Grading Obama and Congress on Katrina

Obama would get an F as a grade, but I can’t find proof that he ever showed up for school. None of his classmates seem to remember him.

But that’s just like Obama, isn’t it? He’s worse than Bush because Obama offers false hope, and then delivers nothing.

Oh… he has delivered something to the Unions alright:

A $10-billion provision tucked deep inside thousands of pages of health care overhaul bills that could help the UAW’s retiree health-care plan and other union-backed plans.

It would see the government — at least temporarily — pay 80 cents on the dollar to corporate and union insurance plans for claims between $15,000 and $90,000 for retirees age 55 to 64.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090824/BUSINESS01/908240321/1318/-10B-aimed-at-union-retirees

this is revisionism at its worst. Gov blanco didnt allow the natl guard in the state for 3 days after katrina. mayor “chocolate city” nagin hid at the top of a luxury hotel for a week. Its a shame president bush gets all the blame. He is a good and decent man. a far cry better than obambi

If anyone is to take the MAJOR blame for Katrina, let’s take a look at those governing Louisiana and New Orleans at the time. The governor of LA and the mayor of New Orleans contributed quite a bit to that mess. Take a look at how Mississippi recovered and then take a look at the mess New Orleans is still in….

exactly right.

But, my friends, what about now? That’s where we are.

fyi

“Since the beginning of the summer, he has been off every week-end, generally resting at Camp David. Last week, he spent four days in Arizona, visiting national parks, and Grand Canyon, then he came back to Washington, to pretend to work for a few days, then…
last Sunday , he went to Martha’s Vineyard, where he still is, at the moment.

Tomorrow, he will leave, because he plans to eulogize Kennedy at the senator’s funeral Saturday morning in Boston, making the brief hop from Martha’s Vineyard to the mainland and then returning to Blue Heron Farm, his rented getaway (from 25,000 to 50,000 dollars a week !), for one more night.
He will return to Washington on Sunday.”

Next week, the president will have a health care event Tuesday and then …
he will go on holiday again !

http://europumas.over-blog.com/

As I understand it, the Federal government has to be invited in by a state. Now I may be wrong. They had failure at the local and state level.

Why did the “chocolate city” man let those school buses “drown”? I would have filled them up with people and moved them and the people to safety.

I put the blame squarely on local and state first.

As for Obama. He cares nothing for anyone but himself. I will say this, if he doesn’t throw someone under the bus who supports him, he will reward them.

I think enviromental groups want New Orleans to never be rebuilt. They want nature to take it’s course and Obama is doing just that.

Or

The ordinary people will leave and then developers can move in and buy it for nothing.

There is a method to some of the madness, but some of it remains just madness.

Great toon and article Pat.

Pat A+
Obama F-

I don’t understand the buses either. Hell, grab the keys and give them to people to drive people out of there!

I think the federal government took a huge hit on this but I thought the local people on the ground in NO were way more at fault.

Mark and usaproud

I agree. Don’t stop at the Federal level. The response to Katrina was a failure of government at all levels. This has implications for anyone who’s thinking of the effect of government intervention in healthcare.

Here is an example of something that can not be covered up with a Press Release or Press Conference.
It is REAL. From Jan. 20 to now, what has this administration done to up the pace of support and assistance to the Katrina victims and their local governments? It is traceable. This is how Delivering A Speech is not solving the problem.
“Words, just Words?” I guess so Mr. President.

I don’t get what Obama’s promise even means. He never cared about his own districts in Chicago, why would people think he would care about the 9th ward in NO.

He has been too busy throwing weekly parties, taking vacations and bailing out auto industries and banks to get any homes built in NO.

I love your little scolding teacher! hehe

What I remember of the past was, “Good job, Brownie.”

As for the the near past and present? Just words.

The grades are deserved all around. Of course, if we want to forget about New Orleans, we can take a page out of the school district in Memphis [re: Amy's article the other day] no grades at all. Then everybody is off the hook.

What a disaster. And those stats are stunning, Pat.

Thanks for the article.

To be sure, Obama is not responsible for letting Louisiana/New Orleans get into the sorry state that they are in. However, he promised much effort to correct the matter. What has he done? He has gone on vacations. Perhaps breaking another campaign promise counts as “effort”?

Great Cartoon!

My question is what grade should we give the voters of the United States? Bush had little experience to be president and yet the people elected him twice. So, no surprise that he would get a D-. Obama had no experience, so again, no surprise that he gets a D+. With time it can be a D- because the plus was for it being early in his presidency. The Congress gets a D is also not a surprise since often we keep re-electing people not because of what they do for the country but because of how much pork they bring to the state.

