NEWS: Bush: 'I Take Responsibility For U.S. Failures'

Shock and Awe people Shock and Awe - Don't fall for this spin.

This is highly suspicious. First of all Pres Bush said he will take the heat for ALL government failures - great! But... Have we been told to date what those failures are? What is he taking responsibility for exactly? The word 'failure' doesn't do it for me, I need data.

If everything gets pinned on everyone else and the feds fall short in the blame game - by manner of the investigation Bush is leading on btw - would you care to place bets that the feds get charged with - I don't know... let's say about 7% blame for the overall pie? That 7% will then be divided accordingly with Bush sitting on top like a cherry.

Yes someone gets 'sort of' scathed but in the end it works out because he already took responsibility. The collective memories of the public... yadda, yadda, yadda...

So George has both preempted blame AND won over doubters in a single stroke. Plus there is no way that his own investigation is going to yield true blame for those that really matter.

This is after all the guy who said 'Brownie' was doing a good job.

I would like to see him take full responsilbity AFTER the reports led by someone else point the blame straight at the government.

Then I'll happily run on here to post how amazed and impressed I am with Mr. Bush.




[edit on 14-9-2005 by nikelbee]

Originally posted by nikelbee
Shock and Awe people Shock and Awe - Don't fall for this spin.
.........

The only ones I see doing the "spin around" on this issue are those that want the president and his administration to take full responsibility for what happened....

Like that wouldn't further some people's agenda...

Was Brown at fault for some of what happened in NO? I guess he was because he was fired from his job.

I am just waiting for others such as the Mayor of NO and the Governor of Louisiana to be fired or for them to come forward, quit their jobs and say it was their responsibility and their fault that people did not get evacuated in time.

You think they are going to do this?......

[edit on 14-9-2005 by Muaddib]

Muaddib

Don't misunderstand me - I don't want the US government to take ALL the blame. That would help no one. I want them to take the blame that is their fair due. Most importantly, I want people in future disasters not to perish unnecessarily due to incompetence and gross negligence.

I want others to learn from this disaster so it won't happen again, not to think that some 'ah shucks we screwed up' shrug & smile apology by the president will somehow make it alright.

Ok finally,so he takes full responsability for all the failures.If that`s going to be the case when does he sack himself and strip himself of all moneys earned from the minute the first mamoth failure occured and throw himself in jail for breaking the American law?(2nd Amendment)

But i must state it was very nice of him to say,it helps tremendously in all that investigation and paper work.Think of all the tax dollars that will be saved.

[edit on 14-9-2005 by gps777]

Originally posted by nikelbee
.................
I want others to learn from this disaster so it won't happen again, not to think that some 'ah shucks we screwed up' shrug & smile apology by the president will somehow make it alright.

Then where is your call, or anyone elses, for the resignation of the governor of Lousiana and the Mayor of NO?....

Where is the indignation from most members in these forums that both the governor of Lousiana and the Mayor of NO seem to be claiming they are victims, when it is obvious the fault falls on them the most that people were not properly evacuated?......

Where is the indignation that Blanco decided not to recieve federal help when it was needed the most and even when it was offered?....

The blame lies mostly on those two, since they are the ones who are supposed to have used all the resources they had available, and they had plenty, to evacuate most people, if not all, from NO.

Very few people in these forums have called for the resignation of these two. Yet many members, if not most, just want to hang the president for something which is obvious not his fault.

Meanwhile the Mayor of NO starts crying and claiming wild stories that the "CIA is going to take him out" and it seems many members are willing to believe this obvious lie and forgive his failure to do his job properly......


[edit on 14-9-2005 by Muaddib]

Muaddib i dont think you are alone in those thoughts because its obivious the failures started from that point onward then every Gov departments there after failed.But you are correct.

I seem to recall Bush quipping once that it would be easier to govern if we were a dictatorship, so long as he was the dictator.

Here is an example of how the wrong wing spins...this is from media matters clarification of the school bus claim:

(quote) The New York Times reported on September 4 that Louisiana emergency planners believed it would take as many as 2,000 buses "to evacuate an estimated 100,000 elderly and disabled people" in the event of a catastrophic hurricane like Katrina. But, The New York Times wrote, this was "far more than New Orleans possessed."
Pruden's claim that the city possessed 2,000 school buses that could have been used for a pre-storm evacuation appears to be an exaggeration of a September 1 Associated Press photograph of school buses parked in a flooded lot in New Orleans. The photograph was widely reported on conservative websites, including the Media Research Center's NewsBusters weblog, the Instapundit weblog, and Michelle Malkin's weblog. A September 6 MSNBC.com article that described the scene in the AP photograph noted, "Some 200 New Orleans school buses sit underwater in a parking lot, unused. That's enough to have evacuated at least 13,000 people."
Apparently, those school buses constituted the majority of New Orleans' school bus fleet. According to a September 5, 2003, article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, "The [Orleans Parish school] district owns 324 buses but 70 are broken down." A 2003 document posted on the Louisiana Department of Education's website confirms that Orleans Parish used 324 "board owned" school buses and no "contractor owned" school buses.

