White House Responds
The White House responded quickly to the bombshell AP report that President Bush was fully briefed on the potential of the levees breaking and lied to the American people four days later during an interview with ABC News when he uttered the infamous words, "I don't think anyone could have anticipated the breach of the levees." Associated Press:
I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing," Bush spokesman Trent Duffy said, citing a variety of orders and disaster declarations Bush signed before the storm made landfall. "He received multiple briefings from multiple officials, and he was completely engaged at all times.
He's right ... who knows how much more incompetence would be uncovered were the White House completely forthcoming with the information requested by the Katrina Commission in Congress. Here is what the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs had to say about the cooperation level of the executive branch:
The problems begin at the White House, where there has been a near total lack of cooperation that has made it impossible, in my opinion, for us to do the thorough investigation we have a responsibility to do.
And completely engaged? Hogwash. Unlike the Associated Press video, we didn't need to wait six months to know the president refused to cut short his vaction and return to Washington, D.C. to deal with the crisis from the White House. In fact, none of us will ever forget the photo of President Bush playing country rock star as New Orleans drowned.
This adminstration failed the American people before the storm hit, as it made landfall, through the investigation, and continues to this day. Mistakes are made, to be sure, the storm was unprecedented in its scope. However, lying to the American people in an attempt to shirk responsiblity for what ended up completely transcending minor blunders, and then refusing to cooperate with the U.S. Senate during an investigation tasked at learning the lessons necessary to prevent a sequel is completely unforgivable.
Comments (60) «
It'd be laughable if it weren't so tragic...the whole of America is drowning due to the ineptitude and incompetence of this buffoon! :(
Bush was playing more than air guitar; he was playing pocket pool before Katrina hit and then avoided the whole disaster when it did - just as he flew to Omaha to hide in a bunker on 9/11 after finishing the riveting story of "My Pet Goat".
Bush is more than a liar; he is a shameless coward. He RUNS from crisis then CLAIMS to be a strong leader.
The Cowardly Liar is and forever will be in Oz.
The administration has failed the Americans. Why are they still in Iraq? I can't seem to understand where we are going to make a difference over there. I do know that when the war is finally over, America will be broke. Men died for what? Serving their country, or serving Bush and his ideas? Meanwhile, back at the ranch here in America, people are just making ends meet. It will take a long time to recoop from Katrina. The administration needs to start traveling throughout the United States. Lets help out our own American people. If they did start taking a look; they would find out help is needed more right here on our on soil. Yes I agree, Bush does run from crisis.
If they did start taking a look; they would find out help is needed more right here on our on soil.
Your talking about a party who doesnt care about anything but big business and what they can get out of it.
If you grant the White House claim that this shows he was "engaged" it reveals a staggering incompetence - this is what we get when he is engaged?
has anyone ever seen chevy chase and the dummie in the same place at the same time?
Heckofa Nero inpersonation Bushie!
You torched the Constitution for profit, now you can burn in hell.
I'm afraid that the American people will hear this news today and forget about it tomorrow. That is unless the Dems find a way to mention the FACTS to the press in an ongoing basis. When election time comes, it will be a different set of information coming at voters and the Republicans will find a way to scare the crap out of people in fear of terrorists.
Why aren't the Dems bringing this continued slow response into focus on a regular basis? We need to hammer the message. I believe strongly that even though people aren't happy with Geo. Bush, it doens't mean they'll vote for the DEMS. We need to give them a reason to vote for Democrats.
Let's face it, Carl Rove knows how to use the press and the Dems are AFRAID of the press. We walk softly and have no message.
Even before this latest Katrina information hit I believed the administration did a bad job of responding. What we need to let people know is that they continue to respond poorly. Look at the shape the gulf coast still is in!
It seems to me that at some point George Bush needs to assume liability for the mess he has created in this country and around the world. Lawyers, can he be liable-personally liable-to victims of Katrina?
Republicans can't govern, because Republicans hate government. Their incompetence in this and so many other matters reveals a bush-league mentality when it comes to serious responsibility. Republicans should go back to being a protest and opposition bloc, and leave the important work of governing to the party who cares enough to do decent job.
It's time for prominant Americans to be exemplary citizens:
Republicans who command some remaining degree of respect such as Colin Powell, Senators Hagel, Grassley or Lugar, former admin officials from Bush I - anyone of prominence - needs to stand at the mike and say:
Enough is enough. Americans can't endure anymore of this. I for one will not. Here is the truth and here is what American and Congress should do about it.
The same can be said for Democrats and any private citizen whose conscience is still alive and who can command an audience still.
We need the bipartisan chorus calling for a return to Constitutional sanctity and to legislative balance and responsibility. We need statesmen.
Where are these modern minutemen, or are they all still but summer soldiers and sunshine patriots?
Where would we all be today is God had asked Bush to build an Ark because the Great Flood was coming?
