I visited the WaPo site to see if they had word on the Chief Justice’s passing. They did not. This was the headline. I thought it very important to memorialize this headline, this image, and these accompanying stories. So I captured the front page as I found it. Context: There is no depth to which the Bush administration will sink to try to smear others to save itself.
I’ve been waiting to see who would be the official scapegoat. I briefly thought the FEMA director would get the ax but after Bush publicly praised him it had to be somebody else.
Somebody not associated with the corrupt scumball administration eh.
HAH! I know — dem mayor, dem governor, dem senator. Total setup for the faces of this disaster. Somewhere through the shock it occurred to me — where the hell is the Republican senator from Louisiana? Nowhere to be seen.
I’m guessing it’s “blame the bitch and the black” time.
But what about Mississippi?! Is it Barbour’s fault too?
And another thing. It says in that article that the White House claims Blanco didn’t declare a state of emergency until Wednesday. Wasn’t that what she did on SUNDAY, according to that pdf on the Louisiana State Government site?
The emergency was declared on the 26th and the governor sent the formal request on the 28th, but that was simply a formality. With a storm of this magnitude, the federal government has jurisdiction. Everything else they’re saying is just a flat-out lie.
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From the NewsChannel 6 Storm Spotting Team:
Governor Blanco requested $9,000,000 and a federal state of emergency declared Saturday. She sent the following letter to President Bush:
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Dear Mr. President:
Under the provisions of Section 501 (a) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5121-5206 (Stafford Act), and implemented by 44 CFR § 206.35, I request that you declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period beginning August 26, 2005, and continuing.
[…] In response to the situation I have taken appropriate action under State law and directed the execution of the State Emergency Plan on August 26, 2005 in accordance with Section 501 (a) of the Stafford Act. A State of Emergency has been issued for the State in order to support the evacuations of the coastal areas in accordance with our State Evacuation Plan and the remainder of the state to support the State Special Needs and Sheltering Plan.
[…] I have designated Mr. Art Jones as the State Coordinating Officer for this request. He will work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in damage assessments and may provide further information or justification on my behalf.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
Governor
Why were offers for assistance not accepted? Offers from states, nations and the Red Cross.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state’s National Guard last Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn’t come from Washington until late Thursday.
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So…is it tinfoil hat time for me to think that the Bush Administration screwed Louisiana on purpose? It sure seems that way. But it’s kind of hard to fathom, given the economic interests at stake with the port, and given that it’s all falling down around his ears now.
I guess I’m going to have to go with, “Bush was on vacation and he didn’t give a flying fuck in a rolling donut about any ‘hard work’, and no one bothered to get him to focus, and they thought they’d dodge another bullet.”
Heavily armed Drug Enforcement Agents prepare topatrol down Canal Street in the besieged city of
New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
AP Photo/Dave Martin
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The mounting prices of oil, registered during the past two years, have increased the financial surpluses of the Arab oil-producing countries. This, in turn, has boosted the available foreign investments to more than $360 billion.
$$$ buys a lot of freedom – who needs democrazy. Thanks George & Dick – we’ll always be in your … ehh our debt. Sure, let Carlyle – James Baker III – have its share.
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to 9/11 and the Tsunami. Big Dick is under wraps somewhere, so the real commander was M.I.A.
I don’t know how to explain just how bad the response was, particularly since aid was actively refused and actively held back. It’s not a matter of inaction, it’s a matter of acting to delay action.
he can’t think of any mistake that he might have made.
Bush doesn’t care how incompetent his people are he sticks with them. Rummie has been doing to our military and the Iraqis what Brown is doing to the South for two years. No change blame the victim. One day I’d like to see this guy stand up like a man. But it ain’t going to happen. He’s a sniveling coward like the kings of old. Surrounded by sycophants and spouting platitudes about God and country. What else can he do but shift blame. If all the blame due him was piled on him he’d be crushed under the weight. Maybe now the country sees how dangerous a man we have as president. The smell of death hangs over this bastard.
I’m starting to go back to the bad place I was all week. This part of the article is very telling:
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. “Quite frankly, if they’d been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals,”
It’s just a fucking political game to them. They make me puke they are pure evil.
Hell Yeah they are. Even the LA officials think they have evil motivations if they can turn down that request.
Dick Cheney is back in Washington now.
One wonders if the White House screw-ups will diminish. If they do, Bush will look even more incompetent than he does now: in need of adult supervision. If they do not, then the whole menagerie will look like boobs.
A classic lose-lose situation.
you know how tattletlaes get treated in school. I saw it a couple years ago in a 5th grade class with one boy who couldn’t help himself .. he ended up hated by almost everyone even though there was reason to sympathize with his plight.
I don’t think this will wash ….
I do not think that that mayor was the most proactive he could have been. But no matter. The feds could have told him to get into action immediately.
I listened to NPR this afternoon in the car. There are people in safe parts of Louisiana who would LOVE to help but they can’t get gasoline to get there.
Anderson Cooper says why aren’t there people to provide the basics like hearing aid batteries and — more critically — satellite phone connections? Why aren’t cell companies rushing down there to help out?
WHY IN THE FUCK is WalMart only giving out 7-day prescriptions? A doctor said tonight, on FOX, that the smaller pharmacies in Houston are all giving patients at the Houston Astrodome 30-day prescriptons, but WalMart refuses to give more than 7 days worth. (of course, Sean Hannity launched into a defense of WalMart about how much they give, blah, blah. Get real. Wal-Mart doesn’t want to spend the money to give people 30 days of free medication.)
This is his private sector that Bush raves about. He’s Herbert Hoover from 1930. The same type people who used child labor in coal mines. Wake up America this is fucked.
Wal-Mart is punishing everyone for the looting Rita Cosby showed. How much have those rich bastards given to the relief effort so far. Compared to the billions that family has in the bank.
First report I read said Wal-Mart was donating one lousy million dollars-that’s like a buck to them..as their profits last year I believe were 9 fucken Billion dollars…I then read somewhere today they’ve upped donation to a whole 15 million…big deal that is nothing to the Wal-Mart family.
The headline has been changed. It now reads:
“Thousands Await Help, While Feds Shift Blame”
And the story headline itself reads:
“Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting”
While the subhead reads:
“White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials”
Thank You Washington Post. Truth.
Print edition reads:
“Whitehouse Shifts Blame.”
Thats it.
But you have to admit, this band of criminals is highly skilled a shifting blame away from themselves, and never seem to lack for helpers in the MSM. Will they get away with it this time?
I want to hear Blanco speak up. Now that Landreau has bashed FEMA, she might as well…it’s clear that the White House is going to try and blame her and the Mayor for this. The Mayor has spoken. I get the feeling there’s a big piece of this we don’t know, and I’m wondering if Blanco holds it.
She kind of lost me when she gave Bush a warm embrace. She must be the adult child of an alcoholic.
Rehnquist is at the top, but the hurricane coverage on the front page is labeled with:
“Thousands Await Help, While Feds Shift Blame”
To me, that headline is even more damning than the previous one.
Tim Russert is practically hollering at Chertoff on MTP this morning. Predicatbly, Chertoff is blamin the state and local officials; Russert then read the statement from the DHS website that says DHS has the primary responsibility for security/safety in disasters like this.
That Chertoff is creepy looking, like he could star in a horror movie as the monster.
Yep, he’s a scary dude.
In his press conference he tried to tie the doubt about Brown running FEMA to support for the average rescue worker or guardsmen. Just like Iraq, if you think the war is stupid then you don’t support the troops mentality. Just for the record nobody is blaming the little guy we are proud they can do their jobs with this administration’s incompetence tied to them like a freaking anchor.