“Don’t get stuck on stupid” general retires
I’ve been meaning to get to this, but the politics tsunami distracted me. Now, what with Hillary Clinton resurrected, the phrase “Don’t get stuck on stupid” seems particularly timely. Anyway, as several readers have e-mailed, the awesome general who made that phrase famous during Hurrican Katrina is retiring from the Army:
The gruff, cigar-chomping general who led federal troops into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is convinced America hasn’t learned its lesson from the storm.
As Lt. Gen. Russel Honore gets ready to retire from the Army and hand over his command on Friday, he says he wants to spend the rest of his life creating a “culture of preparedness” to prevent another post-disaster disaster.
“There’s an attitude everywhere else that people are smarter than they are in New Orleans and in Mississippi. They’re not,” the 60-year-old general said at his office at Fort Gillem, just outside Atlanta. “What happened in New Orleans could have happened anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard.”
During his 37-year Army career, Honore commanded troops in South Korea and prepared soldiers to fight in Iraq. After Katrina, the native of Lakeland, in Pointe Coupee Parish, led the vast relief convoy that rolled into New Orleans during its darkest hour. The 22,000-member force was one of the largest federal deployments in the South since the end of the Civil War.
With a green beret ###### to one side, a crisp, take-charge attitude and biting one-liners — “Don’t get stuck on stupid!” he snapped at reporters — he impressed politicians and ordinary folks alike. At news conferences, he ended sentences with the word “over,” as if transmitting over military radio.
New Orleans area blogger Laura at Pursuing Holiness pays tribute:
He was a real hero to many of us in the New Orleans metro area after Katrina. We weren’t just grateful for the convoys of supplies he brought in, but for his no-nonsense attitude when it sometimes seemed like everything was falling apart. After weeks of wielding chainsaws, doing grueling cleanup work, and seeing the media daily play up every bad thing while ignoring the good, watching the General smack down this reporter was a refreshing break.
Here’s the vid of his memorable exchange:
I wish we had more like him in Washington.
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Best media put down ever.
And apparently they’ve been stuck on stupid ever since!
Honore for President!!!
FEMA! Working for Jeb! That would be a crew right there.
This guy has a future as an anti-Media commentator. “Chris, George and Bill, you’re stuck on stupid!”
Yeah – for a lot longer than just Katrina. They’ve been stuck on stupid for at least the 64 years that I personally know of, and I’ll bet it’s been a whole lot longer than that.
That’s a pretty cool phrase. I’ve heard it loads and seen that video loads, yet I smile everytime I see him put down that reporter.
We noticed
His name fits him well, very honorable.
I think the voters in NH are stuck on stupid.
We need to clone this guy. We’re going to need people like him in the future
I like phrases like that. It ranks right up there with “Don’t tase me, bro!” Maybe someone can combine the two. Or not?
We are blessed with a wonderful military. Too bad the MSM and most Dems don’t appreciate the contributions of our service men and women in many different aspects of our lives.
Reporters have been stuck on stupid since the covered wagon days.
Don’t you think that the culture of rampant crime, corruption, kickbacks and a welfare dependency in New Orelans exacerbated the problem? How are they any better prepared now to deal with another hurricane disaster? How is Mary Landrieu’s demand for $500k per person there coming along?
In other locales, can you imagine what a major earthquake would wreak in Los Angeles?
How about every reporter that is or ever will be is born with the “stuck on stupid” genetic predisposition characterized by a tendencies to repeat stupid questions?
Heh, You must have an Internet profanity filter installed that overreacted here. There is nothing vulgar about having your beret “cocked” to one side.
Men like General Honore are indeed rare. There is no way to clone or copy this unique kind of leadership and direct-to-the-heart problem solving. I do hope he has an interest in a political career. Wouldn’t you love to witness a debate between him and any of the current contenders for POTUS?
Um, no, New Orleans is the epitome of stupid as well as dependent. This disaster could not have happened in any other place in the USA.
First, there are no other places in the USA that are more poorly positioned than New Orleans being below the water level of the body of water next to them.
Second, there are no other places in the USA that have such retarded people voted into positions of power. These losers were incapable of making any decisions what-so-ever that could have saved lives. The evacuation was vollentary and was not even enforced on hopsitals. The aftermath was even worse. The N.O. officials actually hampered efforts to help those it left behind by not allowing food and supply trucks to enter the city. Instead trying to force the people to leave N.O. by starving them out.
Third, no other place in the USA had such a large number of people who depend 100% for generations on government hand outs in order to live. These people had no idea how to care for themselves. Nor, did they have any idea that they should be taking care of themselves.
In my opinion, New Orleans residents are the people who are stuck on stupid. The rest of the nation has government that works far better. Could it be improved, yes it can, and if he wants to work towards improving preparedness, good for him, so long as the insurance his preparedness brings does not cost more than the potential savings the insurance can prevent.
People in Canada could live in earthquake, flood, hurricane resistant homes. But why should they?
Seems to me though that this soon to be retired general is more looking for easy money in his pockets.
