Bush KNEW Katrina Would Destroy New Orleans

Look, it's very simple. George Bush doesn't care about black people. Not because he's racist, but because as a group, they haven't voted for him and won't ever support him, so why bother catering to them? He's not the type to think of society as a whole.

Wake Up Call. Everyone who ever took basic geography & science courses knew New Orleans would be destroyed by a hurricane. They just didn't know when. That's what happens when you build below sealevel on the coast, then over the past 100 years, manipulate the Mississippi River to the point it no longer leaves fluvial deposits, i.e. land on which NO was built. It's not nice to fool Mother Nature. Build on a flood plain, you will be flooded. Build in a wooded canyon in the west, you're going to get burned. Build on the West Coast, earthquakes.

For crying out loud, small cities that were flooded for a day take a year or more to rebuild, and you want one that sat under water for a month to be rebuilt in a day.

You want to blame someone for not foreseeing & preparing? Blame the govenor of LA and the mayor of NO who diverted millions of federal dollars earmarked for levees to other pet projects.

Don't be such sheep, blindly following every Bushbash fest there is.

Nice try, Kel, but the facts are against you. Snippet from today's NY Times:

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White House Declines to Provide Storm Papers
By ERIC LIPTON
Published: January 25, 2006

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 - The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain documents about Hurricane Katrina or make senior White House officials available for sworn testimony before two Congressional committees investigating the storm response.

The White House this week also formally notified Representative Richard H. Baker, Republican of Louisiana, that it would not support his legislation creating a federally financed reconstruction program for the state that would bail out homeowners and mortgage lenders. Many Louisiana officials consider the bill crucial to recovery, but administration officials said the state would have to use community development money appropriated by Congress.

The White House's stance on storm-related documents, along with slow or incomplete responses by other agencies, threatens to undermine efforts to identify what went wrong, Democrats on the committees said Tuesday.

"There has been a near total lack of cooperation that has made it impossible, in my opinion, for us to do the thorough investigation that we have a responsibility to do," Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, said at Tuesday's hearing of the Senate committee investigating the response. His spokeswoman said he would ask for a subpoena for documents and testimony if the White House did not comply.
White House Declines to Provide Storm Papers

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Did you READ the article? Why is the White House covering up and stonewalling? Why is the White House not supporting the REPUBLICAN congressman from Louisiana's legislation? Could it be that Bush just doesn't care?

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Well, it's very clear to both Republicans and Democrats in Congress that the White House doesn't want the American people to know what happened--and what didn't happen--before and after that storm.

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Did you read the article?

With over a half a billion papers provided by the agencies under Bush that are supposed to handle disasters such as this, you're telling me that Bush is somehow the devil's spawn because the administration is refusing to provide its comminications? I'm not saying his reponse was ideal; it wasn't.

New Orleans and the Southeast is NOT the first instance in which FEMA et al refused to rebuild on the Fed govt's dime. That's the rule, not the exception. In SW PA, where floods happen with spring melt regularly, FEMA doesn't rebuild flooded property owners. They'll help clean up and repair infrastructure. In Boulder Canyon, and mud-soaked CA, FEMA doesn't bail out people for their losses. Private dollars and charity helped individuals rebuild or relocate. Many lost their shirts. That stll doesn't mean the gov't is responsible for their losses. I'm not sure why you expect New Orleans to be different.

As for finger pointing, point til you're blue in the face, but guaranteed, the next administration will face some massively destructive force of nature, and we'll go through the same song again.

THANK YOU, PalJoey. I have had arguments with SO many people, claiming Blanco didn't proclaim a state of disaster. When I point out that, in fact, she DID, they say they'll have to go back and read the evidence. And then I never hear from them again.
The spin on this issue is terrifying in how quickly it's gotten Louisiana against Blanco. And they are ALL against her. And she did the best she could.
Louisiana's not exactly rolling in money even WITH a fully-operational New Orleans. It's one of the most poverty-stricken states in the union.
A retail company my friend worked for commissioned an "income" report for all the states in which they had stores. The median home income in Louisiana, in their findings, was around 14k. That was in the mid-90s.
There was no money for Blanco and Nagin to divert to disaster protection. In fact, read more closely. The federal government CUT levee funds to the city even after FEMA let them know it was a recipe for disaster.

Mind you, I'm not saying she was perfect. She did the best she could--JUST LIKE BUSH DID AFTER 9/11. His lack of leadership was far, far worse than her failings.

But there's no question that she was subsequently swiftboated by Fox News and the Republican Noise Machine--swiftboated to take the harsh spotlight OFF the federal goverment's murderous inaction.

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Thank you, Windy. Thank you. I'm FAR less inclined to be screaming about the local governments, especially considering this White HOuse has spun, spun, SPUN to make it look as if Blanco and Nagin were sitting around on their rumps...read the laws regarding FEMA: once a federal disaster is declared, FEMA's in charge. Not local government. And guess who's ultimately in charge of FEMA?
Yep. That guy who was busy avoiding that mother who lost her son by hiding out on his ranch.

Annie--you just step right back on up there whenever you want!

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Brownie - you'r doing good!

Are people crying about it being done NOW?
Possibly, but who wants to sit around and wait ever?
And, anyway, it would seem the original intent of this thread was not to complain about speed but, rather, the incredible gall this Administration has to hide evidence and shelter the people who are to blame for dropping the ball.
I really think they wake up in the morning and think to themselves, "time to shred the documents. Time to shred the documents."