Nice going regurgitating talking points from the RNC. The problem is that you are repeating lies.

You are right on,Mr.Bernstein. The incompentent mayor Nagin did nothing but wait for the cameras to show up so he could put the blame on Bush and try to score a few political points in the process. This inept and pitiful leadership on display in NO is the result of decades of liberal policies that encourage it's citizens to 'let the government handle it for you,just give us your vote'. Now that a disaster has struck that they cannot spin their way out of,they do the next best thing: blame someone else for their inability to handle the situation.

Yard dog, Nagin isn't going to have a leg left to stand on after he is sued for negligence and crimminal endangerment for ordering the Convention Center to be used as a shelter without having any Police, Fire or Medical presence there which resulted in it becoming a gansta hellhole for 3 days.

There's a juicy settlement awaiting relatives of the 40 people who died in the building due to Nagin's incompetance.

Have you heard he moved his wife and kid to Dallas and bought a house there?

Jim, wake up! Time to get up! Come on, open those beautiful eyes! Wake up!

Jim,

Please explain why these points are lies, when they are all well-documented facts? If you have evidence otherwise, then we'd love to see it. If you would do some research, you'd find that what the author of the letter says is all true. What is the color of the kool-aid that you drink?

Hugh, I hope you are right about Nagin,but if history is any guide, he will most likley be the next Lt. governor,or perhaps director of homeland security for the state of La.

The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government.

Not only that, but the federal government is forbidden by the Constitution to have anything to do with it anyway.

Article I, Section 8
Amendment X

And before anybody tries to say so, "general welfare" can't be construed to give the feds the power to meddle in hurricane relief. You can't be providing for the general welfare if you're violating people's rights, ie stealing money from one person in order to give to another.

Paul,

Check Factcheck.org's article (pops) on the subject.

As the country chair of what's left of my party, I believe you can certainly do better than parroting the RNC line.

The whole thing was one big cluster from beginning to end. Leaders from BOTH parties, along with many of the residents of New Orleans, failed miserably in avoiding a catastrophe.

And instead of just admitting mistakes have been made, now we are going to try to buy our way out of it by rebuilding a city that shouldn't be rebuilt (or at least not where it once stood)

Just shameless.

Mr. Bernstein is absolutely correct.

To make matters even worse, in 1998 during a threat by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were evacuated (ordered by Blanco and Nagin) and were sent to the Superdome. Theft and vandalism were rampant due to the inadequate security.

These problems were ignored and not corrected.

With another storm heading toward NOLA, why is the Mayor so dead set on rushing folks back into the city? This according to the morning new on several networks. The Admiral in charge of the situation there is stating that no one should return until this storm has passed and the Mayor is in direct contridictioin. Guess the Mayor figures the sooner the money arrives the sooner he can begin to skim? Typical NO politics, more of the same, decade after decade.

Bernstein is correct, however, he left out
Ms. Golden Gloves/Senator Landreiu.

Since the Left has abandoned any remnants of political courtesy or dignity, I would implore
Sen. Landrieu to follow thru on her threat, "to puch anyone (including the president), that criticized any N.O. offiicals."

Wouldn't it be wonderful, Bush is on stage, with Landrieu, Nagin, Blanco, he criticizes the Louisianna state effort, (Bush informs the secret service not to respond if Landrieu reacts) Landrieu throws a "girlie punch", Bush responds by KNOCKING HER LIGHTS OUT!

A truly "Priceless" Mastercard moment!

if the mayor allows residents back in before hurricane rita makes its move, he should be required to stay with one of those families he is condemning to another disaster !

Mr. Bernstein ,

You have nailed the real culprits. The MSM is pounding their blame Bush meme and ignoring these two cluless idiots. So what else should we expect ?

As a liberal independent, I agree that the Governor and Mayor should be held accountable for the local and state shortcomings.

There is plenty of blame to go around here for both Democrats and Republicans.

Isn't about time for another tax cut in a time of American financial hardship? lol.

Mr. Watkins,

A review of your Factcheck.org doesn't reveal any inaccuracies in Mr. Bernstein's letter. So what's your point that it is parroting the RNC line? The City of New Orleans did have a written emergency plan for hurricanes (look on their city website), including evacuation, that Nagin did not follow. He had at his command a fleet of city and school buses that were not used. His explanation was that he didn't have any drivers. He further stated that his idea of evacuation was to get people out of their homes and to higher ground at the Superdome?? (That's not what the emergency plan says.) The Red Cross stated on their website that the "state" Homeland Security would not let them into New Orleans to provide food, water, and medical supplies because it would attract more people to the Superdome.

These are not RNC talking points. They are facts that can be found, if one chooses to look. Nor are they lies as Jim called them.

Brian Harper,

It's always interesting to see when Dems and liberals have nothing positive to offer on the subject, they just revert to old and worn arguments. No, we won't move to another tax cut with this disaster, but you can bet that HILLARY and others will use it as an opportunity to call for a tax increase. They are doing a masterful job of spinning this disaster into a political triumph over George Bush. Masterful. Politics trumps once again.

Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco failed miserably in their responsibilities, and people died because of it.
Being good lil' DemoRats they want to point their fingers at someone else to deflect blame from their incompetence.
What else would you expect from them?
The DemoRats have run New Orleans and Louisiana for decades, but when their misfeasance kills people they want to blame Republicans.
So typical.

Jim,

The below link to a video isn't an RNC talking point but it may well become ammo for the truth squad.

