Hmm. Apparently, it wasn’t my fault after all….
Former FEMA Director Michael Brown on Wednesday accepted a greater share of the blame for the government’s failures after Hurricane Katrina, saying he fell short in conveying the magnitude of the disaster and calling for help.
“I should have asked for the military sooner. I should have demanded the military sooner,” Brown told a gathering of meteorologists at a ski resort in the Sierra Nevada.
“It was beyond the capacity of the state and local governments, and it was beyond the capacity of FEMA,” said Brown, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Whew… that’s a relief. The past few months have been a living hell, as I’ve had to struggle with the guilt of having been personally responsible for hundreds of deaths and untold human suffering in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At least, that’s what Brownie implied in his congressional testimony last September, when he blamed me not only for his fall from power, but for FEMA’s inability to respond to the disaster:
While FEMA was trying to respond to probably the largest natural disaster in the history of this country, a catastrophic disaster that the president has described covering an area the size of Great Britain
Ha. I saw this. Michael Brown is such a clueless dumbass. Can’t say Dubya is any better.
Buy “Bushisms” if you don’t have ’em already.
“You took an oath to defend our flag and our freedom, and you kept that oath underseas and under fire.” —George W. Bush, addressing war veterans, Washington, D.C., Jan. 10, 2006
“As you can possibly see, I have an injury myself — not here at the hospital, but in combat with a cedar. I eventually won. The cedar gave me a little scratch. As a matter of fact, the Colonel asked if I needed first aid when she first saw me. I was able to avoid any major surgical operations here, but thanks for your compassion, Colonel.” —George W. Bush, after visiting with wounded veterans from the Amputee Care Center of Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas, Jan. 1, 2006
“[I]t’s a myth to think I don’t know what’s going on. It’s a myth to think that I’m not aware that there’s opinions that don’t agree with mine, because I’m fully aware of that.” —George W. Bush, Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 12, 2005
“I mean, there was a serious international effort to say to Saddam Hussein, you’re a threat. And the 9/11 attacks extenuated that threat, as far as I-concerned.” —George W. Bush, Philadelphia, Dec. 12, 2005
“I think we are welcomed. But it was not a peaceful welcome.” —George W. Bush, defending Vice President Dick Cheney’s pre-war assertion that the United States would be welcomed in Iraq as liberators, NBC Nightly News interview, Dec. 12, 2005
“Those who enter the country illegally violate the law.” —George W. Bush, Tucson, Ariz., Nov. 28, 2005
published a false, and, frankly, in my opinion, defamatory statement that the media just continued to repeat over and over.
You know, Brownie, your former boss got his job by really doing this type of thing to someone. You just got caught as the resume-padded crony you are, so shut up already.
Chrysler Corporation is adding a new car to its line to honor Bill
Clinton.The Dodge Draft will begin production in Canada this year.
When Clinton was asked what he thought about foreign affairs, he replied,
“I don’t know. I never had one.”
If you came across Bill Clinton struggling in a raging river and you had
a choice between rescuing him or getting a Pulitzer prize-winning
photograph, what shutter speed would you use?
Chelsea asked her dad, “Do all fairy tales begin with once upon a
time…?” Bill Clinton replied, “No. Some begin with ‘After I’m
elected…'”
Clinton’s mother prayed fervently that Bill would grow up and be president.
So far, half of her prayer has been answered.
The American Indians have nicknamed Bill Clinton as “Walking Eagle”
because he is so full of poop that he can’t fly.
Isn’t putting Bill Clinton in charge of a trust fund as insane as putting
in a draft-dodger as Commander in Chief?
Clinton only lacks three things to become one of America’s finest
leaders: Integrity, vision, and wisdom.
Asked about his views on euthanasia, Clinton replied, “Youth in Asia are
just like kids everywhere else.”
Clinton is doing the work of 3 men: Larry, Curly, and Moe.
Revised judicial oath: “I solemnly swear to tell the truth as I Know it,
the whole truth, as I believe it to be, and nothing but what I think you
need to know.”
“It’s a heck of a place to bring your family.” —George W. Bush, on New Orleans, New Orleans, La., Jan. 12, 2006
Wow! Brazil is big.” —George W. Bush, after being shown a map of Brazil by Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brasilia, Brazil, Nov. 6, 2005
As a matter of fact, I know relations between our governments is good.” —George W. Bush, on U.S.-South Korean relations, Washington D.C., Nov. 8, 2005
“I think it’s important to bring somebody from outside the system, the judicial system, somebody that hasn’t been on the bench and, therefore, there’s not a lot of opinions for people to look at.” —George W. Bush, on the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, Washington, D.C., October 4, 2005
“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” —George W. Bush, to FEMA director Michael Brown, who resigned 10 days later amid criticism over his job performance, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005 (Listen to audio; read more stupid quotes about Hurricane Katrina)
It’s totally wiped out. … It’s devastating, it’s got to be doubly devastating on the ground.” —George W. Bush, turning to his aides while surveying Hurricane Katrina flood damage from Air Force One , Aug. 31, 2005
“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.” —George W. Bush, Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005 (Listen to audio)
“This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table.” —George W. Bush, Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 22, 2005
Congrats Goldy. You helped to expose Monkey Face’s choice as a crony, and a typically inbred, inept, piece of whale shit who, like all republicans, can’t stop lying, crying and blaming everyone but himself for his own mistakes.
