It wasn’t even two weeks ago that the AP launched their latest “get Bush” campaign by trying to say that new video evidence proved that President Bush was warned about the possibility of levees breaking, despite an interview on ABC…

“AP FRIDAY NIGHT CLARIFICATION ON BUSH/KATRINA VIDEO
Fri Mar 03 2006 19:48:29 ET

Clarification: Katrina-Video story
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a March 1 story, The Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.

The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.

The day before the storm hit, Bush was told there were grave concerns that the levees could be overrun. It wasn’t until the next morning, as the storm was hitting, that Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Bush had inquired about reports of breaches. Bush did not participate in that briefing.”

Yup. You’re exactly right. There were tons of individuals that risked life and limb…just because it was the right thing to do. My point was more directed at the various govn’t agencies and more specifically, the leaders therein. This deal should have been more of a “group effort” with a helluva lot better timing.

I’m sanitized…

CB wrote, “everyone dropped the ball relatinve to Katrina

I’d say the people who didn’t evacuate dropped the ball. Yes. And the people who didn’t use resources such as the hundreds of local buses sitting idle. Yes. But who didn’t drop the ball? Look at the Popular Mechanics article I linked above and you see who didn’t drop the ball. Hundreds of organizations. The largest rescue and relief effort in history of a hurricane.

Oh yeah. Who else dropped the ball? The Louisiana Department of Health who repeatedly denied the American Red Cross from bringing supplies to Convention Center folks.

Let’s keep this bandwagon rolling huh CB? Isn’t it fun to point fingers. Let’s see. I blame the legacy media for misreporting and not identifying what FEMA’s role after a hurricane is (not first responders). It says it on FEMA’s website. Expect a 72 -96 hour response.

Anyways. Before people get me wrong here. Let me applaud the wonderful people who bled, sweated, tired themselves out helping the people in the Gulf States. This is what the media and CB should be doing. Applauding a tireless set of people who put out so much heart and soul into helping people. Thank you.

And Thank you Sanity for pointing out the double standard of the media. It’s why people do not listen to them anymore and they are bleating to thier dwindling flock of sheep. HA!

In New Video, Blanco Says Levees Are Safe

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the hectic, confused hours after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, Louisiana’s governor hesitantly but mistakenly assured the Bush administration that New Orleans’ protective levees were intact, according to new video obtained by The Associated Press showing briefings that day with federal officials.

“We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29, according to the video. “We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time.”

Link

Where is the media screaming about this?

Why is this not being bantered about? Talked about over and over again?

Nope, because Blanco is a Democrat and Bush is a Republican and President, and it is open season on the President.

As Big Lizards

What on earth was Bush supposed to do with the information, which he would almost certainly have gotten from the state… warn the state that just told him the levees might break that the levees might break?

A little more from Big Lizards:

* He has no authority to order an evacuation of New Orleans; only Mayor Ray “the Grand Nagus” Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux “Blankout” Blanco have that power.

* He has no authority to order the National Guard into Louisiana until Gov. Blanco requests them.

* Under Posse Comitatus, he cannot order the Army in to engage in civil law enforcement.

* He cannot force the state to accept any help at all from FEMA; he can only have them in readiness for the moment the state formally requests help.

* The president cannot order the governor or the mayor to do anything, actually; under federalism, the power of the national government during disasters is strictly limited.

Here is a few other interesting things that never get replayed:

Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state’s emergency operations center said Saturday.

Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.

Link

Then there was the busses:

With the improved resolution we count 255 buses in that one lot. That means at a capacity of 66 on board, 16,830 New Orleans residents could have been evacced out in one trip. Even if you have a lower capacity per bus, say 50 per bus, you’re still getting nearly 13,000 out in one run. In an emergency mandatory evacuation, you could probably get away with putting more than 66 on each of those buses.

Can’t use busses if they are underwater.

When we said that the buses are now expenses instead of assets, this is what we meant. Not only are those buses ruined, their disuse resulting in lives lost, but now they’re spilling oil and gas out into the already polluted water. A spark near that slick could cause yet another fire and a whole new set of explosions.

It appears another small school bus lot in New Orleans sat unused too.
Look MORE Busses
Looks like 13 buses there. That’s enough transportation to get another 500-1000 people out of town before the storm hit.

And what happens when the meia becomes part of the problem?

Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy
Rumors supplanted accurate information and media magnified the problem. Rapes, violence and estimates of the dead were wrong.

