Paul Alexander: How Karl Rove Played Politics While People Drowned
Karl Rove's role in building, running and ruining the most corrupt, inept and politically polarizing presidential administration in U.S. history, is the stuff of legends. The below excerpts from Paul Alexander's new book, "Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise And Fall Of Karl Rove", gives a stunning picture of how Rove, within hours of Hurricane Katrina making landfall, put his political machine to work protecting George Bush, his administration and their Republican allies in the Gulf Coast region, by smearing both New Orlenas Mayor, Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor, Kathleen Blanco.
With Karl Rove neutered and disgraced, Alexander found that people (politicians) directly involved in the disaster were finally willing to speak openly about the immoral, disgraceful and unforgivably political nature of the Bush Administration's handling of one the worst natural disasters ever to strike the United States -- and was widely viewed as a seminal moment in the downward spiral of George Bush, Karl Rove and the Republican party, from which they never recovered. Excerpts from Salon:
On Monday, August 29, 2005, at about 6:00 a.m., Hurricane Katrina slammed into the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. A category 5 hurricane until just before landfall, it was one of the worst storms ever to hit the Gulf Coast. Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, had been briefed extensively about what to expect when the storm hit, which was why, on the Friday night before the storm reached the coast, she signed papers declaring Louisiana to be in a state of emergency. Based on what she had been told by her advisers and what she knew from being a native Louisianan, she understood that Katrina, creeping gradually toward land with sustained winds of a strength rarely seen in a hurricane, could prove to be catastrophic for Louisiana, and particularly for New Orleans.
If Bush had not seen what was taking place by Tuesday, Karl Rove had. The first evidence of Rove's involvement in the Katrina disaster occurred on Tuesday afternoon. "Rove understood what a nightmare this was for the president," Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana says, "so he went into high gear on the spin thing they're so good at in the White House. Rove had David Vitter, the Republican senator from Louisiana. I was at a press conference and David Vitter walked up to the mike and said, 'I just got off the phone with Karl Rove.' I looked at the governor and she looked at me, like, 'Why is David Vitter on the phone with Karl Rove?' I mean, he could have been talking to generals, the president himself, but Rove is just a political hatchet man."
"I could not believe that the president of the United States, staged by Karl Rove himself, had come down to the city of New Orleans and basically put up a stage prop. It was like you had gone to a studio in California and filmed a movie. They put the props up and the minute we were gone they took them down. All the dump trucks were gone. All the Coast Guard people were gone. It was an empty spot with one little crane. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life. At that moment I knew what was going on and I've been a changed woman ever since. It truly changed my life." Read on...
Rove and Bush need to be tried for their crimes.
ALL of BushCo. needs to be tried for their crimes. They are traitors, murderers and thieves.
Evidence against this administration:
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Evidence suggesting Administration is innocent:
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rove and this disgusting administration have taken politics to an unimagined new low.
This man is truly the worst thing to hit America aside from Katrina. He needs to be tarred and feathered....along with the idiot who sleeps in the White House.
I would suggest that Woodrow Wilson's presidency was more inept and corrupt.
Woodrow Wilson was responsible for resegregating the Federal Government, permited armed invasion of the US southern border, and got us into WWI on term by which we provided infantry, but had no artillery, aircraft, or machineguns with which to support our infantry.
When our soldiers came home, because of his administrations policy of returning units whole, complete with the sick, a flu epidemic errupted, killing 675,000 in the US and about 25 million around the world. The effects of the disease were kept hidden for years by illegal and unconstitutional censorship.
This is something that needed to be said 2 years ago - not now that Rove is no longer in the position he once was. The people who did not speak out against it at the time are just as complicit in deceiving the public.
Don Meaker @ 4:
Bush isn't done. He is working on it.
Numinous @ 1:
Please let this happen to these inhuman trolls!!!!
Hey Karl.
The American people.......We're coming for you.
"...widely viewed as a seminal moment in the downward spiral of George Bush, Karl Rove and the Republican party, from which they never recovered. Excerpts from Salon:..."
From which they never recovered?
Since when did the Republican Party cease to exist?
They may yet recover.
Hulk @ 3:
Exactly right on the GD mark!!!! I get nauseated looking at Rove, also hearing Bush speak and Cheney snarl in that nasty way of his!! Jackasses!!
Why is Mary Landrieu speaking out now? She knew what was going on when all this was happening, yet all I saw of her in news clips was prasing Bushco and what appeared to me to be just so much carrying of Bush's water for him.
rove's nickname amongst bush's people..turdblossom
karl @ 12:
Outside that circle: Shit Weed.
xoites defends Constitution @ 13:
funny
Paul @ 11:
A paycheck usually overruns any sense of common decency or public service.
hmmm with rove in the shadows of mcsame's campaign in mind, i wonder if the soon to be publishing of this book had anything at all to do with the mcbush crew spending more public time in the outskirts of n.o. the past couple of weeks. seems like a rovian move to me. but then again is everything the repubes do and have done following the rove model.
