Investigator-In-Chief?
From Reuters today:
In light of the chronic lack of accountability, the perpetual passing of the buck, the almost Soviet ethos of incompetent cronyism, and the now-obvious chaos in the White House, I think it is difficult to overstate the danger---physical and otherwise---we're all in right now.
Bush, after a Cabinet meeting devoted to the myriad challenges posed in the wake of the crisis, said he wanted to save lives and solve problems before assessing blame.More than any other political figure in American history, this president has demonstrated an abject refusal to recognize mistakes, accept blame, and take corrective action. And he's going to "lead an investigation" into himself? Considering his similar promise to take swift action regarding the Plame leak, don't you feel better already?
"I think one of the things that people want us to do is to play a blame game," Bush told reporters. "We've got to solve problems. We're problem solvers. There will be ample time for people to figure out what went right, and what went wrong. What I'm interested (in) is helping save lives."
He said he would lead an investigation to find out what "went right and what went wrong" in order to improve coordination between federal, state and local authorities because of the possibility of future crises.
"It's very important for us to understand the relationship between the federal government, the state government and the local government when it comes to a major catastrophe," Bush said.
"And the reason it's important is, is that we still live in an unsettled world. We want to make sure that we can respond properly if there's a WMD (weapons of mass destruction) attack or another major storm. And so I'm going to find out over time what went right and what went wrong," he added.
In light of the chronic lack of accountability, the perpetual passing of the buck, the almost Soviet ethos of incompetent cronyism, and the now-obvious chaos in the White House, I think it is difficult to overstate the danger---physical and otherwise---we're all in right now.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Tuesday, September 06, 2005
48 Comments:
"I think it is difficult to overstate the danger---physical and otherwise---we're all in right now."
truer words have never been spoken.
it is funny that one of the early lines from the bush spinners is that this disaster could not have been forseen. what happened is akin to a nuclear bomb(s) going off in an american city (without the radiation danger) and our various demo and repub admins have war gamed such a scenario for at least the last 50 years. or so we've been told. and likewise taxed to be protected and assisted if it ever occurred.
It gets better - he's sending Cheney! When that troll comes out from under his rock you know there's some serious thugging to do. CYA time for the jackels.
That the White House (I say that because McClellan has been using the term for a few days) uses the phrase 'blame game' over and over, I know its most obvious use is to dismiss those who call for accountability. There's a second meaning that I admit I'm reading into, but it really seems like accountability is a game for these people; a game you win or lose, rather than something you live up to. After Bush's 'zero tolerance' judgement on people looting for food and shoes, it's almost laughable that he doesn't hold himself to the same standard. Not by a longshot.
I think the danger is palpable ... I've felt it for at least 4 years.
I'm in WA State; you may know, we had a nasty election for governor and, in the end ...after we wiped the GOP mud from our faces, we have a Democrat in Olympia. Almost from day one, this state has been penalized by the Feds. e.g. base closings ... the whole Northwest is vulnerable.
I never ever fell for the bullhorn bit ...if you can't recognize a photo-op when you see it, it's time to wake up. It's the results of his actions since that are the measure and his actions have put us in the cross-hairs.
Thanks to "The Architect" and a complicit press, the propaganda machine has convinced the majority of Americans that the Emporer "has clothes".
We used to call that La-La Land.
I hope the national concience has just had a wake-up call.
If not - we deserve to perish.
And it's hard to see an end to the danger for another three years. There really aren't any alternatives with our system except waiting him out. Perhaps if the major new outlets would demonstrate the least bit of factual counterbalance to the spin meisters we wouldn't be where we are, but to believe that will ever happen, you've got to be sprinkled with the same pixie dust Bush gets before he starts making speeches about how we're making "progress" on his latest catastrophe.
I love the rabid blaming of Bush by you letfies, including the Cunning Realist, himself.
So far every one of the allegations against Bush has been conclusively proved to be baseless. Mayor Negen, who apparently is trying to avoid a criminal indictment, is now blaming Governor Blanco, not Bush.
