Friday, September 30, 2005

British Warn Citizens About Visiting Florida

FBI Wiretaps Wrong Numbers

American Airlines Cuts Flights Due To Gas Prices

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Delay Gets Hit Hard

Judith Miller Out Of Jail

SEC Launches Official Probe Into Frist Dealings

I wonder if Bush still wants to sit on his rebuilt porch? What a mess this administration is. Every administration has investigations, allegations, etc. But for example, Delay has been warned by the Ethics Committee on at least three occasions. He is definitely slimey. If you are an honest person, you would never even before the Ethics Committee. Put that together with Frist, Delay ties to Abrahmoff, Iraq, the response to Katrina, high gas prices, the failed social security initiative...geeze it makes y ou wonder how anyone can still support this administration.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=anM.DHkPQl.M&refer=us

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Delay Indicted


And of course, he claims that the prosecuter is a left wing conspirator out to get him. That is the party line of all those Bush friendly criminals, isn't it? Here is a copy of the indictment.



http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0928051delay1.html

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Corpse For Porn

Just when you think it couldn't get any uglier....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050927/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/corpse_photos

Anna Nicole Goes Before Supreme Court

The Schiavo's had to beg to be heard by the Supreme Court and this tart gets in so easy? What's up with that?

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBS081R4EE.html

Monday, September 26, 2005

1.5 Billion In No Bid Contracts

TIME Article-More Mike Browns In Bush Administration

Friday, September 23, 2005

Congress To Investigate Katrina?

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Governors Ask For Inquiry Over Oil Prices

I hope that someone gets on this issue with some teeth. Gas prices came down a few cents since Bush released reserves...it is not enough.

Governors Ask for Inquiry on Oil Prices
New York Times
September 21, 2005

CHICAGO, Sept. 20 - The governors of eight states sent a letter on Tuesday to President Bush and Congress calling for an investigation into profits made by oil companies after Hurricane Katrina and asking for legislation that would require the companies to refund to customers any profits deemed excess.

"When the wholesale price of gas went up by 60 cents almost overnight, oil companies were obviously using the most devastating natural disaster in our nation's history to reap a windfall at the expense of American consumers," said the letter, which was initiated by Gov. James E. Doyle of Wisconsin and was signed by governors from Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington.

"To price-gouge consumers under normal circumstances is dishonest enough," the letter stated, "but to make money off the severe misfortune of others is downright immoral."

The letter cited an analysis by Donald A. Nichols, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who reported that gas prices surged disproportionately compared with crude oil price increases. The price markup from crude oil to gasoline has almost tripled since the hurricane, the report said.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Liar Liar Pants On Fire

Bush Official Arrested In Abramoff Case

Monday, September 19, 2005

North Korea Pledges To Halt Nuclear Program

I don't know if they are to be trusted, but I hope they stick to their pledge. This is great news.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/koreas_nuclear

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Oil Crisis-Flash Cartoon

Bill Clinton Rips Bush

Bush Ratings Fall After Katrina Speech

Bill Clinton's Global Initiative Raises 1.25 Billion In Pledges

NEW YORK (AP) - Former President Bill Clinton convinced world and business leaders to commit more than $1.25 billion to address major global problems, ranging from poverty to clean energy.

The question is, will they follow through?

In his closing remarks Saturday the first annual Clinton Global Initiative, the former president promised progress reports on the more than 190 initiatives.

Clinton told participants - including heads of state and business leaders - to remember the impact their work can have on future generations, saying "we are so arrogant because we are obsessed with the present."

The three-day event, which coincided with a world summit at the United Nations, included a series of workshops on topics including religious conflict, poverty and the environment.

At a Saturday session, former Vice President Al Gore said Hurricane Katrina should serve as a warning that the world must not ignore the consequences of global warming.

"We face a global emergency, a deepening climate crisis that requires us to act," Gore said.
Scientists are split over whether a manmade change in world climate is fueling stronger storms.

At least one recent study suggested that a rise in the surface temperature of tropical seas may be responsible for an increase in the severity of hurricanes. But many say the temperature rise is a natural environmental cycle.

The price of admission was $15,000, and participants were required to commit to some sort of action to help solve a major global problem. If they don't follow through, they won't be invited back to what organizers intend to make an annual event.

The pledges secured at the conference included a $300 million commitment from Swiss Re, a reinsurance and financial services organization, to start an investment fund for promoting clean energy in Europe.

Other major contributors were Sir Tom Hunter, a Scottish entrepreneur who pledged $100 million to fight poverty in the Third World, and Mohamed Ibrahim, a businessman from Sudan who said he would give $100 million for an investment fund for African businesses.

US Asks For Donations To Rebuild Iraq?

Don't know how true this is, but I'm not giving anything. With millions of dollars unaccounted for and down the drain, the government wants us to give more? Bush can get himself out of this one, if it's true.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/politics/12679449.htm

Stupid Rove Comments

Karl Rove, President Bush's top political advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff, spoke at businessman Teddy Forstmann's annual off the record gathering in Aspen, Colorado this weekend. Here is what Rove had to say that the press wasn't allowed to report on.

On Katrina: The only mistake we made with Katrina was not overriding the local government...

On The Anti-War Movement: Cindy Sheehan is a clown. There is no real anti-war movement. No serious politician, with anything to do with anything, would show his face at an anti-war rally...

On Bush's Low Poll Numbers: We have not been good at explaining the success in Iraq. Polls go up and down and don't mean anything...

On Iraq: There has been a big difference in the region. Iraq will transform the Middle East...

On Judy Miller And Plamegate: Judy Miller is in jail for reasons I don't really understand...

On Joe Wilson: Joe Wilson and I attend the same church but Joe goes to the wacky mass...

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Bill Clinton On Cindy Sheehan

This is the way a president should deal with such a situation. Not cover his ass.

Former President Clinton was on Larry King Live yesterday. Larry King asked him if President Bush should have met with Cindy Sheehan.

KING: Should the president have met with the lady who lost her son?

CLINTON: I think he'd seen her once before. You know, I think I would have but that's a question only he can answer.

KING: But you would have.

CLINTON: Yes, you know, I met with the people that I gave the Medal of Honor to, people who -- some people who were killed on Black Hawk Down and one of the fathers was very angry at me and I knew it. And he said some really rough things to me and...

KING: How do you handle that?

