“I Don’t Think Anyone Anticipated The Breach Of The Levees.”

Ken AshfordBush & Co., DisastersLeave a Comment

Bush_nosepick I couldn’t believe it.  I heard it in my car this morning, but apparently on this morning’s "Good Morning America", George Bush spoke to Diane Sawyer and said, "I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." (I’ll try to get a transcript link when/if it becomes available, but you can see the video replay of the interview here).

Now, before I get into that, let’s look at what the New York Times wrote about Bush’s no-more-vacation speech from the White House on the subject of Katrina:

Waiting for a Leader

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

I guess that explains why he went on "Good Morning America".  He sucked yesterday — even the neo-cons at NRO’s "The Corner" agree.

But, please.  Nobody anticipated this?  Mr. President, that is bullshit.  Serious bullshit.  Absolutely bullshit.  Nothing but bullshit.  Hell, I even blogged about the possibility of a levee break on Sunday before Katrina hit!

Does Bush’s excuse sound familiar?

Steve, I don’t think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile.

–Condi Rice press briefing, May 16, 2002

That was bullshit, too.

All it takes is the ability to think ahead.  To plan.  To have a vision.  To connect one dot to another. 

When you get a report (the August 6 PDB) saying that bin Laden operatives were intent on striking the United States, especially New York, and when you are informed that terrorists were observed photographing building in New York, and when you already know that flying planes into buildings was an al Qaeda modus operandi, you should be able to realize, at the very least, that something is in the works.

When a hurricane is headed toward New Orleans carrying a predicted 26-foot storm surge (as reported by every major news outlet in the country), and when the levees are only 17 feet high and getting old, is it so hard to account for the possibility that there may be a breach of those levees?!?

UPDATE:  Wesley Clark agrees (at TPM Cafe):

Then just this morning, the President claimed that no one could have anticipated the levee breaches we’ve seen in New Orleans after Katrina hit.  That’s not leadership, that’s an excuse.  In fact, people have predicted this kind of disaster for many years, including President Bush’s own FEMA in 2001, when they ranked hurricane flood damage to New Orleans among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing America.  Instead, funding was significantly cut back, leaving key engineering projects on hold.  Instead, this Administration focused on the war in Iraq, tax cuts, and private sector economic growth without asking the American people to make needed sacrifices for the good of the country.  Again I ask you, where is the leadership?

UPDATE 2:  More and more see Bush’s excuse for what it is.  Here, for example, is Hunter at Daily Kos:

Nobody anticipated this disaster? It was identified by FEMA as one of the top three likeliest major disasters to strike America. (That link, one of countless stories, was from 2001, by the way.) It has been a major disaster scenario for years. Everybody anticipated it, which makes this single statement by George W. Bush possibly the most dishonest, lying, craptacularly false thing he has ever said in his presidency — even surpassing his now-infamous State of the Union Address. Truly, this is President Bush’s blue-dress moment.

Delinking Glenn

Ken AshfordRight Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

There are wingnuts, and there are wingnuts.  Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) stirred up a hornet’s nest when he wrote:

I think that demonizing the ACLU is a bit silly. I do feel that they’ve become overly partisan in recent years, but they still do good work (I’ve worked with them in the past, on the New Orleans rave case for example, and will probably do so again.)

Since then, many right wingnuts have started a fevered campaign to delink Instapundit, the most trafficked blog, from their blogrolls.  As many have pointed out, these 4th and 5th tier bloggers don’t have as much traffic combined, which is why Glenn is amused about this.

Eugene Volokh and conservative InDC Journal join in on the fun, the latter writing:

Anyone that wants to throw a fit and righteously delink Reynolds for his mild comments regarding the ACLU might as well go ahead and delink this site too, or surely not add INDC to their blogroll in the first place. You know, save us both the public, ideological heartache when you eventually note that I share Reynolds’ INABILITY TO IDENTIFY AND FIGHT AGAINST PURE EVIL. Thanks.

Heh, indeed.

Fuel Situation

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

Here in North Carolina, gas prices are $3.00.  That’s pretty much the same effect that everyone is feeling. 

However, there are reports of gas stations in South Carolina and Georgia running out of gas, and closing shop.

Is there a pending fuel shortage?   Airlines seem to think so.

UPDATE:  Just came across this statement from N.C. governor Mike Easley:

The two major pipelines that furnish gasoline to many states, including North Carolina, have been affected by Hurricane Katrina and are currently without electricity. They service North Carolina and 8-10 other states.

90 percent of our gas comes from these pipelines and right now they are not operational.