I would give the voting public a D just like the congress. The congress does not read and understand what bills they sign and just do what they are told or pressured to do. Most Americans do not care to read and understand what bills their congress people pass and just want to trust their leaders. Another word we continue to believe in is words and do not take the time to check out the deeds. When will we wake up and go back to show me, not just tell me? When will we go back to experience rather than good oratory? When will we go back to accomplishments rather than looking good on TV? Until we do, we will be in big trouble and no one will deserve more than a generous D.

Rich

What I remember from the past is the fact that his advisors had to force Bush to look at something on the news (he was in Air Force One)so that he would even be aware that it was happening, even after all we lowlifes were hearing nothing else but the warnings about what was to come and then what was happing.

I remember Barbara Bush commenting about how it was so nice that the people who had finally been evacuated to Houston were so much better off now.

I still don’t understand how this has all been allowed to happen as it has been unfolding. The only persons I ever read about doing anything about trying to really help New Orleans are people like Brad Pitt and other celebrities.

I know it was not all Bush’s blame; it it the entire government bureaucracy and incompetence we have, from local to national.

What an embarrassment for the U.S. that we continue to allow one of our special historic cities to languish like this.

Oh gosh, I could post twenty paragraphs. As someone who worked for HUD administering Section 8 Housing in SE Texas, and lived through Hurricane Ike, Hurricane Rita (a forgotten hurricane that cause a LOT of damage to SE Texas that you never hear about) and assisted the Army Reserve in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the stories I could tell. It becomes hard to be real generous after time and time again you see fraud, abuse and the attitude that the government owes you whatever. It seems personal responsibility has taken a vacation. Maybe it’s in Martha Vineyard with Obama?

The fraud and abuse just goes on an on. That’s why taxpayers are so hesitant to give more and more money to the government. It seems to take them forever to figure out when they are being defrauded and then they mismanage so much money too.

Katrina evacuees charged with FEMA fraud:

http://blog.taragana.com/n/4-katrina-evacuees-helped-by-oprahs-angel-network-charged-with-fraud-over-fema-assistance-144536/

FEMA mispent money on warehouses:

http://blog.taragana.com/n/report-fema-misspent-more-than-7-million-on-warehouses-built-after-hurricane-katrina-91321/

It just goes on and on.

What should Obama be doing about a natural disaster that occurred several years ago?

tango–how depressing!

I hope personal responsiblity becomes popular again. I am not sure what it will take to make that happen–but maybe knowing from Katrina that of something horrible happens where we live we may well be totally on our own. Maybe that will get us to thinking a little differently.

Nothing, IF it was corrected, and nothing IF he had not made that HUGE promise.

Neither pertains, so the ball is still in his court. And he’s not there.

PLeeeeeaze! Obama has done diddly squat for Katrina since he’s been in office. Actually, he’s too busy looting this country for the corporations, so I guess New Orleans will just have to wait at the end of the line for any handouts.

BO = GWB III.

Doing wat he promised to do which was to help the area.

Keeping his word[s], Glowing Spark.

“When I am president, I promise you I will commit myself every day to keeping up Washington’s end of this trust. This will be a priority of my presidency. And I will make it clear to members of my administration that their responsibilities don’t end in places like the 9th Ward — they begin there.”

Then again, candidate Obama was never specific, anymore than President Obama is now.

Words, just words! It doesn’t work anymore. For some of us it never did. But keep on making excuses. That’s sure to change things.

Well sadly one of the ideas floating around here is if you live in a mandatory evacuation area and choose NOT to evacuate and then need to be rescued afterwards, you will be billed for the rescue.

I think Katrina taught a lot of those who live in hurricane areas to get on the bus and go. Hurricane Ike evacuation was much more orderly and a lot more people willingly decided to go than probably would have if Katrina never happened. Even so, there’s always going to be those who insist the government can’t force them to leave their homes. I agree in principle if you accept all responsibility and outcomes from that decision. But don’t make that choice then demand in the storm aftermath the authorities rescue you off your roof putting their safety in question. And then others demand free food, generators and fuel, bottled water, rental assistance, help paying their homeowners insurance deductible, on and on with outraged screams if FEMA doesn’t come through because they feel it’s their right.

It is his responsibility to delegate to those who can actually rebuild the levees properly. Not by continuing the same faulty plans by the Army Corps of Engineers that put New Orleans in that horrible mess in the first place.

And fabulous piece and toon, Pat.

Good work Pat and interesting stats!
But hey, the boss has not even filled numerous staff positions yet…they have been far too busy insuring the ultimate demise of the economy.
Most of the funding that went to Katrina was like throwing steak to piranhas…instantly gone with nothing to show for it. Too bad, but the entire country is hurting now.

