Learn it! Speak it! Live it!
Bring Christmas to a child in need!
An 'urgency': Sensing threats to institutions of society, church leaders make declaration 
Click to Print
Include Comments
President to address the RNC via satellite
President Bush, who was scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention yesterday but instead chose to concentrate on dealing with Hurricane Gustav, will address convention delegates this evening via satellite. Joe Lieberman and Fred Thompson will also speak tonight.
Topic: Campaign 2008, WorldMagBlog
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
back to top45 Comments to “President to address the RNC via satellite”
Please give me a break.
Bush used the ruse of the hurricane to avoid speaking at the convention.
What is to stop him from going to the convention now that the hurricane is dying out?
Report comment to moderator
Why would President want to “avoid speaking at the convention,” Nick?
And even if he had “used the rules of the hurricane to avoid speaking” last night, why in the world would he be speaking there tonight?
Report comment to moderator
It’s a lose-lose-lose situation.
If he goes to the convention, he gets criticized for neglecting the victims of Gustov.
If he avoids the convention all together, he gets criticized for being scared to make an appearance, knowing he is a cancer to the party.
If he stays near the coast, but speaks via satellite, he gets criticized from both sides for half-heatedly trying to do two things.
Report comment to moderator
I agree with Graceland’s first statement. The rest, not so much.
Lucky for the people on the Gulf Coast it’s an election year. Salon has the scoop.
Three years ago this week, Bush was in Arizona, celebrating McCain’s 69th birthday, when Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast and nearly destroyed New Orleans.
Report comment to moderator
Yes, Lumpy, three years ago, they knew that Nagan wouldn’t fill his buses, they knew LA’s governor wouldn’t ask for help, they knew the levees wouldn’t hold, etc., etc., so they knowingly and willingly ate cake. Get real.
That said, this is a nice surprise, though I don’t know what Fred Thompson has to say. Lieberman makes sense to me.
This also saves jet fuel.
Report comment to moderator
Graceland: It’s a 2 hour plane ride to Minneapolis. Given the absence of Katrina-style devastation, if either Bush or McCain really wanted Bush to speak in person, somehow it might just have gotten done. But now McCain is just praying for some kind of power-failure.
But there’s been way too much of that for the last 8 years.
Report comment to moderator
A news report on The Real Republican Convention.
Report comment to moderator
Check out the link in number 7.
The Republicans hired a band called “Hookers and Blow.” Blow is a euphemism for cocaine.
Report comment to moderator
Arcadia,
Of course he could easily make an appearance, and of course McCain would prefer he not be there.
I was just commenting on everyone’s reaction to Bush. It doesn’t matter where or when Bush makes or doesn’t make an appearance–he’s always going to be criticized for it.
Report comment to moderator
NJLawyer post 5,
but this year we had overwash of the same industrial canal which caused the bulk of the flooding under Katrina, with some flooding apparenlty of the ninth ward.
This canal is apparenlty under the Army Corp of Engineers:
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pd/projectsList/home.asp?projectID=107&directoryFilePath=ProjectData\
Gustav came in as a class 2 hurricane, not the 4 predicted nor the 3 of Katrina: so we got a break.
But why is the Industrial Canal apparently still not up to being able to withstand a Katrina size hurricane?
We dodged a bullet this time. How often do we expect to dodge bullets?
Report comment to moderator
Pictures and discussion of over wash of the Industrial Canal:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/09/photo-shows-wat.html
Report comment to moderator
I don’t know the answer to that, Musing. But I doubt Bush is the reason. It may very well be that no one should be living in that area anymore or that there should be no businesses there. There will always be risk involved in these matters, and as I understand it, they base the risk on something like 100 years. I wouldn’t build houses where Katrina hit ever again knowing that the place is sinking. If the government has to bail people out, this was where the should have done it. Buy their land and turn it into a stadium or something.
Report comment to moderator
If it’s good, Bush is the reason. If it’s bad, Bush is not the reason. Got it?
Report comment to moderator
Advance copy of the script:
“Hey, fellas. The state of our party is strong. Evil is fleein’. The economy’s good. Sure people are havin’ trouble, but I got faith the economy’s fundamentally strong and the American people love America.
[wait for applause]
Only we got what it takes ta fight evil. Evil is real. And we fight it. We fight it all day. We fight it till it’s dead. We kill evil. We’re evil-killers.
[wait for applause]
But the Democrats just want to surrender to evil. They love evil. And they love surrender. And they hate America. So we can’t let ‘em win.
Elections — I set this one up for ya real nice. Like they say, necessity is… necessity… the mother of necessity… inventin’ is a necessary mother.
So good luck. Swing by my place later for some beer and a birthday cake.”
