Bush On Katrina: ‘Don’t Tell Me The Federal Response Was Slow’
Bush On Katrina: ‘Don’t Tell Me The Federal Response Was Slow’
During his final press conference this morning, Bush defended his response to Katrina. He said he has “thought long and hard about Katrina” and admitted that “things [could] have been done better” but denied any problem with the federal response to the disaster, insisting, “Don’t tell me the federal response was slow!”:
BUSH: You know, people said that the federal response was slow. Don’t tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed. … 30,000 people were pulled off roofs right after the storm moved through. That’s a pretty quick response. Could things have been done better? Absolutely, absolutely. But when I hear people say the federal response was slow, then what are they gonna say to those chopper drivers? Or to the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs?
Watch it:
The federal response to Katrina was nothing short of a disaster. A 2006 report compiled by House Republicans slammed what it called “a failure of leadership,” saying that the federal government’s “blinding lack of situational awareness and disjointed decision making needlessly compounded and prolonged Katrina’s horror.” The report specifically blamed Bush, noting that “earlier presidential involvement could have speeded the response” because the president alone could have cut through bureaucratic resistance.
There is no question that the federal response was slow — deadly slow. Katrina made landfall on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, and the New Orleans levees were breached that morning. Despite the numerous warnings he had received about the storm’s severity, Bush spent that Monday traveling to Arizona and California to promote his Medicare drug bill. It was characteristic of the entire federal response:
– National Guard troops did not arrive in the area until two full days after the levees were breached.
– Bush did not leave his vacation home or assemble a task force until Wednesday, two days after the hurricane made landfall and the levees were breached.
– By Thursday, three days after landfall, FEMA had yet to set up a command and control center.
– FEMA Director Michael Brown said he had not heard about the more than 3,000 evacuees stranded in the convention center until Thursday. Many evacuees had been there since Tuesday morning.
– On Friday morning, Bush praised Brown: “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.” He also said he was “satisfied with the response.”
– FEMA did not finalize its request for evacuation buses until Sunday, six days after Katrina hit. The buses “trickled into New Orleans, with only a dozen or so arriving the first day,” noted the Wall Street Journal.
– The Superdome was finally evacuated on Sunday, a full seven days after 30,000 evacuees had arrived there.
“Despite a FEMA official’s eyewitness accounts of breaches starting at 7 p.m. on Aug. 29,” the Bush administration “did not consider them confirmed” until 11 hours later. In fact, FEMA did not order the evacuation of New Orleans until 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 31, two full days after Katrina made landfall.
In one area, however, the Bush administration did move quickly: pinning the blame for Katrina on its political opponents.
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79 Responses to “Bush On Katrina: ‘Don’t Tell Me The Federal Response Was Slow’”
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Yeah, ok, Chimpy. We won't TELL you.
BUT THE ENTIRE WORLD KNOWS THE TRUTH - YOU F UCKED UP AND PEOPLE DIED.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:50 amIncredible! A government that doesn't want to govern. Why did they want to run for office, if they didn't want the job?
January 12th, 2009 at 11:52 amWhen a reporter asked him what mistakes he'd made he glared at her and said "gotcha". Any legitimate question is a gotcha question. Makes you wonder why more reporters haven't thrown shoes at him.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:54 am"The federal government is in charge of writing checks. It's not in charge of the action itself," Rove said.
So all of those agencies (like FEMA) are window dressing? Paid spectators? All of the other disaster responses that have actually worked were spontaneously generated by concerned citizens?
January 12th, 2009 at 11:55 amThis bears repeating under this heading:
Bush just said the Federal response to Hurricane Katrina was not slow. Horse Hockey! Ask the folks in Memorial Medical Center, who lingered in a toxic soup for five days. Thirty four patients perished.
That fact was omitted from his White House lessons learned report. Memorial was owned by Tenet Health and rented space to a long term acute care hospital company, LifeCare.
Carlyle Group purchased LifeCare two weeks before landfall. LifeCare lost 24 patients.
