Senate Repubs Kill Bid For Independent Investigation of Katrina Response

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

No investigation needed - Clinton's zipper isn't involved.

Senate Kills Bid for Katrina Commission

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina.

The New York Democrat's bid to establish the panel — which would have also made recommendations on how to improve the government's disaster response apparatus — failed to win the two-thirds majority needed to overcome procedural hurdles. Clinton got only 44 votes, all from Democrats and independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Fifty-four Republicans all voted no.

"Just as with 9/11, we did not get to the point where we believed we understood what happened until an independent investigation was conducted," Clinton said.

The Senate vote is hardly likely to be the last word on whether to create an independent commission or as an alternative a special congressional committee to investigate Katrina. The 9/11 Commission was established in 2002 after resistance from Republicans and the White House, and opinion polls show the public strongly supports the idea. In a CNN/USA Today Gallup poll taken Sept. 8-11, 70 percent of those surveyed supported an independent panel to investigate the government's response to Katrina. Only 29 percent were opposed.


Full Story (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050914/ap_on_go_ot/katrina_washington;_ylt=Am4OimLCTpmSJV5e9orW4SpI2o cA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl)

[TheDave]

I think everyone saw this coming... there are some major benefits to having one party with all the power.

[Bronco_Beerslug]

I think everyone saw this coming... there are some major benefits to having one party with all the power.

This wont work well for republicans trying to delay an independent investigation into the "why" for the reasons the Bush administration has failed Americans in responding to our national disaster.


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Bush: - “In the United States, where the war begun, we will continue our vital work to protecting American people, by protecting our ports and borders and safeguarding infrastructure, preparing for the worst. I mentioned the first responders. I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the coordination now between the federal government, the state government, and local governments for preparing our homeland.” [1/22/04]

- “Since September the 11th, we’ve followed a clear strategy to defeat the terrorists and protect our people. First, we are defending the homeland. We’ve strengthened our intelligence capabilities; we’ve trained more than 800,000 first responders; we have taken critical steps to protect our cities and borders and infrastructure.” [8/24/05]

- “We’re making progress in defending the homeland.” [8/3/05]

- “Of course, we’re doing everything we can to protect America. I wake up every day thinking about how best to protect America. That’s my job.” [10/1/04]

- “We’ve already done a lot. Take a good look at what has taken place since 9/11, and I think you’ll be — as a citizen, concerned about your own safety, I think you’ll be pleased.”
[8/2/2004]

http://tinyurl.com/c4868

[footstepsfrom#27]

I think everyone saw this coming... there are some major benefits to having one party with all the power.
That's a bad move by the GOP. The sooner they get this over with the quicker people will move on and put it out of their minds, but by delaying this it's lilkely to drag right into the 2007 Presidential election campaign season. Lots of Republican Congressmen and Senators up for re-election will also be put in the position of explaining why they wanted to hinder an investigation.

Politicians are such idiots. :stupid:

[bendog]

Not ascribing blame, as in this particular disaster both the LA dems and the admin have stuff to be ashamed of, but I continue to find references to the WH or FEMA or DOD not executing paper work to allow other states (NM predominantly) to send in troops BEFORE the storm hit. EMAC compacts which FEMA poured money into so other states could quickly send in first line responder types. I'm pretty interested in seeing what wasn't done, and by whom, so the next time. ....

Bill Richardson has the answers to this, and I've no doubt he'll be making them known.

[Garcia Bronco]

While a don't disagree that this needs to be looked at...it sounds like a complete waste of money to assign blame. The President, Director of FEMA, Gov of LA, and the Mayor are all at fault just to name a few. I really don't think people understood what was coming. as soon as the storm left the IWO JIMI set sail for the gulf....they had plently of National Guard. New Orleans is where the first responders were getting shot at by god knows who. I really don't think we gain anything by using money to throw people under the bus...when there are already plenty of people under it.

[Rigs11]

9/11 commissioners blast Katrina response
They say government has failed to act on recommendations

From David Ensor
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Members of the former 9/11 commission blasted Congress and the Bush administration Wednesday for inaction on some of its recommendations, which the former chairman said could have saved lives in Hurricane Katrina.