Suppliers generally have a week or so of supply. They have been shut down since the hurricane.

The pipelines need electric supply and the refineries that produce gasoline need to make urgent repairs also are without electricity.

The refineries that produce gasoline need to make urgent repairs.

Consequently, we do not know the extent of the problem, but we do know that there will be a signifcant loss of gasoline in the Southeast, at least in the short term, until the electricity is restored.

This is not only a state problem, this is also a regional and a national problem. We are hoping that the Department of Energy will take some action as soon as possible. I have tried to get direction from DOE, but they have not yet responded.

In the meantime, I am asking all North Carolinians to conserve gas. Some stations are already out.Wait for more information before making Labor Day travel plans.

We are taking steps to ensure that emergency vehicles have the supplies that they need, police, fire and rescue.

I am immediately suspending all non-essential state government travel. I am asking state employees to carpool wherever possible.

I am also asking all our citizens to be smart about their fuel consumption.

I am asking them to carpool if they can and to limit non-essential road trips.

We are not out of gas, but we are running low.

We must take steps to conserve our resources while we learn the full extent of the problems and while Washington works toward a regional and national strategy.

With careful use of precious fuel, consumers can help us weather this latest storm.

North Carolina understands hurricanes. We have been through them and we know that we will weather this one as we have in the past. We know they cause distruption. We just need to know as much as we can and plan.

UPDATE 2:  Uh-oh.

"Out of Gas" signs and yellow caution tape were draped across pumps that were out of gas in parts of the United States early Thursday after many retailers were overrun by panicked motorists looking to top off their tanks as prices soared past $3 per gallon and reports of shortages spread.

Many gas stations in and around downtown Atlanta had run out of gas by sunrise. The same was reported in elsewhere, including parts of North Carolina, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Arizona.

Superdome Shock Horror

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

These poor people:

A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers.

The Louisiana Superdome, once a mighty testament to architecture and ingenuity, became the biggest storm shelter in New Orleans the day before Katrina’s arrival Monday. About 16,000 people eventually settled in.

By Wednesday, it had degenerated into horror. A few hundred people were evacuated from the arena Wednesday, and buses will take away the vast majority of refugees today.

"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. In her right hand she carried a half-full bottle of formula provided by rescuers. Baby supplies are running low; one mother said she was given two diapers and told to scrape them off when they got dirty and use them again.

At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for.

Katrina-propa-Gate

Ken AshfordBush & Co., DisastersLeave a Comment

Perhaps responding to the criticism that Bush has been largely AWOL on Katrina, even though hundreds if not thousands of Americans have died, the White House has now put up its "hurricane relief" page, which you can see here.

Right now, the photo on the page shows Bush engaging in (according to the caption) a "video teleconference with federal and state emergency management organizations".  I guess it is meant to convey the Bush is "on the job", although there are only three people in the conference room: Bush, Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin, and someone on a video monitor.  From the looks of it, the guy on the screen is merely the news talking head (I think there is a scroll at the bottom of the screen).  I wonder where all these other "organizations" are.  Of course, when you read the fine print, you see that the photo was taken in Crawford on Sunday, well before the hurricane hit.

So I’m not sure it conveys the impression that Bush is now on the case: a photo from Sunday of a near-empty conference room.

But the worst thing about the web page is the banner:

Titlebar2005

That’s Bush, talking to some Average Joe who just happens to be holding an American flag.  Ah, the appeal to patriotism.  One gets the impression that Bush is speaking to a hurricane victim, something which, of course, he hasn’t done.  It recalls images of Bush standing with that firemen on the rubble of the WTC.

But again, the banner, like the whole web page, is meant to convey the impression that Bush is being all Clinton about this — i.e., that he is on top of the situation and feels are pain.  It’s crass and manipulative, especially while Americans are dying.

Opportunity Cost For Iraq

Ken AshfordBush & Co., Disasters, IraqLeave a Comment

Via Corrente:

Philly’s own Will Bunch follows the money (via the man in the grey turtleneck here)

Yes, if you follow the money it turns out Bush took the money that should have been spent on New Orleans levees and pissed it away in Iraq. In fact, the very levee that burst, 17th Street, was a victim of Bush cutbacks:

It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.

— Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.

***

With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until until it’s level with the massive lake.

***

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:

That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount.

But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to
order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said.

The 2004 hurricane season, as you probably recall, was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane- and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history.

One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer was a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach. The levee failure appears to be causing a human tragedy of epic proportions:
(via Attytood)

Remember how, over and over again, Bush fucks the Blue state cities, especially the port cities? Because they’re not part of the base?