A year after George W. made no mention of Memorial, Tenet, LifeCare or the Carlyle Group, brother Jeb was appointed to Tenet Board of Directors.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:01 am
January 12th, 2009 at 11:57 amHonestly, there are only two things that would have to happen for me to feel good about the George Bush presidency.
First, Bush and all his colleagues/cronies should be prosecuted and convicted for the war crimes they committed, and their crimes of omission with regard to Katrina etc. The only sufficient punishment would be life in prison. I would feel very happy about this outcome.
Second, once Bush and all his colleagues/cronies have passed away and gone to hell, I would love to see a daily blog managed by Satan to let us all know how things are going down there for Bush and the rest of the gang.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:59 amIf there is one thing that these past 2 months have shown it is that these guys stick together through thick & think more than any other political party. The Dems stab each other in the back yet Bush, Rove & Co just hum right along making stuff up from the same script and same talking points. Amazing.
But wasn't it fun to see Bush's favorite tactic with the press of using false equivalency?
When we say that the response was slow, we mean the FED GOVT and Bush's ADMIN. NOT the helicopter pilots, you IDIOT!
January 12th, 2009 at 12:06 pmYeah, Dubya, you did a heck-uv-a job with Katrina. After all the people down there were mostly underclass anyway and things worked quite nicely for them. Good riddance to bad rubbish and may the American people never be so stupid again to elect a sociopath to the highest office in the land.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:07 pm‘Don’t Tell Me The Federal Response Was Slow’
Yeah, you guys, you don't want to 'Burst' his 'Bubble', now do we.
Worst President Ever (WPE)
January 12th, 2009 at 12:10 pmOnly 8 more days until the "No one could have anticpated (fill in the blank)" Presidency is finally put to rest.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:12 pmI would love to see the audience take off a shoe and show the sole to little george. Like lighters at a concert, a sea of shoes to show the dickweed what we think of him.
Despicable egotistical sociopath.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:13 pmstateofthedivision, aren't you going to tell us how Obama and his appointees would handle this exactly the same way. We know you're all psychic and know exactly what will happen when he is actually inaugurated.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:13 pm"The federal government is in charge of writing checks to our republican friends. It's not in charge of the action itself," Rove said.
Bold is my addition.
So this pretty much absolves the government of any and all responsibility. "You want action?" yes. "How much will it cost?" 1 million dollars. "Are you republican?" 1) no "Piss off." 2) yes "Ok here's 1 billion dollars."
January 12th, 2009 at 12:14 pmThe Weed never met a buck he couldn't pass.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:15 pmRonald Reagan said the most frightening words were "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." I don't think those folks in New Orleans would have felt that way if anybody had arrived to help them. Eventually we all need to make sure Reagan is given his due for the catastrophes that followed his philosophy.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:16 pm“The federal government is in charge of writing checks. It’s not in charge of the action itself,” Rove said.
Proving once again how little this administration know what the Federal Government is responsible for. Good riddance.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:17 pmThe fact that Bush responded to Terrie Schiavo faster than Katrina speaks volumes! He is a bastard! Karl Rove, pls go and chase a big rig as it careens out of control on a desserted hwy
January 12th, 2009 at 12:17 pmGeorge, don't you have some packing to do?
January 12th, 2009 at 12:17 pmKarl, are you planning to carry George's luggage to Texas or has carrying his water these last 8 years worn out your a** (or is it "worn you out, you a**"?)?
Katrina not only exposed the incompetence of the Bush administration, it also showed the fallacy of the entire conservative ideaology. The entire world could finally see the result of 25 years of governance by people who believe government can't work. Even Bill Clinton bought into that idea to a large extent, and George W. Bush ran rampant with the conception. On Aug. 29, 2005, the Reagan legacy finally came home to roost, and the conservative movement ended.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:20 pm"Don’t tell me the federal response was slow"
Or I'm gonna put my fingers in my ears and hum loudly.
My favorite line from the final presser was W saying he thought the press continually 'misunderestimated' him. The only thing I will miss from this 8 years is his stellar command of the English language...
January 12th, 2009 at 12:21 pm"The federal government is in charge of writing checks. It's not in charge of the action itself," Rove said.
