White House to Issue Own Katrina Findings

[deminks]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_washington_5

WASHINGTON - A White House assessment of the sluggish federal response to Hurricane Katrina calls for a better definition of the military's role during catastrophes, opening the door for the Pentagon to oversee government relief efforts in extreme cases, officials said Wednesday.

The "lessons learned" review of 125 recommendations, to be released Thursday, does not call for any resignations, despite recent demands — mostly by Democrats — for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to step down. It also recommends keeping the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency under Chertoff's control, according to a Bush administration official.

But the document, which a congressional aide said approaches 200 pages, proposes some sweeping changes to federal response plans. They include better defining the military's role during response missions — potentially making the Pentagon the lead agency when state and local resources are overwhelmed, two officials said.

That would only happen in the worst of catastrophic disasters, such as storms of Katrina's magnitude and terror attacks, the officials said. Currently, the Homeland Security Department coordinates federal disaster relief missions under a national response plan it issued last year.


Wasn't KBR building some detention centers somewhere?

[tanyev]

1. Brownie getting a Medal of Freedom? Or just Chertoff?

[saigon68]

27. Just saw pinch-faced Frances Fragos Townsend on the tube

She is following the WHITE-WASH LINE perfectly

[Che_Nuevara]

2. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Please.


"No one could have predicted the levees would break." - Michael Chertoff

"If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break." - Robert Plant

[silverweb]

3. Here we go.

Buckle up.

[slor]

What will they call it...

"Heckuva Job: Our Successful Post-Katrina Disaster Recovery".

[MichiganVote]

4. WH statement:Nobody died, Nobody lied,Nobody cried,

Nobody tried...

[SpiralHawk]

5. "We did a heckuva job." - coMMandeR AWOL

eom

[David Zephyr]

6. Breaking: School Children to Issue Their Own Report Cards.

:rofl:

[Canuckistanian]

12. And Olympic skaters will judge themselves

Whoopee! Everyone gets a Gold Medal!

[bpilgrim]

7. The military will do as good a job as their doing in iraq

i suspect

peace

[babylonsister]

8. Anytime the military's role is rolled out, it skeers me!

That could have been an option if there were some military left in this country. :eyes:

[ixion]

9. posse comitatus

'nuff said.

[suffragette]

15. Yep, Warner was directly pushing changing that right after Katrina

and was focusing on increasing the military's role during the Katrina hearings.
They have a clear agenda to use this catastrophe opportunistically to gain that increased power.

[rodeodance]

30. and also a week or so ago when House issued its report.

[Rose Siding]

10. Yeah, and less oversight!

In fact, let's give Knuckles Kerik another go at confirmation :eyes:

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. OJ Simpson launched his own investigation too (n/t)

[Harper_is_Bush]

13. They must be taking stupid pills. Put Pentagon in charge?

That's thier solution?

[The Wielding Truth]

37. Sell the security of our armed services and ports, then put natural

disasters in the hands of the Pentagon. Any one find ANY reasoning here??????

[meganmonkey]

14. That headline...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I'm laughing harder than I have all day!

[uppityperson]

16. Wh investigates itself, says "send military in"?

ON the 1 hand, very funny. On the other, marital law at the drop of a hat (per pres. perogative I mean. Not that they reacted at all the hats dropping after Katrina).

[Demeter]

17. What a Waste of Trees

[superconnected]

18. They're using this as an opportunity to lie and take more rights

from the people. This time under the guise of and giving them to the military for our safty in disaster.

Final findings will show that the victims were at fault - only the poorest black ones, as well as all dem politicians in the state. Michael brown will of course be deemed a hero as will bush.

Since they now have no course of action that isn't dealt with by lying and looting, as well as taking our rights away, I think we should all be more afraid than we've ever been. They really do believe they have a blank check on America and are using it now.

[AlGore-08.com]

19. Lemme guess, it's titled - - "Mission Accomplished".

[daleo]

20. White House Katrina findings - the cake was great

And the guitar lessons are coming along.

