The Bush administration on those left behind in New Orleans, many of whom had virtually no resources, and couldn’t leave without help: they should have known this was coming.
The Bush administration on their own responsibility for planning the rescue, given command of the most powerful array of resources in human history: we couldn’t possibly have known.
Where the hell is Cheney? Not that he’s competent or ethical or a leader or anybody I want anywhere near New Orleans.
But as AmericaBlog pointed out last night, where the hell is he? Is he still on vacation? Dead? Undead? Gravely ill? His official website, as of 10 am pst Friday morning, still doesn’t even mention Katrina.
On day five of this horrific crisis — but only three days after this picture was taken — Bush holds a press conference.
While people at the Convention Center are STILL DYING, Bush praises the
head of FEMA who didn’t know this time yesterday that people were even
there. "Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job."
Yesterday, on Good Morning America, Bush pretended that everything that could possibly be done was being done.
That didn’t stick long.
So the pose for today is the exact opposite: outrage.
"The results are not acceptable," he says.
I have to say I agree.
Decisions, decisions. Here’s the complex choice of responsibilities Condi Rice had to face today:
I guess it all depends on what you consider important.
Shopping for shoes?
Or rushing back to Washington to help in every possible way while citizens are DYING, seeking out all the aid and assistance possible?
Shopping for shoes. Obviously.
More specifically, shopping for designer shoes in expensive boutiques, using the Secret Service to protect you from a
citizen begging you to rush back to Washington to help in every
possible way while citizens are DYING, seeking out all the aid and assistance possible.
President Bush, this morning, on Good Morning America:
"I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
Read the links (some lifted from Dan Froomkin’s fine Washington Post piece):
And as this earlier post pointed out, and which bears repeating until there is some accountability:
Money for the levees was slashed by the Bush administration, over the
repeated screams of New Orleans safety officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to help pay for the invasion of Iraq.
UPDATE: Crooks And Liars has the video of Bush claiming no one saw this coming.
Compare with, in a final example, Saturday Night Live’s Mr. Bill, believe it or not, proving otherwise in a must-see spot recorded for a Louisiana save-the-wetlands campaign in 2004. (Warning: watching this, which must have been darkly funny in 2004 and doubtless will be again in another 50 years, made me physically shake with sadness and anger.)