I'll always believe that the Bush administration allowed American citizens to drown starve and die

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

initially to score a few pathetic political points and then later as a result of criminal negligence, cronyism and ineptitude.

We'll be thinking a lot about Katrina in the coming days. I think no incident better underscores the civic depravity that defines this administration.

Even though the storm was well predicted and Gov. Blanco had issued the requisite disaster declaration, the Bushies quarreled about whether it had been done correctly ( to bureaucratic perfection) before they would release national assistance BECAUSE THEY WANTED HER TO LOOK BAD. The same with the NOLA mayor. While people baked on their roofs and on overpasses with no water or food or drowned in their attics, the Bush administration thought it was more important to score political points than save American lives.

We all just witnessed how fast relief supplies were dispatched to Georgia. Would that the same swift action took place in our own country. Instead, ships with supplies were off the coast waiting for an order that never came. (The Coast Guard performed magnificently, almost the lone exception. Their Commander memorably said "We know what our mission is." and declined to wait for the nonexistant orders to assist)

We were all treated the neverending horror of watching on TV people wait for help that never arrived. And then, we basically saw an American city cordonned off and its citizens treated like criminals as opposed to victims of a natural disaster. Somehow, the Red Cross and the National Guard had problems getting in, although the TV networks zipped in and out regularly with no apparant difficulty. Sean Penn was able to go and assist and so was Harry Connick. They (them, our government) actually turned back private citizens and groups that were trying to get in and provide the aid and comfort the feds were either unwilling or unable to provide.

I think I almost have PTSD myself after watching the complete disregard and chaos on TV.

Who can forget Brownie and Chertoff? or Bush eating cake with McCain? Or Geraldo Rivera and Shepard Scott pleading for assistance. Or the people on the overpasses with their signs. How many really died? I doubt that we will ever know.

For bonus points, who recalls who did Bush made personally responsible for the oversight of the aftermath?


Times up! Yes, that's right, our man Karl Rove. And he did a wondeful job, didn't he?

Bush should have been impeached IMMEDIATELY after Katrina for dereliction of his duties as President and Commander in Chief responsible for the safety and welfare of American citizens following a natural disaster.

[rudy23]

1. Absolutely, 100%.

Thanks to Lieberman, we'll never have the concrete proof, but reading up on the exchanges between Bush and Blanco that weekend, there's no other reasonable conclusion for the way he stiffed her.

Even Mike Brown (Brownie) came out and said there were controversial emails that proved that they were trying to make Blanco look bad.

I wonder how many human lives were lost in those days to form this talking point?

[MaryEllen9399]

2. I wonder if it will be different w/little bobby in charge? nt

[yellerpup]

4. Little Bobby--who? n/t

[nickgutierrez]

5. Bobby Jindal, the new governor. n/t

[yellerpup]

15. Thanks. I have Kennedy on my mind.

Well, they elected Jindal so I hope he does do better for them. Wouldn't be hard to beat Brownie or Chertoff. All you'd have to do is breathe.

[Kool Kitty]

33. Ah, yes-Bobby the Exorcist, Republican tool.

He'll probably just think that it was God's will, and divine punishment for the victims' sins.

[Virginia Dare]

3. I'll always believe they committed a crime against humanity..

and they'll do it again if they can.

[FLAprogressive]

57. make that "crimes"

[cobalt1999]

6. In many countries the leader would have resigned after that big of a screwup.

In any decently run universe, Bush, Nagan, and Blanco would all have stepped down willingly afterwards. They all screwed the pooch.

[KamaAina]

43. Of the three, only Blanco declined to run for re-election

Honorable? Perhaps. But now the Gret Stet is stuck with the man Rush the OxyMoron once called "the next Ronald Reagan". :puke:

[Hekate]

45. In other banana republics the leaders would have faced ...

Well, never mind.

Hekate

[Thothmes]

59. In Japan they would have all committed

seppuku. The Katrina debacle is the best example of the failure of Government at all levels to protect their citizens.

[smoogatz]

62. In China they'd have been taken out and shot.

Contrast China's massive response to its recent earthquakes.

[stillcool]

7. I can only imagine why...

they did what they did. It would be so comforting to believe it was incompetence, but that is just not logical. They let it happen, and proved once again that their interests have nothing to do with the American people.

[Mike Daniels]

60. Well the evacuation fuckups were totally on the state and local plates

Sorry, but those are the governments responsible for planning and carrying out any evacuation problems. Since those were both Democratic led areas the blame needs to fall on both sides of the aisle.