Someone refresh my old memory, didn't Bush put Rove in charge of rebuilding N.O.?
mccain can't run from his katrina related voting record
i thought was government was to help those who can't help themselves........rove knows they blew it
Don Meaker @ 4:
I think the true disaster that
isthis administration, won't be realised until after they're gone. They will definitely take the number 1 spot for worst presidency.We've only seen the tip of the iceberg so far with these people.
And the death toll count, I can see it even passing 25 million, once all the people killed in the war on terror and the environmental catastrophe that is heading our way sometime in the near future, which could kill hundreds of millions, even billions.
Gee, since Rove was a political analyst for the regime, maybe some enterprising plaintiffs law firm could tie the Katrina response to Bush, Rove, et al, as a political maneuver, and sue the whole bunch into penury! That’d be a fun trial to watch.
I remember seeing her cry when the helicopter flew over that one lonely little crane. Good for her for standing up to bush and not signing away her control.
I'm reading the book, "Smells Like Dead Elephants" by Matt Taibbi. In it he says that Karl is no genius, he's just mean enough to do anything to get his way. I agree.
Also in this book Matt talks about his experiences in NOLA just after Katrina. That place was truly a hell for everyone there.
Rove and Bush truly have no conscience. How can people function without one? If I did the sorts of things those men have done, I know I would eventually kill myself. I would have to because I couldn't live with myself knowing what I had done and caused to be done.
Don Meaker @ 4:
lets not forget that wilson also sent troops against their own...led by douglas macarthur, those troops shot down the ww1 vets who were protesting their treatment
but i do believe that bush is right up there...
guess historians will have to argue this out
pissed off patricia @ 21:
Stay alive, Patricia. :)
does anyone wonder why there is a truther movement?
these people will use anything to forward their political goals and make sure that their buddies stay billionaires
and they achieved their goals here...jindal is now the guv
What more need anyone say about Republicans?
xoites defends Constitution @ 23:
many believe you can't powerful and/or rich unless you have no conscience...rove took dirty to a new level...many couldn't do it...he has an inferiority complex he became accepted by doing others dirty work......nothing to be proud
xoites defends Constitution @ 23:
You are correct Patricia. These people are not normal. They are demented. And the people who still support them are either making big money off of them or they are stupid. It's that simple.
Bush is a complete and utter failure... in everything he has ever done. It is so unbelievable to me that enough people actually voted for him for him to be able to steal the elections. Especially the second one. I get so angry I could spit.
George Bush hates black people.
The only way to stomach this sickening report is to hope that there will soon be a DOJ that investigates criminal behavior and sends political terrorists to prison. Karl Rove needs to know that there will soon be no get-out-of-jail-free cards dished out by Bush when he is in the cell next door.
Congress may never impeach this scum, but when the rabble begin to rat each other out, there will be plenty of corruption to clean up.
I propose that we build a federal prison in New Orleans, confine the convicted loyal bushies, and put them to work rebuilding every home in the Lower Ninth Ward. Their retirement income should be used to compensate victims of their incompetent negligence, and civil suits should collect every penny of their wealth, and use it to repair the coast.
And the only thing these stinking CON's can say is everyone for themselves, well except for the No Bid Contract stuff.
Does anyone else feel like they will be able to breathe again like they used to when these scumbags are finally out of office? I feel like I've been living ina different country for the last 8 years and I won't ever feel the same until they're gone.
xoites defends Constitution @ 23:
Not to worry. It's almost Happy Hour at my home, and I wouldn't want to miss that :)
@ Don Meaker, post 4...
Uh?!
Ok, let's decide that, but what's that got to do with anything???
We still have a bunch of criminal idiots in charge right now, so arguing over whether some other guy was worse or not some 50 years ago makes little sense, don't you think?
Hold on until bush is out of office and can no longer bounch his buddies out of jail. Then go after Rove first. You know that fu*ker is scared to death of going to prison. As they used to say in the old movies, "he will sing like a canary" to protect his ass.
BushCo are truly scum. Pure trash. I laugh at all the people that voted for Bush. You and your kind need to suffer the consequences of what has happened over the last 7 years. If you came to my house begging for food or shelter, I'd simply shut the door in your face.
Wow,this guy is gooood. quoting satan.