Hi! I just wanted to let everyone know that President Bush was NOT responsible for the tragedy of Katrina. The original plan for the levee was for level 5, but environmentalists sued and stopped this level, which would have helped perhaps in the outcome in the matter. Liberal environmentalists. The governor was democrat, mayor was democrat and a black man. The governor waited 24 hrs. before committing on federal plan- they had to ask for help, and they waited. Bush actually ended up calling Blanco and Nagin to order a mandatory evacuation. Nagin had more than 500 buses sitting on lots, that could have been used for evacuation purposes, but didn’t use them. In fact, those buses were all lost to the flood. The initial response in any hurricane action is up to the state. They have to authorize help from the federal government, and they didn’t. There were, of course some problems involving FEMA, but they were minimal, compared to the ultimate misery that was basically “caused” by the democratic governor and mayor. I simply have to let folks know and understand that the mainstream media, even back then, lied constantly about how things were actually unfolding during that terrible event in Lousiana.

Excellent explanation, Barbara!
I remember the Thursday before it hit, seeing a hurricane expert on TV saying, “You’ve got to get out of there!”
Nagan ignored evacuation until the LAST MINUTE, and then it was too late. The Governor waited to call in the National guard. It’s HER call, not the President’s.(The Federal government can’t intervene).

The Congress authorized BILLIONS to rebuild. Where did it go? Probably into some corrupt politician’s pocket.
But they are rebuilding there. Slowly, but surely.

And I have a question:
When are they going to rebuild on the spot of the World Trade Center? As far as I know, it’s still a big hole.

Laaadddy! You’re joking right? Right? Good grief this guy is gonna beat Bush in the vacation race at this rate. We are so screwed.

AGI remember the brave young man that did take a bus and drive people to safety? They wanted to prosecute him for that. Idiots.

UPDATE

This just out in the MSM. Obama must have just seen his report card. Promises again.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com:80/id/32606708/ns/politics-white_house

He has put Craig Fugate in as head of FEMA. That is a big step that you should all breath a little easier about. He was the emergency manager for Florida in 2004 when Florida was slammed by 4 hurricanes. He actually had trucks rolling into the disaster zone as the winds died down after Katrina, unlike FEMA. He has dealt with the insane red tape involved in recovery and I believe will use that knowledge to streamline the process. I hate to have anything good to say about Obama but this was a great move on his part.

Have you been to Mississippi? The casinos are fine but how are the people doing?

AGI, I recall seeing footage of several people doing exactly that.

Before the laws of man ,come the laws of survival. The corruption at the local and state level, coupled with the argument over Fed vs States rights let fall the cracks many a soul.

If anyone cares to NOT notice the warning of Katrina, of how fragile and brittle the fabric of humanity is, they do so at their own peril.

For me, the lesson from Katrina drove home the point that being able to sustain and defend oneself for several months of anarchy, is not a “possibility”, it is in fact a predictable reality, shedding any pretense of tinfoil hats.

I also think “something snapped”, in the collective belief that Americans are ready for what is bound to happen… again.

Pat, what can I say but another dam fine toon and post. My niece spent two summers in the ninth ward gutting houses and now lives in NO. On her most recent visit, she said ithe area remains depressed.

WRONG!!!!!! I had a baby on the Wednesday before Katrina. I had nothing to do other than nurse and watch TV. I was very worried about my elderly aunt and uncle in Alabama and watched every hurricane update there was. Saturday morning I wandered down to the nurses station at 6am and told them to turn on their TV. When asked why I said “You are about to have a really bad week”. Until that morning it was a Mississippi / Alabama problem.

Congress did authorize billions. Most of it went to rescue and debris removal right after the storm. No money for rebuilding was released at all until last summer but most if it is still hung up in red tape. Shameful is the only word for it.

Interesting, Pat. Just shows you what sinking polls and a bad report card can produce! Good. I hope he keeps his word. Abandoning a city like New Orleans with all its history and rich life is disgraceful.

Thanks for the update!

bush went to the ranch and cleared brush.
a cheap vacation.

and poppy Bush and Big Dawg.collected millions for the victims.

I think that having a Repub gov. probably got a lot more financial help for Mississippi much quicker than New Orleans. Haley Barber and GWB have been buds for-ever. And don’t forget fixing up Trent Lott’s poor little beach house FIRST THING.

The Spam proffesor wants to grade my post as a A+ or D-, it just can’t decide.

Perhaps the visiting constitutional lecturer, Dr. BO-Spam, thinks I am plagerizing, since I have said the same thing millions of others have said.

“Just words” is BO’s Albatrose. “…water water every where, nor any drop to drink.”