Here we have an " objective " ABC reporter , Dean Reynolds with a group of Katrina victims he had hand picked and assembled. So he proceeds to ask Bush-bashing, baiting questions expecting them to trash the President. Woe is him. To the shock and dismay of Reynolds/Koppel the women gave Bush an attaboy and placed the blame squarely on the Mayor, the Governor and other state officials.

Jim, take of those blinders and see it for your self, here.

http://thepoliticalteen.net/2005/09/16/abcbias

Nice letter Donald.

You gotta be kidding "buz" . His" honor" will be one of the first hightailing it out of town. I suppose to his home that it is rumored that he has bought in Texas. Wonder if he is hopeing to pay for it with money he can skim from disaster relief that he will get as soon as he can get a few more folks back into town.
But oh, I agree, he should be firmly anchored to one of the places most highly probable that flood waters will reach first.
Wonder who he will blame for this fiasco he is creating then?

Check Factcheck.org's article (pops) on the subject.

As the country chair of what's left of my party, I believe you can certainly do better than parroting the RNC line.

1) I saw nothing at Fact Check contradicting what I said

2) Whatever might have been there would have been wrong. I know what the Constitution says, and the mere fact that someone says I'm wrong doesn't mean I am.

3) I'm not parroting the Republican line. Republicans believe exactly the opposite of what I said, which is why they're interfering in the situation, namely with a multi-billion-dollar aid package. Republicans have just as little respect for the Constitution as the Democrats. They are first-rate statists.

Obviously you're the one who needs to check your facts.

Part of the political spin about this disaster was how slow the federal government was in arriving to help. Part of that criticism was directed because of looting and violence that was spawned in the early days of the disaster and the lack of military presence to control it.

Well, the military was dispatched there to deal with the violence, and Cindy Sheehan made a visit to New Orleans and wrote this about the military there (this can be read in full at
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=503)

"One thing that truly troubled me about my visit to Louisiana was the level of the military presence there. I imagined before that if the military had to be used in a CONUS (Continental US) operations that they would be there to help the citizens: Clothe them, feed them, shelter them, and protect them. But what I saw was a city that is occupied. I saw soldiers walking around in patrols of 7 with their weapons slung on their backs. I wanted to ask one of them what it would take for one of them to shoot me. Sand bags were removed from private property to make machine gun nests."

"The vast majority of people who were looting in New Orleans were doing so to feed their families or to get resources to get their families out of there. If I had a store with an inventory of insured belongings, and a tragedy happened, I would fling my doors open and tell everyone to take what they need: it is only stuff. When our fellow citizens are told to "shoot to kill" other fellow citizens because they want to stay alive, that is military and governmental fascism gone out of control. What I saw today in Algiers lifted up my spirits, but what I also saw today in Algiers frightened me terribly."

So, Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore love the soldiers and hate the war?

Fred, thanks for linking that video. I'd heard about the interview but haven't had a chance to see it.

Don't you know the producer was going ga-ga in the reporter's ear when the questions weren't being answered in a slanderous way towards Bush.

Check out Time Magazine's treatment of Nagin and Blanco. Makes them out like heros under the most difficult of circumstances, doing the best they could do. On the other hand, it doesn't even discuss what happened to all the money sent to the city and the state to shore up the seawalls and levees because flooding had been identified as a major worst case scenario. Where did it go? No documents? No controls? Millions gone!

Stormy,

I do have something positive to offer. FIRE THEM ALL!!!

Fire the Mayor,

Fire the Governor,

Impeach the President, (for nominating such an under-qualified man to lead FEMA)

and Fire all those who voted to give "Heck of a job Brownie" jis job.

Hugh,

Glad you got to see the video. I have had it since the am after it was on the network and sent it to a few friends. This seemed like an appropriate place to put up the link. Jim no doubt won't click on it and if he does will conclude that it is a staged fakery produced by the evil Karl Rove.

Paul:
"1) I saw nothing at Fact Check contradicting what I said"

Never said it would. Just pointing you to an unbiased site for info. You seem to need that, rather than the WND.

"The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government."

Agreed. Local authorities ought to pony up, but....

"Not only that, but the federal government is forbidden by the Constitution to have anything to do with it anyway."

WTF? This last bit is why we Libertarians don't get any votes. It's because with folks like you as our mouthpieces, we don't come off as simply smaller, less intrusive government types- we come across as batshit insane.

Stormy,

Yeah Cindy was recently in NOLA chumming around with one of her new friends Malik Rahim. Rahim is a former Black Panther and current Communist. She in an anti-semite and an anti-American and her association with these types speaks volumes about her motives and true sentiments.

MrWatkins,

Your problem isn't with Paul. It's with the Constitution. It's kinda like the Bible; If you're going to follow it only when it suits your purpose, it's pretty much a useless piece of paper.

The US Coast Guard deserves the credit in my opinion. They were the ones picking people off rooftops and without any red tape to do it.
Other agencies need to peek into what they do.
*two cents*

Lilly,

Your two cents are worth a dollar in my book.

"It's with the Constitution"

You're dern tootin! I hate the Constitution!

No, my problem lies not with the Constitution, rather, it lies in Paul's interpretation of "general welfare."

For example: "You can't be providing for the general welfare if you're violating people's rights, ie stealing money from one person in order to give to another."

Huh? WTF is this blather about? Stealing? Violating rights? What?

Huh, I guess this site strips out fake HTML. That should read:

[sarcasm]
You're dern tootin! I hate the Constitution!
[/sarcasm]