"If Congress does not act, people will die -- I cannot put it more simply than that," said former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, referring to what could happen in the next major disaster or terrorist attack.

He said it was a "scandal" that more has not been done to improve the job of first responders in the four years since the terrorist attacks of September 2001.

"Hurricane Katrina pointed out serious flaws in our emergency preparedness and response. And what is frustrating to us is that [these are] many of the same problems we saw in 9/11 and the response to that disaster," said Kean, a Republican

The former commissioners, speaking to reporters at a press conference, called for Congress to take radio frequencies away from broadcasters and give them to first responders well before 2009, as is currently planned under law.

They urged states and local governments to adopt incident command systems, making clear which agency is in charge, and said Congress should financially penalize states that do not do so.

They also complained that reports the Department of Homeland Security should have delivered months ago on risk and vulnerability factors around the nation have yet to be completed.

Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana who served on the commission, said it was "inexcusable and unacceptable" that Congress has yet to enact some of the 9/11 recommendations that "could have made a difference" in Louisiana during the early days after the hurricane.

Malfunctioning radios using different frequencies contributed to the high death toll in the World Trade Center buildings, and public safety officials in New Orleans have reported widespread communications problems as well.

"Government has no higher responsibility than the defense of its people," Kean said, "so this ought to be at the top of the priority list."

Opposition to giving the radio frequencies to first responders before 2009 has come from broadcasting companies, which had been given them for use during the transition to digital and high-definition television.

The bipartisan 9/11 panel -- formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States -- released its final report in a nearly 570-page book in July 2004.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/14/katrina.9.11.commission/index.html

[BKK]

While a don't disagree that this needs to be looked at...it sounds like a complete waste of money to assign blame. The President, Director of FEMA, Gov of LA, and the Mayor are all at fault just to name a few. I really don't think people understood what was coming. as soon as the storm left the IWO JIMI set sail for the gulf....they had plently of National Guard. New Orleans is where the first responders were getting shot at by god knows who. I really don't think we gain anything by using money to throw people under the bus...when there are already plenty of people under it.

Very well said.

[bendog]

Sure, but regardless of the state and local screwups, if terrorists attack and it effects me personally, I want to know what FEMA and the admin screwed up, and what's been done to fix that. And, those questions the gop congress does not want to address for fear they'll lose power.

[RaiderH8r]

Why? That's comical. I'll tell you why.... A big fvcking hurricane slammed full speed into a city surrounded by water that sits 8 feet below sealevel that's why. It's a raft amidst an ocean and the raft sprung a leak. It happens. Happened to Galveston in 1900, now THAT was one bad motherfvcker.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Why? That's comical. I'll tell you why.... A big fvcking hurricane slammed full speed into a city surrounded by water that sits 8 feet below sealevel that's why. It's a raft amidst an ocean and the raft sprung a leak. It happens. Happened to Galveston in 1900, now THAT was one bad motherfvcker.

Um, we're talking about the federal government's response to the disaster - not the disaster itself, Einstein.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

http://www.bartcop.com/wall-lame-levee.jpg

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Bush investigates himself - again. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/george-w-bush-investigat_b_6945.html)

Sort of like when OJ said he was going to find the real killer, eh?

:pity:

[gunns]

I think everyone saw this coming... there are some major benefits to having one party with all the power.

Yeah I love having no checks and balances. Just ask North Korea or Iraq.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Yeah I love having no checks and balances. Just ask North Korea or Iraq.

That's exactly what the banana republicans on this board want to see happen to America.

I guess I can understand how this erosion of checks and balances is an attractive proposition if you're a multinational corporation or a billionaire, but why would regular working or middle-class Americans support these robber barons?

Do issues like gay marriage and abortion really trump all other issues for these people?

Hard to believe.

http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/H/f/bush_no_missionaccomplished.jpg

[W*GS]

That's exactly what the banana republicans on this board want to see happen to America.

