Oops! It's those darn facts gettin' in the way of a good yarn ag'in.

Unless the picture is really a composite of a stuffed manikin and background projected on bluescreen... in which case it's another signature Rove. Ah, another masterpiece. He really should start a gallery.

So perfect. Love this post.

Paul, I have been reading your blogs with interest and am glad that you are safe and well. However I am amazed by your unwavering support of your President. Whether its blind patriotism or a radical hatred of the media, Bush can appear to do no wrong on this site, be it Kevin, Jay Tea or yourself who authors the story. I was hoping for some pragmatic and unbiased news from a man on the ground, such as yourself. However showing a picture of Bush looking at a weather report to suggest that he has been on top of the situation from the outset is quite possibly one of the funniest things that I have ever read!

Similarly if you take solace thinking that Bush et al have done their jobs in dealing with Katrina, then you are without doubt truly a model citizen.

conor, your judging the facts, Bush' picture, based off you own conclusions. It should work the other way around if you are worried about being unbiased.

You know, I think one could put together a fairly blistering anti-Bush post regarding the Katrina response ... without dragging Bush's vacation and fundraising into it.

--|PW|--

The facts are clear. There was a hurricane, a city was destroyed, inhabitants were displaced and there was no official response from local authorities or the national executive.

On the other hand, any criticism of the government is seen as moonbattery. What is complete moonbattery to me is that there are so many people who will defend their government at any cost when all the evidence suggests that there has been a catastrophic failure from every level of government from the mayor right up to the president, the cabinet and his advisors.

By all means be a good patriot, love your country and your president but be big enough to accept that he is capable of making mistakes. There are fanatics on both sides of the political divide that would accept verbatim the spin that falls from their leader's mouthes. However such is life and as we all know they are enough suckers out there gullible enough to believe everything their government tells them.

This is a picture only someone as dumb as Jimk could love.

Keep on trying boys. Soon enough something will stick. And then your boy can get back to work ruining this country.

I can hardly wait until it affects you guys personally, for you to finally realize you've been hitting the koolaid too hard and have been duped.

The facts are clear. There was a hurricane, a city was destroyed, inhabitants were displaced and there was no official response from local authorities or the national executive.

That is about the most unrealistic statement of a bold-faced lie I have ever read. The fact that you say it so unashamedly proves how unflinching you are before evidence that contradicts your wild-eyed assertions.

FWIW, Paul, I also blogged about this AP report here, and noted that "officials" from the government were in Baton Rouge on Monday! So much for that "no official response" lie.

Connor,

There are also fools out there who have been raised from childhood to believe that the government is the answer to all their woes in life. A little common sense and a modicum of personal responsibility could have alleviated much of what we are seeing on TV today. It amazes me too, that so many do not give a thought about what we are not seeing that is the pride of simple everyday people in this country. The MSM focuses on the worst in everything. If you would sit down and really thing about this dissaster, you could come to no other conclusion than this has been a fantistic success, the likes of which the planet has never seen. Even with the obvious fact that so many have died and so many others are having to deal with the facts of being alive on the face of this planet. Thank god I do not live it the area which was so devastated, but if ever I find myself in that situation, I couldn't think of another country in which I would rather be than right here in the USA!! Even with all the idiots who are more concerned with the blame game than actually focusing their efforts on doing something constructive!

It is easy to say something false (the looney left is trying to pin all of the problems on Bush) and then disprove it. I think almost everyone knows there is a lot of blame to go around. To protect the Bush Administration on this one is wheels' off. They have to take a lot of blame and they know it. Why else would they say, "Don't play the blame game" and, yet, have people including Tom Delay and the always exciting "senior Bush official" quoted in so many newspapers blaming the state and the city? They are concerned and should be.

It is pretty disingenuous to say that someone was on top of a situation when that same person goes on national TV with a line that nobody anticipated the concept of the levees breaking. It didn't wash and he was given a new set of talking points (including, don't play the blame game).

Moreover, from a public relations standpoint, honoring commitments for a Medicare speech after the storm hits, going to a fundraiser at a golf resort in Arizona, and having a photo op with a country singer after the levees have given way does not show a President really in touch with the pulse of the nation. I don't want to argue about whether or not anything better would have happened had he actually done his flyover earlier and started to sense a real crisis. To his credit, things happened, but only after that point.

And your case might be a smidge more effective had this President not been so bullheaded or resolute in honoring his commitments to donors and to issues that could have waited until after he tended to the thousands whose lives were in jeopardy and forever changed in the Gulf region.

