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Post by sparklingblue on Sept 3, 2005 10:23:21 GMT -5
from the boards at Pierce Brosnan launches broadside at Bush over storm handling"This man called President Bush has a lot to answer for," the former James Bond actor told journalists as he presented his latest movie at a French festival of US film in this Normandy resort town. "I don't know if this man is really taking care of America," Brosnan said Saturday. He was responding to a question about the Bush administration's response to Hurrican Katrina, which has wreaked massive destruction and loss of life in the southern US. Bush has been accused of reacting too slowly and not bringing enough federal aid to bear on the chaos, which many people fear may be linked to climate change. Bush and his officials have refused to sign up to the Kyoto protocol which aims to reduce greenhouse emissions believed to be behind climate change. "This government has been shameful," Brosnan said. The outburst revealed a rare moment of passion for the actor, who had been fielding questions mostly about his new film, "The Matador", and about his career now that he has refused to play in any more James Bond films. |
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Post by IcyCalm on Sept 3, 2005 10:49:35 GMT -5
"SPOT ON", PIERCE!
IcyCalm
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Post by sparklingblue on Sept 3, 2005 15:47:17 GMT -5
That's one thing we love him for.
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Kristýna
Jewel Thief
"?ivot napodobuje to, co jsme si vysnili." (Agent z Panamy)
Posts: 172
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Post by Kristýna on Sept 4, 2005 7:17:55 GMT -5
Yes, he´s not affraid to say what he thinks :-)
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Post by Barbara on Sept 8, 2005 0:00:36 GMT -5
The only problem with what Pierce said is that he didn't call for Bush's impeachment, but don't worry...I'll do that.
Little Shrub needs to be fired. NOW.
-- Xen
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Post by Lauryn on Sept 8, 2005 0:42:20 GMT -5
The only problem with what Pierce said is that he didn't call for Bush's impeachment, but don't worry...I'll do that. Little Shrub needs to be fired. NOW. -- Xen It is worth noting re: Katrina that it was possible to get supplies through, put boots on the ground without delay, and eventually, put cash in the pockets of many hurricane victims in Florida in the election year of 2004. Not to mention the largesse which flowed to certain wealthy Republican leaning counties where the impact of the storms was fairly negligible. Interesting contrast. The FEMA of 2004, more proactive, a good deal less clueless, but still, to some degree, the same old spoils system that it was prior to Clinton vs the asleep at the wheel FEMA of 2005 in the wake of Katrina. In New Orleans the severity, the widespread flooding, and the challenge of saving thousands from a largely poor captive population formerly dependant upon city transit are rather significant factors in play here. Still, one can't escape the feeling that if Louisiana were a hotly contested state with 27 electoral votes(governed by a close relation of the President) and this was an election year the loss of life in Katrina might be materially reduced. |
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Post by curious george on Sept 9, 2005 16:18:03 GMT -5
Pardon me while I step into the Bush-bashing fray without my flak jacket.  Lots of mistakes? Yes, and still looking bad in way too many places. Blaming it all on racism and Bush? Crap. Needing an investigation? Definitely. Investigation led by Republicans and/or their appointees only? No way in hell/New Orleans. (same thing) Did this administration screw up? You betcha. But the implications that if the Democrats had been in charge, everything would have gone smoothly is so much mud-slinging -- and toxic mud at that.  ALL of the talking heads need to stop talking and start working. Glad to see they've hauled the FEMA guy out of there -- 'bout time. Surely in a country such as ours we can find a middle ground between utter chaos and pretending that if we just worked hard enough, we could stand up to Mother Nature and come out none the worse for wear. And who has a good suggestion for the idiots who say, "I don't want to be rescued...but I might later?" cg p.s. "cg's rule": no posting in this column without already having made a contribution in cash or in kind to a reputable hurricane relief organization or to a personal friend/relative who has been affected by Katrina. |
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Post by curious george on Sept 9, 2005 16:38:32 GMT -5
On the other hand...how nice to see someone who refuses to be interviewed. Wish I could afford to send that kind of help without blinking. cg ****
Friday, September 9, 2005; Posted: 4:14 p.m. EDT (20:14 GMT)
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- Al Gore helped airlift some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans, acting at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of the former vice president's son.
Gore criticized the Bush administration's slow response to Katrina in a speech Friday in San Francisco, but refused to be interviewed about the mercy missions he financed and flew on Sept. 3 and 4.
However, Dr. Anderson Spickard, who is Gore's personal physician and accompanied him on the flights, said: "Gore told me he wanted to do this because like all of us he wanted to seize the opportunity to do what one guy can do, given the assets that he has."
An account of the flights was posted this week on a Democratic Party Web page. It was written by Greg Simon, president of the Washington-based activist group FasterCures. Simon, who helped put together the mission, also declined an interview.
On Sept. 1, three days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, Simon learned that Dr. David Kline, a neurosurgeon who operated on Gore's son, Albert, after a life-threatening auto accident in 1989, was trying to get in touch with Gore. Kline was stranded with patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
"The situation was dire and becoming worse by the minute -- food and water running out, no power, 4 feet of water surrounding the hospital and ... corpses outside," Simon wrote.
Gore responded immediately, telephoning Kline and agreeing to underwrite the $50,000 each for the two flights, although Larry Flax, founder of California Pizza Kitchens, later pledged to pay for one of them.
