Maybe my modern short attention span brain has fried out what it heard a mere 6 months ago...but is it some sort of revelation or surprise that people knew a big hurricane could swamp New Orleans? The press (and MorOn.org) is certainly acting like this is some new earthshattering fact.

What am I missing about this?

Good scoop, Kevin.

Falze - I don't think you are missing anything. We already knew where the mistakes were made. This is just icing on the cake for liberals, but anyone paying attention from the get go already knew this.

A lot like Downing street.

I guess the tapes show that "Brownie was doing a heck of a job," right?

and liberals (jp2) keep hitchin their wagon to a dead horse (MSM)

The MSM never let facts get in the way of a good propaganda piece.

The tape I heard says the experts feared the storm surge would top the levee's. That did not happen. The levee's broke. Breaking of the levee's was not discussed.

The tape I heard says the experts feared the storm surge would top the levee's. That did not happen. The levee's broke. Breaking of the levee's was not discussed.

I guess the tapes show that "Brownie was doing a heck of a job," right?

Actually, they do. He was asking the right questions, obviously had a handle on how things were going and what could go wrong, and seemed to know that the weak link in the chain was the lack of state and local response and preparedness.

Unfortunately, due to those pesky Federal laws, there wasn't much FEMA could do to counteract the locals until it was too late.

Whoah! Very nice catch, Kevin.

But it's not as if the AP hasn't tried to pull this kind of stunt before.

Yep.. really isn't it really getting harder to defend the President? He ASKED NO QUESTIONS! If just another "My Pet Goat" moment doesn't concern you than you live in world that is different. As for bringing up Rather..the fact remains the same..Bush did not take his training and volunteer to defend his country in a time of WAR..no seriously...defend Bush not asking a single question over what was said..maybe..Will the city be flooded? What exactly is in place for post-storm assestence? ...Remember..BUSH STAYED ON VACATION..Katrina was/is bigger than 9/11..Do you trust Bush to respond to a major event where you live? Do you really believe Bush sides with you over Big Business? I enjoy, in a perverse way the continuing excueses here for our worst President ever. Blame the media..Blame Ted Kennedy..Blame Clinton..Blame the Majority of U.S. ctizens who are now against our occupation Of Iraq and the invasion.. Blame everyone but Bush..

A lot like Downing street.

Yeah, it is a lot like Downing Street, another phony bullshit "scandal" furiously peddled by BDS-crazed loonies, which lasted about a week before unraveling into nothing and forcing them on to the next one, like addicts seeking their next fix.

LOL, nice work, Kevin!

Was the tape sent to the AP from the Abilene Kinko's?

What part of the British acknowledged Downing Street Memos have been proven to be "bullshit"..as for "nothing"? ...2/3 of a major U.S. city is no longer there..that is not going away..hey why don't you explain why someone who got fighter pilot training did not use that training in Viet Nam? The "nothing" will not go away because a major city has been destroyed is not going away..and the Bush invasion of Iraq and the climbing body count both dead and alive but changed forever is not going away..the ...and of course the feeble excuses for Bush will not go away..

Drew,

Earlier in the same meeting Brown noted that Bush had called him twice that day (it was then about noon) for an update, and asked "lots of questions".

No wonder then, that he asked none during the meeting. Another MSM gotcha.

"the tatters the story has been shredded into by the blogosphere"

Well gee, thats gonna get alot of play. The MSM is front paging the original story and it leads a number of TV news casts. 70% of the American people will believe it is basically correct.

Who really cares except the internet political junkies?

Chalk this up as another successful smear hit against the Prez.

PS- this was on Power Line moments ago:

CNN and the Democrats--sorry for the redundancy--have jumped on the Hurricane Katrina bandwagon. CNN's report repeats the factual error that the Associated Press made yesterday, confusing breaches of the levees with overtopping of the levees. President Bush said it wasn't anticipated that the levees would be breached; the famous video that everyone is watching doesn't contradict that statement. It talks only about the possibility of levee overtopping.

Is it possible that all of these reporters have somehow missed all of the post-Katrina discussions about the important differences between levee overtopping (widely predicted before Katrina hit, including by CNN), and breaching of the levees, which apparently resulted from design or construction defects? It seems almost inconceivable that all of those involved in misreporting the video can claim ignorance.

The Democrats sent out an email this afternoon that contains a flat misrepresentation:

The tapes directly contradict Bush's now infamous claim after Katrina, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
That statement is false, and the Democrats must know it. The level of dishonesty on exhibit here is disgusting.

Drew : These guys get some good trolls around here, some even worthy of engaging in debate. You, on the other hand, are an ass.

A cursory review of your posts shows that you missed at least two of the pertinent talking points, for which you should be scolded by your DU/Kos/Atrios/oliverwillis/etc ... masters.

You forgot to mention Halliburton. You neglected to state that Bush lied, and people died.

Go back, do a little research, and find out about the history of the plane that President Bush was trained on, when it was taken out of service in the war, etc ... come back, and report accordingly.

on fosnews special report, brti hume pointed out that this video WAS NOT CONFIDENTIAL (the video was reasled the day after it was amde, and the transcript has been around too!).

bill sammon then that this article is JOURNALISTIC FRAUD.

malpractice.

deliberate.

your revelation is equallt ENRAGING!

will thgese people never stop!? have they NO SHAME!?

