Friday, February 10, 2006
Bush Knew The Levees Had Failed -- And Did Nothing
The second he knew it was going to be a Cat 4/5 storm, he should have had trucks and C-130s loaded with sandbags and medical supplies converging on the city. But he did nothing. Contrary to the right-wing lies, neither he nor his flunky Chertoff had to wait for either the mayor or the governor to declare a state of emergency (even though both of them had the second they knew they were going to be hit by a Cat 4). The National Response Plan requires him to be proactive -- that is, to respond to avert damage BEFORE the storm hits.
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They don't even aspire to benevolent despotism. This is corruption at its worst and the corporate media is a participant.
Chertoff on this, Rice on National Security, the entire junta on Iraq and especially Afghanistan, these are failures with such enormously horrible results that they will bring down the country and our theoretically free press is doing too little, too late.
A democracy can't survive without an informed public. If we can't get one with the legal framework we've got we have to get a new legal framework. Democracy is more important than the words of the constitution, it's more important than any one theory of press freedom. It is even more important than the entire line of law covering the "free press". We don't need a press that is free to sell out democracy, we need one that is free to publish the facts and the truth.
Chertoff on this, Rice on National Security, the entire junta on Iraq and especially Afghanistan, these are failures with such enormously horrible results that they will bring down the country and our theoretically free press is doing too little, too late.
A democracy can't survive without an informed public. If we can't get one with the legal framework we've got we have to get a new legal framework. Democracy is more important than the words of the constitution, it's more important than any one theory of press freedom. It is even more important than the entire line of law covering the "free press". We don't need a press that is free to sell out democracy, we need one that is free to publish the facts and the truth.
# posted by 
: 2/10/2006 07:55:00 AM
: 2/10/2006 07:55:00 AM
Purely informational: the National Weather Service corrected its designation of Katrina to a strong Cat 3 on landfall.
It's not clear whether the 4mph difference between the final designation of the wind speed on landfall is more intelligently-designed science ala John Deutsch. The CNN article contains internal contradictions.
And, of course, the size of the storm surge is not directly dependent on the strength on landfall. Katrina clearly dropped in intensity just before it made landfall.
There are, I should note, persistent reports that a barge which had been improperly moored, was the proximate cause of the breach of the levees. But membership in the Bush Pioneers has its privileges, which is almost certainly why there will never be a proper congressional investigation.
As olvlzl says, "A democracy can't survive without an informed public."
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It's not clear whether the 4mph difference between the final designation of the wind speed on landfall is more intelligently-designed science ala John Deutsch. The CNN article contains internal contradictions.
And, of course, the size of the storm surge is not directly dependent on the strength on landfall. Katrina clearly dropped in intensity just before it made landfall.
There are, I should note, persistent reports that a barge which had been improperly moored, was the proximate cause of the breach of the levees. But membership in the Bush Pioneers has its privileges, which is almost certainly why there will never be a proper congressional investigation.
As olvlzl says, "A democracy can't survive without an informed public."
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