You want disaster relief? Impeach George W. Bush.
I just stopped at the grocery store to pick up a candy bar. They only had one line open, plus the do-it-yourself area where you have to play amateur cashier. I hate that do-it-yourself area, but the other line was too long so I used it.…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments76 - Robert Lansky
The mayor of New Orleans, like every N.O. mayor for the last 140 years, is a Democrat. The La. legislature, like every La. legislature for thew last 140 years, is democrat. The governor of La., like every governor for the last 140 years, is a democrat. How could this happen? Oh yeah, It is Bush's fault!
Not only that, there is a pothole on the street in front of my home and Bush hasn't come and fixed it yet! Impeach Bush!
77 - Rich
Well said "a marine", but unfortunately many cannot put aside differences long enough to help out those in need. Especially when they see an opportunity to bash the President.
78 - Natalie Davis
Y'know, Mr. RB is right. Anyone with sense disagrees with the author's unfathomable stance, but he certainly has the right to do with his money what he will. And fact is, all of you calling him names are in violation of the site's policy against personal attacks. True, I have no authority to play cop, but this has gone way past the point of being sickening. The mods haven't said anything -- where are you guys??? -- so someone had to stand up for the rules of the road. I hope someone with power finally will step in and enforce the policy -- after all, avoiding semantic swamps like this is why it exists.
79 - indolene
I think you won't help because [edited]
80 - Robert Lansky
As you dislike the way your local grocery is run, why don't you and your friends form a "cooperative", get a grant from George Soros, and open a "people's grocery"? You could pay all your union workers $50/hour and promise never to make a profit. Teach a lesson to those evil capitalist profiteers!
81 - Steve S
It's a free country, if he doesn't want to donate, that's his opinion. I find it a little cold, but that's my opinion.
One thing is for sure, if there were a Democratic President right now, the right wingers would be rabidly tearing him apart for what is going on, or rather the lack of it.
I've been blog hopping and the sentiment seems to be that we are ripe for a terrorist attack, unprepared for it, and also we have shown the world that we aren't the great protector we seem to be.
82 - Matthew T. Sussman
One thing is for sure, if there were a Democratic President right now, the right wingers would be rabidly tearing him apart for what is going on, or rather the lack of it.
Agreed. And would they be right in doing so?
83 - Steve S
before 9/11 Matthew I would have said no. But this President is a war President. He has made it his duty to protect us. Or is that protection from only terrorists.
Granted, I wouldn't want his job at all. Some things that need to be done might be logistically impossible. But he is at the helm, it's the administrations job to do the best they can do to protect this country.
I think any real criticism or praise that will come out of this will only come after time.
I saw a blog today that said Aaron Brown was criticized (via email) for questioning the President's preparedness, and he read it on the air and asked people about if it was Clinton in office, would they have wanted him to ask the same questions and they begrudgingly said yes. I didn't see the actual on air part of that though.
If this were a terrorist attack (something other than a hurricane with the same disasterous results) what does this say about what all we have done since 9/11? Why aren't we ready?
I'm not talking about levees, I'm talking about right now, help/support, etc. We do seem too unprepared or too slow.
I saw another blog that said 'move over firefighters, America has new heroes, the doctors, EMTs, nurses, etc. who are risking their lives, even in sniper fire, to save people'.
84 - Kit Jarrell
Awesome comment, Marine, and thank you for your service.
Making the city safe from disaster and planning for possible catastrophe is the state's job - NOT the federal government. This is what happens when you exist in a "nanny state".
It's not the feds' job to make sure your fishbowl is safe. If you choose to live in a fishbowl, then perhaps you should stop spending $100 million on a luxury golf course and spend more on your levees, eh?
85 - Kit Jarrell
Oh, and by the way, blaming Bush is not going to accomplish a damn thing.
86 - Natalie Davis
Mr. Sussman, the pols are the citizens' employees. If they are derelict in their duties, shouldn't their bosses call them on it? The unpreparedness so obvious to the eye qualifies as poor performance on the part of those working for you, right? No, Shrubbie didn't cause the natural disaster. But he has a share in the blame for the fact that people are starving and stranded now. It is more than reasonable for people to complain and demand answers. At the same time, to deny help to the victims to punish Dubya... it just strikes me as being at the very least misguided.
Firefighters are still heroes; I wager some are volunteering in the effort.
87 - Bill B
I harbor many of the same sentiments as the author. I can't however, sit by and not give to help others so tragically in need.
The real issue is rich and poor. Political influence and the lack there of. That this occurred on Bush's watch is simply the ultimate in irony.
For those Bush apologists who simply right this off as merely a natural disaster or distort and twist as if those of us who are being critical of the Pres are saying he 'caused' Katrina, I'm assuming you did not read Bob A. Booey's comment 23 or the links.