Horse hockey! Unless Bush finally achieved his aim to contract out the whole federal government.
So that's all the Food % Drug Administration does? Now wonder our food and medicines are dangerous.
Our Energy Department does more than write checks. It conducts drilling research on behalf of oil companies.
The Transporation Department just got into the insurance writing business for airlines.
Karl Rove is a lying sack of corpulent flesh, no ethical bone in his body.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:22 pm"The federal government is in charge of writing checks. It's not in charge of the action itself," Rove said.
Clearly our children is not learning much about the "executive" branch of government.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:22 pmAh, once again the refreshment of getting on-line and beginning my day by reading BushCo's latest lather of lies! And, since BushCo MAY finally be getting a dim idea of what most of the electorate thinks in regard to their 8 years of malfeasance, I look forward to still more mornings of the same sorts of frothings: innocence, lack of culpability, innocence, "whocouldaknown"-isms, innocence, finger-pointings, innocence, denials, innocence, "it wasn't us!"-isms, innocence, justified torture, innocence, good intentions, innocence, "signs of progress," innocence. . . Oh, and did I mention INNOCENCE?
January 12th, 2009 at 12:23 pmGeorge W. Bush:
Asinine Sociopathic Stinking Worst Incompetent President Ever (ASSWIPE)
January 12th, 2009 at 12:23 pmlivelongandprosper, you've got it down succinctly in #13.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:24 pmShayne, f uck off.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:24 pmIt wasn't slow, it was..."malreported."
(Also see 'Memory Hole')
The MSM is expected to comply.....
January 12th, 2009 at 12:25 pmGW: "Y'all are trying to be all 'holistic' and everything with this. See, the helicopters were not slow, so calling the whole thing slow is wrong-headed. Them helicopters were fast, fast as the wind. The rest is inconsequential... like OBL. And let me end it on a personal note: if you say the response was slow then you are a hater of those pilots and those people pulled off the rooftops."
Good job sticking to the template, GW (Repug propoganda template 1: dismiss criticism, offer anything that you can think of to 'disprove' criticism, then make a broad attack that denigrates anyone who agrees with the criticism). example:
Criticism: federal response to katrina was too slow.
dismiss: "Don't tell me the federal response was slow..."
disprove: "30,000 people pulled off rooftops..."
attack: "...then what are they gonna say to those chopper drivers? Or to the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs?"
But those pulled off their roofs right after don't need an explanation for the slow response. The 30,000 stranded in the stadium, those stranded in their homes, in the hospitals, and, most importantly, those who survive their family and friends who died there may have something to say about the speed and efficiency of the federal response.
More Bush legacy whitewashing (and this is necessary because the Bush admin has poisoned the neocon repug well of public faith -- they have a need at this time to sterilize this admin's past: "we did dandy -- someone else messed up, not us.").
January 12th, 2009 at 12:26 pmKARL ROVE: President Bush Should Have the Gratitude of All Americans
FOXNews - 17 minutes ago
imagine that...
January 12th, 2009 at 12:27 pmOccasionally, I've read assertions that BushCo and cohorts were "Machiavellian." Not so: Machiavelli did advocate lying, but ONLY WHEN NECESSARY TO PROTECT THE REPUBLIC0--NOT to protect the individuals who wished to profit financially from such lies. Machiavelli's "The Prince" admits that honesty may not be the best policy in some instances--but those instances are NEVER instances which enrich an oligarchy at the expense of the citizenry, OR at the expense of a country's standing in the world of nations. Machiavelli's "Prince" was smart, dedicated to the public weal, working always for the best for EVERYONE. BushCo is sly, dedicated to the almighty dollar, and working always for whatever will line their pockets and those of their friends. Machiavelli's "The Prince" posits ethics. BushCo doesn't know the word.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:31 pmHeh.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:34 pmAll this - everything they've done and not done - speaks to their basic philosophy: don't govern, just try to convince people you're governing. All effort goes solely into politics, and none goes into getting things done. When confronted with a crisis, their first question is not "what should we do about this," but "what should we tell the voters to make them think we're doing something about this?"
