Obama's Katrina was the Haiti Earthquake.

Obama just handled his Katrina way better than Bush, so no one talks about that comparison anymore.

Haiti like Katrina was a natural disaster made worse by the fact that man-made conditions made the aftermath that much more terrible. In the case of Haiti, we had millions of poor people stacked on top of each other on a small island. There were basically no building codes, and folks lived practically in tin huts. With Katrina, we had an incompetent government and media who were more concerned about looting than about Human lives, and Levies that had been neglected for years, while Americans lived fat on the hog.


Bush's Katrina happened 5 years after being sworn into office -

Bush's Katrina:

Katrina: Governor Orders Troops to Shoot and Kill Looters
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/la_governor_warns_troops_will_


Demonizing the Victims of Katrina
Coverage painted hurricane survivors as looters, snipers and rapists
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2793


Halliburton gets Katrina contract, hires former FEMA director
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/hurricane_katrina.html


Bush Doesnt Care About Black People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIUzLpO1kxI


Little Impact of Katrina on Bush's Overall Job Ratings (1 year later)
http://www.gallup.com/poll/24283/little-impact-katrina-bushs-overall-job-ratings.aspx


Commentary: Bush can't see failure of Katrina response - CNN.com (4 years later)
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/12/campbell.bush/index.html


Katrina Aftermath: Everyone to Blame
http://www.srbi.com/time_poll_arc18.html





Obama's Katrina happened not quite into his first full year in office -

Obama's Haiti:

Obama Haiti Earthquake Response: 'We Have To Be There For Them In Their Hour Of Need'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/13/obama-haiti-response-we-h_n_421770.html


Haiti Disaster Relief Is Top U.S. Priority Right Now, Obama Says
http://www.america.gov/st/develop-english/2010/January/20100114121034esnamfuak0.6807215.html

Barack Obama, former presidents seek billions for earthquake
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/post_140.html


Obama Renews Promise To Assist With Haiti's Earthquake Recovery ...
http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/March/11/GH-031110-Haiti.aspx


US senators approve two billion dollars in aid for Haiti
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100525/pl_afp/haitiquakeaiduscongress_20100525231525




No, this Oil Spill is more like Obama's Exxon Valdez...


Does anyone remember who was President then?

If you don't, that says a lot....
and if you remember what was said about that President at that time in reference to this,
that will tell you everything.

We set things up for Sec of State Hillary Clinton.

That says a lot about what is going on.

The money offered to Haiti came with huge strings attached, so it doesn't seem that the people are helped, but rather American corporations.

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hmmmmm? Something about a pot and a kettle....

How about you, kettle?

and so on and so on.... :rofl:

sources, uh huh.... :rofl:

what with witty cliched one liners that don't really say anything available to all

I personally prefer sourced facts,
as well debating not only what one might want,
but how it is to be achieved with all the limits
put upon it by our media, public opinion, the opposition,
interest groups, and the intentions of a widely diverse (politic wise) congress,
you know...like the real world that we live in, not the one we wish for.

The art of the possible is more interesting to intelligently discuss IMO,
than is the dream of the impossible absent of real life circumstances.

I am thoroughly fed up with people on *this* website spreading that crap.

there are so many people who post for whom neither Obama nor the US can do anything right. It gets a bit depressing...My feeling is the US is not perfect but neither is any other country. Every country acts with self-interest. Is it right? no Is it reality? yes Do I think Obama is doing the best he can and is basically a good person? absolutely.

Spend some time on the video documentary "The World According to Monsanto." (Over at YouTube and Google videos.)

Really really THINK about what is presented inside that video.

We already have a farming situation in which the little farmers are being regulated out of existence.
(Meanwhile the Big CorpoRATe Giants like the President's good buddies over at BP are given exemptions.) Now the small time farmer, who understands that all the many pesticides on our crops and the GMO's will kill us as they are inedible material and these small farmers are threatened left and right. They are having to fight off this CorpoRATe Giant whose product ruins food for all time.

When we have nothing to eat because of the "vomitoxin" locked inside the grains of our wheat, rice, alfalfa, oats, etc then this Oil Spill will look like a child's picnic.

And look at the Website "Truthout" and see exactly who it is that Ms. Kagan represents.

That's right -- Monsanto.

I supported President Obama as he ran (As a progressive - video links prove how he was "one of us!")

But he is just a further-ization of the CorpoRATization of the USA.

And the CORPORATE STATE has as their agenda the fact a FULL EIGHTY PERCENT OF US NEED TO BE ELIMINATED.

Your thoughts are right on target.

Relief specialists say it would be a mistake to send too much direct cash to the Haitian government, which was already unstable before the quake and routinely included on lists of the world’s most corrupt countries.

“I really believe Americans are the most generous people who ever lived, but they want accountability,’’ said Timothy R. Knight, a former US AID assistant director who spent 25 years distributing disaster aid. “In this situation they’re being very deliberate not to just throw money at the situation but to analyze based on a clear assessment and make sure that money goes to the best place possible.’’

The AP review of federal budget spreadsheets, procurement reports, and contract databases shows the vast majority of US funds going to established and tested providers including the UN World Food Program, the Pan American Health Organization, and nonprofit groups such as Save the Children, which have sent in everything from the $3.4 million barge that cleared the port for aid deliveries to pinto beans at 40 cents a pound.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2010/01/28/us_cash_eschewing_haitis_government/


New money will go.....

Under the plan, which must now go to the full Senate and the House of Representatives for approval, Congress would receive a first report on a strategy for disbursement of the aid 90 days after the bill was signed into law, and annually thereafter.

