Obama Praised for Katrina Efforts

Local Leaders Say the New Administration Has Been Effective in the Region

(AP)  As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama pledged to right the wrongs he said bogged down efforts to rebuild the Gulf of Mexico coastal areas after Hurricane Katrina. Seven months into the job, the president is earning high praise from some unlikely places.

Louisiana's Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal says Democrat Obama's team has brought a more practical and flexible approach. Many local officials offer similar reviews. Even Doug O'Dell, former President George W. Bush's recovery coordinator, says the Obama administration's "new vision" appears to be turning things around.

Not too long ago, Jindal said in a telephone interview, Louisiana governors did not have "very many positive things" to say about the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

But Jindal said he had a lot of respect for the current FEMA chief, Craig Fugate, and his team. "There is a sense of momentum and a desire to get things done," the governor said.

Added O'Dell: "I think the results are self-evident."

O'Dell, a retired Marine general, served what he calls a frustrating stint as Bush's recovery coordinator last year. "What people have said to me is that for whatever reason, problems that were insurmountable under previous leadership are getting resolved quickly," O'Dell said.

"And I really hate to say that because (the top FEMA leaders) in my time there were good, hardworking, earnest men, but they were also the victims of their own bureaucracy."

It is not that Obama has miraculously mended the Gulf Coast since Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005. The storm killed more than 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi and caused more than $40 billion in property damage. Hurricane Rita followed nearly a month later, with billions of dollars in additional damage and at least 11 more deaths.

On the fourth anniversary of Katrina, many communities remain broken, littered with boarded-up houses and overgrown vacant lots. Hundreds of projects including critical needs such as sewer lines, fire stations and a hospital are entangled in the bureaucracy or federal-local disputes over who should pay for the repairs.

Like Bush, Obama has critics who say he is not moving aggressively enough.

Chris Kromm, director of the Institute for Southern Studies, an advocacy group, said the coast is "still waiting for Washington to show leadership."

In many areas, such as long-term coastal rehabilitation and rebuilding levees, it is too early to determine whether Obama will live up to the many promises he made.

But on several fronts, there is evidence of progress.

Victor Ukpolo, chancellor of Southern University at New Orleans, said the administration has been able to "move mountains" for his school, virtually wiped out by Katrina and the breached levees.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has visited the campus twice and awarded $32 million to replace four buildings.

"It's really awesome," Ukpolo said. "There's been so much progress."

Tommy Longo, mayor of Waveland, Mississippi, said it got so bad toward the end of Bush's tenure that "you almost couldn't get them to return a phone call, and you certainly weren't going to get them to make any big decisions."

"It has been refreshing to be back working with people who are hungry and want to make a difference," said Longo, a Democrat. "Who knows, a few years from now, at the end of Obama's term it may be back to the same ol', same ol', but it is refreshing now."

[cs4466]

Once again, Barak Obama cleaning up Bush's messes. Thanks Mr. President!

[dg441-2009]

President Obama, who has mainly limited his comments about New Orleans to feel-good boilerplate, did pledge to make good on President Bush's promise on that eerie, floodlit night in a deserted Jackson Square in 2005, to rebuild New Orleans better and stronger. But he has yet to actively intervene to make sure New Orleans gets state-of-the-art flood protection and robust and timely coastal wetland reconstruction. Like President Bush, President Obama so far seems to be acting as if just saying it makes it so.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/28/shearer.new.orleans/index.html

[specialty8]

Obama is just amazing. He can do no wrong. Keeps his campayne promises. LOL.

[whymayiask]

Bush didn't break it, nobody could have froseen the devistation that occured as a result of Katrina. Remember, the people were told to evacuate. Those who elected to stay were there by their own free will and by neglect of a direct order. With the type of damage that occured, sure 5 years later things can look MUCH better much quicker. You have to remember storm damage clean up is like a freight train, it will always pick up momentum because the initial clean up and rebuild takes longer because infrastructure has to rebuilt FIRST. NOW remember FEMA is a Gov't program. The same gov't that wants to run your healthare.

[misha256]

by IndepTex10 August 28, 2009 11:55 AM EDT

They can start by repealing hypocrisy like this they already voted into law.


