What do you expect the president to do?

An excellent story, cross-posted from Democratic Underground....

Here are just FIVE things that a REAL PRESIDENT would do that Bush has failed to do or could have done:

1. Hurricane season starts on June 1st. As hurricane strengths have been building, the last thing to do is to cut funds from Hurricane disaster recovery budgets (even if it was for next year). In fact, more funds should have been allocated, but I guess the HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars going to OIL companies and DEFENSE contractors in IRAQ has sapped the treasury.

2. Get a team of advisers to help understand the most likely disaster scenarios when they realized either a Cat 4 or Cat 5 Hurricane was going to hit near (or directly) New Orleans. This would help the president decide what scale of military reservist operation would be required.

3. When the Hurricane Katrina was already rated a Cat. 4 hurricane before it's peak as a Cat. 5, it was known that it was going to hit New Orleans or very close to it, the president should have made an Address to the Nation (even if JUST by radio) to declare the following:
a. A call-up of whatever necessary number of the nearly a million military reservists to go on stand-by for preparation for the disaster (the hurricane took a couple days to arrive, they could have been getting ready) as well as deploying all-terrain vehicles and a fleet of choppers to help with the evacuation.
b. Preparation of relief funds to help in rebuilding the city; if the hurricane completely missed, these funds would be returned
c. To immediately revoke the budget cuts for Hurricane disaster recovery.
d. For those who could not be evacuated, military personnel would ensure they got to the Super Dome and ensure uninterruptible (military grade) communication systems were in place. Ensuring extra medical staff were available for the sick, ensuring military grade generators were in place and ensuring sanitation facilities could be maintained.
e. Let the people of the gulf coast know that America Stands With Them in their TIME OF NEED.

4. After the destruction occurred, the president could announce to the nation that plenty of military rescue boats were in place to patrol the neighborhoods for stranded people and get them to safety. The reserves of the Army Corps of Engineers (especially those familiar with New Orleans) could immediately begin work on dike repairs and getting pumps online (instead of allowing the water to keep rising in the city as he goes to fund raisers and plays guitar). A final acknowledgment of the tragedy and assessment of the damage to with assurances that the government would step in to help people recover from the disaster.

5. The last, minimum thing, the president could have done was immediately give leave to the soldiers in Iraq who have immediate family in the disaster area so they can return home and help or search for their family members.

The FREEPERS are right that the President CAN NOT STOP a HURRICANE, but they are WRONG in that he CAN DO SOMETHING to prevent the loss of life and ensure the security of the people and what little they have remaining in the disaster area.

If the President screws up this bad on something as basic as a natural disaster, what gives anyone ANY HOPE that he is doing ANYTHING TO PROTECT us against TERRORISM.

The plain simple fact is that BUSH and his CABAL of CRIMINALS only CARE ABOUT HOW MUCH LOOTING of AMERICA they can get away with!

Let's not let them GET AWAY WITH IT ANY LONGER.