Bush is a reckless lying coward chickenhawk. Tell me something I haven't known since 1999.
A DNC funraising email invited me to start a personal fundraising page, write letters to the editor and post on this blog. So here I am.
And I'm SICK OF NOT HEARING A SINGLE WORD ABOUT ELECTRONIC VOTING REFORM from the DNC and every Dem who says we need to take back America.
Get on the clue train: 2000, 2002 and 2004 were stolen from us. 2000 was beyond obvious. 2002 seems pretty clear. 2004 is looking more and more obvious every day.
Yet day after day, fundraising letter after fundraising letter, I don't hear the Dems saying ANYTHING about electronic paperless voting reform.
It's one thing to put up a good candidate and get people to the polls. It's unfortunately something totally different to get them into their rightful seat they have won.
I, for one, am not giving another penny to the Democratic Party until (1) I hear the mantra of voting reform on a regular, unequivocal basis, and (2) I hear more and more Democrats standing up like John Murtha has - unabashed, strong and unshakable. Make a stand or fall for anything.
This administration is defined by Doublespeak. So if it says it will do something, everyone should expect the opposite and look for the real Ha-Ha behind their words.
bush and his administration knew about the 9/11 PDB and he failed to respond
bush and his administration knew that the pre war re Iraq WMD was cherry picked and he failed to let America know
bush and his administration knew that chaos would fall out in Iraq and they failed plan for it and win the peace
bush and his administration knew Katrina would cause much suffering and devastation to our fellow Americans and our American cities and they failed to protect them
BUSH AND THE REPUBLICANS FAILED!
I, for one, am not giving another penny to the Democratic Party until (1) I hear the mantra of voting reform on a regular, unequivocal basis, and (2) I hear more and more Democrats standing up like John Murtha has - unabashed, strong and unshakable. Make a stand or fall for anything.
Posted by seattle4dean on March 2, 2006 at 11:46 AM
I hope you do not let your anger over these issues, keep you from giving to Dean and the DNC's 50 State Strategy. He has Already opened offices in Red States where there were none before. He is staffing them in the ready for the 2006 elections!
Maybe you should inform individual candidates and also the
info@dscc.org
and dccc@dccc.org
that they will see no more dollars out of you until these issues are resolved. that is where the Party operatives are.
No withholding of funds from DNC should be considered! This is where and how we will win the next elections! Do you not remember the Red State Democrats who actually CRIED in here, in 2004 that they had Zero help in trying to run candidates, get yard signs, etc?
Please, buy your Democracy Bond and let's get those Red States up and running this time !
While it's good to have more concrete proof of Bush's failure to lead, don't get sidetracked. This provides an excellent opportunity for Republicans to get elected in 2006 and 2008! They can distance themselves from the "bad Republicans" like Bush and Cheney, and pillar themselves as "good Republicans" who'd "never do something like that."
Dems, don't be only reactive!!! Show leadership, give voice to the kind of future that is only possible if we cease Republican corporate welfare and sustain and care for our own democracy.
No withholding of funds from DNC should be considered! This is where and how we will win the next elections! Do you not remember the Red State Democrats who actually CRIED in here, in 2004 that they had Zero help in trying to run candidates, get yard signs, etc?
Posted by PamB on March 2, 2006 at 12:14 PM
Unfortunately, in our 2-party sytem in the US this is only too true. I am a huge Dean supporter and really hope his 50-state strategy works. However, most of the rest of the Democratic leadership hasn't gotten the message yet and we need a lot more people like seattle4dean to shake them up! Here is one of many sad examples of our "leadership":
Why won't our Democratic leaders point out the following
With the re-release of the AP tapes we are seeing the lack of concern that this administration had for the people of the Gulf coast. What I believe is more compelling and demonstrative of the lack of concern, or disconnect that this administration seems to have is not so much what they knew before the hurricane hit, but what they did afterwards.
The extremes and numbers of deaths in the Katrina crisis were preventable. This was a foreseeable crisis. The sense of urgency starts at the top of any structure whether it is Government, Corporate, Social, Religious, or Family. In a foreseeable crisis, it is necessary that any leader immediately go into crisis mode. Any corporate CEO would be terminated if judged by the performance we have gotten from ours.
We all knew for at least 3 days that the country was going to be facing a potential natural disaster. We knew that it might to be a category 5 hurricane. We knew the potential disaster that could be caused. We all saw the major networks showing their graphics of what could happen if the levees broke for at least 2 days prior to the hurricane striking land. We now know that the President was officially warned of the pending disaster.
Any other leader I know would have reacted immediately if for no other reason, to show the sense of urgency. They would have ended their vacation a few days short and been at the command. Especially when their vacation had been a month long already.
We should demand to see the presidents and other cabinet member’s schedules for the days leading up, and during this crisis. Where were they? What were they doing?