CLINTON: It wasn't easy but I thought I owed it to him. His son gave his life in the service of this country and this father served in Vietnam, was a veteran. I thought that he had the right to say to me whatever he wanted to say. There is no greater pain in life than having a child die before you.There is nothing worse and I had sent his son into harm's way. And the thing was not managed as it should have been. And he was -- as far as I was concerned, he'd earned the right to say whatever he wanted to me. And if he felt better when it was over, then it was a precious little thing I could do is to take the heat coming in.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Chavez Proposes That United Nations Leave US

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Pentagon Employee Alleges He Was Ordered To Destroy Documents Related To 9/11

Mississippi To Sue Insurance Companies

Microsoft, AOL Discussing Partnership

FEMA Fiascos

Many would have you think that this is not the time to point fingers, but then, when? When terrorists decide to drop a bomb? Well, the incidents pointed out in this article clearly show that Homeland Security is a shanbles. The time to complain, point fingers, get heads rolling, and make changes is now-not later.

Leadership vacuum stymied aid offersDoctor: Officials gave hospital staffers mops as people diedThursday

September 15, 2005 Posted: 2103 GMT (0503 HKT) (CNN) -- As violence, death and misery gripped New Orleans and the surrounding parishes in the days after Hurricane Katrina, a leadership vacuum, bureaucratic red tape and a defensive culture paralyzed volunteers' attempts to help.

Doctors eager to help sick and injured evacuees were handed mops by federal officials who expressed concern about legal liability. Even as violence and looting slowed rescues, police from other states were turned back while officials squabbled over who should take charge of restoring the peace.

Warehouses in New Orleans burned while firefighters were diverted to Atlanta for Federal Emergency Management Agency training sessions on community relations and sexual harassment. Water trucks languished for days at FEMA's staging area because the drivers lacked the proper paperwork.

Consider the stories of these frustrated volunteers: Dr. Bong Mui and his staff, evacuated with 300 patients after three hellish days at Chalmette Medical Center, arrived at the New Orleans airport, and were amazed to see hundreds of sick people. They offered to help. But, the doctor told CNN, FEMA officials said they were worried about legal liability. "They told us that, you know, you could help us by mopping the floor." And so they mopped, while people died around them. "I started crying," he recalled. "We felt like we could help, and were not allowed to do anything."

Steve Simpson, sheriff of Loudoun County, Virginia, sent 22 deputies equipped with food and water to last seven days. Their 14-car caravan, including four all-terrain vehicles, was on the road just three hours when they were told to turn back. The reason, Simpson told CNN: A Louisiana state police official told them not to come. " I said, "What if we just show up?' He says, 'You probably won't get in.' " Simpson said he later learned a dispute over whether state or federal authorities would command the law enforcement effort was being ironed out that night. But no one ever got back to him with the all-clear.

FEMA halted tractor trailers hauling water to a supply staging area in Alexandria, Louisiana, The New York Times quoted William Vines, former mayor of Fort Smith, Arkansas, as saying. "FEMA would not let the trucks unload," he told the newspaper. "The drivers were stuck for several days on the side of the road" because, he said, they did not have a "tasker number." He added, "What in the world is a tasker number? I have no idea. It's just paperwork and it's ridiculous."

Firefighters who answered a nationwide call for help were sent to Atlanta for FEMA training sessions on community relations and sexual harassment.

"On the news every night you hear 'How come everybody forgot us?' " Pennsylvania firefighter Joseph Manning told The Dallas Morning News. "We didn't forget. We're stuck in Atlanta drinking beer."

The government's response to Hurricane Katrina has been sharply criticized. Elected officials -- chiefly President Bush, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin -- have acknowledged flaws in the response. Some take responsibility"To the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said earlier this week. He is expected to unveil the largest disaster relief program in history in an address to the nation Thursday night from New Orleans."

There were failures at every level of government -- state, federal and local," Blanco told Louisiana legislators Wednesday evening in Baton Rouge. "At the state level, we must take a careful look at what went wrong and make sure it never happens again," she said. "The buck stops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility."

Nagin, once angry and embattled, was also conciliatory. "I think now we are out of nuclear crisis mode, it seems as though myself, the governor and president have done some retrospection as far as what we could have done better, and ultimately we're all accountable at the level of local state and federal government," he told CNN. "And that's what leadership is all about. We should take responsibility and we should try and do better."

While Blanco did not elaborate on her mistakes, Nagin said he mistakenly assumed that if New Orleans could hold out for a day or two, help would surely come. "I am not going to plan in the future for the cavalry to come in three days," he told CNN. "I'm going to buy high water vehicles, helicopters, whatever I can do to make sure that I am in total control ... of the total evacuation process."

Vice Admiral Thad Allen, of the U.S. Coast Guard, is now heading the federal government's recovery effort. On Wednesday, he encouraged state and local officials to bring their issues to him. "Whether you're a person or an agency, whatever you're doing, if you have concerns and they're not stated where somebody can act on them, that's just going to fester," he said. "And I, as the principal federal official in this response, am encouraging any leader that wants to talk to me about real or perceived problems of what's going on out there to do that." Where was Chertoff?

But the men in charge of the federal Department of Homeland Security and FEMA in the critical days immediately after the hurricane haven't shared the blame. Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security secretary, has offered no explanation as to why he waited three days after the National Hurricane Center predicted a catastrophic hurricane to declare Katrina an incident of "national significance."

In a memo written the day after Katrina made landfall, Chertoff said the Department of Homeland Security will be part of the task force and will assist the [Bush] administration. But the National Response Plan, designed to guide disaster recovery and relief, dictates that the Homeland Security secretary leads the federal response.

Chertoff appointed Michael Brown, then director of FEMA, as the federal official in charge in the Gulf states. Brown was relieved of his post late last week and resigned from FEMA Monday after taking the brunt of the criticism over the response.Ex-FEMA boss blames governorSpeaking to The New York Times, his first public comments since he was relieved, Brown laid the blame on Blanco and Nagin.

He told the newspaper he frantically called Chertoff and the White House in the hours after Katrina hit, telling them Blanco and her staff were disorganized and the situation was "out of control.""I am having a horrible time," Brown said he told his superiors. "I can't get a unified command established."Brown told the Times that he had such difficulty dealing with Blanco that he communicated with her husband instead."I truly believed the White House was not at fault here," he told the Times.On August 30, the same day Chertoff wrote his memo, Brown said he asked the White House to take over the response from FEMA and state officials.

A Senate panel launched the first formal inquiry into the response on Wednesday. But the Senate's Republican majority defeated a bid by Democrats to establish an independent commission to investigate the disaster response.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the panel's chairwoman, said the response to Katrina was plagued by confusion, communication failures and widespread lack of coordination despite the billions of dollars spent to improve disaster response since the terror attacks.'

Sluggish' response"At this point, we would have expected a sharp, crisp response to this terrible tragedy," Collins said. "Instead, we witnessed what appeared to be a sluggish initial response." One of the issues the committee will examine is whether FEMA should stay under the Department of Homeland Security instead of operating as a separate agency as it had in the past.

Sen. George Voinovich, a Republican from Ohio, said the committee would "get into the bowels" of Homeland Security as its members investigate how the federal government, specifically FEMA, planned for and responded to the disaster.