Hulk @ 3:
You mean Jeff Gannon?
rove was the mastermind behind the extreme right evangelical movement......any are one issue people that were used by the gop......poor lower middle class that believe the government is the enemy....the message those sinners you have an education live in san fran....that crap.. these people although religous easy to stir into a mix of hate and emotion.....rove tells those people we don't like them or respect them it's powerful....not this time turdblossom
Even if McCain were only half as bad as bush, he would be intolerable. We need a new slate and new people if we are ever going to turn this mess around.
I bet everyone here knew where Katrina was and what was about to happen on the Gulf Coast, how did the administration avoid knowing?
casper46 @ 38:
He sleeps downstairs in the rape room.
pissed off patricia @ 40:
no disrespect.......i personally won't tolerate mcbush we can't
Brownie, Bush, Rove. Diversions. Scapegoats. Who was ultimately responsible for the rescue?
"New Orleans 'Dodged the Bullet'"
Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff "told Meet the Press's Tim Russert on Sunday, September 4, 2005, that one reason for the delay in getting federal aid to Katrina victims was that 'everyone' thought the crisis had passed when the storm left:
"I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged The Bullet,' because if you recall the storm moved to the east and then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing worse. It was on Tuesday that the levee--may have been overnight Monday to Tuesday--that the levee started to break," Chertoff told Russert.
Fact: None of the 477 newspaper front pages from 46 countries presented alphabetically dated Tuesday, August 30, 2005, stored in the Newseum show the headline "New Orleans 'Dodged the Bullet'."
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=%22New_Orleans_'Dodged_the_Bullet'%22
"within hours of Hurricane Katrina making landfall, put his political machine to work protecting George Bush"
Classic
A whole major city heavily impacted, thousands stranded, starving, thirsting, and the White House staff moves to protect the president politcally.
Classic 21st century Republicans
karl @ 42:
my bad i got jumpy on the keys a lot of coffee
Karl Rove did some dirt down in Arkansas too, running off the state attorney -- it's almost like he's going after the poor Southern states thinking nobody pays attention to what goes on in Alabama or Arkansas... sick freak
karl @ 42:
Well, I did use the word "intolerable". So I think we are in agreement.
karl @ 45:
Okeedokee, no problem. It's all good!
i would love rove to get busted on the don siegelman case after bush is out no immunity
As somebody who has come down with what Bill Maher calls "fuck-up fatigue", I still somehow managed to feel nauseated reading that article. And I don't think it's the heat.
My God, How can Americans be so stupid and voted for Bush twice? We knew better in 2004, but Bush and Chaney playing the fear card turned us into a bunch of pansys. Now look at what has become of us. My we heal and reflect on the last 8 years of this disaterous administation.
Apparently she missed Bush's performance after 9-11.
I had not heard this story before. I am sitting at my computer, fighting back tears. These people are completely inhuman. They do not possess one single redeeming quality. There is no punishment that is too severe for them. They make SH look like a boy scout.
P.D. @ 51:
I hate to inform you of this, but here are a lot of stupid people in America. The Neocons would love to have more of them, so they're attacking education and trying to make claims that mystical beliefs are scientific fact.
People, stop watching 'reality' T.V. and crappy sitcoms. Wake up!
MacDaKnife @ 53:
They do have one redeeming quality:
They are mortal.
Yeah, I know. When you have an electorite who still thinks Obama is muslim, you're surrounded by dumb-asses.
P.D. @ 51:
trying living in a "red state" with a less tax base,lowest high school graduation rate,high crime and highest single pregnancy rate people that vote republican because they think there avoiding taxes...after 9-11 the no fear culture took of a lot a good it did....this demographic has a lot of hate for people not like them...were told were not patriotic certain right wingers believe this nonsense.
Jeez karl, I don't think I'll ever move to a Red State. They would think I'm a heathen.
For those who may have missed it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otQyfSYAnTI
I've said it publicly and I will say it again, unless he proves me wrong, Karl Rove is a traitor to the United States of America and he should be tried and sentenced for his treasonous crimes.
P.D. @ 58:
P.D. @ 58:
<blockquote
don't do it without caution.....this country became very divided people that hate fellow americans because you don't live your life like them.......as a rule humans are insecure...i remember trying to have conversations with peoplein reno about 9-11 red faced over the top based on bull shit
Even Landrieu makes me sick. Back then, she was going on TV harping on about how thankful she is for the efforts of Bush and how wonderful their contributions were. All the while, this was going on, and it took her how many years to come clean and stop pretending like everything they were doing was honky-dory. What a fraud.
Why on earth Landrieu was shocked by the duplicity of the Bush administration is inexplicable. Those evil SOB's had Big Lied the country into unleashing war a scant two years earlier, as all but the willfully blind well recognized. They were then, and remain, monstrous, capable of perpetrating any type of wickedness. Just who did she think she was dealing with?