[stillcool]

61. What?

you are blaming the response of the federal government on the state? An American city drowned. I guess if there are any Democrats involved it doesn't matter.

[Brotherjohn]

8. My worst memory, and the most telling, was the CNN reporter crying Monday night as she listened...

... to people SCREAMING FOR HELP AS THEY DROWNED IN THEIR ATTICS because they could only pick up so many at a time. They had a little boat with a reporter and a few LOCAL rescuers (Wildlife & Fisheries, firemen, policemen), and they did what they could.

I don't give a flying FUCK what paperwork Bush claimed didn't have the t's crossed and the i's dotted!! He's dead wrong on that anyway (or lying or incompetent), as they didn't follow their own National Disaster Response Plan. Any leader worth the dirt he's standing on should have had the full force of the American miltary in their rescuing people THAT NIGHT, and landing with food and water, and transport, THE DAY AFTER (Tuesday).

Yet we saw, DAYS later, helicopters dropping a few crates of water at the Convention Center and lifting off immediately, as if they were landing in a plague zone. This is the greatest military in the world. A few hungry, possibly unruly, American citizens were not something they couldn't handle. No, they just did what they were told to do (which was not much).

Forgive the language, but I still get incredibly angry, and always will. NOLA is my hometown. People were treated like lepers circa 1700. They were treated like slaves in the Antebellum South. They were treated like serfs in the Middle Ages. They were treated like animals! The Bush Administration should never, ever be forgiven, and they should (to a number) have a big "K" for "Katrina" branded on their backs like they were so much cattle.

[yellerpup]

17. If we ever get them rounded up,

I'm all for turning them over to you, Brotherjohn.

[rudy23]

27. I second that! nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. Seeing the news coverage was unbearable, especially with the knowledge

that the damage extended far beyond New Orleans.

I don't think I've ever been so angry at an administration or at the Republicans who made excuses and tried to blame local officials.

Contrast the FEMA response to New Orleans with the FEMA response to the Grand Forks, North Dakota floods. Sure, it was a smaller disaster, but did anyone sit around without food or water for days?

[MotorCityMan]

34. The last time I watched CNN was during Katrina

I don't like to watch any tv news, but I was off of work the week Katrina hit. It was just unbelievably heartbreaking. * should have been tarred and feathered for that, for his disgusting, I-don't-give-a-shit performance all week.

When he did show up, it was for photo ops. Also, I think it was Friday, they FINALLY showed the army driving in with supplies. All in perfect formation; I remember thinking at the time that it was probably just another damn photo op.

I recently watched Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke". Highly reccomended.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. We know from foreign news coverage that his photo op in Mississippi was staged

The "relief supplies" were taken away afterwards, and the two girls he supposedly comforted were not local.

I also suspect that he was blue screened into a scene of visiting a shelter for evacuees.

Here's why I think so. In the footage that I saw, Bush and group of official looking types are standing around looking concerned, while in the background, people wander around seemingly oblivious.

Now if you remember the spontaneous reaction from the crowd when Oprah Winfrey walked into one of the shelters, you'll probably find it hard to imagine a similar crowd not reacting in any way to the presence of the Bushboy, not even with a chorus of boos.

[HillbillyBob]

56. Me thinks you are correct

I did not put it together, I was too shocked at the ineptitude while not really
surprised.
I was kind of waiting for the sombitch to get mobbed and torn apart like the skum
they are. :puke: :headbang:
We predicted many foul things if W was to take office of president.
Even we did not thing he could slink so low...

[Sequoia]

31. And I remember...the looters (black) vs. the..."helping themselves" (white)... photos

Awful, just awful. And the mothers' crying for milk and water for their babies. That just tore me up. And then when the people tried to escape over the bridge and were shot..."Don't dare come in our white town!" Horrid, horrid and I will never forget it.

[Patiod]

58. I'll never forget a racist, redneck truckdriver

watching TV with us at a bar in Wyoming, saying "you just know if those people were white, they would be taking care of them." This was after he told us he didn't like driving north on 95 because there were so many "black cities" up there. And yet even HE got it.

I thought about him later when I saw how the refugees from the California wild fires were handled.

[shraby]

9. I know I've seen a lot of disasters befall the

American people and never in my life have I seen people not getting help as soon as possible in a disaster of this magnitude, or any disaster that required help from the government. Katrina and Andrew stand out as anomalies and daddy Bush was in charge for Andrew and baby Bush was in charge for Katrina. Deliberate? You bet!