Factcheck.org posted the same information. It seems to me the wrong wingers are the ones who are quick to do their own spinning just to protect their beloved president...and yes Bush is responsible...the role of the federal governmment is to protect and maintain the whole of the country (regardless of what the state governments do) and not just wealthy contributators and corporations, and Bush fell off his bike on the job.

Just and FYI here.

There is also a thread about thin in PTS:
politics.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by thematrix
I take full responsibility of all errors made by all levels of goverment involved in the disaster.

There, I said it. Now tell me, what the hell is it worth saying that?!

What does it mean to take responsibility and yet have no consequences?

This is nothing more than a way of ending the general outcry of criticism with no real consequence.

To everything spin, spin spin, ...

'I Take Responsibility For U.S. Failures'

Then you SIR should be fired, and must held to the same level as the rest.

Do you think it makes it better MR BUSH, Better because you said it was your fault all these thousands of people died? Hmmm........ I wish I lived it Bush world.

Double-edged sword or damned if you and damned if you don't, eh, Spittincobra?

Many of you blamed Bush for what happened in New Orleans, blamed him for wrongly invading Iraq, etc., etc., wanted him to take responsibility, and when he says "I take responsibility for US failures", now it is not good enough.

Ironic or ludicrous?






seekerof

[edit on 14-9-2005 by Seekerof]

We can see thru the hypocracy of the statement...thats what. As he nearly choked uttering this phrase, he was merely trying to do damage control. He's been "told" by now he is a big time failure and had better get out there and do something pronto. He did. Nobody beleives him.

Sometimes these things happen to some, poor Bush. Always trying his best and always getting knocked down

Originally posted by Seekerof
Double-edged sword or damned if you and damned if you don't, eh, spittincobra?

blamed him for wrongly invading IraqExcuse me? Iraq WAS a pack of Bush Lies. Got WMD's?, "I take responsibility for US failures", now it is not good enough.
Its good enough he realizes that he might have needed to do a little more. At the same time, he should have to face the repercussions of the mistake
Ironic or ludicrous?
Both

[edit on 14-9-2005 by SpittinCobra]

I've heard this same story discussed in the news, on talk radio, as well as this thread. After all I've heard about it, I'm really only thinking one thing about it.

Bush is a lame duck president. We all know that he can't run again, and I'm sure he's quite well aware of it too. I don't think it'd be too out of line to say that Bush's acceptance of responsibility for this is nothing more than damage control for the shadow government that's really running things. If they can make Bush the scapegoat, they really haven't lost anything now, have they? Bush is out for good, either way, like him or not, in three years. If he suddenly becomes responsible for all of the government's current shortcomings, then when another "terrorist" attack happens, another natural disaster happens, whatever happens, Bush is the fall guy. Nobody else ends up with the blame. That makes Bush the demon, and the rest of the people responsible are left with their excrement smelling like roses.

I'm going to completely level with everyone here. As many of you know, I'm not, never have been, nor ever will be a Bush supporter, but I DO think he's being railroaded here. Yes, he had some authority to make a difference in what happened in the Katrina aftermath, but he was by NO means solely responsible. Bush's fault in the matter makes up only a small fraction of the botched relief efforts. There are so many others at fault, most of whom we will never have names for. Bush is becoming a scapegoat for national tragedy, as have others before him, and he won't be the last. This won't change anything regarding how we deal with such matters in the future. Another thing I can all but promise won't change is the trend in this country away from having a government for the people, and more towards having a government for the money.

Bush has been blamed for many losses of rights in this nation, but I feel that is only because he didn't resist the changes - they have been more apparent during his presidency. Our rights have been slipping away for years, and will continue to do so long after Bush has left office.

Remember what so many of you said before the Katrina tragedy - Bush is a puppet. Bush is a puppet, just like many presidents before him were, and many after him will be. Politics doesn't change - only the names highlighted in it do.

What can we do as Americans in light of this tragedy? Learn. Learn from it, and help to prevent it from going any further. I don't care what your politics are - this affects us all.

Originally posted by Seekerof
Many of you blamed Bush for what happened in New Orleans, blamed him for wrongly invading Iraq, etc., etc., wanted him to take responsibility, and when he says "I take responsibility for US failures", now it is not good enough.

It would have had more meaning if he had simply said "We failed."

To really take responsibility would mean some form of consequence. Nixon knew how to take responsibility.