I've mentioned that Clinton used the Justice Department to create de facto law, but you never had a problem with that.

Now, you do have a problem with the erosion of the principle of separation of powers, checks and balances, and so forth.

You didn't care then; you care now.

What's the difference? The Constitution is getting reamed by a Republican, and that's bad; when the Constitution is reamed by a Democrat, well, that's just fine by you.

LABF, pointing out your hypocrisies brings up one image - fish, barrel, smoking gun.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

W*GS and Babs:

Seperated at birth?

http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/v/f/barbara_bush_underprivileged.jpg

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/N/f/bush_fooledagain.gif

[W*GS]

LABF's "strategery"?

When intellect fails, go on a bitmap frenzy.

There's no political issue - even those of significance - that can't be reduced to an altered JPG or the like.

I just don't get it.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Why is George W. Bush Above the Law?

"No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

THE BRAVADO

Once again, a massive failure of leaderships has been displayed in Washington. And, once again, George Bush has escaped an independent inquiry into his irresponsible actions. For the fourth time in less than five years, the President of the United States and his cohorts been placed above the law. That, in itself, is a major American disaster.

When, if ever, could this have happened before? When else could one administration have pulled off four major scandals; four devastating, potentially impeachable screw-ups, and never have to answer for them? When else, in the United States of America, could so many crimes of an elected president and his cadre remain unexplained, unchallenged, and unpunished? When? Probably never. When in history have the media sat silent through criminal scandal at highest levels of government?

We’re not talking mistakes, here. We’re not talking poor judgment or failed policies. We’re not talking politics as usual, with its underhanded array of pork and perks. But we are talking about very serious violations of the public trust, and very possibly the law, perpetrated by the elected leader of this nation and his handlers.

Even more amazingly, we are talking about the shameful reality that not a single one of these offenses has been investigated by a truly independent, non-political, neutral commission, armed with subpoena powers and adequate funding, and answerable ONLY to the people of the United States of America. Not a single one.

In every one of the scandals in question, calls for a nonpartisan, independent commission were thwarted by the very people accused of misdeeds and crimes. Something is really wrong when an American president who is accused of misconduct can determine who will delve into the facts behind his own actions? Something also is really wrong when incriminating evidence can be redacted and withheld from the public by the very people incriminated by that evidence.

Something is even more seriously wrong when cover up after cover up goes unreported and unchallenged by the same corporate media that spent eight years in relentless pursuit of scandals related to Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, Paula Jones and that awful threat to national security, Monica Lewinsky.

Of course, the targets of the media, and ultimately a Special Prosecutor, were Bill and Hillary Clinton, not George W. Bush, and accountability was not yet a dirty word. And of course, in that far more innocent time, challenging the president was not considered to be an act of treason. Tragically, today, it is.

THE SCANDALS

Below are capsulated descriptions of the four most egregious events that took place under the watch of President George W. Bush. Serious questions have been raised about the role of the administration in each of these incidents. The public has a right to hear the answers to these questions and to know the extent to which the president may have been involved.

George W. Bush was the man at the helm when each of the following occurred. For that reason alone he is fully accountable to the people of the United States for a clear and rational explanation of the role of his administration in each of the outrages below:

1. The devastating attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001.
2. The WMD hoax designed to gain public support for an unprovoked, illegal and ineptly planned invasion and occupation of Iraq.
3. The criminal outing of a CIA operative Valerie Plame by a person or persons in the Bush White House.
4. The profound failure of the US government, FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Every one of these actions resulted in real or potential death and other harm to uncalculated numbers of people. Each action, therefore, raises valid questions of criminal culpability and/or negligence by the President himself or people closely connected to the White House.

As a result, the moves by the administration to thwart, postpone, or control investigations into these travesties are highly suspect to say the least. And yet, the moves to do so were successfully maneuvered at each and every turn.

http://tvnewslies.org/html/why_is_george_w__bush_above_th.html

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

http://www.bartcop.com/wrong-report.jpg

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

http://www.bartcop.com/katrina-wash.jpg