Bush supporters' aftermath thread

Interesting -- British newspapers, right and left alike, consider it news that the American president sometimes goes to the bathroom. My British friends must be worse informed than I thought.

Thomas wrote:

Interesting -- British newspapers, right and left alike, consider it news that the American president sometimes goes to the bathroom. My British friends must be worse informed than I thought.

They consider it news when Harry picks his nose.

What I find interesting is that in his fifth year as President he doesn't know protocol because he "isn't used to attending UN meetings. "

Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Friday declared Italy's mission in Iraq ''an absolute and total'' success, and said Italy would continue to reduce its military presence there.

Deja vu all over again ...

Quote:

Bush 'Potty Note' was a fake

(JND) - Reuters News has acknowledged the Bush 'Potty Note' photo spread after his United Nations speech was enhanced using Adobe photoshop ...

kelticwizard wrote:

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What bunk. FEMA does not require permission from the governor. It is Federally funded,and needs no permission from any state government to do what Congress funded it to do-save lives, commence rescue operations, and so much more.

Because Governor Blanco did not agree for the Federal government to take over the entire city of New Orleans before the storm hit, the Bush supporters are maintaining that the Feds could only sit idly by and watch it happen.

Another variation on this theme is that FEMA "are not first responders".

This is completely false.

This statement is incorrect in virtually every particular. The law is very clear on FEMA's role and the limits of the powers of the Federal government in local matters. It is useful to accompany one's indignation with some factual knowledge of the subject at hand.

Chertoff delayed federal response, memo shows

By Jonathan S. Landay, Alison Young and Shannon McCaffrey

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earlier this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show.


Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff designated him as the "principal federal official" in charge of the storm.


As thousands of hurricane victims went without food, water and shelter in the days after Katrina's early morning Aug. 29 landfall, critics assailed Brown for being responsible for delays that might have cost hundreds of lives.

But Chertoff - not Brown - was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government's blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disasters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by President Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director.


But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn't shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department.

"As you know, the President has established the `White House Task Force on Hurricane Katrina Response.' He will meet with us tomorrow to launch this effort. The Department of Homeland Security, along with other Departments, will be part of the task force and will assist the Administration with its response to Hurricane Katrina," Chertoff said in the memo to the secretaries of defense, health and human services and other key federal agencies.


On the day that Chertoff wrote the memo, Bush was in San Diego presiding over a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.


Chertoff's Aug. 30 memo for the first time declared Katrina an "Incident of National Significance," a key designation that triggers swift federal coordination. The following afternoon, Bush met with his Cabinet, then appeared before TV cameras in the White House Rose Garden to announce the government's planned action.


That same day, Aug. 31, the Department of Defense, whose troops and equipment are crucial in such large disasters, activated its Task Force Katrina. But active-duty troops didn't begin to arrive in large numbers along the Gulf Coast until Saturday.....

This whole tirade, after all, was based on a copy/paste of a single blog item from Juice News Daily, which duly turned out to be erroneous.

So in short, we have Foxfyre dramatically lamenting "the tragic part" in where "erroneous information", written by "non-reporters posing as journalists" who "neither research nor even gather their own information" is repeated and "then copied and pasted all over the internet", where it immediately "convinces those who do not have a healthy skepticism about it all" ...

... when she based that very lament on an erroneous piece of information, which was copied/pasted over the internet, where it immediately convinced former journalist Fox, who sure didn't bother to "research" it herself. So much for "healthy skepticism"!

Hard to see, the beam in one's own eye... :wink:

Now, can we put the whole "FEMA / Feds have to have permission from the governor" thing to rest?

Interesting -- British newspapers, right and left alike, consider it news that the American president sometimes goes to the bathroom. My British friends must be worse informed than I thought.

Disingenuous? The story is, the most powerful man in the world felt he had to ask an aide if he could go to the toilet, yes?

Thomas wrote:

Interesting -- British newspapers, right and left alike, consider it news that the American president sometimes goes to the bathroom. My British friends must be worse informed than I thought.

Disingenuous? The story is, the most powerful man in the world felt he had to ask an aide if he could go to the toilet, yes?

You are defending the newsworthiness of a false story.

However the authority for the preparation, initiation, and execution of disaster and evacuation planns & response is entirely and exclusively in the hands of state and local officials.