Democrats Want Independent Katrina Probe

All I can say here is that it is about time. From Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers from both parties said Thursday a newly disclosed videotape of a pre-Katrina briefing for President Bush and top administration officials raises new questions about government response to the storm that flooded New Orleans and killed more than 1,300 people.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said the video "makes it perfectly clear once again that this disaster was not out of the blue or unforeseeable. It was not only predictable, it was actually predicted. That's what made the failures in response — at the local, state and federal level — all the more outrageous."

The video, obtained by The Associated Press, "confirms what we have suspected all along," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, charging that Bush administration officials have "systematically misled the American people."

Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California renewed their calls for an independent commission to investigate the federal response to the hurricane.

The House and Senate have conducted separate investigations of the federal response, and the White House did its own investigation. House Democrats for the most part refused to participate in the House probe, insisting since last fall that an independent commission should be created to handle the probe.

"I try not to get angry, but I am plenty frustrated that we're not getting answers" from the administration, said Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., one of the few Democrats who participated in the House investigation. "If nobody was hiding anything, why did the committee not get the documents it requested? We need to use subpoenas if necessary to get those documents."

A spokesman for Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who headed the House investigation, said there was nothing new in the tape and accompanying transcripts.

"Top federal, state and local officials failed to process and act on information at their disposal," said David Marin, the spokesman. "We already knew that."

But Rep. Bennie Thompson (news, bio, voting record), D-Miss., the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, disagreed.

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million," he said. "Six months after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the homes and livelihoods of millions along the Gulf Coast, the truth about what the president knew and when he knew it has come to light."

Of course, the Democrats have been calling for independent probes in the Iraqi WMD intelligence failings, the White House role in marketing the Iraq war, the Valerie Plame leak, Portgate, Jack Abramoff, NSA wiretappings, and Katrina. And in all that time, the Republicans in Congress have been able to delay and block any independent or even congressional probes into these scandals. The Republicans know that any such probe into the Bush administration's role in any of these scandals, is going to bring up even more damaging evidence of White House manipulations, lies, and a general contempt for the law. When you have criminals such as Karl Rove ready to blackmail moderate Republicans if they do not toe the White House line, and allow Bush to circumvent the FISA courts with his illegal spying program, you have a situation where President Bush has become accountable to no one. There is no way that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, or House Speaker Dennis Hastert is going to allow any type of independent probe to investigate the White House. The Republicans are not going to allow an independent Katrina probe--not even after we caught President Bush lying in a publicized video conference with FEMA officials.

The only way for the Democrats to get their independent probes, and to bring back the power of congressional oversight against the White House, is to remove the Republicans from their leadership position in one or both houses of Congress.

UPDATE on Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina

This is an update on my previous post regarding the Associated Press tape showing Bush, Chertoff were warned of the Katrina disaster. The blogsite Crooks and Liars has the actual video conference between FEMA disaster officials and President Bush, while he was on vacation.

Here's the Quicktime Movie link from Crooks and Liars.

It is one thing to read the AP story on this outrageous lie, but it is even more astounding to watch these FEMA disaster officials tell President Bush that this is a storm that will be ranked among the top ten hurricanes this country has faced. Even more, you can see the video link of National Hurricane Center's Max Mayfield warning President Bush of Katrina's landfall--and Mayfield is standing in front of a radar image of Katrina moving towards the Gulf Coast. And President Bush's video conference response is seen and clearly heard, "We are fully prepared."

I'm dumbfounded. This is beyond imagination.

Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina

This frame taken from secure government video obtained by The Associated Press shows then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown, center, at the Homeland Security EOC (emergency operations center) in Washington Aug. 28, 2005, taking part in a government video briefing the day before Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29. (AP Photo)

This is incredible. What can I say, but here's more examples of the Bush White House lying to cover their arses. From Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, risk lives in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage of the briefings.

