Bush, five days after Katrina: "PUT THE FIRE OUT, NOW!"

[Bluebear]

Swoon. My big brave hero.


NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - President Bush angrily demanded a fire he spotted in flood-ravaged New Orleans from aboard Air Force One be put out immediately, according to excerpts of a new book attacking top government officials for the confusion following Hurricane Katrina....

Brinkley, an author and historian at Tulane University, quotes Congressman William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat, describing Bush viewing the damage from aboard Air Force One five days after the storm. He said Bush asked Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff about a fire in the city.

Chertoff explained that fire departments were struggling in the aftermath of the hurricane and having difficulty extinguishing blazes because water pressure was too low.

"Put the fire out, now! There is water everywhere. I want the fire out," Bush was quoted as yelling.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060503/en_nm/hurricanes_book_dc

[IndyOp]

1. There is water everywhere.

:dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce:

[Bluebear]

2. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

No WONDER he has all those advanced degrees from Harvard and Yale.

[TahitiNut]

13. Now there's a fella who deserves the irony of a Viking funeral.

[CatWoman]

17. water, water everywhere

and not a drop to drink........

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. There is water everywhere because of his ineptitude! Guess the POS

didn't get that? Oh where to begin? :banghead:

[Javaman]

50. Water water everyone and not a brain to think...nt

[BrklynLiberal]

3. What a stupid twit.

[JeffR]

4. He's a Uniter, Not a Divider, He's the Decider, He's Top Gun, He's

the Fire-Puter-Outer.

At least the little turd noticed all the water...

[Shakespeare]

5. Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink....

Bush is completely irony-deficient. Not that we didn't know this already...

[central scrutinizer]

18. and Bushco is the albatross around the neck of America

[Atman]

6. My goodness! How did he muster the courage?

"I want the fire out," he said, adding "Check two three four...check two three four...how was that Karl? Do you think I ee-moted enough?"

[valerief]

7. How moronically take-charge. Idiot-in-chief. n/t

[AndyA]

8. Little Lord Pissypants demands, and everyone delivers.

He is sooo out of touch with reality. If he wanted the fire put out, why didn't he do it? Did he think that maybe saving trapped people, stranded animals, and getting food and water to the survivors was more important?

He's a sad excuse for a human being.

[Sydnie]

9. Water everywhere ... but what was in that water?

Many flammable substances I would bet, among other things ... like BODIES.

[Kagemusha]

10. Blanco says something very ugly, nasty and incredible here.

"In the excerpts, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco describes Nagin as "a total void" during the crisis, and recalls a meeting aboard Bush's plane in which Nagin "lost his temper" and slammed his hand on a table, demanding a chain of command be established to kick-start the stumbling rescue operation.

"It was bizarre," Blanco is quoted as saying. "Nagin was falling apart."

---

Falling apart?

Pleading with the Leader of the Free World to establish a clear unified chain of command and get a situation under control is falling apart and being a void?

I've seen projection, but this, this just takes the cake. I am truly aghast to read this.

[goclark]

14. Blanco seemed pretty out of it too!

Who wouldn't be in their situation?

She needs to shut up and stop projecting.

Nagin was in the battle, she was in her office!

[pitohui]

38. nagin was in dallas w.in days of the crisis

blanco did a hell of a lot more than nagin did, a hell of a lot more

by the way, why all the nagin defenders crawling out of the woodwork

look at the header at the top of this page

this is the DEMOCRATIC underground

hello?

[Kagemusha]

40. You're misreading my point completely...

The simple point was that Blanco seemed to think that between a mayor and a president, the mayor is the one who should have been taking control of the situation and providing rock solid leadership doing... um, I don't know, being rock solid and shutting the hell up. That analysis gives the President a total free pass, and THAT is what I didn't like.

(Edited out a lot of indignation about criticizing anyone with a (D) besides the name being a violation of this site's philosophy, policies, and an insult to all good, loyal posters. This is not the Soviet Union.)

[goclark]

42. Blanco seems to forget that Nagin was Chocolate

and Bush was way too busy thinking politics and hugging BROWNIE than helping Katrina victims.

Nagin had no real power unless Bush wanted to give him some and he did not.

As I recall, Bush treated Blanco like chopped liver as well.

She was not given any respect either!

Now she is playing right into their hands, IMO every time I saw her or heard her speak, she looked in shock.

They were all in the middle of a battle fiend in their own country.

I didn't blame her for that because the nation was in shock from the way that the RepubliCONS treated the Katrina victims.

Let's keep the focus on the real enemy, goclark has no power, the ENEMY is RepubliCON!

PEACE

[Bridget Burke]

44. And Blanco means "white"....

Both she & Nagin did more than Bush. And they did it earlier.

[goclark]

45. Thank you Bridget, thank you

BUSH was the ENEMY in Katrina and he is the ENEMY in America everyday.

[goclark]

41. Nagin is a Democrat and I am also Chocolate

:)

Funny how when he called NO Chocolate the Media went crazy on him.

When Colbert(I love him by the way)said that DC was Chocolate with Marshmallow inside the Press did not put him down for that, they laughed and realized it was the truth.