.
"Don’t tell me the federal response was slow..."
I find it interesting how often he starts various sentences with the words "Don't tell me..." Must have made Cabinet meetings and Presidential briefings pretty tough for his employees to navigate. Also explains a lot.
.
"The federal government is in charge of writing checks. It's not in charge of the action itself," Rove said.
That would be the case if emergency management was privatized. It's not privatized... yet. Check your copy of the wingnut agenda again, Karl; you're getting a little ahead of yourself there.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:35 pmIs our children learning?
January 12th, 2009 at 12:35 pmCould I get some of whatever Rove has been drinking? It obviously changes everything from gray to rosie! And it conveniently blurs the distinction between reality and imagination, between truth and lies, between maleficence and beneficence, between the ridiculous and the sublime.
In jest, one of my friends called Rove "the antichrist" a few years ago. At the time, I disagreed. . . but the antichrist is supposed to give the world a false hope and a false cure and a seemingly magnificent leader and a false promise of peace. . . "put it together and what have you got? Bibbidi-bobbidy-boo!"
January 12th, 2009 at 12:36 pmRove/Bush/Cheney wouldn't know true leadership if it bit them on their pimpled asses.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:37 pmbush and rove may think they didn't screw up, but the American voter in 2006 and 2008 thought differently.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:37 pmBUSH: Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?
January 12th, 2009 at 12:43 pm30,000 from the roofs and many more thousands died a few died live on TV but Bush was so quick he didn't know about it for 5 days. Cuba and Mexico had already been at the Gulf when Bush's aides got the nerve to show him NBC's coverage of the Dome when even more people died. It take Barbara Bush to say what the Bush Family and the President was thinking. As Barbara said live on TV " these people are better off now then they were before the Storm". Yes Bush will continue to try and change History but those thousands of dead victims just keep showing up in his sleep.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:46 pmJackie @ 38 - I hope so. I fervently hope so. I hope they all rise from their graves and haunt that strutting little bastard forever.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:50 pmstateofthedivision:
You'll have to forgive Shayne, she is a frustrated 55 year old shut in who "works" from home.
Unfortunately, the only "work" she seems to get done is finding imaginary trolls either here or at the Zoo while she brags about her drunk blogging.
Just ignore the dumb b¡tch.
¶ AIO
January 12th, 2009 at 12:55 pm"The federal government is in charge of writing checks. It's not in charge of the action itself"
It's called LEADERSHIP something BUSH has NEVER exhibited!!
January 12th, 2009 at 12:55 pmActually, frat boy, we'll tell you anything we want to tell you. You were our servant, living under our roof. But I don't expect you to figure that out in eight days - you never could in eight years.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:57 pmApparently, Bush feels that it's time for history to start becoming more "objective" and he's gonna try to help it get there.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:59 pmFAILED UNELECTED ILLEGITIMATE WAR CRIMINAL ,a.k.a George W Bush, you are a national disgrace. Your failed illegitimate presidency started off on the wrong foot, and ever since then it's been nothing but failure after failure. You are a rotting worm that has been stinking for so long, we just can't wait to flush you down the toilet!
January 12th, 2009 at 1:01 pmAnd, all the cuckoo clocks on earth went off at the same time....
January 12th, 2009 at 1:05 pmTo lie is to "bush."
My comments, made some three years ago, probably bear repeating:
Here is some additional background information about the Bush Flood of New Orleans, which I penned about three years ago:
The Bush flooding of New Orleans: an unnatural disaster.
To the Editor:
“We don’t care, we don’t care” was the chant of pro-war, pro-Bush hecklers across the street from the Camp Casey peace vigil in Crawford, Texas in late August, 2005. This “we don’t care” chant pretty much sums up the attitude of the Bush Syndicate (B. S.) towards the rest of us in America. Actually, Bush, Cheney and the rest of this idiotic neo-con government believes that the only true function of the federal government is to create private money-making opportunities for themselves, their friends, and their corporate contributors. Any activity other than waging aggressive war to steal and colonize other countries’ natural resources falls into the category of “we don’t care.”