Remember the idea that the war in Iraq has an opportunity cost (back)?

The Katrina disaster—the dead, the billions in damages, the loss of a city—is the opportunity cost of Bush’s war in Iraq.

Just follow the money.

Texas “Pro-Lifers” Show Pro-Death Stripes

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

From Feministe–the "pro-lifers" have managed to target a certain population for death in Texas.

AUSTIN – Texas doctors who perform abortions without parental approval or after the third trimester could face capital murder charges because of a new law that takes effect this week, a prosecutors group says. The Texas District and County Attorneys Association has outlined that scenario in its new book updating the Texas penal code and in public presentations around the state. The group says such charges could occur under the new law because of the 2003 fetal protection law.

Key legislators said Monday that wasn’t their intent.

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, who pushed the parental consent measure, said in a prepared statement that her legislation was strictly limited to giving parents the right to consent when a minor is considering an abortion and to preventing late-term abortions.

"There were no discussions about the death penalty during our legislative discussions of this issue," Nelson said.

A capital murder conviction can result in the death penalty.

Sgt Thomas Strickland

Ken AshfordIraqLeave a Comment

Here’s a passage from Sgt. Thomas Strickland, a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq, from his blog earlier this month:

What the fuck has my chain of command been doing? We were winning somewhat when I left. And now we’re being pinned down in our own fucking homes? Insurgents are pushing locals out of their homes and taking over my area at will? What kind of fucktarded plan have we been half-assedly executing? Obviously the kind that neglects sound contact with locals. Obviously the kind that gives further distance to unbridged gaps between soldiers and locals. Obviously the kind that has shown enough weakness when confronted by the insurgency that it has been encouraged to grow.

Back home (the USA kind) I have no home, no job, and my commander in chief is on vacation (he’s about 20 days behind Ronald Reagan right now in the race to become the most vacationing president ever. Hey W! we all got our fingers crossed! Here’s to you and two more years of presidency…er vacationing!). Luckily pretty much everything that is important to me can fit into the back of a truck. Luckily I just paid off one of those.

In their fear to build relationships and get out of their hiding holes the FOBbits above me have fucked my friends and I.

Two days later, Sgt. Strickland was killed when his truck overturned.

The Apocalypse

Ken AshfordBush & Co., Disasters, Random MusingsLeave a Comment

Well, let’s see.

The death toll from Katrina is rising.  Snakes, gators and corpses are floating around in New Orleans, making the second evacuation difficult.  Attempts to fix the breaks in the New Orleans levees have failed.  There are whitecaps on Canal Street.  Prisoners stranded in a New Orleans prison have rioted, taking a deputy, his wife and their four children as hostages.  The Mississippi coastline doesn’t exist any more. 

658 Iraqi civilians were killed yesterday in a stampede (following rumors of a suicide bomber on a bridge).

Last evening, I went to the store as the outskirts of the remnants of Katrina came to North Carolina.  As I left, I looked in the sky and saw something I never saw before — a double rainbow.  The higher rainbow was fragmented and didn’t last long, but the lower one was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.  It was the complete arch, and I could see where both ends hits the horizon.  And it was solid, like a kid had painted it.

Things are getting surreal.

[Note: I don’t intend to be doing blow-by-blow Katrina updates, as other sites are doing them much better.  I do, however, highly recommend the New Orleans Times-Picayune website for breaking news and updates.  They’re no longer publishing on paper, and they have relocated to safer ground to get the news out via the Internet]

UPDATE:  This is what Bush did yesterday…

Captcapm10208301856bush__capm102

A Million Ways

Ken AshfordPopular Culture1 Comment

Partly because I’m over 40, and partly because I believe that music videos jumped the shark about 15 years ago, it’s no surprise that I never heard of "OK Go" and their video for "A Million Ways".

But no more.

This is a great video (and a great song).  No fancy shots, no babes, not even a single video cut.   Just the band (4 guys) dancing in their backyard.  Obviously a lot of work went into the choreography, and these guys are not professional dancers by any means.  But that’s what makes is so good.

Watch the video (Quicktime mov format — may take a while to load)

Classic Definition Of A ‘Quagmire’

Ken AshfordBush & Co., IraqLeave a Comment

Who said this:

"For the U.S. to get involved militarily in determining the outcome of, uh, the struggle over who’s going to govern Iraq, strikes me as a classic definition of a ‘quagmire’."

Answer: Dick Cheney

Crooks & Liars has the audio (from an NPR interview conducted in 1991), if you don’t believe me.

