Michael Chertoff: Government doing "a magnificent job" in New Orleans

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Terry Ebbert, New Orleans' homeland security chief, told WWL-TV that he thinks FEMA's response to the disaster has been an "embarrassment." Walter Maestri, the emergency management director in suburban Jefferson Parish, said FEMA and other federal agencies are not delivering help nearly as fast as it is needed.

Yet, back in Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told CNN Thursday that he believes he thinks FEMA and other federal agencies have done a "magnificent job" under difficult circumstances to deal with the unprecedented disaster, citing their "courage" and "ingenuity."

Insisting that aid is coming as fast as possible, Chertoff said, "You can't fly helicopters in a hurricane. You can't drive trucks in a hurricane."

Such explanations likely would have been of cold comfort to the crowd of hot, thirsty, bedraggled people outside the convention center, even if they could have heard them. "We want help, we want help," they chanted for the television cameras, an impromptu SOS to the outside world.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/02/katrina.response/index.html

http://photos1.blogger.com/img/106/2898/640/Chertoff,%20Michael.jpg

[JackDragna]

1. He's right. You can't fly choppers or drive trucks..

..but one COULD have had those things in the region ready to help those in the strike zone.

[neuvocat]

2. TV cameras can get in there but helicopters can't?

This guy is our answer to Baghdad Bob, I tell ya.

[ByeDick]

3. Is this the guy who didn't even know that he was housing people

in a massive sports complex?

Why would somebody ask this killer a question, let alone listen to the answer?

[brentspeak]

4. "You can't fly helicopters in a hurricane. You can't drive trucks..."

Er, Chertoff -- the rain and the wind died down a couple of days ago. The hurricane is long gone. Moron.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. And you cant DEPLOY THE NATIONAL GUARD when they are

OFF FIGHTING AND DYING IN A BULLSHIT WAR BASED ON A PACK OF LIES, HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD.

(Sorry for the caps.)

Homeland Security? Okay, then, lets bring the people whose job it is to help with this kind of thing HOME.

Fuck You, Chertoff. You fucking dick.

[slor]

6. Yes..."it is a catastrophic success"! n/t

[Spinzonner]

7. Not this time

This time it was a Successful Catastrophe

[radfringe]

8. He's dragging out September 11....again....

Bush compares, contrasts Katrina and Nine-Eleven

WHITE HOUSE: President Bush says while Nine-Eleven was a man-made attack and Hurricane Katrina natural, their aftermath is "just as serious."

Bush tells A-B-C "New Orleans is more devastated than New York was." But, he promises the city will rise again.

He says seeing the destruction from Air Force One was emotional. Bush plans to tour devastated areas tomorrow.

--------------

so who do we invade now?

[yellowcanine]

21. "New Orleans is more devastated than New York was." Duh.

What a putz.

[NewHampshireDem]

9. All we need is a giant "Mission Accomplished"banner

Then they can all head home, just like in Iraq ... oh, wait, nevermind. :grr:

* strummed while New Orleans drowned.

[punpirate]

10. If I ever decide to write...

... a modern-day version of a Dostoevsky novel, the villain's name will be Chertoff.

[WCGreen]

11. This is the reson Bush put polticians in charge of these

sensative areas...

They walk the walk and talk the talk...

And to thatcrowd, loyalty and damage to an image control are more important than results....

[WePurrsevere]

12. Tell me "sir... would it have been such an "unprecedented disaster" IF___

IF Bush had actually DONE HIS JOB, listened to all those scientists that warned this could happen YEARS ago (not to mention the weather forecasts that kept saying it was coming) and and been ready with a PLAN for before and after? :grr: IF Bush had reacted the SAME day and immediately sent help in? :grr: IF Bush hadn't destroyed the disaster mitigation program that Clinton had set up? :grr: (I still can't figure out WHY Clinton didn't laugh in Bush's face when he had the BIG brassy ones to ask him for help... or maybe he did "off the record" and then said yes for more reasons I can't figure out). IF FEMA had not been combined with Homeland INsecurity and put under such an incompetitant twit as you? :grr: And finally... would it have been such an "unprecedented disaster" IF Bush hadn't further cut funds to shore up/repair levy's that he knew were in dire need of repair? :grr:

You can try to spin it all you want but I think we know the answers to those questions "sir" and soon any American with half a brain and the world will know those answers too... IF they don't already.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

13. More Chertoff denials, from NPR:

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/01/chertoff-reality/

Chertoff Won’t Acknowledge Reality

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff today on NPR’s All Things Considered:

Robert Siegel: We are hearing from our reporter, he’s on another line right now, thousands of people at the convention center in New Orleans with no food, zero.

Chertoff: As I said, I’m telling you we are getting food and water to areas where people are staging. The one about an episode like this is if you talk to someone or you get a rumor or an anecdotal version of something I think it’s dangerous to extrapolate it all over the place.

-Snip-

Robert Siegel: But Mr. Secretary when you say we shouldn’t listen to rumors. These are things coming from reporters who have not only covered many many other hurricanes, they’ve covered wars and refugee camps. These aren’t rumors, they are saying there are thousands of people there.

Chertoff: I would be…I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don’t have food and water.

Posted by Judd September 1, 2005 8:24

[truthisfreedom]

14. listen to this

http://rapidshare.de/files/4632564/nagin.mp3.html

[ET Awful]

15. Hey Chertoff - THE FUCKING HURRICANE IS OVER.

Dumbass lying puppet.

[Cassandra]

16. Chertoff doing a lousy job in Washington, DC

Does everyone feel safer?

[ReadTomPaine]

17. Imagine what a poor performance looks like, then. n/t

[auburngrad82]

18. I heard him on NPR saying that FEMA couldn't respond to "rumors"

of thousands of people at the convention center with no food or water and dead bodies around the center. He repeatedly denied it and repeatedly talked about what a great job FEMA did to get to the Superdome.

What a putz.

[Vickers]

19. Who you gonna believe, Chertoff, or your lying eyes?

:sarcasm:

[yellowcanine]

20. Fire his ass. AND the FEMA head's ass as well! Put Bill Clinton

and Rudy Guiliani in charge.

[iconoclastNYC]

22. BULLSHIT.

They have a storm path they could have has this shit prepositioned right outside the storm path and it could have moved in as soon as the winds died down.

They might have been able to stop the levee breaks and the Superdome woudln't have turned into Mad Max Thunderdome.