More Jimmy Carter’s second term
Way back in the day, I wrote a paper in college about the Carter-Torrijos Treaty which handed the Panama Canal over to Panama. Unfortunately for me, I had to read Jimmy Carter’s memoir “Keeping Faith”. One particular phrase from that absolutely useless book has stuck with me for the last 22 years.
In discussing the popularity of his decision to hand over the industrial age marvel, Carter admitted that it was wildly unpopular among the masses of Americans – some polls were running at 72% opposed. But in his book, Carter said, with absolutely nothing to support the claim, that 75% of the people who understood the issue supported Carter.
Keep in mind that the year before the treaty, Carter had won the election, in part, because he’d promised a New York Times reporter that he’d never turn over the Canal to Panama during his presidency and here was doing it the first year of his presidency.
So, why do i mention it today? Twenty-two years after I wrote the paper and 33 years after the treaty? Well, I was reading Michelle Malkin (like every day) who reported on the President’s press conference about the oil spill in the Gulf. Michelle quoted Obama;
Obama: “Those who think we were slow in our response or lacked urgency don’t know the facts.”
To me, it sounded like Carter’s line in “Keeping Faith” – “most of you people are too stupid to realize how smart iI am.”
I hope he keeps that prickish attitude through the next election cycle.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden
I hope he keeps that prickish attitude through the next election cycle.
I can guarantee you he will, even if he single-handedly manages to hand control of the House and Senate back to the Republicans. It’s never HIS fault, dontcha know.
Jonn,
The gov’t simply doesn’t have the resources to stop the leaking oil. Maybe if we hadn’t deregulated every frickin’ thing and turned the henhouse over to the foxes things might be different. Why don’t you shut your pie hole, get a spoon, and get your ass down there to help clean up instead of cintinuing to take cheap shots.
First of all, Joe, please point to the part where I blamed the government for the oil spill, or it’s slow reaction to problem. Point to my cheap shot.
Secondly, the government also doesn’t have the resources to stop a hurricane, but that didn’t stop you or your crowd from taking cheap shots at President Bush, did it? Did you get a trowel and help build the dikes again?
Shut my pie hole.
Joe, I’d tell YOU to shut your pie hole, but it is painfully obvious that the hole you use to spew your idiocy is NOT the one you use to eat pie.
Bush had days (? weeks?) of warnings about Katrina, a capacity to at least prepare for it (FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers), but he was way, way behind the curve. The BP leak was a bolt from the blue, and the gov’t doesn’t have any spare drilling rigs or the knowledge and technology to stop the leak, thanks to the complete failure of conservatism (and cowardly democrats too) to regulate this, and other, polluting industries. Obama didn’t do a whole lot, because there isn’t much he can do.
The leak isn’t an isolated problem, but one more chapter in the complete failure of gov’t to look after the interests of the people while bowing to corporate interests. Now it’s the hard working fisherman, oystermen and resort workers (a lot of them probably conservatives) who will take the hit, not to mention birds, turtles and fish, but it might be you next time Jonn, when they decide to drill on your property (if I’m not mistaken, the Marcellus Shale is down in your neighborhood).
So now where do you stand on, “Drill, baby, drill”, or does your rigid conservative mantra take precedence over real flesh and blood Louisianans?
I see Joe is pounding the Republicans are responsible for Democratic failure mantra. Is that the new talking point from Daily Kos? By the way joe, how many fundraisers did Bush do during Katrina? Bet it wasn’t more than Obama did during the oil spill. And we already know Bush gave up golf, but Obama got in several games during the crisis.
Oh by the way Joe, Drill Drill Drill, just on land or shallow water where the wells can be easily accessed and plugged reguardless of Dem stupidity.
Oh by the way Joe the reason they were drilling 5 miles deep is because the dems have declared drilling anywhere else verbotten. So either way you look at, its a dem screwup.
Days or Weeks of warning? You haven’t tracked many hurricanes have you Joe. Sure, you can look back on a hurricane’s track and tell where it’s been, but if you can tell me as soon as a low pressure area forms on the Ocean EXACTLY where it will end up and how strong it will be when it hits, you need to spend more time in Vegas. If you’re right in your premise that there was plenty of warning, then it seems like the people who lived in New Orleans should have gotten the hell out of town before Katrina hit instead of sticking around and then crying that the Feds were taking too long to respond. ( By the way, you obviously don’t do much emergency response either, because you don’t put all your rescue equipment where the hurricane is going to HIT Joe, you preposition it outside the affected area so it’s not destroyed by the hurricane. Unfortunatly, it takes time to reposition it to the area that needs it most.)
The Crandall coal mine disaster, Big Branch coal mine explosion, the BP oil leak, sub-prime mortgage implosion, AIG, Bear-Stearns, and on and on – starting to see a pattern here? Deregulation, fox guarding henhouse, buddy system, “free” markets, gov’t is the problem. I’m here to tell you government isn’t the problem, it’s a big part of the solution.