Link

Ah and the Captain has done an excellent job debunking most those myths the Media perpertrated on the public:

Another Katrina Myth Explodes

In the aftermath of the hysterical ranting of the news media during the Katrina coverage, we have found a number of memes that have collapsed when seriously examined: rampant rapes, cannibalism, and the toxic flood that kills by its very touch. Now we can add to that the virulent race- and class-baiting that claimed from almost the moment the levees broke that poor blacks got left to die while the rich strolled out of the Big Easy.

Talk to the Captain

I do agree the media was quick to hype and over-exaggerate thier stories causing the catastrophe to be worse because of thier reporting out-right lies and inaccuracies.

It allowed more hatred to ferment, allowed the the efforts of men, women and children of all races and religous denomination to boil down to race.

But what do you do when you get the money from the Federal Government, why you remodel:

Blanco orders remodeling just after storms

Office tab: $564,838
Shortly after the two hurricanes, Gov. Kathleen Blanco decided to renovate some of her staff’s offices. At the time of her decision, Blanco also was hinting at deep budget cuts to state programs and the possibility of laying off 20 percent of the state workforce.

The project cost $564,838.

The newly refurbished office space on the sixth floor of the State Capitol includes hookups and mounts for two flat screen televisions, Swedish granite countertops, walnut paneling and frosted laminated glass. The floor, which will not be accessible to the public, was redesigned to add three new offices, a conference room and file storage areas.

This is a VERY good take on what happened with Katrina, I suggest reading it:

Anarchy begins at home
From Reuters:

“Federal disaster declarations covered 90,000 square miles (234,000 square kilometers) along the U.S. Gulf Coast, an area roughly the size of Britain. As many as 400,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.”

This is not a Hurricane. This is an atomic bomb. This was worse than 9/11, its worse than the Tsunami.

This is Katrina.

Katrina did not just wipe out New Orleans, it also did Biloxi, Gulfport and Pascagoula. This one storm has effected anarea roughly the size of Great Britain. These cities are not tourist havens, populated with taffy making retirees who can leave town at a moments notice, these are working towns, working ports where people made things and went about their life outside of the bright spotlight of the worlds attention.

We all are affected by what these port cities do, and now that they are gone, we are all going to be effected by their loss. We are all going to be covered by the debris spread by Katrina.

Read the rest here

Another one to look through HERE

Just to bring things back in focus again.

And for others to realize this was not just the President involved in this, there was alot of others, though the media seems to be collectively forgetting this fact.

- The reporter asked her what she was doing to get the required emergency aid to the stranded prople still in the city and she said quote:

…”Well the governor will…Oh…. that would be me…..ummmmmm”

- Right on top of things *chuckle*

- BTW…I have no doubt that if Bush would have declared Marshall law and a state of emergency and asked for special Congressional powers to go in and take over, the moonbats and MSM would have been screaming within 24 hours that he was acting like a king again, and overstepping his Constitutional powers. See how it works folks. Sort of a permenent state of damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

- Bang

Alright, I’ve decided to create a new post on this subject in an effort to be more clear and articulate. I understand that in my rush to get the original post out, I wasn’t very clear on some points and…

All the engineers and scientists have been saying for decades that if N.O. was hit by a cat 4 or 5 hurricane they were screwed! No surprises.

The blame should go to 2 places, those that could help themselves and didn’t, and those who could help others in need and didn’t. There is no excuse for govn’t officials from the mayor to the president. They knew it was coming (we all did) days in advance and relatively speaking, watched in awe. Great! “…biggest recovery effort in history within 3 days after the storm landed…” Whooptee doo…How about 3 days before the storm hit? That’s what’s so dissapointing.

And the people who live in storm alley…what idiots! (not all included in that statement. I know there were many who really didn’t have the means to fend for themselves.) But for those that did…Being a poor country bumpkin from Idaho, I guess I was lucky that my parents taught me to BE PREPARED! H20, food, first aid kits, flashlights, etc.

What the hell were they thinking? For Cris’sakes, they live BELOW SEA LEVEL in hurricane central. Well I guess at the end of the day, seeing this despitude, I shouldn’t be surpised when I see so many bitching that they can’t stay in govn’t sponsored hotels anymore…so much for taking a little innetitive (damn the fact that there is no spell check!)and do something on your own.

I think the most genious thing about the whole situation is that the politions realize that they F’ed up major here and rather than being held accountable for the fiasco, they’ve got you folks arguing about who is MOST to blame amoungst each other rather than demanding all their heads for gross incompitance…

That’s what I think.

As I recall, there were no Asians killed. Is this because of racial profiling or that they know what typhoon/hurricane inbound WARNING means and took advantage of the three day advance warning?

Can I get an Amen, steve!

There’ll always be steve.

External Review Panel Progress: Report Number 1

It appears that the disaster in New Orleans was decades in the making.

Another MSM lie unmasked.