But that guitar with the Presidential seal was pretty cool. I guess that just couldn't wait.

"A fantastic success the likes of which the planet has never seen"?!!!!! In the words of a great tennis player " you can not be serious"! What success are you talking about? Don't you remember St Stephen's Day, Boxing Day, the day after Christmas Day, whatever day you call it? There was a tidal wave of biblical proportions. The international response was immediate. Without detracting from the severity of Katrina, the Asian Tsunami affected hundreds of millions of people, continents. Katrina is a local issuse, the type of which could have been planned for. To say that execution of the recovery and rescuse operation was a success is an insult to the families and friends of those whom have perished.

The people of New Orleans are blaming the politicians, the media are blaming the politicians and the politicians are blaming each other! Blame game? Get real.

As for "a modicum of personal responsibility" well, they do say that hindsight is 20/20. How unfortunate that the citizens of New Orleans did not possess more responsible civic minded people like yourself! I'm sure had you been there the disaster would have been avoided and we'd all be laughing about it!!

Apologies for any typing errors and spelling mistakes

Connor,

I agree that calling this thing a great success is a bit of a stretch.

Nevertheless, if one lives 8 feet below sea level, and between two levies designed for a "fast moving cat 3" - with a cat 5 heading your way - it doesn't take a lot of civic responsibility to figure out that it is time to act. If you can walk, you can get to high ground. A great majority did just that.

I have less sympathy for the able, but unwilling, than for the willing, but unable. The failure to invoke the evacuation plan left hospital and nursing home patients stranded. This was intollerable. Busses rusted in the lots and many died.

Similarly, the failure to deploy the 7000 National Guard to NO, and the blocking of Red Cross food and water trucks to the Superdome was probably criminal.

These were failures of the City and State, not Bush or FEMA.

Conor, you should be asking why Mayor Nagin waited until a week after the hurricane to forcibly remove people from the city who lived in high flood-risk areas, and failed to provide the transportation to those without transportation that his own emergency planning had called for for. You can keep denying it as long as you want, but the facts say that it was Bush who pushed Nagin and Blanco to act before the storm struck, and not the other way around.

If you don't have the 120,000+ people left in the city, you don't have the same scale of human disaster. And there is no doubt who had the legal authority to make this happen, and who failed to do so... Mayor Nagin.

Now Nagin is forcing evacuation in dry parts of the city as water and power are being turned back on in those areas, after there is no fucking point. And he still isn't letting the Red Cross into the city. What a complete fucking moron.

'there was no official response from local authorities or the national executive. '

WTF?

What Bush should be blamed for is deferring in any way to completely incompetent assclowns like Ray Nagin or Kathleen Blanco.

It is pretty disingenuous to say that someone was on top of a situation when that same person goes on national TV with a line that nobody anticipated the concept of the levees breaking. It didn't wash and he was given a new set of talking points (including, don't play the blame game).

This is another LIE that seems to not die. The facts are that EVERY DISASTER SIMULATION speculated that the storm surge would "overtop" the levees, NOT that the levees would break. See, for instance this NYT article titled "Government saw flood risk, not levee failure."

To quote:

Army Corps personnel, in charge of maintaining the levees in New Orleans, started to secure the locks, floodgates and other equipment, said Greg Breerwood, deputy district engineer for project management at the Army Corps of Engineers.

“We knew if it was going to be a Category 5, some levees and some flood walls would be overtopped,” he said. “We never did think they would actually be breached.” The uncertainty of the storm’s course affected Pentagon planning.
It didn't wash because people like you ignore the facts. EVEN THE INFAMOUS TIMES-PICAYUNE SERIES about the big one posited the levees being overtopped, NOT BREACHED.

If you don't think there's a difference, try a little experiment: Fill your bathtub to overflowing.

Now, fill your bathtub and knock a hole in the side of it. See which one fills your bathroom quicker and is more difficult to deal with.

"You can keep denying it as long as you want, but the facts say that it was Bush who pushed Nagin and Blanco to act before the storm struck, and not the other way around."

The facts do not say this. He spoke with them a half-hour before their press conference when they announced the evacuation. He spoke with Blanco, not Nagin. So could he have seconded the notion? Sure - definitely. But to say he "pushed" for action is just silly. And this is the federal government, remember? In times of crisis, they're supposed to respond. And they didn't. National disasters of this type are FEMA's priority, and they were completely baffled, and Bush's response was halting, confused and insensitive.

Could much have been done before that wasn't? Yes. And that's on the feds, the locals and the state, all together. Buses, sure -- Nagin coulda grabbed as many as possible. The Feds could have come in and done the same with Greyhound. I give just about everybody involved prior to the storm about a D+, at best.