So, Joe, I guess you’re admitting that there wasn’t really a cheap shot since you changed the subject.
Ray dont bother Joe with facts he’s on a delusional roll
I usually ignore trolls, but regular readers might get some value from the following: I was a Major, working the floor of the Army Operations Center when Katrina hit. So I can clear up a few misconceptions. First, the national guys did all the preparation we could. There is a reason why you did not hear about Army helicopters flooded out. We looked and flew them out of harms way. We also did lots of other preps, but we are the Army, so that is expected. Next, there is this thing called the Posse Comitatus act. It mandates that first the local government has to request help from the state. Next, in this case, the Democratic governor needed to forward the request from the Democratic mayor to allow the feds to step in. So there might have been some democratic help in creating the problem. Third, in the Army Operations Center we downloaded the New Orleans Emergency response guidebook (ERG) that the Democratic mayor of New Orleans approved. We then briefed the guidebook according to our specialities and plugged in how each Army speciality can help. The National Guard desk had quite the presentation. Then we watched Nagin F*** it up. It was quite the slow motion catastrophe. I will show three parts. 1. Nagin called for everyone to go to the superdome. He even ordered the buses to take people there. The ERG states right up front in large type to keep people as far from the Superdome as possible. Even recommends putting police there to keep people out. Names all the problems that occurred, and several that did not. 2. There was an evacuation plan that the corps of engineers executed that called for all barges to be towed out to sea. That way if they sank at least the loss would be limited to the barge. Unfortunately, 3 of the 5 major dyke failures were due to barges that broke loose and ran into dykes, breaking them. Yes, the dykes should have been stronger, but holding back a barge is tough. And do you think Bush was… Read more »
The Federal agencies were prepositioned to respond. Blanco did not sign the order to allow them to respond until it was far too late (hours before landfall). By the way, she is a Democrat.
The National Guard was not able to respond as strongly as is normal due to the fact that the majority of the troops were in Iraq at the time. I blame the Clinton era cuts to Actice Duty manpower for that.
As to the Corp of Engineers not strengthening the levees, they had warned many times over the years that it needed to be done. But the people of N.O. voted against the tax increases that were needed to pay for it.
Nagin’s complete screw up was touched on. There is also the fact that he kinda lost it and wouldn’t issue the necessary orders to implement parts of the emergency plan.
Then once the rescue missions were under way, there is the issue of ambulances, police cars, and helicoptors being fired upon on a regular basis. Those poor oppressed gang members in the city were doing everything they could to interfere.
Joe, I don’t know where you are from but unless you live (or lived) on the Gulf Coast and more to the point in Louisiana STFU. Or do the research necessary to speak intelligently about the subject.
Joe,
whatever you’re smoking.. put it down !! IT is messing with your mind and you just might call 911 and then we would have to hear your moronic, hateful, BASELESS rants. Then again, we might see you for the true brainless retard who helped put Obongo in office.
Let’s start with one thing.. there is plenty of Big Govt, bureaucrats, regulations.. you name it, in place to prevent and handle emergencies. Guess what?!? These people are almost ALWAYS asleep at the wheel, well when they arent looking at pron, taking gifts and the like.
Crawl back in your hole.. then again… you remind me & my co-workers how funny mental illness and retardation truly can be.
The cheap shot, Jonn, is trying to shift the blame for lax oversight, shoddy work, negligence and perhaps even criminal negligence on the part of BP and the other companies involved onto Obama. By not recognizing that 30 years of deregulation have handcuffed Obama and crippled our ability to properly oversee corporations, and somehow making this lack of oversight Obama’s fault.
Petroleum expert that you are, why don’t you clue us in on what Obama should have done and should be doing?
Joe, quote from my post where I said all of that stuff. Like I said – point to my cheap shot. Or shut your pie hole.
Joe:
You ignorant progressive. Bush warned the New Orleanians days ahead of Katrina, told them that it would be a probable Cat 5, told them to get outta town. What better help could one give than an early warning. And lose the
“(? weeks?)” mantra. No Hurricane offers “weeks” of warning time, none. Unless of course one would warn Southeastern US to evacuate as a storm comes off the Cape Verde Islands. The Gummint, That is all branches, did the best thing possible before Katrina by warning those most likely to be affected. That those dopes chose to roll up another one and hang was their own problem, not mine, not yours, and damned sure not that dipshit Sean Penn’s.
I live in “Hurricane Country” and we who give a schitt take this all quite seriously, hoping to be able to evacuate ahead of one, while hoping that the gummint doesn’t waste a bunch of money by pre-positioning things unnecessarily.
Progressive tenet: Equality over Liberty.
sez volumes to me about the Kool Ade crowd.
Nuf Sed
Its nice to see that even two years ago Joe didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.