The Katrina Report: Who do Collins And Lieberman Think They're Fooling?

[Kurovski]

Maybe they've fooled themselves into believing they've accomplished anything of value.

I watched the press conference presented by Senators Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman today, which in many ways came off as a FOX news "report" circa September, 2005.

I'm furious, even after waiting a few hours to post this.

Like the right-wing apologists for the Bush administration that in the days after Katrina fanned out like a flock of carrion birds in the media, Senator Collins cawed repeatedly--repeatedly--about how there was plenty of blame to go around.(OK, so in that regard she was more of a Parrot than a Vulture.)

This, however, did not stop Collins from saying that the failures of Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, and FEMA chief Michael Brown could not be laid at the feet of George W. Bush. She actually said "It was not Bush's fault".

Perhaps Susan suddenly forgot the fact that BUSH IS THE ONE who placed those gentleman in their positions. BUSH IS THE ONE who merged FEMA and DHS into one tangled mess.

When does a misguided attempt to "be fair" slip into self-delusion or outright dishonesty?

I'm so angry, and want so badly to pepper this post with swears that my overloaded brain is itching.

Senator Collins of Maine was once a high-up Republican for whom I had a modicum of respect, and as satisfying of a release as Republican-thrashing can be, I still grow weary of the difficulty in finding anything good in the decaying Republican Party.

Collins went on to further erode her standing by mentioning that the post-dismissal rumblings by Michael Brown about Bush's incompetence during Katrina are not worth heeding. While on its face she would seem to have a point worth some consideration, it is greatly diminished by her naked defense of Bush.

Americans watched for themselves as the horror of Katrina unfolded. We anguished as people slowly died, and the living suffered in the days after the storm's landfall while federal agencies were instructed to turn away help at the borders of the disaster. We saw and heard local officials desperately pleading with the Bush administration. We saw a tape of Bush being instructed on the storm's approach, and he did NOTHING ABOUT IT. Days past. Was it six? Seven? We hounded our elected officials to do something to get the federal government to shake off their, what? Incompetence? Carelessness? Lack of concern, or was it complicity in the storm's unfolding misery?

We witnessed the astonishingly incomprehensible level of failure that crashed down from the top of our government, crushing all below, and Susan wants to tell us otherwise. If Collins and Lieberman were worthy of their respective office, they would be hinting at impeachment instead of innocence for the Bush administration.

The problem for elected officials who treat us like idiots is that they too will eventually be met with a similar judgment from the people.

In both defense--and an inevitable disparagement of--Senator Lieberman, he said he will file "additional views" to the report accusing Bush of failing "to provide critical leadership when it was most needed." Why wait? So it can be ignored? To once again diminish Bush's role? The report is being covered by the media NOW. Will another press conference be held when that portion is added to the report?

I shan't attempt to hold my breath.

And now they think dismantling and rebuilding FEMA will help. This administration is not under any circumstance to be trusted with such an undertaking. Whether it's Iraq or the Gulf Coast, they're not too swift when it comes to the whole "rebuilding" thing.

It would be wiser for the time being to have FEMA taken out from under the umbrella of The DHS. Otherwise left to the man with the reverse-Midas touch, privatization would likely be the well-traveled road of the lost and over-funded that Bush would take.

And as the New Orleans evacuation-bus debacle reported upon by the Chicago Tribune revealed, privatization has actually been part of the problem. (While the failure for getting busses to evacuate residents prior to the storm was initially and quickly placed upon New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin by some in the media, it later turned out that the private companies that outsourced contracts to one another were chiefly responsible for the failure.)

And mentioning Ray Nagin--it's telling that in a crowded race of 22 candidates for mayor, Nagin recently won 38% of the vote. He will face Mitch Landrieu in a May 20 run-off.

I wonder how well Bush would do in an election today without the help of Diebold or the Supreme Court?

Heck, I wonder how well he'd do even WITH their help.

Lieberman and Collins have wasted our time. Collins believes Michael Brown isn't someone much worth listening to when discussing what went wrong with the Katrina response. And now, the very same can be said about the good Senator from Maine.


Here's a link about the Senate report, just in case you haven't heard about it yet.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/3823254.html

[rodeodance]

1. anyway--this overshadowed Bush photos of "I care" -his arm around

a women who had lost everything.

[Kurovski]

5. Yes, I missed that one.

I can't imagine there are all that many left buying slices off that particular roll of baloney.

[Cronus Protagonist]

6. This is the photo that we must never forget (graphic)

Starving dogs eating a human corpse.

[Kurovski]

7. There are many photos I'll never forget.

The response from Bush was beyond inhumane.

And the disregard continues to this day.

[LSparkle]

2. How can she say Brown was insubordinate and disengaged ...

when we have that video of him telling Shrub and co something like "this is going to be as bad as we feared"? That was the same tape that captured his "balls to the wall" comment ... I'm no cheerleader for Brownie but I think he was more engaged than either Shrub or Skeletor, frankly. At least he was THERE, not at some bird flu conference in Atlanta or home on the range in Bumf***, Texas.

[lies and propaganda]

3. well written.

its the biggest farce in my lifetime. There is not one fucking shred of accountability in this misadministration.

[immoderate]

4. Why do they want to dismantle FEMA?

So they can eliminate the middle man and install Halliburton.

If there are no disasters, they do nothing and keep the profits. If there is a disaster they ask for a supplemental, then they do nothing and keep the profits.

--IMM

[Cha]

8. bush should have gone down

to New Orleans before the levees broke(and not gutted the funding to reinforce the levees) and taken charge and acted like a leader instead of trotting off to Arizona to photo op cake and mccain & fucking playing air guitar in Calif.

susan collins is a tool who has her head in the freakin' sand.

[Kurovski]

9. Because he didn't, we should be giving him a one-way ticket to his

miserable texas-fantasy pig farm.

Gee, thanks for holding up the operation, Senator Collins.

[OneBlueSky]

10. "The Buck Stops Here" . . . sign on Harry Truman's desk . . . n/t

.

[Disturbed]

11. Another Whitewash for the Neo Fascists.

FEMA would have been alright if the Bush Regime had not interfered with it and tried to merge it with HS. I believe that the Bush Regime purposefully allowed FEMA to become dysfunctional in order to get rid of it. Browne was incompetent but not as much of an Assclown as he was made out to be. He did warn Busholini of the impending disaster and Busholini shrugged it off. The Bush Regime wanted the DOD to take over the rescue effort and trash the Gov. of La. She refuesed. Chertoff should have been fired. Busholini and Darth Cheney need to be Impeached.

[Kurovski]

12. I see in a later AP story that Lieberman goes a bit hard on Shrub.

So I owe Joe a little more credit. The AP story mentions his addendum where Lieberman says Bush "appeared distracted".

A nice way of saying Bush was "Asleep at the wheel." I apologize.

But that Collins woman...:mad: :-)