(Thanks for sending this my way Lena!)
Subject: How SHOULD A President Respond?
In September 1999, Hurricane Floyd — a category 3 — was bearing down
on the Carolinas and Virginia.
President Clinton was in Christchurch, New Zealand – meeting with
President Jiang of China (you know, actually working). He made the
proclamation that only Presidents can make and declared the areas
affected
by
Floyd “Federal Disaster Areas” so the National Guard and Military can
begin to mobilize. Then he cut short his meetings overseas and flew
home
to coordinate the rescue efforts. This all one day BEFORE a Cat-3 hit
the coast. That is how you do it.
How about this President’s own father during Hurricane Andrew? Once
again, President Bush (41) — August, 1992 –was in the midst of a
brutal
campaign for re-election. Yet, he cut off his campaigning the day
before and went to Washington where he martialed the largest military
operation on US soil in history. He sent in 7,000 National Guard and
22,000
regular military personnel, and all the gear to begin the clean up
within hours after Andrew passed through Florida.
“Cause, you know, those people and their stuff was actually where it
belonged, rather than being used for insurgent target-practice halfway
around the world in a vain effort to make Iraq safe for Iranian
takeover.”
In August of 1969 when Cat-5 Hurricane Camille hit roughly the same
area as Katrina, President Nixon had already readied the National Guard
and ordered all Gulf rescue vessels and equipment from Tampa and
Houston
to follow the Hurricane in. There were over 1,000 regular military with
two dozen helicopters to assist the Coast Guard and National Guard
within hours after the skies cleared.
Bush 43 – August 2005 – Cat-5 Hurricane Katrina bears down on New
Orleans and the Mississippi gulf. Both states are down nearly 8,000
National Guard troops because they are in Iraq — with most of the
rescue
gear
needed.
Bush is on vacation. The day before Katrina makes landfall, Bush rides
his bike for two hours. The day she hits, he goes to John McCain’s
birthday party;and lies to old people about the multi-billion-dollar
pharmaceutical company welfare boondoggle.
People are dying, the largest port of entry in the United States (and
fifth largest in the World) is under attack. Troops and supplies are
desperately needed. The levees are cracking and the emergency 1-1/2 ton
sandbags are ready, but there aren’t enough helicopters or pilots to
set
them before the levees fail. The mayor of New Orleans begs for Federal
coordination, but there is none, and the sandbagging never gets done.
So Bush — naturally — goes to San Diego, to play guitar with country
singer and lie to the military about how Iraq is just exactly like
WWII. The levees give way, filling New Orleans with water, sewage, oil
and
chemicals. Ten percent of all US exports, and 50% of all agricultural
exports ordinarly go through this port. It is totally destroyed.
Bush decides he’ll end his vacation a couple of days early — TOMORROW
–BECAUSE HE HAS TICKETS TO A PADRES GAME!
He goes back to the farm in Crawford, with every intention of doing
something on WEDNESDAY about this disaster that happened starting last
SUNDAY night. He had time for a couple of rounds of golf, too.
Now, aren’t you swelling with pride.
