They Really Dropped the Ball..

[strandinthewind]

September 19, 2005
Clinton Levels Sharp Criticism at the President's Relief Effort
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 - Former President Bill Clinton, asked by President Bush to help raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, offered harsh criticism of the administration's disaster-relief effort on Sunday, saying "you can't have an emergency plan that works if it only affects middle-class people up."

Mr. Clinton's comments in an interview on the ABC News program "This Week" could prove awkward for the White House, given President Bush's eagerness to involve his Democratic predecessor in a high-profile role to raise money for the hurricane's victims. His remarks came days after the president gave a televised speech from New Orleans, trying to seize the momentum amid other attacks on the administration's performance.

The White House has been under siege from critics, assailed first for the effectiveness of its response to the storm, and challenged more recently by questions about the long-term fiscal implications of its plans for rebuilding in the Gulf states.

Mr. Clinton argued that lower-income Americans had done better under the economic policies of his administration than they are doing now, saying the storm highlighted class divisions in the country that often played out along racial lines.

"It's like when they issued the evacuation order," he said. "That affects poor people differently. A lot of them in New Orleans didn't have cars. A lot of them who had cars had kinfolk they had to take care of. They didn't have cars, so they couldn't take them out."

"This is a matter of public policy," he said. "And whether it's race-based or not, if you give your tax cuts to the rich and hope everything works out all right, and poverty goes up and it disproportionately affects black and brown people, that's a consequence of the action made. That's what they did in the 80's; that's what they've done in this decade. In the middle, we had a different policy."

The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, did not respond directly to Mr. Clinton's remarks about the hurricane-relief effort or mention the former president by name. But in a statement on Sunday, Mr. McClellan suggested it was unfair to link the plight of low-income victims of the hurricane to the economic policies of the Bush administration.

"There is a deep history of injustice that has led to poverty and inequality, and it will not be overcome instantly," he said, adding that President Bush "from Day 1 has been acting boldly to achieve real results for all Americans."

He added, "Do we think in new and bold ways by focusing on innovative programs that work for all Americans, or do we embrace failed policies of the past which have resulted in too many being left behind?"

Throughout Mr. Bush's presidency, Mr. Clinton has often been critical of his successor, and he repeated many of those criticisms in the Sunday interview in discussing the invasion of Iraq, the growing federal deficit and other issues. But it was the directness of his criticism of President Bush's policies related to domestic disaster relief that appeared most likely to cause aggravation at the White House.

Noting statistics that showed a significant drop in poverty during his presidency, Mr. Clinton said, "You can't have an emergency plan that works if it only affects middle-class people up, and when you tell people to go do something they don't have the means to do, you're going to leave the poor out."

Mr. Clinton has reunited with President Bush's father, former President George H. W. Bush, in a fund-raising campaign for Katrina victims, much as they worked together to raise millions of dollars for relief efforts after the Asian tsunami last year. Mr. Clinton said the two had raised $90 million to $100 million so far for hurricane victims.

Mr. Clinton drew a sharp distinction between the performance of the government's disaster-relief agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in his administration and today. "I think we did a good job of disaster management," he said.

While not using the name of Michael D. Brown, the FEMA director who resigned last Monday after criticism of his performance in the Katrina disaster, Mr. Clinton praised the performance of his FEMA director, James Lee Witt, and said Mr. Witt had been especially sensitive to the needs of low-income people because "both of us came out of environments with a disproportionate number of poor people."

Mr. Clinton said he was especially disturbed that many of the people who lost homes in the hurricane had no property insurance.

"Everything they owned was in their little home," he said. "And if we really wanted to do it right, we would have had lots of buses lined up to take them out and also lots of empty vans" to save the belongings of those with no home or flood insurance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/19/na...19clinton.html

[SuzeQuze]

Nagin has called for an evacuation of NOLA again because of the tropical storm.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

Nagin has called for an evacuation of NOLA again because of the tropical storm.

Nagin is a fool. He shouldn't be allowing all of those people back, especially now that all of those mold spores are drying up and going into the air. Watch a lot of the people who returned develop respiratory problems, just like those is New York who were told the air was fine.

After watching all of this unfold, I've gone from respecting Nagin to thinking something is terribly off. I don't trust him as far as I can throw him.

[amber]

Originally Posted by dissention

Nagin is a fool. He shouldn't be allowing all of those people back, especially now that all of those mold spores are drying up and going into the air. Watch a lot of the people who returned develop respiratory problems, just like those is New York who were told the air was fine.

After watching all of this unfold, I've gone from respecting Nagin to thinking something is terribly off. I don't trust him as far as I can throw him.

In what way do you not trust him? What could be the fishy part, IYO?

[BTFLCHLD]

"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them." –Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 5, 2005

[dissention]

Originally Posted by amber

In what way do you not trust him? What could be the fishy part, IYO?