Or could you possibly think that shoring up the levees to take a category 5 hit would not have helped?
When more than 30% of NO population is at or below the federal poverty line and the minority median income is 11K, it's not hard to connect the dots as to why this did not get done.
BTW, I blame all the pols going back to 1965. But Bush had more info than all of his predecessors put together so he'll take the biggest hit.
Especially since he felt it necessary to blaze the trail as the first president to give his rich buddies a huge tax break during a time of war.
It would have been nice if he'd seen fit to do the right thing with just a little of that cash for NO. Very Christian too.
88 - Tan The Man
I'm really sick of this Bush bashing. Lousiana has been in trouble for decades, and you can contribute that to many reasons other than Bush is in office. I've read scientific articles dating the 80s and all of them warned of the threat of losing Louisana. Most of the state is under sea level because of the short-term fixes of levees to protect the urban areas from the yearly floods. A hurricane helps bring bigger light to this threat, but it could've just been a harsher winter that would have caused just as much destruction.
89 - Natalie Davis
Mr. Hoang, would you agree that Dubya has a share of the blame? Of course it isn't all his -- is Gov. Blanco ineffective or what? -- but some of it is. I am in no mood to bash anyone, just telling it like it is.
90 - Matthew T. Sussman
For those who want to donate:
RED CROSS
91 - Eric Berlin
I feel there's a case to be made that a non-mandatory and ongoing war in Iraq coupled with multiple rounds of tax cuts have left the nation generally unprepared for the aftermath of this sort of natural disaster.
To me, that's not playing the Blame Game or anything else. That's fact + fact = conclusion.
92 - Tan The Man
Of course. You can say that Bush's diverges away from the national agenda could be to blame. But the government has been ignoring Lousiana's plight for decades. That's the House and Congress to be blamed. You can also blame the media for being so ignorant on the subject. You can even blame Mother Nature for not being sensitive to us gas-guzzling, tree-chopping and coal-burning bastards.
93 - Eric Berlin
Yes, there's plenty of blame to go around, no doubt about that.
This piece does an outstanding job of placing blame in its many proper (and bipartisan) places.
Meanwhile, an excellent Salon piece counters the notion that to question this administration is unpatriotic.
94 - uao
New Orleans is a city that shouldn't have been built in the first place; that has always been known.
Mississippi always knew the danger of building things in a great flood plain.
The administration cannot be blamed for that.
However, this is the biggest calamity we've seen (if the mayor of New Orleans is right, there might be a causualty count rivalling 9/11). A major metropolitan area has been obliterated, to arguably nuclear proportions.
There is chaos on what's left of the streets, filth and violence at the Superdome, millions without power, drinking water, shelter.
There's no way to pin a cost on this yet except to exclaim in awe how this will eclipse all records in cost. It has a chance to be as expensive as the war in Irag is.
Which can be considered tragically ironic.
As far as any rational person can see, we were mislead into the wrong freakin' war, for the wrong reasons.
And we already spent the surplus, the Social Security war chest, pretty hell-in-a-handbasket impoverished the nation in a single term.
And now we gotta pay for this.
An early worst case senario: there will be no revitalization of New Orleans. Why should there be? Once everyone is relocated, it'll be much cheaper just to keep it underwater.
It's not like we're rolling in dough anymore.
I don't blame Bush for that either. It isn't just him, its everyone around him, too.
As for New Orleans, God bless her.
95 - Tan The Man
That is a good article, Eric - hopefully more people read that before they go on spewing anti-Bush remarks.
96 - Eric Berlin
Bush deserves a degree of blame, Tan, particularly since he's been the President of the United States for the past five years. His foreign policy and domestic record leave him wide open to criticism here.
97 - Tan The Man
Yeah, but people immediately look to the president for blame, which is understandable. But to do so blindly is ignorant and lazy.
98 - Eric Berlin
Same is true for praise.
99 - Tan The Man
Got me again. Very true.
100 - Matthew T. Sussman
The beef I have is that people are placing fault already while thousands of people have spent all week sleeping in two shitty stadiums. (Literally and figuratively.)
And here we are with our DSL talking about what should have been done about people who still don't even have clean air.
That's my problem with this whole sentiment. [Some person] could have all the blame. Until all those New Orleans citizens aresafe, it's a moot argument.
101 - Eric Berlin
True Matthew, but this is virtual space that, amongst other things, allows people to vent frustration and express themselves.
Obviously, we'd all love to just make it better, or do whatever we can to help. But we can't, and it sucks a lot.
102 - Robert Lansky
Every election day, the Democrat Party machine that OWNS both N.O.and the state of La. has the funds, the volunteers, and the transportation to bus all the elderly, infirm, and indigent to three or four polling places so they can each vote three or four times.
Yet when the federal government warns them that a catagory 5 hurricane is about to whack their city, they can't do jack squat.
