Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

How many of the 545 have skeletons in or out of their closets that most of the American public would find offensive? Seems like there's a new one "outed" every couple of months. Many of the most prominent in the last couple of years have been Republicans, but I don't think for a minute that the peccadilloes of our national leadership are limited only to one political party.

What's scary is that this seems to be the best this country can produce as it's political leadership. Maybe we have to begin to differentiate between their flaws as they become evident. You know--stealing or selling your vote is really bad, but just getting caught with your zipper down is not too bad.

I hope it doesn't come to that.

I think that they are making too much of the whole thing...John Kennedy could not keep it in his pants and he was "high" on medication all the time. Everybody likes to idolize him but to me he was just another politician. His brother has been riding his coattails for over 40 years.
Funny how history treats certain politicians....

Originally Posted by Keedy

Nothing like a good scandal to take people's eye off of Obama's shenanigans.

Hey! How did B.O. get dragged into this one?

SC has a new Governor.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-col...r-mark-sanford

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Me too, Bucco. Neither one of them!

Not often but we agree !!!

Originally Posted by BobKat1

Hey! How did B.O. get dragged into this one?

Now you know how President Bush felt.....He got blamed for everything. Him and Cheney had a hurricane machine and made Katrina.

Here is a better newscast:
http://www.youtube.com/v/mT8WhH7VdIM..._embedded&fs=1

SC newspaper has published emails between Sanford and his friend..................


http://www.islandpacket.com/189/story/885382.html

Originally Posted by Keedy

Now you know how President Bush felt.....He got blamed for everything. Him and Cheney had a hurricane machine and made Katrina.

Nobody said they made Katrina....they just didn't send any help. Period

Again, just to keep it real. Period.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin(D) was also criticized for failing to implement his evacuation plan and for ordering residents to a shelter of last resort without any provisions for food, water, security, or sanitary conditions. Perhaps the most important criticism of Nagin is that he delayed his emergency evacuation order until less than a day before landfall, which led to hundreds of deaths of people who (by that time) could not find any way out of the city. Adding to the criticism was the broadcast of school bus parking lots full of yellow school buses which Mayor Nagin refused to be used in evacuation. When asked why the buses were not used to assist evacuations instead of holing up in the Superdome, lack of insurance liability was given as a reason.

President Bush signed a $10.5 billion relief package within four days of the hurricane, Within 1–2 days of the hurricane, National Guard troops arrived with relief packages, and participated in security and rescue operations.

Official requests for help through the proper chains of command were not forthcoming due to local and state delays in engaging FEMA for federal assistance, even after approached by such authorities. Local police and other EMS workers found the situation traumatic; at least two officers committed suicide, and over 300 deserted the city after gang violence and "turf wars" erupted around the city.

Originally Posted by cologal

Nobody said they made Katrina....they just didn't send any help. Period

Didn't send any help. Period.

Do you say these outrageous things to get a rise from people or do you really believe them. You need to be more diversified in your news gathering.

Originally Posted by cologal

Nobody said they made Katrina....they just didn't send any help. Period

That's incorrect. The fed cannot usurp the local authorities who - at the city, parish and state level - totally dropped the ball and didn't give the fed the necessary authorizations until the inevitable happened. And then the fed had to work almost totally without coordination with the city and state authorities who should have been in place.

When the Coast Guard has to rescue 30,000 people from rooftops, that's fairly good testimony on the failure of the city, parish and state governments there.

People are still giving the Mayor of New Orleans and the former Governor a free pass, forgetting about the how disaster declarations are made and what is required (basically, state permission) for the fed to support or intervene. Is the Free pass due to the Mayor and prior Governor being Democrats, you think?

Was the fed actions perfect? No, but it sure would have been a far sight easier on the populace had the Mayor and former Governor not failed their constituents.

And here we go again. another politician is caught "straying," but since he's a non-Democrat, all of the claws come out. At least he admitted knowing the definition of "sex."

Originally Posted by Keedy

Do you say these outrageous things to get a rise from people or do you really believe them. You need to be more diversified in your news gathering.

Have you seen the 9th Ward?.....How about the FEMA trailers.

It was a still is a disgrace.

Originally Posted by cologal

Have you seen the 9th Ward?.....How about the FEMA trailers.

It was a still is a disgrace.

Have you seen what the State of Louisiana has done there, or the city government? The last time I checked, neither Louisiana nor any of its cities were federal trust territories or national parks. The responsibility for clean-up is still the local government's, and that's why they get federal aid. That's why there IS local government - everything is not a federal responsibility.

The FEMA trailers having problems caught everyone by surprise, but the fact that people have been living in them for years is not a fed problem.

If you think the fed is the responsible government level for all actions and events, then perhaps the state and local governments should be disbanded for being functionally useless - and Washington should run everything local as well. After all, if the fed is going to get all of the blame, they should get at least some of the authority to act.

then perhaps the state and local governments should be disbanded for being functionally useless - and Washington should run everything local as well.

Isn't that BO's ultimate dream?

Originally Posted by SteveZ

That's incorrect. The fed cannot usurp the local authorities who - at the city, parish and state level - totally dropped the ball and didn't give the fed the necessary authorizations...

Absolutley correct, Steve. A couple of anecdotes from Katrina...

-- Our former Congressman in Illinois, Mark Kirk, is also a Captain in the USNR and was on duty at the Pentagon as Katrina was hitting New Orleans. Whatever unit or office he was with had something to do with the federal response. He told me that they sat for hours, asking themselves why th Mayor or the Governor were taking so long to make the evacuation mandatory, open all six lanes of the interstate to outbound traffic, or request federal or military assistance. The people in the Pentagon couldn't tell them what to do; in fact he said that they couldn't even get thru to them on their cell phones. Rather they had to wait until they were asked for help--and it was days before they ever got a request from the locals. He described Mayor Nagin as "one of the most incompetent public officials" he'd ever encountered.

-- A group of EMS technicians from the South Bend, Indiana area, recognizing that they would be needed, loaded up four fire trucks with first aid equipment, water, food, etc. and headed for New Orleans. When they got there, they were not permitted to enter the city. The local police and fire department told them that everything was under control and that they weren't needed. After four days of sitting outside of town, they turned around and headed back to South Bend.

-- A group of doctors and nurses from the Pacific Northwest loaded up lots of medical supplies and flew to New Orleans at their own expense. On their arrival, they were told that they couldn't practice medicine in Louisiana until they had obtained the proper state licenses. No one volunteered to assist them in getting the necessary documentation, so after five days they headed back to Seattle, never having treated even one person.

-- The Lake County Illinois police helicopter detachment took off with three helicopters, pilots, mechanics and EMS personnel just as Katrina was hitting New Orleans. Many of the rescues that you saw on TV were performed by this group. They reported flying the 'copters almost 24 hours a days for three days and rescued almost 1,000 people. When asked a few weeks later how they were able to get involved in the rescue effort when so many other volunteers were turned away they answered, "We never asked anyone. We just flew in and began picking people up."