George Bush gave his Q & A session for the press at the White House this morning. To no one's surprise, it was full of false assertions, half-truths and outright lies. He went on for quite a long time and responded to many, dare I say harsh questions from the assembled press. He tried to be cute and affable, repeating his infamous "misunderestimating" word and as has been the case for the last couple of months, looking to conjure up a legacy that just isn't there. Lovers of truth and accountability must have cringed through the whole thing, but there was one part that really got me going, his revisionist history of what happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
From ThinkProgress:
During his final press conference this morning, Bush defended his response to Katrina. He said he has “thought long and hard about Katrina” and admitted that “things [could] have been done better” but denied any problem with the federal response to the disaster, insisting, “Don’t tell me the federal response was slow!”[...]The federal response to Katrina was nothing short of a disaster. A 2006 report compiled by House Republicans slammed what it called “a failure of leadership,” saying that the federal government’s “blinding lack of situational awareness and disjointed decision making needlessly compounded and prolonged Katrina’s horror.” The report specifically blamed Bush, noting that “earlier presidential involvement could have speeded the response” because the president alone could have cut through bureaucratic resistance.
There is no question that the federal response was slow — deadly slow. Katrina made landfall on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, and the New Orleans levees were breached that morning. Despite the numerous warnings he had received about the storm’s severity, Bush spent that Monday traveling to Arizona and California to promote his Medicare drug bill. It was characteristic of the entire federal response.
And TP lists just a few of the disgraces, such as the late arrival of the National Guard, FEMA's late arrival, the fact that Michael Brown was there in the first place and how he mishandled his job, how long it took to evacuate the wretched SuperDome and Bush's lackadaisical response in general.
The days, weeks, months and yes, years after have been horrendous for the area. Nearly two thousand died from the breached levees, some from Klanish behavior, many from neglect and who knows how many have been affected in the long term from the toxic brew of water that people had to wade through and whether it is in the drinking water now. Hurricane Katrina was a national disgrace and defined the Bush Presidency from there on out. For him to try and wave a magic wand and make it look different is nothing short of a pathetic response from a callous and cold man.
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