To Punch a President. Literally.
"If one person criticizes them or says one more thing—including the president of the United States—he will hear from me," she said on the ABC program. "One more word about it after this show airs and I might likely have to punch him. Literally."
The "she" above is Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) speaking on ABC's The Week and responding to George Bush's weekly radio address in which he said that local and state officials bore some blame for the wretched response to Hurricane Katrina.
Via FishbowlDC and Editor & Publisher.
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Hmm, does the Secret Service investigate senators?
Awesome! I would love to see Bush destroy Landrieu under a hail of counterpunches in response to her pathetic girly-first slap-punch. Thunderdome! Two men enter, one man leaves!
They could do a pay-per-view fight and donate the proceeds to the Katrina victims… or to me. 🙂
But Mrs. Landrieu is welcome to take her best swing at me. I’m learning Lightning Ju Jitsu in celebration of WW2, and wearing my nicest checkered shirt.
Via Drudge:
Before residents had ever heard the words “Hurricane Katrina,” the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE ran a story warning residents: If you stay behind during a big storm, you’ll be on your own!
Editors at TIMES-PICAYUNE on Monday called for every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be fired. In an open letter to President Bush, the paper said: “Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.”
But the TIMES-PICAYUNE published a story on July 24, 2005 stating: City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give a historically blunt message: “In the event of a major hurricane, you’re on your own.”
Staff writer Bruce Nolan reported some 7 weeks before Katrina: “In scripted appearances being recorded now, officials such as Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm’s way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation.”
“In the video, made by the anti-poverty agency Total Community Action, they urge those people to make arrangements now by finding their own ways to leave the city in the event of an evacuation.
“You’re responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you,” Wilkins said in an interview. “If you have some room to get that person out of town, the Red Cross will have a space for that person outside the area. We can help you.”
Don Mynack,
I was thinking more along the lines of a no-holds-barred Kirk vs Gorn matchup on the streets of NO, but whatever floats yer boat….
For real, why all the blame on the government? Since when was “personal responsability” a dirty phrase? I realize that it was easier for some people to get out than others, but these people had their whole lives to prepare for the big one or get the fuck out of what is obviously a flood basin. That’s why I’m having trouble mustering a great deal of sympathy for the able-bodied adults.
Does Bush get to hit anyone who criticize him? He’ll never have time, even if he only goes after all the officials in NO and LA.
Is everybody in Louisiana government nuts?
Hmm, does the Secret Service investigate senators?
Nothing happened to Jesse Helms when he implied that then-President Clinton would be murdered if he showed up on any Southern Army bases. So I’m guessing the answer is no.
And while she’s at it, how about a good, solid kick in the groin for Rick Santorum as well? I’d hate to see her lose her momentum now that she’s on a roll.
Federals were non-responsive? I remember how triumphantly they proclaimed SS checks would be in as usual. 🙂
“If one person criticizes them or says one more thing – including the president of the United States – he will hear from me,” she said on the ABC program. “One more word about it after this show airs and I might likely have to punch him. Literally.”
You know, this is pretty bad on its own and its pretty bad that the context it was being said isn’t represented. I watched This Week and she was being specific about the job the sherrifs department did in evacuating the prisoners while having to swim to the prison with handcuffs in their teeth. Her remarks then were to punch anyone who criticized the efforts of the sherrifs department post Katrina.
Lets at least get the record straight, this is not the NRO blog.
From the AP:
“WASHINGTON – Buffeted by criticism over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush said Tuesday he will oversee an investigation into what went wrong and why ? in part to be sure the country could withstand more storms or attack.”
Mary may have her chance to live up to those words …
Before residents had ever heard the words “Hurricane Katrina,” the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE ran a story warning residents: If you stay behind during a big storm, you’ll be on your own!
How can you take a story out of the Times-Picayune seriously? 😉
Picayune (Adjective)
Pronunciation: [pik-?yun]
Definition 1: (1) Paltry, trivial, of little value; (2) Petty, mean, spiteful.
“Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area. And bureaucracy needs to stand trial before Congress today,” Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, said on CBS’ “The Early Show.”
“So I’m asking Congress, please investigate this now. Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don’t give me the same idiot.”
How did it become the federal governments fault when NOLA has been under threat of hurricanes for years and supposedly had disaster recovery plans in place? Because the local and state plans fell apart, Landrieu wants to throw down with the president? If she wants to punch some people she should start in NOLA with the local FEMA coordinator, police chief, mayor, etc. and work her way up. If she can whip all the low level minions then she can try to take on the big boss, a-la Street Fighter II. Now that would make CSPAN interesting for a while…
Hey, look at that, there are commenters making exactly the same arguments that the administration is pushing as its media strategy.
Who woulda thunk it?
Wasn’t she the one thanking every politician in the world while Anderson Cooper told her about how that stuff rings hollow in light of the dead body being eaten by rats that he saw in Mississippi that day? She seems awfully moody.