The Bush flood of New Orleans happened after the massive Hurricane Katrina had passed the city. It was both predictable and preventable. The Bush flood and the slow-as-molasses-in-January Bush response to it has ripped off the facade of the inept Bush Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its subsidiary, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The upper echelons of both of these massive federal bureaucracies have been staffed by incompetent and uncaring Bush buddies, cronies, hacks, frat brothers, former roommates, horse attorneys, contributors and other miscellaneous nincompoops. In making his appointments to the executive management of DHS and FEMA, Bush gave little if any thought to their actual qualifications in the field of emergency management.
Over the last several years, Bush and the GOP-controlled House and Senate have poured over one hundred billion tax dollars into “Homeland Security.” What did we get as the federal response to Hurricane Katrina? We got homeland stupidity. After the massive flooding of New Orleans, which initially covered about eighty percent of the city, thousands of residents were herded to the Superdome where they denied water, food, medicine, bedding, toilet facilities and police protection for several long days, meanwhile the Bush gang partied and carried on with their “business as usual” and “let them eat cake” imperial attitudes. George strummed his guitar, raised campaign funds, cut cake with Senator McCain, while Connie Rice did her Imelda Marcos imitation, shopping for expensive shoes in New York City before going to a Broadway play, while Cheney first went on vacation, fishing in Wyoming and then mansion shopping in Maryland, and Rumsfeld went to a professional ball game.
In the first several days of the flooding of New Orleans cable news reporters had to point out the severity of the suffering of thousands of people in the Superdome to the heads of FEMA and DHS. These two had apparently followed the lead of the ever-clueless Bush by not watching the unfolding disaster being revealed on television.
The searing images of human suffering that were shown on television in the first several days after the flooding of New Orleans showed thousands of poor people herded into the Louisiana Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center without any water, any food, any medicines, any toilet facilities, any bedding or any police protection.
The conduct of the inept corrupt Bush regime in this unnatural disaster (the Bush flood and the slow spastic Bush response of flood relief) is nothing short of criminal. Since the illegitimate Bush regime came to power in January 2001, they have allowed and encouraged massive developments in the natural low-lying wetlands around New Orleans. The presence of these wetlands traditionally helped to protect New Orleans from the storm surges which accompany hurricanes.
The first actions of FEMA after Hurricane Katrina and Flood Bush struck New Orleans was to try to stop almost all of the volunteer, state and federal help from coming into the disaster area. FEMA blocked volunteer help from WalMart, the Coast Guard, the Red Cross, AMTRAK, hundreds of airboats from Florida, the City of Chicago emergency teams, Loudoun County (Virginia) sheriffs, the Nevada police, the New Mexico National Guard, fire-fighting planes from the U. S. Forest Service and even the U. S. Bataan, a hospital ship stationed in the Gulf of Mexico. FEMA also stopped or ignored offers of help from foreign countries including Canada, Cuba and Venezuela, over twenty European counties and Asian countries including Iran and India.
One supposes that volunteer help and aid undercuts the Bush Syndicates system of private corporations making bags of money off of the Bush war on Iraq and the Bush expedited flooding of New Orleans.
It is troubling to see many no-bid federal contracts being given to large corporations for reconstruction along the Gulf Coast. The terms of “no-bid contracts” mean that the corporations get to charge their profits as a percentage of costs incurred, so there is no incentive to be thrifty; in fact, it is the opposite, the more money that the corporate contractor spends on construction, the higher their corporate profits. Add to this the fact that Bush just signed an executive order that suspended the traditional requirement that federal contractors must pay labor the prevailing wages, instead the federal contractors can now pay workers as little as minimum wage. So the folks who are the poorest, get kicked again by Bush. He kicks ‘em again when they’re down.
New Orleans should be rebuilt on a cooperative local basis. Habitat for Humanity should be the model used for the reconstruction of the many flood-damaged homes in New Orleans. As many physically-able local residents as possible should be employed in the reconstruction of their neighborhoods.
