That’s America in the Bush years
In a letter to the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee chairwoman, Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, pressed for a wide-ranging investigation and answers to several questions, including: “How much time did the president spend dealing with this emerging crisis while he was on vacation? Did the fact that he was outside of Washington, D.C., have any effect on the federal government’s response?”
At a news conference, Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush’s choice for head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had “absolutely no credentials.”
She related that she urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire 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.
If only someone had the foresight to invent the telephone&
According to the Boston Globe, Bush held a videoconference w/ the 4 OEPs in question on Sunday, BEFORE landfall.
And from this we can conclude that … he definitely knew that there was a Hurricane coming.
Wow, that’s impressive.
Wilbur, you can’t expect competence when you’re arguing with a conservative. They’re all picked for loyalty, not brains.
I thought he himself admitted things hadn’t gone well. He doesn’t even get his own talking points! Is Bush calling himself a liar?
SaveFerris,
Did you know that the videoconference conversation you are referring to included Max Mayfield, Director of the National Hurricane Center? Do you know what he said on that phone call? He said that the levees were very likely to break in New Orleans. Bush was told PERSONALLY that the levees would break. Then he went on television and told Diane Sawyer that nobody could ever imagine the levees breaking. I don’t care if Bush runs the show from Crawford or Washington. I just want him to tell the truth about what he knows concerning an unfolding national catastrophe.
Dugger: Actually, the similarities are striking.
In the case of 9/11, Bush’s admin was given ample warning of a specific threat with an indeterminate location(s) and timeframes. He elected to do nothing.
In the case of Katrina, he certainly had much more info: a location and an approximate time. He still did nothing.
Just a minor correction. The levees didn’t break. Floodwalls failed.
Again, it doesn’t change the fact Bush was warned NOLA was in danger of a catastrophic event.
“Again, it doesn t change the fact Bush was warned NOLA was in danger of a catastrophic event. ”
Absolutely, Jade. Just like Democrats are sure he had pre-warning of the 9-11 attack. You nailed it. Grape or orange you got there?
Dugger
He thinks that it was some kind of news that OBL wished to strike America.
Here’s the problem, JD. At any time, there are probably a hundred or more whacko groups that wish to ’strike America.’ Obviously, the vast majority of these groups don’t have the wherewithal to put their shoes on the right foot in the morning.
However, we knew AQ and OBL had a track record. They had planned and carried out terrorist attacks of a spectacular nature before. They were well-trained and well-funded. They had a sophisticated network. Pre-9/11, we knew OBL was a threat and our intelligence services went so far as to put it in a PDB. When this admin was illegitimately installed, the outgoing head of the NSC told his successor that AQ would occupy 90% of her time.
I have yet to see a cogent argument for what you would have done. Should he have abused the Constitution and run roughshod over the Governor and Mayor, in light of their obvious inability to handle this?
To address your latter point first: The Gov. of LA had already asked that the state be declared in a state of emergency and requested all possible Federal assistance. This was two days before Katrina made landfall. The Federal Order went out and, in fact, the Federal Govt. did assume control at that time.
Two and a half days after FEMA assumed control, the floodwalls failed. Yet, a full five days after a state of emergency had been declared–the head of FEMA is apparently unaware there are people in the SuperDome; Bush says the flooding in NOLA was unanticipated.
All of this talk about how President Bush had underfunded the levees and in the end, it turns out that was not particularly relevant … and jadegold’s response is … drum roll … Doesn’t matter. Still President Bush’s fault.
Everybody in the world was warned that NOLA was in danger of a catastrophic event. Big freaking deal. Apparently the Mayor, the Governor, et al. did not wish to heed the warnings.
jadegold is remarkable. He thinks that it was some kind of news that OBL wished to strike America.
I have yet to see a cogent argument for what you would have done. Should he have abused the Constitution and run roughshod over the Governor and Mayor, in light of their obvious inability to handle this?
Should we make First Responders a Federal responsibility ?
CBS just ripped into the Bush Administration and FEMA’s Director in a scathing piece on tonight’s nightly news, that clearly, and powerfully demonstrated two things.
1.) Brown is a former horse trader. There are serious questions as to the credibility and qualification of Brown as head of FEMA, which used to be a Cabinet Level Appointment.
2.) FEMA’s ability to respond to natural disasters has seriously eroded under the Bush administration. Many long-time FEMA staffers who knew how to respond to these kinds of situtations, were replaced by incompetent political appointees. Also, the reorganization of FEMA, which used to be at the Cabinet Level, has diluted FEMA’s ability to respond since the mission of DHS is clearly to prevent a terrorist attack, and not protect against natural disaster.
Despite what “life-long” water carrying apologists like Dugger, Phile, Frank and Jay will say, the above two points are very, very difficult to refute.
However, I am sure that they will find a way…”neither ran, sleet, snow nor loss of life or limb” will stop them from covering their guys[ ass, whether it’s a war, or natural diaster.
Of course….hypocrite that I am, I covered for Clinton when he had Vince Foster rubbed out.
JK
Do you really believe that was the first time in the history of our country that the threat of Osama Bin Laden warranted enough attention to be included in a security briefing
There are security briefings and there are PDBs. Please don’t pretend they’re equivalent.
But, once more, having been warned that OBL was actively seeking to attack within our borders, having been told AQ would occupy much of the NSC’s time—and having historical precedent that AQ was capable of pulling off such an attack—what did Bush do?
The answer’s nothing.
In point of fact, when Bush came into office he cut counterterrorism funding. At the time of 9/11, the FBI had one agent tracking AQ and had nearly 400 agents closing down a prostitution ring in NOLA.
Do you really believe that was the first time in the history of our country that the threat of Osama Bin Laden warranted enough attention to be included in a security briefing? I can have more reasonable conversations with my 3 1/2 year old daughter, and my next door neighbor’s golden retriever.
And President Bush declared a state of emergency prior to the hurricane ever reaching land, and well prior to the breaching of the flood barriers.
So a couple of mis-statements are your evidence that the federal government did nothing?! Give me a freaking break. I would suspect that the soldiers, sailors, federal employees, etc … would beg to differ with your assessment.
By the way, Brown said he did not know people were in the Convention Center, not the Superdome, and apparently, the Convention Center was not included in the disaster response plans from the city and state, which were not even remotely followed. Not that it really matters, since it is a stupid talking point of yours to attempt to cast blame on people.
If we were to accept your scenario as true, though it is fundamentally flawed, what should FEMA have done to have prevented the floodwalls from failing?
Do you truly believe that was the first time in the history of our country that the threat of Osama Bin Laden warranted its inclusion in a PDF ? What new information did that add that was not known by anybody that had ever worked in this area for the FBI, CIA, military intelligence, etc … ?