Members of the former 9/11 commission blasted Congress and the Bush administration for inaction on some of its recommendations. Had they been in place, lives could have been saved, they said.

"If Congress does not act, people will die. I cannot put it more simply than that," said former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, referring to what could happen in the next major disaster or terrorist attack.

MA Governor Romey Says Mosques Should Be Wiretapped

Is he trying to start a civil war in this country? We are going terrorist ape. There is a fine line between being vigilant and protecting our citizens, impinging on religious freedom, and classfying all Muslims as terrorists.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Quotes On Katrina-What They Really Mean

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Bush Says He Is Responsible

Big Whoop. A week ago he told Mike Brown he was doing a fantastick job. When Nancy Pelosi asked him a few days ago, about all the mistakes made in the relief effort, he said, what mistakes, what was done wrong?

Now he says he is responsible. Can he be any more transparent? His numbers are dismally low, he is being blamed by almost everyone and now, he realizes he has to kiss ass to get some respectability back. That's all it is. A big charade.

Scathing Bush Commentary

NO CHILD LEFT BEHINDWhat the President says, what the President does
By Katie McKy RAW STORY COLUMNIST

Culture of life. No child left behind. Compassionate conservatism. Christian. These are the descriptors I remember as I watch what remains of New Orleans.

Because I want to be compassionate, I try to believe the best of people. And I do believe that most people want to be good. So I’m going to believe the best of the prez and his gang. I’m going to assume that the prez is not a bad man. Rather, I’ll assume that he’s an ignorant man.

Sure, he attended Phillips Academy. Via a legacy admission, he graduated from Yale. He got an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. On paper, he seems to be educated. But his words and actions suggest ignorance. Although he might not know what malapropism means, he manufactures them. And while his words might amuse, dismay or embarrass us, his ignorance of action is deadly.

Now, there is an explanation other than ignorance. It’s possible that he’s pathological. Bush could be America’s Nero. Legend says that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned. Well, before the Towers burned, GW also played: he vacationed. Although he was warned that Al Qaeda would pirate planes and make them into missiles, in August of 2001, Bush took a break.
Then, while Hurricane Katrina grew, Bush played again. Even as the people of New Orleans drowned and died of thirst, perhaps Bush played. For 3 days, Bush, our seeming neo-Nero, was still down on the ranch. For those 3 days, I don’t know what he did. Perhaps he did whatever faux-ranchers do. Did he cut brush and ride his bike while New Orleans drowned?

But I’m going to assume the best of our prez. I’m going to assume that he has a conscience. If there were such a thing as a moral autopsy, I suspect that a serial killer and a corporate raider would only have a hole instead of a conscience.

Perhaps Bush’s conscience is 3 sizes too small, but let’s assume something is there.Let’s assume that the prez that said, “No Child Left Behind,” didn’t intend to leave children behind in New Orleans. Let’s assume that he didn’t intend to have bodies bobbing in the water.
Let’s further assume that Bush believes that government doesn’t work well, that he truly believes it’s too thick with bureaucracy to economically attend to citizens and their concerns. And that Bush wanting less government and an ongoing occupation of Iraq isn’t about keeping the rich rich…and it isn’t about oil.

Let’s be like Christ or Buddha or Mohammed and assume the best of Bush. Now, we know that Bush was warned of the likelihood of a levee being breached. And we know that Bush dismantled federal infrastructure, drawing funds from key organizations such as the Army Corps of Engineers, to fund the Army and its occupation.

So, Bush stayed down on the ranch because he believes that communities cannot only fend for themselves, but fend best for themselves—and that churches and neighbors are more efficient than federal bureaucracies. His actions support such assumptions.

But here’s the deal. Whether he likes the arrangement or not, the prez controls matchless resources. No other person has ever had access to such wealth. And whereas his intellect might not warrant such resources, he’s got ‘em. He ran for office. He took the office. He vowed to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The first sentence of the Constitution charges a president with forming “a more perfect Union,” establishing “Justice,” insuring “domestic Tranquility,” providing “for the common defence (sic),” and promoting “the general Welfare.” The Constitution describes these things as the “Blessings of Liberty.”

We, the people, gave Bush resources to apply them in time of need. But he didn’t. For days, he settled for assuring that the troops and trucks were coming. But he didn’t do his duty. His sworn duty. He didn’t step off the ranch for “the general Welfare” of poor Americans. Neither did Cheney, who also vacationed. Or Rice, who shopped for snazzy shoes. Bush didn’t even differentiate lethal incompetence from praiseworthy performance (“Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job.”). And people died.

Now, I have a plan for Bush. I was a teacher. Some kids entered my room ignorant. They behaved as if they were free of duty. Thus, they would hurt others, by sins of commission or omission. I didn’t assume that they were pathologically evil. I assumed that they were ignorant.
When they erred, they had to redress what they did and whom they hurt. For example, one of my students threw a rock at a passing truck. I assumed that he didn’t know any better. So I walked him down to the trucking firm. I had him look for a dented trailer. He couldn’t find it. So I had him talk to one of their managers and work out a way to redress the damage that he did. While other kids played at recess, this child emptied trashcans and ran as a gofer.

When he returned, he was ignorant no more. Going for this and that, he learned about the people that ran the trucking firm. He learned a little about trucking: enough to respect it. And he never again tossed a rock at a passing truck.And I suggest the same for the prez. I expect Bush, as the most vacationing president of all time, will take another break, another recess from his duties. Rather than retire to his ranch and dine on chichi presidential food, let him shovel muck from houses. That muck will be there for a long time. It’ll outlast his appetite for work.
Give the man a chance to understand the cost of ignorance, of ignoring reports of insufficient levies and ignoring pleas for help. It will not redress what he did not do, but it might lessen his ignorance.

Or consider dispensing a short lesson in the costs of ignorance. Let him dig graves.

Non-Partisan Group Clears Blanco

Nonpartisan congressional research report finds Louisiana governor took necessary steps

John Byrne

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report Tuesday afternoon asserting that Louisiana governor Katherine Blanco took the necessary and timely steps needed to secure disaster relief from the federal government, RAW STORY has learned.
The report, which comes after a request by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to review the law and legal accountability relating to Federal action in response to Hurricane Katrina, unequivocally concludes that she did.

"This report closes the book on the Bush Administration's attempts to evade accountability," Conyers said in a statement. "The Bush Administration was caught napping at a critical time."

