Bush ratings slide in storm aftermath

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Big News Network.com Friday 9th September, 2005 (UPI)

Two out of three Americans surveyed believe President Bush could have done more to help the hurricane-stricken U.S. Gulf Coast, a poll says.

Further, the Pew survey said Friday, the president's approval rating slipped to 40 percent and his disapproval rating to 52 percent.

The poll showed that 67 percent of those questioned believe Bush could have done better on speeding up relief efforts in New Orleans. Twenty-eight percent think he did all he could.

The survey also says seven in 10 blacks, or 71 percent, say responses would have been quicker had the victims been white. Whites, by an even wider margin (77 percent), disagree.

For the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, a majority of U.S. respondents (56 percent) say the president should focus on domestic policy instead of the war on terrorism.

more...

Looks like Americans are getting smarter!!!

The survey also says seven in 10 blacks, or 71 percent, say responses would have been quicker had the victims been white. Whites, by an even wider margin (77 percent), disagree.

Sigh.

It is really hard to face the truth about this country, especially when you've got people running around all over the place with bumper stickers that say crap like "Proud To Be An American."

I'm a nonconfrontational person, but it's all I can do to keep from walking up to those people and saying, "What the hell are you so proud of?"

I'm sick of all these idiot Americans who run around trying to act like we're some sort of superior nation. Just look at the last 5 years and tell me if you can find anything to be "proud" of.

mostly because most whites have never had a serious conversation with black people. Some people just don't understand that most racism is insidious and not blatant acts of lynching and cross burning. Its the small imperceptible things that you will notice if you are black because they happen over and over again. Things that don't happen to white people. And the result is much more devastating than blatant forms of racism. If someone shouts an epithet at you, or attacks you, or deliberately states their intent to deny you your liberty at least then you can confront them - challenge them. But when racism is in the form of subtle neglect, lack of concern, and complete dismissal coupled with occasional patronizing tones it is impossible to fight because that type of racism can be easily denied.

Let me just say this... (Because I've seen some denial here on DU. Someone posted that racism had nothing to do with it... They knew because they were poor and white)

Poor White Person - If you save up your pennies, get a great hair do, a nice suit, sharp shoes, and a spiffy brief case, you can pass for a respectable member of society.

Poor Black Person - If you save up your pennies, get a great hair do, a nice suit, sharp shoes, and a spiffy brief case, you will still be black... and all of society's stereotypes and beliefs are going to be the baggage you carry along side that spiffy brief case.

Now just think - Job interview - personal economics...

The survey also says seven in 10 blacks, or 71 percent, say responses would have been quicker had the victims been white. Whites, by an even wider margin (77 percent), disagree.

Maybe those 77% whites think or are even convinced that, if it was them, this government would have f*cked up just as hard.

I don't think * discriminates on color, he discriminates on personal wealth. He's no racist, he's a capitalist.

Just my 2 cents.

higher than i would have expected.

and the bigotry is really coming out with this disaster. all those comments about "welfare cheats, handouts, public housing" are full of racism. it's not just about wanting to protect Bush but about deep racist feelings in people.

i doubt you would hear the same comments if this happened in a mostly white area.

I've seen it here in the DU

Probably means there are a lot of "Democrats" out there who think there would have been no difference in the response time in regard to race. The only conceivable way I could see that someone could reasonably disagree with that statement is if they were arguing that it was more due to class than race; but still, the two are almost interchangeable when it comes to these sorts of situations.

I'm ashamed of my race sometimes. A lot actually...

You think we can take on all the "terrorism in the world?"

How about in Saudi Arabia? Egypt? China? North Korea? Russia?

Very convenient for BushCo to refer to the war on terrorism to justify every misstep of his administration.

Anybody in the military will tell you, you need to define your enemy and your objectives.

WE ARE AT WAR WITH BIN LADEN'S AL QAEDA AND FOLLOWERS!!! NO MORE, NO LESS.

To make our enemy more nondescipt, gives aid and comfort to that enemy. BUT WHAT SHOUD WE EXPECT OF CHICEKEN HAWKS WHO NEVER SAW A DAY'S COMBAT IN THIER LIVES, BY THEIR DESIGN.

Seems like we sure are looking in the wrong place then.