When the next elections come, we’ll remind everyone that Baby Bush installs his friends in high places rather than people who can actually do the job. And when the right wing turds get thrown out of office, you’ll deserve at least part of the credit. You sir, are a great American and I salute you!
The Preznit said Brownie did a heck of a job.
It was all Blanco and Nagin’s fault for not using those schoolbuses.
UpChuck’s a little nostalgic for the nineties.
“I think it’s important to realize that all of us made mistakes. … ” Brown told The Associated Press after his speech.
Gee, how Republican of you, Michael. First blame the Democrats (while media coverage is intense), and later blame “all of us.”
No, Michael. This was YOUR show. And George’s. This was a REPUBLICAN fuck up. Leave “all of us” out of it.
“Brown said his biggest concern was the current emphasis on reorganizing FEMA, particularly in light of past budget cuts that had left hundreds of vacancies in an agency with 2,500 employees while its parent Homeland Security Department thrives.”
Umm … isn’t it a little late for such reflections, Mike?
Shouldn’t YOU have done this when you were being paid to run FEMA?
Or, at least, shouldn’t you have discussed this when you interviewed for the job?
I suppose your lack of a grasp on your job function is the fault of “all of us” too, huh.
1
“Buy ‘Bushisms’ if you don’t have ‘em already.”
What for? I get ’em free every day. There’s always new ones being manufactured.
chuck: the stupid things dubya says is a cottage industry in this country. i saw not one clinton quote in your list. any guesses as to why?
when asked how dubya managed to stupidly blunder the u.s. into its current series of jackpots, our brutally honest congressman murtha said, very diplomatically, that he thinks someone’s been “feeding bush bad information”.
think for a moment, chuck, about the implications of that statement.
Brownie sure is doing a heck of a job with his personal post-Katrina recovery.
I wonder how well his disaster management consulting business is doing?
The World problems are now being solved in Seattle and a more freedoms are lost. You will never see this happen in Seattle as what happen in Chicago at the first of the year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01.....038;emc=th
CHICAGO, Jan. 18 – The room is lined with vintage ashtrays, delicate lighters, matches and pens shaped like cigarettes. The scent, naturally, is of smoke.
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Kenneth Dickerman for The New York Times
Sarah Garcia, who works at the Marshall McGearty Tobacco Lounge in Chicago, wiped off a display case filled with different types of tobacco.
Kenneth Dickerman for The New York Times
Ken Carter stopped by the Marshall McGearty Tobacco Lounge in Chicago for a cigarette and some coffee.
Chicago’s smoking ban took effect this week, but it was hard to know that from inside the gleaming lounge along Milwaukee Avenue in a hip neighborhood on the North Side. Here, under glass, are thick jars of tobacco – Oriental Rose, The Empress, The Earl – poured lovingly into white smoking papers by tobacco’s answer to the coffee shop barista.
At the very moment smokers around Chicago were learning not to light up on train platforms, in sports stadiums and in some restaurants, a subsidiary of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was preparing for the grand opening on Thursday of its answer to the smoke-free set: the Marshall McGearty Tobacco Lounge, what its creators intend to be the nation’s first upscale, luxury lounge dedicated to the smoking of cigarettes, especially a new R. J. Reynolds variety.
3
“Isn’t putting Bill Clinton in charge of a trust fund as insane as putting in a draft-dodger as Commander in Chief?”
I see Cheesy Chuckie has nothing better to do this morning than upchuck the rightwing Clinton-jokes-of-the-day, which fall increasingly flat.
Hey Chuckie, we’re now 5 years into the Bush dictatorship — the shit hitting the fan isn’t Clinton’s fault anymore — hellooooo, Chuckie … anyone there?
Well, okay, let’s look at the inane statement quoted above, which is a good example of the abysmal mental vacuity of wingnuts.
Trust fund —
Clinton: Everyone got their full Social Security payment on time. Not a single missed payment.
Bush: Wants to raid the trust fund to the tune of $1 trillion to fund private accounts, with no plan to fund that trillion dollars of benefits.
Commander-in-Chief —
Clinton: Won his war without a single U.S. combat death.