[ellie]

10. I remember watching

with horror. I am still disgusted by what happened. During the flooding, I called the White House several times demanding the government help. What I don't understand is that we are all Americans. How is one group more deserving than another? But those are my socialist roots talking.

[Iggo]

11. That's because...

...you saw the Bush administration allow Americans to drown, starve, and die.

(I suck at typing when I'm pissed off.)

[jhain]

12. and who *did* help?

http://www.algore.org/news/remembering_katrina_al_gore_leads_charity_hospital_airlift

[lynnertic]

16. Jesse Jackson rescued my cousin n/t

[barbtries]

28. i'd love to hear that story

another thing i recall from those days is the stories. the heroes. while one group of people (gw admin) displayed the worst of humanity, others worked like yeomen to help and save the victims, reminding me that people are also magnificent creatures.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. Here is a really great and thorough timeline

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

[raccoon]

14. I'm in my late 50's and the Katrina/Nola disaster affected me more than any

event in this country's history that I remember.

"I think I almost have PTSD myself after watching the complete disregard and chaos on TV."
Me too. If something like that happens again, I feel like I just don't want to hear about it.

After the Katrina disaster, I knew that the USA I used to know was gone.

[bdamomma]

18. of course they did, they have no regard for the American people

haven't they shown that for years. They do not care one bit about the American people. They are treasonous scum who need to be held accountable for their crimes.

[lynnertic]

19. I won't forget McCain's little birthday party

[AnneD]

24. Neither should anyone else.....

I would be running those pictures of Bush and McCain with the birthday cake....just to remind the rest of America that the 2 are connected and it will be more of the same. I think folks have forgotten what Bush did while folks were suffering in NOLA.

I haven't, but I live in Houston and we were impacted.

[azul]

20. Can these political criminals be charged with conspiracy and murder?

Vincent?

Or at least criminal negligence?

How did Bush Jr get to declare that he takes full responsibility for all these deaths, and yet there were no consequences or real investigations?

Lessons learned.

[WHAT]

21. Worse than 9/11...

in my mind.

I'll never forget.

[truedelphi]

22. Staffers at Ted Kennedy's office told me to go ahead and use

The word "genocide" in my report on that city's peril. That since that is what is was, the word ws appropriate.

I would have liked to use the Moth__F__ck__ expression as well.

[kestrel91316]

23. It was nothing less than genocide - the willful murder by negligence of large numbers of

mostly BLACK, poor, unemployed or minimally employed people who the RW considers a burden on society. They were collecting welfare and food stamps, which is apparently a crime worthy of the death penalty to Bushco.

I'm not saying everyone who died fit the bill, but if any whites or people NOT considered a burden died, well, that was just collateral damage to them.

[Resuscitated Ethics]

25. Agree 100%

It was surreal how the politics were reported as NoLa's fault but there was no national outrage. The first day was a nice wave of relief that New Orleans survived the storm landfall. Only later was the extent of the federal-jurisdiction levee breaching noticed. By then the reporting die was cast: "if they wanted help they should have asked for it" as if to pave the way for the excuse that all the death and destruction was Democrat-orchestrated. It was comically cynical with never-before-seen-in-the-modern-USA tragic consequences. Alligators were eating at the unburied dead and we were getting recycled rumors from Drudge picked up by AP that children were being raped(?)in the superdome. White people were foraging black people were looting. Very bizarre.

We were all living in the third world that week, with an unnoticed but actual news blackout and propaganda machine on full tilt.

I agree with the assessment that it was the biggest land grab in history.

And screw Mike Myers for his lame pained expression when Kanye West said it loud "George Bush don't like black people"

Bingo with the PTSD, I'm getting the dry mouth thinking about it now.

[barbtries]

26. i'd actually go further

they wanted the people to die. who needs poor people anyway. otherwise i agree with everything you said, even the part about getting ptsd myself from the pain and the rage i experienced watching these people suffer as the president went on the campaign trail. and i've never stopped wondering how it is that chertoff never took any heat whatsoever.

well another hurricane may be bearing down on new orleans, but it's sure not to be as bad as the last time. how many new orleanians (sic) never made it back to where they used to live?

[Marr]

29. You should read The Wrecking Crew. I think it describes the mindset that really

made the Katrina disaster possible.

These people don't believe in government's ability to solve problems. They consider government workers to be their enemies. Conservatives go out of their way to break government so they can turn around and say, "see? Government doesn't work. Hand all the tax money to my corporate friends instead".

I think you had a combination of several different things going on with the Katrina disaster. First was that conservative assumption that government doesn't work.