Just like the war on drugs became the war on some drugs.
and the war on poverty became the war on black poverty

we now have the war on terror turned into the war to make more terrorists.

Is that kind of like getting an "A" for effort? Given how impaired *'s abilities are, this isn't saying much.

If a monkey was in charge and "did all it could", would we be able to tell the difference?

...MUCH faster.

And his daddy's friends give him a "gentlemens C" because daddy paid for it. In the land of the landed gentry, that's all you need.

I passionately believe in the strength of our country, the deep hearts of our citizens and the resolve of our people. I was so offended by President Bush's inadequate response to the recent tragic events in the gulf coast of our nation, that I am urged to write. When the president finally came to the ravaged delta region on this past Friday, he stood before us and said,"...you people, in this part of the world..." I had to stop myself from shouting at the Television. "you people??? In this part of the World???" Had he just woken up from a nap and not know where he was??? We are his people!!!! The President wanted this job so badly he was willing to steal it. How dare he call American citizens in the Southern part of this great country, "you people"???
He has urged us not to bring politics into this awful state of events. I feel that he asks that only because he can be held accountable for inaction which is turning out very badly...for him, as well as as us. So it is politics.

The poor folks left in the Delta were plainly without resources of their own. I would say they were real poor folk. Under the Bush administration, there has been growth in the poor of this nation. Over the past four years the number of people living in poverty has risen. Now one in eight Americans lives below the poverty line. During the Clinton Administration, this number was shrinking, not growing. So yes this is politics, and Bush's policies and disporportionate tax cuts for the rich must come into the light to be examined. Because this is politics, and helping the poor is not on his agenda.

What is on his agenda is the Christianazation of this country. But you know God doesnt Bless America, we do, the people do. the people of so many religions and races and beliefs. It is we, the people who bless this country. If we carry God with us, in whatever form we believe that is our decision to make, not George W. Bush's or anyone else's. I think that is very clear from the way our country began..

I am not a religious person, or Christian, but I do believe the prince of peace, Jesus Christ was right when he said, "that which you do to the least of me, you do to me." Who among us does not feel hurt for these people in the delta region? This great growing inequality must be addressed, and THIS IS POLITICS. What George W. Bush let happen to these thousands of human beings in the heart of the South, either through his policies or lack of action or total ineptness is politics, not God, and must be told as such.

Please speak out further against the wrong which Bush is inflicting upon our once great nation. We have to we must- we can take this country back again from bushCo.

Your passion will find a home here.

Glad you found your way here ~

:toast:

i know we are trying, in our own micro lives, I mean we all live locally right, and the day begins and the day ends, and maybe if we have enough time we actually connect with the people that matter in our lives.
I know democracy is important to our nation, and I truly believe in the process- but why don't more people vote??
In new york state, i believe the numbers which elected pataki, our govenor was something like 30%. So that means 18% of the population might have voted the govenor of NYS in!!!
we need to do better as a body of citizens, this is hard- when every outlet is trying to get us to be the best consumers we can be & when so much of our energy is spent really in getting through the day.
we need to reach out all the time, especially to those who dont necessarily agree with us.
the hurricane in the delta does mean we need to rethink our basic human needs as well.
what is success for example? its about quality not quantity.
liking yourself most of the time-loving your partner most of the time-knowing who your kids are-having work that is productive, or a hobby-having a few friends-loving at least one member of your family. You know when you get down to it- it is the quality of our human relationships which define us. this is true for all humans I think, and also available to everyone. if we were 'free from want" you know the advertising industry would be out of business. PS i love the name nostradammit- i am calling karl Rove- he who must not be named (vis a vis his CIA leak) If you follow the harry potter series - it fits. cheers!

Welcome to DU, Veronicrat -- from Saginaw, Michigan (the Center of the Universe)!
John
I hope you'll find yourself right at home here,

The American public will be all too willing to treat him like a "war president", a born-again Churchill, a real Roosevelt, commanding, manly, decisive, brave, ad infinitum. All it will take will be for the pathetic asshole to show up and not shit his pants in public. The media will fawn all over him and will paint him as a glowing, powerful leader, and the American public will lap up these descriptions like wildcats.

It's just that the undeniable magnitude of the tragedy and the obvious failure of the Emperor have brougth them out of their hypnosis for a moment.