He may not win Mayor again but he sure got more than a few votes.
He is in the run off as I recall.
Some people that LIVE there must have voted for him.


By the way, they don't get more "Progressive Democrat" than goclark.


I am laughing out loud at even the suggestion that I could be a Freeper.

[Bridget Burke]

46. Apparently 90% of NO's black voters went for Nagin....

NEW ORLEANS MAYORAL ELECTION
Black voters made their presence felt; Predictions of large racial shift in city politics prove unfounded

By KIM COBB and KRISTEN MACK
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

NEW ORLEANS - The most intriguing news out of this city's mayoral primary election is the story of what didn't happen: White voters failed to dominate at the polls Saturday as thousands of black voters returned home.

Nearly eight months after Hurricane Katrina decimated the majority of New Orleans' black neighborhoods, black voters kept incumbent Mayor C. Ray Nagin's candidacy alive, casting an estimated 90 percent of votes in his favor.

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu drew the second-highest percentage of black voters, with more than 20 percent of his total support coming from displaced black residents.

"So the African-Americans' candidates are progressing to the runoff," said political analyst Greg Rigamer of GCR & Associates. The percentage of white voters casting ballots Saturday was larger than in previous elections — about 48 percent of the total instead of the usual 38 percent, he said — but that did not represent the takeover of New Orleans politics that some had predicted.

www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/05/katrina/3814131.html

I'd consider NOLA milk chocolate--or perhaps cafe au lait. Apparently many are disappointed that it has not turned vanilla.

[goclark]

47. Thanks for the article

Because Landrieu has more money I am sure, I do believe he will win in the end.

His father was the Mayor of NO before and that may give him more of an edge with AA voters too.

I think Nagin must have been saying something right to my people because many were really upset with him during/right after Katrina.

He held town hall meetings and they let him have it ~ as well they should have socked it to him.

Now, they are in his corner for the most part.

Perhaps Blanco sees her butter being on Landrieu thus the smear begins on Negin.

That would be a shame.
One thing that the blame game on Nagin did for me as Chocolate goclark:) is to cause me to get mad at her to defend my Chocolate Brother.:crazy:

If she keeps piling it on Nagin, my Brothers and Sisters will jump to his defense.

[Bridget Burke]

48. The Houston Chronicle has pretty good NOLA coverage....

Our city had long-standing ties to Louisiana even before Katrina.

Nagin met with evacuees here--lively meetings they were! And some of the buses filled with voters came from Houston.

[uppityperson]

26. Of course he was falling apart, it was total chaos, destruction

of course he was.

And to Mr.bush, about that water, how do you propose they put that water onto those fires? By the bucket? That might help some.

[Kagemusha]

27. Bush showed no understanding of water pressure so I guess so.

I showed this story to a friend and he suggested a fire boat. Maybe that was the proper solution. But I can easily imagine fire boats being more underutilized or unused resources in the aftermath of the hurricane. (Also, conditions may simply have sucked too much for this solution so treat this as the wild speculation long after the fact that it is.)

[uppityperson]

28. boats and resources were being used to save lives.

building can be rebuilt. Lives were important then. Note to all, communications systems go down majorly during disasters.

[Kagemusha]

30. Well, not that fires are good because they can kill too

but if you're saying Bush was demanding resources be diverted from saving human beings and sent to save property instead, in all likelihood not realizing that would be the result, then point taken.

A point of my own: this kind of "just get it done" bluster seems to be the inevitable result of his details-lite, delegation-heavy leadership style.

[pitohui]

37. what is incredible abt it?

nagin is a republican who supported george bush for president and bobby jindal in the governor's race, he changed his party to democrat only because no republican can be elected mayor of new orleans

however he has done nothing but stab blanco and the democratic party in the back since the day he took office

blanco has a perfect right to notice what we all noticed -- that ray nagin needs to go back to hustling cable teevee, he does not have the brains or the emotional stability to manage a city in crisis

what she said was not incredible, it was simply spot-on accurate

nagin is quite barking mad at this point

have you SEEN the new hurricane plan he just released? it is absolutely insane

[Kagemusha]

39. A raving mad Nagin would've been in more control than Bush there.

Nagin did not have the authority to give orders to the military. Nagin did not have authority to give orders to the state. Nagin could only plead, bang the table and gnash his teeth. And this he apparently did.

Expecting Nagin to provide leadership and pull up the President of the United States with him is a little twisted. But that's exactly what Blanco seems to have expected.

[deminks]

11. Dear leader.

Looking for fires. Yeah, right.

[Bluebear]

12. Thank you.

Precisely the photo I was looking for.

[Writer]

15. No I want the fire out NOW

NOW NOW NOW NOW NOOOOOOOOOOOW!

[SoFlaJet]

16. Nobody has noticed it but...

that picture of Bush playing the guitar?He's trying to play a "G" chord but to actually play the chord right you'd have to have your hand up the neck one fret.3rd fret not 4th-dumbass

[catnhatnh]

35. They told him to play that way, he would need a capo....

on the first fret...he got mad and said he didn't want "a Goddam castranated chicken nowhere NEAR my guitar...."

