Brownie spills it
Katrina was a disaster marred by poor response at all levels.
However, the White House's claims of not knowing the levees had breached, nor knowing how bad it was, is subject to question now.
According to the AP:
Former federal disaster chief Michael Brown, the face of the government's listless response to Hurricane Katrina, said Friday he told top Bush officials the day the storm howled ashore of massive flooding in New Orleans and warned "we were realizing our worst nightmare."
More defiant than defensive, Brown told senators he dealt directly with White House officials the day of the Aug. 29 storm, including chief of staff Andrew Card and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin.
The incompetence of the response is astounding, though. It starts right from the beginning with the President hiring Brown for this job -- one he was clearly unqualified to do. Brown's ascertions that the Department of Homeland Security may or may not be true. The Coast Guard, which performed and repsonded admirably during and after Katrina, is part of DHS.
However, I can fully understand Brown's accusation that Homeland Security keeps its focus on anti-terrorism and not on natural disasters.
What is clear is that the Bush administration, before and during Katrina, kept and ostrich-like head-in-the-hole mentality.
Former Republican Congressman and conservative political pundit Joseph Scarbrough is even more damning of his indictment of Bush. In a talk on C-SPAN's Book-TV, he said Bush aides had a debate on who would be the one to interrupt his vacation and tell him how bad things really were. Scarbrough said they had to put together a DVD compilation of television coverage to get the point across that he needed to do something.
As time goes on, I become more and more convinced we are under the leadership of one of the most inept and out-of-touch administrations in memory.
However, the White House's claims of not knowing the levees had breached, nor knowing how bad it was, is subject to question now.
According to the AP:
Former federal disaster chief Michael Brown, the face of the government's listless response to Hurricane Katrina, said Friday he told top Bush officials the day the storm howled ashore of massive flooding in New Orleans and warned "we were realizing our worst nightmare."
More defiant than defensive, Brown told senators he dealt directly with White House officials the day of the Aug. 29 storm, including chief of staff Andrew Card and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin.
The incompetence of the response is astounding, though. It starts right from the beginning with the President hiring Brown for this job -- one he was clearly unqualified to do. Brown's ascertions that the Department of Homeland Security may or may not be true. The Coast Guard, which performed and repsonded admirably during and after Katrina, is part of DHS.
However, I can fully understand Brown's accusation that Homeland Security keeps its focus on anti-terrorism and not on natural disasters.
What is clear is that the Bush administration, before and during Katrina, kept and ostrich-like head-in-the-hole mentality.
Former Republican Congressman and conservative political pundit Joseph Scarbrough is even more damning of his indictment of Bush. In a talk on C-SPAN's Book-TV, he said Bush aides had a debate on who would be the one to interrupt his vacation and tell him how bad things really were. Scarbrough said they had to put together a DVD compilation of television coverage to get the point across that he needed to do something.
As time goes on, I become more and more convinced we are under the leadership of one of the most inept and out-of-touch administrations in memory.
posted by Clay @ 8:20 AM
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