Bush: 2,200+ U.S. dead; 30,000+ Iraqi dead; bogged down; 3 years into the war there’s still no end in sight; military stretched to breaking point — and he’s fighting in the wrong fucking country! Pssst — the war’s over there, buddy. (pointing)
Got any more talking points you’d like to discuss, Chuckie?
Klake the Flake @8
Is this the wingnut concept of economic revitalization, Flaky Klaky? Create more tobacco jobs?
Well, I gotta admit, creating tobacco jobs does have a ripple effect — more tobacco jobs leads to more health care jobs.
Got any more talking points you’d like to discuss, Chuckie?
Comment by Roger Rabbit— 1/19/06 @ 8:31 am
Roger he did a great satire, did he hit some of you hot buttons?
Roger are you implying that he can’t be remove from office and making Mrs. Clinton say thing that are not PC.Please explain dictatorship?
Hey Chuckie, we’re now 5 years into the Bush dictatorship – the shit hitting the fan isn’t Clinton’s fault anymore – hellooooo, Chuckie … anyone there?
If I lived in Israel, I’d be worried about this character in Iran. Do you think the US should do something about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, or should the US stay out of it and let the Israelis take care of it themselves?
Klake, put down the random word generator, and walk away. You Mom is worried about you.
klake: the tobacco bar sounds tempting, but as a recovering nicotine addict i know that one cigarrette is too much and a warehouse full is not enough. it’s no better than a crack house.
Brown’s speach began by saying he made two mistakes: First in not communicating with the media better, and second in not delegating to his subordinates better.
Typical. He has his priorities completely backwards, and nowhere does he aknowledge that HE should have done some work – his only fault lay in not passing off the work (and blame) to others more effectively.
But the real problem isn’t the lightweight Brown, as entertaining as he is. The problem is that from the very beginning, the Bush administration planned to dismantle FEMA as an “out of control entitlement program”. They did a good job of that – taking away many of its employees, eliminating programs for planning for national disasters with local governments, and appointing incompetent minor political hacks, like Brown, who would happily sit quietly while their organization is dismantled.
Reminds me a bit of the old movie “Wall Street”, where Charley Sheen is appointed to be the figurehead president of the airline, while Michael Douglas dismantles it and sells off the pieces.
The idealouges in the Bush administration really believe that when national disasters like hurricanes hit, the relief efforts should be conducted entirely by charity or private companies, without government involvement. After all, we can all trust our insurance companies to look after our best interests, can’t we?????
But suddenly the failure of that line of thinking, and the failure of poor management over the past four years, came home to roost when Katrina hit. This didn’t mean that the idealouges thought they had done anything wrong. They just realized that a majority of Americans disagreed with them when faced with television images of the suffering caused by such dogma, and they were then willing to spend money to control what had become a “political and public perception problem”. Of course, once the crisis is over, and the TV cameras are focused elsewhere, they go back to their original plan of dismanteling the agency and instead giving large grants of our Federal tax money to their large corporate backers (Haliburton, et al) instead.
klake @ 14
I’m not particularly happy about the indoor smoking ban (and I am not even a smoker!). But…ummm…. we had an election that resulted in: Yes=63.2467%, No=36.7533%.
The people have spoken.
You know, many of the regular trolls have been absent from the comment thread these days. Though, we still get comments from the semi-Republican unpaid crackpots like our friend Chuck.
My guess is that the Republican Troll Fund is running low. Perhaps the dirty lobbiest money has dried up and they cannot afford to keep ’em posting these days.
Bye, bye, trolls. Go back to your ditch-digging j0bs. You never contributed anything of substance anyway.
Comment by dj— 1/19/06 @ 10:11 am
“Bye, bye, trolls. Go back to your ditch-digging j0bs. You never contributed anything of substance anyway.”
Some of us got tired of reading Roger Rabbit conversing with himself.
Goldy, I know you’re proud of “toppling” Mike Brown, but don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back. Most of this post is a rehash of your original post on the topic.
I think it is worth noting that what happened in NOLA was not a natural disaster, but a man-made one. The floodwalls built by the Army Corps of Engineers failed (17th St.) while the locally produced floodwalls held. NOLA didn’t have problems until after Katrina had reached Tennessee. Brownie’s total incompetance would have go unrevealed were it not for the Federal gov’ts poor floodwall design.
Most of this post is a rehash of your original post on the topic.
Comment by ConservativeFirst— 1/19/06 @ 11:16 am
===============================================
No kidding!