Bush didn't ask a single question during the final government-wide briefing the day before Katrina struck on Aug. 29 but assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

This 29 August, 2005 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite image shows the size of Hurricane Katrina when it made landfall. As New Orleans struggles to rebuild entire neighborhoods destroyed by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, many of those who were caught in its wake are still struggling to rebuild their lives.(AFP/NOAA-HO/File)

Talk about blatant lying here by the Bush White House. They knew how bad Katrina was, when it would hit New Orleans on the next day. The White House was briefed by federal disaster officials, and President Bush didn't ask a single question during that briefing? Talk about an arrogant, contemptual approach to an oncoming disaster! It is like President Bush was a deer frozen in the middle of the road, staring at the oncoming headlights. And he still had the arrogance to lie to the federal disaster officials that the U.S. was fully prepared--when it was obvious that the White House, the military, or the government was not. Continuing on:

Six days of footage and transcripts obtained by The Associated Press show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Linked by secure video, Bush's bravado on Aug. 29 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.

A top hurricane expert voiced "grave concerns" about the levees and then-
Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren't enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome.

"I'm concerned about ... their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe," Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall.

Some of the footage conflicts with the defenses that federal, state and local officials have made in trying to deflect blame and minimize the political fallout from the failed Katrina response:

_Homeland Security officials have said the "fog of war" blinded them early on to the magnitude of the disaster. But the video and transcripts show federal and local officials discussed threats clearly, reviewed long-made plans and understood Katrina would wreak devastation of historic proportions. "I'm sure it will be the top 10 or 15 when all is said and done," National Hurricane Center's Max Mayfield warned the day Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast.

"I don't buy the `fog of war' defense," Brown told the AP in an interview Wednesday. "It was a fog of bureaucracy."

Bush declared four days after the storm, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees" that gushed deadly flood waters into New Orleans. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility--and Bush was worried too.

U.S. President George W. Bush holds up a copy of 'Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned' during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, February 23, 2006. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Mr. President, you have just lied to the American people. A top hurricane official voiced "grave concerns" about the possibility that Katrina would breech the levees.
Or how about this quote: "'I'm sure it will be the top 10 or 15 when all is said and done,' National Hurricane Center's Max Mayfield warned the day Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast." You don't think Mayfield didn't see the possibility that Katrina would breech the levees? You can bet that a number of hurricane officials--or anyone trained in meteorology--could surmise that Katrina was powerful enough to breech the levees. Even your local TV weatherman could have seen that coming.

What is especially funny is that FEMA director Michael 'Heckava Job' Brownie was right. It was the fog of bureaucracy. Only this fog didn't blind the lower level career disaster officials, who knew of the power of Katrina. This fog blinded the White House. It blinded President Bush, Cheney, Rove, Chertoff, Brown, and perhaps the top military officials. This fog started at the top of this nation's top executive leadership, and then flowed down. What is even more astounding is how the White House is playing their political-spin game in claiming they still couldn't anticipate the magnitude of Katrina--even as their lies are now exposed.

Incredible.

Two-Thirds of Katrina Donations Exhausted

A tattered American flag lies in mud in the backyard of a destroyed house, December 2005 in St. Bernard Parish, Meraux, Louisiana. As New Orleans struggles to rebuild entire neighborhoods destroyed by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, many of those who were caught in its wake are still struggling to rebuild their lives.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Ethan Miller)

This is from The Washington Post:

Six months after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the Gulf Coast, charities have disbursed more than $2 billion of the record sums they raised for the storm's victims, leaving less than $1 billion for the monumental task of helping hundreds of thousands of storm victims rebuild their lives, according to a survey by The Washington Post.

Two-thirds of the $3.27 billion raised by private nonprofit organizations and tracked by The Post went to help evacuees and other Katrina victims with immediate needs -- cash, food and temporary shelter, medical care, tarps for damaged homes and school supplies for displaced children.

What's left, say charities and federal officials, will need to be stretched over years to rebuild lives and reconstruct the social fabric of the Gulf Coast -- from job training to mental health counseling to rebuilding the homes of the poor to reestablishing arts organizations and paying clergy as they wait for their congregations to return.

The Post survey, the first detailed examination of the largest outpouring of charity in the nation's history, also found the following:

· The American Red Cross, which was criticized for slow distribution of donations after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has given out 84 percent of its Katrina and Rita donations.

· 50 cents of each donated dollar went out in cash to victims.