Second was the neo-aristocratic idea of "personal responsibility", i.e.-- the government *should not* help regular people.

And third was a big heaping of racism. If that flood had happened in a rich, white community, there would've been a response.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

36. Yup, if Captiva and Sanibel islands off Florida had been hit

the relief supplies would have been there before the winds died down.

[KamaAina]

46. See, that's just it. It never would have happened in a rich, white community.

at least not in NOLA, where the rich, white communities (Uptown, French Quarter, etc.) were built on what passes for high ground down there (up to 5 ft. above sea level!) while those poorer and/or blacker were left to carve out neighborhoods from the swampy ground "back of town". Guess which areas were hardest hit?

Some exceptions occur in areas built up after World War II, such as Lakeview; by then, it was though that the pumping stations, levees and floodwalls could handle pretty much any flood. :dunce:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

32. If you can take a moment - this is a gripping and haunting account

of one person's experience in the areas outside of New Orleans where the devastation was just as awful although not covered quite as much. It was published on Daily Kos about a year after Katrina and has always stayed with me. It's called:

They're Not Coming - A Katrina Diary


http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/2/104640/1838

[Uncle Joe]

37. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Phoebe Loosinhouse.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

40. Thanks. I am always concerned that we never forget the Katrina victims

I always think, it could have been me. I could have been in New Orleans that week. Or my brother or my husband or my friend. It could have been any of us.

Just average Americans living their normal lives, or maybe visiting or on vacation and then all hell breaks lose and your country basically abandons you. Aside from grief, my overwhelming emotion back then was shame.

[Uncle Joe]

63. That's a key empathetic point, too many people can't seem to grasp,

we're all connected and if this nation abandons one group of people, one city, one region, they've abandoned all of us.:thumbsup:

[ForeignSpectator]

38. "Shock Doctrine", it explains plenty of this... it's a question of priorities n/t

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

39. It was "urban renewal"................

North Com was ready to come in days before (BBC reported that) and were kept back and there were reports of explosions coming from the area of the 17th Street levee. In one of the House Katrina hearings, a woman testified about it, so it's on the Congressional record.

http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=3923

[catzies]

41. Three years later and I still shake with impotent rage whenever I think about it

n/t

[JuniperLea]

42. It was murder, pure and simple!

I shake with rage, still!

Bush should be in chains right now, with all his neo-con cohorts beside him.

[EFerrari]

44. We know they did, it's not a matter of belief.

Greg Palast interviewed an official at the Hurricane Center who said that the White House was aware the levees had breached and did not inform the public. They knew and did nothing. :shrug:

[Hekate]

47. "Civic depravity" -- thanks for a wonderful phrase for these masters of fubar. nt

[avaistheone1]

48. It's a fact. We all saw Bush and his admin sit on their hands and do nothing.

while Katrina raged and during the aftermath.

He should stand impeachment for Katrina.

[Hekate]

49. Here at DU we had at least one boat owner who wanted to do rescue work, but was turned back...

... by the monsters who told him he'd have to purchase his own gas for the boat. Obviously I don't remember all the details, but he mentioned some exorbitant amount of out of pocket expense and the reason he couldn't afford to even do that.

Our NOLA and Gulf Coast DUers kept us well informed here. Aaron Brown did well on the tube, and I was ultimately impressed by the humanity displayed by television's talking heads who rediscovered their own journalistic and human hearts in this disaster.

It was a horror. :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Hekate

[Brewman_Jax]

50. I still see red when I hear freepers...

blaming "those people" for not leaving, as if they wanted to stay and drown and didn't load their SUVs and just drive away. Not much more disgusting than freeper ignorance and arrogance. Notice the crickets regarding the jammed highways when Hurricane Rita came toward Houston.

Tim Wise has a great article on the difference in coverage and feeling regarding natural disasters, found here at http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/InsulttoInjury.html

[butterfly77]

51. I agree with you but...

I also believe what Kanye West said...

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

52. And, while the outrage was being perpetrated - " Let's not point fingers!!"

And I remember thinking, screaming, shouting,

"No, we NEED to point fingers -

"SO IT DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"-

This yet another case where the Bush White House and Republicans circled the wagons, even though these were our own citizens ignored and left to die.

[lynettebro440]

53. Here's my post while watching it happen.

I'm still pissed.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4561598

[undergroundpanther]

54. Disaster capitalism

exploiting disaster and trauma to make money.Bush is all about that.
Yes I agree with the OP.And contrary to what some think I do think 911 was an inside job.Someone wanted it to happen,to make more money..and it's not just Bin Laden.