#4 Chuckie Cheeseballs: You can’t defend Bush’s failures so you have to resort five years later about Clinton being a conscientious objector Defend This: “In 1972, George W. Bush simply walked away from his pilot duties in the Texas Air National Guard. He skipped required weekend drill sessions for many months, probably for more than a year, and did not take a mandatory annual physical exam, which resulted in his being grounded. Nonetheless, Bush, the son of a well-connected Texas congressman, received an honorable discharge” If an Air National guardsman today vanished for a year, military attorneys say that guardsman would be transferred to active duty or, more likely, kicked out of the service, probably with a less-than-honorable discharge. They suggest the penalty would be especially swift if the absent-without-leave guardsman were a fully trained pilot, as Bush was.
Conservative Last:
Why not Shine A Light On Bush Failures?
Can’t stand the Truth? Then go read UnSound Politics
1.Bush’s embrace of lobbyists marks a key difference because it allows “those who are affected by the regulations to determine what the ground rules should be.
2. The drug-industry lobbyist who fought price controls joined the Health and Human Services Department and has helped drug companies avoid the limits.
3. Bush orders rewrites for EPA which poses a health threat because it slows the reduction of mercury emissions by as much as 11 years. Those emissions can end up in water where they contaminate fish. Forty-three states have issued advisories about fish consumption because of mercury pollution, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group stated.
4. Land Use Appointment: Bush named J. Steven Griles, a veteran energy industry lobbyist, as the department’s second-highest official in June 2001.
Griles earned $585,000 a year as a lobbyist, representing an array of oil, gas and other energy interests. As Interior’s deputy secretary, he continues to receive $284,000 a year for four years to pay him for the value he had created for the firm by bringing in clients.
Where’s waldo (i mean Ray)
How come Ray Nagin gets a pass on all this?
Comment by Better to Be Free Than Aligned With Lying GOP— 1/19/06 @ 12:14 pm
“Conservative Last: ”
Calling names is another great “feature” of HA.
Conservative Last: Telling it like it is. Can’t stand the heat? Then get out of the kitchen :)
Besides: Conservative Last.
This is a Liberal Blog. Neocons and Conservative Lasts and Republican Trolls come here looking for fights. Why is that?
Bush Crony Appointments:
John Pennington, Director, FEMA Region Ten
FEMA Region Ten covers the Pacific Northwest, an area at high risk for earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. With precisely zero disaster relief qualifications on his resume, at least Pennington served as co-chair of the Cowlitz County Bush campaign in 2000. Recently the Seattle Times also discovered that just days before his appointment to FEMA, Pennington received his bachelor’s degree from a correspondence school that federal investigators have described as a “diploma mill.”
Hal Stratton, Chairman, Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
The CPSC is the federal agency charged with keeping American consumers safe from dangerous or defective products in the marketplace (such as flammable Halloween costumes). So you might expect that the agency’s leader would have some background in consumer affairs, safety, or manufacturing, right? Wrong. Mr. Stratton is a former state representative from New Mexico who co-chaired the local branch of “Lawyers for Bush.”
Julie Myers, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
This 36-year-old lawyer, recently recess-appointed into the Assistant Secretary position, will now oversee a budget of $4 billion and a staff of 20,000 responsible for (among other things) keeping terrorists out of the U.S. Regrettably, she has virtually no experience in either immigration, law enforcement or customs. She is, however, the niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers, and recently married the Chief of Staff to DHS Director Michael Chertoff.
Stewart Simonson, Assistant Secretary for Public Health and Emergency Preparedness, Department of Health and Human Services
In his new position, Mr. Simonson is the point person for managing the federal government’s response to acts of bioterrorism or a pandemic such as the avian flu. Hopefully, he’s been studying hard. Before joining HHS, Simonson was a senior manager for Amtrak and an advisor to former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson on crime and prison policy.
And the latest – Paul Bonicelli, Deputy Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development
Appointed in October 2005, Bonicelli will now oversee programs at U.S. AID that promote democracy and good governance internationally. That’s going to be a tough sell for him, especially in the Muslim world where our democracy-building programs are critical to stopping the spread of extremist movements. Previously, Bonicelli served as a Dean of Patrick Henry College, a small fundamentalist institution where all students are required to sign a “statement of faith” that all non-Christians will be condemned to hell.
righton @ 30
Did you read Brownie’s words?
““It was beyond the capacity of the state andlocal governments, and it was beyond the capacity of FEMA,” said Brown, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
What part of “it was beyond local governments” don’t you understand? This is why the MAYOR gets a free pass, you dumbass.
Conservative First:
Kudos to you for staying in the fight for your side. You’re doing a heck of a job Firsty.
The New Orleans levee board spent money on casinos, private airports, fiber optic networks, practically everything except…a levee. Yet when they fail, it must be Bush’s fault.
The New Orleans levee board spent money on casin0s, private airports, fiber optic networks, practically everything except…a levee. Yet when they fail, it must be Bush’s fault.
