American Family Voices - Miriam V

AM Feed - September 6, 2005

Hot Topics
List of 2 items
President Bush made another trip to the flood-ravaged Gulf Coast region, but
at this point he appears far more interested in repairing his image than
anything
else. The Bush administration's handling of this crisis - from the president
's initial decision to remain on vacation, to FEMA's delayed response - has
been roundly criticized, but President Bush has adopted his familiar
approach of ignoring problems at hand. He has publicly backed FEMA head
Michael Brown,
who made a statement that appeared to blame storm victims for not leaving
and who admitted that his agency had no idea victims were housed in the New
Orleans
convention center even after it had been reported on the news. Bush also has
adopted the stance that the flooding was little more than a random,
unpredictable
freak occurrence even though officials had been briefed 32 hours in advance
that the levees could be topped (not to mention the fact that officials had
been pleading with the administration for more money long before the
disaster, to no avail). Right now the most important job at hand is saving
the lives
of those still trapped. In the long run, we must look to ensure that
something like this does not happen again. Both of these tasks will be
severely impeded
if the administration does not alter its approach.
[link]
President Bush wasted little time in announcing the nomination of John
Roberts for chief justice of the US Supreme Court, just two days after the
passing
of William Rehnquist. Bush initially picked Roberts as an associate justice
to fill Sandra Day O'Connor's position, but the arch-conservative had not
been
confirmed for that position. If confirmed, Roberts - who clerked for
Rehnquist - would be the youngest chief justice since 1801.
[link]
list end

Who Says That? (Part 1)

"Unfortunately, that's [the high death toll in New Orleans] going to be
attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings." - FEMA
chief
Michael Brown

Who Says That? (Part 2)

"What I'm hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so
overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here,
you know,
were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them." -
Former First Lady Barbara Bush, speaking about the displaced hurricane
victims
in Houston