103 - Matthew T. Sussman
Obviously, we'd all love to just make it better, or do whatever we can to help.
Blog like you always would, about the subjects you love. I worked on the second half of my baseball closer report. I also began to test my podcast software and shopped around for a new mic and mouse.
Of course, I always go back to CNN, MSNBC, NOLA, Fark and Blogcritics, the latter two to share the feelings I have. Plus I have work in the morning, which isn't gonna help the productivity, but I can't sleep.
104 - Eric Berlin
Yeah, exactly, all you can do is return to normal life, even when it feels anything but.
105 - Mike
Remember: it's all about the Bush Hatred. Bush Hatred, in all its seething, all-consuming, smugly self-righteous, irrational glory, is the highest and greatest calling of all mankind. Who gives a shit if people are dead or drowning, or without food and shelter, and great cities are in ruins? Our number one priority must be to use the opportunity to proclaim our Bush Hatred! That's all that matters!
Brad, you are a giant among men. Would that I could follow your worthy example.
/sarcasam
106 - Shark
The grandstanding and fake moral outrage reache an all-time high:
Sussman: "I worked on the second half of my baseball closer report."
BTW: Matty, I thought you took your toys and went back to your dugout: "(Oh, and from this post, Blunderford is added to my Authors-I-Won't-Read-Again list.)
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And how much money have you contributed?
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Interesting that all of the right-wing dickheads faking compassion -- and spewing their moral outrage at this essay -- are some of the same people who are BLAMING THE VICTIMS and calling them "scum".
feh.
Hypocrites abound in this thread.
107 - Kevin P.
You, Mr. Blunderford sir [edited]
108 - Granted
Unbelievable! You don't like the current administration so you refuse to help those in need? [edited] Bloody waste of perfectly good oxygen. To misquote Pink Floyd, you sir, fill me with the urge to defecate.
I sincerely hope, regardless of who is president, that you find yourself in need one day. Maybe someone who knows you will remember this, your moment of glory, and leave you flat when you turn to them for assistance.
109 - Timmy
Blunderford,
Freedom of speech is wasted upon you.
"Go back to Russia!" - Barney Gumbel
110 - Lone Ranger
Hey, you're a liberal. You wouldn't have contributed anyway. The blue states are notoriously stingy and the red states are famously generous. Imagine my surprise one year when Al Gore's tax form revealed that I had given more to charity than he had. And I am by no means a millionaire. I'm guessing you haven't given a dime to charity in your entire life.
111 - alienboy
Given that the administration knew the storm was coming, and would have known that many of the people in New Orleans and elsewhere couldn't get out, why didn't they send in a whole load of transportation to get them all out?
Wouldn't have been difficult and would certainly been the right thing to do.
112 - Tony
Always looking to blame someone! What about the task at hand. Our fellow Americans are in need and as typical you look to blame! Lead, follow or get the F*ck out of the way. People like you are free because of fellow Americans GAVE without question or blame. Grow-up [edited]
113 - Missy king
you know if you would just get your head out of your a** and watch the news mr blunderford you would see and hear that the people that were still there were the people that we poor. Most of these people didnt even have a car to try to leave. How would you feel if you couldn't get out because you didn't have a car. I Don't have a car and if my town was evacuated I wouldn't be able to leave. If I had a job I would send my entire check to the red cross but instead im just giving as much blood as I can untill I can get some money to send. These are your fellow americans here not someone over seas who are asking for a handout and they arent really looking for a handout they are looking for survival, they are looking for life. something we take for granted everyday. they need food and water and medicines. there are people down there that are diabetic that cant get any insulin they cant even test their sugar. People like you just make me mad. You probably have a nice house and a nice car and you just dont want to face the fact that your selfish and I really think if you arent going to help you should keep your mouth shut and leave the ones that are going to help alone. A couple cents would help and you have to cold of a heart to put three cents or even the dollar that you were gonna buy your precious candybar with in just to help people that dont have a crum to eat. So in my opinnion you should just F**k off.
114 - Kurt Kaletka
Sorry, I don't buy it. I'll agree that Bush and the policies of the right wing have put many of us at peril and are probably partly responsible for the disaster that's ravaged New Orleans, but telling them they have to pay for it is irresponsible. You're talking to dispassionate people here; they won't pony up when it's time for preventative medicine against social ills; there's no point trying to part with their tax-cut-gotten gains. Conservatives cause the problems, liberals fix them. That's the way it's always been, and that's what we're seeing here. Sure, conservatives are advocating throwing money at the problem, which is helpful, but the people of New Orleans would be a lot better off if someone had thrown money at those levees in the first place, wouldn't they?
Much more Bush-style governing will cause this kind of wrack and ruin. That's true. But this kind of screw-them-all bitterness only makes you look like a crank and, worse, feeds into the hatred that Rove and friends have been trying to breed. Don't be a patsy for the divisive Rovian politics.
