Thursday, March 02, 2006
BUSH KNEW
The Associated Press reports that there's a videotape of Bush being told, in no uncertain terms, that Hurricane Katrina "is a bad one and a big one", and that FEMA officials discussed the risks in detail. And the videotape shows George W. Bush sitting there and not asking a single question, not reacting at all. Now that the Associated Press has blown apart Bush's claim that "nobody anticipated the breach of the levees", will the AP remember its own report on August 29 (you remember, the day Katrina made landfall) that resources were staged around New Orleans, ready to be brought in as soon as Hurricane Katrina had passed? As I posted on September 9, 2005:
The Associated Press reported on Monday, August 29, at 7:49 p.m. Eastern time:And again on September 19:Baby formula from the Agriculture Department, communications equipment and medical teams from the Defense Department and generators, water and ice from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are among the assistance ready for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. As the Category 4 the storm surged ashore just east of New Orleans on Monday, FEMA had medical teams, rescue squads and groups prepared to supply food and water poised in a semicircle around the city, said agency Director Michael Brown.So if the emergency supplies were staged outside New Orleans, why did was it still not delivered to the Superdome three days later? Note that communications equipment and generators were among the items mentioned in the August 29 article. More than one week later, they still have not been delivered. Where are they? Maybe they were diverted to the parishes covered by George W. Bush's declaration of emergency, since the parishes closest to the Gulf weren't mentioned in it.
The Associated Press reported on August 29 (you remember, the day the hurricane made landfall):We know those resources were never delivered to the city. Is anybody besides little old nonentity me going to ask what happened to those resources?As the Category 4 storm surged ashore just east of New Orleans on Monday, FEMA had medical teams, rescue squads and groups prepared to supply food and water poised in a semicircle around the city, its director, Michael Brown, said. Speaking from Baton Rouge, just upriver from New Orleans, Brown told NBC's Today show that his agency had "planned for this kind of disaster for many years because we've always known about New Orleans' situation."So by the time the hurricane hit New Orleans, FEMA had people close by, ready to go in. Why didn't they? Where did they go? Where are they now? Why is nobody in the media asking about this? Even the Associated Press seems unaware of its own report, which according to a Google News search, appeared in a minimum of 211 newspapers. (It does occur to me that a possible reason FEMA didn't have a presence in the city after the hurricane was because the "medical teams, rescue squads and groups prepared to supply food and water poised in a semicircle around the city" existed only in a press release.)
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Oh, yes.
But of course, Bush and his surrogates in the media and elsewhere will continue to blame Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin for Bush's own failures.
I'm keeping this Media Matters link handy.
But of course, Bush and his surrogates in the media and elsewhere will continue to blame Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin for Bush's own failures.
I'm keeping this Media Matters link handy.
I think it's well-known that the Gretna police kept people in and the National Guard kept help out.
Look at the Red Cross. You know that I have a low opinion of them. Still, I can't believe they would have willingly stayed out of a disaster area no matter how bad unless, as they claimed, they were ordered not to enter.
I don't know why the public blames the governor or the mayor at all. I guess they're trying to be even-handed. The Zogby poll figures on who is *most* to blame are as follows.
Bush: 27%
Brown: 22%
Chertoff: 8%
Blanco: 15%
Nagin: 8%
Other government officials: 9%
I bet this new video is going to sharpen the public's focus just a bit.
Look at the Red Cross. You know that I have a low opinion of them. Still, I can't believe they would have willingly stayed out of a disaster area no matter how bad unless, as they claimed, they were ordered not to enter.
I don't know why the public blames the governor or the mayor at all. I guess they're trying to be even-handed. The Zogby poll figures on who is *most* to blame are as follows.
Bush: 27%
Brown: 22%
Chertoff: 8%
Blanco: 15%
Nagin: 8%
Other government officials: 9%
I bet this new video is going to sharpen the public's focus just a bit.
I blame the mayor and the governor because everyone is to blame. This was their backyard, they should have known what to do and when to do it. Instead, 1,000 buses sat still. There's no excuse for that. None. What was supposed to happen, Bush should have called them and said hey get those buses moving?
And from the transcript I read, no one said the levies would break, only that the water might blow over top of them. Semantic difference no doubt, but a difference nonetheless.
I would also like some substantiation to this comment: I think it's well-known that the Gretna police kept people in and the National Guard kept help out.