We have seen pictures of the president playing guitar at some event that took place after the storm had struck. There are reports that say the president attended a political fundraiser on Monday or Tuesday night. We have seen the picture of the President having birthday cake with John McCain. We have all heard the stories about Condaleeza Rice going to the Broadway play Spamalot and shoe shopping at an expensive boutique in New York. There are reports that Cheney went fly-fishing and shopping for waterfront property and that Rumsfeld attended a Padres baseball game. We now know that Mike Chertoff went to Atlanta to attend a conference on bird flu. Why was the president speaking and posing in front of military personnel on Monday after the storm hit instead of getting their boots in planes on the way?
Are these stories true? Even if they are not, we should still ask where they were. Why was the leader not at the command post?
I am a small business owner who knows if I have a potential crisis, I need to be in my office. I know I can get much more accomplished if I have ALL of my resources at hand. I know that my employees are only going to get the sense of urgency if I show them with my actions and words. Our leader should have been intelligent enough to figure that out.
Millions of Americans want answers. It is the duty of our mainstream media and our congress to report on these matters. Our leadership’s lack of concern for the citizens of the Gulf Coast was deplorable at best.
Why our Democratic leadeship will not confront this administration on these matters is beyond me. I am sure the American public would want to know about their actions not only before the hurricane hit but also what they were doing after we all knew of the devastation that had taken place.
I gave heavily to Dean in his run for President. I worked tirelessly for a year on his 2004 campaign. I believe in the 50 State Strategy and do plenty of local political work. I write my Reps and Senators weekly.
BUT I AM SICK OF HEARING NOTHING ON ELECTION REFROM. I don't hear assurances they'll fight for recounts. The silence on this is DEAFENING.
And without voting reform, we can kiss 2006 and 2008 goodbye. Guaranteed. Plain and simple. Stop being naive.
The Republican Party DOES NOT play by the rules. Especially when we back away (endlessly) from challenging them.
The levies burst. For shame, Bush, for bursting those levies. People died. For shame, Bush, for killing all those people. The streets flooded. For shame, Bush, flooding those streets.... oh, wait, Katrina did all that. Sorry, Bush. I wonder, if Slick Willy were still in office would we have heard all these complaints. Nah, don't think so.
This Republican administration certainly has EVOLVED into quite a 3-ring circus. Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey would just love Bush, Cheney, & Rice. I say let's amend the constitution (a Republican trait) and give these clowns another 4 YEARS!!!! Seriously, I hope come election time Americans will vote in our Democratic candidates so that we can FIX the damage the Republicans have caused. It's Time For A Change!
Yeah man, I can't believe that picture. I mean, he should have called the un or something. They would have handled all this. they are the shit. I guess bush was too busy planning a war, boosting the economy, coming up with solutions to todays promblems to even think about our attacks. why do we keep losing elections?
Of course President Bush and the rest of the Republican party don't care about the poor, nothing new.
BooHoo, It really bothered you when all those people died in the Katrina storm, didn't it? Was it the same when all those people stayed in the Twin Towers after the two Airplanes hit them? How many did you run up there and take out? And in Katrina, how many did you rescue? Did Bush direct those Planes into the Towers? Then why did each family get Millions of Dollars? And the Ketrina victims got what little the Government just had to pay?
don't even bother with this last remaining 29% blind idiot, who still approves of Bush!
If he were honest, if this had been Clinton, the Republicans would have had him in IMpeachment Court so fast, it would have made your head spin!
a lousy little bj got more press, than Bush killing 3000 people in NY C on 9/11 by not paying attention, and then 1500 people in Katrina, by pretending that "nobody could have forecast those levies"!
Loki,
It was the Schumer of the DSCC and Rahm Emanuel of the DCCC, who swiftboated Hackett! They are the ones who made sure he could not get any support ! DNC had nothing to do with it.
And seattle, there are lots of Actions you can join, for Voting reform! Bev Harris of Black Box Voting is Big on the reform of them all, etc.
Yeah, it was frustrating and disappointing in Ohio and FL last election, but it did not have to do with COUNTING ballots. Did you read the GAO report and Conyers reports? Those machine's malfunctions did not have anything to do with recount. Kerry should never have conceded as quickly as he did, but like with his entire campaign, he tried to look like the bigger man by staying clean, and look what it got him!
Now, we have to make sure that every single town and state, has paper trails this time around, so that we can really check. The DNC has absolutely nothing to do with voting equipment. I have gone to the Sample machine Reviews that our State has had, to give my opinions on machines for the state. I hope everyone has put their 2 cents in.
I wrote this poem.
Please use it in any way that will help people to understand the wrongness of torture and violations of human rights. Please pass it on to others to use.
A Childs
Pledged of Allegiance to the Flag
When I Was Just a Small Lad
I Looked up So Proud,
I Saw the Stars and Stripes
And I Recited out Loud!