115 - dewey
The more you speak the less credible your position becomes. The author states, "What did Bush do? Nothing. Actually, worse than nothing. He was so busy fighting his cowboy war in Iraq (cheers to Hugo Chavez for the analogy) that he actually diverted money away from the projects that might have saved New Orleans because the war was so damn expensive! And now I should pony up to help out? Sorry, Charlie."
Please go here, to see what Bush did PRIOR to the hurricane's landfall....
Facts are annoying things, the left tends to avoid them -- they'd rather rant.....Also, to align oneself to Hugo Chavez really helps one's cause ---NOT.
116 - missy king
Yes I agree that the goverment should have fixed that stupid levy when they had the chance but that is a what might have happened not a did happen. we cant keep saying well if they had did this then this wouldnt have happened. It did happen and they arent the only ones that are having to deal with it. I Just think that people should do unto others. If these critics got flooded into there house in a flash flood or if a tornado ripped there house from its foundation they would be asking for help to. it just pisses me off that some people would rather buy starbucks and dunkin dougnuts and trivial crap then just give a few dollars to help
117 - Matthew T. Sussman
Pinged by Malkin ... everybody duck
118 - Grumpy Old Man
What a bunch of self-righteous idiots. Typical of the left, convinced they alone are morally worthy, but spewing hate.
Yes, there have been mistakes. But the point is to help the people who are still in danger and misery, and sort out who made mistakes later.
Here, for example.
119 - missyking
Thank you
120 - fedup
People have asked why didn't the president send in the National Guard sooner. Well the fact is neither the president or DOD or anyone else in the federal government can send the National Guard anywhere unless the guard is federalized. The National guard is under the control of the states normally. They are the only ones who can send them any where. As for regular troops. Under our constitution and laws the federal government can't send in troops unless the local or state government request them. Even when they are requested it takes time to get them there. It is not like the governmer of a state can call up and have federal troops that day (at least in most cases). My daughter was with the 82th Airborne when Andrew hit the Miami area. It took them a couple of days to get there after they were requested.
As for funds being cut. Even if everything requested had been approved and given, the levees would not have held. The ones planned were not strong enough or high enough to resist a hit like N.O. received.
As for not getting people out. Have any of the ones complaning about this ever been in a hurricane? You have no idea just where it will hit or how hard until it does. What kind of complants do you think the local or state governments would get if they had forced everyone to leave and the hurricane hit somewhere else or with less force?
Have mistakes been made? Of course. N.O. and La. have been making mistakes for decades by not using the federal funds they have received to do more. The federal government could have done more, the state could have done more. Everyone could have done better but now is not the time to blame people. There is pleant of time later to do so.
121 - Tom Bowler
Please visit Truth Laid Bear and count up the liberal bloggers that are "fixing the problem". All the money is coming from the right.
122 - missy king
I agree you can do all the finger pointing you want after we help these people instead of persecuting them for not being able to get out.
123 - Bu$hCausedMyGout
This is why I left the Democratic party a year and a half ago and why I will never vote for another Democrat as long as I live. You used to be a compassionate reasonable group of people, but your demented and irrational hatred of George Bush has caused you to abandon all reason and compassion. I hate to say it but this typifies they way most leftists feel now; the "where is mine?" attitude - the something for nothing attitude. Face it: the reason you all are so obsessed with hatred for George Bush is that he's privelaged and you're not. He grew up extremely wealthy and into a politically powerful family - and you didn't. And you can't stand that life isn't fair - that you will never be that wealthy, powerful or popular - and no one on your "team" will be either. GET OVER IT and start thinking rationally - because this bull$h*t hatred is destroying you politically. I have had 2 of my friends in the last 2 days confide in me that they, too, will no longer be voting for Democrats. They can't stand the blaming and negativity that's going on. Wise up or you're going the way of the Whigs.
124 - Tongueboy
Bush is completely to blame for this disaster. As the storm made its way towards the Mississippi Delta, Bush refused to use his Merlin's Magical Wand to ward away this menace. As the levee's broke, he refused to use the heat beams from his eyes to weld them back together. And to this day, he refuses to to fly around the world counterclockwise at light speed to reverse the flow of time so that adequate preparations can be made. But he seems perfectly willing to erect a forcefield to prevent National Guard troops from other states entering the affected areas. Dr. Evil and Ernesto Blofeld could learn a thing or two from Emperor Chimpy.
125 - Kurt Kaletka
Please visit Truth Laid Bear and count up the liberal bloggers that are "fixing the problem". All the money is coming from the right.
Um... bloggers? How do you do actually measure how many bloggers are involved in hurricane relief? And, speaking as a blogger, I'd say we're not exactly a driving force when it comes to charitable relief and the like.
Yer a nut, dude.