Report comment to moderator
Folks like NJLawyer have been trying to absolve President Bush of all responsibility for anything bad that’s happened on his watch for the last 8 years. Fortunately, the American people aren’t so stupid and blindly partisan! Among other major blunders, the failure of the Bush Administration during Katrina will be an albatross around his neck for all time. Attempts to deflect Bush’s failure of responsibility by pointing out the failure of others (the mayor of NO, the Governor, etc.) will not work.
Report comment to moderator
JJF- 14
Report comment to moderator
15. So if the pitcher throws an easy slow ball, that’s hit past the short stop then the run is the fault of the center field who could get it back to home plate in time.
Report comment to moderator
How many of you on here have actually been to New Orleans? The city was and is below sea level. That may work somewhere where they are not near the sea but on the Gulf Coast it doesn’t. It is like building a house at the beach on the sand…wait isn’t that somewhere in the Bible about the wise man building his house on the rock????
Report comment to moderator
I’ve always thought NOLA was a bad idea, so far as gravity and water are concerned.
Report comment to moderator
NJLawyer post 12,
well as I remember it the Army is under Bush AND the promise was to rebuild New Orleans:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050915-8.html
“And the federal government will undertake a close partnership with the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, the city of New Orleans, and other Gulf Coast cities, so they can rebuild in a sensible, well-planned way. Federal funds will cover the great majority of the costs of repairing public infrastructure in the disaster zone, from roads and bridges to schools and water systems. Our goal is to get the work done quickly. ”
and
“people who call it home need to have reassurance that their lives will be safer in the years to come. Protecting a city that sits lower than the water around it is not easy, but it can, and has been done. City and parish officials in New Orleans, and state officials in Louisiana will have a large part in the engineering decisions to come. And the Army Corps of Engineers will work at their side to make the flood protection system stronger than it has ever been. ”
and the decision has been made to rebuild in the ninth ward.
So three years latter we do not appear to be ready for a hurricane which has come once and which nearly came a second time in three years.
The key is rebuilding the levees to adequate strength for the areas which are deemed appropriate for rebuilding.
This does not seem to have occurred.
And was promised in 2005.
Report comment to moderator
I live part time in Louisiana and have been to New Orleans several times this year. The issue of New Orleans location wouldn’t be a significant issue under normal circumstances if we had not destroyed the marshes and wetlands along the Louisiana coast which are supposed to absorb the shock of a hurricane. Also, the mismanagement of the Mississippi River by the Army Corps of Engineers has contributed to the problem. The Dutch have cities below sea level and manage them quite well.
Report comment to moderator
Remember when Bush dressed up like Snoopy’s Red Baron and landed on the aircraft carrier on prime-time TV during his “Mission Accomplished” speech? He didn’t share the platform with anyone because he thought the war was going well.
Now he won’t even appear at the Republican Convention. And there are still people on this site who think the Iraq War was a good idea.
Report comment to moderator
Kim post 18,
I have been to New Orleans.
Bush well knew it was below sea level.
Bush promised to build adequate protections (see post 20).
Report comment to moderator
Not since Lyndon Johnson skipped the Democratic convention in 1968, has a sitting president not attended his party’s convention.
Report comment to moderator
I am not absolving anyone of anything. Bush is not an engineer, and he delegates these things to the Army Corps of Engineers. I’m not an engineer either, but I agree with Kim that building below sea level with that kind of a threat coming at you is stupid. The Dutch are not exposed to the exact same weather, I doubt they have the same soil, but I’m not an engineer. I am, however, well aware that no one can defeat Mother Nature, and trying to control her is foolish.
If you read Yankee magazine, the latest issue has a story of a man on an island in Mass. who is trying to stop the ocean. How stupid is that?
Report comment to moderator
The protections were indeed adequate this year, Musing, and you know it. The water came over the levees but didn’t break them down. No houses were destroyed, and no people were killed.
Report comment to moderator
And this time they put the people on the busses and bussed them out. And I have to give Nagin kudos for telling the people not to come back yet.
Report comment to moderator
NJLawyer post 25,
actually I am an engineer.
I have looked over the Dutch surge protection systems.
The Dutch system is extremely robust and has weathered every challenge to hit since it was ocnstructed.
It is clear that the Industrial Canal walls are no better than the walls were for Katrina. They have provided cement structures to avoid the scouring effects, BUT Gustav was clearly overlapping the walls.
And if Gustav had been a category 3 like Katrina?
And yes Bush is where the buck stops. He is commander in chief. the Army Corp of Engineers reports back to him. He made a promise to New Orleans.
The promise clearly has not been kept.
Report comment to moderator
outkast post 26,
actually it would appear that you did not read my post.
the protection was just barely satisfactory for Gustav with a category 2 landing. the water did wash over the top of the industiral canal and did cause flooding in the ninth ward.
My statements is that they are not suitable for a katrina type storm.
Gustav missed being Katrina class by perhaps one day.
The new defenses were to be better than before katrina.
That is clearly not the case.
