http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.chertoff/index.html

Quote :

"Chertoff [Homeland Security Secretary], fielding questions from reporters, said government officials did not expect both a powerful hurricane and a breach of levees that would flood the city of New Orleans."

I'm sorry, but what the fuck would you expect from a force of nature that is known for destroying man-made constructs? A powerful hurricane is exactly the kind of thing that would cause a levee breach.

Please point out to me how this is anything but another bullshit statement by this administration.

[Edited on September 4, 2005 at 10:15 AM. Reason : /]

9/4/2005 10:15:14 AM

I watched a report the other day where an Army official stated that the Army Corps of Engineers did a "cost-benefit" study and determined that it would be most "cost-effective" to plan for only a category 3 hurricane hitting New Orleans (as far as the strength of the levees, etc.). But they knew, of course, that it was possible (and even likely) that a category 4 or 5 hurricane could hit New Orleans. I think that was a bogus cost-benefit analysis to begin with. But it was amazing to hear the guy admit they knew it was possible/likely for New Orleans to be hit by a category 4 or 5, and settle on only preparing for a category 3. That is outrageous. It was a set-up for a disaster, and the government knew all along.

With all these asinine statements, they're probably gaguing just how dumn-downed, brainwashed, gullible, and/or blindly trusting of their government overlords the American people are. That, and they're lying through their teeth.

Reminds me of how after 9/11, Condi Rice told us that the govenment had "never envisioned terrorists intentionally crashing planes into buildings"....when, IN FACT, the government had known about that specific threat for years.


[Edited on September 4, 2005 at 10:39 AM. Reason : 5]

9/4/2005 10:26:50 AM

I feel like I'm being lied to with everything they say.

9/4/2005 10:48:45 AM

^^ Do you have volcano insurance?

9/4/2005 11:22:38 AM

^ If he lives by a volcano, you can bet on that.

That being said, it's just too damn expensive to build all structures so that they can withstand a force 5 hurricane. I do think though that a coastal city should have enough of such buildings to be used as shelters when necessary.

9/4/2005 11:28:27 AM

Because, again, like the Mayor said, it's not his problem, it's either the Governor's or the President's problem that his city wasn't prepared for what happened.

9/4/2005 11:33:23 AM

How laughable...

Chertoff (DHS): Katrina scenario did not exist

Michael Brown (FEMA): "That Category 4 hurricane caused the same kind of damage that we anticipated. So we planned for it two years ago. Last year, we exercised it. And unfortunately this year, we're implementing it."

[Edited on September 4, 2005 at 11:44 AM. Reason : The lessons of 9/11 have not been forgotten!]

9/4/2005 11:43:44 AM

where are the bushies at to come to his defense?

9/4/2005 2:52:14 PM

^^ On CNN they have been showing tha tthey have been saying completely different things the whole time.

This is getting entertaining.

They are shit-deep in lies.

9/4/2005 3:08:09 PM

What does Bush have to do with a levy system constructed in the 1960s?

9/4/2005 3:51:49 PM

nothing

except for the fact that it failed during his presidency

oh, and it failed after he refused to give money to fix it

9/4/2005 4:29:20 PM

you didn't know? He's the devil responsible for everything wrong like inebreated flacidness

9/4/2005 4:32:11 PM

nobody said anything about your posts... keeep your shit straight for once.


I am talking about my comments in the first post. Don't get your head in the sand again with the typical "oh, Bush must be responsible for everything" defense. It doesn't work anymore.

9/4/2005 11:58:48 PM

WHy can't people just stop blaming people for now and help out and actually DO SOMETHING. We're still in a crisis. It's not the time to pass judgement or blame. Doing so won't fix what happened.

9/5/2005 1:33:21 AM

Quote :

"Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning. Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach. We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame. Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher. It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials? State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially. In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day." Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President. Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job." That’s unbelievable."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054586

9/5/2005 1:42:41 AM

^

I don't think Chertoff was lying capriciously, by any account it sounds like he's just stupid. He was ripped apart on NPR over the convention center claims; basically he was saying that he hadn't heard any reports about people living there in squalor. Contrary, of course, to what any American could watch on the news at the time. Clearly he was incapable of communicating graciously that "yes, things are fucked up, so just be patient."

And I do mean ripped apart; he sounded like a blustering fool, perhaps even worse than the Iraqi information minister. Where did President Bush find this guy? You'd think PR acumen would be #1 on the list of qualifications for the top domestic security job in the nation. I'd hate to hear him deal with Tim Russert, if he can't even take the heat from an NPR interviewer.

9/5/2005 2:05:34 AM

^in summary, bush should find a more adept ministry of truth representative.