When Rove is buried they're going to have to salt the earth and probably put a titanium cover over his coffin, because the stink of his wretchedness will be enough to peel the skin off passerby.
[ How should I put this, We do not allow any comments advocating violence. OK. Site Monitor]
xoites defends Constitution @ 55:
The money quote of this thread!
xoites defends Constitution @ 23:
your conscience is what give you value as a person and a human being.
those two have only negative value.
To really get an idea of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans, watch this. I know its a music video, but the images really hit hard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWhlytQgcpk
At the very least Rove, Bush and all the rest should be charged with "depraved indifference" in the deaths of thousands in NO and along the Gulf Coast. I grew up just a few miles from Biloxi along the coast and the damage there was devastating. They received more help there quicker because of those damn buffoons Haley Barbour and Trent Lott but many are still trying to recover. Most all the homes along the beach in my small town were destroyed. I go back to visit about once a year and it's very strange to see things so changed. I grew up with hurricanes coming in every year but this was a monster. As soon as Bush can no longer pardon anyone we should all see them arrested and jailed for the rest of their miserable lives.
Great article. Thanks for putting this up and linking to the rest.
All you need to know about bush and rove is contained in the story of the floating photo-op. Imagine all the people - hundreds at time - lining up for relief and as soon as the mikes and cameras leave, they close the "relief station", leaving lines of hungry, suffering people standing in the lurch. The Picayune had some of the accounts. I can't say how much I hate these people, but I'm sure someone could understand the depths of my deep, abiding hatred. It's visceral, palpable.
pissed off patricia @ 40:
they knew! they were given a personal briefing by the #1 weatherman in the US. then they walked off and boos went to celebrate mcAss' birthday.
the only objective KKKarl had was that if they removed enough democrats from NOLa, then the city and the state would have a repug majority.
CoIntelPro for Pronktastic Democratic Party Victory @ 72:
Even I could see that storm coming 3-4 days out. And I just track hurricanes and the like for a hobby.
Actually if I remember correctly I started tracking Katrina right before she moved into the gulf. In Between Cuba and Floriduh.
So I guess that was 6-7 days before she made landfall.
God, the Salon story makes me absolutely sick. Might even start looking for a lynching rope....heck, they're not even worth the effort. What a bunch of scoundrels and incompetents. And Scott McClellan is right: they politicize everything. And that's your Republican party in action, my dear friends. No different under McCain.
KKKarl Rove is a bushel basket full of cold dried horse shit.
There are 4 assh-l-s in that photo! 2 are covered up with clothing. Can you name the 2 others that are fully exposed?? Bush looks drunk to me !!!!
Paul @ 25:
one word: REPUBLICANASSWIPES!!!
How many Americans are in jail for lesser offenses against society? Never mind.
VietVet67 @ 17:
Yes, he did.
And not only were the needs of NOLA ignored, flotillas of private boaters who wanted to help were turned away, like some vast evil experiment was being conducted to see how long the victims of Katrina could hold out on their own -- or how many would die. KKKarl's unprecedented fu(kery in action.
I'm sick of reading about how corrupt Republicans are. I'm tired of hearing about them breaking the law, lying, cheating, stealing elections, and sending brave Americans to die for no reason at all. WE KNOW. ENOUGH ALREADY. Democrats need to grow a spine and put these criminals in jail!
annick @ 82:
I have to agree. It hard NOT to be cynical. They have all skated and I have a sickening feeling they will continue to skate.
I'm sick of hearing about it and I'm sick of complaining about it. BushCo will get away with everything. We'll see all of them on FoxNews and they'll have a book deals. And we will not give a shit in a couple years. Meanwhile, lets giggle while we watch Gregory dance! Cynical much? You bet.
How is it that for those of us who live outside the US, this 8 year slow motion train wreck was predictable from minute one? Everyone I know personally KNEW that Iraq was based on lies. We KNEW Katrina was coming and would destroy Louisiana. We KNEW your economy would be destroyed.
This is not hindsight. We continue to watch in horror at what the US has become.
We all know how depraved BushCo is but I think we're becoming truly aware that their depravity goes far past what thought.
BTW, has Obama said or been asked his thoughts on assigning an Independent Counsel to look into all of the crimes of BushCo? I know the thoughts are that he'll pull the "let it go so the country can heal" deal but I truly believe he needs to do it. There is just no way these people can get away scotfree after it's proven they've lied at every turn not only for political gain but for financial as well. If we're going to regain our standing in the free world it's something he just has to do.
Paul @ 11:
She runs to the "middle"...which is why she's fighting for her political life. Like Harold Ford and other southern Democrats who try to out Republican a Republican, they can't and it will cost them.
