Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I'm not sure where it fits in with this story, but the President did accept full responsibility for the failures at the federal level some time ago. <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9324891/" target="_blank">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/93 24891/</a>
Originally Posted By DlandDug It is very easy to make specious cases like this after the fact. Looking at the events as they unfolded, the President's statement is quite reasonable. As I clearly recall, after Katrina passed to the east of New Orleans, everyone was expressing relief that the city had been spared the full brunt of the storm. It was only later that the levees failed, and reports began filtering out of flooding. It was in this context that Bush said that no one anticipated the failure of the levees. It was not that he believed the possibility did not exist, but rather that he, along with the rest of the country, believed that the city had been initially spared a full scale disaster.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe Dirk post 19 As STPH explained in post 7, George doesn't comprehend much. He said I don't either. We all don't seem to understand the reality of life as STPH sees it. Being the only President with an MBA degreee probably means to STPH that somehow he received it without comprehending his course material> maybe his daddy took the courses for him? What is is STPH. It's just disagreeing and now I UNDERSTAND but think I don't think that STPH will ever believe that George will ever understand. Go figure that STPH isn't the President. HE certainly comprehends it all. siiggghhhh If we could all only get it?
Originally Posted By tiggertoo IMO, the phrase is too ambiguous to really make any stark accusations. Is he talking about the potentiality of the levees failing...or the whether he was caught off guard when city was spared the brunt of the storm as it stuttered to the east and STILL suffered such a calamity? God only knows.
Originally Posted By StillThePassHolder Sorry Dirk, but I'm not convinced. It's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it. Getting elected and re-elected, for example, is not any demonstrably sign of intellect. Rather, it could also be interpreted as a lack of same by the electorate. Moreover, the degrees don't do it for me, as his GPA during that time has already been discussed at length in many places. "But how can you say that a man that has a degree from Yale and Harvard, flew jets in the military and has basically succeeded in virtually every endeavor thus far in his life is "mentally challenged?"" It's easy for me. As I said in my post, they have been many intelligent people who weren't great, even good, speakers. But I took my comment further. Can you honestly say he demonstrated a depth of knowledge during his debates, and thatafter listening to him explain Social Security and the senior drug program, you completely understand all that he said? If you did, you're a much better at that than most of us, and probably should have Scott McClellan's job, because he spends a lot of his time trying to explain away these exact types of problems to the press.
Originally Posted By bboisvert <<I'm not even putting Bush in the gifted mind category, only history can tell. But how can you say that a man that has a degree from Yale and Harvard, flew jets in the military and has basically succeeded in virtually every endeavor thus far in his life is "mentally challenged?">> I don't know how driving Arbusto Energy, Spectrum 7, and Harken Energy into the ground constitutes a "success", but maybe that's how things work in "Bush World". Now I know that we've all seen the internet version of the George W. Bush resume, but here is a link to one that seems to have some of the homework having more hyperlinks in it than you can wiggle a corn dog at. And while his grades and past performance are telling, they're not as important as what he is actively doing to society and to our country today. <a href="http://monkeydyne.com/bushresume/forward.html" target="_blank">http://monkeydyne.com/bushresu me/forward.html</a> Some highlights (edited to change from first to third person) that go with points made in Post #19... -Received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1968. ...with a 2.35 GPA. In the fall of 1970 he was rejected from admission at University of Texas Law School. In 1973 he applied to Harvard Business School with a 2.35 GPA. 1973 admission statistics are unavailable, but for an incomplete comparison today's Harvard students average a GPA of 3.5 - no students were accepted with a GPA lower than 2.6 -served as an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. ...but his participation in the National Guard was so low that even by the end of the Vietnam Conflict he had flown only 336 hours, not meeting the minimum standards (500 hours flight experience) for combat duty. -Received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1975. ,,,Bush said his grades were "in the middle" and believes he got "high honors" in some classes, but he would not release his records. Certainly, Bush's class standing was helped by the school's grading system, which emphasized strength of class participation over performance on written exams. <<taken from <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/1999/12/28/hallmarks_of_bush_style_were_seen_at_harvard/" target="_blank">http://www.boston.com/news/pol itics/president/bush/articles/1999/12/28/hallmarks_of_bush_style_were_seen_at_harvard/</a> >> -Assembled the group of partners who purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989 ,,,made possible only by his father's friends William DeWitt and Richard E. Rainwater. His participation resulted in incredible success for himself and terrible misfortune for his neighbors. He used eminent domain to take taxpayers' land, paid for it with $4.9 million taxpayer dollars, and then spent $191 million more taxpayer dollars to build a stadium. He left the city of Arlington, TX with a $7.5 million debt even after he sold the Rangers to Thomas Hicks for $250 million (a 2500% profit).
Originally Posted By trailsend 2oony's Post #21 is the accurate answer here to the topic. You were wondering, 2oony, if this fits into the story ? Most definitely. Thanks for REMINDING everyone.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe 25--STPH --It could be interpreted as a lack of same by the electorate. Again STPH this corroborates my post 23 that you comprehend it all abd feek that you are above the rest of us. I don't think people who voted for Bush would like that epithet of lack of intelligence. BB--GPA--2.35-----------I received a 2.42 at U. Dayton but you don't tell the whole story. With me, I flunked all the requisite sciences I was compelled to take i.e. Biology, Geology, etc. I literally flunked them all. I got all A's and B's in Poly Sci. and History, my majors. Also I was basically an inebriated sot for 5 five years including 2 1/2 years in college. We all know George drank and quit like I did. We also SHOULD know that grades aren't everything as public speaking isn't everything so let's realistically appraise George as being very bright at the very least, and one of our few elected 2 term Presidents. Unlike STPH, I don't think voting for George shows a lack of my intelligence or the lack of intelligence by the American people.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe post 24-tigger---very open minded and level headed!)) I agree 100% with you.