I know that none of you are interested in facts, but the President can only call out the National Guard if there is an insurrection. Looting does not qualify as insurrection. The ball was in Governor Blanco's court and she blew it.
The fact that you continue to cling to Bush-bashing even as we find that NO did not even follow its own federally mandated evacuation plan shows your true colors. The aerial photos of those buses don't lie, they blew you out of the water.
After the federal government pulls Mayor Negen's and Governor Blanco's chestnuts out of the fire, the full investigation will show where the blame really lies. Please note, Bush is doing his job, not wasting time placing the blame. BUT THAT WILL COME LATER.
I really loved the bogus story that African-Americans were so desparate that they were resorting to cannibalism-after just four days of being cut off from Burger King. And you people bought it!
You left-wingers are soooo racist!
Now that there are thousands of troops and National Guard in NO are you giving up the "streched too thin by Iraq" argument you all rode for a week?
PenDragon
> The Democrats will NEVER have power again in this country!
Those words will be ready for you the next time they do, in a freshly packaged MRE. Anyone who makes those kinds of statements is clearly a troll... or something.
Good one!
Bush hires self. Well, we know the type of people Bush hires. What's that saying: He that leads his own investigation has a fool for a client - or something like that. Maybe what he meant to say was that Karl Rove wants to control the situation; it is so much easier to manipulate the facts and time the leaks.
There is the election next year, we can start holding our Congress people accountable. I don't give a rats ass which party is President, but this incompetency, corruption, hiring unqualified people, giving handouts to corporations has to stop now. And I don't think Bush can do the job. I can't see the Republican agenda through all the cronyism, lies, and propaganda. And, I want Congress to do its job, Tom Delay, Bill Frist, Dennis Hastert... We know what Hastert thinks; I heard Frist; where is Delay?
Man, we talk about the qualifications of Mike Brown at FEMA, did you look at Bush's history: Harken, the Rangers. Bush is a great salesperson, but he is no leader, thinker, visionary, or diplomat. The best thing the Republicans could have done was keep Bush in the background to drink and ask for campaign money. Maybe I have it wrong, and Cheney is really President, and Bush is the face.
Anyone get a chance to watch Oprah? She is shooting from Texas, New Orleans, and Mississippi today and tomorrow.
One thing is for sure. Bush had a hell of a day. Contentious cabinet meeting and a funeral. Not defending him, really, just thinking about him like I would anyone else putting on their pants one leg at a time.
Hey Mr. President, when you're done with finding out who dropped the ball with the hurricane rescue efforts, maybe you can help OJ find the real killer.
I would also like to address Tom C, because I see this argument get thrown around a lot:
It *is* the federal government's job to get involved with natural disaster recovery, if the disaster is big enough. That's why we have FEMA--the Federal Emergency Management Agency. I'm pretty sure that I remember them mismanaging Hurricane Andrew back in 1992.
i wonder, if during his "investigatin'" he will find out what he was supposed to have done and maybe crack open that thick book called the federal emergency response plan...?
you are right, we are in serious kimchee here!
"There are all of these guys with all of this training and we're sending them out to hand out a phone number," an Oregon firefighter said. "They [the hurricane victims] are screaming for help and this day [of FEMA training] was a waste."
Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency aid.
But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.
snip
chk it out...
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197
from the administration that can't think of a single mistake..
ISn't it amazing that the hatred from Bush lovers is so solid? And the you need to take care of yourself line....people should have left when they could BS...the blind loyalty to the king/furher...
uh maybe we should look at what went wrong cuz this certainly wasn't the finest moment here....
So get off your ideological horse and see that this was a failure of massive proportions-and cronyism doesn't work.
Some jobs need qualified folks....
The Bush leadership style is not to pass the buck. It is to deny that a buck even exists. It is to say that, even if it is a buck, noone could have anticipated a buck. It is to say that anyone who believes a buck is a problem wants the terrorists to win.
Pendragon
As I said before your are brain dead. You do not even have a pea of intelligence.
You are such a fanatic that you cannot even recognize the facts even when they are being showed to you. Your are blind and refuse to see how wrong you and the like of you in the republican party are damaging this country. So go get a beer and do not come back.