The report found that:

All necessary conditions for federal relief were met on August 28. Pursuant to Section 502 of the Stafford Act, "[t]he declaration of an emergency by the President makes Federal emergency assistance available," and the President made such a declaration on August 28. The public record indicates that several additional days passed before such assistance was actually made available to the State;

The Governor must make a timely request for such assistance, which meets the requirements of federal law. The report states that "[e]xcept to the extent that an emergency involves primarily Federal interests, both declarations of major disaster and declarations of emergency must be triggered by a request to the President from the Governor of the affected state";

The Governor did indeed make such a request, which was both timely and in compliance with federal law. The report finds that "Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco requested by letter dated August 27, 2005...that the President declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period from August 26, 2005 and continuing pursuant to [applicable Federal statute]" and "Governor Blanco's August 27,2005 request for an emergency declaration also included her determination...that 'the incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of disaster."

The full report will be available soon on the House Democrats' Judiciary website.

Katrina Response-Cartoon

Monday, September 12, 2005

Cuban Aid Rejected

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Revised Nuclear Strike Plan

Bush Asked for 100 Million To Restore Iraq Wetlands During Campaign, 8 Million For Lousiana

I did not know that. Shows where his priorities were and still are, in Iraq. He asked for 100 million for Iraq wetlands and only 8 million for Louisiana wetlands. This after so many requests for money and warnings of disaster. He sure did stay the course.

Iraq 100, Louisiana 8By Will Bunch, Attytood. Posted September 7, 2005.

In April 2004, some of the best minds who were supposed to be studying and improving Lousiana's damaged wetlands instead found themselves in the Persian Gulf -- restoring the Iraqi marshes. Is it possible to actually quantify how screwed up the priorities of the Bush cabal in Washington have been? Usually not. But when it comes to the issue of wetlands -- the natural buffer that could have protected New Orleans against a deadly storm surge liked the one that essentially wiped out the city last week -- the answer is "yes."

In 2004 -- at a time when George W. Bush was running for re-election and presumably courting votes in Louisiana, a potential swing state -- the White House proposed spending a whopping 12 1/3 times as much taxpayer money restoring wetlands in southern Iraq as he planned to spend on the same task in the Mississippi Delta.Before Congress intervened, the Bush administration asked for $100 million to restore the Iraqi marshlands, drained and destroyed by Saddam Hussein, to its status as -- according to legend -- the Biblical "Garden of Eden."The proposed funding that year for the Louisiana wetlands, heavily damaged by overdevelopment, was just $8 million.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the city once buffered by those disappearing wetlands is now Hell on Earth.Even though the Iraq wetlands project didn't get the federal dollars, it did get the next best thing: American know-how. And so some of the best minds who were supposed to be studying and improving Lousiana's environment instead found themselves in the Persian Gulf.

This is from an April 24, 2004, article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune:Corps officials involved in restoring Louisiana's wetlands also have been sent to assist those fighting in and rebuilding Iraq, including oversight of a similar wetlands restoration project there, he said. Ed Theriot, a Vicksburg-based engineer who had directed the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study, was sent to Iraq four months ago to oversee the restoration of the "Garden of Eden" wetlands at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that were destroyed by Saddam Hussein in the 1990s.

While Theriot was pulled away from his work in the New Orleans area, his work in Baghdad was deemed highly successful.Despite a balking Congress, the Bush administration seemed determined to fund the Iraqi marsh project -- pardon the awful pun -- come hell or high water, even if foreign allies had to pay for it. USA Today reported:The United States, Italy, Canada and others are offering aid to Iraq for marshland restoration. They also are offering expertise to maximize the chances of successfully returning the marshlands to their previous state. U.S. officials estimate that 25% to 35% of the marshes can be restored in two to three years.

In his $20.3 billion request for rebuilding Iraq, President Bush asked for $100 million to restore the marshes, but Congress cut it entirely, along with some other programs. Officials remain confident, however, that they can transfer the money from elsewhere to pay for the restoration."We need to restore the marshes," says Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.Indeed, the project did eventually get major funding from Japan -- roughly $11 million -- and from Italy, some $1.3 million.

Nothing wrong with that, although it does seem ironic in the wake of Bush's refusal to accept foreign aid last week to help out folks in Louisiana.For years, federal officials have been warned that the lost of wetlands had made New Orleans more vulnerable to a hurricane than when Betsy struck the region in 1965.Sidney Coffee, executive assistant to the governor for coastal activities, said about 1,900 square miles of wetlands have disappeared from the area since the 1930s, and the receding continues at a rate of about 24 square miles per year. The erosion has a direct impact on New Orleans' ability to absorb the blow of a storm like Katrina, she said. For every 2.7 miles of wetlands, storm surges are reduced by about 1 foot, she said.

Now, it's fair to note that even a massive influx of federal dollars in fiscal 2005 would not have brought back the wetlands in time for Katrina, a supposed once-in-a-lifetime event. Nor are we denying that the destruction of the Iraqi marches was a global environmental travesty. But once again, it's the priorities that show how screwed up the Bush administration truly is.

Clearly, the White House had no concept of fiscal constraint when it came to throwing literally tens of millions of dollars at any problem in Iraq, 7,000 miles away. Apparently that's easy to do when you have $192 billion -- and counting -- to burn.It was only here in America, on domestic programs, that the budget bean counters held sway. And now New Orleans -- a beloved American city that once truly was a garden of earthly delights -- has become a living hell. Will Bunch is a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News and author of the blog Attytood.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

UK Opinion Of Bush

Bush Approval Rating at 39%

The whole country can't be wrong.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB4Q2WBGDE.html

Bolton Already Making Enemies at UN

Woman Charged 1,333.00 To Clip Toe Nail

It is time that Bush gets going on some of these domestic issues that are crippling our country, like he promised he was going to do.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/weird_news/12601630.htm

Friday, September 09, 2005

Six Year Old Leads Five Toddlers To Safety In New Orleans

Katrina's Economic Impact

Al Gore Airlifts Katrina Victims

Eight Big Lies About Katrina

Bush Suspends Minimum Wage For Katrina Contractors

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Money For Iraq Reconstruction Runs Out?

Three FEMA Workers Arrested For Looting

Federal Grand Jury Indicts PAC Connected To Delay

They say Delay is not involved...of course he is!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050908/ap_on_go_co/election_investigation

Natural Gas Could Increase Up To 71%

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

15 States Sue Department Of Energy

Someone ought to sue the oil companies too, for taking advantage of us during a crisis.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBPZNGFCDE.html

NY Artists And Hospitals Barter For Health Care

Huge Ford Recall

Katrina Expected To Cut Employment And Slash Growth

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Blanco's Letter To Bush

Bush is blaming state and local officials of not doing their jobs. If this letter is authentic, it appears that on August 28, as soon as word of the power of the hurricane was gotten, Blanco quickly assesed the situation and asked for help, saying the state and local government could not handle this, including evacuations.

La. Governor's August 27 request for assistance
RAW STORY

The following is a letter written to President George W. Bush by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco on August 27, 2005. On August 28, authorities told residents to leave the city of New Orleans. The next morning, Katrina struck in Louisiana. By August 30, an estimated 80% of the city was underwater. See timeline.

