First Door on the Left

This story is from this past Sunday, Aug. 28. I had not seen it before. It raises a very interesting question.

Mandatory evacuation ordered for New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin.

Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort for people to go, including the Superdome.

The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.

“There doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight,” Blanco said.

I am not adverse to offering a bit of praise to George W. Bush once in a while when he does something really good. I just don’t get the opportunity all that often. However, if what we read above is true, then a lot of the residents of New Orleans owe him a huge debt of gratitude and some (some) of the criticism he is now receiving for his slow response to this disaster may not be quite as warranted as it seems.

Thanks to “anjins daddy” for pointing this out in the comments on an earlier post.

I’ll probably go to bed now and have nightmares all night long because I said something nice about George W.!

Update: There seems to be a bit of a contradiction. Here (.pdf) is a letter that Gov. Blanco sent to Mr. Bush on Aug. 28 in which she requests that he “declare an expedited major disaster for the State of Louisiana.” In the letter, she states that she had already ordered the evacuations.

Page one:

Why would the pilot of a military helicopter report that he was fired on if he wasn’t?

“At the Superdome, we have a report that one shot was fired at a Chinook helicopter,” Schneider said, adding that the Chinook is “an extremely large aircraft.”

Laura Brown, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Washington, said she had no such report.

“We’re controlling every single aircraft in that airspace and none of them reported being fired on,” she said, adding that the FAA was in contact with the military as well as civilian aircraft. [ABC News]

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It’s Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren’t there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn’t want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don’t like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don’t let people criticize you for this — after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

Click here to continue reading.

The Gulf Between Rhetoric and Reality

On his tour of the devastated Gulf Coast today, President Bush runs smack into another kind of gulf — one between what his administration says it is doing and what the American public is watching on television.

Will he show true compassion, comprehension and leadership today by wading — literally and figuratively — among those who are still suffering? Or will it be a series of hermetically sealed photo ops?

Bush is under intense pressure to refute the growing criticism that his reaction to the disaster has been lackadaisical and ineffective. What’s not clear is whether that means his aides will abandon their typically meticulous approach to stage-managing every presidential appearance — or whether, in fact, they will embrace it more than ever.

(Photos: CNN)

Both of the above happening on the same day, four days after the well-forecasted hurricane struck? I don’t know how much more “stage-managed” you could possibly get.

Update: Now I know.

In Biloxi, Miss., Bush encountered two weeping women on a street where a house had collapsed and towering trees were stripped of their branches. “My son needs clothes,” said Bronwynne Bassier, 23, clutching several trash bags. “I don’t have anything.”

“I understand that,” Bush said. He kissed both women on their heads and walked with his arms around them, telling them they could get help from the Salvation Army. “Hang in there,” he said.

And, proving once again that our “president” speaks perfectly good English…

“People got to understand that out of this rubble is gonna come a new Biloxi, Mississippi,” Bush said. [link]

John Hawkins continues to show off his compassion (and his complete lack of understanding).