I Pledge Allegiance
My Young Voice Cried,
To the United State of America
And to the Freedom for Which -
So Many Have Died!
I Pledged Allegiance
To the Republic for Which it Stands,
To the One Nation under God
I Folded My Hands!
As I Recited My Pledge
To the Indivisible Country,
I Whispered a Little Prayer
That Really Seemed -
Very Important to Me!
I Was Pledging to a Country
That Promised Liberty and Justice for All,
Not Just for a Few
No ! Really, Really -
They Meant it for All!
So Everyone Can Be Free
We Go to the Polls and Vote,
Everyone Has a Voice
We Proudly Gloat!
No One Is Supposed to Be Left out
We Should All Have a Say,
But I Find That Is Not Always True
I Just Found That out -
Just the Other Day!
I Found That Some of the Meanings
Of the Pledge Have Changed You See,
They No Longer Seem to Mean
The Same Things -
That they First Meant to Me
I Recently Read That an Iraqi
General Had Died,
Around His Face an American Sleeping -
Bag Had Been Tied!
An American Military Officer
Who Also Recited the Pledge Right Along,
Sat on the Generals Chest
Until All of His Air Was Gone!
I Don’t Think it Was
Was the Right Thing for Him to Do.
And I Find Myself Wondering
If He Thought He Was Doing it -
Doing it for Me and for You!
I Wonder Which Clause of the Pledge
He Thought the Generals Death Would Uphold,
Was it an Act under God
Or Was it Liberty and Justice -
For All to Behold!
I Read That Yet More
Of Our Soldiers Across the Sea,
Were Fighting in Afganastan
They Claimed They Were Fighting -
Fighting for You and for Me!
But I Never Recall
Casting a Vote to Tell,
Those Soldiers That They Could Murder
A Prisoner in a Jail Cell!
They Went into His Cell
To Question Him You See,
And While They Were There
They Beat Him -
Unmercifully!
When They Came Back
Some Time Later That Day,
The Found That the Man Was Dead
They Really Felt -
Like They Had Earned Their Pay!
When Their Commander Was Asked
If These Murderers Would Go to Jail,
The Prisoner Could Have Died of Natural Causes
That Was His Tale!
So All of this Makes Me
Makes Me Wonder Some How,
How Did Our Pledge Change
Why Are We the Way -
The Way We Are Now!
Didn’t Enough of Us Go
Go to the Polls and Vote,
Maybe Too Many of Us Just Sat
Just Sat at Home and Gloat!
Or Did We All Decided
That Our Pledge Should Permanently Change,
The Whole Constitution
We Should Conveniently Rearrange!
If We Are Truthfully a Noble Nation
A Nation under God,
Can We Really Give These Murders
An Approving Nod!
If Our Pledge Does Mean
Mean Anything to Us,
Openly These Murders
Our Country Should Discuss!
If We Don't Believe in Liberty and Justice for All
As the Pledge Does Say,
Then Lets Start Teaching Our Children
The New Words Today!
Liberty and Justice
the New Words Might Be
God Lets Us Kill
If Public Homage -
They Don’t Pay to Me!
I Write this Anonymous Poem
Anonymously You See,
For I Now Fear That My Government
Might Do the Same Thing -
to Me!
PamB,
Yup, you're absolutely right. As i said, i support Dean wholeheartedly. And I believe we still need to give money to the Democrats is we are to have any hope of breaking this Republican stranglehold.
However, I am still very frustrated with the Party which includes DSCC, DCCC, and our current incumbents since attacks like the one on Hackett continue to occur and issues like electronic voting aren't pushed for.
I think I am just venting general frustrations and wanting to give some of the party leadership a slap in the face while you are speaking more on specifics (Dean and DNC). I agree with your support of Dean and truly hope that he may be the one behind the "slap". :)
Katrina shows the Neocon Agenda is nothing more than: "Dismantlism." Chaos is the goal, not freedom. Fascist techniques are employed to “manage” the chaos. This type of reordering is better delivered by private contractors than public “law enforcers.”
This unapologetic strategy for social disruption has drained our country of its moral and economic strength. It has made our mission at home and abroad impractical and chained to the greed of individuals and corporations who do not have our national interest at heart. It is impossible to educate citizens to take up the mantle of dismantlism, except to teach them fundamentalist religion—the kind that leads to suicide bombings and worldwide crusades to spread our chaos to others.
Democrats, take up your crowbars and pry the cover off of this government. Stop using the folky term, Cronyism, because everyone just smiles and goes on pocketing the dough. The Criminalism and Dismantlism which have produced a breed of traitor never seen before in our midst should not be an occasion for jokes and ribbing. It should be a time for trial, imprisonment and, in certain cases, execution.