Mister Drysdale's son. That's W.

...he just can't find his yachting hat.

Jethro Bodine, that's bryanD.

What most don't realize is that we've been worried about losing New Orleans for at least the last two decades!

You don't have to be much brighter than a catfish to understand that when you build a coastal city fifteen feet below sea level, you will run a definite risk of flooding during storms.

Call the media what you want, but stupid they are not: they know a great propagandist when they see one.

Hmmm.

I will now respond to all of the various allegations and assertions being made, and thus causing a re-re-re-re-re-re-re-rehashing of the same basic facts yet again. I will cover, in detail, all of the facts known and when they were known and by whom. I will detail what options were available and why some were not allowed due to the law. I will cover why the President's powers are curtailed within the United States and why Katrina went so badly compared to Florida in 2004 and th Tsunami disaster.

In short I will expend great effort so that nobody is put to the effort of actually searching the archives and reviewing the enormous mass of writing that has already gone on before.

But I will do so in my own unique minimalist style.

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Thank you.

Only a truly stupid person can blame a man, George W. Bush, for a 300 mile wide cat. 4 hurricane.

Exactly how would have Katrina gone down differently if it happened in 1998? I mean besides Clinton biting his lip and the media praising him for his strong leadership.

New Orleans has known a direct hit would break the levees since the late 1700's. In fact, it has happened several times before.

Blaming Bush for Katrina is the sign of the truly child - like mind.

What did the dems expect the President to do?? Rush to Nawlins and start slinging sandbags? The whole premise is ridiculous and it's just sad that so many Americans will lap up the sh*t the MSM feeds them.

Of course we now have the tape of Blanco exposing her ignorance on the conditions of the levees...warnings were posted at 9 am, but by noon she still didn't have a clue...drew, where did you go?

The Norwegian media loved this story. Every single large media source in Norway played this story. Many of them stated outright that Bush had been caught lying.

So, anyone still wonder why Bush is hated abroad?

I emailed every single one of the big sources and told them that they needed to check their Bush-hatred at the door before going to work, because this was getting ridiculous.

Oh, and they can't play the ignorance card either. They even translated the video correctly, where Mayfield says "topped", which they translated to what comes out being "overswam".

They know Bush didn't lie, but they don't care. The Norwegian public won't see the difference between "topped" and "breached". Mostly because most of the sources didn't even quote Bush and Mayfield correctly. Either that or they didn't quote them at all.

You think the American MSM is bad? The Norwegian media acts like CBS - they run with every single hit-piece that comes out of the USA, and they don't fact-check any of it. All anti-Bush, all the time.

The 2nd largest TV station in Norway, and I'm not even joking, ran a piece on the evening news stating "the USA has used chemical weapons in Iraq".

The mainstream media in these countries have become the poison that will unravel everything. Checks and balances. Not just for the government, but for the zealous political hacks running the biggest media sources in the world.

I blame Bush for not rushing to NOLA and throwing his body on top of the levee as soon as he kind of maybe sort of knew that maybe the levee might break. Even though the Governor said no levee had broken. He should have said "Shut up bitch, I know what kind of sort of might possibly happen, and I'm coming down there!"

But maybe he should have thrown Michael Moore's body on top of the levee. Bush is kind of scrawny and it was a really big hole.

Its interesting to watch people in the media suggest that of everyone involved, George W. Bush ignored Katrina.

Not the tens of thousands of idiots who stayed behind in a cat 5/4 hurricane.

Not the moron of a mayor who forgot/ignored the school buses that were to be used to evacuate his people.

Not the corrupt cops of New(ly flooded) Orleans who spent their spare time looting.

Not the airhead governor Blanco who was caught saying on her live microphone that she should have asked for military help from GWB sooner.

Of all of those people, it was GWB who should have known how much trouble New Orleans was in. Suddenly, its GWB (and not Nagin or Blanco) who knows about New Orleans propensity for flooding. It was GWB who should have gotten FEMA there sooner then in any previous disaster. (GWB: "Hey Fema? This time, its a -real- disaster. Move it. Okay?")

Sure. That makes sense.

-John

We need to get to the source of the problem. 20 or 30 years ago, when the Corps of Engineers wanted to strengthen the levees, the environmemtalists took them to court and stopped the project. Then, six months ago, people stayed home when they were told to leave town.
There's no one to blame but those environmentalists.

The thing taht truly should sadden you all is that the Liberals REFUSE to blame Blanco, Nagin, and the NOPD for their murderous incompetence; perferring to shift blame to the White House... because it's better in their minds that "there were no buses" remain the official policy, as long as President Bush can be used as a scapegoat.

Politics over competence, that's what has been announced as the S.O.P.

Six months before Katrina, in April of 2005, I read in "Popular Science" about what would happen to New Orleans if a Cat 5 hurricane struck the area. It was dead on. To wit:

"It takes Scott Kiser only a split second to name the one city in the U.S., and probably the world, that would sustain the most catastrophic damage from a category-5 hurricane. "New Orleans," says Kiser, a tropical-cyclone program manager for the National Weather Service."

"Although hurricanes of this magnitude slamming directly into New Orleans are extremely rare--occurring perhaps every 500 to 1,000 years--should one come ashore, the resulting storm surge woul