ConservativeFirst said it right: Roger Rabbit ejaculates all over this blog, and the rest of you lap it up. Nothing new is being said. We know you all dislike the president. In the words of a lefty recently blah…blah…blah. Can can any of you deliver something new instead of the same tired diatribes against Bush? When you do I bet many of the “trolls” will revisit this location!
Mr GBS: How can Ray Nagin and the Levee Board get a free pass? My friend is an internal medicine doctor from Tulane Medical School. She called New Orleans a banana republic while in medical school. Need I write more?
Comment by Better to Be Free Than Aligned With Lying GOP— 1/19/06 @ 1:10 pm
“This is a Liberal Blog. Neocons and Conservative Lasts and Republican Trolls come here looking for fights. Why is that?”
If Goldy doesn’t want me here, he’s free to block my posts. I assume he has the capability to do so. It’s his blog, he gets to decide. I know that’s not his style, and I appreciate that.
If you consider wanting to debate current political issues “looking for a fight”, then I guess I’m guilty. If you got rid of all the people you call “trolls” you’d have an echo chamber. How boring would that be?
ConJob@39 Spouting talking points and disinformation does not further the debate.
klake: the tobacco bar sounds tempting, but as a recovering nicotine addict i know that one cigarrette is too much and a warehouse full is not enough. it’s no better than a crack house.
Comment by clay shaw— 1/19/06 @ 9:25 am
Clay Shaw,sorry to hear about your smoking problem , some people have that same problem with food. So let us pass a law that allows you get to eat once a day for only ten minutes. Soon everyone will look like North Koreans, and tax like Germans.
Mr. Mike Webb Sucks, the gentlemen from the conservative side of the isle:
Yes, I do believe you need to write more. I propose that you ponder this question then elaborate on the subject.
Who owns the levee’s
Comment by GBS— 1/19/06 @ 2:21 pm
“Kudos to you for staying in the fight for your side. You’re doing a heck of a job Firsty.”
Thanks, and stop calling me Firsty (sorry couldn’t resist the Airplane! reference).
Comment by Tree Frog Farmer— 1/19/06 @ 3:26 pm
“ConJob@39 Spouting talking points and disinformation does not further the debate.”
I assume you are addressing me, and I would agree with your assertion. Certainly there both members of the left and the right here spouting talking points and disinformation.
31
“Calling names is another great ‘feature’ of HA.”
That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?
37
“The New Orleans levee board spent money on casinos, private airports, fiber optic networks, practically everything except…a levee. Yet when they fail, it must be Bush’s fault. Comment by Michael— 1/19/06 @ 2:26 pm”
I haven’t heard this one before. Is this the new rightwing bullshit on NOLA?
Actually, you moonbats DID kill people in Nawlins. You libs are the ones who created the environment that they live in that is marked by entitlement and helplessness in the absence of instant handouts.
Liberalism DOES kill people be removing any sense of personal responsibility and accountability. You killed those people.
18
“Roger he did a great satire”
Satire? Is that the word you guys use now to explain yourselves when you get caught lying?
19
“Roger are you implying that he can’t be remove from office”
Oh, he could be removed from office alright, if the Republicans who control Congress did their constitutional duty, but don’t hold your breath for that.
26
“Some of us got tired of reading Roger Rabbit conversing with himself.”
Then why don’t you go back to conversing with yourselves on your rightwing circle-jerk blogs, where I’m sure you’ll find the conversation much more pleasant. I piss on you and your kind.
39
“Roger Rabbit ejaculates all over this blog”
Do you like it? I learned how to do this from rightwing media (Rush, O’Reilly, John Carlson, etc.) and rightwing blogs (Sucky Politics, Freeper, etc.). I simply copy you guys. It’s one of the few things you’re good at.
44
“Who owns the levee’s”
Hmmmm … the Shah of Iran? Amtrak? The Girl Scouts? Wait … I know … the Corps of Engineers … say, aren’t they a FEDERAL agency???!!!
46
“Actually, you moonbats DID kill people in Nawlins. You libs are the ones who created the environment that they live in that is marked by entitlement and helplessness in the absence of instant handouts. Liberalism DOES kill people be removing any sense of personal responsibility and accountability. You killed those people.”
You’re right, MTR, and it never would have happened if we had let you social Darwinists starve them to death before we could kill them with humanitarian kindness.
Who owns the levee?sâ€
Hmmmm … the Shah of Iran? Amtrak? The Girl Scouts? Wait … I know … the Corps of Engineers … say, aren’t they a FEDERAL agency???!!!