I hate the people(republicans and wealthy "market" gamblers) Who exploit the deaths,tragedies and suffering of others for feeding their own GREED.
Naomi Klein ( Her book,shock doctrine read it) and the OP are both Correct in the assessment of why New Orleans drowned.
Like Smedly Butler said War is a racket,
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

Weather too will be another racket
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-2995
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO201A.html
http://www.weathernotebook.org/transcripts/2000/07/26
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/usaf/2025/v3c15/v3c15-1.htm

The globalist rich pigs have been exploiting the abuse,trust,suffering and traumas of others for centuries. I think it is time we STOPPED the exploiters profiting off war,disaster and traumas.

[judasdisney]

55. Don't "believe" it was intentional. Read "Shock Doctrine" and KNOW it's all intentional

[truedelphi]

64. Incompentence or malfeasance, greed and political ambition

Government incompetence? Don't believe it
Posted by: Fernwoods
Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:09 am (PDT)


It was anything but incompetence
On the things that mattered to the
government, the government was
supremely effective.

"Government incompetence" as the
explanation for the post-Katrina chaos
is just a smoke screen for what
really took place.

Here's a perspective on New Orleans you may
have never seen before, short video at:

http://www.brassche cktv.com/ page/417. html


Mission accomplished Mr. President
In the chaos and trauma that accompanied the levee
collapses in New Orleans in 2005, a few basic facts
were obscured:

1. Katrina was not a natural disaster. It was an
engineering disaster caused by the federally funded
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

2. Far from performing incompetently, the Bush
administration and reactionary forces in local
government were extremely effective in attaining
their aims.

Specifically:

1. The Bush administration did an extremely effective
job of withholding vital "life and death" information
that levees had not only topped, they had also
catastrophically collapsed.

(Reference: http://www.brassche cktv.com/ page/79.html)

2. FEMA did an extremely effective job of discouraging
qualified relief workers from coming to the area, going
so far as to turn many back at gunpoint.

They also turned away much needed supplies like
water and fuel and sabotaged local communications lines.

3. Thousands of flood victims were very effectively
herded and held in concentration- like conditions
within the city for many days after the flooding.

4. Though it claimed to be unable to bring food,
water, medicine or transportation into the flood zone,
Homeland Security did an extremely effective job of
quickly hiring and deploying highly paid gun thugs to
the region who were employed by companies that had
made massive contributions to the Bush campaign.

5. The Bush administration and their friends in the news
media did an extremely effective job of painting the
victims of the flooding as dangerous and not worthy of
being helped.

6. The Bush administration did an extremely effective
job of erasing a carefully researched and thought out
evacuation plan developed over many years by LSU and
replacing it with NOTHING.

(Reference: http://www.brassche cktv.com/ page/79.html)

7. Post-flood law enforcement did an extremely effective
job of illegally seizing fire arms from hundreds of law abiding
citizens while allowing criminals to run amok.

Incompetence? Poor planning?

You've got to be kidding....

The Bush administration wanted to destroy the black
Democratic voting block in New Orleans - and it did.
New Orleans and southern Louisiana, one of the last
Democratic hold outs in the South, is Republican now.

It wanted a justification for seizing guns and declaring
martial law and succeeded in creating conditions where
people would beg for military intervention.

It wanted practice holding large numbers of civilians in
concentration camp-like conditions - and it got the
opportunity.

It wanted to obscure the fact that instead of using
the tax dollars it's collected over the decades to repair
and maintain levees, it's used the money to engage in
illegal foreign wars.

Mission accomplished on every score.

But they made one miscalculation.

So conditioned were administration planners by their own
habitual depravity, it never occurred to them that the
rest of the country would object to seeing their fellow
citizens suffer so outrageously at the hands of the
government.

The good news is the moral instincts of Americans
still function well. The bad news is their ability to see
what is being done to them in broad daylight is highly
impaired.

One more piece of the puzzle and another well
executed part of the plan:

_Seizing guns from law abiding citizens_
(http://www.brassche cktv.com/ page/144. html)

************ **

[misanthrope]

65. Your forgot the comparison...

...with how rapidly and efficiently FEMA worked in the year previous to Katrina when Florida was strafed by a string of hurricanes. There were none of the problems that manifested in the Katrina aftermath.

Why the difference in response? Well, not only was that year (2004) an election year for George Bush, but his brother Jeb was governor of the state under duress, not to mention Florida isn't a Democratic stronghold in the midst of the otherwise Republican South as New Orleans was.