You know, while political hacks are going to be claiming responsibility for all the good things that happen to their constituency, like how the economy is better thanks to their porkbarrel “jobs package”, couldn’t we at least hold them accountable for all the bad things that had absolutely nothing to do with their actions, too?
joe,
Don’t even start to pretend that only the administration is involved in spin. The left started spinning pretty quickly as well. Have you for forgotten Kennedy’s article about Kyoto and global warming? How about just every local and state official and Lousiana pointing fingers at the feds? How about websites like dailykos? The liberal side is spinning as fast as the conservative. In fact everyone is spinning so fast the days are getting shorter.
if nothing else it’s shown that out of tragedy comes talking points. global warming or iraq or bad culture or bad planning, and so forth. you can pretty much tell from someone’s political leanings what their response to any sort of event is going to be. which speaks poorly of our diversity, for sure.
mine being machetes of course. machetesbydhex.com — nothing says “get your fucking hands off my stuff” like a machete!
Is everybody in Louisiana government nuts?
Yes, but it isn’t limited to Louisiana.
joe is absolutely correct. The local governments are infallible. Besides, what do we volunteer money from our paychecks to feds for anyway? 😉
The sight of the President of Jefferson Parrish being enraged that the Federal Government was lax in allowing nursing home residents to be caught in a hurricane and subsequent flood in Jefferson Parish was more than a little ironic. If he wants to find an idiot, he only needs to look in a mirror. If the outcome of this catastrophe is that people begin to look past their local and state governments even more for matters like evacuations, and turn even more toward the Federal Government, that will only compound future catastrophes.
Back during that Kelo mess, joe’s solution to the problem of eminent domain abuse was “don’t elect corrupt local politicians who will engage in eminent domain abuse.”
Now that we’re faced with this mess in NO, joe is all like, “don’t blame local corrupt politicians for the mess in NO, blame the Bush administration!”
I’m not sure if this is really relevant here, but I thought this article from reason after hurricane Andrew is interesting for the parallels between Kate Hale and the government officials in Louisiana and also between Bush I and Bush II.
https://reason.com/9301/fe.garvin.shtml
Does George Bush get to punch you back?
The pointing figures among government officials is mostly ridiculous, and technically a moot point.
But everyone in the Louisiana government is indeed nuts and it borders on hilarious.
Hey, look at that, there are commenters making exactly the same arguments that the local gov administration is pushing as its media strategy.
Who woulda thunk it?
when all you have to do is change 1-2 words to make the counter point, their isn’t a whole lot of deep wit involved.
In fact everyone is spinning so fast the days are getting shorter.
The days should be getting longer. Conservation of angular momentum, you know.
“Hey, look at that, there are commenters making exactly the same arguments that the administration is pushing as its media strategy.”
…Some of ’em are pretty predictable. That’s the worst thing about media strategies–they work! Not all the time on all the people, but all the time with some of the people–that’s for sure.
“Don’t even start to pretend that only the administration is involved in spin.”
When I read joe’s comment above, I thought the emphasis was on certain commenters–not the Bush Administration.
…I don’t blame the Bush Administration for having a media strategy; I’m just amazed at how many people adopt a media strategy as their own opinion. Don’t you think that’s kinda scary?
…Don’t feel bad; some people buy things from spammers.
If any of would care to dig up anything I’ve written lauding the local government for its response, I’m sure we’d all love to see it.
But, sadly, there’s only one side here trying to shift the blame from one level of goverment to others, and it ain’t mine.
Right you are, Tom. The point of my comment was not shock that the White House has a media campaign ready, but disgust at the astroturf brigade that so dependably shows up on their behalf.
What is amusing is the complete inability of anyone to take responsibility at any level. Individuals decided to live below sea level and hang out during a major hurricane. The mayor missed the opportunity to bus out thousands and left the busses to rot in the flood. The governor presumably had substantial state resources (Nat. Guard, etc.) and responsibility to provide backup for the local community. The feds are so busy sending men and equipment to make the world safe for democracy that they no doubt were less able than they could have been to actually assist Americans in trouble.
Perhaps the lesson is that the one thing you can count on from every level of government is a lack of accountability.
Okay, toddb, I mostly agree with you, but I think you gloss over the individual situation. Lots of individuals never “decided to live below sea level and hang out during” Katrina. i.e. they were born/raised there and never had the means to get out. The people who did have the means and decided not to, well, they get a little less respect from me, unless they’re providing more relief than they’re depending on..
joe,
Your problem is you are on a libertarian site spouting that the feds should move in faster during a natural disaster, in fact take over before the disaster hits (as they would have to do to handle an evacuation). Don’t you think you might find a bit of resistance to that here? Don’t you think that some of what sounds like administation apoligists is individuals expecting that government closest to the people affected should handle what they can.
You’ve spent enough time here spouting the liberal line that you could certainly be accused of being part of the liberal “astroturf”.
What exactly is the Bush administration media strategy? I didn’t get the memo today.
Flyover Country:
“In fact everyone is spinning so fast the days are getting shorter.”
Chuck:
“The days should be getting longer. Conservation of angular momentum, you know.”
Wouldn’t that depend on which direction people are spinning? I’m seeing approximately as many people spinning left as there are spinning right. Hence the torque in two opposing directions should effectively cancel out.
joe wrote:
“But, sadly, there’s only one side here trying to shift the blame from one level of goverment to others, and it ain’t mine.”
What color is the sky in your world, joe?
What color is the sky in your world..?
Um…gee…
…They didn’t have anything about the sky on NRO today, so…um…I dunno.