On September 4, The Washington Post claimed that Federal authorities blamed Blanco for failure to react and slow response time, reporting that the Bush Administration had asked the Governor to hand authority over to them on the evening of September 2, five days after people were told to leave New Orleans, and four days after the hurricane hit Louisiana. Accusations of slow response have also come in from pundits (like Bill O'Reilly), and an e-mail that is reportedly calling for the Governor's impeachment.

Text of the Governor's August 27 letter (which may actually have been given to the President on the 28th,) follows.


August 27, 2005

The President The White House Washington, D. C.

Through: Regional Director FEMA Region VI 800 North Loop 288 Denton, Texas 76209

Dear Mr. President:
Under the provisions of Section 501 (a) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5121-5206 (Stafford Act), and implemented by 44 CFR § 206.35, I request that you declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period beginning August 26, 2005, and continuing. The affected areas are all the southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area and the mid state Interstate I-49 corridor and northern parishes along the I-20 corridor that are accepting the thousands of citizens evacuating from the areas expecting to be flooded as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

In response to the situation I have taken appropriate action under State law and directed the execution of the State Emergency Plan on August 26, 2005 in accordance with Section 501 (a) of the Stafford Act. A State of Emergency has been issued for the State in order to support the evacuations of the coastal areas in accordance with our State Evacuation Plan and the remainder of the state to support the State Special Needs and Sheltering Plan.

Pursuant to 44 CFR § 206.35, I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster. I am specifically requesting emergency protective measures, direct Federal Assistance, Individual and Household Program (IHP) assistance, Special Needs Program assistance, and debris removal.

Preliminary estimates of the types and amount of emergency assistance needed under the Stafford Act, and emergency assistance from certain Federal agencies under other statutory authorities are tabulated in Enclosure A.

The following information is furnished on the nature and amount of State and local resources that have been or will be used to alleviate the conditions of this emergency: • Department of Social Services (DSS): Opening (3) Special Need Shelters (SNS) and establishing (3) on Standby. • Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH): Opening (3) Shelters and establishing (3) on Standby. • Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (OHSEP): Providing generators and support staff for SNS and Public Shelters. • Louisiana State Police (LSP): Providing support for the phased evacuation of the coastal areas. • Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (WLF): Supporting the evacuation of the affected population and preparing for Search and Rescue Missions.

Mr. President Page Two August 27, 2005

• Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD): Coordinating traffic flow and management of the evacuations routes with local officials and the State of Mississippi.
The following information is furnished on efforts and resources of other Federal agencies, which have been or will be used in responding to this incident: • FEMA ERT-A Team en-route.
I certify that for this emergency, the State and local governments will assume all applicable non-Federal share of costs required by the Stafford Act.

I request Direct Federal assistance for work and services to save lives and protect property.
(a) List any reasons State and local government cannot perform or contract for performance, (if applicable).

(b) Specify the type of assistance requested.

In accordance with 44 CFR § 206.208, the State of Louisiana agrees that it will, with respect to Direct Federal assistance:

Provide without cost to the United States all lands, easement, and rights-of-ways necessary to accomplish the approved work.

Hold and save the United States free from damages due to the requested work, and shall indemnify the Federal Government against any claims arising from such work;

Provide reimbursement to FEMA for the non-Federal share of the cost of such work in accordance with the provisions of the FEMA-State Agreement; and Assist the performing Federal agency in all support and local jurisdictional matters.

In addition, I anticipate the need for debris removal, which poses an immediate threat to lives, public health, and safety.

Pursuant to Sections 502 and 407 of the Stafford Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5192 & 5173, the State agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the United States of America for any claims arising from the removal of debris or wreckage for this disaster. The State agrees that debris removal from public and private property will not occur until the landowner signs an unconditional authorization for the removal of debris.

I have designated Mr. Art Jones as the State Coordinating Officer for this request. He will work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in damage assessments and may provide further information or justification on my behalf.

Sincerely,
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Governor

Enclosure
ENCLOSURE A TO EMERGENCY REQUEST
Estimated requirements for other Federal agency programs: • Department of Social Services (DSS): Opening (3) Special Need Shelters (SNS) and establishing (3) on Standby. Costs estimated at $500,000 per week for each in operation. • Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH): Opening (3) Shelters and establishing (3) on Standby. Costs estimated at $500,000 per week for each in operation. • Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (OHSEP): Providing generators and support staff for SNS and Public Shelters. Costs estimated to range from $250,000-$500,000 to support (6) Shelter generator operations. • Louisiana State Police (LSP): Costs to support evacuations - $300,000 for a non-direct landfall. • Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (WLF): Costs to support evacuations - $200,000 for a non-direct landfall. • Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD): Costs to support evacuations - $2,000,000 for a non-direct landfall.
Totals: $ 9,000,000
Estimated Requirements for assistance under the Stafford Act:
Coordination: $0 Technical and advisory assistance: $0 Debris removal: $0 Emergency protective measures: $ 9,000,000 Individuals and Households Program (IHP): $0 Distribution of emergency supplies: $0 Other (specify): $0
Totals: $ 9,000,000 Grand Total: $ 9,000,000

Flash Cartoon-Government and National Parks

College Students Get Into New Orleans With Hyundai

3 Duke students tell of 'disgraceful' scene


By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sungronberg@heraldsun.comSep 4, 2005 : 9:36 pm ET

DURHAM -- A trio of Duke University sophomores say they drove to New Orleans late last week, posed as journalists to slip inside the hurricane-soaked city twice, and evacuated seven people who weren't receiving help from authorities.

The group, led by South Carolina native Sonny Byrd, say they also managed to drive all the way to the New Orleans Convention Center, where they encountered scenes early Saturday evening that they say were disgraceful.

"We found it absolutely incredible that the authorities had no way to get there for four or five days, that they didn't go in and help these people, and we made it in a two-wheel-drive Hyundai," said Hans Buder, who made the trip with his roommate Byrd and another student, David Hankla.

Buder's account -- told by cell phone Sunday evening as the trio neared Montgomery, Ala., on their way home -- chronicled a three-day odyssey that began when the students, angered by the news reports they were seeing on CNN, loaded up their car with bottled water and headed for the Gulf coast to see if they could lend a hand.

The trio say they left Durham about 6 p.m. Thursday and reached Montgomery about 12 hours later. After catching 1½ hours of sleep, they reached the coast at Mobile. From there, they traveled through the Mississippi cities of Biloxi and Gulfport.

They say they elected to keep going because it seemed like Mississippi authorities had things well in hand.

Pushing on, they passed through Slidell, La., and tried to get into New Orleans by a couple of routes. Each time, police and National Guard troops turned them away. By 2 p.m. they'd wound up in Baton Rouge.

