Haley Barbour wouldn't lie to help Bush would he?

[Algorem]

September 2, 2005

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050902/NEWS06/509020513

By Scott Dodd, Tom Wilemon and Scott Hawkins
Knight Ridder Newspapers

BILOXI, Miss. -- The first relief shipments reached the battered Mississippi Gulf Coast on Thursday, but the help was far short of what was needed and desperate residents pleaded for more.

At some distribution points, hurricane survivors clapped, cheered and yelled, "Thank you, God!" when supply trucks showed up. At others, sheriff's deputies and National Guardsmen had to hold off a crush of people desperate for food and water...

"Where are the police and National Guard?" Stan Tiner, the vice president and executive editor of The Sun Herald, a Knight Ridder newspaper in Biloxi, asked in a column written for Friday's paper. "We wonder who will help us."

"There's no FEMA. No Red Cross. No help. People are sick. The water is like toxic gumbo," Gibson said. "We're the forgotten little town that got blown away."...



http://www.americanpolitics.com/20050904punditpap.html


...Russert's next guest was Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. The contrast could not be more startling: Broussard, who looked like he hadn't slept to date over week, versus the picture-perfect, camera-ready Barbour, who seems pathologically unable not to look like a professional politician. Barbour, naturally, did his part to heap praise (gag) on the administration in its response, which should surprise no one. Barbour made one comment that struck us as simply outrageous : "I don't know ANYTHING about Louisiana... but we're doing great here!"

Bushit, Haley. You just saw Broussard. You now know EVERYTHING you need to know about Louisiana. As for your own backyard, maybe you should ask a few of the poor in Biloxi - that is, if they all weren't washed away by Katrina.

But even Barbour eventually had to admit that the magnitude of the disaster was gigantic and the response of the federal government was inadequate. Naturally, he tried to spin a few things in favor of his old buddy George W. Bush, but you could see and hear that Haley's heart was not in it. His spin: they tried hard. What he telegraphed: it was not even close to hard enough....

[Dudley_DUright]

1. No, former RNC chair Barbour would never think to lie

to protect Bush. :sarcasm:

[Algorem]

2. He seems like such trufefull feller though.

[bribri16]

3. "great here" = "I did a great job." Remember that.

But did he ever call for a mandatory evacuation? The number of dead that turn up under the MS rubble will indicate how great MS is doing.
Of course, they probably won't count them all...just like in Iraq.
You know..."I (don't)see dead people."

[TomInTib]

4. Haley doesn't need an excuse to lie

Just comes natural

[starroute]

5. Haley is dirty as hell

Among other things, he's very close to former FEMA head Joe Allbaugh. Allbaugh was Bush's chief of staff and campaign manager who became FEMA head in 2001 and brought in his old college pal, Michael D. Brown, as legal counsel. When FEMA was folded into Homeland Security in 2003, Allbaugh left for greener pastures and handed the agency over to Brown.

One of Allbaugh's first enterprises, in October 2003, was New Bridge Enterprises, a company designed to take advantage of investment opportunities (!) in Iraq. New Bridge worked out of the offices of Haley Barbour's lobbying firm, its principals aside from Albaugh were all members of that firm, and Allbaugh's wife also worked for Barbour as a lawyer.

Josh Marshall had the whole story:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_09_21.php#002009
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_09_21.php#002005
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_09_21.php#002002
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_11_23.php#002247

A lot more dirt on Barbour can be found at:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jmhm/898602.html

Allbaugh himself is still in the homeland security lobbying business, and I strongly suspect he's tangled up in this Katrina mess. If nothing else, he recently took a lobbying job with Halliburton:
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2005/03/another-day-another-halliburton.asp

[susu369]

8. Allbaugh was deep in the funeralgate scandal as well

we need a stronger word than evil for this cabal.

[kenny blankenship]

6. Did Bush demand martial law in Mississippi as a precondition to aid?

[alcuno]

7. Mayor of Hattiesberg MS today, "FEMA? What's that?"

CNN talked to him by phone today and when the clueless tv newsreader said "Federal Emergency Management Assoc" the mayor replied that he hadn't heard of it. The clueless newsreader then got the point.