Broussard Kicks Russert's Ass AGAIN

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Broussard Kicks Russert's Ass AGAIN

Postby Dreams End » Wed Sep 28, 2005 5:16 pm

<br>Tim Russert Picks on the Wrong Guy: 'That Wasn't a Box of Cheerios They Buried'<br>September 26, 2005 | 5:20 p.m.<br><br>There are millions of people who watch 'Meet the Press' without thinking much about why. Perhaps their parents watched it, and so they've always watched it. Perhaps they're interested in current events. Perhaps they savor the lively exchange of views that can occur when a seasoned journalist interviews a newsmaker.<br><br>I avoid this show. For me--and, increasingly, for many others--Tim Russert is no journalist. He's a government apologist who wouldn't dream of more than a perfunctory grilling of a Cheney or Rumsfeld. Oh, he throws one fast ball. But after that, he can't find the zone--he's determined not to strike the big guys out.<br><br>Little guys? Different story. You will recall the emotional moment a few weeks ago, when Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard talked about a woman who died in the New Orleans flood. On that appearance, this is what he said:<br><br> Mr. Broussard: Sir, they were told, like me, every single day, "The cavalry is coming." On the federal level, "The cavalry is coming. The cavalry's coming. The cavalry's coming." The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard Nursing Home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama. Somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday." "Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday." "Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday." "Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night. <br><br>On Sunday, Tim Russert had Aaron Broussard on again. There was lots to say. But Russert wanted to replay that tape. Afterward, he had some bones to pick with Broussard:<br><br> Mr. Russert: Mr. Broussard, obviously that was a very painful, emotional moment, but let me show you some of the...<br><br> Mr. Broussard: Sir, I've never looked at that. I've never heard that. I'm sorry. You take me to a sad place when you let me hear that.<br><br> Mr. Russert: Well, it was important, I think...that our viewers see that again because MSNBC and other blog organizations have looked into the facts behind your comments and these are the conclusions, and I'll read it for you and our viewers. It says: "An emotional moment and a misunderstanding. Since the broadcast of [Meet the Press] interview...a number of bloggers have questioned the validity of Broussard's story. Subsequent reporting identified the man whom Broussard was referring to...as Thomas Rodrigue, the Jefferson Parish emergency services director. ...Rodrigue acknowledged that his 92-year-old mother and more than 30 other people died in the St. Rita nursing home. They had not been evacuated and the flood waters overtook the residence. ... When told of the sequence of phone calls that Broussard described, Rodrigue said 'No, no, that's not true. ...I contacted the nursing home two days before the storm [on Saturday, Aug. 27th] and again on [Sunday] the 28th. ...At the same time I talked to the nursing home I had also talked to the emergency manager...to encourage that nursing home to evacuate...' Rodrigue says he never made any calls after Monday, the day he figures his mother died... Officials believe the residents of St. Rita's died on Monday, the 29th, not on Friday, Sept. 2, as Broussard has suggested."<br><br> Mr. Broussard: Sir, this gentleman's mother died on that Friday before I came on the show. My own staff came up to me and said what had happened. I had no idea his mother was in the nursing home. It was related to me by my own staff, who had tears in their eyes, what had happened. That's what they told me. I went to that man, who I love very much and respect very much, and he had collapsed like a deck of cards. And I took him and put him in my hospital room with my prayer books and told him to sit there and cry out and pray away and give honor to his mother with his tears and his prayers.<br><br> Now, everything that was told to me about the preface of that was told to me by my own employees. Do you think I would interrogate a man whose mother just died and said, "Tommy, I want to know everything about why your mother just died"? The staff, his own staff, told me those words. Sir, that woman is the epitome of abandonment. She was left in that nursing home. She died in that nursing home. Tommy will tell you that he tried to rescue her and could not get her rescued. Tommy could tell you that he sent messages there through the EOC and through, I think, the sheriff's department, "Tell Mama everything's going to be OK. Tell Mama we're coming to get her."<br><br> Listen, sir, somebody wants to nitpick a man's tragic loss of a mother because she was abandoned in a nursing home? Are you kidding? What kind of sick mind, what kind of black-hearted people want to nitpick a man's mother's death? They just buried Eva last week. I was there at the wake. Are you kidding me? That wasn't a box of Cheerios they buried last week. That was a man's mother whose story, if it is entirely broadcast, will be the epitome of abandonment. It will be the saddest tale you ever heard, a man who was responsible for safekeeping of a half a million people, mother's died in the next parish because she was abandoned there and he can't get to her and he tried to get to her through EOC. He tried to get through the sheriff's office. He tries every way he can to get there. Somebody wants to debate those things? My God, what sick-minded person wants to do that?<br><br> What kind of agenda is going on here? Mother Nature doesn't have a political party. Mother Nature can vote a person dead and Mother Nature can vote a community out of existence. But Mother Nature is not playing any political games here. Somebody better wake up. You want to come and live in this community and see the tragedy we're living in? Are you sitting there having your coffee, you're in a place where toilets flush and lights go on and everything's a dream and you pick up your paper and you want to battle ideology and political chess games? Man, get out of my face. Whoever wants to do that, get out of my face.<br><br> Mr. Russert: Mr. Broussard, the people who are questioning your comments are saying that you accused the federal government and the bureaucracy of murder, specifically calling on the secretary of Homeland Security and using this as an example to denounce the federal government. And what they're saying is, in fact, it was the local government that did not evacuate Eva Rodrigue on Friday or on Saturday....And, in fact, the owners of the nursing home, Salvador and Mable Mangano, have been indicted with 34 counts of negligent homicide by the Louisiana state attorney general. So it was the owners of the nursing home and the local government that are responsible for the lack of evacuation and not the federal government. Is that fair?<br><br> Mr. Broussard: Sir, with everything I said on Meet the Press, the last punctuation of my statements were the story that I was going to tell in about maybe two sentences. It just got emotional for me, sir. Talk about the context of everything I said. Were we abandoned by the federal government? Absolutely we were. Were there more people that abandoned us? Make the list. The list can go on for miles. That's for history to document. That's what Congress does best, burn witches. Let Congress do their hearings. Let them find the witches. Let them burn them. The media burns witches better than anybody. Let the media go find the witches and burn them. But as I stood on the ground, sir, for day after day after day after day, nobody came here, sir. Nobody came. The federal government didn't come. The Red Cross didn't come. I'll give you a list of people that didn't come here, sir, and I was here.<br><br> [...] When somebody wants to nit-pick these details, I don't know what sick minds creates this black-hearted agenda, but it's sick. I mean, let us recover. Let us rebuild. If somebody wants me to debate them on national TV, hey, buddy, be my guest. Make my day. Put me at a podium when I got a full night's sleep and you will not like matching me against anybody that you want. That person is going to be in trouble. If this station or anybody else or any other station wants to do that, you just give me a full night's sleep, sir. I haven't had one in about 30 days. But you wind me up with a full night's sleep, I'll debate every detail of everything you want, sir.<br><br> Mr. Russert: Aaron Broussard, the president of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, we thank you for coming on and correcting the record and putting it in context. And we wish you well and to all your people in the recovery. And we hope to talk to you again.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.beliefnet.com/story/145/story_14546_1.html">www.beliefnet.com/story/1...546_1.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> (scroll down a bit to see it)<br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Broussard Kicks Russert's Ass AGAIN