Stopping first at a Red Cross shelter and then at offices of a Baton Rouge TV station, WAFB, they eventually made their way to the campus of Louisiana State University. By 8 p.m. Friday they were working as volunteers in an emergency assistance area set up inside LSU's indoor track arena.

The students worked until about 2 a.m. Saturday, then slept on the floor of a dorm room. When they awoke, they went back to the TV station, which was hosting what Buder termed "a distribution center" for supplies.

At 2 p.m., the trio decided to head for New Orleans, Buder said. After looking around, they swiped an Associated Press identification and one of the TV station's crew shirts, and found a Kinko's where they could make copies of the ID.

They were stopped again by authorities at the edge of New Orleans, but this time were able to make it through.

"We waved the press pass, and they looked at each other, the two guards, and waved us on in," Buder said.

Inside the city, they found a surreal environment. "It was wild," Buder said. "It really felt like it was 'Independence Day,' the movie."

The trio dodged downed trees and power lines until they happened upon Magazine Street, which runs in a semi-circle around the city parallel to and about four blocks north of the Mississippi River.

They stopped to give water to a 15-year-old boy sitting beside the road holding a sign that said "Need Water/Food," then went to the convention center.

The evacuation was basically complete by the time they arrived, at about 6:30 or 6:45 p.m. What the trio saw there horrified them. "The only way I can describe this, it was the epicenter," Buder said. "Inside there were National Guard running around, there was feces, people had urinated, soiled the carpet. There were dead bodies. The smell will never leave me."

Buder said the students saw four or five bodies. National Guard troopers seemed to be checking the second and third floors of the building to try to secure the site. "Anyone who knows that area, if you had a bus, it would take you no more than 20 minutes to drive in with a bus and get these people out," Buder said. "They sat there for four or five days with no food, no water, babies getting raped in the bathrooms, there were murders, nobody was doing anything for these people. And we just drove right in, really disgraceful. I don't want to get too fired up with the rhetoric, but some blame needs to be placed somewhere."

By about 7 p.m., the students made their way back to the boy on Magazine Street. He directed them to some people "who really needed to get out." The resulting evacuation began at a house at the corner of Magazine and Peniston streets. The first group included three women and a man. The students climbed into the front seats of the four-door Hyundai, and the evacuees filled the back seat. They left the city and headed back to Baton Rouge. There they deposited the man at the LSU medical center and took the women to dinner. The women later found shelter with relatives, and the students got about four hours' sleep inside the LSU chapel.

At 6:30 a.m. Sunday, they made their second run into New Orleans, returning to the house at Magazine and Peniston streets. This time they picked up three men and headed back to Baton Rouge. Two of the men were the husbands of two of the women evacuated the night before. The students reunited them with their wives and put the two families on a bus for Texas.
Buder is from Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; Byrd is from Rock Hill, S.C.; and Hankla is from Washington, D.C.

Monday, September 05, 2005

Frist Volunteers In Louisianna

This is good...more politicians should reach out in very concrete ways

Sen. Frist Becomes Medical Volunteer
Sunday September 4, 2005 1:31 AM
By JONATHAN M. KATZ
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Bill Frist took off his senator's coat on Saturday and flew for New Orleans as a medical volunteer. But what he found among the thousands needing treatment from Hurricane Katrina was a rescue effort in chaos: patients sleeping on luggage conveyors, teams of nurses who didn't know each other's names and a total communication breakdown.

``In the airport right now there is no communication between one unit and another, Frist, R-Tenn., the Senate's majority leader and a surgeon.

``No coordination with how many people will be coming in the door 10 minutes later,'' he told The Associated Press. ``That's sort of the most disappointing thing. It's probably the greatest failure.''

Frist left Washington around 4:30 a.m. Saturday on his private plane. He spent most of the day helping to treat thousands of victims at Louis Armstrong International Airport and the New Orleans Convention Center.

He spoke by phone from a helicopter shuttling him between the two, taking a 45-minute tour above the flooded streets of downtown.

Frist also said the federal government had acted too slowly in dealing with the hurricane's aftermath.

``Given the escalation of catastrophe that occurred over the first three days, absolutely I would have liked to see the federal government respond quicker, more rapidly, with better command and control centers and much improved communication,'' Frist said.

``I'm not going to get into finger-pointing now. I did call for oversight hearings - I wouldn't have done that if I weren't concerned. We've got to do better.''

The senator spent the day treating diabetics for low blood sugar and dealing with cases of high blood pressure and dehydration. Though he is a surgeon by training, there was no need to perform surgery on Saturday, he said.

After overnighting in Nashville, Tenn., following his day in New Orleans, Frist planned to return to the Gulf Coast on Sunday to work in storm-ravaged areas of Mississippi and Alabama, as well as returning with supplies to New Orleans.

He plans to be back in Washington by the time the Senate reconvenes on Tuesday. He said the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts will go forward as planned.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Halliburton Gets Hurricane Contract

Halliburton gets Katrina contract, hires former FEMA director
1 Sept. 2005

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Chronicle reported today. The work was assigned to Halliburton's KBR subsidiary under the Navy's $500 million CONCAP contract awarded to KBR in 2001 and renewed in 2004. The repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi.KBR has not been asked to repair the levees destroyed in New Orleans which became the primary cause of most of the damage.

Since 1989, governments worldwide have awarded $3 billion in contracts to KBR's Government and Infrastructure Division to clean up damage caused by natural and man-made disasters. Earlier this year, the Navy awarded $350 million in contracts to KBR and three other companies to repair naval facilities in northwest Florida damaged by Hurricane Ivan, which struck in September 2004. The ongoing repair work involves aircraft support facilities, medium industrial buildings, marine construction, mechanical and electrical improvements, civil construction, and family housing renovation. In March, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is tasked with responding to hurricane disasters, became a lobbyist for KBR. Joe Allbaugh was director of FEMA during the first two years of the Bush administration.

Today, FEMA is widely criticized for its slow response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Allbaugh managed Bush's campaign for Texas governor in 1994, served as Gov. Bush's chief of staff and was the national campaign manager for the Bush campaign in 2000. Along with Karen Hughes and Karl Rove, Allbaugh was one of Bush's closest advisers. "

This is a perfect example of someone cashing in on a cozy political relationship," said Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington watchdog group. "Allbaugh's former placement as a senior government official and his new lobbying position with KBR strengthens the company's already tight ties to the administration, and I hope that contractor accountability is not lost as a result."

New Orleans Police Officer Said National Guard Troops Played Cards While People Died

When the commander in chief has an easy come, easy go attitude, so do his disciples

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usweatherpolice

Saturday, September 03, 2005

FEMA Chief Fired From Last Job

If this is true, why is he the head of this important agency?

