Bush Administration Had Reason To Know About Levee Problems
Bush Administration Had Reason To Know About Levee Problems
Bush said this morning, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.†That’s not true at all. A quick review of headlines from national and regional papers over the course of the Bush presidency demonstrate that the federal government was very much aware of the problem.
New Orleans CityBusiness, 6/6/05:
New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces $71.2M in federal cuts
Times-Picayune, 5/28/05:
As federal aid wanes, local leaders are trying to find ways — including movable barriers to ward off storm surge — to protect the metro area from the fiercest hurricanes
Times-Picayune, 12/3/04:
Levees don’t measure up, corps warns; Many not as high as previously thought
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/17/04:
New Orleans In Danger of Drowning; Hurricane Ivan Passed It By, But a Direct Hit By Another Storm Would Swamp Its Levees and Leave Thousands Dead
Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/8/04:
New Orleans’ growing danger; Wetlands loss leaves city a hurricane hit away from disaster
Times-Picayune, 10/6/04:
Taxes will rise to pay for levee work; Feds no longer paying for it
Houston Chronicle, 9/15/04:
Hurricane Ivan; Direct Hit Could Spell Doom for New Orleans; Residents Fleeing Deluge That Could Sink Low-Lying City
Times-Picayune, 6/11/04:
Flood-project firm left high, dry; Federal dollars are tapped out
Times-Picayune, 6/8/04:
Shifting federal budget erodes protection from levees; Because of cuts, hurricane risk grows
Times-Picayune, 4/13/04:
Levee money falling short; Corps says millions needed to close gaps
New York Times, 7/4/03:
New Orleans’s Hurricane Problem
Lafayette Daily Advertiser, 10/14/02:
Hurricane levees talked about for decades
Times-Picayune, 10/10/02:
La. needs new plan to survive big storms; Put politics aside, Army Corps warns
CBS Evening News, 10/2/02:
Damage that a major hurricane could do to New Orleans
AP, 8/5/02:
Louisiana sinking: One state’s environmental nightmare could become common problem
Times-Picayune, 6/27/02:
Cost of survival; New Orleans and south Louisiana will always be vulnerable to a catastrophic hurricane, yet there are ways to make the area safer. But implementing the proposals may be prohibitively expensive.
Times-Picayune, 5/31/01:
A study shows that coastal Louisiana is sinking more than thought, and that could spell trouble as hurricane season rolls in
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A boy in a bubble. It is so pathetic one becomes despondent.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:26 pmThis is why Bush needs to be fired. This is a disgrace. Thousands dead and that treasonous guitar pickin anti christ piece of SH*T is giving pro war speeches. HOW CAN THIS MAN BE OUR GODD*AMN LEADER?
September 1st, 2005 at 5:26 pmWhy is congress just now getting involved????????
And while people are dying this very moment that fat ass treasonous war criminal HASTERT is talking about the prudence rebuilding New Orleans????????????
September 1st, 2005 at 5:28 pmSounds eerily familiar, like when they claimed nobody could have known they’d use airplanes as weapons. Of course we later found out that not only did they know about it but they had been warned specifically about and had trained to prepare for it.
I hope the Bush supporters are paying close attention to the truth, maybe it’ll set them free.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:28 pmThat picture of that piece of SH*T playing guitar needs to be plastered all over the airways with a timeline of the people were dying while he was doing it. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
September 1st, 2005 at 5:31 pmNo, don’t forget Bush said no one in HIS administration expected it to happen, because THEY don’t read the newspapers… or magazines….or the internetS….or tea leaves… but they do read their bibles repent ye sinners or whatever the crap is they have been yelling for five some odd years.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:33 pmI don’t know, the picture of him and McCain eating cake, smiling and yucking it up, while people were dying is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.
THERE WERE PEOPLE DYING WHILE HE WAS EATING CAKE.
Here’s another:
PEOPLE ARE DYING WHILE CONDI BUYS THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF SHOES.
I tell you, if any of these NeoCOns comes near me, I will flatten their nose across their face. They are the lowest form of scum on this Earth.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:35 pmI haven’t seen it Spudge-Boy. I’m afraid I’d blow a gasket.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:43 pmAnd Gosh, I don’t think anybody knew our occupation of Iraq would lead to chaos.
Nobody knew we wouldn’t find WMD there.
