"No one could have anticipated this kind of disaster"

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 5:49pm

In case people are looking for the series of articles from the New Orleans Times Picayune from 2002 that did, in fact, anticipate this kind of disaster in New Orleans, I provide the link below:


"Washing Away"

[Plum]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 5:56pm

Of course, we all know the President doesn't read any newspapers. So it's worth noting that FEMA named a hurricane in New Orleans (along with a terrorist attack in New York City and an earthquake in San Francisco) as one of its three worst-case scenarios in early 2001.
Updated On: 9/3/05 at 05:56 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 8:45pm

This is the new mantra. And of course -- as Namo has effectively noted in two other threads -- it is eerily reminiscent of Condoleeza's infamous commentary on the Bin Laden threat vis a vis airplanes and tall buildings. I love what NY politico Charlier Rangel said: "Bush will tell us he had faulty intelligence..." FEMA will be heroes, the "media" weather folk will be demonized.

But already we're hearing that the "media" have made it look "worse than it is..." When in doubt these days, blame journalists. But as Bill Maher and company noted last night, many have stepped up to the plate, post Iraq war, to ask the hard questions. In particular, I've noted a new pushy edge in CNN's Miles O'Brian. This a.m., he had an army topcat on, who opined that the water had begun to drain back into Lake Pontrartrain. Miles pointedly interrupted, to say "you're telling me water is flowing uphill?" The army figure got fartutsed, and had no real response. It was perhaps the dawn of a new era -- an instantaneous and refreshingly honest moment of truthspeaking, as someone dared to cut through the spin.

Updated On: 9/3/05 at 08:45 PM

[Plum]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 8:52pm

That CNN "official bull**** vs. actual events" article (though they put it more politely) was a real high point of the Katrina coverage. As ridiculous as it sounds, I'm proud of them. The media isn't just swallowing the company line with a smile and regurgitating it for public consumption.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:01am

Can you imagine if the news media hadn't been completely co-opted by the administration (yes, this means you Judith Miller) in the run up to the war and if the concept of being "embedded" had never been invented? Can you imagine how many lives would have been saved if investigative journalists actually investigated?

Since the reportage is coming from people who do not have to clear their reports with the government, they are free to point out the disconnect between "the official word" and reality.

[Plum]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:05am

And I think the complete lack of a "national security" excuse for witholding information and access helps, too.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:11am

Which explains why, in this topsy turvy world that W has created, Michael Chertoff is the one being trotted out the most to talk about the incredible response of the US government.

[Plum]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:15am

I wonder what would be happening if the New Orleans levees had been wrecked with explosives, instead.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:18am

Plum, it still "could not have been anticipated."
Hell, here's the 2nd time during an administration when a report outlining what happened to a T has been dumped on our President's desk and he's gone out tree-chopping and mom-ignoring in the backwoods of Texas.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:33am

Well, we can't count on THIS particular report being dumped on W's desk because the series was in a newspaper and W does not read newspapers. When asked in an interview why he does not, he replied, "Opinions. Newspapers are just opinions."

On the other hand, when he gutted the FEMA budget to fund a couple of days of the war in Iraq, and when he reduced the size of the Army Corps of Engineers and sent so many of THEM to rebuild Iraq instead of shoring up the levees (which they were scheduled and funded to do under Bill Clinton), and when he cleared the way for developers (cuz he LOVES developers and oil companies!) to continue to eradicate the protective Gulf wetlands, well, at some point, he MUST have been told that wasn't a good thing. Oh wait, it has been established that he won't tolerate being told that his way isn't perfect and fine.

Forget I brought it up.

[Plum]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:10am

Ah, here's the latest bit of fun. Michael Brown, the head of FEMA, says that the agency did indeed have a plan for a Category 4 storm. Anyone else keep expecting smoke to come from the general direction of Chertoff's pants?

BTW, this is another lovely "official bullcrap vs. reality" story from CNN. They're seriously not taking it anymore.

CNN Updated On: 9/4/05 at 02:10 AM

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 3:06am

You know what that really sad thing is - if he just would admit that he screwed up, that our attention was focused on acts of men rather than God, and that he is doing everything in his power now, people might just let it go. But, this belief that they can deny and rewrite history when it is blatently false is almost psychotic in approach. Or, better yet, pathological.