9/5/2005 2:16:20 AM

Quote :

"WHy can't people just stop blaming people for now and help out and actually DO SOMETHING. We're still in a crisis. It's not the time to pass judgement or blame. Doing so won't fix what happened."

Fuck that. We can help our countrymen and still ask why we continue to be lied to.

9/5/2005 7:28:36 AM

Quote :

"You'd think PR acumen would be #1 on the list of qualifications for the top domestic security job in the nation. I'd hate to hear him deal with Tim Russert, if he can't even take the heat from an NPR interviewer. "

NPR interviewers ask much tougher questions than Softball Timmy.

You'd think that experience would be #1 on the list of qualifications for the top job at FEMA;

Quote :

"During the 1990s, Brown served as judges and stewards commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association. His job was to ensure that horse-show judges followed the rules and to investigate allegations against those suspected of cheating. "I wouldn't have regarded his position in the horse industry as a platform to where he is now," said Tom Connelly, a former association president. The reporters refer to Brown's stormy years with the horses as a "rocky tenure." But Brown knew Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's 2000 campaign manager. Allbaugh took over FEMA in 2001, and hired Brown as general counsel. "

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054585

9/5/2005 10:01:10 AM

http://www.wonkette.com/images/WRC_09-04-2005_10.58.46.wmv

Meet The Press

I can post a transcript, but you have to watch it to really get what the guy was saying.

9/5/2005 5:34:18 PM

thats sad

9/5/2005 8:21:40 PM

yes mayor nagin did a great job sending people to a place that had not supplies for a shelter. sure that was a great job, I am sorry this storm was a category 5 late friday bearing straight for new orleans, regardless on if it downgraded it would still would have been smart to have mandatory evacuations getting poor people out. FEMA failed yes but I am sick of all you fucking liberals blaming the Bush Administration for this entire thing.

9/5/2005 9:26:23 PM

Quote :

"I feel like I'm being lied to with everything they say."

I've been like that for a while.


From pryderi:

Quote :

"During the 1990s, Brown served as judges and stewards commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association. His job was to ensure that horse-show judges followed the rules and to investigate allegations against those suspected of cheating. "I wouldn't have regarded his position in the horse industry as a platform to where he is now," said Tom Connelly, a former association president. The reporters refer to Brown's stormy years with the horses as a "rocky tenure." But Brown knew Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's 2000 campaign manager. Allbaugh took over FEMA in 2001, and hired Brown as general counsel. "

Well, horses and hurricanes do have 1 thing in common....they leave a lot of shit around after they pass through.

9/5/2005 10:16:34 PM

Quote :

" I am sick of all you fucking liberals blaming the Bush Administration for this entire thing."

Very few people are blaming Bush. But, he really didn't take it as seriously as he should have (no one seems to have until it was too late).

But, if FEMA really did turn away 3 truck loads of free water, that's monumentally stupid. I would punch the guy in the face who made that decision, if I could.

9/5/2005 10:47:20 PM

My dad works for US Airways in Charlotte (in the control tower). They were sending a plane full of supplies down there on Friday, but were told to turn back b/c Air Force 1 was at the airport in New Orleans. They wouldn't let them divert to Houston, or anywhere there. by the time they got back, they had ran out of time to make it to the New Orleans airport before dark. So, the supplies had to stay in Charlotte for another day.

9/5/2005 10:53:53 PM

Before the hurricane, Bush urged the governor to order the evacuation.

After the hurricane, Bush urged the governor to request Federal assistance. The governor wanted to wait 24 hours.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, as amended by Public Law 106-390, October 30, 2000

UNITED STATES CODE
Title 42. THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
CHAPTER 68. DISASTER RELIEF
Subchapter VI

5170. PROCEDURE FOR DECLARATION {Sec. 401}
All requests for a declaration by the President that a major disaster exists shall be made by the Governor of the affected State. Such a request shall be based on a finding that the disaster is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and the affected local governments and that Federal assistance is necessary. As part of such request, and as a prerequisite to major disaster assistance under this Act, the Governor shall take appropriate response action under State law and direct execution of the State's emergency plan. The Governor shall furnish information on the nature and amount of State and local resources which have been or will be committed to alleviating the results of the disaster, and shall certify that, for the current disaster, State and local government obligations and expenditures (of which State commitments must be a significant proportion) will comply with all applicable cost-sharing requirements of this Act. Based on the request of a Governor under this section, the President may declare under this Act that a major disaster or emergency exists.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9/6/2005 5:09:43 PM

Quote :

"WHy can't people just stop blaming people for now and help out and actually DO SOMETHING. We're still in a crisis. It's not the time to pass judgement or blame. Doing so won't fix what happened."

It's always the time to pass blame and judgement because that is our responsibility in order to prevent it from happening again.

9/6/2005 5:19:37 PM