We report, you decide. Or something like that. Crooks and Liars has the video of pre-Katrina briefings telling Bush this was going to be the “big one”. He didn’t ask a single question. I guess he was in a hurry to get back to clearing brush. Maybe that’s why he said no one could have anticipated the breach of the levees. He just wasn’t paying attention.
I hadn’t seen that. UN FUCKING BELIEVABLE. No, I take that back. It’s entirely believable. God help us get thru the time we have left under his dictatorship.
He was probably still digesting “My Pet Goat”.
But wait! now the White House has released a written transcript of the meeting, proving Bush was “fully engaged” or some such hooey. Fox News wouldn’t lie to us.
Yeah, that transcript is of Michael Brown saying the Pres was fully engaged. Bush wasn’t actually part of the meeting. Surprise, surprise…
Hey, I lived (notice the past tense) in Bay St. Louis, MS. NOTHING has been done for these folks….before OR after Katrina. It’s a wasteland. All you hear on t.v. is New Orleans. I have news for you; two towns in MS have been all but wiped off the map. No FEMA. No Red Cross. It’s a joke! A long, sick, unending disgusting joke. Bush knew. He just didn’t give a crap. He still doesn’t give a crap. He’s too busy sending men and women to die in Iraq and putting all government resources toward his horrible, illegal war. Dear god, when will our elected representatives get some balls and throw the whole lot of them in the slammer?
When he was first elected, a friend of mine joked that asking questions like “Bush: Clueless or Liar?” was sort of like asking “Charlie McCarthy: Clueless or Liar?” I thought it was pretty funny at the time, but I didn’t think it could possibly be true. I ain’t laughing anymore.
You Bush-haters are so easily swayed by the associted press and other media. Have you actually seen the tape? Have you actually read the full context of the quptes? Sadly most of you Bush-haters will ignore the facts below, you have also ignored that for five days the weather folks warned everyone Katrina was the big one and you had better get out of N.O. But once again liberals don’t believe in personal responsibility, it is the federal government’s job to coddle us all:
The Associated Press on Wednesday claimed that “federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees.”
The Democratic National Committee attempted to make political hay out of the AP report, stating that “during the briefing, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield told the president that the integrity of the levees was ?a very, very grave concern’ that the president appears to have ignored.”
However, the tape shows that what Mayfield actually told Bush was: “I don’t think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but that’s obviously a very, very grave concern.”
Mayfield told NBC News on Thursday that he warned only that the levees might be topped – that is, the storm surge could push water over the top of the levees – not breached, and that on the many conference calls he monitored, “Nobody talked about the possibility of a levee breach or failure until after it happened.”
Mayfield even told Bush: “The forecast now suggests that there will be minimal flooding in the City of New Orleans itself.”
The Washington Times, commenting on what it called a “hit job” on the president, opined: “If it were true that Mr. Bush heard predictions of levee breaches before the storm hit, then that makes a despicable and costly lie of his statement four days after the hurricane.
“The truth, instead, is that no adviser warned the president of the possibility that the levees could fail. Of course, it makes a juicier story to suggest that the president was warned.”
Good try, Bottom Line, but yes, I have seen the tape. I also sat in horror watching the aftermath of Katrina on 24 hours a day while Bush stayed on vacation, played guitar, ate birthday cake, etc. and gave the appearance that nothiing was wrong. The disaster response failed on a number of levels, but blaming others doesn’t take all the blame away from the Bush administration.
And it’s just weaseling to say that a warning that the levees might be topped (in conjunction with “this is a category 5 hurricane similar to Andrew but much bigger”) is totally different than a warning that the levees might breech.
This whole Katrina thing really gets me. Anything to blame Bush. Granted he could have handled things better. But he is hardly the major contributor to the slow response. Also Blanco and that racist Nagin had much more to do with screwed up decisions before and after Katrina hit. Bottom line is the problem with the response was an institutional one that existed for years and years. Back when Andrew hit Florida and good ol Bubba was in office, the response was just as slow if not slower. Even when 5 hurricanes hit Florida last year, Florida fared much better. Why? Because Florida is pretty well prepared for hurricanes and once they hit, people take the necessary steps to rebuild. We know hurricanes are going to hit and we plan for them. Does FEMA and Red Cross own a construction firm? Nope, they are just another government organization that shuffles paperwork and eventually pays out money. So most Floridians rely on themselves rather than FEMA to protect their interests. Heck with all the years of democratic and liberal rule in Lousiana you would think the wonderful ideals of liberalism would have been able to handle the disaster perfectly. Go ahead and respond, I am waiting for someone to point out that not everyone can afford to protect themselves.
