A Litany Of Lies

"I don't think anyone could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center."

Condoleezza Rice - May 17, 2002

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

George W. Bush - Sept 1, 2005

* * *

It's now pretty clear that Bush's photo op visit to New Orleans was a hindrance to the rescue operation. Three tons of food sat waiting as all helicopters were banned during Bush's visit.

What's more, Bush appeared on TV with his rolled up sleeves (why?) but never even left the airport. The city was deemed too dangerous for his to visit.

Even the machinery rebuilding the levees turned out to be a photo op - it was all gone the next day.

* * *

We all know gas prices are up. But you may be surprised to know that - thanks to Hurricane Katrina - oil company stock prices are also up. That's right, the Mississipi Delta diasters is great news for oil company shareholders, who nevertheless continue gouging the suffering at the stations.

* * *

A review of press coverage:

The Boston Globe said it was time for the United States to renew the "war on poverty," noting that images of the disaster showed that the poor in flooded and chaotic New Orleans "were long overlooked".

The international press panned what it called a lack of leadership by Mr Bush and the Government in their anaemic response to the disaster.

Accusing the administration of providing "a cruel lack of leadership," the daily Liberation in France said Mr Bush had been slow to react to the 9/11 attacks and no quicker to respond to the tragedy of New Orleans, while presiding over an administration in which both poverty and the anger of the dispossessed were on the increase.

"On September 11, America found a common cause for pride in the bravery of its heroic firefighters," it said.

"This time, there is no heroism and nothing left to see but the dark side of the empire - that of a country gnawed away by money and segregation, in which those shipwrecked in the system are left behind, abandoned to the elements."

The disaster, said The Guardian in London, has "exposed the United States Government, with George Bush at the head of it, to charges of badly mishandling one of the country's worst ever natural disasters".

The Daily Telegraph headline described flooded New Orleans as "An American Pompeii caused by idiocy".

* * *

This WAPO story was the first to emerge with White House blame game details.

More recently, Josh Mashall has punched three big holes in the White House blame game:

The first is the importance of keeping an eye on the big picture and that is the fact that this whole conversation we're having now is not about substance, but procedural niceties, excuses which is it is beyond shameful for an American president to invoke in such a circumstance. We don't live in the 19th century. All you really needed was a subscription to basic cable to know almost all of the relevant details (at least relevant to know what sort of assistance was needed) about what was happening late last week. The president and his advisors want to duck responsibility by claiming, in so many words, that the Louisiana authorities didn't fill out the right forms. So what they're trying to pull is something like a DMV nightmare on steroids.

Second, as long as the White House wants to play this game, there are various invocations of federal statutes in this proclamations. And we'd need a lawyer with relevant experience to pick apart whether the right sections and powers were invoked.

Third -- and this is key -- even on its own terms, the White House's claims seem false on their face. The plain English of this documents shows that states of emergency had been declared on both the state and federal level before the hurricane hit and that at the state's request the president had given FEMA plenary powers to "identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency."

* * *

The Times Picayune today has an open letter to Bush:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."

That's unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

* * *

Greg Mitchell at E&P says this is "My Pet Goat" all over again, but much worse:

"This time, during a catastrophe, the president did not merely dither for seven minutes, but for three days, and his top advisors followed suit. While the media has done a good job in portraying the overall failure of leadership in this weeks hurricane's disaster, it has not focused enough on this deadly dereliction of duty...

Simply stated, the president and his top advisers chose vacation over action...

This is not mere incompetence, but dereliction of duty. The press should call it by its proper name. "

* * *

The White House policy is already looking pretty clear. But beyond the short-term blame game, there are already signs of a familiar long-term strategy. As this piece at talkingpointsmemo.com suggests, Bush & Co are soon going to argue that they need more power and more money to help fix the problems created by OTHERS. Sounds familiar?

Are you going to let them get away with it?

Be part of a massive demonstration outside the White House on September 24th.