· 6 percent of contributions came in the form of supplies -- building materials, food, water, clothing, heavy equipment -- donated mostly by corporations.

· 56 percent of remaining donations are controlled by faith-based organizations. They include such well-known institutions as Catholic Charities USA and the Salvation Army but also such lower-profile groups as the United Methodist Committee on Relief and United Jewish Communities.

What remains to be done goes well beyond even the staggering costs of rebuilding infrastructure -- projects estimated to require nearly $200 billion in government aid over the long term.

A string af rubber-ducky Mardi Gras beads can be seen in the debris around a shrimp boat that sits in the middle of a Chalmette, La., neighborhood, Friday, Feb. 24, 2006, where it landed almost six months ago during Hurricane Katrina. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

What I find laughable is that the Bush White House and their Republican cronies love to play up the significance of private charities and "faith-based" organizations. And yet, the non-profit organizations have only been able to raise $3 billion for Katrina relief, and they've already spent $2 billion of that money. And it is going to take over $200 billon to rebuild the Gulf Coast region! There is no way that private charities can raise $200 billion for Katrina relief. The only way to rebuild the Gulf Coast is for the federal government to step in with a massive infusion of relief aid--and the government right now is flat broke!

But there's something else here to comment on. Consider this:

"There are many, many needs that the federal government cannot cover," said Don Powell, a former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman who was named coordinator of the Gulf's long-term recovery by President Bush in November. Many are "the crucial part of life that we all depend on," he said. "It's not public works. It's not water, sewage or utilities. It's the soul of our life."

No one has put a price tag on restoring the "soul" of a region after such devastation, but the current charitable resources of about $960 million, as calculated by The Post, will not be sufficient, Powell said.

"There are many, many needs that the federal government cannot cover." Many are the "crucial part of life that we all depend on. It's not public works. It's not water, sewage or utilities. It's the soul of our life." What the heck is Powell talking about here? The federal government cannot cover many needs that are crucial to the soul of our life? What needs? Is it food, shelter, clothing? We've got programs to cover those needs--food stamps, The Housing and Urban Development, and the federal government can provide large block grants to states to promote the general welfare of the people--think Medicare and Medicaid for health. Is it also not possible for the federal government to provide grants and money to the states for the purchase of clothing? Is it jobs? Why not develop public works programs that will hire the American citizens that were hit in the Gulf Coast regions, and paying a decent salary to those citizens--rather than allowing companies to bring in illegal workers who will work for pennies on the dollar. This is such a convoluted, contradictory, PR-spinmeistered quote that could make any rational, sane person to watch stars twirling around their head.

The Bush administration doesn't get it. Katrina is an unprecedented disaster! Not only is it going to take hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild the region, but it is also going to need to take new strategies and policy analysis to reconsider the roles that the federal government and private charities have in coping with disasters of this magnitude. The federal government has got to find ways to fund the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast region. Both the government and private charities have got to work together, and figure out how they can complement each other in providing relief and reconstruction for the region. Unfortunately, policy analysis is not a strong trait within this administration. Once this last billion is exhausted--perhaps before the end of November--that's it. The soul of our life in the Gulf Coast region will start to go out. And since private charities don't have the resources or fundraising ability to pick up the slack, and the federal government under the Bush White House remains ignorant to this issue, you're going to witness another light grow and through the Gulf Coast--a burning red light of anger.

Bush Promises New Orleans Better Levees

I'd say that this is too little, too late. From Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON -
President Bush pledged on Thursday to rebuild New Orleans' shattered levee system taller and stronger than before Hurricane Katrina struck, requesting an additional $1.5 billion to buttress the system that failed and left the city flooded.

"The federal government is committed to building the best levee system known in the world," said Donald Powell, the top federal official for reconstruction.

Officials dodged the question of whether the levees would be built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, using broader language instead to promise that the city's citizens would be safe and the new levees would exceed anything New Orleans had ever seen.

Katrina, a Category 4 storm, surged through the city's levees at numerous points after it hit on Aug. 29, killing 1,300 people in the Gulf region. Louisiana officials have said bringing the levees to Category 5 level is crucial for persuading people to move back.