Politicians that voted for required end-of-life counseling by a GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRAT:

Write them to demand REPEAL IN THE NEW HEALTH CARE BILL of the GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRAT'S
---- determination of THRESHOLD CONDITIONS
--------- (SEC 721.a.2.D)
---- determination of who are TARGETED INDIVIDUALS
--------- (SEC 721.a.2.E, 721.d.2)
---- INVOLVEMENT in the REQUIRED COMMUNICATION of END-OF-LIFE options
--------- (SEC 721.d.2)
---- Answers are REQUIRED
--------- (SEC 721.d.2.D)
---- Other unsolicited contacts are allowed (medical service providers)
--------- (SEC 721.d.2.B)
---- Required to communicate the program is voluntary
--------- (SEC 721.d.2.C)
---- NOT required to communicate that a person can
--------- terminate participation at any time
--------- (SEC 721.d.2.C, 721.d.3)
---- special treatment (unspecified) for those with
--------- impaired cognitive ability and co-morbidities
--------- (SEC 721.e.1.A)
---- includes end-of-life care
--------- (SEC 721.e.1.E)
---- quality of care will have spending targets that must be met
--------- IE RATIONING (SEC 721.f.3.A)
---- payments will be adjusted based on meeting spending targets
--------- IE RATIONING (SEC 721.f.3.B)

THAT THEY ALREADY VOTED INTO LAW.



Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003


CHECK OUT ALL THE LEGISLATORS THAT VOTED FOR THIS BILL

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2003/roll669.xml

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=1&vote=00459


Check out the entire bill / law (the end of life provisions are in Section 721)

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_bills&docid=f:h1enr.txt.pdf

[misha256]

by IndepTex10 August 28, 2009 11:55 AM EDT

-----

Does your plan still call for the ending of Medicare, Medicaid, the VA and SCHIP and more? The seniors and many others should be aware of your complete plan --

[bobbyduck1]

You neowacks really hate the successes of President Obama and will put any spin possible to make them appear unsuccessful. Of course spin is a basic tenet of the GOP platform. It comes right after outright lying, screaming to interrupt the intelligent discussion your insurance mastters fear at town halls and just being mostly useless in general.

The facts are that he has done more for our nation in a few months at home and on the true battle front (Afghanistan) than the shrub did in his 8 years of mind-boggling ineptitude!

And these successes come while having to clean up the GOP-induced second largest depressioin in our history.

YES WE CAN! In spite of the GOP......

[misha256]

by The350th August 28, 2009 3:02 PM EDT

READ THE BILL FOR YOURSELF -- CHECK THE INDICATED SECTIONS

Once again Rowdy LIES.

[sa-mo16]

bobbyduck1;
I find it rather amusing that you say "GOP-induced depression" when that has got to be the most outright false statement ever. Congress is that one that has been approving the bills that have been passed that have run this country so far into debt, and it just so happens that we have and have had a DEMOCRATIC Congress since Bush was in office.
So before you start pointing fingers maybe you should take a look at what the Dems have been involved with, buckethead.

[sjc_1]

"..nobody could have froseen the devistation that occured as a result of Katrina."

That is just NOT true. The Army Corp of Engineers told Bush about it when he first took office, he ignored their advice. There was a simulation one year before the disaster that Bush people attended and then ignored.

[User_00000000002945496845]

Another example of President Obama fixing things that Bush and cronies broke.

[User_00000000002945496845]

by The350th August 28, 2009 1:07 PM EDT
Good Lord, Bush nothing...it was democrats in charge down there that bungled everything up!

You will notice there's a lot of republicans down there now 'fixing' things! ROFL!

____________________________________________________

Bush: "Good job, Brownie.", "I didn't know. I wasn't briefed." etc....

[User_00000000002945496845]

by The350th August 28, 2009 2:56 PM EDT
Obama...I've campaigned in 50 states and my distant relative helped liberate Auschwitz (so I'm more patriotic than anybody else), and the Selma Bridge got me born...

Do you have a point? If you do I also have one.

________________________________________________________

Is your point that you're retarded?

[thesevenveils]

Hey, I thought Bush's administrations idea to put all the Katrina survivors on Cruse Ships was brilliant. And looking out the left is the remains of New Orleans....