My friend David Corn has done yeoman work in fact-checking Decision Points regarding the issues surrounding the Iraq War and the outing of Valerie Plame (available at mojo.com). A Twitter buddy sent me the chapter concerning Hurricane Katrina, expecting that I'd have some factual light to shed on it. And, yes, I do.
Me? In case you're late to the party, I made a documentary film about the twin forensic engineering investigations of the flooding of New Orleans, and about a whistleblower inside the Corps of Engineers. Those two investigations, completed and on the public record since 2006 (well inside the second Bush term), are the closest this country has to a scientifically accurate explanation of what happened on Aug. 29, 2005.
Bush starts out with some scene-setting, involving Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin. He reiterates the oft-stated premise that local and state officials had primary response duty during the catastrophe, citing the 1988 Stafford Act. But... he conveniently ignores the National Response Plan which he himself signed in December 2004, which provides that, in case of an "event of national significance," the Federal government is to assume that state and local resources are overwhelmed, and to perform proactively.
He then repeats another familiar meme:
The low-lying city is shaped like a crescent bowl.
Well, except for a certain jar, I don't know what kind of crockery was in the Bush family home, but I've never seen a crescent bowl. And, according to Dr. Richard Campanella of Tulane, who's done the most recent work on this subject, even now, fully half of populated New Orleans is at or above sea level.
Next, President Bush says this:
Over time, the levees were strengthened, especially after Hurricane Betsy hit in 1965. They held through seven hurricanes over the next forty years.
He's referring, post-Betsy, to the Hurricane Protection System mandated by Congress following that storm. The system, engineered and built by the US Army Corps of Engineers (or, more properly, built by its private contractors), was not even completed more than four decades after its start, and was found, by the two investigations, to have been riddled with startling design and construction mistakes and misjudgements.
The President's timeline continues:
At 6:10 a.m. Central Time on Monday, August 29, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana.
He neglects to mention that, some forty minutes before, according to the evidence uncovered by the investigators who wrote the ILIT and Team Lousiana reports, levees and floodwalls had already begun to fail on the eastern side of New Orleans and in St. Bernard Parish. People were already facing two- and three-story walls of water coming at their houses before landfall. As the timeline of the event, originally published in the Times-Picayune and refined for my film, makes clear, all the levee breaches throughout the city occurred within the next four hours, more than fifty in all. And there's evidence uncovered by Dr. Ivor van Heerden (formerly of LSU) that the Corps of Engineers informed President Bush of this situation no later than Monday night. Yet...
Governor Blanco confirmed that while some water had spilled over the tops of the levees, they had detected no breaches. My staff and I went to bed thinking the levees had held.
Now the chronology gets downright strange. Although the city continues to take in floodwater on Tuesday (until the water level equalized with the level of Lake Ponchartrain), the President's account differs sharply with that of the two investigations:
Early Tuesday morning, Day Two of Katrina, I learned that the first reports were wrong. The levees in New Orleans had been breached. Water from Lake Pontchartrain began to pour into the city, filling the bowl.
Yet, a FEMA official in the city on Monday, Day One, testified under oath that his agency's HQ knew the extent of the flooding by 11 pm Monday evening. Marty Bahamonde sent his first email, detailing the breach in the 17th St. Canal, at 11 a.m. Monday morning. Bush's report, far from dispelling (as he seems to want to do) the then-current image of his distance from the disaster, only enhances it.
Then there's this:
A horrific scene was developing at the Superdome, where tens of thousands of people had gathered to take shelter. After three days, the roof was leaking, the air-conditioning had stopped working, and sanitation facilities had broken down. The media issued reports of sadistic behavior, including rape and murder. Between the chaos and the poor communications, the government never knew for sure what was happening. It took us several days to learn that thousands of other people had gathered with no food or water at the New Orleans Convention Center.
Of course, the Convention Center scenes were all over television news. No explanation of why that information didn't penetrate the White House bubble. Bush also repeats the stories of criminal behavior:
On top of the hurricane and flood, we were now facing the third disaster: chaos and violence in New Orleans. Looters smashed windows to steal guns, clothing, and jewelry. Helicopters couldn't land because of gunfire. Downtown buildings were aflame. The police force was powerless to restore order.
--without acknowledging that most of these reports were later found to have been erroneous (here and here).
It's almost as if President Bush's account of this event was sealed in amber in early September 2005, and he's done no reading, or fact-checking, about it in preparation for his encounter with History. But that couldn't be true, could it?
UPDATE: WEDNESDAY, 11:30 a.m. (CT): My friend Mark Schleifstein at the Times-Picayune sends along these links. The first is an archive of the stories the TP ran on Monday, Aug 29, giving anyone a real-time view of what was known, and knowable, on that day: http://www.nola.com/katrina/index.ssf/2005/08/29/index.html
The second is a video briefing of President Bush by then-National Hurricane Center chief Max Mayfield, making clear the danger of flooding: http://www.nola.com/katrina/index.ssf/2005/08/29/index.html
Follow Harry Shearer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/theharryshearer
Robert Scheer: The Life and Times of Bush the Clueless
Medea Benjamin: Protests at the Future Site of the George W. Bush Library
Anis Shivani: Bush's 'Decision Points' Is A Terrifying Journey Into the Authoritarian Mind
If you say it often enough and long enough, well, it just becomes true.... doesn't it?