Oy

Ken AshfordDisasters, Right Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

According to Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon, there’s an email making the rounds.  It carries the picture below and the following text:

Hurricanefetus

The image of the hurricane above with its eye already ashore at 12:32 PM Monday, August 29 looks like a fetus (unborn human baby) facing to the left (west) in the womb, in the early weeks of gestation (approx. 6 weeks). Even the orange color of the image is reminiscent of a commonly used pro-life picture of early prenatal development (see sign with picture of 8-week pre-born human child below). In this picture, and in another picture in today’s on-line edition of USA Today*, this hurricane looks like an unborn human child.

Louisiana has 10 child-murder-by-abortion centers – FIVE are in New Orleans
www.ldi.org (‘Find an Abortion Clinic [sic]’)

Baby-murder state # 1 – California (125 abortion centers) – land of earthquakes, forest fires, and mudslides
Baby-murder state # 2 – New York (78 abortion centers) – 9-11 Ground Zero
Baby-murder state # 3 – Florida (73 abortion centers) – Hurricanes Bonnie, Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne in 2004; and now, Hurricane Katrina in 2005

God’s message: REPENT AMERICA !

Where’s Bush?

Ken AshfordBreaking News, Bush & Co., DisastersLeave a Comment

FEMA is calling Katrina the worst disaster to hit America . . . ever.  Parts of New Orleans are on fire, even though most of the city is underwater.  There are fears that the entire city could turn into a "toxic lake", as the flood waters continue to pour in.  Over sixty people are known dead (so far) in Mississippi.

Where’s George? 

He’s taking a break from his vacation to survey the damaged states coordinate with federal and local authorities to make sure relief is provided give speeches in Arizona and California about Iraq (comparing it to World War II) and Medicare.

AmericaBlog has more.

UPDATE:  A photo from the White House website (taken today) should be captioned "Let Them Eat Cake!"

Cakeeater

Compare:

083005aerial1

UPDATE AGAIN:  Bush must have finished eating the cake: "Bush Cancels Vacation to Focus on Relief".

FINAL THOUGHT:  The press is reporting that Bush will be returning to Washington to "personally oversee the federal effort".  Gee, only weeks ago, they were boasting about how Bush wasn’t really on vacation since you can run the country from Crawford (with faxes, internet, phones, etc.).  So . . . um . . . which is it?

George Will On Intelligent Design (And Penguins)

Ken AshfordGodstuffLeave a Comment

Marchofthepenguins200x330 When he’s right, he’s right:

"March of the Penguins" raises this question: If an Intelligent Designer designed nature, why did it decide to make breeding so tedious for those penguins? The movie documents the 70-mile march of thousands of Antarctic penguins from the sea to an icy breeding place barren of nutrition. These perhaps intelligently but certainly oddly designed birds march because they cannot fly. They cannot even march well, being most at home in the sea.

In temperatures of 80 below and lashed by 100 miles per hour winds, the females take months to produce an egg while the males trek back to the sea to fatten up.

Returning, the males are entrusted with keeping the eggs warm during foodless months while the females march back to the sea to fill their stomachs with nutriments they will share with the hatched chicks.

The penguins’ hardiness is remarkable, as is the intricate choreography of the march, the breeding and the nurturing. But the movie, vigorously anthropomorphizing the birds, invites us to find all this inexplicably amazing, even heroic. But the penguins are made for that behavior in that place. What made them? Adaptive evolution. They have been "designed" for all that rigor — meaning they have been shaped by adapting to many millennia of nature’s harshness.

Mmmmmm.  Apparently the ChildCare Action Project (sorry, that’s the best link) movie reviewer thinks differently:

March of the Penguins has it all! Love! Romance! Terror! Sex! Hardship! Violence! In my opinion, March of the Penguins is pure entertainment. If you like to think movies are "real world", this one is.

Emperor penguins make their "migratory" march to their breeding grounds … 70 miles from their ocean home. Nearly single file, thousands of penguins march to the relative safety of their birthplace to start the cycle again. They choose this remote location because as the summer and fall months come, the ice gives way to the ocean. But under the ice blanket of their breeding grounds is solid earth.

How they remember to get there is part of God’s Design. While the location never changes, the path does. Storms and the ever-changing face of ice create many roadblocks, but they never fail to get to their destination.

"Part of God’s design", because God hates penguins, I guess.  (It’s worth noting that the G-rated documentary scored 97 out of a possible 100 in the CAP rating system — it lost points because in one scene, the penguins screw, and some penguins die in another scene.  Apprently, dying animals is ungodly.)