Guest BlackJesus Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 [u]Senate Kills Bid for Katrina Commission By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Wed Sep 14, 2005 [/u] WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina. The New York Democrat's bid to establish the panel  which would have also made recommendations on how to improve the government's disaster response apparatus  failed to win the two-thirds majority needed to overcome procedural hurdles. Clinton got only 44 votes, all from Democrats and independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Fifty-four Republicans all voted no. "Just as with 9/11, we did not get to the point where we believed we understood what happened until an independent investigation was conducted," Clinton said. The Senate vote is hardly likely to be the last word on whether to create an independent commission or as an alternative a special congressional committee to investigate Katrina. The 9/11 Commission was established in 2002 after resistance from Republicans and the White House, and opinion polls show the public strongly supports the idea. In a CNN/USA Today Gallup poll taken Sept. 8-11, 70 percent of those surveyed supported an independent panel to investigate the government's response to Katrina. Only 29 percent were opposed. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has rebuffed a bid by House and Senate GOP leaders to create a committee patterned after the 1987 Iran-Contra panel that would have a GOP majority  reflecting their dominance of Congress. Reid has instead vowed that any bid by Republican leaders to establish a special bipartisan committee involving lawmakers from both House and Senate will go forward only if Democrats have equal representation. Separately, Senate Homeland Security Committee chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday that Post-9/11 changes to improve the government response to catastrophic disasters failed their first major test in Hurricane Katrina's wake. Despite billions of dollars to boost disaster preparedness at all levels of government, the response to Katrina was plagued by confusion, communication failures and widespread lack of coordination, said Collins as she opened hearings into the disaster. "At this point, we would have expected a sharp, crisp response to this terrible tragedy," Collins said. "Instead, we witnessed what appeared to be a sluggish initial response." The hearing marked Congress' first step in investigating major gaps in the country's readiness and response systems that Katrina exposed. It comes even as Republican and Democrats grapple over whether to appoint an unusual House-Senate panel to investigate the matter, or to create an 9/11-style commission. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the committee, said the response to Katrina "has shaken the public's confidence in the ability of government at all levels to protect them in a crisis." Lawmakers said they did not ask officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the Homeland Security Department to appear at the hearing out of fear that would disrupt the ongoing recovery process in the battered Gulf Coast. Instead, a slew of former city and state officials testified about their experiences in facing faced major disasters in their communities. Calling Katrina a "national tragedy," former New Orleans Mayor Marc H. Morial put the primary responsibility for disaster response squarely on the federal government's shoulders. Morial, president of the National Urban League, was New Orleans' mayor from 1994 to 2004. Meanwhile, the House, by voice vote, on Wednesday approved legislation that provides liability protections for people and groups providing volunteer aid for Hurricane Katrina victims. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said the Red Cross has cited lawsuit concerns among people interested in taking evacuees into their homes and that doctors traveling to states where they are not licensed face increased liability. The bill, which needs Senate action, would protect from lawsuit volunteers who in good faith and without expectation of compensation offer aid or medical assistance. It would not protect those who willfully carry out criminal acts. Other bills, however, to cut federal red tape and otherwise make it easier to get aid to Katrina victims have hit a slow patch as lawmakers wrestle over how to shape their response. They include proposals to provide Medicaid health benefits to those made homeless by Katrina, lift work rules for welfare recipients, and implement tax changes to help hurricane victims and charitable donors. [url="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050914/ap_on_go_ot/katrina_washington_29"]http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...a_washington_29[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 Good! don't need it, its just a waste of money Wouldn't have been long before you Bush haters would be bitching about the Republicans spending too much money on stupid shit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gonzoid Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 Nah, they would've just complained about Bush stonewalling the investigations like he did to the 9/11 Commission. Why are Republicans afraid of a bipartisan investigation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steggyD Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 I agree, this does not need to turn into a blame game. Everyone is to blame, including the hurricane. Take the money and give it to states to fund evacuation plans for their people in times of disaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 I'm sick of government waste, especially anything related to a group of people who get together for a study or anything like it I once heard that the govt financed an expensive study to see how much another study was going to cost Just what we need spend a fortune for a bipartison group to determine that Katrina was responsible for the Hurricane! [img]http://www.classichits1520.com/images/wps/gary2.jpg[/img]Wake up america! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BlackJesus Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 [color="blue"][b]sums up the way the GOP is working these days[/b][/color] Frist And Santorum Call For Investigation Of Katrina Then Vote No... On Thursday, September 8, The Hill quoted Senator Bill Frist saying [i]“Americans deserve answers. We must do all we can to learn from this tragedy, improve the system and protect all of our citizens.â€Â[/i] On Friday, September 9, Senator Rick Santorum issued a press release saying [i]“It will be important to study the response to this disaster and to better understand what went right and what went wrong.†[/i] On Tuesday, September 13, The Washington Post reported that [i]“ 76 percent of the public favors an investigation of federal storm response efforts by an independent commission similar to the one that probed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,†and that the proposed commission “drew strong bipartisan support: 64 percent of all Republicans and 83 percent of Democrats favored creating the independent panel."[/i] [b]On Wednesday, both Senators Frist and Santorum voted to block the creation of and independent, bipartisan panel modeled on the 9/11 Commission to investigate the federal, state and local government’s response to Katrina. [/b] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bengalrick Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 the 9/11 commission has very little (if any) credibility left... an independant panel is dumb and useless... but so is letting congress to do it... we need a commission made up of true independant and non political people... i heard a good idea a week or so ago, and mentioned it here and got some good responses from it... how about retired generals to look at it and create a commission? they tend to not be political and fair... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BlackJesus Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 [url="http://www.ericblumrich.com/wmf/George.mp3"]Hilarious interview with George [/url] [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/24.gif[/img] [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/24.gif[/img] [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/24.gif[/img] [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/24.gif[/img] [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/24.gif[/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beaker Posted September 17, 2005 Report Share Posted September 17, 2005 There doesnt need to be a federal investigation. Dont waste my tax money because of some whiney bitches who want to blame Bush. If youre gonna investigate anyone, investigate the State of Louisiana, the NO mayor, and all the people who defied a mandatory evacuation order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted September 18, 2005 Report Share Posted September 18, 2005 [img]http://www.latimes.com/includes/ramirez/ramirez_20050911.gif[/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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