I just unsubscribed from the democrats.org mailing list. Why? I'm sick of the negativity. If the Democratic party has a positive message for the future, they are doing a LOUSY JOB of getting it out if I'm on their mailing lists and I don't even know what they stand for. All I see is coming out is material tearing down Bush & gang. Deserved, yes, but I seriously doubt I'm the only Democrat very turned off by it.
Mark in SF, I'm in OKland. I hope I'm not one of those democrats you condemn for their negativity. My feelings are not namby-pamby and negative. They are strong, If you can't take it, Sail away into your rosy sunset.
Upon suggestion of an email from MoveOn.org, I today phoned Congresswoman Mary Bono's office, asking her response to the videotapes showing Bush HAD been briefed on the severity and expected impact of Hurricane Katrina--
The woman answering Bono's office phone stated
"OH, COME ON GUYS, GIVE ME A BREAK! GET A LIFE !
THIS IS ABOUT KATRINA, RIGHT??"
She begrudgingly took my name and hung up on me.
It appears she/they do NOT CARE to know the thoughts and opinions of her constituants...
While I can see Mark In SF's point, I really do not agree totally...we really are spending a lot of time pointing out what went wrong with the various catastrophes that we have endured...for example we spend so much time and money on congressional hearings to prove that Bush is an idiot and a liar, duh we arlready know that how about if we get special counsel to investigate ways to improve the quality of life for everyone in America, and gettng our troops out of harms way, after all they are dying for people who neither want our help or need it...
Stop focus on what happened then. And look at what it looks like now! After millions and millions of TAX payer dollars wasted on Homeland Security.
Homeland Security is a joke. It is a money grab for croonies. Ask yourself what are they doing with your money?
Stop focusing on what happened then. Focus on what it looks like now! After millions and millions of TAX payer dollars wasted on Homeland Security.
Homeland Security is a joke. It is a money grab for croonies. Ask yourself what are they doing with your money? They are stealing our money!
I am not saying Bush is worth a darn but I do want to point out an obvious faux pas in in line of text. The hurricane expert stated that, "...noone can say with abosolute certainty, that the levies will not be TOPPED." (emphesis mine).
Bush stated that, "...noone could have seen the levies being BREECHED." (emphesis mine again).
The difference between the two is huge. A levy being topped is saying the storm surge may or may not be high than the highest point of the levy. The levy being breeched is a colapse in the structural integrity below the top of the levy.
This shows that saying Bush new the levy would fail because he was warned is just not true.
Alright, this page is nothing but bitching. I agree with MarkinSF. Is this all the DNC does? Is whining the answer? Or is fixing problems the answer? Offer a solution, and stop bitching.
Ronald Reagan had one thing going for him, he inspired the average joe with good feelings and strong talk. Clinton made people feel at ease and confident in his leadership. The masses NEED a leader, not a bunch of whiners.
Posted by bobbythekidd on March 2, 2006 at 10:18 PM
Get real. Every network news organization was down in New Orleans for days before the hurricane hit the Gulf coast. Those big streaming "Category 5 - Hurricane of the Century" graphics might have been a clue to the clueless.
How about the National Weather Service guy saying over and over again that this was the grand daddy of all our worst fears.....for a week before it hit? The nation followed the hurricane through the Keys and right into the Gulf of Mexico with the question not being whether it was going to do massive destruction but where it would hit - Biloxi or New Orleans or somewhere between them.
The levies were a century old...they were going to fail with the Hurricane of the Cenutry barreling down on them. Whether they were topped or breached didn't matter. It was whether there was a big enough risk of it happening. A category 5 was that risk.
We were all warned by the experts, and the response by church and civic groups across the nation was massive. We collected money, food, and clothing and set up shelters awaiting the inevitable. We were ready. MY government knew what we knew but went to California not the Gulf.
The solution is to get rid of the Republicans running Congress who have let these irresponsible people operate unchecked and unaccountable.
And it isn't just us whinning. The rest of the country is bitching...Independents and even Republicans. Why don't you help organize in your community to get folks registered and educated on how to vote absentee or with these new voting machines, so we can get these bums out?
Sandy,
I was sitting in my living room talking to my friend Dennis, I told him then this storm was the biggest on record. I said, "Katrina is going to be a MF!" Any moron knew to get the hell out of the way and that New Orleans was under sea level.
I am not an engineer nor a meteoroligist, but I know it would do massive destruction to NO. You knew it too! WHY WERE THE CITIZENS STILL THERE? Why do I so a photo of 60 buses under 4 ft of water? Where was the goverment? (local) ie (mayor)? Why does this rest at the feet of Bush? When Mr. Chocolate think those buses (could have moved 3000 people) were not worth moving? beacause the Fed Gov. should move them in humvees that should come from DC?
We all know NO is a bad place to have a city. We knew it in 1950, how is it a big issue now?
