Friday, September 09, 2005

Moores Calumnious Letter on Katrina

I received this from someone who is an otherwise reasonable and smart individual who sadly seems to be suffering from BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome). While I do not find the Federal Government's response to this disaster to be perfect (Its the Federal Government people, who really expects it to respond perfectly to anything?), the calumnies and falsehoods in Mr. Moore's letter, so keeping in his typical style need to be addressed.

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

That's President Bush to you, regardless of how you may feel about the man, at least respect the office. And yes, While President, Clinton should have likewise been addressed as President Clinton.

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.

How about over 300 buses, property of new Orleans and under the control of the Mayor that instead of being used in the evacuation and could have evacuated approximately 14,000 people in one trip, certainly more than helicopters could. Instead these buses were left in the New orleans Motor pool to become flooded and ruined. The mayor did not even follow New orleans disaster plan and use the buses, instead he left them there to rot. (Hat tip Junkyard Blog)

Of course, you don't want to mention the buses because it could be hard to blame that on the President now wouldn't it. Sorry you can return to your regularly scheduled Bush-bashing now.

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?

Obviously Moore knows little of how the Constitution and our Federal system of Government works...did he go to public school in Flint or something? The Louisana National Gurad are under the command of -- yes you guessed it --..the Louisiana Governor!

Only about 350 of Louisiana’s National Guardsmen are in Iraq and those that are are part of an actual combat brigade. That left Govenor Blanco 8,000 people . Where is your citicism of her? Maybe you would like to ask Ms. Blanco why she hesitiated for two days?

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!

Nevermind that the feds responded in force within 3 days. It took 9 days to respond to Hurricane Andrew, so Bush has sped up the federal response by 300%. Nermind that Bush had already declared a state of emergency before the sotrm hit. heck, nevermind that it was the mayor's delay in declaring an evacuation and the Governor's delay in calling for aid and federal asssitance that compounded the problem. nevermind that the governor has still ot ceeded fuill authority over to the Federal government to manage the crisis.

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?

Mind you, if he rushed in you would have criticised himm for grandstanding. oh wait, you did...

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!


Really a lack of money - Not according to the Washington Post In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times as large.

Much of that Louisiana money was spent to try to keep low-lying New Orleans dry. But hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to unrelated water projects demanded by the state's congressional delegation and approved by the Corps, often after economic analyses that turned out to be inaccurate. Despite a series of independent investigations criticizing Army Corps construction projects as wasteful pork-barrel spending, Louisiana's representatives have kept bringing home the bacon. . . .

Pam Dashiell, president of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, remembers holding a protest against the lock four years ago -- right where the levee broke Aug. 30. Now she's holed up with her family in a St. Louis hotel, and her neighborhood is underwater. "Our politicians never cared half as much about protecting us as they cared about pork," Dashiell said.


Sorry you can return to your regularly scheduled Bush-bashing now.

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.
Yes, and if he landed there you would have castigated him for Grandstanding, just as you are now castigating him for visitng New York after 9/11. You really can't have it both ways.

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.


Never mind that the Director of the US National Hurricane CenterDirector of the US National Hurricane Center "uunder questioning by members of a US Senate subcommittee, he shrugged off suggestions that global warming played a role.

Mr Mayfield said the increased activity was a natural cycle in the Atlantic Ocean that fluctuated every 25 to 40 years. warned the nation yesterday.

Never mind, keep to your Kyoto and global warming chicken little fantasies and return to your Bush bashing.

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!

Lets of course not mention the fact that it was the Lousiana Government (hat tip wuzzademthat prevented the Red Cross from entering New Orleans and providing relief supplies and food and water to the Superdome. Should we say the Democrat Governor of Louisiana prevented supllies from getting there because of race?

Let's also not forget to mention that the Federal Response had the same dealys as that under the Clinton Administration in dealing with Hurricane Andrew...and Katrina was a much worse storm affecting a much greater area. The Response is flawed, but to blame it on racism is missing the simple answer of everyday bureaucratic incompetence and the impossibility of a centralized response to a disaster stretching over a land area the size of the United Kingdom.


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

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