Does any one who posts at this site ever resort to a single fact to support their position, or is this just the kind of BS session we had back in college at 3 A.M. on a Saturday night? Like the immediately preceeding post.
Whether you like it or not, we have laws in this country. The State and local governments have primary authority in an event such as this.
Lets just tell it like it is. Most of the people of N.O. who stayed, despite warnings frome everyone, thought that this was going to be something that they could just ride out for a couple of days and that would be the end of it. I was in the outer banks of North Carolina one year when a hurricane hit and that was the prevelant attitude among the stay put crowd. They were way wrong.
Of note, in North Carolina, local officials went house to house 2 days before the hurricane hit and ordered the people out. Mayor Negen is finally doing that - today!!!
Will anyone who believes that Bush caused this situation please read the N.O. evacuation plan, compare it to what state and local officials actually did and try to support their position.
Now one of your anonymous posers wants to blame me. I guess that's OK because they have almost as much real proof I worsened the condition in N.O. as they have against Bush.
PenDragon
One last thing, how did the Cunning Realist get through his last post without mentioning Haliburton?
PenDragon
UPDATE 1-Halliburton to increase prices in October
Tue Sep 6, 2005 12:56 PM ET
NEW YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Halliburton Co. (HAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will increase prices across all of its energy services business lines next month, the company's Chairman and Chief Executive David Lesar said on Tuesday, although he declined to specify the sizes of those price increases.
"With the demand that's out there and what we see coming forward in the marketplace, we are announcing that we are going to put another price increase in across all of our business lines," Lesar said in a presentation at a Lehman Brothers energy conference, monitored via Webcast. "We will put a price increase through in October."
In mid-day trading, Halliburton shares were up 2.5 percent at $63.89, an all-time high for the stock.
http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle...
and this is posted from one of those "anomoyous" (as opposed to using a fictinal name") people- attack the person, ignore the facts.
Yup that is this King's following's general modis operendi....
So here is the question for the reality deniers-what would Bush have to do for you to say that maybe he isn't perfect? Not only can't he admit that he ever made a mistake (ever),but his minions can not either.
That they can say, with a straight face, that this is about politics and not about the reality of lives lost, jobs bungled (by many folks but there is only one leader )and the costs for poor decisions is ,well, stupifying.
But according to this August 30th article in the St. Petersburg Times, on Sunday the 28th, Mayfield arranged a video conference call with President Bush himself at the Crawford Ranch during which he explained the hurricane's force and destructive potential.
Said Mayfield, according to the Times: "I just wanted to be able to go to sleep that night knowing that I did all I could do."
And yet it isn't Bush's fault that the response was bungled, late and inadequate.
Lets see who appoointed the head of FEMA?
Oh right, it wasn't FEMA's job...it was because it wasnt Rudy G or Jeb B (lets see- no massive floods in NYC, and FEMA was ALL OVER Fla for Jeb baby-before, during & after.)
faith over reality.
science doesn't really know anything.
We are the center of the universe-put here by the good Lord who favors AMERICA over all others...
And the Bible is litterally true-and written in English-how convienient-everyone has an equal chance and I have money because I deserve it-and you don't because you don't deserve it.
Greed is so ugly-especially when masked as "compassion for others"
Always remember the standard wingnut plan: 1) deny that anything is wrong, 2) characterize any complaint as motivated by personal hatred of Bush, 3) blame the nearest democrat, 4) point out that Bush isn't responsible for everything bad the government does because he has to delegate responsibility for details, 5) take credit for everything the government does well, 6) say 'we won the election so we don't have to explain anything', 7) point out that Clinton did it worse, whatever it is, 8) invoke Ted Kennedy and Jane Fonda, and 9) loudly declare to be in favor of freedom and against child molesting while simultaneously delclaring the democrats are not.
Did I miss out anything? I'm pressed for time.
PenDragon-
I have not read or seen anything that obsolves local authority or State authority from culpability for this travesty. Yes, they screwed up, yes they need to be held accountable. SO DOES YOUR BOY. He is as accountable for this as any of the others. Deal with it. Screaming that the Democrats will never hold power again is not a defense of the administration. An aerial photo of available transport is not either.