“Bottom Line” your name is a priceless misnomer. As with most of you pathetic Bush-lovers, “Bottom Feeder” would be a more appropriate name. Yes, your brilliance has convinced me. It is the fault of those poor people in the Ninth Ward who did not have the funds to get out of town that they were drowning while Bush played guitar. And I know it was because of Jeb’s brilliant leadership that the Florida hurricanes caused lesser loss of life. It had nothing to do with the fact that the most vulnerable major metropolitan area in this country was hit with exactly the calamity that could cause massive destruction. Thank you for enlightening me with your brilliance.
Any sane person listening to Mayfield’s, or for that matter Brown’s, comments could tell they were desperately trying to get people to listen to the gravity of the situation. It probably would have been somewhat career limiting, knowing how well your hero likes bad news, to say “Mr. President, I know you want to believe the models that are saying we may not have an unprecedented disaster. However, we think you ought to leave your vacation and do your job.” But then that would be too much to ask. Clearly words like “grave, grave concern” don’t scare you or your hero.
And I love you bringing “Bubba” into this. Insulting Clinton’s intellect by calling him “Bubba” is a brilliant piece of political discourse. Did you think of that one yourself? After all, he only has fifty IQ points on your hero.
Bottom Feeder go crawl back under your rock. Or sliver back into your swamp. I’m not sure where trolls reside. But go back there. Your “insights” are a joke.
Bill – What a wonderful piece of sophomoric literature you took so long to compose. Obviously the little Bubba comment struck a nerve with you as it invoked name calling and insults. Just like when I was a kid on the playground and a childish disagreement broke out, the party that could actually win an argument resorts to name calling. You could have just said “let the babies have their way” as if we were arguing about a call in kickball. I would have proved my point just as well. You still haven’t argued my point about it being responsibility of local government (for the most part, if you read my previous post I do think Bush made some mistakes) to handle the evacuation of the disadvantaged. Also forget the fact the there was actually a disproportionate number of casualties among the more affluent neighborhoods. Pointing out the problems in N.O. were in large part systemic of the mentality of the region that they would continue to dodge the big one. But that doesn’t advertise well for you moveon.org types anyway. You would much rather tote around pictures of minorities and point out how they were abused by the mean old Bush administration. Forget the fact that good ol Bubba and his lame duck presidency (all 8 years were lame) did nothing for the country. Yes I know you are steaming in your chair right now, stammering “but the Clinton economy was the best ever, how dare that conservative bash my god and idol, President William Jefferson Clinton”, (we can debate Bubba later, and how he left the economy in ruins as evident in the final two quarters of his debacle of a presidency, and how his GDP growth and unemployment figures were in many cases worse than W’s). Get over the fact that you hate GW and seek some professional help, you need it.
Sorry for some of the typos, but you get my point.
I get the point. I also noted all of the typos in all of your e-mails. I had the good taste to ignore those. Your total lack of logic was more than enough material. To use the old cliche, I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed man.
You people amaze me with your obsession with Clinton. The fact is Clinton was an average to above average President. The economy was stellar largely due to balanced budgets, which real conservatives used to believe in passionately. Your hero is the worst President in my lifetime. He has destroyed the economy by ridiculous tax cuts in the time of a war he started. He started a war that has made our country much less safe. He supports torture, which has cost our country a moral high ground that it spent well over two hundred years earning. He is the worst destroyer of individual liberties in the history of this great nation.
My mental health is in very good shape. I see hypocrisy and lies for what they are. And you, Bottom Feeder, are a purveyor of both. I love your calling Clinton “Bubba” as taking the high road, while I am engaged in name calling. Do you work for O’Reilly or are you just one of his pathetic disciples?
