CaptainQuantum
09-07-2005, 12:19 AM
By Kate Sheehy, New York Post
First Mom Barbara Bush yesterday walked past rows of poor and ailing refugees at the Houston Astrodome, then said, "So many of the people here . . . were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.
"What I'm hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," gushed the white-haired mother of President Bush.
"Almost everyone I've talked to says, 'We're going to move to Houston!' "
The former first lady's comments were part of a broadcast on National Public Radio. The spokesman for her and her husband, Tom Frechette, said he did not have an immediate comment on the interview.
Later, on CNN's "Larry King Live," Barbara Bush appeared upbeat about the stricken evacuees' prospects while sitting alongside her hubby, former President George H.W. Bush.
It's been only a week since Katrina cut a deadly swath through the South, she said, "And look what's happened: Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated and are in comfortable shelters."
Still, she acknowledged, "It's going to take a while for families to get together."
Inside the Astrodome hang hundreds of heart-wrenching, homemade fliers from families desperately seeking word on loved ones from whom they were separated during the frantic evacuations.
They feature everyone from toddlers to elderly grandmothers.
Barbara Bush adamantly defended her son's handling of the government's response to the disaster, dismissing critics who charged that he would have been more speedy in prodding rescue efforts if so many of the victims hadn't been poor blacks.
"People came up to me all day long and said, 'God bless your son,' all races," she said.
Meanwhile, her husband, who also met with refugees while announcing a fund-raising effort with ex-President Bill Clinton, said he could "understand the criticism" of the government's handling of the crisis.
"I'm certainly not satisfied" with the way things were handled, the former president said.
The first parents' comments came as President Bush called Americans' response to Hurricane Katrina "amazing" ˜ but didn't offer the same praise for the government, as he made his second visit to the disaster area.
There was a big chill in the air as Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco toured the same Baton Rouge, La., relief center at a time when federal and state officials blame each other for the government's slow response in aiding the region.
At a Baton Rouge prayer center, some refugees asked Bush for an autograph.
But refugee Mildred Brown said, "I need answers. I'm not interested in handshaking. I'm not interested in photo ops. This is going to take a lot of money."
Additional reporting by Deborah Orin in Washington
Reprinted from The New York Post:
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/52995.htm
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This response was taken from http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=22639&mode=nested&order=0, where I originally found the Babs Bush article, and I thought it sums up the stupidity of Mama Bush's statement:
What cocklemamie codswallop! In fact, all of the evacuees that have arrived here in COS (nearly 240 so far) have made no bones about the fact that - as soon as they located family members- they couldn't wait to escape the Astrodome.
As featured in segments of last night's 10 p.m. news, they all said that - while basic provisions were there- they still felt like cattle or sardines, without a scintilla of privacy or dignity. Packed cheek by jowl with thousands of others, having to piss into bedpans or buckets in the middle of the night because it was too far to hoof it to the nearest rest facility, and there were too many cots in the way.
The described the simple but comfy homes they left behind in N.O., and regretted doing so. Thus putting the kibosh on Ms. Bush's spin that merely being "under privileged" also means one will easily adjust to cattle conditions.
Even being "under privileged" can mean one has a domecile (be it ever so humble) within which there are private bath and sleeping quarters. But perhaps Barb Bush merely thinks all the "under privileged" in New Orelans merely congregate in mass abodes.
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Oh and regarding Barbara Bush's "beautiful mind":
"Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" ~Barbara Bush on ABC/Good Morning America, March 18, 2003
First Mom Barbara Bush yesterday walked past rows of poor and ailing refugees at the Houston Astrodome, then said, "So many of the people here . . . were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.
"What I'm hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," gushed the white-haired mother of President Bush.
"Almost everyone I've talked to says, 'We're going to move to Houston!' "
The former first lady's comments were part of a broadcast on National Public Radio. The spokesman for her and her husband, Tom Frechette, said he did not have an immediate comment on the interview.
Later, on CNN's "Larry King Live," Barbara Bush appeared upbeat about the stricken evacuees' prospects while sitting alongside her hubby, former President George H.W. Bush.
It's been only a week since Katrina cut a deadly swath through the South, she said, "And look what's happened: Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated and are in comfortable shelters."
Still, she acknowledged, "It's going to take a while for families to get together."
Inside the Astrodome hang hundreds of heart-wrenching, homemade fliers from families desperately seeking word on loved ones from whom they were separated during the frantic evacuations.
They feature everyone from toddlers to elderly grandmothers.
Barbara Bush adamantly defended her son's handling of the government's response to the disaster, dismissing critics who charged that he would have been more speedy in prodding rescue efforts if so many of the victims hadn't been poor blacks.
"People came up to me all day long and said, 'God bless your son,' all races," she said.
Meanwhile, her husband, who also met with refugees while announcing a fund-raising effort with ex-President Bill Clinton, said he could "understand the criticism" of the government's handling of the crisis.
"I'm certainly not satisfied" with the way things were handled, the former president said.
The first parents' comments came as President Bush called Americans' response to Hurricane Katrina "amazing" ˜ but didn't offer the same praise for the government, as he made his second visit to the disaster area.
There was a big chill in the air as Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco toured the same Baton Rouge, La., relief center at a time when federal and state officials blame each other for the government's slow response in aiding the region.
At a Baton Rouge prayer center, some refugees asked Bush for an autograph.
But refugee Mildred Brown said, "I need answers. I'm not interested in handshaking. I'm not interested in photo ops. This is going to take a lot of money."
Additional reporting by Deborah Orin in Washington
Reprinted from The New York Post:
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/52995.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This response was taken from http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=22639&mode=nested&order=0, where I originally found the Babs Bush article, and I thought it sums up the stupidity of Mama Bush's statement:
What cocklemamie codswallop! In fact, all of the evacuees that have arrived here in COS (nearly 240 so far) have made no bones about the fact that - as soon as they located family members- they couldn't wait to escape the Astrodome.
As featured in segments of last night's 10 p.m. news, they all said that - while basic provisions were there- they still felt like cattle or sardines, without a scintilla of privacy or dignity. Packed cheek by jowl with thousands of others, having to piss into bedpans or buckets in the middle of the night because it was too far to hoof it to the nearest rest facility, and there were too many cots in the way.
The described the simple but comfy homes they left behind in N.O., and regretted doing so. Thus putting the kibosh on Ms. Bush's spin that merely being "under privileged" also means one will easily adjust to cattle conditions.
Even being "under privileged" can mean one has a domecile (be it ever so humble) within which there are private bath and sleeping quarters. But perhaps Barb Bush merely thinks all the "under privileged" in New Orelans merely congregate in mass abodes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh and regarding Barbara Bush's "beautiful mind":
"Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" ~Barbara Bush on ABC/Good Morning America, March 18, 2003