Why is this such a diffucult point for you to see?
"The state and local government have primary authority..." How does that explain all the work done in Flordia last year BY THE FEDS pre-hurricane, and the lack of it now? The right (and everyone else) raved about how great the response was last year to the hurricanes, and had especially glowing praise for the foresight it took to pre-position all the equipment. All that was done by the feds, not by the govenor of Florida, nor by the city of Charlotte Harbor.
Deal with it, the Bush Administration dropped the same ball everyone else dropped.
@ Pendragon:
"The State and local governments have primary authority in an event such as this."
How 'bout this:
"The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing.
The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.
Representing FEMA, Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Department of Homeland Security, named William Lokey as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: FEMA (202) 646-4600."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html
And this:
"The National Response Plan was accepted and implemented by Bush Administration in December 2004. According to the PREFACE, President Bush, "directed the development of a new National Response Plan (NRP) to align Federal coordination structures, capabilities, and resources into a unified, all discipline, and all-hazards approach to domestic incident management. . . .The end result is vastly improved coordination among Federal, State, local, and tribal organizations to help save lives and protect America's communities by increasing the speed, effectiveness, and efficiency of incident management. (...)"
On page 43 of the NRP the section is titled, "Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events" :
"The NRP establishes policies, procedures, and mechanisms for proactive Federal response to catastrophic events. A catastrophic event is any natural or manmade incident, including terrorism, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, and/or government functions. A catastrophic event could result in sustained national impacts over a prolonged period of time; almost immediately exceeds resources normally available to State, local, tribal, and private-sector authorities in the impacted area; and significantly interrupts governmental operations and emergency services to such an extent that national security could be threatened. All catastrophic events are Incidents of National Significance.
Implementation of Proactive Federal Response Protocols
Protocols for proactive Federal response are most likely to be implemented for catastrophic events involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive weapons of mass destruction, or large magnitude earthquakes or other natural or technological disasters in or near heavily populated areas.
Guiding Principles for Proactive Federal Response
Guiding principles for proactive Federal response include the following:
- The primary mission is to save lives; protect critical infrastructure, property, and the environment; contain the event; and preserve national security.
- Standard procedures regarding requests for assistance may be expedited or, under extreme circumstances, suspended in the immediate aftermath of an event of catastrophic magnitude."
http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRPbaseplan.pdf
Face the facts, you friggin' right-wing troll.
Oh, and the mayor's name is Nagin, btw.
Oh yes, and the GOP mainstays don't want Brownie or Chertoff to testify. I guess we won't have an explanation from Brownie for his own remarks that FEMA provided food to the convention center (one to two meals a day) yet also did not know that people were there until sometime Thursday. He took the latter stance twice, both on CNN. I wonder how often he'll end up with the former position.
Pendragon you need to learn how to spell the names correctly when you seek to critize. It isn't Negen it is Nagin. You weren't even freaking close - oh wait you knew his name started with an N. (thanks for your note of this Jay)
Also, you are a complete and utter fool. I grew up there so I know one or two things more than you do on this and let me tell you - yes because they thought they could ride it out, My brother and grandparents are my examples. But to say that is why all/many didn't is just showing your complete and utter ignorance.Do you have any concept of how poor many of those who didn't leave are. They don't have cars, they don't have connections, had no place to go and no way to get there. Yes they were told to go to the Superdome (and look how that turned out) and I get annoyed about that, but many still would not have been able to get out under their steam.
Many of these people don't trust authority. Yes some of thema have too much experience with the penal system, but the NO police department has a history with these people that sending police door to door would have likely resulted in more staying behind. These people do not trust any athourity - state, city, or military/federal. They have been so abused by the system that they don't trust a word that come out. Heck I grew up Uptown and had an upper middle class life with little interaction with NOPD either good or band and wouldn't necessarily trust them to shoot a rabid dog much less help me (though hopefully that has gotten better). You have navy personnel trying to evacuate people off a bridge after almost a week and they are scared of the this man who is trying to save them.