You know what bugs me here? Over the past five years, the federal government could have strengthened those levees at any time, but they didn't. Instead, we get big corporate and individual tax cuts benefiting the rich elites. The government knew the levees wouldn't survive a Cat 5 storm, and yet they decided to do nothing about it. Tax cuts for the rich was a more important agenda to the Bush White House than spending government money on some boring earthen dams. Well, Katrina hits New Orleans and kills 1300 lower-class people, and now the Bush White House decides to do something about it.

One more interesting speculation. I wonder what the racial breakdown is among those 1,300 dead?

Bush: Race Not a Factor in Katrina Response

I have two interesting stories to comment on. The first story is from Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON -President Bush said Monday the federal government's reaction to Hurricane Katrina was appalling, but was not the result of racial indifference to blacks hard-hit by the storm. "You can call me anything you want, but do not call me a racist," Bush said.

In an interview with "NBC Nightly News," Bush said he saw televised pictures showing the government's faltering response to Katrina, and that his first thought was that there was a breakdown of communications between all levels of government after the Aug. 29 hurricane.

"I heard, you know, a couple of people say ... `Bush didn't respond because of race_ because he's a racist,' or alleged that," Bush said. "That is absolutely wrong. And I — I reject that.'

"You can call me anything you want, but do not call me a racist. Secondly, this storm hit — all up and down (the Gulf). It hit New Orleans. It hit Mississippi, too."

Okay. That's the first story--Bush doesn't want to be called a racist. Now here's the second story I found off the CNN website:

(CNN) -- More than three months after thousands of people lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina, local and federal officials are trading blame over the slow delivery of trailer housing.

"We got a serious situation in St. Bernard Parish," its president, Henry "Junior" Rodriguez, told CNN on Tuesday.

"We got people living in tents and automobiles. We got people living in barns. We got people living in their houses -- in tents," he said on "American Morning."

"This is the beginning of winter. This is unacceptable."

Tuesday morning, it was 41 degrees in New Orleans.

A site with 50 to 55 trailers is operational, Rodriguez said, and another may be able to handle 45 trailers within a couple days. But the 100 or so trailers fall far short of the 12,000 trailers needed for the number of people estimated to return home, he added.

About 1,400 trailers are sitting in St. Bernard Parish unused, and local officials say FEMA won't pay for them. From CNN.Com

Adding to Rodriguez's frustration is the fact that 1,400 trailers are sitting unused in St. Bernard Parish. The parish ordered them from a private contractor days after the hurricane hit on August 29, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency has not agreed to pay for them.

There are also more than 5,000 FEMA mobile homes in Arkansas sitting unused, CNN has learned.

FEMA responded Tuesday, telling CNN it is ready to deliver 125,000 trailers to the area but that parish officials "still have to identify places to put them."

The agency said that St. Bernard Parish "has identified 1,000 sites for trailers ... 500 of them have already been installed, and the rest are in the works."

Rodriguez said he and other parish officials identified 6,500 trailers, each at a price $1,500 less than what FEMA is paying for trailers of the same type. Another list he provided had 4,500 trailers that are $3,000 cheaper than what FEMA pays, Rodriguez said. And FEMA hasn't talked with the contractor in charge of the cheaper trailers, Rodriguez added.

Meanwhile Jim Maguire, the private contractor whose unused trailers haven't been paid for, told CNN that they can't stay in St. Bernard forever.

Now Bush may think that he's not a racist, but the Republican Party is very racist in regards to its incompetence and ignorance of providing disaster aid in the wake of Katrina. This situation with the trailers is just another example of where the Republican loyalties lie--big business, rich elites and big corporate interests, at the expense of lower working class, middle class, and the poor. It is amazing at how much of a disaster this Katrina reconstruction has been for the country--although I'll bet that Haliburton, and other big construction companies are making windfall profits at the taxpayer expense with the no-bid Katrina reconstruction contracts.

Mr. President, you are a racist and a bigot.

'Can I quit now?' FEMA chief wrote as Katrina raged

This is from CNN.Com:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Louisiana congressman says e-mails written by the government's emergency response chief as Hurricane Katrina raged show a lack of concern for the unfolding tragedy and a failure in leadership.

