Tape shows alert to Bush before Katrina

[Mark]

Let the spinning begin!

In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, U.S. disaster officials warned President George W. Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.

Bush did not ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured state officials: "We are fully prepared."

A top hurricane expert voiced "grave concerns" about the levees. Michael Brown, who was the Federal Emergency Management Agency chief at the time, told the president and the Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff, that he feared there were not enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome.

Brown said the afternoon before Katrina made landfall that he was concerned about "their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/02/news/katrina.php

 

[Upchurch]

Let the spinning begin!

The local radio talk show on the drive to work this morning was praising the tape because it showed what a great leader Bush is: he delegates and is a hands-off leader.

Isn't Bush just dreamy?

 

[Mark]

Isn't Bush just dreamy?

LOL!

Next will come renewed attacks on Ray Nagin. Fairly predictable, so I won't be trying to claim the JREF prize on that one.

 

[hgc]

The local radio talk show on the drive to work this morning was praising the tape because it showed what a great leader Bush is: he delegates and is a hands-off leader.

Isn't Bush just dreamy?

I dream of a president who knows that leadership isn't just about delegating responsibility, but also making sure that it's getting done and taking responsibility himself for the results.

 

[WinterMute]

Video from The Associated Press if anyone hasn't seen it
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content//video/2006/03/01/VI2006030101864.html

 

[corplinx]

As someone who has been to post-hurc New Orleans and understands what failed and how it could have been prevented. Let me say that the failure was local. They could had at least evacuated people to the bank right across the friggin bridge from the superdome which is above sea level. The feds dont do evacs. Its done by states. Its hard to evac New Orleans since they dont have much highway bandwidth. Even so, the superdome was an awful place for people to go.

The video just confirms what I suspected all along. The feds knew it could get really bad and there wouldnt be much they could do if it did. Oh yeah, and Bush lied when he said nobody could have predicted the lakeside levees would break. More disturbing is that the state people knew this too but didnt evacuate effectively.

The thing that puts a smile on my face is the one person who looks good in this video is Brownie. He appears to fully understand what can happen, is actively staging resources to help, and looks perfectly capable. To all the people who jumped on "the bush cronie idiot who couldnt watch CNN", here's your sign for joining the herd mentality and helping ruin someone's life and career.

 

[Cylinder]

Next will come renewed attacks on Ray Nagin.

Yup, the Hero of New Orleans was so effecient that he completed the 72-hour evacuation in 6. Oh, wait...

 

[hgc]

I heard Kate O'Bierne on one of the talk shows last night. She said that far from this showing that the Bush Administration is incompetent from the top down, it shows that government isn't good at anything anyway. No concept for her of competency in governing -- it doesn't even enter into it.

This is analagous to seeing Bush trying to hammer a nail while holding the hammer at the wrong end, and Kate O'Bierne coming along to pronounce hammers as useless for hammering nails anyway.

 

[Ed]

I heard Kate O'Bierne on one of the talk shows last night. She said that far from this showing that the Bush Administration is incompetent from the top down, it shows that government isn't good at anything anyway. No concept for her of competency in governing -- it doesn't even enter into it.

This is analagous to seeing Bush trying to hammer a nail while holding the hammer at the wrong end, and Kate O'Bierne coming along to pronounce hammers as useless for hammering nails anyway.

No. She would point out that Jimmy Carter is the man for the job.

 

[corplinx]

Yup, the Hero of New Orleans was so effecient that he completed the 72-hour evacuation in 6. Oh, wait...

The hero that had this same information as the feds and chose to house people in the flood zone.

 

[DavidJames]

The thing that puts a smile on my face is the one person who looks good in this video is Brownie. He appears to fully understand what can happen, is actively staging resources to help, and looks perfectly capable. To all the people who jumped on "the bush cronie idiot who couldnt watch CNN", here's your sign for joining the herd mentality and helping ruin someone's life and career.

True, "Brownie" (aren't we just chummy now) did seem to understand, but he didn't execute and that's the bottom line. In fact, it could be argued it's worse. He knew it could happen and still f'd up the response. How about his comments afterwards where he said he knew nothing about the convention center issues?

So you can keep your hat (it fits you best anyway)

Oh, and Bush fired him, not the media. So either Bush equally deserves your "hat" or is an idiot for letting public opinion sway his opinion.

Edit to add - I agree, there is plenty of blame locally.

 

[Mark]

Edit to add - I agree, there is plenty of blame locally.

Quite true. Somehow, though, the Bushies think that absolves their hero from any responsibility. But then, they think everything does that.

 

[fishbob]

Let the spinning begin!

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/02/news/katrina.php

This thread should have combined your link with what Corplinx noted:

Oh yeah, and Bush lied when he said nobody could have predicted the lakeside levees would break.