The lower 9th Ward is not freakin' suburbia who trust the government and thinks it is benevolent. It is a conglomeration of poor and famoust (Nevilles, Fats Domino, etc) who grew up there and love it but who are also aware that it it the 9th Ward and it is a place that defines the phrase "the city that care forgot."
jay beat me to my links, funny how those little facts are gonna get ignored by bush apologists.
i worked for fema in the 90's under witt, for disaster preparedness. the programs i taut how to impliment were halted in the summer of 2001 by pulling the funding and saying "this is no longer necessary".
fed emerg resp is clear in taking full responsibility for rescue and recovery once a disaster is declared. jay has the dates correct.
and the fire fighters and rescuers from every state who have stood by for deployment were told we were not needed, the ones they did take were used for photo ops.
as a long term member of emergency response and EMS / RC, i am both enraged and sickened by my own governments ineptitude. and i will never be able to trust or support the party that has harboured the intellectually laziness and criminal corruption of this administration!
feral
At a news conference, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush's choice for head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had "absolutely no credentials."
She related that she had urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Michael Brown.
"He said 'Why would I do that?'" Pelosi said.
"'I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.' And he said 'What didn't go right?'"
"Oblivious, in denial, dangerous," she added.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/09/07/national/w095209D05.DTL
At a news conference, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush's choice for head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had "absolutely no credentials."
She related that she had urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Michael Brown.
"He said 'Why would I do that?'" Pelosi said.
"'I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.' And he said 'What didn't go right?'"
"Oblivious, in denial, dangerous," she added.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/09/07/national/w095209D05.DTL
Ah ... now the media is being shut out of NOLA. The "party on the mall to CELEBRATE the war" is on for 9-11.
What the hell has happened to our country???
Thanks to Jay for making the case with sources and links. It's maddening to read the likes of Pen Dragon brandishing GOP propaganda as if it were the TRUTH, knowing it's false or fabricated, and not having the wits or wherewithal to immediately remember where one saw this or that fact that would rebut wingnuttery. Feral's seen it firsthand and has Jay's back.
Come up with something better Pen Dragon.
Hank Hill
We have a constitutional crisis in the making. Bush is endangering the country, but his party is completely behind him. There are no checks and balances now---only the depraved actions of a thuggish claque.
We need to think of creative ways to put the screws to this government.
One possibility is targeted economic protests: for example, cancel one of your credit cards today and tell the person on the phone you are canceling because of Bush. It really doesn't matter how you phrase it, but if you wanted to give a reason, you could say that the CC companies are major backers of Bush, and since Bush is driving this country into the ground, you won't give them any more busines.
If 1 million people did this, you can bet it would be noticed.
Another suggestion I like a lot is to target the advertisers for the worst of the "news" programs on the major networks.
The number one problem we have in getting rid of Bush is that the networks are still mostly on their knees for Rove.
There's no time like the present. We need effective action NOW to force Bush from office.
Reading the following, from Brian William's blog, I just have one thing to say:
"While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States.
At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history."
The military is aiming weapons at reporters in our own country to keep them from reporting the news?
Frog, the pot is boiling.
First, thanks for the praise, and thank you, CR, for your efforts and the whole blog. Awesome job!
Now, let's keep debunking the right-wings lies and spin with facts. It's all out there, black on white.
From the Army Corps of Engineers website:
"Lake Pontchartrain, LA. and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project (...)
FY 2005 BUDGET/EFFORT. The President’s budget for fiscal year 2005 was $3.9 million. Congress increased it to $5.5 million. This was insufficient to fund new construction contracts. Engineering design, and construction supervision and inspection efforts are also included. Seven contracts are being delayed due to lack funds. (...)
FY 2006 BUDGET/EFFORT. The President’s budget for fiscal year 2005 is $3.0 million. This will be insufficient to fund new construction contracts. We could spend $20 million if the funds were provided. These funds are necessary to maintain the project schedule and to meet our contractual and local sponsor commitments.