Nobody warned us, everyone was wrong.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:44 pmGranted, he kicked out anyone serious about science long ago. His hurricane guy probably doctored the reports to fit their political agenda.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:52 pmI still say Bush joking about not being able to find WMD at that writers gala last year is the most tasteless thing this guys done. We need the video of that.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:55 pmI just saw Michale Brown from FEMA actually blame the victims for their plight! When he realized what he said he tried to back off a bit, but this is the typical administration response to victims who happen to be mostly poor and black.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:59 pmRecall on 9/11 when thousands died in a terrorist attack, how we all reacted, what the White House did, etc. Observe what is happening now as thousands are dead, tens of thousands, maybe a million are homeless as a result of the gross mismanagement of government under George Bush. Watch them squirm and point fingers at everything and everyone including victims to weasel out from their own thoughtless and selfish ineptitude.
Failure of imagination…
September 1st, 2005 at 6:01 pmEvery outrage this idiot has said and done for five years is tasteless. It’s like stomach cancer going into the bones.
September 1st, 2005 at 6:01 pmHere’s another article showing someone who thought about the levees breaking. It is astonishingly real today.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=9754
September 1st, 2005 at 6:02 pmTens of thousands rummaging through garbage looking for food in Mississippi….
September 1st, 2005 at 6:08 pm#11
That was completely disgusting. He said something about the “haves and have-mores” being his base. If it wasn’t for the fact that I own a large HDTV, I would have thrown it out the freaking window.
We need that video. We need this stuff to live. DOn’t let these bastards let these things fall by the wayside. Show your friends, show your family. Show the arrogance of these people.
September 1st, 2005 at 6:14 pmOh yeah, this grade one asshole will have all of his people blaming the victims for their deaths.
Nothing but a cocaine sniffing dry drunk with no, and I mean NO class whatsoever.
Screw Bush and his entire administration. Bunch of pukes.
September 1st, 2005 at 6:25 pmI requested Crooks and Liars repost footage of Bush behavior. Cake, guitar, WMD’s?, etc.
September 1st, 2005 at 6:27 pmWhen do we get to take the ball and head off the field to find new friends to play with? I am so tired of the fabricated lies. Tired.
September 1st, 2005 at 7:11 pmBUSH = assh*le of evil
September 1st, 2005 at 7:38 pmBushie told Diane Sawyer this morning that no one ever foresaw the breech of the levee. WHAT?? That POS continues to lie. This is like the PDB that read “Bin Laden determined to attack inside thu U.S.” Our boy-king, imbecile, rich-frat-boy, useless twit, can’t read, so he doesn’t know what the hell is happening. The picture of him with the guitar is so fitting — Nero fiddled too. We should never forget this nor should we let anyone forget this enormous lack of leadership, this incompetence, the lying, the giving of important jobs to “friends” who are as incompetent as he. I am wearing my “What Me Worry T-Shirt” today so everyone I encounter can know what a stupid, selfish moron he is.
September 1st, 2005 at 9:03 pm#17 & 11, If you want the video of the assh*le, it is in Farenheit 9/11.
If you want the video of him flipping press off BEFORE AND WHEN HE WAS GOVERNOR, it is on Buzzflash somewhere.
If you want the video of him flipping press off after naming Bolton-it is on Michael Moore’s archives.
Just a few I can recall right off the top of my head.
September 1st, 2005 at 10:59 pmHe didn’t think the levee’s would fail, BULL!
He cut funding for the renovation of them. I suspect to get even with Clinton for funding it in the first place.
He said help is on the way…. boats and planes … um boats and choppers, it takes a while to float them…BULL!
They may be on the way, but they had enough advance warning to get them there by the time they were needed. He will try to spin his way out of this mess too. Guess he couldn’t be bothered with this hurricane because the poor people of N.O. aren’t about to vote and besides, he probably considers them “have-nots”.
Too bad we can’t just spray him with raid & be done with him. I also hope crash-cart Cheeney has a serious stroke, I can’t ask for him to have a heart attack as he has NO HEART.
September 1st, 2005 at 11:05 pmBush’s plan is to bankrupt the government — the war and tax cuts are taking care of that nicely. Then he will be “forced” to cut domestic funding (for projects like levees) ever more drastically until there are no federal social programs. At that point everything will be privatized (bottom line being profit) and if you can afford whatever it is, you will survive at their mercy, but if you can’t afford whatever, you will simply go without until you die. It seems to be so clear, I cannot understand why more people don’t see it.