By the way it took me about two minutes to compose that prose. That was about ninety seconds more than it took to show your limited world view. I’m not steamed, I am laughing. You and your type are far too pathetic to get me steamed. Send my post to the White House. Maybe you can get them to start listening to my phone conversations. You and your hero will find them very interesting. I worry a lot about what Jesus thinks. You ought to meet Him. He cares about the poor and our responsibility to them. He doesn’t talk a lot about bringing about the end of the world by invading foreign countries or blaming the poor for drowning in hurricanes. He’s a real radical too. You’ll probably try to send us both to Cuba so you can torture us and keep us quiet.
Have a nice life.
Bill-
I was so pleased to check out this blog and find that you posted yet another fine statement of liberal reality. It really does give me so much joy to read your thoughts and ideas. They are so similar to all the other liberal talking heads and websites that you obviously read. I am glad you can so adeptly present them as your own.
I also want to take the time to apologize for my insensitive “Bubba” comment. When I mentioned personal attacks and name calling in my previous post, I assumed you would understand that I referred to the childish names you were using to describe me (Bottom Feeder, unarmed in a dual of wits, pathetic…..blah blah blah). So little did I know that you would take the “Bubba” comment so personal. I guess by your namesake, you may actually be not just “Bill”, but the actual Bill Clinton. If that is the case, that would make my name calling personal, and I apologize. Otherwise, I hope you can see the difference, and I do apologize if you took offense to my sincere recommendation that you seek professional help.
Several other things were also very interesting about your post. First, using the name of Jesus in your post was very surprising. I agree that Jesus does have a great amount of concern for the disadvantaged and unfortunately he is what today’s society would call a radical. Secondly, I loved your misunderstanding of the current events surrounding the war on terrorism. You managed to skillfully craft the typical lame arguments about torture, Gitmo, war of lies, phone tapping and tax cuts all into one amorphous rant of illogical diatribe. Although you may not think I have anything to offer, but I am very well informed in the whole war on terror issue and I would love to discuss these topics with you. You have so much to understand about these items, and I would be happy to offer my assistance.
But somehow I think you were distracted by the original posting discussing Katrina and how the evil President Bush is to blame for everything that went wrong with N.O. and the hurricane. Maybe a person of your intellect can help me understand why a city and state that was virtually controlled by Democrats since the beginning of time can end up to be such a mess during this disaster. With all those years of democratic control I would have expected a virtual liberal utopia of happiness. Of course I know it was a really big hurricane, but didn’t the great thinkers of the Louisiana Democratic caucus realize N.O. was below sea level and vulnerable? How could they put all those disadvantaged people in the 9th ward in perilous jeopardy? After all only Jesus and Democrats care about the poor, at least that is what I thought you implied. Wait a second…… I know…..it must be the corps of engineers fault…..yes that is it…..and the federal money that was sent to fix the levees…..it didn’t come with instructions……there it is, it is Bush’s fault. Let me know if that is correct. You may have to draw a picture in crayon, since a person of my diminished mental capacity may not be able to understand Rhodes Scholars like yourself and the honorable President William Jefferson Clinton.
Bottom Line,
I’m dropping this. It is not doing you or me any good to engage in silly arguments over the internet. The reasonn I brought up Jesus is because I believe He calls all of us, particularly those of us to whom much is given, to take care of the poor. I read your initial post as blaming the poor for not leaving New Orleans. I believe holding the President accountable for not taking care of the least of our brothers and sisters is the Christian thing to do. Period.
I am not going to spend any more time in a pissing war with you.
Well, quite a row has been taking place here between Bill and Bottom Line. Perhaps I could handsomely supplement my meager military retirement stipend if I could get just the two of them (no referee) in a boxing ring, let them go at one another with no holds barred, and sell tickets to the main event.
As I read this string of comments the thing that struck me was when Kathy said, “And it’s just weaseling to say that a warning that the levees might be topped (in conjunction with “this is a category 5 hurricane similar to Andrew but much bigger”) is totally different than a warning that the levees might breech.”
I thought everyone can understand there is a huge difference between water flowing over the top of levees and actually breaking the levees, which is what breaching is defined as.
New Orleans has a pumping system that could handle a certain amount of water flowing over the top of levees in some spots, just as it handles copious amounts of rainfall from time to time, but it was useless when the levees actually broke apart.
Thanks Don. Gloves or no gloves? Also from one military member to another, thanks for your service.