John McCain visited New Orleanson April 24, criticizing the way Bush handled Katrina. "Never again, never again, will a disaster of this nature be handled in the disgraceful way it was handled," McCain said and repeated several times on that day. "If I had been president, I would have ordered the plane landed at the nearest base and I'd of been over here." He later added, "I would've landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally."
Well Katrina happened on McCain's birthday (08/29/05) and pictures were taken with him and his buddy the president, celebrating.
Now here is a picture of McCain seemingly telling Bush something. Do you think he is telling the President what he would have done? Do you think you could guessed from these pictures that there is a natural disaster on U.S. soil? Do these two seem to care?
This is not a debate on whether it was the local government's failure or the federal's. John McCain is telling us what he would have done as president.
While Bush and McCain were enjoying birthday cake, New Orleans was getting pummeled by a Category-5 hurricane. How can McCain possibly be critical of how the disaster was handled when he was celebrating his own birthday with Bush the day of the disaster?
A collage of pics of what the President did and pics of the victims.
Just the facts, and you draw your conclusions as you see fit!
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A lot more to come.
He was hiding under his desk for a week after Katrina, making the catastrophe far worse.
you can't blame McCain for that..
lest you forget that sine the beginning of the "100 days" we have HAD a Democratic congress, and what, a handful of vetoes??
don't be confused by smoke and mirrors, there isn't a coat of paints difference between these two 'parties'.
far as McCain goes, showing a photo of what he was doing when he WASN'T president hardly destroys decades of being a royal pain in the ass of the Republican party.
neither of the semi-candidates can say that.
"Taking McCain at his own words. He is the one who went out there talking about what he would have done as a president. All of which Bush did not do. That is the issue here."
If you ARE actually taking McCain at his own words, then it would be tough to grade him as President during Katrina, when he was merely a Senator at the time. A Senator without Presidential powers. McCain could do nothing with FEMA in 2005. However, Ray Nagin could have rescinded the 5 day wait for Federal assistance back then, but didn't. He wanted to control everything. So the starving and injured waited helplessly in the SuperDome for a week. Shameful.
This article is what's known as a cheap shot or a hit piece.
Bush should have. Instead he is cake posing with John McCain. And two years later, McCain is telling those people what the president SHOULD HAVE done. Well Senator did you tell your buddy? That is the question here and pictures suggest he was a willing participant in helping the president buffon out.
NO, you are wrong on the motives. I am a fervent believer that no one changes their votes based on blogs. Maybe 1 out of 1000. Since readership of these articles gravitates around 50 to 100s, that closer to zero.
Maybe the point is to confirm your thesis - that is anyone can grab pictures, sentences and put them out of context. That is (was) not my goal here.
The goal is to show that when people run for office, they suddenly know the right thing to do. John McCain was cake celebrating with Bush. Two years later he has the wisdom to tell us what should have been done by the president. Wouldn't be nice if he jumped on that plane with the president and toured New Orleans with him? That would have been some really positive Ad to run on TV two years later instead of calling out the president NOW instead of TWO YEARS AGO.
It wouldn't matter if McCain wasn't lipping off in New Orleans. He should have remembered he was playing "Birthday Party" (and at his age) back then and then not acted so righteous in New Orleans, now. It makes him look so ridiculous and he did it to himself.
A TV ad of McCain lipping off in New Orleans and then cut to what HE was doing at the time, with who he was doing it with, will be all his fault. He didn't have to lip off in New Orleans - he did it. He made it TOO easy for anybody. The Dems would be grossly negligent NOT to run an ad like that.
(I think I need some tea - ALL my typos recently)
McCain and Bush are just disgusting like most of their co-horts.
DNC run the ad, let the people decide.
BUT, he was PARTYING with me.
I guess Kay does not see the problem with those two attitudes. And yeah, he put it on the table. Nobody said a word about this for 2 years until John McCain went to New Orleans and called out Bush.
Kay, John McCain said what the President SHOULD have done, not me! It's John McCain own words of what his buddy SHOULD HAVE DONE.
the only problem is they were partying together!
Pictures says a thousand words. The pictures of these two guys eating Cake on the day of KATRINA, PRICELESS! I think they should run one of those Mastercard commecials with the pictures.
This is not about what state officials should have done. John McCain said what the president should have done. Bush did not do it and they were eating CAKE together. Those are facts.
Fact: President Bush was too busy eating CAKE with McCain.
Two simple facts. you draw your conclusions based on facts supported with evidence (pictures).