Mark, Mark, Mark - when are you going to start writing more attention grabbing intros? I almost start a thread on this, because I did not see anything along the lines of 'Bush Exposed as Coprophagic'.

(edit to add: anybody remember 'The Rag' - nah, y'all are probly to young)

 

[davefoc]

Nobody in the media seems to be putting Bushco's defense of Bush's "no one could have forseen the levees breaking" comment.

The Bushco spin, as I recall, is that Bush is referring to the brief period of time after the storm had passed and people thought the levees had survived. I don't recall hearing this spin until months after the famous quote, but is there any possibility that this is what Bush meant? Would Bushco spinmeisters make up a stone cold lie about something like this with absolutely no truth to it?

One thing that was clear after disaster was that Brown was the designated scapegoat. Republicans were falling all over themselves to bash him. And Democrats were right there helping them.

It appears that a lot of the recent anti-Chertoff and anti-Bush coverage is coming about because Brown is not completely happy with his role as designated scapegoat. Brown seems to have missed the memo about appropriate scapegoat behavior.

ETA: There was also the issue of whether it was predicted that the levees would be breached or would just be topped. Does the video show Bush being warned specifically of levee failure or just levee topping. I realize that this is a small difference since levees that are topped often fail, but when this was discussed before in this forum the Bushco defense team made something of an issue of the difference between failure and topping.

 

[Mark]

I almost start a thread on this, because I did not see anything along the lines of 'Bush Exposed as Coprophagic'.

(edit to add: anybody remember 'The Rag' - nah, y'all are probly to young)

There are ladies present, son!

 

[hgc]

'Bush Exposed as Coprophagic'

That sent me to the dictionary.

 

[corplinx]

ETA: There was also the issue of whether it was predicted that the levees would be breached or would just be topped. Does the video show Bush being warned specifically of levee failure or just levee topping. I realize that this is a small difference since levees that are topped often fail, but when this was discussed before in this forum the Bushco defense team made something of an issue of the difference between failure and topping.

Actually, looking as the transcript it wasnt explicitly said. In fact, they say they cant predict if the levees will get topped. However, I still believe Bush was dishonest in this case.

 

[corplinx]

True, "Brownie" (aren't we just chummy now) did seem to understand, but he didn't execute and that's the bottom line. In fact, it could be argued it's worse. He knew it could happen and still f'd up the response. How about his comments afterwards where he said he knew nothing about the convention center issues?

So you can keep your hat (it fits you best anyway)

Oh, and Bush fired him, not the media. So either Bush equally deserves your "hat" or is an idiot for letting public opinion sway his opinion.

Edit to add - I agree, there is plenty of blame locally.

By what benchmark do we gauge the performance of Brownie? What is our baseline? We see that supplies and personnel were staged. We see that warnings were sent out to the city. We see that the city is even warned that it may be uninhabitable for weeks. People call the response slow but damage assessment in light of a catastrophe of this size is slow in itself. I am unconvinced that Brownie did a bad job. I see no empirical evidence, mostly emotional appeals.

 

[davefoc]

Actually, looking as the transcript it wasnt explicitly said. In fact, they say they cant predict if the levees will get topped. However, I still believe Bush was dishonest in this case.

I am not convinced. It seems like too stupid a thing to say as a lie. And to what end? Yes probably a good proportion of the country was not aware of the high probability of a major disaster in New Orleans from a bad hurricane. Most people that don't live near New Orleans probably played little attention to the frequent nationally released stories detailing the New Orleans risks. So the lie would have resonated with them for a few days until the information filtered into the national conciousness that there was a widespread consensus amongst experts that New Orleans would suffer a major disaster in the not too distant future from a Hurricane and that levee topping/failure was high on the list of probable causes.

So I think there are two likely possibilities here:
1. Bush is as stupid and uninformed as he seems to be at times and he made an uninformed but honest comment.
2. The Bushco spin is correct and Bush was really referring to the fact that immediately after the hurrican it looked like New Orleans had dodged a bullet and nobody expected levee failures to occurr after the storm had passed and seemingly left them in tact.

I don't think I'll apply for the million on this prediction but I think I can predict which of those possibilities Mark leans towards.

 

[Manny]

2. The Bushco spin is correct and Bush was really referring to the fact that immediately after the hurrican it looked like New Orleans had dodged a bullet and nobody expected levee failures to occurr after the storm had passed and seemingly left them in tact.

No, what I was referring to is this. When that storm came by, a lot of people said we dodged a bullet. When that storm came through at first, people said, whew. There was a sense of relaxation, and that's what I was referring to. And I, myself, thought we had dodged a bullet. You know why? Because I was listening to people, probably over the airways, say, the bullet has been dodged. And that was what I was referring to.

Of course, there were plans in case the levee had been breached. There was a sense of relaxation in the moment, a critical moment. And thank you for giving me a chance to clarify that.

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