I am a manager of a small business, I have a saying to my employees, "don't make you problem, my problem." I say handle your issues. Why is this diffrent from the hurrcanes in FLA? They all wanted Insurance money. N.O. all want tax money.
I want to remind you, that is OUR money.
Why does this rest at the feet of Bush? When Mr. Chocolate think those buses (could have moved 3000 people) were not worth moving? beacause the Fed Gov. should move them in humvees that should come from DC?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mr.Chocolate did think those buses were worth moving.It was Madam (Never trust any Vanilla "flavorists" from the SOUTH...period) Gov.BLEACHO who took forever to accept federal help.I think she and that ugly fat faced pig nosed Byotch named PIG FACED pork and beans Landreau can be just as much blamed as Mr.Sweet Chocolate who got on the air on National T.V. and told all three of those plain,boring vanilla SOUTHERNERS (Blank One,Pig Nose and Texas Klamsman)to "Get off their lazy (vanilla) asses and do something!)So,................suck it.
Sorry about the percieved rudness of my last post,but I'm sick of "closet racists" making their "subtle" remarks here latley.I don't care what the political party affiliation is,there are racists in both!
It is a disgrace how this puppet president obtained the national office of POTUS. Never again should anyone be able to do this, it only shows the greed of wealthy parties, which is BAD for our country. In fact, a law should be drawn up to stop the influence of corporations and wealthy people. This office should be sought for by independant, honest, and worthwhile citizens seeking to better our country, instead of themselves.
Impeach.
Now.
Write your Reps daily, repeatedly, and tell all your friends too, to support:
HR 635
HR 636
HR 637
Legislation introduced by Rep. Conyers for censure of Bush and Cheney.
Do it now.
On video we have Bush being warned about the great dangers, and promising to be there after Katrina. Then FEMA was a no show for several days. When FEMA finally did show, they went to a parish emergency headquarters and cut the emergency communication lines, and blocked water and fuel shipments. UNBELIEVABLE! The Parish President (Republican) said, "I'm so pissed off I can't see straight." I guess so. It's all coming together now.
This was all about making Blanco look bad so they could take the state Gov post back. I liked how Scar-the-bouroughs said "she's (Blanco) just not able to handle a crises like Jeb Bush." Rove's next client was going to look really good after a Democrrat bouched a leadership issue.
Bush handled FL hurricanes in 2004 much different than Katrina. In FL, he was there the next day handing out water. In LA, he was a no show for days. AND keep in mind that Katrina was one of very few level FIVE hurricanes to ever hit the coasts. Those in FL were mere 2-3's. Now we know they made Brown the fall guy. Now we know that Bush failed to keep his word and deliver DHS and DOD. It was an orchestrated miserable failure.
You're doing a heckuva job, Bushy. Heckuva job.
Blanco did NOTHING WRONG. She told Bush to "bring everything they've got", and he stood her up. She gave him the SOS. Keep in mind that Bush had most of her National Guard in Iraq, with most of the Guard hardware.
We have Bush on video promising her the day before Katrina hit that he'd be there with all the support she needed. ONLY Bush could deliver too.
Hell, the most populated HALF of her state lost ALL INFRASTRUCTURE in a matter of hours. What could she do? She did ALL SHE COULD DO.
And keep in mind that the White House didn't even return her phone calls for three (3) days!!! Finally someone under Andy Card called back and gave some lame excuse that they didn't know.
HELLOOOOOO! Wake up, people!
When USA Today asked Republican Gov. Barbour if he could get the White House, he responded, "I didn't have to call them. They called me several times."
When a very rare level five (5)literally wipes out a huge area like that, don't think for one minute that it could be handled by local and state government. They needed way more than LA had, even if what they had was in-state, and not in Iraq.
Hell, most of Southern LA became Lake Ponchatrain.
Just wait... it's just coming out who was MIA.
Blanco did NOTHING WRONG
Oh but wait my dear,they got her on camera saying..."I should have said yes" to one of her staff.She asked Bush for help,dude said "he he whatever" and they called her and told her she would have to turn over her authority to the Federal Government and she said she'd call them back the next day.We got that Bleached-out Southerner on tape!I don't care.I'm gonna tell it.I don't trust "certain" southerners ....period.Dem or Rep except Clinton,Gore and Edwards.So,no,I won't be sticking up for BLEACHO or the Texas Klansman.OR...that PIG NOSED fatty.
Anyway's I have to go for now,but if "they" let me,I'll be back.LOL.
Days after Katrina landed, Bush made a very insincere offer to take over her National Guard.
LOL. DOn't you think he's taken enough of the State's Nation Guard.
No Gov would've gone with this idea. This was about when Bush tried to fly into LA without telling her. She found our when she called Bush's Aide that he was coming in, so she skipped going to Houston to see the evacuees. That was another dirty trick.