Yours truly,
James K. Sayre
11 September 2005
January 12th, 2009 at 1:13 pmFAIL! George W. Bush Go to jail! Go directly to jail and take freaking Chaney with you! I wish Bush would be sentenced and placed in one of the cells at Guantanamo!
January 12th, 2009 at 1:15 pmHis response was very fast. He didn't even know a storm was coming!
January 12th, 2009 at 1:16 pmalphainfinityomega, that's cute you're trying to make a friend. It's amazing you think you know so much about me when all I know is that you're a name changing troll who tries to pass as a progressive.
January 12th, 2009 at 1:22 pmChopper "drivers"? really?
Wasn't this tool allegedly in the Texas AIR NATIONAL Guard?
They're called 'PILOTS'
January 12th, 2009 at 1:40 pmI find it repulsive how the people in this administration continue to try to white wash their history. You know the are enough dumb Americans in this country that will believe this propanganda.
January 12th, 2009 at 1:45 pmLying till the last moment...
January 12th, 2009 at 1:46 pm"The federal government is in charge of writing checks. It's not in charge of the action itself," Rove said.
A terrifying comment from a terrifying little man.
January 12th, 2009 at 1:52 pmParagon of insensitivity and irresponsibility to the bitter end!
January 12th, 2009 at 1:54 pmIn one area, however, the Bush administration did move quickly: pinning the blame for Katrina on its political opponents.
Well, that is the response Pres Bush was talking about, because that is the only thing they know: Spin, obfuscate, misrepresent, and lie.
Actual action, or serious response to a need? Pppfftttt.... what do you think they are? Pinko-commie liberals?
January 12th, 2009 at 2:01 pmWell, they did take away his wings.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:02 pmGeorge Bush and Karl Rove make me want to believe in Hell.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:08 pm"Bush On Katrina: ‘Don’t Tell Me The Federal Response Was Slow’"
The aides of the clown President needs to put a muzzle on his mouth because he is digging a bigger hole in his legacy that is on life support. There is no reason for me to use my muscle in my brain to respond to King George's comment on the response to Katrina victims because the whole world know the truth. Bush, Girlfriday Rice and the rest of the Sith Admininstration didn't give one damn about the Katrina victims nor their recovery.
Your lack of concern for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama victims of Hurricane Katrina, King George, is an added nail to your Presidency coffin.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:10 pmYou guys are ALL forgetting how quickly Bush moved...
to immediately request offshore drilling privledges for the area!
Priorities, people.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:13 pmI wish. He's saturating the airwaves with bullshit, but some will get through. People are stupid, forgetful creatures.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:14 pm"The federal government is in charge of writing checks. It's not in charge of the action itself"
~Karl Rove
Rove should STFU. This is a astoundingly ignorant, callous statement -then again, you have to consider the source.
From FEMA's own website:
FEMA Mission
The primary mission of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is to reduce the loss of life and property and protect the Nation from all hazards, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters, by leading and supporting the Nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation.
[...]
FEMA also has nearly 4,000 standby disaster assistance employees who are available for deployment after disasters.
FEMA: About FEMA
Conservatives: Always lowering the bar in order to excuse their own piss-poor performance.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:28 pmOkay, this is slightly off topic but it does have to do with the hurricane and it is something many people forget. I am not saying that Hurricane Katrina did no damage in New Orleans; she blew the roof off my house, so I know she did damage. However she hit New Orleans as a catagory 2 hurricane, much weaker than when she hit Mississippi coast and the catastrophic flooding which directly caused most of the property damage and deaths as well as hindering the rescue of those who stayed behind and keeping those of us who evacuated from returning was NOT caused by Katrina, it was caused because the levees broke. The water didn't overtop the levees, they out and out failed causing the waters from the storm surge to move out of Lake Ponchartrain and the canals and into the city. So the failure of the federal government and the Bush adminstration happen even before the storm came.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:29 pmDumb Question: doesn't the fact that 30,000 people were on rooftops to begin with show that something was wrong ?
Not to mention those at the stadium. and those who were prohibited from leaving by sherrifs with guns.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:44 pmHe cited the number of people taken off roofs to demonstrate how quickly they responded. This is his last press conference? I want to see this country get sane.