Just for a moment, I am afraid.

I hope I am wrong.

I don't understand how people can claim that he didn't try hard enough. If anybody disagrees, then PLEASE tell me, what SHOULD he have done given the time frame from when the storm was classified as a Category 4/5 hurricane, to the time that it made landfall ??

Next, I do not believe it was a failure on his part for not organizing a huge relief effort at first, because how was ANYBODY to know the ACTUAL damage the hurricane would do, and how would they know how to deploy a mass exodus out of the city ?? Please tell me... ANYBODY.. I don't think I am 100% correct in my assumption, only because nobody has yet proven this wrong to me, I'd like some feedback on this.
.
.

1) He didn't even leave his vacation in time to administrate this disaster. They knew it was going to land somewhere days in advance.

2) The reports had shown for years what might happen in this instance and it it was not planned for. That is the federal governments job, what the hell were they doing with all that Homeland Security money anyway.

3) He hired people with no knowledge about this type of problem, and not even anyone who had ever managed a large group of people. (Hello, you don't hire your friends and drinking buddies to protect peoples lives).

4)There should have been trucks of food, National Guardsmen, Amphibious vehicles, Red Cross etc.all launched to go in.) This ain't the 18th Century folks, we could have brought it in on C130's or helicopters the next day. It is called a staging area, just to make sure you have what you need.

5)Don't tell me it takes 5 days to get basic water and food to shelters you already designated and now don't know about or can't find with thousands of people in them. We have satellite infrared already.

6)They destroyed FEMA and put it under another organization, nobody knew what to do, is this our fault?

Lastly you sound like a Republican trying to cover for this incompetent bastard who unnecessarily cost thousands of people their lives. Yeah I know he always is "workin' hard' at taking yet another vacation. Who are you anyway Karen Hughes? Cause it is hard to believe any regular DU person could be blind enough to pose such a question.

Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died.

What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret? According to Dr. Nelson Valdes, a sociology professor at the University of New Mexico, and specialist in Latin America, "the whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where they are to go."

"Cuba's leaders go on TV and take charge," said Valdes. Contrast this with George W. Bush's reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The day after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Bush was playing golf. He waited three days to make a TV appearance and five days before visiting the disaster site. In a scathing editorial on Thursday, the New York Times said, "nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

"Merely sticking people in a stadium is unthinkable" in Cuba, Valdes said. "Shelters all have medical personnel, from the neighborhood. They have family doctors in Cuba, who evacuate together with the neighborhood, and already know, for example, who needs insulin."

They also evacuate animals and veterinarians, TV sets and refrigerators, "so that people aren't reluctant to leave because people might steal their stuff," Valdes observed.After Hurricane Ivan, the United Nations International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction cited Cuba as a model for hurricane preparation.

ISDR director Salvano Briceno said, "The Cuban way could easily be applied to other countries with similar economic conditions and even in countries with greater resources that do not manage to protect their population as well as Cuba does."

<snip>

Read the rest here...
http://ginasmith.typepad.com/gina_on_gina/2005/09/how_cuba_evacua.html

Instead Bush plays guitar and eats cake and fundraises while he KNOWS that a hurricane is coming in and he either is too stupid to know that there will be devastation, or he just doesn't care.

I don't think he cares.

Here is a huge repository of threads about the disaster. You should spend some time and go through them and maybe educate yourself.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4630068

I really don't care what he was doing at the time, the question was: What SHOULD he have done, given the time frame from when the storm was classified as a Category 4/5 hurricane, to the time that it made landfall ?? And HOW ??

Just because he is a President, and a piss poor one at that, does not mean he controls the weather, it took out not only N.O. but OTHER southern towns as well.

Personally, I can't stand Bush because I believe he is nothing but a greedy war monger capitalist pig who's only concern is the almighty dollar for him and his friends, but I'm not gonna hate the guy so much to accuse him of acting slowly during the crisis, he did what he COULD do, although I will say the help took 5 days yes, but then lets see ANYBODY assemble and deploy the needed support in a quicker time frame.. I really don't care if he was on vacation, or out golfing, or hob nobbing with fellow scum conservatives, but hell, what else COULD he do ??