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=100857

Bush Blames State And Local Officials For Lack Of Preparedness

Justice Rehnquist Dies

Michael Moore Letter To President Bush

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina, and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted.

Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do, like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then, but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there, done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,
Michael Moore

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.


Michael Moore is an Academy award-winning filmmaker and author of "Dude, Where's My Country".

Friday, September 02, 2005

Congress "Speeding" To Pass Katrina Aid Bill

What? Speeding? When Terri Schiavo was in crisis it took Congress all of 23 hours to get together to pass some bogus referendum. I guess some things are more important when an election is looming.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_washington

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Transcript Of Diane Sawyer Interview With Bush

A Dearth of Answers

By Dan FroomkinSpecial to washingtonpost.comThursday, September 1, 2005; 12:30 PM

Diane Sawyer's rare live interview with President Bush this morning on ABC's Good Morning America exposed one of the president's greatest weaknesses: He doesn't have the answers to some of the most important questions.

The White House press corps is sort of used to that by now, but the American public -- clamoring for answers in the wake of the horrific Gulf Coast disaster -- may be less sympathetic
Bush smiled disarmingly and delivered plenty of assurances in his interview with Sawyer, but much of what he said was not directly responsive to what Sawyer asked. Consider:

Sawyer: "Mr. President, this morning, as we speak . . . there are people with signs saying 'Help, come get me'. People still in the attic, waving. Nurses are phoning in saying the situation in hospitals is getting ever more dire and the nurses are getting sick because of no clean water. Some of the things they asked our correspondents to ask you is: They expected -- they say to us -- that the day after this hurricane that there would be a massive and visible armada of federal support. There would be boats coming in. There would be food. There would be water. It would be there within hours. They wondered: What's taking so long?"

Bush: "Well, there's a lot of food on its way. A lot of water on the way. And there's a lot of boats and choppers headed that way. Boats and choppers headed that way. It just takes a while to float 'em! . . . "

Sawyer: "But given the fact that everyone anticipated a hurricane five, a possible hurricane five hitting shore, are you satisfied with the pace at which this is arriving? And which it was planned to arrive?"

Bush: "Well, I fully understand people wanting things to have happened yesterday. I mean, I understand the anxiety of people on the ground. I can imagine -- I just can't imagine what it is like to be waving a sign saying 'come and get me now'. So there is frustration. But I want people to know there is a lot of help coming.

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded. And now we are having to deal with it and will."

Later, Sawyer asked about gas prices and oil company profits.

Sawyer: "Gas prices going up at the pumps. We have seen in Atlanta the lines backing up. And some of the prices are going up to $4, $5. First of all, what do you want to say -- what is the government putting in place to guard against price gouging? And also, is this a time to call on Americans simply to pull back and not use the gas? . . . "

Bush: "First of all, you are right. We ought to conserve more. And I would hope Americans conserve if given a choice. Secondly, we have done some things to help on the gas prices. . . ."
Sawyer: "Some people have said that the oil companies themselves should simply forfeit some of their profits in this time of national crisis. One conservative commentator, a popular one, called for a 20 percent reduction in the profits. Do you -- "

Bush: "Well, what I'd like to see in corporate America, is to make sure they contribute to helping these victims. . . . "

And what about the long-term federal role?

Sawyer: "The prospect, some people are saying, [is] of a million American refugees in place for a very long time. . . . What are you saying to them about how far the federal government will go to get their lives back? Do you promise jobs? Do you promise that they will be moved back into housing and how soon?"

Bush: "Well, first of all, we've got to get a handle on the situation. In other words, we have to stop the flooding in New Orleans and, you know, rescue the folks. Get them out of harm's way. Get food and medicine to people. Then take a serious assessment about what it is going to need to rebuild New Orleans. And parts of Mississippi."

Sawyer, her interview over, turned things back over to anchors Charlie Gibson and Robin Roberts.

Said Roberts: "Diane was right. People are asking: Where is the help? We need it now. We keep hearing, they keep hearing, that's it's coming. But they need it now."

About Those Levees

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees," Bush said.

Wrong.

Just for starters, how about Sunday's New Orleans Times-Picayune , which described a computer model run by the LSU Hurricane Center. "It indicated the metropolitan area was poised to see a repeat of Betsy's flooding, or worse, with storm surge of as much as 16 feet moving up the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet and topping levees in Chalmette and eastern New Orleans, and pushing water into the 9th Ward and parts of Mid-City."

Or Monday's New York Times , in which New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin is quoted as saying that "Hurricane Katrina could bring 15 inches of rain and a storm surge of 20 feet or higher that would 'most likely topple' the network of levees and canals that normally protect the bowl-shaped city from flooding.

And as Andrew C. Revkin and Christopher Drew write in today's New York Times: "The 17th Street levee that gave way and led to the flooding of New Orleans was part of an intricate, aging system of barriers and pumps that was so chronically underfinanced that senior regional officials of the Army Corps of Engineers complained about it publicly for years."

Today's Coverage

Bush had Air Force One fly low over the Gulf Coast on his way back from Texas to Washington yesterday.

Here are various wire service photos taken from Air Force One, showing what Bush was able to see.

"It's devastating," Bush told aides as he flew over New Orleans. "It's got to be doubly devastating on the ground."

Peter Baker writes in The Washington Post: "After a month-long retreat at his Texas ranch, Bush returned to Washington on Wednesday in crisis-management mode, where his administration is likely to remain indefinitely. With his poll numbers at an all-time low, Bush faces one of the stiffest leadership tests since Sept. 11, 2001, with continued violence in Iraq, gasoline prices topping $3 a gallon in many places and now what he called 'one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history.' . . .

"While critics accused Bush of being slow to recognize the horrible scale of the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina on Monday, he moved Wednesday to reassert his public leadership role and reassure the American people that he is in charge. After his 35-minute flyover along the Gulf Coast, he raced back to Washington, met his disaster relief team in the White House and strode into the Rose Garden to address the nation. . . .

"But in a capital suffused with anger and partisan division, it did not take long for Bush's leadership on Katrina to come under question. Noting that it took Bush two days to cut short his vacation and return to Washington, Democrats painted the president as dithering while New Orleans drowned."

Richard W. Stevenson writes in the New York Times: "The Bush administration stepped up the federal response on Wednesday to the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, deploying thousands more National Guard and active-duty troops to the Gulf Coast to help with rescue and relief missions, authorizing the release of oil from the nation's strategic reserve to blunt the economic effects of the storm and dispatching food, water and medical supplies to the region. . . .

"But with the situation in the region chaotic and still evolving, it was unclear how quickly and fully the plan would address the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the storm and the ensuing flooding, or whether it would prove sufficiently large and well executed to deal with the long-term challenges the disaster presents."