Comment by Roger Rabbit — 1/19/06 @ 6:03 pm [The New Orleans Levy Board always has their “conference” in Kapalua, Maui, and loves to eat at the expensive Plantation. [Yes, all black, and armed with “guvment” credit cards!] Typical black “bought and paid for” voter slave Democrats!!!
Uh… or you could let them live the Murkan Dream. But you prefer to keep them on the librul plantation.
Republicans are evil.
Mike WonkSucks, Conservative Last, MikeNoNeck
Bush History For You New Orleans Buffs:
2001-2002 Bush/Denial: Mike Parker, Republican was aware how the Republicans’ tax-cuts-at-all-cost agenda has weakened America. As a conservative GOP Congressman from Mississippi in the ’90s, Parker was an outspoken advocate for giving tax breaks to the wealthy.He served as one of Newt Gingrich’s lead grassroots advocates for reducing the estate tax — a levy that falls almost exclusively on the wealthiest 1.2 percent of Americans. In his 1999 run as Republican nominee for Mississippi governor, Parker made tax cuts the centerpiece of his campaign.
After narrowly losing that race, Parker was rewarded for his Republican service by President Bush, who appointed him to head the Army Corps of Engineers on June 7, 2001. The same day Bush signed his $1.3 trillion income tax cut into law — a tax cut that depleted the government of revenues it needed to address critical priorities. As Mike Parker, Bush/epublican appointee soon learned, one of the priorities that would be sacrificed was flood and hurricane protection.
Taxcuts for the Wealthy and No money for Levee repairs
2003: A new flood of cuts
In October 2002, politicians and emergency planners from 10 Louisiana parishes convened a critical meeting with the Bush administration’s Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the precarious position the region found itself in. A month before, a surge from Tropical Storm Isidore — a storm far tamer than even the weakest hurricane — came dangerously close to breaching levees in New Orleans. That wasn’t necessarily surprising to local residents — the Times-Picayune had recently completed a five-part series about how budget cuts were allowing the region’s hurricane and flood control infrastructure to crumble.
At the 2003 meeting, the chairman of Louisiana’s Levee Board made things clear to the Bush administration: “If [a hurricane] hit us today, we’d see more water in more places and more lives lost.” If there wasn’t a serious investment of new resources, he said, “then we’re losing our past and our future.”
On January 7, 2003, Bush gave a speech in Chicago outlining a $600 billion tax cut proposal. It was a plan that centered around eliminating taxes on stock dividends. “Nearly two-thirds of the tax benefits would flow to the most affluent five percent of households,” noted the Christian Science Monitor. “The top one percent — with incomes averaging $1 million — would get 42 percent of the tax-free-dividend goodies [while] only 13 percent of this tax cut would go to people with incomes below $50,000.”
But four weeks after the dividend tax cut plan came Bush’s new budget, and another half billion proposed cut to the Army Corps of Engineers. That included a proposal to slice about two thirds of SELA’s budget — such a massive cut that it would effectively halt projects that were reinforcing flood control infrastructure.
Two days later, the Times-Picayune reported that the administration’s own officials announced “that they don’t have enough cash to pay for major drainage and hurricane protection projects under way in at least five local parishes” in the New Orleans area. Additionally, the paper noted that “four other major construction projects also will run out of money within the next month,” including the Lake Pontchartrain hurricane protection project and two other major levee reinforcement
projects.
2004: Tempting fate
The Washington Times headline on January 20, 2004, told it all: “Bush Wants Tax Cuts to Stay.” The article reported that even with a war, record budget deficits and dangerously crumbling infrastructure, the president would make a new, $1 trillion tax cut plan the centerpiece of his State of the Union address.
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. Meanwhile, budget cuts forced the corps to delay seven projects that included enlarging critical levees.
These latest cuts came just as the previous ones were starting to wreak havoc. Five days after Bush’s budget was released, the Times-Picayune reported that “the Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t have money to keep its dozen major flood-protection projects going” simultaneously.
More bad news arrived in the spring. Gaps in levees around Lake Pontchartrain, which were supposed to be filled by 2004, would not be filled because of budget shortfalls. Corps officials told the Times-Picayune in April “that the lack of money will leave gaps in the structure, weakening its effectiveness and pushing back its completion date.” Worse, budget cuts had been compounding for three years straight, “even after all the gaps are closed, the levee must settle for several more years until it reaches its final height.” By June, the newspaper reported that “for the first time in 37 years, federal budget cuts have all but stopped major work on the New Orleans area’s east bank hurricane levees.”
But almost no one in Washington was listening. Ten days after the Times-Picayune story, the U.S. House passed a $155 billion White House-backed bill to cut corporate taxes. The Senate had passed a similar bill the month before. Republican lawmakers from the Gulf Coast — who purported to be concerned about infrastructure budget cuts — all supported the new tax cut.
