News Busters: Bush’s Omission of Katrina/Gulf Coast Treated as “Scandalous”

This is from News Busters, a website that claims it exposes and combats “liberal” media bias:

A night after CNN anchors fretted about how Katrina and the recovering Gulf region were “thunderously missing” from President Bush’s State of the Union address, CBS and NBC picked up the cause. CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric regretted on Wednesday night how “there was not one mention of Katrina, though the suffering and hardship continue.” Noting that “there are still 13,000 people living in FEMA trailers,” Couric asserted: “Some who lost everything are asking, ‘What about us?’” Reporter Armen Keteyian, a veteran of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, featured one New Orleans man who, “like many here, watched the President’s speech, his rage rising with every word.” Keteyian listed how “there were 5,596 words in the President’s speech last night,” and insisted that “reaction to the fact that not a single one was either Katrina or Louisiana was felt…all across the Gulf.” Kateyian concluded with how “words like ‘relief’ and ‘recovery’ now seem as empty to them as last night’s presidential address.”

Read the whole article by clicking here.

Responses

larry the lifegard

January 25, 2007

H’mm,

CNN, CBS, NBC, and Katy Couric. We have to assume these are all totally non biased reports and opinions by the liberal elite media. We should immediately demand Congressional hearings into this “Scandalous” omission. Perhaps if Louisiana could get its act together and stop electing incompetent loosers like Blanco, Nagin, and Jefferson, we would have seen more progress in the recovery effort by now.

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Jim

January 25, 2007

What crazy logic! It’s the liberals’ fault that Bush didn’t speak about recovery efforts resulting from the worst natural disasters in our country’s history! Hell, he is STILL talking about 9/11 every chance he gets. Get real, Larry.

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Larry the Lifeguard

January 26, 2007

Mi Loco Logica according to Donald Powell Federal coordinator of Gulf Coast Rebuilding

These are the facts:

* The American taxpayers are funding the $7.5 Billion Blanco Road
Home program, which has yet to get off the ground and help the citizens
rebuild. To date, less than 200 checks have been given to the more than
100,000 citizens who have applied.

* Governor Blanco requested additional funds on top of the $6.2
billion that Congress granted Louisiana in December 2005 – we worked
tirelessly with the State to determine their additional level of need,
$4.2 billion, and then President supported the people of Louisiana and
pushed the additional Supplemental funding request through Congress.

* When Governor Blanco asked for the Federal Government to give
Louisiana a larger share of royalty revenue from the Outer Continental
Shelf, President Bush supported the people of Louisiana and pushed OCS
reform through Congress despite opposition from Democrats on the Hill.

* When Governor Blanco requested extensions of GO Zone tax
extenders, President Bush supported the people of Louisiana and pushed
GO Zone extensions through Congress.

* When Governor Blanco requested full federal payment to extend
Emergency Assistance, including debris removal, President Bush supported
and acted in favor of the people of Louisiana.

* Other funds specifically for Louisiana include, but are not
limited to:

* $10.4 Billion of Community Development Block Grants (HUD)

* $23.0 Billion of Long-term infrastructure, temporary housing,
and other emergency needs (FEMA)

* $5.8 Billion for Levees (Corps)

* $1.0 Billion of Healthcare Funding (HHS)

* $720 Million in Education Funding (ED)

* $700 Million in Transportation funding (DOT)

* $60 Million in Criminal Justice Funding (DOJ)

* And almost $1 billion from SBA

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Darren

January 26, 2007

STATEMENT BY DONALD POWELL, FEDERAL COORDINATOR FOR GULF COAST
REBUILDING

“I am extremely disappointed by the Governor’s comments. It’s now 18
months since Katrina hit, and continuing to focus on the immediate
response, for which the President has acknowledged his responsibility,
is unproductive and does absolutely nothing to help the people of
Louisiana rebuild their lives. It is my opinion that time spent on
finger-pointing would be better spent working to solve the critical
issues facing Louisiana.

“Let’s get our facts straight: The President created the Office of Gulf
Coast Rebuilding to coordinate the entire federal response, and our
office has worked diligently to help all the states affected by this
disaster, regardless of political affiliation. Our office has worked
with Governor Blanco at every step to accommodate her requests and any
statements to the contrary are simply not based in fact. After more
than a year of my office being a trustworthy and hardworking partner in
her efforts, these statements are hurtful and represent an ungrateful
attitude towards the American taxpayer.”

