq meant there were less American Military Personnel left at home to deal with this emergency. Again, you are miles off target. Current troop levels in Iraq hover at the 140000 mark. Far be it for an Australian to lecture Americans on their military strength, but that represents a little over 10% of your Military strength.

Sixth, you do realise that the Governor has the power to send in the National Guard, and the blame for their absence for the past few days cannot be laid soley at the feet of the Bush Administration. Given that the Democrat Governor hadnt even announced a state of Emergency on Saturday, dont you feel that Blanco deserves the hard questions?

Seventh, before blaming Federal funding for levee's as a cause of the disaster, are you aware that it was decided over thirty years ago for "cost reasons" that the levee's were only designed to protect against lvl 3 hurricanes, and Katrina was lvl 4? Are you also aware that the levee's that fail were levee's in good condition and were not considered a serious risk? Being a hippy, you are doubtless woefully ill-informed about levee funding and Iraq, so I shall enlighten you:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050901corps,1,7189346.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

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Q u o t e:
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane-protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.

In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way—inundating much of the city—were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.

However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and couldn’t handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline. The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis.

“I don’t see that the level of funding was really a contributing factor in this case,” said Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of engineers for the corps. “Had this project been fully complete, it is my opinion that based on the intensity of this storm that the flooding of the business district and the French Quarter would have still taken place.”

Strock also denied that escalating costs from the war in Iraq contributed to reductions in funding for hurricane projects in Louisiana, as some critics have suggested. Records show that corps funding for the Louisiana projects has generally decreased in recent years.
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Eighth, are you aware that the complusory evacution order was given following a personal request from your President to the State Governors? Do you seriously believe that GWB actually likes to see dead black people? Are you aware of the PR nightmare this causes for him? Even if he was a callous and indifferent ragin $%$ member, he would still attempt to be helpin those colored folks out because hell, at least he wouldnt look bad?

Ninth, are you aware that full 2/3's of the NOPD abandoned their post and went awol? Given that New Orleans went heavily for Kerry last election, their complete lack of spine surprises few, but dont you feel that those men and women somehow let you down a little more than GWB? Dont believe me?

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2005/tr20050903-3850.html

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Q u o t e:
Q: Does that explain why it took several days to get to this point?

GEN. BLUM: No, there was no delay. The fortunate thing is with modern technology they faxed the agreement back and forth, the two governors signed it. It was a matter of moments. That was not the delay.

The delay was in, if you want to call it a delay. I really don't call it a delay, I'll be honest about that. When we first went in there law enforcement was not the highest priority, saving lives was. You have to remember how this thing started. Before the hurricane hit there were 5,000 National Guardsmen in Mississippi and 5,000 National Guardsmen -- excuse me. Let me correct the record. There were 2,500 National Guardsmen in Mississippi and almost 4,000 National Guardsmen in Louisiana that were sheltered and taken out of the affected area so as soon as the storm passed they could immediately go into the area and start their search and lifesaving work, and stand up their command and control apparatus, and start standing up the vital functions that would be required such as providing food, water, shelter and security for the people of the town. So it was phased in. There was no delay.

The real issue, particularly in New Orleans, is that no one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans. Once that assessment was made, that the normal 1500 man police force in New Orleans was substantially degraded, which contributed obviously to less police presence and less police capability, then the requirement became obvious and that's when we started flowing military police into the theater.

Two days ago we flowed 1400 military policemen in. Yesterday, 1400 more. Today 1400 more. Today there are 7,000 citizen soldiers -- Army National Guard, badge-carrying military policemen and other soldiers trained in support to civil law enforcement -- that are on the streets, available to the mayor, provided by the governor to the mayor to assist the New Orleans police department.

I am absolutely confident that the security situation as it has improved in the last 24 hours will improve two-fold in the next 24 hours, and soon it won't be an issue at all.

Will something ever go wrong in New Orleans? Sure. Things went wrong in New Orleans and every other populated area around in our country and around the world every day. But I think you'll see a return to normal levels very soon, perhaps in the next 24 hours.

Q: General, you mentioned a disintegration of the New Orleans Police Department. Do you know how many officers are still on duty?

GEN. BLUM: I would rather not say. I think you'd be better to refer that question to the mayor of New Orleans. I have my own estimate. I would say they are significantly degraded and they have less than one-third of their original capability.

Q: So is it fair to say it is the National Guard that's keeping law and order in New Orleans?

GEN. BLUM: No. As long as there's one uniformed police officer in the city of New Orleans, we will send as many National Guard soldiers to augment, support and work in support of that lone law enforcement officer as necessary. So if hypothetically there's only one left, who's in charge? It's still that lone police officer supported by the National Guard in their role as military support to law enforcement.

We are not in the lead. We have no need nor intention of imposing martial law or having the military police the United States of America.

Q: What happened to the other police, general?

GEN. BLUM: Again, that can be best addressed, but what was told to me by the Mayor day before yesterday is many of them lost their homes, many of them lost ability to get to the precinct, many of them who did show up found what they were dealing with so overwhelming and dangerous or threatening to them as an individual that they made the personal decision to not risk their life until the situation made more sense to them. That was an individual decision, it was not the police chief's decision or the mayor's decision. I think that the mayor and police chief are working right now to reconstitute the New Orleans Police Department, but that question would much better be addressed to them for detail.
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Finally - where the hell are all the mods?

Sincerely,

An Australian Conservative,

Me


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