Yeah V---keep up the reminders---Lake Ponchartrain flooded New Orleans.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:50 pmV is for Snark Says:
So the failure of the federal government and the Bush adminstration happen even before the storm came.
This is an important point, and one which a lot of media write-ups gloss over: the drowning of New Orleans was due to the levee failure, not due to any damage directly caused by Katrina itself. The Army Corps of Engineers had been given extensive warning for years that the levees would eventually fail in a high-water situation. They declined to do anything whatsoever about it. The Bush administration in fact reduced the priority of reparing such infrastructure, and the Republicans in congress refused to fund such projects.
The non-Response to the drowning of New Orleans is bad enough; but what's worse is that the Bush administration essentially caused that disaster in the first place.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:52 pmBush On Katrina: ‘Don’t Tell Me The Federal Response Was Slow
FCK YOU! I'll tell you to your face that THE FEDERAL RESPONSE WAS SLOW!
People died because of your ineffectiveness at running a government.
People died because of your apathy towards them.
I, for one, will NEVER forgot those who were misplaced due to your inability to be an effective leader during our nations crisis.
Because I witnessed them first hand, you mucking foron!
But wait, your buddy says "The federal government is in charge of writing checks. It's not in charge of the action itself," Rove said.
Okay, which is it? Was the federal government's response "not slow", or was it never in charge of the action?
Kinda contradictory, eh needle dicks?
(sorry folks, but even 3 & 1/2 years later, I'm still steamed so many people died in a situation that could have been prevented)
January 12th, 2009 at 3:16 pmThere are strong rumors in Dallas that The War Criminal in Chief is back to drinking... and that Laura has told him she'll leave him if he continues to drink.
January 12th, 2009 at 3:27 pmThis whining session is proof that the scumbag is hitting the bottle again....heee heee.
Bush causes disasters, he knows nothing about averting them. Go ask Ma and Pa Bush about that.
Karl is watching his Rome burn in flames in the final days...and right now, he's one of the primary arsonists. Only good things happen when Rove hits the airwaves, for his enemies.
January 12th, 2009 at 3:37 pmNo end to the lies and re-writing of his history. I can even remember his mother and her stupid remark. Paraphrase. "these people are underprivileged and this place is better for them." This was when she and her husband visited the stadium madhouse for a short visit. She thought because all those people were poor and now without homes, that the stadium was better then they would otherwise have.
Lucky them!! This family blindness and insensitivity is generational in the Bush family.
January 12th, 2009 at 3:53 pmI was checking that Barbara Bush comment, and yeah it's true:
"Scary," huh? Wikipedia says she lives in Houston...
Also tripped across this, on the Iraq war:
Wow. That's Bush's mom. No wonder he's such a callous scumbag.
January 12th, 2009 at 5:03 pmPut the criminal jerk in jail!
January 12th, 2009 at 8:09 pmI'm incredulous at the Rove quote in the Update.
So if the cops stop me, I can refuse the ticket as their only role is to write checks ?
We have no military in Iraq as we only write checks ?
The Army corp didn't build the NOLA levees and keep them up as their role is only to write checks ?
And the Coast Guard didn't pick up people from rooftops but instead flew over NOLA and dropped buckets of checks - kind of like dropping propoganda leaflets in WW II ?
January 12th, 2009 at 10:42 pm"– By Thursday, three days after landfall, FEMA had yet to set up a command and control center."
Before Katrina made landfall, FEMA had set up a command and control center in Baton Rouge. This was done in response to Louisiana Gov. Blanco's formal request to the Bush White House about 48 hours before Katrina hit. The Bush White House response was to assign and send a FEMA disaster coordinator, a twenty year veteran, to head up this FEMA command and control center in Baton Rouge.
(FoxNews article linked to): "Terry Ebbert, head of New Orleans' emergency operations, warned that the slow evacuation at the Superdome had become an "incredibly explosive situation," and he bitterly complained that FEMA was not offering enough help.
"This is a national emergency. This is a national disgrace," he said. "FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."