The damage was done by the time Bush made the insane offer to take over her Guard. That really showed that it was a power play on Bush's part.
Where was all the support he promised? MIA.
I have to say, nothing from the Bush administration surprises me these days. After the calculated and blatant intelligence manipulation and lies leading up to the war in Iraq, we would be foolish to trust anything coming from Bush for a second. Bush was obviously much more worried about the oil situation in the Gulf Coast, than the casualties, but again, this is what I have come to expect from him, so I can't say that I am shocked. His ignorant and arrogant "everythings fine" attitude is prone to overlooking warnings and or advise of all types. Jeb Bush summed up the Bush family values best. When asked what he planned to do for Blacks in Florida, he responded "probably nothing". George just extended this attitude to Louisiana. this is probably a rich versus poor conflict, more than racism, but the lack of concern is disturbing.
Bobbythekid is right. The videotape shows Bush being warned that the levee might be overtopped. It doesn't show him being warned that it might be breached. We can't win votes by doing nothing but attacking Bush, especially when those attacks are disingenuous.
Bobbythekid is right. The videotape shows Bush being warned that the levee might be overtopped. It doesn't show him being warned that it might be breached. We can't win votes by doing nothing but attacking Bush, especially when those attacks are disingenuous.
What attacks? Bush had a chorus of defenders from all the biggest conservative think tanks appearing on all the television shows to make excuses for him. The real slick spin doctors are out. So Reid and Pelosa told it like it is. That is what he deserves. Should we pat him on the back, and give him the Medal of FLEESdom for being a miserable failure?
Many are saying it makes Blanco look bad because she says she didn't know that SUPPOSEDLY the levees were breached a WHOLE HOUR before the conversation with Bush. HELLO! She didn't know. That's not her fault. But WHY didn't she know? The same reason why the fireman in the twin towers didn't know to evacuate.
See didn't know earlier because we don't invest in INFRASTRUCTURE and communications for First Responders. In a major disaster all communication lines go down. Of course she didn't know IN REAL TIME. What do you think she had video cams on all 70 miles of levees?
What's important, and the MEDIA is skipping, is that when she did know, she called the White House, and BUSH AND THE WHITE HOUSE were M.I.A. FOR DAYS! NO returned CALLS for DAYS! And remember she had a large portion of her National Gaurd was in Iraq, with ALL the Guard's amphibious vechicles. Thank you very much, Bush/Cheney.
A situation like that called for the Feds (FEMA) to be on the ground, and NOTIFY her. All across AMERICA we are using out-dated communication systems that aren't on one channel, like on 9/11/2001. It takes time for word to get around with out-dated, multi-system communications. THIS IS DUE TO POOR FEDERAL PRIORITIES. To this day, the first responders in many major cities don't have the intra-communications system they need.
And we know from 9/11 that this one thing COULD and WOULD save lives... but the money goes to the money pit in Iraq... and stupid things like Star Wars.
This is another way how they are not providing the REAL NEEDS, and protecting America.
this beats all....
after years of play guitar and enjoying music with friends and neighbors, now this ass has to ruin guitar for me.
just watching him touching a guitar is like sticking a knive in me.
shame on him, and shame on the ass that gave him one.....
Off their guard
The Gulf Coast disaster is further taxing the National Guard, already stretched to a breaking point in Iraq.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Mark Benjamin
Sept. 1, 2005 | On Aug. 1, a spokesman for the Louisiana National Guard lamented to a local reporter that the state might be stretched for security personnel in the event of a big hurricane. Dozens of high-water vehicles, generators and Humvees were employed in Iraq, along with 3,000 Louisiana National Guard troops.
"The National Guard needs that equipment back home to support the homeland security mission," the Louisiana National Guard's Lt. Col. Pete Schneider told a reporter from WGNO, the ABC affiliate in New Orleans. Schneider said that in the event of a hurricane, Louisiana would need help from neighboring states.
Amid the Gulf Coast rubble and looting, it appears Schneider may have been right.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/01/guard/index_np.html
Note: This article was taken down from the ABC website. Incidently, the front page story TODAY twists the facts to make Blanco look bad. And you wonder why Democrats dont win more?
_________________________________________
"New Katrina Video Shows Governor Blanco Assuring Levees Are Safe"
MARGARET EBRAHIM, AP Writer March 2, 2006
WASHINGTON — In the hectic, confused hours after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, Louisiana's governor hesitantly but mistakenly assured the Bush administration that New Orleans' protective levees were intact, according to new video obtained by The Associated Press showing briefings that day with federal officials.
