I have written a few posts about the whole New Orleans being underwater let’s blame Bush meme. See here, here, here, here and here. I have also received quite a few comments, most of them agreeing with what I had written, but as is the case with any issue, there will be those who disagree with you. That is cool. After all, that is one of the foundations of our country: free exchange of ideas and beliefs. The only, and I do mean only criteria I have is that you can actually back up what ever you say, with, hmm, what’s the word I am looking for….oh yeah, FACTS!

Here is one comment from a reader named Rabbit:

How about this one for instance: 9/11, Bush was in New York ready to roll on some terrorists for fucking with “his” country. Hurricane hits New Orleans, damn near sinks it, and the motherfucker looks at it from his private jet window five days later. Not a care about the welfare of the people below. George Bush doesn’t care about black people. That’s what’ll happen when you’re a white brat from Texas born with a silver spoon in your mouth.

In spite of his gratuitous use of the F-word, his whole comment is trash. Let’s start at the beginning.

9/11 hit and the President DID NOT come to New York until 3 days after the disaster. It took that long to secure the place and to ensure no further attacks were planned. You cannot just plop the President down anywhere in the world. The Secret Service is very ticky about those things. Fast forward to last weeks destruction in the Gulf Coast. Monday night everyone knew it was a bad hurricane, but New Orleans breathed a sigh of relief. That is until Tuesday and everyone found out how bad the levee breaks were and that they were in serious trouble. That was Tuesday folks. Bush came to the area on Friday…gee by my math that is 3 days….same as after 9/11. As to why he did not stop in New Orleans proper, I am amazed that you are that ignorant. Where exactly would he have landed? Where would he have gone? How would the Secret Service secure the place? There were displaced people all up and down the highways and bridges into the city. Most of the city was underwater. Thugs were taking shots at hospital evacuees for goodness sake. Do you actually think the Secret Service would have allowed a helicopter landing? Also, the time he would have been on the ground, the rescue effort would have had to come to a halt. Man, he would be catching hell for that. So, by not landing, the rescue effort could continue and the focus remained on the people. Sounds like he cared an awful lot about the people of New Orleans. Oh sure, he could have landed and had a press conference, biting his lip like Clinton, but the people would have had to wait while he was getting the attention.

As far as this guys and others assertion that Bush does not care about black people. Back up that statement. Now! What, he has an all white cabinet? Nope sorry, some of the most powerful people in DC are African American. He wants to take the vote away from blacks? I need proof. He longs for the days of Jim Crow. Proof, baby, proof. I grow tired of this whole argument. Look, I will give you Bush haters a lesson in reality: Just because you say something, EVEN if you REALLY, really, really believe it DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE. Sorry, reality bites.

As far as failure of leadership, I think you need to be pointing your fingers at these people: THE MAYOR AND THE GOVERNOR. Once again people need to go back to 6th grade civics and relearn about this whole separation of powers thing that we have in the little piece of paper known as the Constitution. It took 72 hours to organize and deliver the relief. ONLY 72 hours. Can you not see how awesome that is? The Mayor and the Governor pussed out on this. Here is a great post about what the Mayor DID NOT DO:

205 schoolbuses, owned and operated by the city of New Orleans (and not the federal government) sat idle as the ocean swept into the city, and still sit in three foot deep water.

Did Karl Rove order the Mayor of New Orleans not to take the rather simple step of running those buses 24/7 to evacuate the poor (who supposedly didn’t have enough money to leave)?

More… And nevermind the additional 364 buses of the NO transportation system, which similarly sat in their parking lots while the levees broke.

Remind me again– who’s in charge of a city’s transportation system?

Still More… Galveston, Texas had all of its available buses fueled and ready to roll should Katrina hit that city.

Why didn’t New Orleans?

Good question. As far as people who want to convince me that Bush is a racist….bring it on, but I KNOW your “facts” will not support your accusations.