Add to that President Bush tap dancing while waiting for McCain, show the pictures of two hugging, followed by McCain saying that the economy has broken all kind of records over the past seven years. I can't wait for the Fall!
I am not inventing anything. These are McCain words in the article, and these pictures are authentic. What's the problem?
You can mock the whole thing Kay, but I am very happy these pictures exist. All you need in this country is enough imbeciles to hold it against McCain, et voila!
As for the cake, Martha Stewart designed it I heard. As for where Emeril was, je ne sais pas du tout!
I think it will work Kay, what do you think? I think the GOP will be pissed off if a TV ad runs with these pics. That I can't wait for. Another great ad should have Bush dances in Liberia, and while waiting for McCain. The best way to get to McCain is through Bush. That will be the strategy and it will work. Talk to me on Nov 5th!
I have listened to someone who helped in both towns and he has said that the difference in the attitude of the people was night and day. One was what do you have for me and the other was get out of my way I'm busy picking up the pieces.
Yes a lot of what happened in New Orleans was preventable but it should have started at a local level and moved up the chain not start at the top and worked it's way down. The mayor asks the governor for help then the governor asks the president for help. The President can not force the mayor to do something.
People have gone through hurricane after hurricane and yet they still make many of the same bad choices. Every time a hurricane aims for the coast you see the same people going out and buying more plywood after disposing of the plywood from the previous storms.
One more. How many of you stopped what you had planned for that day because of what was going on in New Orleans?
That is the issue here once again. Someone was partying that day and now is pretending and throwing his party mate under the bus.
If that hurricane had hit anywhere else we probably not even be having this conversation. How many towns up and down the coast have been hit and we've never had this level of trouble. New Orleans is unique at a geographical level that presented challenges that are not present in any other location and to many looked the other way or as one man I heard say " I rode out Camille so I'm staying for this one" and this kind of "what ever" attitude cause many to have to be rescued.
Many live with the Idea of it happens to other people.
That would have been a wee bit extreme indeed. Read the article and comments I made. That is not the issue here. He can celebrate his Bday on Katrina, who cares? I don't.
The fact he celebrated his Bday is not the issue at all. He celebrated with the president, who failed to do a number of things. Two years later he comes and tells us what the president should have done.
The best analogy I can provide is like going out to party with friend on your Bday, who should have been at work. Two years he gets fired and his company cites his missed work days as one of the reasons, and you turn around and say "I would have never missed work to go out and party."
If that's something you would have done, then you should not see any problem with McCain eating cake with Bush on Katrina day, and say 'the president should have done such and such'
General Jackson's plans for defense of the city were thwarted by the British capture of five American gunboats in Lake Borgne in the first battle near New Orleans in December 1814. Despite the loss, American casualties numbered fewer than those of the British. In the next major battle during the night of December 23, United States and British forces fought on land on the Villeré and adjacent plantations below the city, ending in a stalemate that threw the British off balance and battered their morale. The cost of the engagement was high: 277 British casualties, including 46 killed, and 213 United States casualties, including 24 killed. Hardest hit was Beale's rifle company, composed primarily of New Orleans lawyers and merchants.
Although United States and British commissioners met in Ghent, Belgium, on December 24 to sign a peace treaty to end the War of 1812, the battle raged on around New Orleans. A major American victory came on New Year's Day, with British casualties outnumbering those on the United States side by more than two to one.
Finally, on January 8, the day commemorated today as the victory day in the Battle of New Orleans, two British generals, including Major General Pakenham, were killed in battle, with a third severely wounded. Soldiers described battlefield action as confused and haphazard in the dark hours of that foggy morning. Britain suffered over 2,000 casualties in that decisive battle, whereas Jackson lost only 71 men. The British forces withdrew through Lake Borgne and into the Gulf, firing on Fort St. Philip for over a week before sailing out to sea for good.
So when a badly out numbered, out trained and inferior force of American Military faced certain death, the brave folks of New Orleans stood up for America. A tragedy strikes them, we forget which building they're in.