I followed the link in your DU profile to your neat discussion group.
http://bbs.whatpissesyouoff.com

Anyone who wants to know where you really stand should read your postings there.
Really!

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go to bed, or fundraise or whatever

the other thing he shoulda done was stay the hell away from the area. any POTUS visit (even one as crappy as this one) causes major disruption to traffic, aerial and ground.

You know where I was on the evening of Sept. 28TH?

Know where I was?

I was glued to my computer because it looked like Katrina might just be what we feared Ivan was.

And I knew what that meant. To New Orleans, to the South and to the country.

And the next morning I was back at it.

And you know what? I'm just a lowly citizen without so much as a college fucking degree and I knew what a disaster we were facing.

And I would have moved heaven and earth to start the help rolling in the direction of those citizens who were about to need it if I had the power.

George Fucking Bush couldn't be bothered, because, frankly, he was getting on with his life.

I hope he gets a big, infected splinter in his ass when he sits on Trent Lott's new porch.

:mad:

Are you saying he should have ordered a mass evacuation president style because the weather channel said it MIGHT turn into a category 5 (which it did), and if he DID do this as any president should, how might he have come up with enough buses to help almost 1/2 a million people in JUST N.O., and not to mention the hundreds of thousands more along the coast move away from the path of the storm ??

Don't fool yourself, NOBODY can, so don't blame BUSH .

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.

the site you mentioned.

Bye bye :hi:

He started it, it's only fair that I get a retaliation flame/rebutal.

Bush should have prioritized the needs of HIS people. Even if all the folks werent out immediately, it SHOULD NEVER have taken 5 days for him to get on the ground there.
If this had happened in Florida, there would have been help.
There were school buses unused- there was terrible callous non-coordination.

& what 60 + yeear old man has his Mommy & Daddy acting like apologists for him on national TV.
To paraphrase Barbara bush, are you suggesting we say

"this is an inept country, all these poor hopeless & homeless people are good enough for us. We are not very good at helping the poor, so this is fine. That there arent a million dead is all right with us."

Thank you!!!

Common sense is a trait that can't be found in textbooks.

:)

tanks with no electricty, food or water.

Let's say that you are FEMA. You know what is happening. At what point do you act to save Americans citizens?

after the damn looters quit shooting at me.

in the world? Twenty? thirty?.

If that's the case, is it any wonder we're losing in Iraq.

---head explodes---

eom

You just forgot the sarcasm smiley.

They have the guns, they have the equipment, and they have the training to use it effectively. How many shooters were there? 100? 500? You could have air-lifted in hundreds of Guardsmen and SWAT team members from surrounding states in a day or less (they're supposed to be ready to go at a moment's notice). If a few hundred military/tactical officers with submachine guns, M4 carbines and sniper rifles can't handle an equal number of largely untrained looters with shotguns and handguns, that is a sad, sad commentary on our preparedness.

So that is a terrble excuse you make for the "Who me? I didn't do it!!" President.

the answer is junior could have done a whole hell of a lot more like giving his permission to get the food and water moving into LA, but you know what.......he didn't. he went to BED

Florida. Maybe you need to read FEMA's brag on their response to those events. But that WAS an election year and his brother was Gov.

assumptions are not logical. And if this country can NOT mobilize for damage that might happen, how in the hell are we ever going to fight a war?

And have the Nat. Guard drop in some food in water by air lift, if nothing else.- like we did in Germany & Afghanistan.

I would have had LA national guard units who know the terrain on swamp boats with PA systems yelling out instructions on where the drop off points would be.

This would have happened a full day & a half before we even saw that goofy ass video of Bush & "Brownie."

I'm not an expert, but these were the 1st thoughts I had when I saw all this on TV.

of going to bed after receiving information that LA needed him to do something. but he DID go to bed and didn't do a goddamn thing about it. He didn't even know how extensive the damage was until THURSDAY

Nice to know.

hillbilly, you bet your sweet ass that rescue would've been on time if the people of New Orleans had been white. And if them whiteys had voted for bu$hler (and had gone to the RIGHT churches), FEMA would have had stretch limousines with full bar and hot tub facilities all over New Orleans for the evacuation.

Remember New Orleans.

There it is in a nutshell.

that post made me smile.

eom