Clinton: "Government failed us."

[Atlas]

SoCals link: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/05/clinton.katrina/index.html

Clinton: Government 'failed' people


Monday, September 5, 2005; Posted: 9:49 p.m. EDT (01:49 GMT)


Former President Bill Clinton spoke to CNN on Monday.


HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton on Monday said the government "failed" the thousands of people who lived in coastal communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and said a federal investigation was warranted in due time.

"Our government failed those people in the beginning, and I take it now there is no dispute about it," Clinton told CNN. "One hundred percent of the people recognize that -- that it was a failure." (See interview -- 2:32 )

He and former President George H. W. Bush have launched the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to help raise money for those left homeless by the storm. (Full story)

Clinton is just the latest in a long line of critics who have blasted the federal government for not moving fast enough to help people in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast one week ago as a Category 4 hurricane.

He said that the utmost priority was saving people now -- and evaluating the mistakes in the months to come.

"We've got the departments on the ground, we've got the military on the ground, we've got a chance to do it right now, and we should do it right," he said. "And then in an appropriate time we should analyze what went wrong and why and what changes should be made."

As with the 9/11 commission charged with looking at the events leading up to and after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Clinton suggested a bipartisan Katrina commission be formed. It would investigate what went wrong and determine "what is the best structure and what are the best personnel decisions" to make in emergency management, he said.

The elder Bush echoed Clinton's sentiment, telling CNN's Larry King that he is "not satisfied" with the handling of the hurricane's aftermath.

Nonetheless, he defended his son's performance.

"What can he do? He can just go out and do what he's doing today, showing that the federal government's involved, has been involved, will continue to be involved ... He cannot listen to every critic from the editorial page of The New York Times," the elder Bush said.

[elsid13]

Clinton is right. FEMA has not had a leader that is experienced in disaster management since he was in office. Instead it has become a political dumping ground for political donors. Add to the fact that most political appointees stay in office for only 2 years it really is a bad situation. Since by time executive start to understand what going on; she/he is leaving. With FEMA buried further down under DOHS management the problems have just become worse. FEMA mission has been focused on GWOT, instead of distaster recovery, is anyone surprised that this happened. This is similiar to problems had up to the 90s when it was only concerned about WWIII.

Yes, it Bush has right to put people in charge that he wants, but it does take someone with experience to run certain operations and understand the complexity of a potential situations. This is one case where Congress should step in have oversight over of who sits in this position.

[Spider]

SoCals link: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/05/clinton.katrina/index.html

Clinton: Government 'failed' people


Monday, September 5, 2005; Posted: 9:49 p.m. EDT (01:49 GMT)


Former President Bill Clinton spoke to CNN on Monday.


HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton on Monday said the government "failed" the thousands of people who lived in coastal communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and said a federal investigation was warranted in due time.

"Our government failed those people in the beginning, and I take it now there is no dispute about it," Clinton told CNN. "One hundred percent of the people recognize that -- that it was a failure." (See interview -- 2:32 )

He and former President George H. W. Bush have launched the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to help raise money for those left homeless by the storm. (Full story)

Clinton is just the latest in a long line of critics who have blasted the federal government for not moving fast enough to help people in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast one week ago as a Category 4 hurricane.

He said that the utmost priority was saving people now -- and evaluating the mistakes in the months to come.

"We've got the departments on the ground, we've got the military on the ground, we've got a chance to do it right now, and we should do it right," he said. "And then in an appropriate time we should analyze what went wrong and why and what changes should be made."

As with the 9/11 commission charged with looking at the events leading up to and after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Clinton suggested a bipartisan Katrina commission be formed. It would investigate what went wrong and determine "what is the best structure and what are the best personnel decisions" to make in emergency management, he said.

The elder Bush echoed Clinton's sentiment, telling CNN's Larry King that he is "not satisfied" with the handling of the hurricane's aftermath.

Nonetheless, he defended his son's performance.

"What can he do? He can just go out and do what he's doing today, showing that the federal government's involved, has been involved, will continue to be involved ... He cannot listen to every critic from the editorial page of The New York Times," the elder Bush said.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Atlas again........good find .... I havent been dispatched yet , so I dont know where I am going ...... I hope I am heading down to deliever some supplies , kinda hard with a drop deck , but it can be done ...........

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

George W. Bush investigates!

Rick Santorum says that hurricane victims who remained in their homes should be penalized. The Republicans are rushing to get the first of the relief dollars to... Mississippi, where Trent Lott's highly acclaimed front porch once existed. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Homeland Security are getting their major catastrophe information from newspaper headlines that don't exist other than in Karl Rove's imagination -- and making decisions (or not) based on those imaginary headlines.

And George W. Bush, the man responsible for appointing and/or supporting these criminally negligent excuses for "protectors of the homeland", is going to oversee an investigation into what went wrong.

The same man who stood, invisible six-shooters at the ready, in a hangar on Friday flanked by rescue choppers which weren't rescuing anything except the last shreds of his crumbling reputation.

The same man who only stopped smirking and joking -- kind of -- as of Monday's visit to the Gulf region.

The same man who, some 12-24 hours after the levees broke was air-guitaring a pathetic G-chord with country singer Mark Wills in the hurricane stricken region of San Diego.

Continued: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/george-w-bush-investigat_b_6945.html

[Rohirrim]

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197

Firefighters show up and FEMA sends them to training for how to hand out fliers.

[Rohirrim]

Go to MSNBC's Alterman blog for more Bush hijinks. Appears he had equipment flown in and staged behind him, as well as firefighters, for his photo ops. I suppose you could argue that they might have been more useful elsewhere, as Congresswoman Landrieu implies, but what the hell.

"But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas."

Examine it, as well as Mary Landrieu's press release that the President's visit to Louisiana involved faked repairs to the levees (see here) and the German newspaper Der Spiegel's coverage of the faking of repairs (see here) — The English translation:

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Go to MSNBC's Alterman blog for more Bush hijinks. Appears he had equipment flown in and staged behind him, as well as firefighters, for his photo ops. I suppose you could argue that they might have been more useful elsewhere, as Congresswoman Landrieu implies, but what the hell.

"But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas."

Examine it, as well as Mary Landrieu's press release that the President's visit to Louisiana involved faked repairs to the levees (see here) and the German newspaper Der Spiegel's coverage of the faking of repairs (see here) — The English translation:

To say nothing of the fact that air traffic (read: rescue hellicopters and aircraft) was suspended while the monkey was hamming for the cameras.

[Rigs11]

Go to MSNBC's Alterman blog for more Bush hijinks. Appears he had equipment flown in and staged behind him, as well as firefighters, for his photo ops. I suppose you could argue that they might have been more useful elsewhere, as Congresswoman Landrieu implies, but what the hell.

"But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas."

Examine it, as well as Mary Landrieu's press release that the President's visit to Louisiana involved faked repairs to the levees (see here) and the German newspaper Der Spiegel's coverage of the faking of repairs (see here) — The English translation:

Dubya putting photo ops before American interests? Mission accomplished.