IMPACTS OF BUDGET SHORTFALL. In Orleans Parish, two major pump stations are threatened by hurricane storm surges. Major contracts need to be awarded to provide fronting protection for them. Also, several levees have settled and need to be raised to provide the design protection. The current funding shortfalls in fiscal year 2005 and fiscal year 2006 will prevent the Corps from addressing these pressing needs. (...)"
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/response/HURPROJ.asp?prj=lkpon1
"Hurricane Center Director Tells Paper He Briefed Brown and Chertoff on Danger of Severe Flooding
NEW YORK Dr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, told the Times-Picayune Sunday afternoon that officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, including FEMA Director Mike Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, listened in on electronic briefings given by his staff in advance of Hurricane Katrina slamming Louisiana and Mississippi--and were advised of the storm’s potential deadly effects. (...)
"We were briefing them way before landfall," Mayfield said. "It’s not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped."
Chertoff told reporters Saturday that government officials had not expected the damaging combination of a powerful hurricane levee breaches that flooded New Orleans.(...)
In the days before Katrina hit, Mayfield said, his staff also briefed FEMA, which under the Department of Homeland Security, at FEMA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., its Region 6 office in Dallas and the Region 4 office in Atlanta about the potential effects of the storm. He said all of those briefings were logged in the hurricane center’s records."
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054595
"USS BATAAN Assisting in Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts
GULF OF MEXICO – The multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) began service Tuesday night and continued on Wednesday as the Maritime Disaster Service Coordinator for the U.S. Navy's role in the Hurricane Katrina search and rescue efforts in the immediate New Orleans area. Embarked helicopter squadrons have moved over 200 stranded personnel in two days of flying. (...)
The crews flew off Tuesday night towards New Orleans and were tasked by the on-scene rescue coordinators. "Our first mission was to provide food and water and to take some people to a safer haven and to help with the levee by providing sandbags,” said AS2(AW/NAC) Johnny Ramirez, MH-53 Aircrewman for HM-15. "We weren't able to complete our assigned mission Tuesday night because it got too dark and it was too risky to land anywhere with all of the water and power lines. Instead, we just flew Tuesday night to survey the area.” (...)"
http://www.bataan.navy.mil/news/news25.htm
Mission of the Deaprtment of Homeland Security:
"Preparing America
In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort."
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home2.jsp
Yeah, right.
So, whaddayasay, *PenDragon?
I imagine that he'll do just as good a job as he did finding the person that leaked Valerie Plame's name.
But let's spread some of the love around:
http://whyihatedc.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_whyihatedc_archive.html#112602547000602712
I remember saying, soon after Nov 4, that if Bush really is as awful as we who oppose him believe him to be, something would happen that would be an absolute, monumental, mind-blowing, horrorific disaster.
It was inevitable, I said, because Bush's policy chickens had to come home to roost at some point. He has denuded the country of so much of its security, its resources, and apppointed so many cronyist hack nitwits to important positions, that even a "normal" emergency would escalate to Grand Guignol status.
I thought the "something" would be another terrorist attack, or Bush deciding to declare war on Iran.
Even my darkest fears didn't anticipate what's happened in New Orleans.
Not "just" the storm itself, and the Federal negligence - the "depraved indifference" in the fullest sense of that legal phrase - but what we're seeing in the aftermath.
Not "just" the expected aftermath - Cronies shamelessly profiteering, Rove cranking up the Spin Machine to Cat 5 levels, Bush's apologists falling into line, Bush announcing that he will investigate himself (and not being hooted down - but the use of Federal power to strand, censor, punish, and intimidate people. The use of Federal authority to impose silence and obedience, and instill fear - at gunpoint.
The egg laid after 9/11 has hatched. We're not a "fledgling" banana republic: we are one. We're not a "nation of laws, not men," we're a nation of men, and those men have already seized the power to not be questioned, not be opposed, not be stopped.
It's already done. We're already done. America is already done.
It will take a miracle to stop the slide to authoritarianism. Once we're there, it'll take another miracle to stop the slide continuing to totalitarianism.
And I don't believe in miracles.
Jay,
PenDragon says that you filed to mention (Or maybe just didn't want to know?) which levee actually broke.