These are the facts:

* The American taxpayers are funding the $7.5 Billion Blanco Road
Home program, which has yet to get off the ground and help the citizens
rebuild. To date, less than 200 checks have been given to the more than
100,000 citizens who have applied.

* Governor Blanco requested additional funds on top of the $6.2
billion that Congress granted Louisiana in December 2005 – we worked
tirelessly with the State to determine their additional level of need,
$4.2 billion, and then President supported the people of Louisiana and
pushed the additional Supplemental funding request through Congress.

* When Governor Blanco asked for the Federal Government to give
Louisiana a larger share of royalty revenue from the Outer Continental
Shelf, President Bush supported the people of Louisiana and pushed OCS
reform through Congress despite opposition from Democrats on the Hill.

* When Governor Blanco requested extensions of GO Zone tax
extenders, President Bush supported the people of Louisiana and pushed
GO Zone extensions through Congress.

* When Governor Blanco requested full federal payment to extend
Emergency Assistance, including debris removal, President Bush supported
and acted in favor of the people of Louisiana.

* Other funds specifically for Louisiana include, but are not
limited to:

* $10.4 Billion of Community Development Block Grants (HUD)

* $23.0 Billion of Long-term infrastructure, temporary housing,
and other emergency needs (FEMA)

* $5.8 Billion for Levees (Corps)

* $1.0 Billion of Healthcare Funding (HHS)

* $720 Million in Education Funding (ED)

* $700 Million in Transportation funding (DOT)

* $60 Million in Criminal Justice Funding (DOJ)

* And almost $1 billion from SBA

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larry the lifeguard

January 26, 2007

Jim que su lógica está más loca.

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Ron Roberts

January 26, 2007

Larry, what pool you lifeguarding at? I’ll be sure to avoid swimming. There’s a ton of CRAP coming from somewhere in your presence, and I won’t “hope” I’m swimming past a Snicker bar.

Louisiana has suffered more damage than any other state and had to share the federal disaster funds in a lesser percentage than percentage of damage done in-state. Fair? Uh, no.

“Brownie’s” “huckuva job” was an embarrassing case point of nepotism at its worst. Louisiana’s fault? Uh, no.

Levees built under the U.S. (federal) Army Corps of Engineers over 50 years ago, and built shoddily… Louisiana’s fault? Uh, no.

Should the President have mentioned the gulf coast recovery effort this week? Hell yes; but Katrina doesn’t stir up his base like 9/11 seems to.

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Larry the Lifeguard

January 27, 2007

Ron I don’t recall 9/11 mentioned that often in the state of the union. If you read the transcript it is only found in the middle of the speech twice. According to Donald Powell the American taxpayers are funding the $7.5 Billion Blanco Road Home program, which has yet to get off the ground and help the citizens rebuild. To date, less than 200 checks have been given to the more than 100,000 who have applied.When Governor Blanco asked for the Federal Government to give Louisiana a larger share of royalty revenue from the Outer Continental Shelf, President Bush supported the people of Louisiana and pushed OCS reform through Congress despite opposition from Democrats on the Hill. It sounds like you want to blame the federal government for Katrina and all the problems associated with the recovery effort. All I’m saying is that the State of Louisiana and our corrupt and incompetent leaders share alot of the responsibility. Why do we not hear about all the problems in neighboring Mississippi?

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Larry the Lifeguard

January 27, 2007

Ron I thought you may be interested in this responding to your 13 post under Bobby Jindal.
Who is smarter, Kerry or Bush?
WASHINGTON (USATODAY.com) — While the general impression during the 2004 presidential campaign was that Democrat John Kerry was the intellectual superior to President Bush, it turns out that their grades while undergraduate students at Yale were remarkably similar.
In fact, Bush’s were a tad higher. His four-year average was 77; Kerry’s 76. Both were C students. Kerry graduated from Yale in 1966; Bush in 1968

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Ron Roberts

January 27, 2007

The Road Home program has been a FIASCO, no doubt; unfortunately, because the immense task it is to gather the funds and dole ’em out accordingly, reviewing applications, it’s a task no single government entity can handle, and the task has been put in the hands of a private firm – out of the hands of any governmental leader’s control.

