Bush Knew Of Katrina's Wrath Day Prior

[RickSp]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1361404.shtml

In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President 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. The tapes of video teleconferences were recorded over two days: the Sunday before Katrina hit and the Monday it stormed ashore along the Gulf Coast, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports. Mr. Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared." The footage, along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press, show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster. Linked by secure video, Mr. Bush's confidence on Aug. 28 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm. A top hurricane expert voiced "grave concerns" about the levees and then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren't enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome. "I'm concerned about ... their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe," Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall.

Typical Bush administration - incompetence followed by lies. "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees" except of course for Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center who warned that the breeching of the levees was a major concern days before the hurricane made landfall. Mayfield did so on video tape with Bush present. Oops.

[thatoneguy00]

who in the world could have forseen a disaster like that, and once again how the hell were you going to stop it from happening

[RickSp]

Quote by: thatoneguy00 who in the world could have forseen a disaster like that, and once again how the hell were you going to stop it from happening

Who could have forseen such a disaster? This disaster had been predicted for years, by FEMA and independent experts. This disaster was predicted by Bush's own experts on video tape a day before the Katrina hit. How can you stop it from happening? Bush promised all the help that the city and state needed and then the Feds did nothing for days. Even the House Republicans in their report on Katrina said,

"It remains difficult to understand how government could respond so ineffectively to a disaster that was anticipated for years, and for which specific dire warnings had been issued for days. This crisis was not only predictable, it was predicted," the committee said in the report. "If 9/11 was a failure of imagination, then Katrina was a failure of initiative. It was a failure of leadership."

And now Bush and Chertoff's claims that "no one could forsee the idsaster" has been shown to be lies on videotape, as they were indeed warned of precisely what did happen and they did nothing.

[bishop]

it seems like almost every other day, drips and drabs of new information come to light that prove bush's incompetence and failure as a leader. it's come to the point where there is so much information that bush sucks, that he can't even ramp up his rove-spin-machine and get himself out of a bind like he used to.. the man who was once called the "teflon president" has definitely lost the ability to brush the problems off his shoulder like he used to..

the fact that bush WAS aware of the problem and did nothing about it is definitely scandalous... he apparently didn't even follow up with his surrogates to make sure they were doing what needed to be done. the incompetence is breathtaking to be honest. i seriously hope that bush faces the consequences of his failures in one way or another...

and to think that millions of americans voted for this incompetent dipshit. i guess that must make them dipshits as well, especially since bush's incompetence was well known during the last campaign cycle.

[Bubba_X]

To Rick- yes, everyone on the Gulf Coast, and some who were far away, told Blanco and Nagin to evacuate New Orleans.From weather forcasters to the Office of the President, warnings were issued to Louisiana government officials to take action ahead of the storm.Yet, those officials refused to do their jobs, placing all those welfare recipients at risk.Bush told Blanco and Nagin several days before landfall to evacuate- begged them to do so, in fact.
FEMA prepositioned, as always, awaiting actual landfall outside the expected impact zone.Yet, Blanco and Nagin refused to act, failed to implement the plans they had or make new ones.Nagin failed to utilise his means of transporting people out of the impact area, though he was told to do so.Blanco failed to perform the authorising functions and also failed to urge Nagin to protect the city.
FEMA and the Administration did do all they could to urge those two to act, to no avail.Indeed, Nagin not only failed to evacuate his city, he compounded his errors by inviting folks down to the Dome to party hearty while the city flooded.Those welfare recipients were all advised to leave, as you mention, by the Federal Government and all the newscasters, yet they chose to tempt Fate and stay.Then, for no reason other than they could, they then chose to go looting, and worse.All the while, Blanco and Nagin fiddled...
Meanwhile, honest folks in other locations were bypassed in favor of New Orleans.Victims-real victims, not the "victim class" in New Orleans- in Mississippi and Alabama had to watch for days as trucks passed them by, all heading to the "special victims" in Nawlins..."special victims" who refused to help themselves or even allow the government to do so.You DO recall them shooting at relief efforts right?
Nope, not a bit of that fiasco is Bush's fault.
Funny how FEMA actually works well in states which have functioning local governments, ain't it?
And no "special victims" class in the way...

[bishop]

nobody here has even attempted to defend blanco or nagin. nothing like the stench of a bush apologist.

their incompetence doesn't negate bush's incompetence. nor the fact that he lied to the public about the storm. nor the fact that he himself didn't feel it necessary to take an active interest in the storm. nor the fact that he failed to make sure the appropriate precautions were being taken. and then you have the damn trailers that are in the friggin carolinas while the taxpayer is paying for hotel rooms (as well as the trailers that are sitting collecting dust - and will eventually be destroyed). i say, bush is the man! no way in hell he could've done a better job than he's done thus far.

fyi, fema functions when it has competent people running it, not cronies with horseshow experience.

[RickSp]

Give me a break Bubba. Blaming the locals is such shabby "Swift boating", so damn typical of the Rove-Bush smear machine. Sure. Nagin and Blanco could have done a better job. They screwed up. Happy now?

Defending FEMA and the Feds at this point is a bad joke. Even the Republicans said they were missing in action and generally incompetent.
Republican panel rips Katrina response

The response of government at all levels to Hurricane Katrina was "dismal," poorly planned and badly coordinated, showing that more than four years after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, "America is still not ready for prime time," a House report concludes.

But you think FEMA has done a good job? That would be laughable if the incompetence was not so tragic.

So Bubba, your "Swift boating" of the victims of Katrina is duly noted as is your "Bush is blameless" Bushbot bullshit. Of course, nobody is buying it. And now that our Bumbler in Chief is on video being warned in advance, his nonsense claims that "no one could forsee the disaster", can be seen for what it was - a baldfaced lie.