Don't you think it might be a good idea to know that just so we might have a fact or two to use against Bush?
I guess not!
If you took the 5 minutes or so needed to fully investigate this, you would find that the levee that broke was the one along 17th Ave. It was brand new.
I guess a little more mony piled on top of it might have made a difference.
I know that a little fact like this does not match up with your nice little coffee house theory, but there it is son.
PenDragon
Hey, PenDragon:
Spell Check, Dude. Check it out.
*PenDragon, I never said that Bush was responsible for the break of the levee, nor for the Hurricane itself.
Also from the Army Corps of Engineers website:
"PROJECT STATUS/SCHEDULE. Work is about 90 percent complete in the Chalmette area and includes an additional levee lift and floodwall capping. Work in Orleans Parish is about 90 percent complete. The major remaining construction is the parallel protection along the London Avenue and Orleans Avenue canals. Completion of this work is scheduled by 2010. Jefferson Parish work is 70 percent complete. The remaining work in Jefferson consists of at least two more lakefront levee enlargements, and a flood proofed bridge at Hammond Highway over the 17th Street Canal. Completion is scheduled by 2010. The work in St. Charles Parish is 60 percent complete, and the protection system is not yet closed. Closure of the last two gaps should be completed by September 2005. Overall project completion is scheduled for 2015."
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/response/HURPROJ.asp?prj=lkpon1
'Completion is scheduled by 2010.' There, you got it.
However, what I'm criticising is the underfunding of the project in the first place (Remember? 'We could spend $20 million if the funds were provided.' - Bush seems to have no problem spending money on, well, other things) and thereby setting wrong priorities, although it was known that a Hurricane in NO was one of the 3 biggest, most likeliest catastrophes in the U.S., along with a terrorist attack and an earthquake in SF.
Now, IF this had been a terrorist attack (which would have resulted in NO previous Disaster Relief Request by the Governor), the handling of the situation would have been even worse, don't you think?
Under this pretext, my main critique is regarding the criminal negligence in the aftermath of the storm. This does include local and state authorities, but even if the mayor had driven the busses himself, his authority end at the NO city limits.
And you know where the 'buck stops', right?
Steve McClellan said it in his White House Press Briefing:
"Q I just want to follow up on David's questions on accountability. First, just to get you on the record, where does the buck stop in this administration?
MR. McCLELLAN: The President."
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001055403
Now, if I ever hear the Mehlman-Talking Point 'blame game' again, I'm going to cry.
It's not a 'game', it's called accountability, no matter how much you try spin this...
On another note: What's up with the reports about NO shots being fired on rescue copters at the Superdome?
""At the Superdome, we have a report that one shot was fired at a Chinook helicopter," Schneider said, adding that the Chinook is "an extremely large aircraft."
Laura Brown, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Washington, said she had no such report.
"We're controlling every single aircraft in that airspace and none of them reported being fired on," she said, adding that the FAA was in contact with the military as well as civilian aircraft."
http://www.benedictionblogson.com/archives/001694.php
Anybody knows something about this?
PenDragon - you need to take your own advice. There were 3 levee breaks only one of which was the 17th street canal. One was the at the Industrial canal. These are two different places. Look at a map.
Time to resurrect one of Harry Truman's lines that have stood the test of time: "The buck stops here."
When in the last 5 years or so, have you ever heard Bush accept responsibility for any of the following: largest deficit in history, the Iraq war, Katrina disaster response, the inability to craft a solution to Social Security that more than 25% of the public supports, the Plame leak. You name it.
It is time that the country realizes a fact: this guy is the most incompetent president since Herbert Hoover. Everything he touches turns to doo-doo, to use a word his dad loves.
PenDragon and the rest of you Bush defenders--stop already. The game is over.
"I'm in WA State; you may know, we had a nasty election for governor and, in the end ...after we wiped the GOP mud from our faces, we have a Democrat in Olympia. Almost from day one, this state has been penalized by the Feds. e.g. base closings ... the whole Northwest is vulnerable."
Sorry, that is factually incorrect...we actually gained military units and no active bases are slated for closure.
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