Originally Posted By bboisvert RE 28 - True enough, even though there are still some that are steadfastly only going to blame everyone else even though Bush has taken responsibility at the federal level. The next natural question is "What is being done to help the Gulf Coast NOW and IN THE FUTURE so that failure of this magnitude doesn't happen again?" There's enough finger-pointing and jaw-flapping to last for years. Meanwhile, people are still dealing with wrecked homes and lives put on hold waiting for the bureaucracy. ====== CCJ, ummm... thanks for sharing?..?? As you say, grades and public speaking may not be "everything" for schmoes like us who post on LP and supposedly have day jobs (Crap! I should be getting ready for work!), but grades and public speaking should be *something* if you are the leader of the free world.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe BB-Touche but WE the PEOPLE elected him knowing his public speaking record and grades and I refuse to believe as STPH that it shows a lack of our intelligence. I just voted for George instead of for our local Bozo Kerry.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<As I clearly recall, after Katrina passed to the east of New Orleans, everyone was expressing relief that the city had been spared the full brunt of the storm. It was only later that the levees failed, and reports began filtering out of flooding. It was in this context that Bush said that no one anticipated the failure of the levees. It was not that he believed the possibility did not exist, but rather that he, along with the rest of the country, believed that the city had been initially spared a full scale disaster.>> That is how I recall the event timeline as well.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss IMO, there were two parts that contributed to the disaster. The first was people not heeding the warnings to leave the city. It's all too easy to think that mankind has conquered the elements, or at least that it can't happen here like it does in some third world country. The second part came when the governments were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the destruction and the amount of victims, which they were unprepared for... no doubt cause by the fact that New Orleans was spared a direct hit of Katrina. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief... but unfortunately, that was the time when everything should have been mobilized. It's easy to say this and that should have happened, but that's nothing more than monday morning quarterbacking. Mistakes were made, sure. But instead of playing the blame game, it's better to learn from them.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh From the NY Times yesterday: "A newly released transcript of a government videoconference shows that hours after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, federal and state officials did not know that the levees in New Orleans were failing and were cautiously congratulating one another on the government response. In the videoconference held at noon on Monday, Aug. 29, Michael D. Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, reported that he had spoken with President Bush twice in the morning and that the president was asking about reports that the levees had been breached. But asked about the levees by Joe Hagin, the White House deputy chief of staff, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana said, "We have not breached the levee at this point in time." She said "that could change" and noted that the floodwaters in some areas in and around New Orleans were 8 to 10 feet deep. Later that night, FEMA notified the White House that the levees had been breached."
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 "CCJ, ummm... thanks for sharing?..?? As you say, grades and public speaking may not be "everything" for schmoes like us who post on LP and supposedly have day jobs (Crap! I should be getting ready for work!), but grades and public speaking should be *something* if you are the leader of the free world." This, I agree with. I don't feel comfortable with somebody of "Average Joe" status leading the country. I know I sure as heck wouldn't want to do it. I know he got elected partly because he was "down to earth" to a lot of people, but I find that has backfired on him quite a bit lately. As for this new video...after having seen it now, I find it's much ado about nothing. Yes, Bush and company were warned, but they did seem to understand and take necessary steps. The only thing I can see is that it backs up Brown's story that he did, in fact, warn them before Katrina hit. Other than that, I don't think this makes the Bush administration look bad...unless you really WANT it to make them look bad.
Originally Posted By LOUDROCK >-Received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1968.< Very flimsy supporting evidence and I see right through it. I would never use that as an indicator when assessing intellect. Now, if he had graduated from UC Berkely, UC Davis or UC Irvine(universities with very rigorous curriculums) for example in less than four years then I would be impressed. He's a Yale man ONLY because of dad. Besides, on the east coast word has it that the top thinkers are found at MIT >served as an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard.< Hello Dad! > Assembled the group of partners who purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989< Hello Dad, It's me again! >elected Governor of Texas< Thanks Dad. >Responsable for enacting No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.< Sorry, but this means absolutely nothing as far as persuading me that Jr. can reason or is a profound thinker.
Originally Posted By Beaumandy The title of this thread is a lie and misleading. Where is the outrage from the people on here about this?? Exactly what did Bush lie about? Why not tell us when the video was made and put the topic into correct contect? Is there a difference in levee overtopping and levee breaking?? Uh... yes there is. Anyone who thinks Bush lied in this story is a total idiot... period. Seems like the losers from the left try a new " scandal " every freaking day, only to be made the fool in the end as they rush off to the next Bush bashing piece of garbage. Do libs actually think this is going to get them elected in the future, by making up stories about the President, even presenting BOGUS documents and rigged polls? Pathetic.
Originally Posted By mele <<Seems like the losers from the left try a new " scandal " every freaking day,>> Oh, you mean like a scandal about a judge falling asleep? It's a good thing that only losers come up with stuff like that.