[Lindacooks]

21. In other words, shiny gold medals all around.

While they point the finger at Democrats.

[VegasWolf]

22. When I saw the title I thought it was from the Onion! nt

[ninkasi]

23. Okay, this is what I foresee...

White victims are resourceful, finding food and water, and not placing a burden on the taxpayer by asking for help. Black victims loot, and are either shot on sight, or sent off to KBR detention centers for their crimes. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is what I can see happening.

I am white, by the way, so can hardly be accused of being racist. We saw the same thing happen in New Orleans, and if the military takes control of natural disasters, we will see it on a much wider scale. I wish I were wrong.

[DeltaLady]

24. I concur.:grr:n/t

[AnneD]

35. And what worries me...

is these new detention center will be use for the 'evacuees' as emergency shelters. How many from Katrina are not accounted for. I don't trust a word these people say. At the risk of sounding like a RW nut...I fear my gov more than the floodwaters.

[ninkasi]

36. So do I

and I hate feeling this way, but after more than 5 years of Chimp, it's the only way I can feel. As far as the many unaccounted for after Katrina, the government does not want us to know how high the death toll really was.

[tom_paine]

25. Nazis issue report investigating Concentration Camp Abuses

and finds themelves totally blameless!

The only differences between the Busheviks and the Nazis are almost all now merely a matter of degree.

Except overt racism and wholesale violence.

And I wonder how long the Busheviks can keep from embracing those Right-Wing "virtues", given a One-Party State with no checks and balances and little to no Free Press.

[truthisfreedom]

26. oh, how special! please send me three copies!

i'm out of toilet paper!

[rodeodance]

28. "White House Fact Sheet:" and full report here.

On the Net:

Full White House Report: http://www.whitehouse.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned/index.html

White House Fact Sheet: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060223.html


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_washington&printer=1;_ylt=AoHKd.lJZiBR4cdKoUdhcO0Gw_IE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
White House Issues Its Own Katrina Report

By LARA JAKES JORDAN,
Associated Press Writer

30 minutes ago

A White House report concluded Thursday that inexperienced disaster response managers and a lack of planning, discipline and leadership contributed to vast federal failures during Hurricane Katrina.

The 228-page report by White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend urges changes in 11 key areas — mainly in better disaster relief coordination among federal agencies — before the next hurricane season begins June 1. It also found "significant flaws" in the national response plan issued last year by the Homeland Security Department.

"Though there will be tragedies we cannot prevent, we can improve our preparedness and response to reduce future loss and preserve life," Townsend wrote in a letter to President Bush included in the report.

She said the transformation envisioned by the report "will require a sustained commitment over time by the federal government as well as by state and local governments that have essential duties in responding to disasters."

[rodeodance]

29. Townsend made the rounds on morning shows-keep repeating this was

a 'forward looking' report (not look back)

[Penndems]

31. Of course, The Executive Office of the President accepts no responsibility

for its lack of response before, during and after Katrina.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that they'd pass the blame on to lower-level personnel.

No way in four lifetimes that The White House is gonna say "We screwed up, and caused the deaths of thousands of people, a diaspora of hundreds of thousands more, and brought grief and misery to the people of the greater New Orleans metropolitan area." :cry:

[rodeodance]

32. WH compares Katrina to 1871 chicago fires and 1906 SF earthquake.

geech!!

Written in an even, methodical tone, the report characterizes Katrina as the storm of a century, comparing its destruction in New Orleans to the deadly Chicago fires in 1871 and the earthquake and fire in San Francisco in 1906. It calls Katrina the nation's deadliest natural disaster since Hurricane San Felipe in 1928.

It also describes Katrina as the first U.S. disaster — natural or man-made — with damage estimates approaching $100 billion.

The White House review comes a week after a special House committee issued its own findings that faulted every level of government for the slow response. The scathing House report, written by Republicans, found that earlier involvement by President Bush would have speeded up the federal response.

[rodeodance]

33. i heard they looked to the past ---but this is not what I expected.

[antonialee839]

34. Heckuva jobs all around.