Republicans in Full Cover Up Mode after Katrina

[Aenlic]

snip... s we don't have to see graphics twice.

Xiahou, you do know that the reason parts of Florida are under a tropical storm warning is because those parts of Florida are currently experiencing tropical storm conditions, not because the storm is moving that way? I thought you might want to know. As for the storm staying pretty much stationary, I refer you again to computer models and the 5 day forecast. You know, back before you were born, probably, in the late 70's, the mayor of Galveston, Texas was villified for ordering an evacuation of the island and city before an approaching hurricane. The hurricane turned and went straight west instead. They ran him out of office for being too cautious.

Second, if you go back and look at the projected storm track for Katrina, you'll find that until Saturday night before it hit, the National Hurricane Center was unable to pin it down closer than 500 miles. That's a mighty long stretch of coast. Grab a map and look. New Orleans was on the left side of that track, which also happens to put it in the weakest portion of the storm.

Third, Katrina was not upgraded to a category 4 until 2 am on Sunday morning. The National Weather Service did not issue a special hurricane warning until 4pm on Sunday, almost 8 hours after mayor Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation, more than a day after governor Blanco made sent an official request to Bush to declare a federal state of emergency for Louisiana saying (on Saturday before a clear storm track was even predicted and while it was still a cat 3) "I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.”

Fourth, Dr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center of NOAA, personally warned Bush, Brown and Chertoff in phone calls on Sunday afternoon of a possible levee failure.

On Monday morning, on NBC's Today Show, mayor Nagin stated "I’ve gotten reports this morning that there is already water coming over some of the levee systems. In the lower ninth ward, we’ve had one of our pumping stations to stop operating, so we will have significant flooding, it is just a matter of how much."

At noon on Tuesday, Michael Chertoff had this to say on Meet the Press, "It was on Tuesday that the levee–may have been overnight Monday to Tuesday–that the levee started to break. And it was midday Tuesday that I became aware of the fact that there was no possibility of plugging the gap and that essentially the lake was going to start to drain into the city."

No, Michael, it was on Monday morning. Maybe he wasn't out of bed yet to watch the Today Show.

While the Director of Homeland Security was either lying or making ignorant statements on Meet the Press, a Pentagon spokesman told a reporter for WWL TV, "Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said the states have adequate National Guard units to handle the hurricane needs."

On Thursday morning, Bush (having finally cut his vacation short that morning) said in an intwerview on Good Morning America, "I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Apparently, Dubya forgot his phone call from Dr. Max Mayfield before the storm. Who can blame him? He was excited about going to cut birthday cake with John McCain on Monday and playing the guitar with Mark Willis on Tuesday, they probably pushed a little thing like a major hurricane right out of his mind.

But, obviously, the whole thing was mayor Nagin's fault.

Any more Republican talking points I can clear up for you?

[Gawain of Orkeny]

But, obviously, the whole thing was mayor Nagin's fault.

No obvioulsy it was Bushs fault for starting the war in Iraq and not signing the Kyoto accords LOL. If he had done these things there would have been no hurricane and if there was no disaster as the NG would have saved everyone. This will in the end be very good for Bush as he helps rebuild these devasteded areas. I believe the same charges of the emperor fiddling while Rome burned were made on 911.