Rep. Charlie Melancon, whose district south of New Orleans was devastated by the hurricane, posted a sampling of e-mails written by Federal Emergency Management chief Michael Brown on his Web site on Wednesday.

The lawmaker cited several e-mails that he said show Brown's failures. In one, as employees looked for direction and support on the ravaged Gulf Coast, Brown offered to "tweak" the federal response.

Two days after Katrina hit, Marty Bahamonde, one of the only FEMA employees in New Orleans, wrote to Brown that "the situation is past critical" and listed problems including many people near death and food and water running out at the Superdome.

Brown's entire response was: "Thanks for the update. Anything specific I need to do or tweak?"

On September 12 Brown resigned, 10 days after President Bush told him, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Now I'll admit that joke emails can be fun in the office. The problem is that you better know who you're sending your joke emails to, before you start sending them. And you don't send joke emails to employees who are working on critical problems, as Brown did to Bahamonde with a single-lined response. Some more samplings here:

The e-mails Melancon posted, a sampling of more than 1,000 provided to the House committee now assessing responses to Katrina by all levels of government, also show Brown making flippant remarks about his responsibilities.

"Can I quit now? Can I come home?" Brown wrote to Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of public affairs, the morning of the hurricane.

A few days later, Brown wrote to an acquaintance, "I'm trapped now, please rescue me."

"In the midst of the overwhelming damage caused by the hurricane and enormous problems faced by FEMA, Mr. Brown found time to exchange e-mails about superfluous topics," including "problems finding a dog-sitter," Melancon said.

Melancon said that on August 26, just days before Katrina made landfall, Brown e-mailed his press secretary, Sharon Worthy, about his attire, asking: "Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?"

A few days later, Worthy advised Brown: "Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt, all shirts. Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this [crisis] and on TV you just need to look more hard-working."

On August 29, the day of the storm, Brown exchanged e-mails about his attire with Taylor, Melancon said. She told him, "You look fabulous," and Brown replied, "I got it at Nordstroms. ... Are you proud of me?"

An hour later, Brown added: "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god," according to the congressman.

The e-mails came from Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, who oversees FEMA, following a request by Melancon and Rep. Tom Davis, R-Virginia, chairman of a House committee appointed to investigate what went wrong during Katrina, Melancon said.

Talk about incompetence here.

Many Contracts for Storm Work Raise Questions

This is from the New York Times:

The first detailed tally of commitments from federal agencies since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast four weeks ago shows that more than 15 contracts exceed $100 million, including 5 of $500 million or more. Most of those were for clearing away the trees, homes and cars strewn across the region; purchasing trailers and mobile homes; or providing trucks, ships, buses and planes.

More than 80 percent of the $1.5 billion in contracts signed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency alone were awarded without bidding or with limited competition, government records show, provoking concerns among auditors and government officials about the potential for favoritism or abuse.

Already, questions have been raised about the political connections of two major contractors - the Shaw Group and Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton - that have been represented by the lobbyist Joe M. Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former leader of FEMA.

"When you do something like this, you do increase the vulnerability for fraud, plain waste, abuse and mismanagement," said Richard L. Skinner, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, who said 60 members of his staff were examining Hurricane Katrina contracts. "We are very apprehensive about what we are seeing."

Bills have come in for deals that apparently were clinched with a handshake, with no documentation to back them up, said Mr. Skinner, who declined to provide details.

The cronyism in the Bush White House just doesn't stop. Now we have no-bid contracts being awarded to Halliburton, who was represented by Allbaugh--connected by Bush through his presidential campaign financing and as being a former leader of FEMA. What is even worst is that some of these companies are in hot water due to overcharging the government for the Iraq war costs. The Times continues saying:

Some businesses awarded large contracts have long records of performing similar work, but they also have had some problems. Kellogg, Brown & Root, which was given $60 million in contracts, was rebuked by federal auditors for unsubstantiated billing from the Iraq reconstruction and criticized for bills like $100-per-bag laundry service.

Kellogg, Brown & Root is a subsidiary of Halliburton--Dick Cheney's old company. The good-ole-boy network continues on in the Bush White House.