September 2nd, 2005 at 12:12 amLouisiana is a Republican (Red) state — so the people there voted against their own best interests when they voted for the boy-king — a tragic result, worse than any of us imagined has occurred. What more lies ahead, where else in the nation, and to whom?
Marie, case in point, my mother is 73 yrs old, at 69 she was diagnosed with cancer. Thank God we had supplimental insurance.
Now, she needs chemotherapy, and her cancer clinic has had MEDICARE CUTS SO DEEP that the re-imbursement is not enough to even COVER THE COST OF THE DRUGS. Her insurance (which is going up about 250 a month) will cover the additional for now. What about the people without insurance???? Their option, sell everything they own and possibly survive? OR SIMPLY DIE QUITELY?
THAT IS THE BUSH AMERICA!!!
September 2nd, 2005 at 4:15 amI think if the shrubya supporters were in this position (the have not’s) not the shrubya supporters that are “have-mores”, they would change their minds. Maybe not, as they have illustrated numerous times, they have blind faith in “dear leader”.
September 2nd, 2005 at 4:18 am1. He should’ve just stopped at “I don’t think”.
September 2nd, 2005 at 5:31 am2. Don’t be silly, he didn’t read those reports. The Ricebag didn’t read the “Al Qaeda determined to attack the US” reports either, and her incompetence got her a nice promotion. Since he’s already the Preznit, I guess that not reading any of the reports mentioned here will earn him a new title of either “King” or better yet “The Intelligent Designer”. Note to Army Corps of Engineers: The next time you ask for funding, mention something about pet goats. That might help.
3. Good news, the billionaires all made it out safely, and we’re working hard to give them yet another tax cut to help ease their pain and loss, and to get them through the hardships they will be facing in the wake of this disaster since half of their employees are quite possibly dead. Who is up for a round of golf?
[...] (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette headline on 10/17/04: New Orleans In Danger of Drowning; Hurricane Ivan Passed It By, But a Direct Hit By Another Storm Would Swamp Its Levees and Leave Thousands Dead.) [...]
September 2nd, 2005 at 10:42 amScott, you couldn’t be CLOSER to the truth unless you were standing on it’s throat!
kudos.
September 2nd, 2005 at 12:01 pmI heard a joke the other day that just really got to me, simply because it was just so much like this Texas idiot.
It was: Bush was sincere about the need to take on this Grade 5 hurricane because he was concerned if he didn’t the message it would send to other Grade 5 hurricanes.
Or something to that effect!
The thing I want to concur the most (and I concur with most everything said in this thread) is that it is now painfully obvious that Bush has great plans to bankrupt our nation at be at the top end of privatization. This is how the Bush family has worked for years! Take from the working classes–make them think that your their friend.
I just wonder if W, make that the entire Bush family aren’t actual Muslims that aren’t dressed in shieks clothing.
September 2nd, 2005 at 2:54 pm[...] Bush: “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” Except for his own government. Well, it worked after 9/11, I guess I can’t blame him for giving it a shot this time around. Liar. [...]
September 2nd, 2005 at 4:01 pmWhy didn’t YOU, the “concerned” get your asses down to NOLA and take some of the poor home with you – you had plenty of notice and obviously KNEW the levees were going to break!
September 2nd, 2005 at 5:33 pmTommy the Pussy – You are soooooooo hysterically funny – if you agree with “almost everything – why don’t you get a parrot? Maybe the parrot wouldn’t understand the deep conspiracy theory.
September 2nd, 2005 at 8:01 pmLooks like mighty dykie is not due back at the McDonalds drive up window to work it’s shift yet.
And it is very testy…. or is that disfunctional?
hey, mitie dykie, you’re (that is called a contraction)
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:00 pmSOO FUNNY YOURSELF.
Bush has said that he was in favor of a 95% WORLD POPULATION DECREASE. Looks like another leader from the 40’s.
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:01 pmMighty Afro-dykie,
I find it hard to believe that any thinking person could every believe the crap that “W” has pulled on this country–you just can’t make this stuff up!
There is one thing 100% absolutely postive for sure. This president is the worst in American history. His record proves it!
But I do have a great belief in America still. Anyone that is as stupid and dumb and idiotic as George W. Bush, and can be president of these United States is proof that anyone can accomplish anything when they set their minds to it–especially when you have big money behind it all.
Enjoy it while it lasts, because the countryis going down the shitter as we speak!
Also, history will prove all of us here right.