In September, as congressional negotiators were ironing out the final details of the corporate tax cut, Hurricane Ivan came within a hair of directly hitting New Orleans. The near miss was a bright red flag warning Washington to get its priorities straight, fast. Knight Ridder newspapers reported that Ivan was a reminder that “a direct hit by a powerful hurricane could swamp [the region’s] levees and leave as much as 20 feet of chemical-laden, snake-infested water” in its wake. The city’s director of emergency preparedness said “it’s only a matter of time” unless infrastructure was quickly improved.
Yet, a month later, Bush signed the corporate tax measure into law, draining more revenue from the federal treasury that could have gone to infrastructure upgrades. The tax cut measure, of course, could have included additional provisions to provide money for infrastructure improvements, if that was a priority.
Republican Congressmen attached language written by Republican corporate lobbyists to shower taxpayer cash on special interests. As the Washington Post reported, the bill was larded up with 170 smaller measures that benefit “restaurant owners, brewers, distillers, bow-and-arrow manufacturers, tackle-box companies, native Alaskan whalers, NASCAR track owners, and importers of Chinese ceiling fans.”
2005: Catastrophe strikes
The weeks and months leading up to Hurricane Katrina were more of the same. The White House focused on a multi-trillion dollar plan to privatize Social Security, and a plan to repeal the federal estate tax.
Meanwhile, as the Financial Times reported, the president proposed a budget that “called for a $71.2 million reduction in federal funding for hurricane and flood prevention projects in the New Orleans district, the largest such cut ever proposed.” In addition, “the administration wanted to shelve a study aimed at determining ways to protect New Orleans from a Category 5 hurricane.” This, in the face of a March 2005 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers that warned 3,500 dams were at risk of failing unless the government spent $10 billion to fix them.
When Katrina struck on August 29, the disaster was already a fait accompli. Though politicians feigned shock and outrage at the federal government’s hurricane preparations, there was nothing to be surprised about. The disaster was the consequence of years of putting tax cuts above everything else –even above a catastrophe we knew was coming.
The aftermath
In the wake of Katrina, the D.C. political establishment has tried desperately to prevent any discussion of tax cuts and budget priorities as the culprits in the disaster.
At first, President Bush claimed, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the
I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees” — an insult to the experts in his own administration and elsewhere who had been warning about exactly that for years. When that line fell flat, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan did his best impression of Saddam Hussein’s information minister during the Iraq War, insisting, “Flood control has been a priority of this administration from day one.”
On Capitol Hill, Republicans simultaneously criticized those who were “playing politics” with the disaster, while pointing fingers at Democratic state and local officials.
However, it is downright criminal for Congress and the media to pretend that the Bush administration’s tax cut binge and subsequent budget cuts had nothing to do with the catastrophe. The fact is, experts roundly agree that had the Bush administration made different budget decisions, the impact of the hurricane could have been reduced.
LMFAO— Commies calling republicans evil. Give me a break.
However, it is downright criminal for Congress and the media to pretend that the Bush administration’s tax cut binge and subsequent budget cuts had nothing to do with the catastrophe. The fact is, experts roundly agree that had the administration made different budget decisions, the impact of the hurricane could have been reduced.
For instance, take Joseph Suhayda, an emeritus engineering professor at Louisiana State University who has worked for the Army Corps of Engineers. He told the Chicago Tribune that the reason levees weren’t as high as they were designed to be “was a result of lack of funding.”
“I think they could have significantly reduced the impact [of Katrina] if they had those projects funded,” Suhayda told the Tribune. “If you need to spend $20 million and you spend $4 or $5 million, something’s got to give.”
Similarly, Mike Parker told the Washington Post, “You have watched during a period of 72 hours a modern city of New Orleans [become] a Third World country, and it is all because of the disintegration of infrastructure.” He told the Tribune that “had [the infrastructure] been totally funded, there would be less flooding than you have.”
Sour grapes from a disgruntled ex-employee? It is echoed by the president’s current Army Corps chief. The Associated Press reported that Lt. Gen. Carl Strock “acknowledge[s] that more funding for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Project would allow the Corps to more quickly pump out the floodwaters inundating New Orleans.”
Some may try to argue that because of New Orleans’ sub-sea-level geography, there was no amount of funding or infrastructure improvements that could have protected the city. House Speaker Dennis Hastert foreshadowed this inane assertion when he callously questioned whether New Orleans should even be rebuilt. But that argument asks us to simply forget places like the Netherlands — one of the oldest industrialized countries in the world that has thrived right on the banks of the tempestuous North Sea, even though half of the country sits below sea level. After a powerful storm breached dikes there in 1953, the Dutch launched a massive project to upgrade its infrastructure. The Associated Press reported that the most critical piece of the project cost today’s equivalent of $3.1 billion — one half of one percent of the tax cuts the Bush administration delivered to the richest one percent of America.