Report comment to moderator
kim post 27,
yes indeed it does look like FEMA, the state emergency services, and the city emergency services were much better this time. It was a large evacuation, and yes it is probably wise for the refugees not to come back just yet.
Report comment to moderator
The Corps’ plan to strengthen the levy system will be completed circa 2011. It’s unclear to me if the system will approach that of the Netherlands. Seems pretty clear that NOLA dodged this bullet — so Outkast, you are wrong, if the storm had hit dead on instead of to the south of the city, there would likely have been far greater damage. But Musing, I think you’re being unfair as well. The Administration is working on the levy problem; they haven’t finished yet.
Report comment to moderator
coyoteblue post 31,
I am willing to accept perhaps that the adminstration has not had time to fix the levees, although based on the present experience, it is unclear that we have 6 more years to wait.
The following articles, however, do not instill me with confidence:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/us/nationalspecial/17protect.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2006/2006-03-31-06.asp
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2006/2006-03-31-06.asp
In the last article Katrina is described as a 1 in 396 year storm. We were in a hairbreadth of repeating Katrina or worse in only three years.
Report comment to moderator
coyoteblue post 31,
and it is worth noting that the industrial canal which was a key source of the Katrina flooding actually allowed limited flooding of the ninth ward this time.
One point brought up in this article is a funding authorization issue if the upgrade is to be performed properly:
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/levee_officials_decry_corps_pu.html
It looks like the present funding authorization was passed shortly after Katrina. Sounds like a new funding authorization bill needs to be brought before congress.
Report comment to moderator
“I agree with Kim that building below sea level with that kind of a threat coming at you is stupid. ”
And NJL, it must pain you to be in agreement with me too.
Report comment to moderator
And the following is testimony in April 2006 by a representative of the Army Corp of Engineers:
http://epw.senate.gov/hearing_statements.cfm?id=253968
The following is an interesting description of the original Katrina flooding:
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/12/210912.shtml
Note the observations of waves overtopping the levees AND the crashing into the Industrial Canal by a barge. It was apparently reported that indeed three ships broke free during Gustav near the industrial canal. Again New Orleans apparently dodged a bullet as they did not hit the levees on the industrial canal.
There really are two realistic models:
1) build very solid surge protection
2) relocate major portions (all but the French Quarter which apparenlty is above sea level perhaps?)
Bush has promised option 1 to support rebuilding.
So we will be facing the costs.
Report comment to moderator
Godlumps psot 34,
then of course don’t promise to support rebuilding AND be prepared to buy out the present residents.
Since we have already funded the rebuilding, buying them out now will be an interesting exercise.
Report comment to moderator
Lumpy, you know I love you.
I’ve even been in agreement now and again with Anlir, SteveG and HRW, and I’ve survived, I tell you! It acts like a jump-start, just as arguing with you guys cleans the rust out of the arteries. All healthy!
Report comment to moderator
I feel fuzzy all over. Wait! What is that butcher knife doing behind your ………
Report comment to moderator
I want you to know, Lumpy, that I laughed out loud. Really.
(When you defend yourself, remember that I’m left-handed.)
Report comment to moderator
Rudy 9ui11iani is going to speak?
Which dress will he choose?
Report comment to moderator
Rudy canceled his show. Must have run his nylons.
Report comment to moderator
Isn’t it time to start calling it a 1 in 3 year storm?
Good Russian roulette odds. As Jerry Pournelle used to say, “Consider it evoution in action.”
Report comment to moderator
That was a yawner. I had to turn it off during the reading of McCain’s book by Thompson. He kept hacking up in the mic, and we already know John McCain is a POW. What a disappointing appearance by one of my favorite celebrities.
Don’t they have anything new to tell us?
Did Bush phone it in as expected?
Report comment to moderator
President Bush is one of the greatest and kindest men to ever serve in that office.
I have watched presidents all my life come off of choppers and airplanes being saluted by a service man standing at attention next to the vehicle. No President has given more respect to such men than has President Bush. He always stops to respectfully return their salute. Last night, he did even more. I saw him stop to return that salute to the uniformed man at attention, then shake his hand and give him a respectful hug. For that moment, Bush put his full focus of kindness and respect on that individual soldier. At a personal and private level, President Bush cares more about the most common of subordinates than any leader I have ever seen.
Report comment to moderator
Yes, President Bush is the most wonderful President this country has ever had! He is so majestic and full of wonder and beauty! Whenever I see him on TV I fall to my knees and weep at the very sight of him. Truly he is God’s Chosen One for America. Bow down and worship him all ye citizens of America! All of his judgments and decisions have been perfect and wise beyond all measure. Truly we will never, ever have another President such as this.
Well, I really must stop now or the tears will start flowing again.
Report comment to moderator
back to topJoin The Conversation
You need to be a registered user of WORLDonTheWeb.com to "join the conversation."
If you are not a member yet, what are you waiting for? Register / Login Now!