Time to play The Blame Game!!!!

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sharky

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I feel like I'm on some bad 70's game show set with Bob Barker or something. [that being said, the Price is Right ran a rerun today that included the Showcase being a trip to New Orleans and a speedboat, they have since apologized noting they just show the stuff and don't know what the actual prizes are for reruns].

This is not a thread to ACTUALLY play the Blame Game, but more a thread to highlight how many government officials don't want to play the Blame Game -- I think this is their new talking point. Like flip flopper except tooootally not as believable.

I don't know why no one wants to play -- I think the winner gets the following super prizes:

-- a box to clean the crap out of their desk
-- a sample bottle of sludge that has been pumped back into Lake Pochatrain
-- a bottle of Evian water [because, as we all know, Evian spelled backwards in naive, which is what they think we are]
-- five-night stay the Superdome paid for by the government
-- a rocking chair on Trent Lott's new front porch

From Wednesday's WH press briefing:

Q Scott [McClellan], does the President retain confidence in his FEMA Director and Secretary of Homeland Security?
MR. McCLELLAN: And again, David, see, this is where some people want to look at the blame game issue, and finger-point. We're focused on solving problems, and we're doing everything we can --
Q What about the question?
MR. McCLELLAN: We're doing everything we can in support --
Q We know all that.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- of the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA.
Q Does he retain complete confidence --
MR. McCLELLAN: We're going to continue. We appreciate the great effort that all of those at FEMA, including the head of FEMA, are doing to help the people in the region. And I'm just not going to engage in the blame game or finger-pointing that you're trying to get me to engage.
Q Okay, but that's not at all what I was asking.
MR. McCLELLAN: Sure it is. It's exactly what you're trying to play.
Q You have your same point you want to make about the blame game, which you've said enough now. I'm asking you a direct question, which you're dodging.
 
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Once again, I bow to Jon Stewart:

"What is that thing, scrabble, monopoly, that childish phrase that the administration is using . . . oh yes, THE BLAME GAME!"

"You know what it means when people don't want to play the blame game. It usually means, THEIR TO BLAME!"

"But the administration doesn't want to finger point . . .": followed by lots of clips of administration officials blaming local officials.


:bow: :bow: :bow:
 
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I heard Barbara Bush will be at the Astrodome today handing out Blame Games along w/ Monopoly and Scrabble

after all, those people have never been able to afford that stuff so they will jump for joy

Seriously, does Scott Mc Clellan ever really say anything? :huh:
 
MrsSpringsteen said:

Seriously, does Scott Mc Clellan ever really say anything? :huh:

In a way, I feel sorry for him. What a thankless job to have. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. He takes the heat for everyone else's mistakes and can't really speak up for himself or say what he personally might think, because it's his job to defend other people :(.
 
kellyahern said:


In a way, I feel sorry for him. What a thankless job to have. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. He takes the heat for everyone else's mistakes and can't really speak up for himself or say what he personally might think, because it's his job to defend other people :(.

So do I. It's not his fault that the people around his are screwing up. He has to defend people who are when they are screwinig up.
 
kellyahern said:
Once again, I bow to Jon Stewart:



"You know what it means when people don't want to play the blame game. It usually means, THEIR TO BLAME!"

:bow: :bow: :bow:

Jon :heart: I am going to marry that man someday. :heart:
 
anyone wonder, in a parallel universe, just how quickly the Republicans would be demanding President Kerry's resignation?

Democrats: grow a spine. call for his resignation, and *force* the Republicans to defend such glaring incompetence, something no one wants to do.

also, does anyone else think that Al-Qaeda is just *thrilled* at the bungling? gosh, think of how many people they could kill with the current government responsible for the safety of average Americans.
 
another thought:

is anyone else a bit weirded out by the fact that another American Tragedy in September preceeds another U2 tour?
 
Well, God help us if someone picks one of the new U2 songs as being 'eerily relevant' to the events in New Orleans. I think that would make me puke more than I already do at the concept of U2.
 
Kieran McConville said:
Well, God help us if someone picks one of the new U2 songs as being 'eerily relevant' to the events in New Orleans. I think that would make me puke more than I already do at the concept of U2.



:scratch:



in other news, i think SYCMIOYO should be the new FEMA theme song.

in a horribly ironic kind of way.
 
Blame Game, Set and Match

On Saturday, August 27, 2005 -- two days before Hurricane Katrina made landfall -- President George W. Bush assumed responsibility for the coordination of "all disaster relief efforts" in the State of Louisiana. This is the specific, undisputed language of Bush's declaration of a State of Emergency, issued that day by the White House, and still available for viewing on the White House website. The responsibility for coordinating all disaster relief efforts in New Orleans clearly rested with the White House. Despite all the post-disaster spin by the Bush Faction and its sycophants, despite all the earnest media analyses, the lines of authority are clear and indisputable. Here is the voice of George W. Bush himself, in the proclamation issued in his name, over his signature on Saturday, August 27, 2005:

"The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing. The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures"

Bush goes on to say: "Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency."

