Bush KNEW Katrina Would Destroy New Orleans

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/24/06 at 3:41pm

And yet the son-of-a-bitch did NOTHING...except lie about it.

Just like 9/11.

snippet:
-------------

The internal department documents, which were forwarded to the White House, contradict statements by President Bush and the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, that no one expected the storm protection system in New Orleans to be breached.

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," Mr. Bush said in a television interview on Sept. 1. "Now we're having to deal with it, and will."

Other documents to be released Tuesday show that the weekend before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Homeland Security Department officials predicted that its impact would be worse than a doomsday-like emergency planning exercise conducted in Louisiana in July 2004.

In that drill, held because of common knowledge that New Orleans was susceptible to hurricane-driven flooding, emergency planners predicted that in a Category 3 storm, one million people would be forced to move away, 17 percent of the nation's oil refining capacity would be knocked out and as many as 60,000 lives might be lost.

"Exercise projection is exceeded by Hurricane Katrina real-life impacts," the Aug. 27 department report said, two days before the storm hit New Orleans.
White House Was Told Hurricane Posed Danger

[Plum]

Posted: 1/24/06 at 3:45pm

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.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 1/24/06 at 7:06pm

George Bush - Someday you will be punished for your sins of omission and the sins you have committed. I am not sure which one this is.

You lying sack of . . .

[kelzama]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 12:36pm

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.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 12:42pm

I think you missed the point.

No one is blaming Bush for the flooding.

And I agree that state and local governments failed in their initial response.

Bush made clearly false statements about what his government knew, and when it knew it.

As he has done on many other issues.

He has try to pretend that this was a surprise. You are right. It was not. His Administration's total failure to respond, and his appointing incompetent hacks to position of importance is what is an issue.

He is the one who said he was going to bring accountability and honor to the white house. He is the one who failed up to live to his own representations and promises.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 12:42pm

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

---

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

[Katt]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 12:45pm

Look, blame Bush all you want, but it was Kathleen Blanco's bad decisions that made this disaster all the more worse. Our entire state basically hates her now. Bush advised her to declare a state of emergency and issue a mandatory evacuation, and she said that she needed twenty four hours to think about it. What was to think about?! She should have had the buses prepared. All she did was cry and she didn't make decisions right.

Yes, maybe the White House was told that there was a danger. But there is a risk in everything! We have had countless hurricanes come towards us and then veer away from us. No one expected this. EVERYONE, including me thought that it would go the other direction, just like Ivan did.

The government was also still trying to deal with the aftermath of the Florida hurricanes. I'm not saying that George Bush is perfect. Personally I think his "Brownie, you are doing a heck of a job" quote was horribly wrong. But I feel that it was our state government's fault. You can't blame Bush for everything. Yes, I'm sure he was told about the risk of a hurricane hitting New Orleans, but we could have used the money given us to build better levees.

Updated On: 1/25/06 at 12:45 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 12:50pm

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?

[Katt]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 12:58pm

I feel that there was a total lack of communication on all sides, and feel that our state government is mostly to blame for what happened, not just the president. As for the article...I'm not sure what to think about it until I know more.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 1:05pm

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.

[rmposey]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 1:09pm

Personally, I'm sick and tired of "Throw the Blame". Who cares who knew what when and how long it took. Let's just work together to get the Gulf Coast up and running again! Recovery takes a very long time and all this worry about who's to blame is just slowing it down more. I live on the Gulf Coast and it is utterly unbelievable how widespread the destruction is. And, heads up, Katrina destroyed much more than New Orleans. There are towns in Mississippi that you can barely tell anything was even there before the storm. I drove through Biloxi and Gulfport Mississippi a few weeks ago and there are literally no words to describe what I saw. It actually sickened me. The people down here just want life to return to normal as soon as possible.

[kelzama]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 1:09pm

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.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 1:13pm

And, Katt--look at this, from Snopes:

---

Claim: Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco refused President Bush's pleas to declare an emergency before Hurricane Katrina struck.

Status: False.
Blame Blanco

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 2:18pm

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.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 2:23pm

Why let facts get in the way of rhetoric?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 2:30pm

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.

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 2:55pm

"Personally, I'm sick and tired of "Throw the Blame". Who cares who knew what when and how long it took. Let's just work together to get the Gulf Coast up and running again!"

From which President have a heard similar comments?

Well, GOD FORBID, that we try to figure our what went wrong, cuz we sure wouldn't to learn from our mistakes!!!

I'm originally from Lousiana, still have family and G.W. ain't doing jack squat to rebuild!
Updated On: 1/25/06 at 02:55 PM

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 3:03pm

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.

[Adoannie925]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 3:10pm

It's so sickening the way he doesn't handle any major crisis or rather, anything major and important that is happening to our nation. He needs to get over the gay marriage thing, get over his homophobic ways and put the little things aside and look at the big picture. What's more important, not letting homosexuals get married or helping to save millions of people and their city? It makes me want to vomit when I think of what a disgrace of a president he is (not my president though!). And all those young teenagers and people who voted for him because they "really don't know what they believe," just makes even more infuriated. If you don't know what you believe in, then don't vote. Don't be a follower...do what you think is best and right.

I'm off my soap box now...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 3:36pm

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

[lildogs]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 3:55pm

It's specious reasoning to compare the Katrina damage to the mud slides in CA or flooding in SW PA--the difference is that people didn't waste away and die from neglect; I don't recall seeing dead bodies in the streets of Boulder Canyon--I'm simply asking why it took so long to get food and water to the vitims of the disaster, never mind rebuilding. If it wasn't race and class, what was it? Also, New Orleans is a MAJOR port of the US and a major US tourist attraction--it is in the COUNTRY'S financial interests to rebuild it and the government is dragging its feet.

My REAL problem with the Bushies is that they set themselves up as the capable CEO administration--these are business people right? They're supposed to be effective and efficient. Perhaps FEMA would be as useless under another Prez, but that's not what happened.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 3:57pm

Brownie - you'r doing good!

[kelzama]

Posted: 1/26/06 at 9:16am

The inclusion of CA & PA wasn't specious, as the comments were directed toward FEMA's fiscal obligations to disasters.

What blows my mind is how quickly you want all this done. It takes six months to a year to build a house -- one house-- and you want thousands of square acres rebuilt in a day.

In SW PA, it took over a year and a half until most signs of a single day of flooding (under about 10-15 feet of water) were cleaned up. Read it again. A year and a half, and that was for relatively little towns. And FEMA under any president is still a beaurocracy. Who else could declare the basement & first floor of a house condemned from flooding, but not the second floor, leaving the owner unable to collect insurance? (true story, btw).

About the bodies festering: You're right, it shouldn't have happened. "If it wasn't race and class, what was it?" I'd still have to go with logistics and magnitude of the disaster.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 1/26/06 at 9:25am

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."

[rmposey]

Posted: 1/26/06 at 12:42pm

I agree that so much went wrong before and after Katrina and we SHOULD learn from mistakes made. When has the government ever been completely open and honest about messing up? It just seems pointless to argue at this point. Granted, evacuations could have started sooner, there SHOULD have been a plan to help the very poor and the elderly and sick citizens to evacuate, but some people who did have the option to evacuate didn't. Anyone who lives in hurricane prone areas must be prepared for damage and/or destruction. Now, many people have family down here or have lived here in the past, but until you've experienced this kind of devastation first-hand, it's very difficult to understand what it's like here. Pictures and news footage just don't fully show or explain what the people here are going through day to day. It's just fine to argue back and forth and hopefully we'll all do better next time, but arguing doesn't do the work that's needed right now and that will be needed for the years it will take to rebuild.