Ruthless People @ 87:
Bingo.
It's about freaking time this came out, now that it has receded
into ancient ADHD attention span nonmemory.
Whoever gets to write the history books gets to tell the lie or the truth.
I'm just curious ho this will show up 10 years from now if it shows up at all.
One way or the other "they" cannot get away with this.
This Lying Rug Party should not even be allowed to show up in this election.
How in the hell is this allowed to stand?
I say a moratorium that bans for 100 years any more migrant Texas presidential candidates, after naming and charging the treasonous connected GOP men and women who deliberately selected a mentally fragile adolescent man to pose as their President ( & convenient post presidential War Crimes scapegoat) before they can do it again.
xoites defends Constitution @ 55:
But WHY do they live so fucking long?
Now we all know what PURE EVIL looks like...in the visage of the so-called, self-proclaimed, born-again-Christian George W. Bush, and his Satanic sidekick, Karl Rove.
And these Satanists aren't through yet. Bush is still being prodded by the demented Dick Cheney to bomb Iran and Karl Rove is secretly advising the John McCain campaign.
During and after Katrina, I knew (from checking stories out on the internet) that the Bush administration had completely politicized the federal response (or lack thereof). The New Orleans newspaper was a valuable source of information, while the national news media acted like they did in the lead up to the war in Iraq, essentially being stenographers for corrupt Bush administration officials (Karl Rove) and their nefarious Republican talking points. PURE EVIL. That got a lot of our fellow citizens killed.
Impeach Bush and Cheney NOW!!!! And frog march Karl Rove into a prison cell somewhere, where he can try to spin his way out of solitary confinement.
Ruthless People @ 87:
And these "news clips" were seen where? On the MSM news outlets that are nothing more than propaganda tools for the Bush administration and Republican Party?
Of course these sycophantic MSM fools would only show news clips praising Bush, as if they were old-style Kremlin propaganda outlets like TASS or Pravda.
For someone to know what was actually happening during and shortly after Katrina hit, one had to check out multiple internet resources like the excellent Crooks and Liars website. It was like trying to piece together the pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle with the Bush administration and their MSM hacks continually trying to hide the pieces.
Is it any wonder that Rove's mother killed herself? If I had produced something that evil, I would have too.
If you haven't watched the Spike Lee HBO special about what happened, you should. It is very informative and well done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUDAdMgG7Xw
when you have a talk radio monopoly that can shape and frame the rest of the US media with its uncontested repetition, katrina offered great propaganda opportunity- withhold aid and wait for the black on white violence that any racist would expect. rove and bush waited and waited, even starting rumors that didn't pan out, hoping for the worst and thinking it would offer material all the way to the elections.
annick @ 82:
Exaaaaaaaaactly! The question is WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
Don Meaker @ 4:
Nothing can be done now about Wilson but if the Dems had any bloody guts and backbone and any concern for the people of this nation they would be hauling Rove and his boss Bush into court and into jail, but of course nothing will happen...promises promises from the new majority Senate, action NIL. They are all talk, no action sod most of them. Why is that wanker Lieberman still poncing around as a part time Dem? He should be kicked out into the street the traitor, hopefully with a large truck in his path. Hate that wimp
Amen # 82 #83 #84 , These traitors , saboteurs and war criminals will just skate off into the wild blue to enjoy their millions and their billions because the Dems have no balls or principles and stand for nothing when it comes right down to it , the needless loss of life , the biggest theft in world history , domestic and international law, the Bill of Rights and our Constitution ... in reality doesn't mean squat to these people , they'll just let it all slide , " oh well , shit happens , it's over now " . Real good precedent set for future administrations too if these bastards just walk away . We are thee most hypocritical and disgraceful nation on earth now .Un friggin believable !
Thank you Nancy . . you share the "POS Spotlight" . . . we appreciate you
"taking it off the table" . . . better we spend $70 Million on a BJ than 5 minutes on TREASON . . .
LETS,not forget the role that the CORPORATE CONTROLE MEDIA along with Bush Rove, and BUSH And his Crime Family had in this. And none will ever face JUSTICE they will even make loads of money instead of facing a JUDGE.
If you really want to know how much Rove politicized Katrina to redirect the spotlight off the Bush Administration and FEMA and onto a Democratic Governor by holding up relief efforts and wagging an all-out swift boat campaign on Gov. Blanco based soley on the fact that she was a Democratic governor in a state Rove wanted read, "The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast" by Douglas Brinkley.
He is a one sick SOB.
