[Rhodes22-list] Comment on Florida based Air Force(?) Helicopters

[brad haslett]

Ed,

I've been on hurricane equipment evacuation missions
about three times in the last twenty years.  We load
our planes with the last of the freight and as much
equipment as will fit and move them out of harms way. 
Of course the military does the same thing.  Here is a
interesting list from Ben Stein.  Now I really,
really, gotta go fly.

Brad

Get Off His Back By Ben Stein Published 9/2/2005
11:59:59 PM


A few truths, for those who have ears and eyes and
care to know the truth:

1.) The hurricane that hit New Orleans and Mississippi
and Alabama was an astonishing tragedy. The suffering
and loss of life and peace of mind of the residents of
those areas is acutely horrifying.

2.) George Bush did not cause the hurricane.
Hurricanes have been happening for eons. George Bush
did not create them or unleash this one.

3.) George Bush did not make this one worse than
others. There have been far worse hurricanes than this
before George Bush was born.

4.) There is no overwhelming evidence that global
warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no
clear-cut evidence that global warming even exists.
There is no clear evidence that if it does exist it
makes hurricanes more powerful or makes them aim at
cities with large numbers of poor people. If global
warming is a real phenomenon, which it may well be, it
started long before George Bush was inaugurated, and
would not have been affected at all by the Kyoto
treaty, considering that Kyoto does not cover the
world's worst polluters -- China, India, and Brazil.
In a word, George Bush had zero to do with causing
this hurricane. To speculate otherwise is belief in 
sorcery.

6.) George Bush had nothing to do with the hurricane
contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up
by New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans
were perfectly good: mandatory evacuation. It is in no
way at all George Bush's fault that about 20 percent
of New Orleans neglected to follow the plan. It is not
his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too
confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would
be. They were certainly warned. It's not George Bush's
fault that there were sick people 
and old people and people without cars in New Orleans.
His job description does not include making sure every
adult in America has a car, is in good 
health, has good sense, and is mobile.

7.) George Bush did not cause gangsters to shoot at
rescue helicopters taking people from rooftops, did
not make gang bangers rape young girls in 
the Superdome, did not make looters steal hundreds of
weapons, in short make New Orleans into a living hell.

8.) George Bush is the least racist President in mind
and soul there has ever been and this is shown in his
appointments over and over. To say otherwise is
scandalously untrue.

9.) George Bush is rushing every bit of help he can to
New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama as soon as he
can. He is not a magician. It takes time to organize
huge convoys of food and now they are starting to
arrive. That they get in at all considering the
lawlessness of the city is a miracle 
of bravery and organization.

10.) There is not the slightest evidence at all that
the war in Iraq has diminished the response of the
government to the emergency. To say otherwise 
is pure slander.

11.) If the energy the news media puts into blaming
Bush for an Act of God worsened by stupendous
incompetence by the New Orleans city authorities and 
the malevolence of the criminals of the city were
directed to helping the morale of the nation, we would
all be a lot better off.

12.) New Orleans is a great city with many great
people. It will recover and be greater than ever.
Sticking pins into an effigy of George Bush that does 
not resemble him in the slightest will not speed the
process by one day.

13.) The entire episode is a dramatic lesson in the
breathtaking callousness of government officials at
the ground level Imagine if Hillary Clinton had 
gotten her way and they were in charge of your health
care.

God bless all of those dear people who are suffering
so much, and God bless 
those helping them, starting with George Bush.


Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer
living in Beverly Hills 
and Malibu. He also writes "Ben Stein's Diary" in
every issue of The 
American Spectator.



--- ed kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:

> 
> Brad:
> 	Yes there were two helicopters (Air Force?) sent
> from Florida to NO
> with supplies and emergency parts.  They were
> supposed to return immediately
> for another load.  That load was delayed while they
> rescued about 100
> persons from rooftops.  Do you think that the load
> that was delayed was the
> water for the Superdome?
> 	Have you ever heard the reason that there were so
> few helicopters in
> NO and Gulfport the next day?  All the Air Force,
> Navy, National Guard
> equipment that were not in storm proof hangers were
> evacuated a safe
> distance in the days before.  Can you imagine that
> they made sure their
> equipment was sent to a safe place so that they
> would have it after the
> storm? 
> 	Do you think that might have been the reason why
> they had so many
> helicopters available by Friday?  What has happened
> here is some have
> developed a television mentality.  Just flip a
> switch or turn a knob and you
> have all the resources.  
> 	I doubt we will get all the truth, but I am sure
> certain media
> outlets will push their agenda.  I see where the
> National Guard is under gag
> orders not to say anything.  But then again, they
> still have work to do and
> should not be holding news conferences anyway.
> 	
> Ed K
> Greenville, SC, USA
> 
> 
> 
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