Bush mulls lead role for military in disasters

Found this off Yahoo News:

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush said on Sunday that Congress ought to consider giving the U.S. military the lead role in responding to natural disasters, as he heard one general describe the Hurricane Katrina rescue effort as a "train wreck."

Bush spent the last three days monitoring Hurricane Rita's high winds and flooding from military bases and emergency centers in Colorado, Texas and Louisiana. The president, whose poll numbers have slumped to new lows, was widely criticized over the slow federal response to Katrina.

Bush said Congress would have to consider under what circumstance the Department of Defense should become the lead agency in coordinating and responding to a disaster.

"Clearly, in the case of a terrorist attack, that would be the case. But is there a natural disaster ... of a certain size that would then enable the Defense Department to become the lead agency in coordinating and leading the response effort? That's going to be a very important consideration for Congress to think about," Bush said.

McClellan said Bush's goal was to make sure "there's a very clear line of authority" in the event of another major catastrophe, whether it is another storm like Katrina or an avian flu outbreak.

"You need to mobilize assets and resources and logistics and communications very quickly to help stabilize or contain the situation," McClellan said. "The organization, in the president's mind, that has the capability to do that is the Department of Defense."

McClellan said Bush has already discussed some of these issues with the secretary of Homeland Security and some top military leaders, and that the next step was to hold talks with congressional leaders.

McClellan acknowledged the proposal faced legal hurdles, and that a major issue would be determining what type of disaster would "trigger" a shift in authority to the Pentagon.

Putting the military in the lead role would sideline the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, which now works with local and state officials to coordinate disaster response.

This is how you maintain complete control over the dissimulation of information to the American public regarding events surrounding a disaster--you give it to the military. By gutting FEMA and giving control of disaster planning and execution to the Pentagon, the White House will then have a free pass in crafting a public relations campaign for future disasters. This will not do anything in helping American citizens who are affected by the disasters. Having the Pentagon control disaster planning takes away the state and local government's ability to respond to such disasters. The problem here is that the Pentagon has no experience in disaster response at a local level--they are not the first authorities at the scene. State and local police, fire and medical officials are the first authorities at the scene of a disaster and will have the immediate first-hand information on getting recovery and relief procedures started. They know what are the hardest areas hit, where the casualties are, and where to send the relief to the hardest hit areas because they know their cities and towns--not some nameless bureaucrat sitting in the Pentagon. The Defense Department's main asset is the ability to move tremendous resources--both men and supplies--into an area after a disaster has occurred. The Pentagon can certainly make plans for shifting military assets from bases located in the various states towards certain geographic areas where disasters may occur, but once those resources are in the disaster area, there has to be some type of coordination between the state authorities (who will have the first-hand knowledge of what needs to be done) and the military (who has the muscle to do things). And that is what FEMA was originally designed for. The simple reason why FEMA screwed up in response to Katrina was that the top officials in charge of FEMA were not qualified for those positions. They were selected by the Bush Administration due to politics, or political favors.

Kerry, Edwards Criticize Bush Over Response to Hurricane

This is from the Washington Post:

President Bush came under withering criticism for his handling of Hurricane Katrina yesterday, with Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) charging that the storm exposed the administration's incompetence and ideological blinders and former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) asserting that even in its response, the administration backs policies that support the privileged over the working poor.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, said in a speech at Brown University that Michael D. Brown, who quit under fire as the Federal Emergency Management Agency's director, exemplified the administration's failures over the past five years.

Using the nickname Bush used for Brown, Kerry said, "Brownie is to Katrina what Paul Bremer is to peace in Iraq, what George Tenet is to slam-dunk intelligence, what Paul Wolfowitz is to parades paved with flowers in Baghdad, what Dick Cheney is to visionary energy policy, what Donald Rumsfeld is to basic war planning, what Tom DeLay is to ethics and what George Bush is to 'Mission Accomplished' and 'Wanted Dead or Alive.' "

Edwards, who has made poverty a signature issue, said the plight of many of those displaced by the flooding in New Orleans underscores an urgent need for the nation to attack the problem again. He offered policy initiatives aimed at ensuring that Americans who work full time do not fall below the poverty line.