But people were told to go to the Superdome. And they were left there for days while the federal government fiddled. They were evacuated Saturday. Five days later! This unquestioning need to circle the wagons, no matter what, is ridiculous. Doesn't this stuff make you angry? If a society cannot band together to help its most needy at a time like that -- when they're sleeping in their own crap in a stadium -- what good is the government? Why have a government at all? Don't give me that BS about people expecting too much of the government. Expecting food and water after you went to the area you were told to go to after a hurricane is about the lowest possible expectation anyone can have of the government -- and this one didn't even do that. Unacceptable.

Conor:

I never said the entire government was blameless... What site have you been reading? FEMA has been a debacle. (go read my posts) The Governor should be held criminally liable. (and Nagin is 50/50 in my book)

But the loony tunes keep saying Bush was on vacation and not paying attention. If you believe that, you are believing a delusion. Contemporaneous reports prove otherwise.

You are welcome to enjoy your Bush hating delusions, just don't expect me to join you.

Golly, Bush signed a piece of paper put in front of him. Wow. Now there's bold, decisive leadership. I suppose that it's technically true that it was hands-on, assuming he didn't use an auto-pen, but really...

And I love that bogus overtopped versus breached controversy. A man who hasn't met an English sentence he couldn't scramble more thoroughly than the eggs at Joe's Diner suddenly knows the difference between breached and overtopped. A man so obsessed with non-existent weapons of mass destruction, he can't be bothered protecting the citizens he swore on a Bible to protect from genuine, real, predicted catastrophe.

Bush strummed, New Orleans drowned.

Yea Bush did a wonderful job, everything just right, and its Bush haters and media who just dont get it. Mike Brown is the best FEMA director ever, and the people who died were lazy and stupid anyway.

One little problem with your central idea: Clinton declared many areas disasters BEFORE hurricanes struck- can you do even basic fact checking before you spew your talking points ?

Sadly stating an opinion contrary to the editorial line is a kin to pissing against the wind. There will be apologists for the powers inadequacies and failings as there always has been. Perhaps in years to come history will reveal what really happened, until then, the rest is just speculation and hyperbole.

All this is almost funny, if it weren't for so many people who are dying. I live in a hurricane prone area. I have been in at least 5, don't remember exactly how many, but I DO remember when they are above Cat 3 I got the hell out. That is just a slight , and I mean slight, amount of personal responsibility.

I am not even a native of the area in which I live but I learned pretty dam quick that I must be a little bit prepared for something like we are witnessing today in LA and the Gulf Coast. I have evacuated my home only once in the past 10 years due to a hurricane.

But what I am seeing today really discusts me. Cause I see a multitude of people who are ignoring our "leaders" and just helping their neighbors. I see a military who is doing a fantastic job in spite of a beurocracy that is totally incompetent. Sadly, I see a bunch of politicions who care more about "the blame game" to save their incompetent asses than they care about taking care of a disaster which is killing thousands.

I'll put my faith and survival into the hands of myself and my neighbors anytime over those I am watching on TV anytime.

According to the National Response Plan, which Bush accespted without apparently understanding, DHS/FEMA OWNED the problem from the day Bush declared an emergency and invoked the Stafford Act. That was August 27.

The utter failure of FEMA is underscored by Bush failing to appear the least bit concerned about the deterioration. Why wasn't he angrily making phone calls, demanding explanations and solutions? Did he ever ask why the Red Cross was barred? Did he ever ask why offers of trucks, water, and buses was refused by FEMA?

Answer: he didn't care. He chose to politicize it rather than solve it.

His only actions have been to assure that the feds will award lots of nice fat no-bid contracts to fix the the oil industry, and probably Trent Lott's house. Halliburton has had contracts for almost a week now.

Hey he's getting away with it in Iraq, why not here?

$100 billion spent on DHS, and now the whole relief effort depends on charities and additional spending legislated by Congress. Even today there is no coordinated federal response.

It's worse than disgusting. It's evil.

http://www.thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline

here is a pretty accurate and detailed timeline about the events that happened prior, during and after katrina hit.

i know there is enough blame to go around but the blind defense of bush and refusal to criticize or even listen to criticism is crazy. why didn't you post the picture of bush playing guitar after katrina hit? or condi shopping for shoes? or cheney house-hunting?