The let them eat cake philosophy does not end with New Orleans, but is rallying cry of the Republican party. Let's start with my favorite health care. Under a proposed cut by the Republicans, Hospitals and doctors would be paid 10% less for services. This has been postponed for 6 months. This cut is opposed by the AMA. The reason, it will result in Genocide. Patients are already being dumped on the streets, some in their hospital gowns. Doctors and hospitals can't absorb the cost. Simple economics, pay the rent or loose your lease. Reduce payments, and the patients will be forced to absorbs the 10% reduction. what this means is tens of thousands will die, because they don't have the few extra dollars that it would cost to save them
The cake is getting even sweeter for the rich. Instead of doing the logical thing and keeping people in their homes, the Republicans are saying that many people should not have owned their own homes in the first place. This makes the victims, the criminals. The SOS, "Your either with us or against us", aka Dixie Chicks. The solution that works is to re-access the value of the homes, and refinance them. This would be a hell of a lot cheaper than bailing out every investment banker that ever screwed an investor, and would have the instant effect of restoring liquidity in the housing market, but it wouldn't make a single one of their friends richer.
Inflation and food shortages. You can't watch Bloomberg without knowing the problem here. The consumer is competing with the Federal Government(Purchases 67,000+ barrels of oil a day) at market prices, plus speculators. The Saudi Oil Minister said he did not have a single offer to buy a barrel of oil at $110, much less $120. Oil is not being traded, paper(contracts) are being traded. yesterday, Bloomberg reported that an over abundance of grain was being hoarded by wall street to artificially inflate prices. This is to squeeze the consumer at every point. Food, Fuel, and the development of alternative energy.
Damn if I wasn't writing this, I would think that it was from a Stephen King novel. so if you want the right wing to finish picking the flesh off the bones of the middle class and poor, while at the same time, saying I'm a Christian, vote republican. Otherwise vote to save the country, from the greatest evil since Hitler and vote for anybody else.
The same day, the national guard was Deployed, and the area was declared a disaster area. I live 50 miles from there and your full of crap.
There were 11 people killed in Greensburg. Another twisted(Extremely Mental Fascist) comparison of apples and oranges. Are you implying that it might have been due to the race or the location of the people involved?
I was referring more to the events leading up to the hurricane and the actions that could have been taken to reduce the number of people who were stranded.
"New Orleans is unique at a geographical level that presented challenges that are not present in any other location and to many looked the other way" I said in my previous comment that I was refering to location.
And with your history lesson on New Oreleans what were you trying to say? I think New Orleans is a great city and can't wait for it to recover.
Let's just take an example here. Bear Sterns was too big to fail, yet we let thousands die, and bloated bodies float in the most vile water ever known, while our elite leaders ate cake and enjoyed the good life. Was New Orleans to big to fail, or was it's people just not worth saving. Shame on anyone that defends this governments treatment of it own citizens.
If you don't want the Government to do it, who the hell else is going to. You can't tax people until Aug., then not provide any services. You can't ask young men to fight and die in Iraq, so the oil president can get richer, and not get their dead relatives out of flooded major cities.
GW Dodged service and Dick just bought his way out of Vietnam. They serve the rich Boy way at the tax payers expense and in their own self interest. You
will never be taxed less, but if you join the fight, you might just have a say, how your money is spent.
If you open your eyes, you might just find out, you've been punked.
Well that government starts at a local level and Nagen failed just as much as the federal government but I don't hear the complaining about what he didn't do all the time just about what the federal government didn't do. The hurricane did not sneak up on New Orleans and he had time to move many more out of the city but he probably didn't expect the failures that happened .
My point, is the American people never fail to respond to those who govern, yet the governed can't even except mercy when merited.
I'm not blaming McCain for Katrina. I am blaming him for being a hypocrite.
The president has simply made responding to natural disasters in the United States secondary to his war in Iraq. Other Republicans, by calling the mention of this unpatriotic, have proven that they support the president in this.
Now, contrast that with Obama's brother in Kenya, whom Obama last saw in 2006. His brother lives in a 6 foot by 9 foot hut and LIVES ON A DOLLAR A DAY.....
Now, I recall Obama saying these exact words at the Saddleback interview: "I think America's greatest moral failure in my lifetime has been that we still don't abide by that basic recept in Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me."
You can check the above transcript yourself. It's accurate.
Also, if you want to see the story on Obama's brother, go right ahead.
"Barack Obama's 'lost' brother found in Kenya"
What does this say about Obama? If he can't help is brother, what makes you think he could help an entire city of people?
Lastly, how do any of us know what time those photos with McCain were taken and what was known about the levees breaking? This story with photos is highly questionable. My information on Obama is factual and irrefutable and I back it up with credible sources.
Next.
This is what I'm talking about. Katrina was horrible, but to assume it all lands on Bush's lap is just typical of partisan, moonbat hacks, of which there are no shortages on Gather.