The former senator -- who was tapped by Kerry to be his running mate last year and, like Kerry, is contemplating a 2008 presidential run -- said the administration has long favored wealth over work. He criticized Bush for suspending a law requiring federal contractors along the Gulf Coast to pay prevailing wages on reconstruction projects.

"I might have missed something, but I don't think the president ever talked about putting a cap on the salaries of the CEOs of Halliburton and the other companies . . . who are getting all these contracts," he said in a speech at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. "This president, who never met an earmark he wouldn't approve or a millionaire's tax cut he wouldn't promote, decided to slash wages for the least of us and the most vulnerable."

What can I say, but that's a pretty wicked attack against the incompetence of the Bush administration. The Democrats need to keep hitting hard at him--keep exposing this corruption. They need to constantly keep attacking Bush, while at the same time start offering their own proposals on how to get this country back on track. The 2006 mid-term elections does not start on January 1. The midterm elections start now--attack Bush while he is weak, and continue to sap his strength.

Bush Takes Responsibility for Katrina While His Poll Numbers Slide

I found two interesting stories that I think should go together. The first story is from the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 - President Bush said on Tuesday that he bore responsibility for any failures of the federal government in its response to Hurricane Katrina and suggested that he was unsure whether the country was adequately prepared for another catastrophic storm or terrorist attack.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Mr. Bush said in an appearance in the East Room with President Jalal Talabani of Iraq. "I want to know what went right and what went wrong."

Throughout his nearly five years in office, Mr. Bush has resisted publicly acknowledging mistakes or shortcomings, and his willingness in this case to edge up to a buck-stops-here statement, however conditional, was evidence of how shaken his presidency has been by the political fallout from the government's handling of the storm.

It also set the stage for a White House effort to pivot from dealing with urgent rescue and relief efforts to setting out a vision of how the federal government could help rebuild devastated communities and re-establish Mr. Bush's image as a leader.

The White House said Mr. Bush would address the nation from Louisiana on Thursday night, during the president's fourth trip to the region since the hurricane and his first major speech on the disaster.

This is certainly incredible. The president actually admitted that he will take responsibility for the feds lack of rescue in Katrina's wake. This is the first time he had admitted responsibility for his mistakes--the president never admitted any mistakes on the war in Iraq, WMDs, or just about every other crisis that has occurred in this administration. Of course, while the president will admit responsibility, his minions have been spinning that the state and local governments never told the feds that they needed help--shifting a chunk of the blame for Katrina down to the state and local governments.

But the thing here is that Bush never admits responsibility for mistakes on his part. And now he is just starting. So there is something else that is far more damaging for the Bush White House that would cause the spin doctors to suddenly shift their political playbook in this new direction. And there is. According to PollingReport.com, the latest ABC News / Washington Post poll (Sept 8-11), has President Bush's job approval ratings sinking down to 42% with 57% or respondents disapproving of Bush's performance. The CNN / USA Today / Gallup Poll has Bush's job approval ratings at 46% with a 51% of respondents disapproving. The Pew Research Center has a poll of Bush's job approval ratings at 40% approved, and 52% disapproved. Bush's presidency is sinking to where he's losing support of the moderates and independents. This is especially bad news, for if these poll results continue into the 2006 midterm elections, an angry American public may just take their wrath out against Bush and the Republicans in the voting booth. The spinmeisters of Karl Rove and company know this. And they know they will need to keep control of Congress if they want to continue pushing the Republican agenda through, and to avoid any investigations into past White House transgressions by a Democratically-controlled Congress.

So what we are witnessing here is not a change of heart, or an admission of guilt by the White House, but rather another callous political maneuver designed to keep a White House afloat in spite of its own governing incompetence. The president's address on Thursday night will probably be the same political spin--a combination of the news conference where Bush admitted responsibility, and including Bush demanding answers of what really happened in Katrina by appointing a bipartisan-blue-ribboned investigation into the matter (however, the investigation will not be headed by an independent commission or a special prosecutor), with recounting stories of American heroism in the face of the storm and the devastation that followed, while also conveniently linking Katrina's heroism with the heroism of Sept. 11th.

It will be the same ole...Same ole.