Be sure to catch the revised timeline!!!
http://tinyurl.com/b7389

The short version is that the National Response Plan (NRP) + the WH invocation of the Stafford Act on Aug. 27 made Katrina an "Incident of National Significance." This is significant! It means all this mewling and claims of federal powerless (because Blanco didn't say pretty please etc.) are just self-serving and misleading BS.

It means FEMA had full authority and responsibility to do all in its power TWO DAYS BEFORE Katrina hit. It also means it had full power and responsibility to put in place resources PRIOR to the hit, and that included getting medical and food/water resources to the Superdome, which had already been designated as a refuge. Note that this WAS done in Florida (in an election year, though!).

more here from a fact-laden post at Kos (see http://tinyurl.com/79jym).

The bitter irony is that the NRP was crafted by DHS to eliminate the very bureacratic snafus that DFS is trying to hide behind now -- which largely didn't exist anyway. If state and local politicians weren't up to the job, if one of the poorest states in the union didn't have adequate resources, or if all the local resources were obliterated in a nuclear attack, FEMA was empowered and obligated to take charge.

If state and local pols were incompetent, MIA, or AWOL, then all the more reason for FEMA to have taken charge -- as Blanco made possible on Aug. 26!

I believe the federal non-response was criminal, and resulted in the unnecessary loss of thousands of lives.

Agreed with jen and turbino. Bush was so involved he was fiddling around for two days before even saying anything. And now they're shifting blame, as usual. Never an eye towards responsibility. We needed a leader and he wasn't there. If it's not running right - which it was clear early on that it wasn't - you step in. As a president. You don't have the authority to control the state Nat'l Guard? Then work with other people. Kick their asses to make it run right. Lead decisively and others will follow. Guiliani did it in NYC when Bush was hiding in Kansas. Simply making a phone call to "express concern" that morning wasn't enough. I agree -- not everyone knew of the ramifications, and Bush was right to declare the state of emergency, and Nagin was right to call for the first evacuation in the city's history. They all did a little, but not enough beforehand, but they did some. But the largest failure after rests in FEMA and the Administration's hands.

BTW, that photo of Bush getting the briefing is really a smoking gun. The guy who called the conference essentially said he was doing his best to let everyone know that THIS WAS THE BIG ONE, and the president needed to know about it.

IOW, he was running around with his hair on fire, and did his best to get the president to cope with the seriousness of it, by ensuring that the proper response was in place BEFORE the disaster!

And once again, Bush ignored the warning!

I'm glad you posted this, because the DHS and FEMA heads are trying to claim they couldn't have known etc. Even Bush LATER claimed no one thought the levee might break -- but he was briefed otherwise days before!!!

I'm telling you, when you see what he knew and when he knew it...

and what his own National Response Plan says he promised to do when he signed the Aug. 27 declaration...

it absolutely looks like criminal negligence.

How to tell when an anti-Bush meme is collapsing: the BDS sufferers emerge from the woodwork.

What, exactly is collapsing? Huh? That Bush, was, what? In charge? Leading with conviction? Are you honestly proud of your president at this time? I mean, seriously. This response/situation doesn't make you upset? He didn't return to Washington until Wednesday. Yes, he can still work from Crawford. But he was off doing campaigning on Monday and Tuesday, essentially. This entire 'meme-buster' rests on the idea that he gets updates at his ranch in Texas. Well, bully for him. As we've seen in the past, it doesn't mean he's actually really doing much of anything. So is he "technically" on a vacation the way, say, someone goes on a honeymoon? No. Congrats. You've won that incredible argument. But was he still on vacation, in the figurative sense, as in, "out to lunch"? Yes.

I see the latest "gotcha" Katrina talking point is "You're an apologist for Bush, in your eyes he can do no wrong."

Incorrect, of course. Bush does lots of things wrong. Immigration. Not vetoing huge spending bills. Et cetera.

But he really didn't do anything wrong in this case, except possibly to trust the people he hired. And, in my book, that's not wrong.

The problem is that in the moonbats' eyes, he can't do anything right. No matter what bad thing happens, it's Bush's fault. If something good happens, though, Bush gets no credit at all from these same people.

But hey, knock yourselves out guys. You're not getting any traction with the spittle-flecked, googly-eyed, hyperactive tirades. More spew from you, more moderates for us. Thanks!

"More spew from you, more moderates for us. Thanks!"

Are you watching what's going on? Do you see that people are upset? And yet, you continue to couch it as if it's just a bunch of loons, and otherwise, things are going well, or as you put it, "he didn't do anything wrong." Open your eyes.

Jump up and down and shake that little fist. Stick out that little lower lip. You'll show us! You'll show us good!