Postby dbeach » Wed Sep 28, 2005 5:28 pm

russert is the MM mega star bulldog with false teeth..<br>Talk about an insider .Russert is an uber insider..remember him when he quizzed bush and kerry about S.&B. and all had a big laff...especially kerry who said:'wish i could say something but its a secret.." and laffed again like a silly schol boy<br><br>THANX for posting cuz it underlies the inhumaness of these mega stars in their fancy cars..<br><br>Broussard hits the pulse of the lies. Bloggers accusing him of lying .Such propaganda .Goerbells must be laffin.. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Broussard Kicks Russert's Ass AGAIN

Postby heath7 » Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:21 pm

Don't get me wrong, I was very moved by Broussard's first appearance on <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Meet The Press</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->. And I don't <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>know</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> if this means anything, but Broussard is president of the parish where Gretna is located. Gretna is where the cops blocked off the bridge from New Orleans. Is it even possible that these cops were doing this without Broussard's knowledge. If Broussard knew this was going on, wouldn't that make him a bit of a hypocrite? <p></p><i></i>
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re: Broussard Kicks Russert's Ass AGAIN

Postby Starman » Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:10 am

dbeach -- That's RICH: MM Mega-star Bulldog with False teeth.<br>What a perfect description of an utterly contemptable ass-kissing slug in the guise of a 'news' host.<br><br>Heath7 -- Damn, that IS a helluva thing. The Gretna incident was/is too horrid to fully grasp; I could hardly blame a survivor for wanting to 'teach' a lesson in blowback to those stiffnecked law-n-order jerks who may have contributed to needless deaths by their insufferable stand. In a way, the contemptuous abandonment by relief services and Federal officials to the parish's flooding which contributed to the nursing home patients drowning was reflected by the selfish and insular concerns of the city of Gretna to 'protect' themselves by shutting-down the only passable escape route for stranded New Orleans residents on foot. One has to wonder if it was possible that as President of the Parish Broussard wasn't aware of the blockade -- and if not, WHY not.<br><br>Of course, the nursing home tragedies were absolutely inexcusable, as were most if not all the drowning and exposure deaths. Broussard's point is no less crucial regardless of anything else that did or didn't happen. Numerous tragic, foolish, even criminal mistakes were made by local officials too -- as the abandonment of some 800 jail prisoners for three days, and the foolish loss through negligence of about 200 school busses (NOT 2000 as the MM and right wingnut blogs hysterically claimed), and the lack of response by the NO police dept. while they watched the Superdome and Convention center catastrophe develop.<br>Starman <p></p><i></i>
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