Bush will fly into New Orleans on Tuesday to feign concern about the plight of New Orleans residents once again, two years after Hurricane Katrina killed 1,800 people, destroyed or severely damaged more than 200,000 homes, made more than 800,000 people homeless overnight and left thousands of poor, black and other minority American citizens to die. Two weeks after Katrina, Bush stood in Jackson Square and promised a massive reconstruction effort. What a liar.At this very moment in New Orleans, large parts of the city are still in ruin. Crime, poor health care and crumbling infrastructure are still the norm and insurance companies are still doing their best to keep from paying. All this while hotels and casinos are buying up the land for pennies on a dollar that used to contain people’s homes.
Bush, his horse trainer Brownie and personal mortician Chertoff were all guilty of a woefully inadequate and indifferent immediate response to the disaster and then compounded their guilt by not devoting enough time, money and energy to the aftermath and cleanup. What a record of incompetence.
Astoundingly, George Bush continued with his vacation for four days after Katrina came ashore, reminiscent of him sitting paralyzed for eight minutes reading “My Pet Goat” after being informed America had been attacked on 9/11. He then flew to Arizona to eat birthday cake with John McCain while thousands were drowning or stranded on rooftops in New Orleans.
On course no worries, he had put Brownie and other incompetent political buddies in charge of FEMA who had no experience in coping with disasters other than the birth of a foal.
Remember, Bush also had cut federal spending by eighty percent for repairs on the New Orleans levees despite the Army Corps of Engineer’s strenuous objections and had sent three-thousand 3,000 members of Louisiana’s National Guard and two-thirds of the their vital equipment to Iraq to fight his immoral war of lies. All this while cutting $50 billion in food stamps, Medicare and energy assistance shifting hurricane relief onto the backs of the poor.
Bush has proven that he could have cared less about poor minority residents of New Orleans losing everything, as he continues to support government plans to rebuild New Orleans as a richer and whiter city. He cut taxes on the wealthy yet he also
Of course as with everything Bush, there are the lies. These are the biggest lies the Bush Administration told concerning Katrina.
1. Bush, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees". That was a lie!
On the September 1st broadcast of ABC's Good Morning America, President Bush told Diane Sawyer, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees" that protected New Orleans from flooding.
Bullshit! According to the St. Petersburg Times of 8/30/05, National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield talked about the force of Katrina during a video conference call to President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas on August 28th! The Washington Post quoted Mayfield as saying, "They knew that this one was different. I don't think Mike Brown or anyone else in FEMA could have any reason to have any problem with our calls. They were told. We said the levees could be topped.
2. Michael Chertoff defended Bush, claiming the levee breaks and massive flooding came as a surprise. That was a lie!
This was more than 12 hours after local media reported them. The New Orleans Times-Picayune on August 29, 2 p.m. CT, reported, "City Hall confirmed a breach of the levee along the 17th Street Canal at Bellaire Drive, allowing water to spill into Lakeview."
This initial report on the Times-Picayune web site was followed throughout the afternoon and evening of August 29 by reports of other levee breaks and massive flooding.
3. Brown 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". That was a lie!
NBC News photojournalist Tony Zumbado reported on MSNBC, “I can't put it into words the amount of destruction that is in this city and how these people are coping. They are just left behind. There is nothing offered to them. No water, no ice, no C-rations, nothing, for the last four days.
They were told to go to the convention center. They did, they've been behaving. It's unbelievable how organized they are, how supportive they are of each other. They have not started any melees, any riots. They just want food and support. And what I saw there I've never seen in this country. We need to really look at this situation at the convention center. It's getting very, very crazy in there and very dangerous. Somebody needs to come down with a lot of food and a lot of water.
4. Chertoff said, "Apparently, some time on Wednesday, people started to go to the convention center spontaneously". That was a lie!
On the September 1st broadcast of ABC's Nightline, there was footage of a law enforcement official instructing survivors to go to the Convention Center. Beginning Aug. 31, other reports of survivors at the convention center emerged:
5. Chertoff pointed fingers: "New Orleans officials and the state officials ... called for the Superdome to be the refuge of last resort".
In his Sept. 4 interview on NBC's Meet the Press, Chertoff attempted to place blame for the conditions at the Superdome solely with state and local officials. Chertoff said, "My understanding is, and again this is something that's going to go back, we're going to go back over after the fact . . .is the plan that the New Orleans officials and the state officials put together called for the Superdome to be the refuge of last resort."
The Washington Post reported on September 3, a FEMA official acknowledged participating in meetings in which the plan to use the Superdome as a shelter for thousands of evacuees was discussed:
For years, said another senior FEMA official, he had sat at meetings where plans were discussed to send evacuees to the Superdome. "We used to stare at each other and say, 'This is the plan? Are you really using the Superdome?' People used to say, what if there is water around it?
6. Chertoff falsely minimized federal government's role in Katrina response as subordinate to states. That was a lie!
The Bush administration has responded to criticism of its role in the Katrina disaster by attempting to deflect blame onto state and local officials in Louisiana. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security's December 2004 National Response Plan clearly indicates that in these situations, the federal government will pre-empt state and local efforts and provide immediate assistance to the affected area.
7. Wash. Post, Newsweek, Gingrich claimed that Blanco did not declare a state of emergency. That was a lie!
On Saturday Sept. 3rd, a senior Bush administration official said, “Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency". In reality, Blanco declared a state of emergency on August 26th.
8. Newt Gingrich claimed that Nagin could have kept water pumped out of city had he ensured that pumps worked. That was a lie!
In fact, New Orleans had 22 "notoriously fickle" pumping stations, according to an August 31st New York Times article. The Times also reported that, according to Dr. Shea Penland, a coastal geologist, "When the pumping systems are in good shape, it can rain an inch an hour for about four to six hours and the pumps can keep pace. More than that, the city floods."
A June 2002 Times-Picayune article, part of a series exploring the probable consequences of a major hurricane hitting New Orleans, indicated that New Orleans' pumps would have been overwhelmed by the rapidly rising floodwaters.
What this administration did and didn’t do was unconscionable at best and criminal at worst,
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