Originally posted by grover
I seem to recall Bush quipping once that it would be easier to govern if we were a dictatorship, so long as he was the dictator.

Humm...I wonder if he was serious about that statement why then didn't he just take the power from the governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans?..... President Bush would be a hero now if he was able to evacuate more people, even though he would have forcibly taken the power from the state..... right?......

Originally posted by grover
Here is an example of how the wrong wing spins...this is from media matters clarification of the school bus claim:
....................
Factcheck.org posted the same information. It seems to me the wrong wingers are the ones who are quick to do their own spinning just to protect their beloved president...and yes Bush is responsible...the role of the federal governmment is to protect and maintain the whole of the country (regardless of what the state governments do) and not just wealthy contributators and corporations, and Bush fell off his bike on the job.

Wrong wingers?.... Trying to be a smartass doesn't make you smart grover....

Do tell us grover, why didn't they use those buses that were available?....and why is it that they would have to use the school buses only for one trip?.... They had more than enough time to do more than one trip with those buses...

Why is it that they would only use school buses when in their evacuation plans they state more forms of transportation would be used to evacuate people? (links and an excerpt from Louisiana's emergency evacuation plans can be found below)

Let's see what happened to some of those buses you were talking about and where they were. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Let's see what several pictures tell us...

You can find the main picture in the following link.

maps.google.com...,+LA&ll=29.968598,-90.089189&spn=0.006110,0.009958&t=e&hl=en

This is a picture of school buses at the Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool.



A smaller lot of school buses which obviously was not used.



Here is another picture of the "unused" school buses at the Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool from another angle.




And that's just the school buses.... Why didn't they use other public forms of transportation?...

Let's see what happened to other buses which could have been used to evacuate more people.



Those above are municipally-owned NORTA buses.

BTW grover...perhaps you should read the following excerpt

5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.

Excerpted from.
www.ohsep.louisiana.gov...

BTW grover...that is the "STATE OF LOUISIANA EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN SUPPLEMENT 1A"....

You can find the above in page 13 paragraph 5 on the above link... Notice that it is the state of Louisiana's evacuation plans

You claim it is a spin, but it is not grover. Since it does not fit your agenda to bash and blame only at the president, you try to make it sound as if it is alright that the governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans made mayor mistakes which cost the lives of hundreds of people if not more. Or that they should be forgiven for their failure..... I find it ironic you are so willing to overlook their mayor failures and instead blame it all on the president.... Who is spinning this issue?.... I am sure it is not me.


[edit on 14-9-2005 by Muaddib]

Originally posted by dgtempe
We can see thru the hypocracy of the statement...thats what. As he nearly choked uttering this phrase, he was merely trying to do damage control. He's been "told" by now he is a big time failure and had better get out there and do something pronto. He did. Nobody beleives him.
..........

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I prefer to make my decisions by the facts and not by what "some" people keep claiming with an already predetermined mindset of blaming the president nomatter what just because it fits their agenda.....

Here is another picture of the "unused" school buses at the Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool from another angle.

Nagin already addressed this issue. Several times actually. I'm surprised someone of your stature missed it. Yeah.. lot's of buses.. with no drivers.

Got it yet? No drivers. He stated in a press conference that very few people were willing to stay behind and bus people around. He stated that it's against the law to let anyone that's not properly trained to drive a bus, to drive one.

Get it?
Lot's o' Buses, with no drivers = Big ol' lot full of buses that go nowhere. Gasp!

Meet the Press:

The mayor, questioned by NBC's Tim Russert on "Meet the Press," claimed he could not find drivers for the metro and school buses, which were left to flood in the post-hurricane deluge.

"Sure, there was lots of buses out there," Nagin said. "But guess what? You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans. We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome. We barely had enough drivers for that. So sure, we had the assets, but the drivers just weren't available."

[edit on 9/15/2005 by QuietSoul]

Originally posted by QuietSoul
..........
Got it yet? No drivers. He stated in a press conference that very few people were willing to stay behind and bus people around. He stated that it's against the law to let anyone that's not properly trained to drive a bus, to drive one.
..........

Then he is more than accountable for this...discrepancy as he along with the governor of Louisiana are responsible for the safe evacuation of people in that state.... Get it yet?..... Good.

I doubt that "all state employees" would have refused to drive people out of the state....or at least out of NO.

Even the police officers and other first aid responders (paramedic drivers)could have driven these people out.

[edit on 15-9-2005 by Muaddib]

Originally posted by Muaddib
Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I prefer to make my decisions by the facts and not by what "some" people keep claiming with an already predetermined mindset of blaming the president nomatter what just because it fits their agenda.....

So are you saying Bush isn't to blame and you have facts to back it up?