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bush visits new orleans
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| Tech Difficulty |
i saw this article today. i hope its true that bush plans on doing something still
Quote: Bush tells New Orleans 'better days are ahead'
On the second anniversary of Katrina, the president says Washington has not forgotten the city.
By James Gerstenzang, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
11:17 AM PDT, August 29, 2007
NEW ORLEANS -- Two years after Hurricane Katrina, with federal rebuilding efforts assailed as inept and inadequate, President Bush marked the storm's anniversary today with an optimistic message: "New Orleans, better days are ahead."
"This town is coming back. This town is better today than it was yesterday, and it's going to be better tomorrow than it was today," he said.
The president spent much of the day here and touring the Mississippi Gulf Coast, bringing no new assistance but a reiteration of support that echoed the message of his 14 previous visits to the region.
From the Federal Emergency Management Agency's botched rescue efforts and the president's at-a-distance flyover aboard Air Force One in the first days after Katrina hit, the Bush administration's response to the floods wrought by the hurricane has brought criticism and political controversy.
Two weeks after the storm, Bush stood in Jackson Square in the French Quarter and said in a speech to the nation, "This great city will rise again."
Today, in a quiet recognition of the ongoing pressure to deliver on that message, he said Washington had not forgotten his commitment.
"It's one thing to come and give a speech in Jackson Square; it's another thing to keep paying attention to whether or not progress is being made. And I hope people understand we do, we're still paying attention," he said.
Bush spoke in the media room of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology, dedicated in June and the first school to open in the storm-devastated Lower Ninth Ward.
He visited a home that had been rebuilt, providing an opportunity to spotlight the federal housing assistance he said had supported the project. But his motorcade route took him past the lingering evidence of the long-lasting damage: blocks where some rebuilding has taken place but other homes remain deserted. Many are boarded up and bear the spray-paint markings left by those seeking the storm's victims, alive and dead, two years ago.
Off his route in the Lower Ninth Ward, there was even more evidence: entire blocks deserted, with no sign of rebuilding attempts, and store after store boarded up -- Family Dollar, Walgreens, St. Claude Hardware.
Pushing up against Bush's upbeat remarks are statistics: The city's pre-storm population was 455,000; it is now about 274,000. Of the 184,000 people who sought help from the government grant program created to help with rebuilding, 43,000 have been sent checks. The program is $5 billion short of what it needs to help the others, and at the start of the year fewer than 1% had received any money from the plan.
More than half the city remains in disrepair. There are more homicides in New Orleans than in any other American city. Rapes increased 44% in the first half of 2007 compared with a year ago.
Reflecting the confusion over how much federal assistance has been disbursed, the RFK Center and the Institute for Southern Studies estimated in a recently published joint report that the Bush administration was overstating overall federal funding for the Gulf Coast rebuilding campaign by as much as 300%, with roughly $35 billion of an estimated $114 billion actually spent. The White House said the spending had reached $96 billion.
But there are other, more hopeful numbers: The Army Corps of Engineers has spent more than $1.7 billion on levees -- but the Lower Ninth Ward and the Gentilly neighborhood, both centers of poverty, remain extremely flood-prone. Tourism, a centerpiece of the city's pre-Katrina economy, is nearing 70% of pre-storm levels. |
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| pluckinstrings |
Two years after Hurricane Katrina, with federal rebuilding efforts assailed as inept and inadequate , President Bush marked the storm's anniversary today with an optimistic message: "New Orleans, better days are ahead."
Uh.... TWO YEARS LATER?!?!?!?! Way to keep those 'happy' messages coming! Oh... He wants another 50 BILLION to spend on the Iraq war... |
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| ArivacaCharlie |
I hope he falls in a canal and drowns.
(Okay. I admit that wasn't a cool thing to hope for. But that fucknut just brings out my bad side.) |
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| Tech Difficulty |
Quote: Originally posted by pluckinstrings
Two years after Hurricane Katrina, with federal rebuilding efforts assailed as inept and inadequate , President Bush marked the storm's anniversary today with an optimistic message: "New Orleans, better days are ahead."
Uh.... TWO YEARS LATER?!?!?!?! Way to keep those 'happy' messages coming! Oh... He wants another 50 BILLION to spend on the Iraq war... |
better late than never? :dontknow: |
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| CApenbrink |
two years later??
big deal
come on, they are rebuilding practically an entire city. Really, honestly, did you think NOLA would be bigger and better than ever already? |
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| pluckinstrings |
I don't think anybody thought that the whole areA would be back to 'normal' 2 years later. But did you think that there would be entire areas UNTOUCHED two years later? I did not.
edit: spelling |
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| iatebethO |
On NPR they spoke to a couple that has been rebuilding their house for two years now and still have a years worth of work still to go. The best part of the interview was when they stated that
there still wasn't land line phone service in their neighborhood.
Bush can't even get the phone lines working in two years? Bush is a total fuck up.
Iraq and New Orleans are his fuck up masterpieces. |
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| CApenbrink |
Quote: Originally posted by iatebethO
On NPR they spoke to a couple that has been rebuilding their house for two years now and still have a years worth of work still to go. The best part of the interview was when they stated that
there still wasn't land line phone service in their neighborhood.
Bush can't even get the phone lines working in two years? Bush is a total fuck up.
Iraq and New Orleans are his fuck up masterpieces. |
oh yeah its all Bush's fault.
He's personally responsible since he hasn't been out there laying the phone lines himself.
Come on, people
Not everything is the federal government's fault. Where is the outrage about the local government or the state???? |
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| nunpuncher |
| lol CA you wont see that here look at the party of the local |
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| mingmen |
Quote: Originally posted by nunpuncher
lol CA you wont see that here look at the party of the local |
how so?
The federal govt. holds the purse strings on this, right?
I have heard this argument that there is combined federal and state and local blame to be shared. From responsible sources.
How did the local government flood the 9th ward? Who wrote off all that real estate by leaving it unprotected? |
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| zimmie |
Quote: Originally posted by CApenbrink
oh yeah its all Bush's fault.
He's personally responsible since he hasn't been out there laying the phone lines himself.
Come on, people
Not everything is the federal government's fault. Where is the outrage about the local government or the state???? |
:lol: :lol: :lol: |
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