That has obviously been a frustrating situation for all involved, but if the state had taken on additional employees to do this task, or diverted current employees to take on this task, we’d all be hearing the right wing griping about “bigger governement.”

Larry, thanks for the “update” (read: sidebar story two years ago) on John Kerry’s and G.W. Bush’s college transcripts.

In all fairness, John Kerry was a horrible presidential candidate.

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Zakk

January 27, 2007

What difference does it make whether Bush talks about Katrina or not. So if he does talk about it I guess all the Katrina problems would be resolved. Once again we are more concerned about some symbolic gesture rather than actually tackling the problem. If Louisiana’s “leaders” would spend as much energy trying to do something rather than bitch and moan and not worry about their political carreers, as they do, the state would be the better for it. I hate to say it but we may be stuck on stupid.

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Ron Roberts

January 28, 2007

It DOES matter if gulf coast recovery is on this president’s radar; obviously it WASN’T on his radar immediately afterwrds.

But the guy’s polling at or below 34%… it’s not as if most of the country hasn’t come to the same conclusion a little over half of us had on election day in 2000, anyhow.

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Zakk

January 28, 2007

I don’t buy that at all. So to save time and space refer to Larry the Lifeguard’s post #5. It makes no difference who occupies the White House, Louisiana (New Orleans in particular) would be in the exact situation it’s in now. I guarantee it. Look at the mess New Orleans is in right now. The police force is a joke. Nagin is re-elected. Jefferson is re-elected. We can only hope Blanco and many incumbents,regardless of party, will be defeated, but that remains to be seen and at this point I’m not confident.

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Ron Roberts

January 30, 2007

Front page of today’s Town Talk….

“Powell (Don Powerll, White House coordinator for Gulf Coast recovery), under close questioning from U.S. Sen. Barak Obama (D.-1ll.) ACKNOWLEDGED that federal aid to Louisiana was not eqal to that of Mississippi.”

OUCH

Also telling… later down in the story…

“Although Lieberman (Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) invited U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La), Vitter did not attend.”

Read on…there’s MORE….

“Walter Leger Jr., a displaced St. Bernard Parish resident who is head of the Louisiana Recovery Authority’s housing committee and who represented Gov. Kathleen Blanco, told Lieberman that one reason (only 300 homeowners have gotten checks from the Road Home Program) is the number of safeguards built into the program to avoid fraud.

Legert said there were many reasons Mississippi’s housing program is ahead of Louisiana’s, including that Congress fully funded Mississippi’s housing program in December 2005, but Louisiana was not fully funded until nearly seven months later.”

The article went on to note that Mississippi elminated ALL aid to homeowners in flood zones,but had no restrictions on how homeowners used grants. Louisiana, meanwhile, requires modifications of homes in flood zones and requires money be used on refurbishing the home or for a reduced benefit, to sell the home to the authority.

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Zakk

January 30, 2007

It’s nothing more than the same old childish blame game. Nothing more than a campaign appearance for a few politicians. Nothing more than a waist of valuable time & energy. What does this accomplish in the end? You guessed it… nothing. But, if you must, there’s a more detailed story on this dog & pony show in the Times Picayunne.

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Ron Roberts

February 1, 2007

It’s not a “blame game” when the culprits accept blame themselves. That’d be like somebody popping out and saying “here I am” in hide-n-go-seek.

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Zakk

February 1, 2007

It is a “blame game” in that it’s part of the political posturing that’s going on. Call it what you want, but it’s still a waste of time, sort of like this thread, oh well gotta get back to work.

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Steve

February 4, 2007

So he didn’t mention hurricane Katrina, big fucking deal. He didn’t talk about the attack on Pearl Harbor either! You liberals make me sick!

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Lamar White, Jr

February 4, 2007

Liberals? Steve, the news organization from which this story is sourced is conservative. Perhaps you’re not from Louisiana, but to those of us here, it’s important to have the President of the United States recognize the ongoing recovery efforts (and subsequent massive government response and funding efforts) following the worst natural disaster in America’s history.

Surely you jest.

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