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CNN / USA TODAY / GALLUP Poll:
only 13% blame Bush for Katrina LINK:
click here for full article on Gallop.com
Excerpts: Despite widespread criticism of the response by Bush and,
separately, the federal government, to the problems caused by the
hurricane, the public seems on balance only mildly critical. Forty-two
percent say Bush did a "bad" (18%) or "terrible" (24%) job, but 35%
rate his response as either "great" (10%) or "good" (25%).
...
When asked to identify who was most responsible for the problems in
New Orleans after the hurricane, 38% of Americans said no one was
really to blame, while 13% cited Bush, 18% the federal agencies, and
25% state and local officials.
...
Few Americans feel that any top official in the agencies
responsible for handling emergencies should be dismissed from office
-- just 29% say someone should be fired, while 63% disagree.
Iowa update: 2008 Hopefuls
Clark
Wesley Clark has visited Iowa saying that President Bush made a
blunder by invading Iraq, but now America must find some way to
salvage our presence in Iraq to stabilize the country as much as
possible.
Clark also said that he blundered by not participating in the Iowa
Caucuses.
While in Iowa, Clark said that President Bush was to blame for the
inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina: "We should have mobilized a
joint task force, pre-positioned the National Guard and lined up the
evacuation assets," Clark said. “We can do much better than this in
our country.”
Vilsack
Iowa Governor Vilsack canceled his trip to New Hampshire on Labor Day
to prepare for taking 5,000 individuals left homeless from Hurricane
Katrina. He did visit Maytag workers in Newton where he shared the
fears of the workers and said that he was doing everything possible to
keep Maytag in Iowa.
Vilsack also launched the idea of a national job security program that
would pay workers who are laid off in companies that are bought out.
Expect more language about a "worker’s parachute" and how much
management gets in buyouts and "golden parachutes."
Republicans
Governor Mike Huckabee (Arkansas); Sen. Sam Brownback (Kansas); and
Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colorado) are all going to be present at a Polk
County GOP event to be held in Des Moines on September 17th. During
the event, Polk County Republicans will hold the second straw poll
between gubernatorial candidates Bob Vander Plaats and Rep. Jim Nussle.
Pro-American rally
NewsMax is working to rally supporters of the troops and the War on
Terrorism to counter the Cindy Sheehan Hanoi Jane rally in Washington,
D.C. on Sep. 24:
As you know, Cindy Sheehan, the "poster child" for the forces of the
"hate-America" left, has gone too far. Since her first meeting with
the president, she's called him a "lying b__tard," "filth spewer,"
"evil maniac," "f__king hypocrite," "fuehrer" and the world's "biggest
terrorist" who is committing "blatant genocide" and "waging a nuclear
war" in Iraq. This week, she even blamed President Bush for Hurricane
Katrina.
Well, enough is ENOUGH. We said we were coming to Crawford to
meet with Cindy, and we said we would continue to demand a meeting
with her -- the way she's demanding a meeting with President Bush
(again!) -- all the way to D.C. if we have to. It looks like she
"bugged out" the day we arrived -- so we're going to do exactly what
we said we'd do.
She's going to Washington, D.C. for a big anti-Bush, "anti-war" rally
on September 24th... so WE are helping to sponsor a PRO-American,
PRO-troops rally on the SAME day, RIGHT NEXT TO THEM…
Right responds
James Hirsen, author of Hollywood Nation, offered a review of how
Hollywood’s leftist elite responded to Hurricane Katrina and used the
events to lay the blame on Bush.
He also offered these points of fact as counter to the opinion that events were
Bush’s fault:
·
President Bush declared Louisiana a disaster area two
days before the hurricane struck the New Orleans area.
·
President Bush urged New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to order the mandatory
evacuation that was issued on Sunday, August 28.
·
First responders to a disaster are always state and
local emergency agencies. FEMA is there to supplement the state and
local activities.
·
The hurricane threatened an area as large as 90,000
square miles covering three states. Immediate relief could not
possibly have been delivered to all the places that required
attention.
·
An AP photo showed a large fleet of New Orleans buses
soaking in six feet of water. The mayor apparently had the means to
evacuate many of the folks who ended up stranded at the Superdome and
the convention center.
·
FEMA began its activities immediately, not expecting the
magnitude of the flooding, the non-response at the city and state
level, and the anarchy that resulted.
·
The local and state governments had rehearsed for a
different scenario. Disaster drills in New Orleans had taken place,
but with a false assumption that the levees would hold.
Both the law and protocol prohibit the president from ordering
military troops into a state without a formal request to do so from
the governor of the affected state.
Hanoi Jane cancels Tour
FoxNews reports (LINK)
that Jane Fonda has cancelled her anti-war bus tour. Why? Here’s Jane’s
answer:
"I would be a distraction," she said, "and the vacuum has been filled. That
said, I plan to speak out and write some op-ed pieces, but no bus tour."
The so-called vacuum has been filed by Cindy Sheehan, according to Fonda.
And she wants Cindy Sheehan’s bus trip to succeed ‘without messages being
mixed.’
Fonda has also cut back her scheduled appearances with anti-Bush Brit
politician George Galloway from eight to two... in Madison, Wis., on Sept.
18 and in Chicago, Ill., on Sept 19.
Gov. Blanco’s bureaucrats blocked food &
water
NewsMax [LINK]
reports that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s own bureaucrats blocked food
and water from delivery to the Superdome and Convention Center:
Fox New Channel's Major Garrett reported Wednesday that the Red Cross had
"trucks with water, food, hygiene equipment, all sorts of things ready to go
. . . to the Superdome and Convention Center."
But the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security, Garrett said, "told them
they could not go."
"The Red Cross tells me that state agency in Louisiana said, 'Look, we do
not want to create a magnet for more people to come to the Superdome or
Convention Center, we want to get them out,'" he explained.
"So at the same time local officials were screaming where is the food, where
is the water? The Red Cross was standing by ready [and] the Louisiana
Department of Homeland Security said you can't go.”
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