Thanks, please begin insulting me now.
And from the transcript I read, no one said the levies would break, only that the water might blow over top of them. Semantic difference no doubt, but a difference nonetheless.
I would also like some substantiation to this comment: I think it's well-known that the Gretna police kept people in and the National Guard kept help out.
Thanks, please begin insulting me now.
"Instead, 1,000 buses sat still."
That has been debunked many times. Here's one: =A July 8 Times-Picayune article, titled "RTA buses would be used for evacuation; But plan still falls far short of needs," pointed out that the RTA owned 364 public buses. "Even if the entire fleet was used," the Times-Picayune noted, "the buses would carry only about 22,000 people out of the city -- far short of the 134,000 people estimated to be without cars in a recent University of New Orleans study." Even the addition of the full school bus fleet would have been far from sufficient to transport the remaining residents.
Moreover, The New York Times noted that a number of New Orleans buses were in use as the hurricane approached: "But Chester Wilmot, an L.S.U. [Louisiana State University] civil engineering professor who studies evacuation plans, said the city successfully improvised. He said witnesses described seeing city buses shuttle residents to the Superdome before Hurricane Katrina struck."=
Here's another: =All together, maybe 30,000 people could have been evacuated using school buses. Maybe. Trust me, that's being really, really generous. It's also leaving at least 70,000 people stranded in New Orleans.=
Mayor Nagin said that the bus drivers left New Orleans before they could be called in to drive the buses. Driving a bus isn't like driving a car, not even a Hummer or truck. You need training or you're going to either destroy the transmission or crash the bus. So no drivers, no buses.
"And from the transcript I read, no one said the levies would break, only that the water might blow over top of them. Semantic difference no doubt, but a difference nonetheless."
This is semantic nitpicking on a par with claiming "the facts were fixed around the policy" doesn't mean what it means.
"I would also like some substantiation to this comment: I think it's well-known that the Gretna police kept people in and the National Guard kept help out."
Cops trapped survivors in New Orleans: ="We shut down the bridge," Arthur Lawson, chief of the City of Gretna Police Department, confirmed to United Press International, adding that his jurisdiction had been "a closed and secure location" since before the storm hit.... Lawson said that once the storm itself had passed Monday, police from Gretna City, Jefferson Parrish and the Louisiana State Crescent City Connection Police Department closed to foot traffic the three access points to the bridge closest to the West Bank of the river.=
That's not a biased liberal source. That's the Washington Times.
So, what do you think happened to all those truck of emergency supplies staged around New Orleans the day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall?
That has been debunked many times. Here's one: =A July 8 Times-Picayune article, titled "RTA buses would be used for evacuation; But plan still falls far short of needs," pointed out that the RTA owned 364 public buses. "Even if the entire fleet was used," the Times-Picayune noted, "the buses would carry only about 22,000 people out of the city -- far short of the 134,000 people estimated to be without cars in a recent University of New Orleans study." Even the addition of the full school bus fleet would have been far from sufficient to transport the remaining residents.
Moreover, The New York Times noted that a number of New Orleans buses were in use as the hurricane approached: "But Chester Wilmot, an L.S.U. [Louisiana State University] civil engineering professor who studies evacuation plans, said the city successfully improvised. He said witnesses described seeing city buses shuttle residents to the Superdome before Hurricane Katrina struck."=
Here's another: =All together, maybe 30,000 people could have been evacuated using school buses. Maybe. Trust me, that's being really, really generous. It's also leaving at least 70,000 people stranded in New Orleans.=
Mayor Nagin said that the bus drivers left New Orleans before they could be called in to drive the buses. Driving a bus isn't like driving a car, not even a Hummer or truck. You need training or you're going to either destroy the transmission or crash the bus. So no drivers, no buses.
"And from the transcript I read, no one said the levies would break, only that the water might blow over top of them. Semantic difference no doubt, but a difference nonetheless."
This is semantic nitpicking on a par with claiming "the facts were fixed around the policy" doesn't mean what it means.
"I would also like some substantiation to this comment: I think it's well-known that the Gretna police kept people in and the National Guard kept help out."
Cops trapped survivors in New Orleans: ="We shut down the bridge," Arthur Lawson, chief of the City of Gretna Police Department, confirmed to United Press International, adding that his jurisdiction had been "a closed and secure location" since before the storm hit.... Lawson said that once the storm itself had passed Monday, police from Gretna City, Jefferson Parrish and the Louisiana State Crescent City Connection Police Department closed to foot traffic the three access points to the bridge closest to the West Bank of the river.=
That's not a biased liberal source. That's the Washington Times.