I seriously doubt it. The vast majority of career military men are apolitical. Conservative, yes – to an extreme, but essentially apolitical. The only time you will see them act is when they perceive a direct threat to their country, the country they have sworn to protect and defend. They are not concerned with power politics, they are concerned with “getting the job done.”
I don’t believe that anyone could talk General Honore into running for office. I have to honestly say that I would rather follow him than a lot of other officers I’ve known. He’s very reminiscent of another well-known general, George S. Patton.
In contrast, we have our former SecState, who was Chairman of the JCS during GulfI, Gen. Colin Powell. HE was a political general. There seems to be something about serving in DC at the funny farm that affects senior(and sometimes not-so-senior officers). Maybe something in the water.
I want this guy as the next Republican press secretary LOL
I don’t mean to say this to upstage the General, but my father in law loves to say “Don’t be stupid, stupid!” Sadly, I get that a lot
And, should I have to deal with annoying reporters as much as the good General did, I probably give a lot of that advice, too… *out*
In my life as an NG Infantry officer, I met dozens of generals like this. Truly a national resource.
BTW, he wears a black beret.
Happy trails, General!
The people of Los Angeles handled the last major quake (’94) very well. (#15)
It was the first time that I saw neighborhoods gather together to comfort one another.
However distant we are (people do not talk nor smile at each other as a norm)
there are very few on the government dole.
Wasn’t he just wonderful!!! I love people who actually think instead of feeling out a situation…He will not doubt be missed by his colleagues.
This guy was choice – and timely. Hope he has a great retirement. Well done General.
Over.
I think you may be giving the media too much credit for all the time pior to that too.
How’s this? Don’t get stuck on tase me! Stupid Bro.
We could use a whole more of his kind in government…that was where Fox started going further left, Hurricane Katrina. Smith which i can’t watch or her his voice anymore, i’m afraid he’ll find a subject to start crying about and of course the same for good ‘o whorealdo lying about everything.
sorry, MM, i was too fast there…i’d like to thank the general for his lifetime of service giving himself to the country…a true American.
As I recall, Ms. Malkin designated his words as, “The quote of the New Millenium” or something to that effect.
Am I right or Amarillo?
All due credit to the Ragin’ Cajun, but LTG Honore never earned the coveted green beret, the distinguishing headgear of the US Army’s Special Forces. As KCK pointed out, it’s black (thanks, Gen Shinseki!) Great man, none the less. Enjoy retirement, sir.
I blame color blind reporters.
On the contrary, this reminds me of Mark McGwire at the senate hearings saying he “didn’t want to talk about the past”. I really would have liked to have known the answer to that question. Government officials work for us, the people. They are our employees. I pay this guy’s salary and I would have liked honest answers to honest questions. But he didn’t want to talk about a monumental screw-up. I guess I can’t blame him for that.
#33~
Who doesn’t want to talk about what? I must have missed something somewhere…
I can only hope Lt. Gen. Honore had the opportunity to mentor many young officers over the years, who in the future will take a few pages out of his book in what they do: both while in the military and after they leave the service…
Unlike Barrack, Russell would be the first black President.
Have’nt you been paying attention Bill Clinton was the first black President.
I really love that man! He puts the manicured wimps in Washington to shame. He’s a REAL man.
On January 9th, 2008 at 7:17 pm, Blind_Mule said:
a crapweasel said:
On January 9th, 2008 at 10:15 am, Marshall Russ said:
Unlike Barrack, Russell would be the first black President.
Have’nt you been paying attention Bill Clinton was the first black President.
The entire state of Louisiana could use a guy like General Honore in command of their civilian establishment. I guarantee you would see a much better emergency evacuation plan, better rebuilding efforts, and quick action taken against crime.
Hurricane Katrina illuminated everything that is wrong with New Orleans.
1. The National Weather Service gave people ample warning of the impending disaster. They had days to evacuate, but for whatever idiotic reasons they concocted, many decided to stay. Rent a U-Haul, pack your valuables, and GET OUT. The only people that had a valid reason are the handicapped and infirmed. However, they comprise a relatively small portion of the population. The rest don’t have an excuse. Nagin certainly didn’t help matters by letting fleets of busses sit idle while he twiddled his thumbs.
2. Setting up disaster relief centers and command and control takes time. FEMA was prepared; the “blame Bush” contingent in New Orleans was not.
3. The looters revealed very early on that most of them are career thugs to begin with and used the tragedy as an outlet to continue their crime sprees.
4. If New Orleans put as much effort into personal responsibility, helping each other, and unifying the community as they did looting, blaming the government, and making asses out of themselves in the media spotlight, they’d be a lot better off.
For years, New Orleans has been dying a slow inevitable death thanks to its inherent political corruption, murder rate, and unwillingness to pull itself up by the bootstraps after it’s frequent natural disasters.
I don’t know why anyone would want to live in a city that’s right smack in the path of hurricane alley and below sea level, but if you do, you have to deal with the consequences.
If General Honore decides to run for public office, New Orleans needs to do everything it can to persuade him to return.
I told my mother to tell her sister about how people want Gen. Russell Honore to run for President. I told her to also make sure my aunt mentions it to her ex-husand and hopefully he’ll tell Russell.