He's very crafty. He was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off not too long ago, telling the Associated Press that the CIA was going to slip him something to kill him off and telling Larry King that they were ready to take him out. Then came the pho-ops and about-face as soon as the feds started pointing fingers at him and Blanco. Now, he's kissing Shrub's royal ass at every opportunity. Something about him is very calculating and it's rubbing me the wrong way. Not to mention that I think it's wholly irresponsible on his part to be telling citizens to come back to New Orleans.

[amber]

Originally Posted by dissention

He's very crafty. He was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off not too long ago, telling the Associated Press that the CIA was going to slip him something to kill him off and telling Larry King that they were ready to take him out. Then came the pho-ops and about-face as soon as the feds started pointing fingers at him and Blanco. Now, he's kissing Shrub's royal ass at every opportunity. Something about him is very calculating and it's rubbing me the wrong way.

Oh, yeah. That's par for the course, I think, and LA politicians are notoriously slippery. I thought you had something a bit more specific in mind, relating to the fact that he was letting people back in, and now he wants to evacuate.

[SuzeQuze]

I've been feeling the same way about him - something isn't quite right there.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by amber

Oh, yeah. That's par for the course, I think, and LA politicians are notoriously slippery. I thought you had something a bit more specific in mind, relating to the fact that he was letting people back in, and now he wants to evacuate.

It's irresponsible. By all accounts, the levees are "very weak" and another storm could cause them more harm. Did he not think about that? It's pretty foolish to tell people to come back, especially with the extreme health risks, with the full knowledge that the levees are still weakened and another evacuation will probably be necessary since this is just the beginning of hurricane season. On the other hand, I wouldn't be too surprised if he struck up a deal with BushCo for him to call people back to New Orleans just so that BushCo could save face by publicly saying that it's not safe for Nagin to be advocating evacuees to return. I'd bet money that might be what's going on.

[amber]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

I've been feeling the same way about him - something isn't quite right there.

Well...don't you guys probably think he just made some kind of creepy weird deal with the administration?

[amber]

Originally Posted by dissention

It's irresponsible. By all accounts, the levees are "very weak" and another storm could cause them more harm. Did he not think about that? It's pretty foolish to tell people to come back, especially with the extreme health risks, with the full knowledge that the levees are still weakened and another evacuation will probably be necessary since this is just the beginning of hurricane season. On the other hand, I wouldn't be too surprised if he struck up a deal with BushCo for him to call people back to New Orleans just so that BushCo could save face by publicly saying that it's not safe for Nagin to be advocating evacuees to return. I'd bet money that might be what's going on.

Okay, yeah. I could see that. But, it's pretty lame of him.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

I've been feeling the same way about him - something isn't quite right there.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

On another note, I just read that Oprah donated $10 million.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by amber

Okay, yeah. I could see that. But, it's pretty lame of him.

He's a politician, therefore he's lame by default.

And here's a sickening read:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...106213,00.html
Looking for a Corpse to Make a Case
Senators look for a wealthy casualty of Katrina as evidence against the estate tax

By MASSIMO CALABRESI
Posted Saturday, Sep. 17, 2005

Federal troops aren't the only ones looking for bodies on the Gulf Coast. On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions' legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky's voice mail: " Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with."

If legislative ambulance chasing looks like a desperate measure, for the backers of repealing the estate tax, these are desperate times. Just three weeks ago, their long-sought goal of repeal seemed within reach, but Katrina dashed their hopes when Republican leaders put off an expected vote. After hearing from Sessions, Apolinsky, an estate tax lawyer who says his firm includes three multi-billionaires among its clients, mobilized the American Family Business Institute, a Washington-based group devoted to estate tax repeal. They reached out to members along the Gulf Coast to hunt for the dead.

It's been hard. Only a tiny percentage of people are affected by the estate tax—in 2001 only 534 Alabamans were subject to it. And for Hill backers of repeal, that's only part of the problem. Last year, the tax brought in $24.8 billion to the federal government. With Katrina's cost soaring, estate tax opponents need to find a way to make up the potential lost income. For now, getting repeal back on the agenda may depend on Apolinsky and his team of estate-sniffing sleuths, who are searching Internet obituaries among other places. Has he found any victims of both the hurricane and the estate tax? "Not yet," Apolinsky says. "But I'm still looking."

[amber]

But I don't get how dead estate tax people will help his bill. I see that it's disgusting, but I'm not getting his angle....

[GypsySorcerer]

Originally Posted by dissention

He's very crafty. He was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off not too long ago, telling the Associated Press that the CIA was going to slip him something to kill him off and telling Larry King that they were ready to take him out. Then came the pho-ops and about-face as soon as the feds started pointing fingers at him and Blanco. Now, he's kissing Shrub's royal ass at every opportunity. Something about him is very calculating and it's rubbing me the wrong way. Not to mention that I think it's wholly irresponsible on his part to be telling citizens to come back to New Orleans.

Yeah, I couldn't believe he wanted to let people back in. I did read where he was a life-long Republican and switched parties so he could get elected.