Pass the Brownie...

Who can forget the image of President Bush playing the guitar in San Diego while Katrina destroyed New Orleans.  That blunder was followed by the famous line "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."  

Now, that a million Americans are without power and people are freezing to death in the Midwest, the media seems less interested in the federal reaction to local disasters.  Powerline blog has an interesting juxtaposition of Bush's reaction to Obama's reaction.  I don't usually cover national stories, but since our very own Janet Napolitano is playing the part of Brownie--and since the mainstream media will ignore the story--I thought I would provide a link. 

Comments

[Chad]

People throughout the midwest are freezing and the Obama-crats have almost nothing in their stimulus bill to help them. Unless they need welfare or the prevention of STD's NEXT year.

[The Klute]

To quote Stewie Griffin:

"It's fun to pretend".

The storm hit Tuesday night. The governors of Kentucky and Arkansas asked for a state of emergency declaration on Wednesday and got it. Arkansas and Kentucky asked for FEMA assistance and they got it. Someone show me the breakdown of the state to federal response.

Of course, understanding the response is understanding the difference between the two types of disasters. For those of you who haven't been in Hurricanes before (I've been in three - David '80, Andrew '92, Irene '99) the problem is the rescue infrastructure is destroyed (especially in storms like Andrew and Katrina). This is not the case in an ice storm (something I've also been in - Dec. '07 Nebraska). Trying to compare an ice storm to a hurricane is idiocy at worst, disengenousness at best.

[Travis]

This isn't a contest to see which type of storm is "worse". This is a comparison of the media coverage relating to reports on the governmental response. I think it's perfectly reasonable to look at how the media coverage on the flooding in New Orleans put the sole responsibility of nearly every death on George Bush. Now that they don't hate the president, his response to these weather-related victims is of no concern to the press.

Trying to make people think that Greg is comparing hurricanes to ice-storms "is idiocy at worst, disengenousness at best."

P.S. It's never a good idea to call someone an idiot and then misspell the rest of the insult.

[The Klute]

"This isn't a contest to see which type of storm is "worse". This is a comparison of the media coverage relating to reports on the governmental response."

Apparently, it is, because Greg's basically complaining that media isn't hyping the ice storm, a storm nowhere near the destructive force like Katrina, with nowhere near the screwed up response, as if it were the same thing. It's not. Not even close.

Show me the breakdown here in local, state, and federal responses. Show me where Napolitano is failing, or even close to failing. Show me Kentucky's version of the Morial Center.

But Greg wants his pound of flesh from the media... they done his man wrong, as the crooners would say. And I stand by my comment - because this is not Katrina, and there is no comparison between the two, and that's the reason why the media's not focusing coverage on it.

"P.S. It's never a good idea to call someone an idiot and then misspell the rest of the insult."

Hey, it's the new media! We don't need editors, or spellcheckers, or anything! We're all journalists now, didn't you get the memo?

[The Decider]

What Mr. Patterson wants, really, is to pound Janet Napolitano. He could save a lot of words and just post "I HATE JANET" every three days. This post is just another fine example of grabbing any weapon he can find and using it to bash Janet.

If we're interested in discussing actual facts here, let's take a quick look at a few. FEMA does not order its offices evacuated and then shut down when a new president takes office. That would be pretty irresponsible on their part. President Obama has been in power for fifteen days. He has not yet filled all of his Cabinet positions and had them confirmed. FEMA, my friends, is still being run by the Bush administration. It will take several months for President Obama and Homeland Security Director Napolitano to appoint their own people, have their appointments confirmed, and have them actually start running the agency. Until then, the agency is run by the Bush administration appointees.

If there are a million people without power and freezing to death because FEMA has not responded quickly and effectively, it reflects badly on the Bush administration, not on Obama and Napolitano.

One might also point out that there was very little if any delay between the governors of Arkansas and Kentucky declaring emergencies and asking for federal assistance and FEMA and the Obama administration approving the request.

One might even try reading what a professional in the field of disaster management had to say about it. From the Associated Press:

"Trina Sheets, executive director of the National Emergency Management Association, based in Lexington, Ky., said that from what she's heard, FEMA's response has been very good so far. Her group represents emergency management directors from all 50 states.
"The governor's declaration request for an emergency was turned around very, very quickly by FEMA and the White House," said Sheets, who just had her power restored Monday after four days without it. "And President Obama has spoken with the governor of Kentucky on several occasions throughout the event."
Sheets said she hadn't heard any complaints so far about the federal response.
"FEMA and the Kentucky National Guard are doing everything they can to get things back up and running," Sen. Jim Bunning said.

But facts never make much difference. If all you want to do is hate Janet, facts are pretty much irrelevant. Bash away.

[Sam]

Loyal apologist Commander in Chief signing in -- perhaps tomorrow he'll have the excuses why Tommy Daschle, et al, feel it's optional to pay taxes. Because it's George Bush's fault!

[The New Decider]

Perhaps Sam might note that Daschle apologized and withdrew from consideration. He might even notice that President Obama also apologized, saying he'd made a mistake and that it was important for there to be one standard of behavior for everyone. Sixteen days into his presidency, he's acknowledged making a mistake and apologized for it.
Quick, Sam, tell me: name five times in the 8 year occupation of the White House that W. acknowledged making a mistake. Name one.

Try reading the words of Michael Steele, your new Republican party chairman, about the Bush regime, from the Washington Post in 2006:
"People want an honest assessment from the administration, and they want to hear the administration admit we thought this, and it didn't happen that way, and -- guess what -- it didn't work, so we're going to try a Plan B." He continued: "Let's call it what it is. We thought this was going to be a different kind of engagement."

He seemed less agitated by the policy failure than by Bush's unwillingness to admit failure. "I don't know why the people around him don't see that," he said. "It is a frustration, to say the least. I think it is a lost opportunity to bring the American people along on a mission that is incredibly important."

It's hard to admit mistakes and failure, isn't it? Unless you're very smart and very confident of your own abilities. Like the man who won the election.

[DZ]

I just got here.

What's all this burning flesh laying around?

[Sam]

Gotta love Obambots -- cult over country.

Daschle withdrew after every media outlet covered it and even the NYT called for him to step down. That's not integrity or honesty, that's just playing it as the wind blows. His excuses still remain weak -- for a person who served in the Senate until 2005, he ought to have voted on a tax bill or two in his day and not be confused.

Who cares if CiC's Messiah apologized and his sworn enemy didn't? Apologies are meaningless, and it doesn't explain away that THREE Obama nominees had significant tax issues. If anything, it shows once again that Obama has extremely poor judgement in character.

Occupation of the White House? God bless Bush v. Gore.

[Mesa Republican George]

Decider/CiC,

It's hard to blame Greg, or any other Arizonan, for being absolutely disgusted with Janet for the way she ran our state finances into the ground.

[mahtso]

I have heard that in the 10 minutes or so before President Bush made the (in)famous comment about Mr. Brown, the Governors of several gulf coast states had been singing the praises of Mr. Brown and or FEMA and the good job that was being done. I admit that I don't know if this is true, but if so, the President's praise makes sense.

[VWgal]

Let's be glad they got the bad penut nutter products out of the FEMA care packs this week...

[VWgal]

wow that would be Peanut Butter... I was having a lack of typing there...