[WI_DEM]

19. He doesn't call himself "the decider" for nothing

[Fridays Child]

20. Then he said, "Let there be light."

Delusions of grandeur: not a good trait in a world leader. :eyes:

[Bluebear]

21. And on day seven he rested.

In Crawford.

[rug]

22. Maybe he should fly over Baghdad.

[tgnyc]

23. Fucking retard.

[C_U_L8R]

25. "Ah, but the strawberries! "

"That's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes,
but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, and with geometric logic,
that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox did exist!
And I'd have produced that key if they hadn't pulled Caine out of action!
I-I-I know now they were only trying to protect some fellow officer and..."

Captian Queeg .. perhaps paraphrasing Captain GWB

[eppur_se_muova]

56. OK, now I know how to pronounce GWB ... it's "gweeb". Cap'n Gweeb. nt

[KyuzoGator]

29. It wasn't water, it was flammable toxic slime.

But from six miles up, I can understand why he would think it was water.

[uppityperson]

33. here's a picture of the "water"

[DemoTex]

31. What a great pic! What a pitiful moron!

Check Six, AWOL MOFO! Mig-Masters on your ass.

[Bluebear]

32. Translation: Holy shit, I guess I shouldn't have been playing guitar

and eating McCain's birthday cake....

[peekaloo]

34. Throw some of that petroleum enriched sludge on it pronto!

Fuckin' Twilight Zone in reverse....this time the monster is inside the plane making life miserable for those outside.

[Stephanie]

36. Your photo is from Wednesday

The story refers to his visit on Friday. Remember on Wednesday, he still had no idea what had happened. The aides prepared the DVD for him of news stories on THURSDAY. He did no even fucking bother to flip on CNN while he was staying at the luxury resort Hotel del Coronado on Monday night. Imagine! Staying in the Presidential Suite of an exclusive beach-front resort and could not be bothered to watch half an hour of news. Rumor has it he GOLFED that afternoon. The rumor remains unconfirmed. On Tuesday he spoke on the Navy ship, about Iraq. And played guitar for yuks. While people were drowning and screaming for help. They flew back to Crawford that night and stayed over. They really think they are hot-shit getting off that plane. It is the height of ignorant arrogance. Wednesday morning George flies back to DC without the Queen. They do a flyover of NOLA. That is your photo. Then they go back to DC and do a five minute press conference outside the WH with the Cabinet. They plan a photo-op the next day. Bush flies to Mississippi and Louisiana on Friday. He does photo-ops with Haley Barbour. He says, "Heck'uva job, Brownier." While people are still on their roofs, screaming for help.




Sunday





Monday







Tuesday









Wednesday

[giant_robot]

43. Gee, that was helpful

Temper tantrum accomplished.

[lpbk2713]

49. "I didn't get the memo."

[autorank]

51. We're going to be so embarassed someday not to far from now.

We've got a goof ball, nit wit running this country. A total bufoon...what an embarassment.

We're not that well liked overseas, tolerated at times, admired at others but not well liked.
They know our gig -- invade whenever we fee like it, big ones every 30 years or so, Viet Nam,
Iraq but lots of crap in between (I'm exempting Kosovo, which was required). But now, with *,
people are really starting to hate us. How could they let a goof ball like this ruin the whole
damn world, people elsewhere must be saying.

Strange and disgusting.

[IndyOp]

53. Going to be embarrassed. I am deeply, profoundly ASHAMED.

And the ashamedness just keeps getting deeper and deeper...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1090630&mesg_id=1090630

[pushycat]

52. Congressman Jefferson has lots of trouble lately...

<snip>A Justice Department investigation into alleged bribes solicited and received by Congressman William Jefferson (D-LA) is heating up, according to today's Roll Call.

Last week, six of the Congressman's Louisiana staff informed the House that they had been subpoenaed by a grand jury.<snip>



http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Jefferson_bribery_investigation_heats_up_as_0403.html

[davez]

54. pictures taken same day?

Those pictures were taken the same day? I can't believe he was playing the guitar while the city was drowning, hats go off to the guy who put those two images to one.

WOW

Bush gets no respect, and I dont mean Rodney Dangerfield no respect, i mean literally, NO REPSECT AT ALL

[mikelgb]

55. Welcome to DU baby....

:hug:

[Bluebear]

58. Yep. Bush was playing guitar while people were drowning. nt

[DoYouEverWonder]

57. More proof Bush only cares about property

because on the 3rd day of our Lord Bu$h, he said 'Let them drown'.

[canetoad]

59. Even that's not right

Fingers making the G chord shape, but on wrong fret.

[DoYouEverWonder]

60. Supposedly it's the way they teach

you to do a G chord in the MelBay Books. At least, according to some of the guitar players around here when the pic came out. That's why some of dubbed it the NOLA G Chord.

Actually, I think either the guitar player was screwing with him to make him look stupid or it was a not so subtle way for George to tell the world FU again.

[Hekate]

61. You can lead a Bush to water, but you can't make him think. nt