The legislation initially sought 3.5 billion dollars in aid for Haitian reconstruction over five years, but Republican Senator Richard Lugar sought to scale it back to two billion dollars over two years.

"While the original legislation was written to demonstrate our long-term commitment to Haiti by authorizing funding for five years, the amendment introduced by Senator Lugar addresses valid concerns," Kerry said during a meeting of the committee.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100525/pl_afp/haitiquakeaiduscongress

the oil leaks. Haiti was a humanitarian effort and necessary but what about a humanitarian effort to save our own gulf coast and the planet? Gee there just isn't any urgency to that.

when a disaster breaks? And you really think this is ALL about preserving Obama's reputation.It is about the fact that this nation isn't prepared to face disasters, I don't give a damn who is President and for how long.Haiti wasn't "our" disaster per se, but this oil gusher is. It is directly effecting the lives and economy of all those who live our coastal regions and it is also effecting the entire planet.And we had nothing prepared to fight a gusher.Nada. And we should have. it isn't as though, as the EPA stated"No one could have anticipated this". BS. This isn't our first oil leak.

The fact is, this president stood before us and stated that drilling was"safe". Most of us knew that wasn't true. And this Admin granted "exemptions" that effected the safety of this drilling and continues to do so. Ken Salazar "knew" their were problems at M+M and was "going" to do something about it but didn't.It wasn't a priority to anyone and we will ALL pay the price.

This is a national emergency and one we should have been prepared for no matter who was President.

people demanding why Obama hasn't send in xxxxxxxxx yet. and why did some other nation do something first etc.

and when Americans were there people saying we were trying to take over and how there were some corporate interests behind it.

The fact that we don't hear a whole lot of negative things in reference to how Obama handled that disaster so soon afterwards speaks volumes.

But don't tell those who would prefer not to have to think about that.
It's better not to disturb their world.

and it's consistent with some other things i have seen.

in this country. I don't find this normal or useful, to be honest.

You heard that 57% of the public still support offshore drilling, right?
But yet 51% disapprove of the way Obama hasn't used this moment to drag
out a bullhorn in order to make us think that he's doing more than he is doing.

Folks waiting for the other shoe to drop breathlessly,
some feigning to be so concerned, yet not willing to really
even read documentation as to what has been done to date.....
only looking for the smoking gun so they can piss some more.

I now pray that Obama chooses not to run a 2nd term.

I want the first African-American President to go down in history
with his long list of accomplishments documented,
and the fact that no matter what he did, it was never good enough.
Let him retire, and at that point, folks can start realizing what they had, and what they
fucked up....just like they fuck up just about everything else.
Then they they can shit on some Tea Party White Boy everyday,
who'll take them back to exactly where we started from so quick, it won't even be funny.
I'm serious.

their administration if I felt it was warranted--which was most of the time. So, I certainly won't hesitate to call out President Obama and his administration when I think they are falling down on the job. 30-plus days into this UNnatural disaster and the Feds are still playing hands-off??!! WTF.

This is not a BP problem. It is a United States of America problem and it deserves the full and unadulterated attention of the President and every resource he can throw at it vis-a-vis our government.

James Carville is absolutely right in his assessment of this disaster and the administration's disastrously slow response to it.

There are lots of things that President Obama has done that I approve of and cheer him for, but this is not one.

Unlike others, he can't say "Stop drilling." So he bashes the President.

That's politics. But not a reason to act like Carville is some neutral and accurate observer here.

partying and screwing oil lobbyists and START doing their jobs.

Drilling has risks and they need to be tightly regulated and dealt with harshly when they violate the rules--not the ones they make, but the ones our regulators make.

I could care less who Carville is working for. He and my many inlaws on the Gulf Coast are having their lifestyles and livelihoods destroyed ALONG WITH some of the most fertile and important ecosystems on the planet.

WE SHOULD ALL BE SCREAMING THE WAY CARVILLE IS.

including a good portion in Louisiana.

I was simply explaining about James Carville and why he would be so critical--which in Carville's case seems, as always, about his own role in politics.

This should prompt stricter controls on drilling and it should prompt a national discussion of energy priorities, conservation and our energy future.

I'd like to see us all raising our voices for that.

political posturing.

I'm glad we agree about the rest.

Ironic isn't it that I have a SIL who lives on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi who's name is Suzie.

"I now pray that Obama chooses not to run a 2nd term.

I want the first African-American President to go down in history
with his long list of accomplishments documented,
and the fact that no matter what he did, it was never good enough.
Let him retire, and at that point, folks can start realizing what they had, and what they
fucked up....just like they fuck up just about everything else.
Then they they can shit on some Tea Party White Boy everyday,
who'll take them back to exactly where we started from so quick, it won't even be funny.
I'm serious."


Me too I get tired of the same old shit,day in and day out..They come up with some of the most unbelievable shit.

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Let's hope that the administration's adviser's are brighter and less starry eyed as they handle this and other difficult matters on the horizon.

and so does this administration.

Now that we have our message for November,
it's time to start campaigning!

Government agencies- just like private sector entities require active oversight and accountability mechanisms.

Absent those, we get financial meltdowns, Gulf oil spills and... tic tock- maybe much worse.

.... it was the closest thing he's had to (risking) Americans suffering in the streets begging and pleading for help. (but this is a good analogy too. )

It's a different country entirely. :shrug:

water was much worse and harder to get to...

so yeah, you are right.

!

responsibility in any way shape or form. What he did for Haiti was out of compassion and humanity, not out of professional obligation. Haiti, could not be Obama's Katrina for that reason.