Based on Ebbert's statement above, the second highlighted part, (and the deadly and slow federal response), I can see where someone would believe that there was no FEMA command and control center anywhere close to Louisiana and New Orleans, but there was. So what happened?
The first highlighted part from Ebbert's statement, about his observation that FEMA was not offering enough help, provides a clue about what did happen in those first critical days following Katrina's landfall and the sinking of New Orleans.
I read a short article on-line during those first days, I believe it was posted by a New Orleans reporter displaced to Baton Rouge, who reported from the FEMA command and control center in Baton Rouge that the FEMA disaster coordinator was frustrated and seething about his federal coordination efforts in Louisiana being either blocked or emergency resources being routed elsewhere.
My guess?
There were three Gulf Coast states hit hard, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
We didn't hear many reports about people suffering and dying in Mississippi and Alabama following Katrina, but then these two states had Republican governors, and knowing how the Bush administration has done "business" over the past eight years, then these two Republican-run states received all the FEMA assistance they requested and needed.
Louisiana and New Orleans were another matter. Louisiana had a Democratic leader, Gov. Kathleen Blanco, while New Orleans also was led by a Democrat, Mayor Ray Nagin.
Can this be any clearer?
The FEMA disaster coordinators in Alabama and Mississippi got everything they requested, and in a timely manner, while the FEMA disaster coordinator in Baton Rouge LA got stiffed, time and again, even as he was frantically trying to get personnel and supplies into New Orleans.
But there's more.
While the FEMA disaster coordinator was having his efforts blocked by someone higher-up the DHS chain of command, all the way to inner sanctums of the Bush White House, the Republican Party (Karl Rove) launched a smear campaign against Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin, even as these two Democrats were desperately trying to help their fellow Louisianans.
In other words, with the Republican/White House goal during Katrina being to punish the Democrats (Louisiana) while rewarding the Republicans (Alabama and Mississippi), then the lack of federal response in Louisiana and New Orleans for days on end after Katrina made landfall and New Orleans flooded suddenly makes perfect, though Republican perverted, sense.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:43 pmIraq, Katrina, 9/11, Afganistan, contaminated food/medicine/toys, executions as Governor, falling bridges, etc.
GEORGE BUSH GETS PEOPLE KILLED! PERIOD!!
January 13th, 2009 at 12:00 amAs a firefighter that responded to Katrina and assisted the people down there first hand, let me tell you my opinion of it all. Is the government to blame for some of the people not getting out of there? Sure. Is it to blame for everything? No way.
Here's the simple truth. People can be told that something horrible is about to happen. What do they do? Nothing. The people I was directly involved with rescuing had vehicles in their driveways, most of which sat there under water rather than driven away. They were idiots for remaining and thinking that somehow the hurricane wouldn't affect them at all.
I can understand the government coming in to clear out the people who had no way out. But when you're told to get out and to get beyond the reach of the storm, many people stayed and were fully capable of evacuating on their own. Those that could leave and chose not to, deserved what happened to them.
For the record, I was over by Mobile, Alabama.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:30 am"Guns don't kill people. . . BushCo kills people.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:05 am911=Inside Job (false flag incident and a botched one at that)
Anthax attacks=Inside Job (Bruce Ivins was a Patsy like Oswald!)
WMD's was a Lie
Wars for Corporate profits
Two stolen elections.
Torture
Rendition
Secret Prisons
WE ARE A FASCIST POLICE STATE!
No Justice here!
There will be in the afterlife though.
Thank God there are no fascists in heaven. That eliminates about 25-32% of this country.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:37 amWE CAN ONLY HOPE THERE IS A FLOODED AREA IN HELL AWAITING HIS ROYAL IDIOT. But don't worry Dubya... Brownie is on the way with a blanket and a bottle of water.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:35 pmIcannot believe the amount of blind rage you all have for this man.....furthermore, I can't wait for you all "well educated" voters to see how poor a choice you made with Obama! Not one of you have left a decent, well thought, and well written responce to this article? I mean, are you all THAT stupid? That's the problems with you libs....your WAY to angry. Go get laid people~
January 14th, 2009 at 11:03 pm