Captain Bitter Elitist Husein Kangaroo @ 28:
Don't forget; WE OWE THIS SECOND TERM CRAPIOLA TO THE WONDERFUL DUMB PEOPLE OF OHIO. I HOPE THEY'RE ENJOYING THEIR HIGH GAS PRICES RIGHT NOW
Here's what I don't get. I sit in my tiny office, tucked away in the great state of Nevada, yet I know, and have known since Nine-One-One, since I started watching these putzes, that the only thing the Bush administration does, and does very well I might add, is spin, lie, cheat, steal and murder. Why did it take Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Plamegate, Katrina, them spying on us, Don Siegelman and on and on and on... for the "pundits" to get it? How sad and disturbing is that? WTF is going on here? I mean, really? What the fuck is going on? Who ARE these people? "Media whores" just doesn't explain the depth of this betrayal.
I think it needs to be noted on this board that Bush attended McCain's birthday party, learned how to play guitar, attended a baseball game in San Diego, and was vacation as New Orleans sank. It still kills me inside to see the only thing we did for the residents of New Orleans was to contract fully armed commando's to clear NO house by house 7 days after the levee's broke. The Coast Guard, operating without orders, were the only component of the US that made a positive impact on the disaster. The superdome disaster needs to be noted.
Refusing Sweden's water purification machines, Deer Parks free water, the free German phone system, anything and everything that could have helpd that was not contracted out was never an option.
The people did speak in 2004, the election was stolen. The voting anamolies that occured in no paper trail Ohio were statistically impossible. Kerry ahead, then the tide turned to Bush in even the most democratic regions, then when Bush was too far ahead, the fix was scaled back...
It sure would have been nice to have the LA national guard and their equipment on hand. Those same folks, trapped in hell in Iraq, know Louisiana and their people better than anyone. The know the neighborhoods, the levee's, everything - nothing a contractor would understand. Instead of pulling them out of Iraq and back home to help out in advance of the obvious pending disaster, there were stuck guarding the oil as their friends family and possessions sank.
Why dont we just contract our military completely so we can get our good soldiers back home where they belong? We are going to write off our debt anyways. And I am sure someone would think that spending more on contractors would stimulate the con oh me.
Its not easy to find anything funny about Katrina.
But the photo with the Salon article is pretty amusing. There is President Nero Bush at the podium with his left elbow hooked in front of her right arm literally pushing Governor Blanco back from the mic.
Wonder when George realized that women would give ground if you jabbed them in the breast? Before, during, or after Harvard and Yale?
Give her credit she's holding her ground against the Commander-in-Chief, the mighty fighter pilot.
LIke the late great Molly Ivins said about Duhyba's dad "Deep down he's really shallow."
Paul @ 11:
Because at the time she was trying to get Federal aid for her state. Did you read the full article at Salon?
Furthermore, if you recall the news coverage at the time, the "liberal" news media were only running stories according to Rove, ie stories attacking her. It wasn't until afterward that we learned the truth.
reply to Paul @ 11- you stooge: here is blanco's sworn testimony, which she backed up:
"I requested massive federal assistance in letters to President Bush on Aug. 27 and Aug. 28 -- before the storm's landfall," she said in one. "I spoke with President Bush on Sunday (Aug. 28) and Monday (Aug. 29) and told him I needed everything he had. I believed FEMA officials who told me that every federal resource was at my disposal. I believed this meant every single available resource."
Later on in the talking points document, she responds to a hypothetical question about what she did wrong in response to Katrina.
"I believe my biggest mistake was believing FEMA officials who told me that the necessary federal resources would be available in a timely fashion," she said.”
The Original can be viewed on line at:
http://www.nolarises.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=728
Bush is responsible for the flooding of New Orleans. Rove knew it and taht is why he worked so hard to cover up the facts:
June 7, 2001
Bush signed his massive $1.3 trillion income tax cut into law—
a tax cut that severely depleted the government of revenues it needed to address critical priorities. The first major economic initiative pursued by the president was a massive tax cut for the rich, enacted in June of 2001.
Bush’s first budget introduced in February 2001 proposed more than half a billion dollars worth of cuts to the Army Corps of Engineers for the 2002 fiscal year. Bush proposed providing only half of what his own administration officials said was necessary to sustain the critical Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Project (SELA)
February 2002
The president unveiled his new budget, this one with a $390 million cut to the Army Corps.
The cuts came during the same year the richest 5 percent (those who make an average of $300,000 or more) were slated to receive $24 billion in new tax cuts. The cuts were devastating. The administration provided just $5 million for maintaining and upgrading critical hurricane protection levees in New Orleans—one fifth of what government experts and Republican elected officials in Louisiana told the administration was needed. Likewise, the administration had been informed that SELA needed $80 million to keep its work moving at full speed, but the White House only proposed providing a quarter of that.