It only does when people, who actually lived through it, forget and accept as true the tales being foisted off on us. Or when we decide it really doesn't matter anyway, and we let them get away with it. Well, I guess the latter works if we happen to believe that in the end "they" will g.e.t "theirs". And whether GWB believes in it or not, there really is such a thing as bad karma....
LA was run by the Dems, from the governor on down. NO was told to evacuate, but Nagan didn't think it was needed. Blanco didn't do what was necessary to let the feds in. It was lib Charlie Fox from the get go.
Og course you can't admit responsibility. You just fall back onto your age all blame someone else.
The blood of NO is on the hands of the progressives and it won't come off no matter how often you wash it with "Bush's Fault" hand soap.
Sat Aug 27-La Gov requested Federal State of Emergency from White House & received it (supposed to activate all federal assets in support of state). Gov issued a voluntary evacuation for se La and mandatory evacuations were issued for lowlying areas by local officials. Over 1.5 million residents evacuate. Katrina was a Cat 3 at 4 pm and threatening Alabama and Mississippi. Late Sat a Hurricane Watch is issued for Louisiana.
Sun Aug 28 Katrina becomes a Cat 4 at 1 am and a Cat 5 at 7 am. Mandatory Evacuation for the City of New Orleans is issued.
Mon Aug 29 Katrina hits at 6 am at Buras Louisiana about 70 miles s.e. of New Orleans.
The problem is so many would rather drink the kool aid and be blindly led by political opportunists and talking head celebs that have agendas than bother with actual facts.
In case you're interested, facts are simple to find. google katrina timeline or here is one http://thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline
Really America! How can you expect a President to be both knowledgable and competent, and appeal to "real" Americas at the same time. This is why the Republicans don't require competence from their leaders any more - it alienates people.
The rich white guys who help solidify the election, do so in order to ensure their status quo: taxing the middle class to subsidize their tax cuts. They do this while waving the American flag, and using words like "God" and "country"; and while scaring the d.e.v.i.l out of we the people by shouting, ranting and raving about what will happen if they don't get elected. So the voters believe the smoke and mirrors, and sacrifice themselves in order to elect the rethug nominee, thinking they have done the "right thing".
Maybe Obama can tap another horse judge to head FEMA, I'm sure the republicants would approve
-AGAIN.
Hey, c'mon. He's telling his side of the story. That was decided upon in, yes, 2005, during the crisis.
Terence Blanchard Funeral Durge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkt29-HfIZc&feature=rec-exp_stronger_r2-2f-17-HM
Try the fact that his brain was sealed in amber a long time ago and the family knew he shouldn't be president. Wasn't Cheney really the prez.
LMAOROFL!!!
Very funny!
I've noticed this too. And usually when he gives his explanation for how he behaved, he seems rather...simple. I mean, I know people insult his intelligence all the time, and I've personally always thought he was probably the least intelligent president we've ever had, but my opinion of him actually dropped more after his recent rounds hawking his version of history. Some people like to say that history will reveal him to be a better president than we thought, and while that's oftentimes true of presidents, I don't see that happening for this man, unless there is some fluke event he was connected to that turns in favor in years to come. I think this man truly was the dumbest person this nation has elected and there is just no getting around that.
Ain't no carpet big enough--GWB best stop sweeping.
according to my history books: the original tea party in Boston Bay, occurred because the Brits imposed increased taxation on the tea they exported to America. So the partiots got together and dumped the newly arrived tea in the bay....
geez, no wonder the tea party is in trouble... they don't know what they're fighting for! or is it against????
and you think GWB re-writing history has no bearing on today.
It appears you have given yourself away when you wrote these words above... "our black president".
We got your number, yup!
I don't like Obama either. He promised and he, also, failed to deliver.
Harry, we are on our own. Always was. Always will be! The moral is. Don't put your faith in either party! They are for themselves and not us!
One might remember the destruction of hurricane Andrew in the 90s. The president GHW Bush back then admitted that the government simply didn't have the resources to meet the needs of the victims of the disaster. He pleaded with the citizens to be generous and help in the process of rebuilding. People responded, and the region slowly came back to life. This is what is happening in New Orleans and the Mississippi coast.
Waiting for a government that can't possibly deliver all that people want, or even need, will be a long wait.
1) The Preamble of the US Constitution reads as follows: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Notice in particular the words "promote the general welfare". This includes times of national crisis, which Katrina certainly was, act of God or not.
2) Andrew was horrific (I went through it) but FEMA showed up on time and well resourced, and part of the reason why was because they had a few days to get it together prior to Andrew coming ashore. No one had all the solutions for Andrew's aftermath and all were overwhelmed, but not nearly to the extent that they were after Katrina. Interestingly, the government and all agencies and certainly the White House had plenty of time to make additional plans for Katrina and her aftermath, just like they did for Andrew. However, the ineptituted that had developed at all levels of government since W had gone into office was partially a result of that government's ineptitute in general but also a result of "less government" in the form of cut after cut to the very agencies and departments needed to respond to Katrina.
So much for "promoting the general welfare".