When it is thousands of dead Iraqis, maybe that works. When it is thousands of dead Americans, well, then we actually care about fact vs. fiction.

[MisterRussell]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 11:39am

This was no natural disaster. Bush ordered the experimental use of HAARP to deflect attention away from his failure in Iraq.

[Plum]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:07pm

our attention was focused on acts of men rather than God

He couldn't get away with saying that. Much of the flooding in NO could have been accomplished with a few well-placed bombs. Either way, the Department of Homeland Security is supposed to be able to respond. Natural disasters are in its mission description.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:25pm

Did anyone see Tim Russert take on Chertoff today, using the Picayune article? It was startling in its Cassandra like accuracy, literally illustrating (in Jan. of 05) the tragedy that would come.

It was also startling, once again, to notice the absence of owning up. No one will say, "we made a mistake." No one will simply answer a question with honesty. It's all about ass-covering. Chertoff should be fired. Just about everyone in FEMA should be dumped. It won't happen. As Frank Rich noted, in his predictably eloquent take on this debacle, they will be rewarded a la Tennet and Bremer.

I'm sticking with the media, who has been remarkable. Miles O'Brian, Anderson, Russert, even GQ cover Bryan Williams. They all managed to do what the "first responders" could not do: SHOW UP.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:28pm

Plum, I did not mean to apply that all would be forgiven. But, for some reason, Americans are pretty forgiving, after initial anger, when people own up to mistakes. The ongoing denial just makes things worse.

Interesting artcile on on this in todays LA Times:

KATRINA'S AFTERMATH
Despite Warnings, Washington Failed to Fund Levee Projects
To cut spending, officials gambled that the worst-case scenario would not come to be.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-levee4sep04,1,2149328,print.story


Updated On: 9/4/05 at 01:28 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:34pm

It was also startling, once again, to notice the absence of owning up. No one will say, "we made a mistake." No one will simply answer a question with honesty.

I know exactly what you mean. The liberating thing about admitting mistakes is that it's the first real step in CORRECTING them. The other day in some thread Mr. Roxy was criticizing Bill Clinton for apollogizing for his lack of action during the Rwandna genocide. He illustrated how there is NO SUCH THING as redemption and forgiveness in the NY Post/Fox News worldview.

But since the pathology of this administration, starting at the tippy top (remember Bush not being able to think of a SINGLE mistake he made in his first four years during the debates) is to never, ever admit a mistake, the US continues its policy of Bumbling Arrogance.

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:58pm

Life under a good government is rarely dramatic; life under a bad government is always so.

~~ Oscar Wilde

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:01pm

Can we just let the curtain ring down and return to the real world?

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:03pm

If I hear one more person say they didn't see this coming, I'm going to scream. When they FIRST built the city, they knew this could happen, and they've known about the danger all the time. And, since George Bush has taken money away from maintaining the leeves and divert that money into the war, he should be held fully accountable.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:05pm

He's never been accountable for any of his mistakes (costly mistakes at that), why start now?

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:07pm

Start screaming: Chertoff was just on CNN saying again how this was "unprecedent" and making more excuses.

Someone get me a bag, I am going to be sick.

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:07pm

What is the real world but history repeating itself?

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:10pm

Then why aren't the reporters calling these people a liar to their face?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:28pm

Chertoff's line of the day -- which he actually believes works -- is built into his bizarre obsession with this tragedy being "two -- the storm and the flooding..." DUH. A week later, it's mind-numbing to hear this espoused as analysis, when we all managed to know, in real time, exactly that fact.

And equally strange: that they all "breathed a sigh of relief..." on Tuesday morning. What shocked me was hearing him say (to both Russert and Blitzer) "we all read the headlines on Tuesday which said 'New Orleans dodged the bullet.'"

I wish someone would interrupt him to say "but why was Homeland Security and FEMA using NEWSPAPER HEADLINES to make any kind of decisions -- and what were you thinking in daring to 'breathe a sigh of relief' when you hadn't even toured the damage, or made plans to!

Updated On: 9/4/05 at 02:28 PM