I recall Rev. Wright visiting the pastors of these lands very early in the primary on BO’s behalf.

Sadly, many of those who did not leave stayed behind because they didn’t have the money to leave and to provide food/shelter/etc. I don’t recall what the shelter situation was but gasoline is out of the question to get anywhere when a person is dead broke. A disaster is a nightmare for the very poorest citizens and those were the ones who are hurt most.

I think you are absolutely right. So many were in worshipful love with BO that they didn’t even bother to look at his record either in Illinois or his Senatorial record. He is the same kind of President that he was a Senator and that he was a State Senator.

Great cartoon. It is sad to me that so many still want to blame the victims.

I’m not at all surprised at how little Obama has accomplished. I suspect that he didn’t write his own speeches so he probably doesn’t recall what they said.

There are a couple of things that are a bit skewed here. No matter what the environmentalists did the work that was done on the levees failed. The 17th street canal fell in when the water was 4-5 feet below design max. The lower 9th was done in by an incomplete project. Armoring would have saved St. Bernard. Almost every single location where earthen levee’s directly joined floodwalls failed. The levee’s fell in over 50 locations. The corp (who does work all over the country by the way) failed big time. To go back to the lawsuit by the environmentalists is just insane. It’s a very small point considering the big picture.

The governor requested help days in advance just in case. She up’ed the request when the storm started heading here.

Regarding the troops, yes she waited – she almost signed because the situation was so bad in Louisiana. Barbour said no straight out. The paper they were asked to sign was to turn over power of the LA guard to the president. This has never been done in an emergency situation before and it is unclear why it was attempted during Katrina. Her concern was that they would no longer be able to enforce state law nor be under her direction. The concern was that there were places outside of the city of New Orleans that might not be on the federal radar. They needed help too and she needed to be able to get it there. The original emergency declaration cleared the way for bringing troops in from other states. They started arriving within hours. Zepher Field and other locations were used for staging. They had no orders hence they could not act. That went on for days.

Some problems involving FEMA? Minimal? Are you kidding me? You have not had to deal with them. Example: My mother lost her house in the storm. In December we requested a trailer for her to be delivered to my house in Metairie. I can’t count the phone calls and letters I sent about it – at least 3 trips to the recovery center and no results. Finally, a really nice guy picked through their paperwork and found that because her house was destroyed they tried to start the trailer process in Novemember for her. They called three times and we did not answer so it was assumed that no trailer was needed. WE HAD NO PHONE SERVICE TILL JANUARY! I needed to fill out a different set of paperwork if we had already been cleared from the list. It took 15 months to get her a trailer and she was only allowed to stay in it for 3 months before Metairie removed all trailers. That might have been a good thing. When she moved in she went to dinner and played canasta with friends every friday night. She went to the casino with other friends once a month or so. She shopped and did plenty of other normal things. After 3 months in the trailer that all stopped. Never played another card game and only went to dinner a handfull of times. I did not join the lawsuit but I have no doubt that her short time in the trailer killed her last summer. FEMA got us coming and goin. Name something they did right?

I have huge amounts of blame for Nagin and Blanco. They failed too all over the place. Bush was a figurehead and at best he could have cut the red tape. Those below him were really responsible for the failed federal response.

My two cents:

The weekend that storm hit in force, the entire administration was out of office. Bush was in Crawford, Cheney was in Wyoming, Condoleeza Rice was in New York on a well publicized trip shopping for shoes. Rumsfeld was off somewhere as well.

There were foreign leaders/dignitaries watching this from a far that were calling the White Hose with no one in power to answer their calls.

The following week Bush went on a tour of military bases across the country for a photo-op tour that include getting a guitar from some country singer.
It was almost a week before he visited N.O.

No I don’t care how partisan you or how much you may have liked Bush. He was hands down the most out of touch disinterested incompetent President we have had in recent memory. Contrast Clinton’s FEMA with James Lee Witt with the gutted version of the Bush Administration.

I would agree that Obama has seemingly done squat for New or leans as well.

To give a little balance to the discussion and some indications that something is being done, you might want to visit the site below:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090827/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_katrina_obama

excuse me – of all the recent presidents (Reagan on up through W) Obama has taken the LEAST amount of vacation days up to this point in the first year of the presidency.
get your facts straight why don’t you?

He did care about his districts in Chicago – you just prefer to believe the Obama-haters.

He has taken less vacation time at this point in his presidency than either Reagan, Bush, Clinton, GW Bush – your post is ridiculous and shows you to be terribly ignorant of the facts – typical, just throw out the insults that have no basis whatsoever.

Yikes–what a story!!!!