So, what do you think happened to all those truck of emergency supplies staged around New Orleans the day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall?
Oh my goodness, MEC! How could you have so insulted The Party Opposite?
You have reviled him with facts and persecuted him with citations! You even spat reason into his face!
And so he must again flee into the night of anonymity, that he may not be further dishonored by truth.
Ok, all kidding aside, The Party Opposite: We would be happy to create a thread for genuine one-on-one debate of the issue, according to reasonable debating rules. No 'wingers have taken up offers to debate. It's all hit and run, teach nothing and learn nothing.
Fortunately, according to the Zogby poll, only 8% of the population has ADHD severe enough to think that the primary statutory responsibility for response to disasters is the mayor.
You have reviled him with facts and persecuted him with citations! You even spat reason into his face!
And so he must again flee into the night of anonymity, that he may not be further dishonored by truth.
Ok, all kidding aside, The Party Opposite: We would be happy to create a thread for genuine one-on-one debate of the issue, according to reasonable debating rules. No 'wingers have taken up offers to debate. It's all hit and run, teach nothing and learn nothing.
Fortunately, according to the Zogby poll, only 8% of the population has ADHD severe enough to think that the primary statutory responsibility for response to disasters is the mayor.
This is why I have a hard time trusting the media...
Fri Mar 03 2006 19:48:29 ET
Clarification: Katrina-Video story
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a March 1 story, The Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.
The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.
The day before the storm hit, Bush was told there were grave concerns that the levees could be overrun. It wasn't until the next morning, as the storm was hitting, that Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Bush had inquired about reports of breaches. Bush did not participate in that briefing.
Fri Mar 03 2006 19:48:29 ET
Clarification: Katrina-Video story
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a March 1 story, The Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.
The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.
The day before the storm hit, Bush was told there were grave concerns that the levees could be overrun. It wasn't until the next morning, as the storm was hitting, that Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Bush had inquired about reports of breaches. Bush did not participate in that briefing.
Congratulations on the Humpty Dumpty imitation, The Party Opposite.
You know: "Words mean what I say they mean."
If levees are breached or overrun, and there is catastrophic flooding, people are just as dead. In this case, no fewer that 1300 and probably 5,000-10,000.
That's what the GOP doesn't seem to get. Reality exists. Who CARES what words people used? The White House WAS TOLD 24 hours ahead of time that there WOULD be catastrophe, they were told there WAS catastrophe, and did nothing.
The REPUBLICAN Senate has published a timeline, available here. The first report stating that the levees have been breached comes from the Department of Homeland Security at 8:30 AM Monday, August 29th.
The White House does nothing for days, allowing people to suffer and die.
So, you throw out what is basically an irrelevance, apparently hoping to avoid seeing the evil that this White House has done People who play such deflection games join themselves to that evil.
You avoid seeing or acknowledging the answers to the points you raised earlier posted by MEC. Congratulations on being deaf and blind... I guess. That's what it seems to take to be an 8 percenter.
Where have I heard the phrase, "God is not mocked" ? Not even if the RNC can make the AP crawl on its knees.
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You know: "Words mean what I say they mean."
If levees are breached or overrun, and there is catastrophic flooding, people are just as dead. In this case, no fewer that 1300 and probably 5,000-10,000.
That's what the GOP doesn't seem to get. Reality exists. Who CARES what words people used? The White House WAS TOLD 24 hours ahead of time that there WOULD be catastrophe, they were told there WAS catastrophe, and did nothing.
The REPUBLICAN Senate has published a timeline, available here. The first report stating that the levees have been breached comes from the Department of Homeland Security at 8:30 AM Monday, August 29th.
The White House does nothing for days, allowing people to suffer and die.
So, you throw out what is basically an irrelevance, apparently hoping to avoid seeing the evil that this White House has done People who play such deflection games join themselves to that evil.
You avoid seeing or acknowledging the answers to the points you raised earlier posted by MEC. Congratulations on being deaf and blind... I guess. That's what it seems to take to be an 8 percenter.
Where have I heard the phrase, "God is not mocked" ? Not even if the RNC can make the AP crawl on its knees.
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