"None of the airlines involved required a contract or any written guarantee of payment before sending their planes and volunteer crews," Simon wrote of the American Airlines flights. "One official said if Gore promised to pay, that was good enough for them."
He also recruited two doctors, Spickard and Gore's cousin, retired Col. Dar LaFon, a specialist in internal medicine who once ran the military hospital in Baghdad.
Most critically, Gore worked to cut through government red tape, personally calling Gov. Phil Bredesen to get Tennessee's support and U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to secure landing rights in New Orleans.
About 140 people, many of them sick, landed in Knoxville on Sept. 3. The second flight, with 130 evacuees, landed the next day in Chattanooga.www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/09/katrina.gore.ap/index.html |
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Post by Ace on Sept 9, 2005 16:42:24 GMT -5
The fact that there's lots of blame to go around doesn't absolve Bush from being at the head of the line. Harry Truman said the buck stops here in regards to the Presidency and it does. Winston Churchill said the only purpose of gov't was to take care of it's citizens. This has nothing to do with bi-partisan politics but a tremendous level of incompetence that should not go unremarked or unpunished.
Bush appointed Brown, an ill qualified cronie to head FEMA. And I see Brown has finally lost his job -- too little too late. FEMA has been stuffed under Homeland Security and it's monies cut and diverted under Bush's watch as local govts protested . The Army Corps of Engineers warned over and over about the levee and yet FEMA and the Fed Gov't did not repair and re-enforce it. Was the state and local gov't also ill prepared, yes, but that doesn't absolve Bush or the Federal Gov't.
Natural disaster cannot be averted, and it can be beyond destructive. But much of the death and pain has come through a tortously slow response time and fatally incompetent coordination.
Yeah there are a couple thousand people who don't want to leave (and hundreds of thousands who did and could not). They don't want to leave their homes or all they have in the world so they can live in a stadium and Barbara Bush can say it's all turned out well because these people had nothing where they came from anyway and now they can live in Texas. Yee haw!
Add to that Pres Bush staying on (yet another) vacation, golfing, playing his guitar or visiting veterans in San Diego while New Orleans drowned and well he's not exactly covered himself in glory.
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Post by sparklingblue on Sept 9, 2005 16:44:38 GMT -5
Okay, Bush doesn't take all the blame in my book, but there are a lot of points that were just inadequately handled. from Time Magazine: Tuesday, Sep. 06, 2005
Dipping His Toe Into Disaster (excerpt)
It isn't easy picking George Bush's worst moment last week. Was it his first go at addressing the crisis Wednesday, when he came across as cool to the point of uncaring? Was it when he said that he didn't "think anybody expected" the New Orleans levees to give way, though that very possibility had been forecast for years (!!) [/i]? Was it when he arrived in Mobile, Ala., a full four days after the storm made landfall, and praised his hapless Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director, Michael D. Brown, whose disaster credentials seemed to consist of once being the commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association[/b] ( !!  Who hired that guy?) ? "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," said the President. Or was it that odd moment when he promised to rebuild Mississippi Senator Trent Lott's house--a gesture that must have sounded astonishingly tone-deaf to the homeless black citizens still trapped in the postapocalyptic water world of New Orleans. "Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house--he's lost his entire house," cracked Bush, "there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." (that's called disrespect bordering on ignorance in my book) I'm not saying that a Democrat president would have handled matters better because I cannot know that. Fact is that mistakes have been made, and the leader of the executive is accountable for them. A lot of misery is also due to people being too stubborn to leave. That is of course irresponsible. But they are still entitled to help because how do you differentiate between those who didn't leave on purpose and those who didn't have the means? (cg, I'm not arguing with you, just explaining my stance.  |
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Post by IcyCalm on Sept 13, 2005 23:39:31 GMT -5
Just now, while channel surfing, I caught a glimpse of Pierce pictured on the O'Riley Factor on the Fox news. Ol' Bill was commenting on all the Hollywood types speaking out against the administration's handling of the Katrina disaster. O'Riley singled out Pierce saying, "he's not even an American."
I emailed O'Riley straight away, informing him that Pierce took his citizenship which gave him all the more right to speak overseas on American issues.
Did anybody else catch this sorry broadcast?
IcyCalm
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Post by Barbara on Sept 15, 2005 16:24:28 GMT -5
I missed that, and I usually watch O'Reilly, but believe me, if I had, I would have thrown something at my sorry excuse for a TV.
I won't be watching O'Reilly for a while.
-- B
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Post by Ace on Sept 15, 2005 18:04:20 GMT -5
I missed that, and I usually watch O'Reilly, but believe me, if I had, I would have thrown something at my sorry excuse for a TV. I won't be watching O'Reilly for a while. -- B But why watch O'Reilly anyway? He's never had anything worthwhile to say and never will. You're just feeding his ratings and ego by acknowledging his existence. Ace |
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Who hired that guy?)? "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," said the President. Or was it that odd moment when he promised to rebuild Mississippi Senator Trent Lott's house--a gesture that must have sounded astonishingly tone-deaf to the homeless black citizens still trapped in the postapocalyptic water world of New Orleans. "Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house--he's lost his entire house," cracked Bush, "there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." (that's called disrespect bordering on ignorance in my book)