I agree MTR. One of the signs that liberals run things is that the police are never around when you need protection. Of course the liberal police were some of the first to take advantage of the looting. You donks never cease to amaze me.
“Roger are you implying that he can’t be remove from office”
Oh, he could be removed from office alright, if the Republicans who control Congress did their constitutional duty, but don’t hold your breath for that.
Comment by Roger Rabbit— 1/19/06 @ 5:57 pm
Roger- Your right just one correction, the democrats were in control when Clinton was in office. Just wanted to clarrify that.
53
“you could let them live the Murkan Dream”
MTR, in case you missed it, most Americans are living the Murkan Dream right now. Because you guys are in power — remember??? Latest polls show they love the Murkan Dream so much they’re gonna vote it out of existence in about 9 1/2 months.
57
“Roger- Your right just one correction, the democrats were in control when Clinton was in office. Just wanted to clarrify that.”
Just three points here. One, I wasn’t talking about Clinton. Only one president has committed impeachable offenses recently, and it isn’t Clinton. (Two, if you go back to the 1980s.)
Two, the Republicans controlled the Senate during the last 6 years of Clinton’s administration. Just wanted to clarify that, dumbass.
Three, “clarrify” is spelled “clarify.” As you can’t spell, learn to use a dictionary, you ignorant cluck.
@53 “Who owns the levee’s”
Hmmmm … the Shah of Iran? Amtrak? The Girl Scouts? Wait … I know … the Corps of Engineers … say, aren’t they a FEDERAL agency???!!!
I am really starting to doubt that you have a law degree. Either you are incompetent, or you are a liar, which is it?
The levees are the property of the state. See:
Flood Control Projects and ESA hearing before the Committee on Resources
House of Representatives
105th Congress
First Session on H.R. 478
http://commdocs.house.gov/comm.....0915_0.htm
@ 65
Your stupidity is on display for all to see. It is widely known that the Army Corp of Engineers owns and maintains all levee systems in the United States.
All levees, no exceptions.
Moron.
Obviously you didn’t read the link above, which is a government website, not a blog which is what your normal reading material consists of. The Corp of Engineers builds them, but they don’t own them. If they owned them, they could take them down if they want.
All levees, no exceptions.
Moron.
I assume you have some source, other than “That’s the bottom line, because GBS said so.”
Mr. Not so Obvious @ 67
Property of the state, maaaaybe. Responsiblity for their construction and maintenance, not so much.
Flood Control Act, 1936
74th CONGRESS. SESS. II. CHS. 651, 688. JUNE 20, 22, 1936
“Sec 2. That, hereafter, Federal investigations and improvements of rivers and other waterways for flood control and allied purposes shall be under the jurisdiction of and shall be prosecuted by the War Department under the direction of the Secretary of War . . . ”
For your knowledge base, levees are an integral part of “flood control.”
In addition, because you probably don’t know, the US Army Corp of Engineers fall under the Department of Defense. Up until 1947 this was essentially known as the War Department.
OK? Run along now there’s cookies and milk for you in the nursery.
So now you are saying that they are the property of the state after calling me a moron for stating the same thing. :) Have a nice day.
Hey Rufus, re: 59, I don’t support the Communist Manifesto tenet of the abolition of private property rights. Therefore, I’m not a communist. I believe governments are impowered to protect people when abuse of private property is threatening. I believe in community, communication, communal common spaces and the interdependency between individuals in a society. Socialism is completely justifiable. When you reject socialism, you deny the reality of your dependence upon other people, your responsibility to them and their responsibility to you. Your denial is evil.
Actually, my only mistake was to cede a non critical point to you for sake of argument. Even if the State of Louisiana did own the levee, their construction, maintenance, upgrades, safety inspections etc. . . belong to the Federal Government. Not the mayor of New Orleans or the Gov. of Louisiana.
This disaster is a referendum on the tax cuts George W. Bush gave to millionaires and billionaires in a time of WAR at the expense of critical infrastructure repairs in America.
It’s also a referendum on the rampant cronyism that is unprecedented with this administration by installing his “buddies” in positions they are obviously not qualified to hold.
Finally, it’s about the LYING that conservatives just can’t seem to be able to stop themselves from committing. “Heck of a job, Brownie” knew that during and after the disaster struck he was LYING about the severity of the disaster, the suffering of the people and logistics that were under his direct command.
Whose ever name is on the “deed” is not the issue because that does not assign responsibility for the safety of the levee.
You really ought to come to grips with your honesty issues.
Moron.
So, what exactly was the j0b of the levee board?
FFS now we know Goldy is a liberal, j0b is a banned word.