David E. Sanger writes in the New York Times: "Not since he sat in a Florida classroom as the World Trade Center burned a thousand miles away has President Bush faced a test quite like the one he returned to Washington to confront this afternoon.

"After initially stumbling through that disorienting day almost exactly four years ago, Mr. Bush entered what many of his aides believe were the finest hours of his presidency. But unlike 2001, when Mr. Bush was freshly elected and there was little question that the response would include a military strike, Mr. Bush confronts this disaster with his political capital depleted by the war in Iraq.

"Even before Hurricane Katrina, governors were beginning to question whether National Guard units stretched to the breaking point by service in Iraq would be available for domestic emergencies. Those concerns have now been amplified by scenes of looting and disorder. There is also the added question of whether the Department of Homeland Security, designed primarily to fight terrorism, can cope with what Mr. Bush called Wednesday 'one of the worst natural disasters in our country's history.' "

Mary Curtius and Edwin Chen write in the Los Angeles Times: "Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast this week just as President Bush's public approval rating hit an all-time low. How he handles the aftermath of the monster storm could, in the short term, burnish the president's leadership image at a time when some problems uppermost in voters' minds -- including violence in Iraq and high gasoline prices -- seem unsolvable.

"But public impatience with the pace of recovery or painful economic fallout from the storm that spreads across the country also loom as potential political menace."

Here is the text of Bush's remarks yesterday.

Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey write for Newsweek.com: "From the moment Katrina set aim for the Gulf Coast, White House officials have had two other storms on their minds: last year's devastating tsunami, to which Bush was criticized for responding too slowly, and the political turmoil that Bush faces here at home over the war and the economy. . . .

"As Bush returns to Washington to deal with Katrina's aftermath, it's a chance for him to look presidential and to briefly turn public attention from a troubled war to the homefront. . . .
"[But] the Bush administration faces some immediate, urgent challenges -- and serious questions about its response to the disaster. For all the president's statements ahead of the hurricane, the region seemed woefully unprepared for the flooding of New Orleans -- a catastrophe that has long been predicted by experts and politicians alike. There seems to have been no contingency planning for a total evacuation of the city, including the final refuges of the city's Superdome and its hospitals. There were no supplies of food and water ready offshore -- on Navy ships for instance -- in the event of such flooding, even though government officials knew there were thousands of people stranded inside the sweltering and powerless city."

Ron Fournier writes for the Associated Press: "Cutting short his vacation and marshaling the power of the federal government could help reverse his sliding job approval rating. But the president's hands-on approach seems a bit too political for some, and makes him an easy target should Katrina's victims start looking for somebody to blame during the long, costly road to recovery.

"In purely political terms, the question is whether Bush can live up to the tough, can-do reputation he cultivated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Or whether he falls short of expectations and pays a political price, as his father did after Hurricane Andrew slammed Florida in 1992."

Incidentally, Bush said his in ABC interview this morning: "I hope people don't play politics at this time of a natural disaster the likes of which this country has never seen."

Does He Get It?

Perhaps the harshest critique of all is that Bush doesn't get it. And it's a critique coming from elements of both the left and right.

A New York Times editorial today says: "George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end. . . .
"Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen in an orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been one to counsel sacrifice. And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday -- which seemed casual to the point of carelessness -- suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

National Review's Corner blog was full of harsh critiques yesterday. Rod Dreher wrote: "We don't need mere emoting. . . . But we do need our president to make an emotional connection of some sort with his suffering countrymen. You can be tough, competent AND emotional. It's called Giuliani 101."

Bring The National Guard Home

Bush As A Leader


I'm not saying that he needs to go straight in to New Orleans...but he ought to have gone back to DC IMMEDIATELY. He should have dropped his visits to pound on social security. He should have dropped his visits with military families and postponed that for another time. He did not see fit to return to the White House to work with his team until it was too late. Yeah, he let go of millions of dollars for the relief effort, but he is no hero for doing that. Anyone would have done that. I got a leader who in an interview said that noone courl have foreseen that the levees would break. WHAT? Even I would know that if a city is dependent on levees and a major, unprecedented hurricane was about to strike, that this would be a possibility. Not to mention decades of scientific literature and warnings that New Orleans could not handle a hurricane of this magnitude and the levees would not withstand. He has always been the back-pedaller. I was looking for a leader who would make me feel hopeful and strong. I got a one liner during his social security speech, a late return to the White House, and a nauseating feeling that he just doesn't get it.

Denny Hastert Says New Orleans Should Be Leveled

This is the type of person Bush surrounds himself with. No wonder he had such a pathetic response to this disaster.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB2X5HP3DE.html

Where Is The Police Presence In New Orleans?

The media reported that there are hundreds of police and National Guard waiting to be deployed to New Orleans. What the hell are they waiting for? By the time they get there, everyone will be dead. This is an outrage and someone's head needs to role. This should not be happening in this country. We can get helicopters to other countries to drop food to them in their disasters, but our people have to die because someone has their head in the sand?

Where are the police? Friggin Harry Connick Jr. made it to New Orleans, you would think the federal government can get there.

Florida Hotels Have Told Katrina Refugees To Leave Prior To Big Football Game

Can this be happening? After the citizens of this country helped Florida victims of hurricanes over and over again, they will throw desparate people to the street? This has to be a joke.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/12529728.htm

Preparations For Katrina

I hate to say this, but I am dismayed at the preparations taken relative to Katrina. The media keeps reporting that people trapped in New Orleans are for the most part, the poor and disadvantaged. Prior to the hurricane hitting, weather experts were predicting that this would be a hurrican that would bring total devastation. So I don't understand, why do poor people have to beg motorists for money to fill their gas tanks, or beg for rides to the Superdome or out of town? Why wasn't the National Guard there prior to the storm hitting with tanks, buses, etc to stop on every corner and take the poor out of this city? Surely, someone could have ordered that buses, as many as needed, would go to New Orleans and get people who were desparate.

Everyone knew that this was going to be a devastating hurricane. The analysts said that New Orleans might be completely gone, even prior to it's arrival. Why does it seem that all that was done was to warn everyone to get out, set up a few shelters, and hope for the best? Didn't they have enough forsight to consider that if this hurricane was going to be so huge, that the shelters may not hold up? What is a mandatory evacuation anyway? What good is that if the poor have no way to get out?

Today, efforts to evacuate the Superdome were halted because some people were actually shooting at evacuation vehicles/aircraft. The National Guard responded by saying that they were goign to send 100 guard troops, and the coordinator of this effort said that is not enough, they need 1000 to stop the rioting. The National Guard ought to be flooding and overpowering New Orleans, but alas, they are fighting a war thousands of miles away.

Sorry, I am not trying to make a bad situation worse, I am just venting about how this appears to me. It makes me very sad.
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