There is really nothing more to be said about "lines of authority" and "who was responsible" for managing the relief effort. Two days before the hurricane struck Louisiana, the President of the United States assumed the responsibility for coordinating ALL disaster relief efforts. He then specifically designated FEMA as the lead agency in charge of this effort, giving it presidential authorization to mobilize any and all resources necessary to "alleviate the impacts of the emergency." What's more, FEMA was given specific, direct, presidential authority to act at its discretion -- it did not have to wait for approval from elsewhere in the federal government or from state or local authorities.

All of this is as plain as day; it's set down in black and white, in a direct, unambiguous document signed by President George W. Bush and available 24 hours a day on the official White House website. If any Beltway pundit or high media mandarin wishes to know who was responsible for the direction of "ALL disaster relief efforts" in the Gulf Coast during and after the storm, they need only consult the White House website.

Can we end this ludicrous "debate" about blame now?
 
Irvine -- good call on the song. And if I recall, al Qaeda has come out saying the hurricane proves that Allah hates America.
 
Irvine511 said:
anyone wonder, in a parallel universe, just how quickly the Republicans would be demanding President Kerry's resignation?

Democrats: grow a spine. call for his resignation, and *force* the Republicans to defend such glaring incompetence, something no one wants to do.

also, does anyone else think that Al-Qaeda is just *thrilled* at the bungling? gosh, think of how many people they could kill with the current government responsible for the safety of average Americans.

Your last statement is something that I've really thought about the past few days. I look at the total screwed up mess that has become of all of this and think to myself. We must be such a compelling target not only to Al-Queda but probably a bunch of Terrorist Extremist Groups or maybe even just a splinter cell that wants to take issues into their own hands and unleash some horror on us. IMHO we have gone WAY BACKWARDS in the way that this Government (Local,State and yes FEDS.) handled this. In the political spin machine that we now have to digest as truth now a days, I hope someone somewhere keeps their eye on the ball and readies this country for another terrorist attack, Hurricane, snowstorm, tornado....

It's way beyond THE BLAME GAME anymore, these guys better look at the greater picture and forget Camera Ops. and blaming each other - as citizens of this country we deserve way better than the deplorable inactions of all Agencies in this debacle.
 
nbcrusader said:
How does one call for an end to the "Blame Game" when they are actively engaged in the game?


to get a little meta, what if it isn't a game ... until you call it a game .. which makes it a game ... even though it isn't a game ...
 
Well, after his "investingation," GW can put some of the blame on the incompetent senior bureaucrats at FEMA, who, surprisingly, lack emergency services experience. (Oh wait, the Bush Administration appointed most of them.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090802165.html?referrer=email

"FEMA's top three leaders -- Director Michael D. Brown, Chief of Staff Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler -- arrived with ties to President Bush's 2000 campaign or to the White House advance operation, according to the agency. Two other senior operational jobs are filled by a former Republican lieutenant governor of Nebraska and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official who was once a political operative.

"Patronage appointments to the crisis-response agency are nothing new to Washington administrations. But inexperience in FEMA's top ranks is emerging as a key concern of local, state and federal leaders as investigators begin to sift through what the government has admitted was a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina."


Time says Brown's padded his resume:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1103003,00.html
 
An example of moral values

Rep. Baker of Baton Rouge is overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
 
nbcrusader said:
What is the over/under on when Brown gets fired?



i think this is a very interesting question, and will tell us much about the Bush administration.

no one, but no one, has been fired. the Bush people are all about loyalty, and loyalty is amply rewarded in this administration.

i wonder if they will change course this time. it seems so obvious that Brown should be axed.

am very curious to see what happens. a real test of this administration.
 
Scarletwine said:
An example of moral values

Rep. Baker of Baton Rouge is overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."


Nice!
 
Irvine511 said:




in other news, i think SYCMIOYO should be the new FEMA theme song.

in a horribly ironic kind of way.

Since i still play HTDAAB alot....suddenly Crumbs which i partly associated with World Poverty as well as a single person who betray friends because of greed etc

but now it takes on for me the "crumbs' FEMA was offering at first.
 
omg.

:ohmy:

could Katrina bring HTDAAB into focus the way 9-11 did the same for ATYCLB?

is this even the right forum to discuss this?

very, very weird ...
 
nbcrusader said:


Looks like the answer will come sooner than expected.

FEMA chief Brown removed from Katrina relief



but he has not been fired.

what does someone have to do?

i mean, i can understand how the torturing to death of Iraqizoids or the fabrication of intelligence to justify an illegal war can get you a Congressional Medal of Honor with this administration, but you'd think the deaths of thousands due to negligence would at least get you a warning from HR.

oh wait, they were thousands of *black people* who drowned because of FEMA's ineptitude ... carry on then.

(please, all, see the sarcasm)
 
Jon Stewart: The president has vowed to personally lead the investigation into the government's failed response to Katrina? Isn't that a job perhaps someone else should be doing?

Samantha Bee: No, not at all, Jon. To truly find out what went wrong, it's important for an investigator to have a little distance from the situation. And it's hard to get any more distant from it than the president was last week.
 
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