September 3rd, 2005 at 4:49 amBible study reveals the nation of Israel knew when they were in trouble with GOD. They would repent and HE would come to their aid. Apparently America does not know how to do this. Just watch TV and see how long it takes before someone uses HIS name in a careless manner. This is just the “tip of the iceburg”, but as a nation it would be a good starting point for cleaning up our act before GOD THE FATHER and HIS SON JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH.
September 3rd, 2005 at 1:55 pmLITTLE GEORGIE TOOK AN AXE AND GAVE THE WORLD FORTY WHACKS… WHEN HE SAW WHAT HE HAD DONE, HE GAVE NEW ORLEANS FORTY ONE…(OR IS THAT 43??)
September 4th, 2005 at 4:12 amOn the Levees of New Orleans
September 4th, 2005 at 12:39 pmthe madness of king George; they should test his urine once in a while
September 4th, 2005 at 1:45 pm[...] Homeland Security chief Mike Chertoff today offered the administration’s (first, second) third excuse for their lack of preparedness for Katrina: Well, I think if you look at what actually happened, I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, “New Orleans Dodged the Bullet.” Because if you recall, the storm moved to the east and then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing worse. It was on Tuesday that the levee — may have been overnight Monday to Tuesday — that the levee started to break. And it was midday Tuesday that I became aware of the fact that there was no possibility of plugging the gap and that essentially the lake was going to start to drain into the city. I think that second catastrophe really caught everybody by surprise. [...]
September 4th, 2005 at 1:59 pmYou’d think local authorities (i.e. Mayor Nagin and Parish President Broussard) might also be aware of the levees’ potential to break. Good planning!! Nagin didn’t order a mandatory evacuation even though this was the recommended course of action. Hmmmm….
September 4th, 2005 at 7:00 pmPEARLS OF WISDOM FROM AFRO DYKIE
September 4th, 2005 at 9:52 pmI never read it’s crap, I look at who posted and then decide if I’ll read.
I love fiction as much as anyone, but that is NOT what I look for here. So, it is much easier Not to feed the trolls.
September 4th, 2005 at 9:53 pmReally hard to listen to W admit/claim that you didn’t have a clue that a catastrophe was likely in New Orleans: “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breaching of the leveesâ€. Why must W attribute such stupid ignorance to me?
Good summary of W’s direct complicity in the slaughter: Warnings went ignored as Bush slashed flood defence budget to pay for wars, Independent on Line by Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor, 09/04/05. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article310195.ece
Any American with a HEART remembers our fears for NOLA last September — USA TODAY – Direct hit by Ivan in New Orleans could mean a modern Atlantisâ€, 09/14/04 – http://tinyurl.com/5xp2k
There’s a really good Washington Post article — “Storm Exposed Disarray at the Top Despite Experience of 9/11, Federal Disaster System Remains Fatally Flawed” by Susan B. Glasser and Josh White on 9/4/05 — posted at MSNB – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9166337/
“It’s such an irony I hate to say it, but we have less capability today than we did on September 11,” said a veteran FEMA official involved in the hurricane response. “We are so much less than what we were in 2000,” added another senior FEMA official. “We’ve lost a lot of what we were able to do then.”
Even though W has spent untold billions of our treasure to ‘make the Homeland safe’ – what else got him any votes at all [from non-zombies] in 2004?
Most experts blame Bush’s new bureaucracy “Department of Homeland Security†which took over FEMA.
“Beyond terrorism, this [Cat 4 strike on NOLA] was the one event I was most concerned with always,” said Joe M. Allbaugh, the former Bush campaign manager who served as his first FEMA head†[reportedly fired for requesting budget appropriations to shore up NOLA levees, etc.].
“But several current and former senior officials charged that those worries were never accorded top priority — either by FEMA’s management or their superiors in DHS. Even when officials held a practice run, as they did in an exercise dubbed ‘Hurricane Pam’ last year, they did not test for the worst-case scenario, rehearsing only what they would do if a Category 3 storm hit New Orleans, not the Category 4 power of Katrina. And after Pam, the planned follow-up study was never completed, according to a FEMA official involved.â€
HOW DO WE GET RID OF THIS NEO-CON CABAL? Since they tore the fabric of USA constitutional democracy with the Judicial Coup of 2000, they appear determined to destroy our country. Think of all the terrible disasters they are responsible for.