February 2, 2004
White House on February 2 released a budget with another massive cut to infrastructure and public works projects—
this time to the tune of $460 million. As the Denver Post later reported, “the Southeast Louisiana Flood Control project sought $100 million in U.S. aid to strengthen the levees holding back the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, but the Bush administration offered a paltry $16.5 million.” The Chicago Tribune noted that the Army Corps of Engineers had also requested $27 million to pay for hurricane protection upgrades around Lake Pontchartrain—but the White House pared that back to $3.9 million.
Gaps in levees around Lake Pontchartrain, which were supposed to be filled by 2004, would not be filled because of budget shortfalls. Work was aslo stopped on the industrial canal levees- the ones that gave way.
BUSH IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FLOODING OF NEW ORLEANS. AND Rove still tries to cover it up.
Bush's failure to respond, and comparisons with previous administrations:
President Nixon -- August 1969 when Cat-5 Hurricane Camille hit roughly the same area as Katrina, President Nixon had already readied the National Guard and ordered all Gulf rescue vessels and equipment from Tampa and Houston to follow the Hurricane in. There were over 1,000 regular military with two dozen helicopters to assist the Coast Guard and National Guard within hours after the skies cleared.
President Clinton -- September 1999, Hurricane Floyd -- Cat-3, was bearing down on the Carolinas and Virginia. President Clinton was in Christchurch, New Zealand - meeting with President Jiang of China. He made the proclamation that only Presidents can make and declared the areas affected by Floyd "Federal Disaster Areas" so the National Guard and Military can begin to mobilize. Then he cut short his meetings overseas and flew home to coordinate the rescue efforts. All one day BEFORE a Cat-3 hit the coast.
President Bush (41) -- August 1992 -- was in the midst of a campaign for re-election. Yet, he cut off his campaigning the day before and went to Washington where he martialed the largest military operation on US soil in history. He sent in 7,000 National Guard and 22,000 regular military personnel, and all the gear to begin the clean up within hours after Andrew passed through Florida.
George Bush (43) -- August 2005 -- Cat-5 Hurricane Katrina bears down on New Orleans and the Mississippi gulf. Both states are down nearly 8,000 National Guard troops because they are in Iraq -- with most of the rescue gear needed. Bush is on vacation.
BUT
In 2004, George W. Bush and FEMA left little room for error. Not long after Hurricane Charley first made FL landfall on Aug. 13, Bush declared the state a federal disaster area to release federal relief funds. Less than two days after Charley ripped through southwestern Florida, he was on the ground touring hard-hit neighborhoods.
I remember the day Bush gave that "heckava job Brownie" press conference with the coast guard guys posing with the helicopter behind him and thinking to myself: "Who is dying right now because they are short 1 helicopter rescue crew Karl Rove and Bush need as window dressing?"
After the screwing the Republicans gave NO and LA, it's a wonder they have the intestinal fortitude to even show their faces down there. I can't understand how ANY resident could ever pull the lever for any of them again, especially John McCain who voted repeatedly against government aid for the region.
Don Meaker @ 4:
Great comment, Don! Wilson used the ESPIONAGE ACT of 1917 not only to harass and imprison Irish- and German-American war protesters, but also to try, convict, and imprison draft protester and Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs to prison, after the war had ended!
Against those criticisms of Wilson, though, he must be given some credit for helping England and France beat Germany in WWI, the timely introduction of those thousands of fresh US infantry troops helping England and France break the back of the German Spring Offensive of 1918 (and thus the end of the war later that year). As bad as the British and French post war terms were towards their defeated enemy, there can hardly be any doubts that the authoritarian dictatorship of Germany under the Kaiser would have been far worse.
President Wilson is an icon or textbook example of a REFORMER with authoritarian, Reactionary tendencies. The Wiki entry on President Wilson captures both his progressive, populist, liberal accomplishments with his above mentioned reactionary, racist tendencies, much as many of the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence "All Men are Create Equal", while holding slaves who had _no_ rights.
A more recent example is the Junior Senator from New York (and recent presidential candidate), who is most famously identified with "populist" programs like Health Care reform and women's empowerment (even if her resume is short on actual accomplishment in those areas), but who also co-sponsored the criminalization of protests involving the burning of US flag bill.
Another example of those simultaneous populist/progressive/democratic tendencies juxtaposed with a Reactionary bias was William Jennings Bryan leading the prosecution in the infamous Scopes Trial, Tennessee's 1925 effort to CRIMINALIZE the teaching of evolution!
Speaking as a father that taught my son responsibility, hard work, honor and integrity, I also hold G.H.W.Bush accountable for the tragedies that have been allowed by his son & co. He understands the incompetence & ineptitude of his son. Just as when he was young, GW was never held accountable, only bailed out.