[gr8fuldaniel]

Its not incompetance.
In fact, this is reminiscent of the 911 stand down. They maximized the tragedy by failing to act in both situations.
The worse tragedy isnt the 'Cane (couldnt be avoided?), or the flood (that could have been prevented)
Its the criminal negligence.

More of the same "Torture is good", from your "compassionate" "conservative" in chief.

[thatoneguy00]

I got an idea, what about houston? they heard of a hurricane coming and then what, all you see on the news is highways jam pakced with them getting the hell out of there. New orleans was told, everyone knew there was a hurricane coming so why did they stay.I live in illinois and we have cousins from right outside new orleans, did they stay,no, in fact they came up to illinois and watch the hurricane on tv with us,theyleft long before it happen.

[gr8fuldaniel]

Criminal negligence From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In the criminal law, criminal negligence is one of the three general classes of mens rea (Latin for "guilty mind") element required to constitute a conventional as opposed to strict liability offence. It is defined as: careless, inattentive, neglectful, wilfully blind, or in the case of gross negligence what would have been reckless in any other defendant. <snip> Criminal negligence becomes "gross" when the failure to foresee involves a "wanton disregard for human life" (see the discussion in corporate manslaughter). The test of any mens rea element is always based on an assessment of whether the accused had foresight of the prohibited consequences and desired to cause those consequences to occur. The three types of test are: 1) subjective where the court attempts to establish what the accused was actually thinking at the time the actus reus was caused; 2) objective where the court imputes mens rea elements on the basis that a reasonable person with the same general knowledge and abilities as the accused would have had those elements; or 3) hybrid, i.e. the test is both subjective and objective.

So, I guess it is "Gross Criminal Negligence", at least.
We have foreknowlege on video. Isnt malice aforethought the only logical conclusion to draw from what we know now?

The emperor Nero played his violin while Rome burned.
Bush's Office of Propaganda had him strum a guitar.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002. Fiddle while Rome burns To do something trivial and irresponsible in the midst of an emergency; legend has it that while a fire destroyed the city of Rome, the emperor Nero played his violin, thus revealing his total lack of concern for his people and his empire.

Bush plays "Dont Worry, Be Happy" for his adoring fans.
Then fixes 'em lunch.

[gr8fuldaniel]

Quote by: thatoneguy New orleans was told, everyone knew there was a hurricane coming so why did they stay.

The roads were jammed and gas stations were clogged. Even those who could afford plane tickets, couldnt leave.
Airports were closed, ALL FLIGHTS were cancelled 24 hours before the Cane was expected to make landfall.
Not everybody COULD leave.
But people ride out storms all the time. How often does Florida manditorily evacuate?

And then you have Gretna, who turned away the (exclusively black) people at gunpoint. The cops actually stole their supplies. People on foot were not ALLOWED to leave!

Do you know what FEMA stands for? Federal Emergency Management Agency.
But,
The first thing FEMA did was to cut the fucking first responders phone lines.

Chertoff should be executed for that action alone. After a fair trial in New Orleans by an all black jury.

[Keith Hamburger]

Quote by: gr8fuldaniel

And, of course, why are all the lanes on the other side of the highway empty? Doesn't anyone know how an evacuation is supposed to operate. It is clear that southbound traffic could easily travel down side roads as evidenced by the vehicle doing so. Even if they had to block a single lane southbound over the bridges for emergency vehicles there's no excuse for all those empty traffic lanes.

Sheer incompetence.

Keith

[Scribbler1]

Quote by: Keith Hamburger And, of course, why are all the lanes on the other side of the highway empty? Doesn't anyone know how an evacuation is supposed to operate. It is clear that southbound traffic could easily travel down side roads as evidenced by the vehicle doing so. Even if they had to block a single lane southbound over the bridges for emergency vehicles there's no excuse for all those empty traffic lanes. Sheer incompetence. Keith

You noticed that too, eh? My Wife and I were yelling at the TV when they were showing those scenes.

[Scribbler1]

Quote by: RickSp Who could have forseen such a disaster? This disaster had been predicted for years, by FEMA and independent experts. This disaster was predicted by Bush's own experts on video tape a day before the Katrina hit. How can you stop it from happening? Bush promised all the help that the city and state needed and then the Feds did nothing for days. Even the House Republicans in their report on Katrina said, And now Bush and Chertoff's claims that "no one could forsee the idsaster" has been shown to be lies on videotape, as they were indeed warned of precisely what did happen and they did nothing.

Another thing I noticed. It appeared that "great job Brownie" might have been blamed for almost the whole screwup incorrectly. He WAS expressing concerns on those tapes just like the others. And he was expressing them to Cherotff AND Bush.

20-20 hindsight tells me they DID pretty much steamroll Brown immediately after the disaster. I figure after all is said and done he was not as qualified as he should have been for the position but he was not as responsible for the disaster either.

[Boetie]

Intelligence agencies warned about growing local insurgency in late 2003 By WARREN P. STROBEL and JONATHAN S. LANDAY Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies repeatedly warned the White House beginning more than two years ago that the insurgency in Iraq had deep local roots, was likely to worsen and could lead to civil war, according to former senior intelligence officials who helped craft the reports. Among the warnings, Knight Ridder has learned, was a major study, called a National Intelligence Estimate, completed in October 2003 that concluded that the insurgency was fueled by local conditions - not foreign terrorists- and drew strength from deep grievances, including the presence of U.S. troops.

How did Cheney get flowers and candy from intel?

Since we are on the subject of incompetence I thought the above article would add fuel to the fire.