If we were a parliamentary system, he would be gone as soon as people have stopped dying. With the GOP robots controlling Congress, the regime can’t be impeached. Our next election is for Congress 2006 — I’m ‘afeared’ we won’t be having elections by then at this pace.
When the Congressional Democrats repealed the Special Prosecutor law, I KNEW they were being stupid FOOLS.
Pray that this opens the eyes of a sufficient number of our ruling class and their minions that they will act to “STOP the INSANITY” supported by massive peace/economic mass movement. Take to the streets in September!
Call for Independent Special Prosecutor and immediate DHS/FEMA firings.
September 5th, 2005 at 2:48 amThis problem should have been taken care of on the local and state level. Let’s get an investigation in order and find out why it wasn’t taken care of. They have known about this problem since 1965. The Federal government funds the Army Corp of Engineers, both with regular fiscal budget and with extra money for specific projects. The New Orleans district alone received $364.5 million in 2005, along with 10’s of millions for specific projects. Where did the money go? This doesn’t include what they get from the state and local level. Of course, if there was an investigation into the state and local level, and into the budget expenditures of the Army Corp of Engineers, then you all might have to admit that it wasn’t Bush’s fault. Shudder at the thought. Such a shame that you get all your info from a rich, pig that is spending thousands a day to be in a posh fat farm. OMG!! Sounds like Michael Moore isn’t the regular guy on the street. Follow blindly you fools, this man is a fraud.
September 6th, 2005 at 7:45 amJauqkay,
The problem was and still is, the lack of response by Bush controlled FEMA. They have written the area off, as part of the grand plan of starving the mid to working classes which will eventually lead to solitarian control of the masses. This was warned about years earlier in a very tell-all book by Robert Hunter called, Poverty.
Hunter’s conclusions were–and this is where Bush and his controllers will falter–is that people will eventually revolt from all of it. You can see it today in what is going on in Baghdad. The only thing that would stop those so called “Insurgents” is complete annihlation from a nuclear device. They are that incensed.
As the famed rock band, The Who once said, “We aren’t going to take it, never did and never will…” This would be the same in regards to pushing people towards poverty in any civilized culture.
September 6th, 2005 at 3:12 pmI would also like to comment that if it wasn’t New Orleans, say Houston, that suffered this tragic disaster, you certainly would see FEMA in full action and the city restored in full.
September 6th, 2005 at 4:50 pmI think Bush is bad and cheese is way cooler, totally!!
September 18th, 2005 at 8:38 pmi love bush. He is ssssssssssssssssssssooooooooooooo hot. his man boobs are so sexy. totally
September 18th, 2005 at 8:39 pmBush is very bad. HE should have acticated a plan to evacuate New Orleans
September 18th, 2005 at 8:40 pmI have one thing to say to all the people who blame the whole response to Hurricane Katrina on the President of our great country. All i have to say is that before you start blaming Pres. Bush i suggest that you take a look at what the mayor of New Orleans and governer of Louisana did in response to Hurricane Katrina. Yes, Bush did know about the levees but so did they and what did they do about it? NOTHING! THEY SAT THERE WHILE THIS CAT. 5 HURRICANE WAS COMING AND THEY KNEW THAT THE LEVEES COULD REALLY ONLY POSSIBLY WITHSTAND A CAT. 3 HURRICANE AT THE LEAST! AND THEY DID NOTHING TO PREVENT 80% OF NEW ORLEANS BEING FLOODED! 80% OF THE HOMES AND BUSINESSES GONE! 80% OF THE CITIZENS THAT LIVED THERE THAT HAD NOT ESCAPED WERE ON ROOF TOPS OR SITTING BESIDE HIGHWAYS WAITING TO BE RESUCED! YES, THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A FEDERAL PLAN TO EVUCATE NOLA BUT THERE WASN’T BUT YOU KNOW WHAT WE WILL LEARN FROM THIS ,CORRECT OUR MISTAKES, AND MOVE ON! my point being don’t always blame the federal gov’t w/o first looking at what the states,counties (parishes), or cities did to prepare for the disater that took place.
November 2nd, 2005 at 5:43 pm[...] These are real quotations. "I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." –President Bush, on "Good Morning America," Sept. 1, 2005 — Oh yes they did, and the levees broke right where the repairs should have been done already. Everybody expected the breach – that’s why there was an evacuation order. The Bush administration and our representatives just didn’t think it was a priority. They should have helped people get out of there. [...]
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:47 pm