When he won the Presidency and took control of this nation, it was tantamount to giving the keys of a semitruck to a drunk. GHW thought his old buddies surrounding GW would keep him out of trouble. They just looted the country morally & financially.
You have to understand that in order for these people to continue as they do they are sociopaths, they lack empathy or understanding of how people live, hurt or struggle for their families.
Their motivation is to take and satisfy their own desires, nothing more.
Paul @ 11:
That's exactly how I remember it, too. Mary Landrieu was one of the WORST Bush brown-nosers during the Katrina debacle. She was still sucking up to him and his clowns, when everyone else had thrown up their hands and was screaming out loud about BushCo incompetence! Where does she get off telling us NOW that - from the very beginning - she KNEW what ruthless thugs they were behaving like! The fact that Landrieu now admits she KNEW this at the time, and yet she STILL persisted in PRETENDING that they were doing a GREAT job in responding to Katrina borders on a criminal act! I lost all respect for Mary Landrieu in the wake of that hurricane (and I had donated money to her campaign the previous year!), but now she has actually sunk to a new low in my esteem. Now I completely despise her....she's just as bad or worse than Karl Rove himself! What a total brown-nosing sellout she is!
DonnaM @ 115:
Didn't you read the article? If you did, you would understand that is what the wingers wanted your thoughts at the time and memories now to be. The media was being 'hand-fed' talking points, headlines and photo ops. Blanco, Landrieu and Melacon were being jammed into a hard place and had few defenders. Every time one of them spoke out...the criticism got louder against them and the state and the fight for relief got harder. And you had Vitterer screeching like a parrot in the background trying to seem the relevant winger against Blanco. What would you have done? Sometimes you have to choose your battles. Apparently they chose to save the state and let God sort the rest out later. That is probably why Blanco chose not to seek re-election because she knew that they were planning on waging an onslaught that would have hindered every move she made toward the recovery. Re criticism of Landrieu's voting record, check out that most of that legislation included some sort of recovery, relief or coastal monies for La.
Boo hoo, Kathleen Blanco. It's hilarious that everyone blames Bush for the mess that New Orleans became after Hurricane Katrina. Let me state this clearly: THE LOCAL POLITICIANS ARE TO BLAME!!! Let's see, who can mobilize the Louisiana national guard and move them into New Orleans immediately after the hurricane, hmmm? The governor. Obviously the Louisiana National Guard could have reacted quicker than the National Guard troops that Bush ended up sending in. She didn't act quickly enough. And Nagin, don't even get me started on this clown. There were parking lots full of school buses that they could have used to transport people out of the city before the Hurricane hit. It makes more sense to have the local politicians take care of these problems, because their resources are closer TO the problem. The simple fact is people were afraid to lay the blame where it should have been put, in fear of being labelled a sexist (for blaming Blanco) or a racist (for blaming Nagin). It's always OK to blame the white guy, however. And it's also so the rage to hate Bush and blame him for everything. Why stop there, let's blame him for the hurricane occurring in the first place. I pray to God every night that McCain wins. He's not the best Republican to run, but he is WORLDS better than Obama.
CDM @ 117:
CDM, obviously you were not good taking 'open book' tests, as you apparently do not let FACTS hamper your way to spouting mindless talking points that have been programed for you and the parrot brigade. FYI Blanco/State of La followed emergency procedures as per the Federal Emergency Management Guidelines. Look it up. Locals are responsible UNTIL/UNLESS their sources/assets become damaged/destroyed or overwhelmed by the destruction...in that event, then the feds are supposed to come in and work WITH the state's authorities. The La Nat Guard (those not serving Afganistan/Iraq at the time) and all La emergency agencies were mobilized prior to Katrina. Of course, after Katrina destroyed highways, bridges and littered roadways w/trees and powerlines for 100's of miles around and as the federal levees failed or collapsed (in about 50 locations) flooding 80% of the areas (much residential) in/around NOLA and surrounding communities, fire, police, medical, Nat Guard, as well as other emergency units buildings were flooded, losing equipment, communications, utilities, vehicles, emergency supplies and left many fighting for their own lives in the flood. As for the 'buses', if you would care to do a search of Katrina photos, you will see that there were 100's of thousands of all kinds of vehicles lost due to the hurricane and flood, buses, cars, trucks, boats, barges, bicycles...for that matter their were lots of horses stranded by the waters...the thing is if you have to go to your attic to escape floodwaters, the car sitting outside isn't much good. As to your primative view on blame not being cast upon Blanco because of fear it was sexist...hey buddy, that sure didn't seem to slow any of 'them' from blaming the Democratic woman Gov.
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