___________________________________________
In NO WAY DID SHE ASSURE ANYONE THAT THE LEVEES WERE SAFE. However, most people will only remember the misleading title. She told the truth. This story is a total distraction fromthe fact that Bush did not return her calls for days, when almost no Fed help was there as promised.
if bush was so concerned, why did he leave the ranch and head for california to give a speach to rich repub. friends, when new orleans was in trouble......
lets seee......rich friends......poor blacks......what to do, what to do.......
washingtonpost.com
Troops Head Home To Another Crisis
State Force to Leave on Schedule, But No Special Rotations Planned
By Ellen Knickmeyer, Wash Post Foreign Service Friday, September 2, 2005; A19
BAGHDAD, Sept. 1 -- The 3,700 Louisiana National Guard members in Iraq will begin heading home within about a week as part of normal troop rotations, but there are no mass Guard movements back to the United States planned to aid hurricane relief, U.S. military officials in Baghdad said Thursday.
"Everyone we have here, and every piece of equipment we have here, is needed here," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, senior spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq.
Exceptions will be made on a case-by-case humanitarian basis to allow Guard members whose families have been hit especially hard by Hurricane Katrina to return, Lynch said.
With thousands of National Guard troops serving tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Guard retaining fewer members at home, officials in the United States have acknowledged that the scale of the destruction along the Gulf Coast is stretching their stateside manpower. Wisconsin agreed Wednesday to send 500 Guard troops to Louisiana to help make up for the shortfall.
After nearly a year in Baghdad, Louisiana's 256th Mechanized Infantry Brigade is due to return fully to the United States by November, military officials said.
A National Guard brigade from Mississippi, the other state hit hardest by Katrina, has served since January in the region south of Baghdad.
The area was known in 2004 as the Triangle of Death, because of the frequency of insurgent attacks there.
The Iraq deployments have taken more than a third of the Guard members of both states, officials said.
Military officials here acknowledged that the Louisiana Guard members faced the prospect of returning from draining, dangerous duty in Iraq and launching quickly into a hurricane relief effort that is expected to last months.
The first Louisiana Guard members are expected to return "within a week or so," said Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, another U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. Their availability for disaster relief would be at the discretion of Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Boylan told the Associated Press.
Louisiana Guard members in Baghdad were trading news on their home towns and their families, sharing it by word of mouth as soon as they received it, said 1st Sgt. Errol Williams, whose home is just outside New Orleans. Word was reaching Guard members by Red Cross messages, and by Internet and cell phones when the state of communications in storm-devastated Louisiana and war-devastated Baghdad allowed, Williams said.
Williams said his wife evacuated to North Carolina ahead of Katrina with their 10-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. The rest of his family found shelter with relatives in Texas, he said.
Word from neighbors in Louisiana led Williams to believe he had about four feet of water in his home, he said. But a Web camera in his wife's temporary storm home enabled him to wave to his children on Wednesday night, he said.
The 3-year-old is "ready for daddy to come home," Williams said Thursday night in Baghdad, "wherever home is."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/01/AR2005090101661.html
Here is the prood that Bush played ruthless politics. Bush was contacting the devastated, but mostly dry, Mississippi, while letting the much more devastated and SUBMERGED Lousiana swim for herself.
Posted 9/12/2005 10:48 PM @ USA TODAY
Governors handle crisis in own ways
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
...A 'nurturing' style
Blanco's reviews are worse, but so is her situation — a catastrophic hurricane and a catastrophic flood that left a major city in ruins.
Blanco declared a state of emergency Aug. 26 three days before the storm and followed the steps in her disaster playbook. On Aug. 31, she asked Bush for "everything you've got." But some commentators and officials have blamed her for problems such as flawed communication and blocked aid.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., accused Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin of "mind-boggling incompetence." Nagin, who has been criticized for failing to get people without money or cars out of the city before the storm, praised Bush and scored Blanco Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.
She says that two days after Katrina, desperate for help, she couldn't get through to Bush and didn't get a callback; hours later, she tried again, and they talked...
"He and I both agree that FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) did not respond as quickly as we needed," she says. "He's going to look at it. He has to."
No wait for Bush's calls
Barbour hasn't had to wait hours to talk to Bush. In fact, Barbour said in an interview with USA TODAY, the president called him three to four times in the wake of Katrina. "I never called him. He always called me," he said.
Ed Rogers, Barbour's longtime friend and business partner, says Barbour "has a very sophisticated working knowledge of this administration and this city (Washington)...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-09-12-two-governors_x.htm
ITs time - S S the real shortage ,, 30%for 10 years at most and thats if nothing is done,,,
all the $ bush is giving out , and where he gets it , the china bank of ? thanks Fl REP's
,, get that chart on tv , let the people see what is really happening to thier futures ,, when will we hear more about popa bush and the company that does 5 bil / mil with ports co.,, do not be stupid , expose clintons port employer connection, he is just dragging you down and the main reason you can not let hillery run , like anyone forgot whitewater .anyway ,, im still an independant but for the first time in my 60 years i will vote a party ticket . you better earn it ..
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