Katrina Report Lambastes White House

[cal04]

A Senate inquiry into the government's Hurricane Katrina failures ripped the Bush administration anew Thursday and urged the scrapping of the nation's disaster response agency. But with a new hurricane season just weeks away, senators conceded that few if any of their proposals could become reality in time.

The bipartisan investigation into one of the worst natural disasters in the nation's history singled out
President Bush and the White House as appearing indifferent to the devastation until two days after the storm hit.
It said the Homeland SecurityDepartment either misunderstood federal disaster plans or refused to follow them. And it said New Orleans for years had neglected to prepare for large-scale emergencies.

"The suffering that continued in the days and weeks after the storm passed did not happen in a vacuum; instead, it continued longer that it should have because of — and was in some cases exacerbated by — the failure of government at all levels to plan, prepare for and respond aggressively to the storm," concluded the report.

It was titled "Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared," sober words for the future. The Senate inquiry is the third major federal report on the government failures exposed by the Aug. 29 storm, which killed more than 1,300 people and which the Senate Budget Committee says has so far cost the federal government $103 billion. The report follows similar inquiries by the House and White House and comes in an election year in which Democrats have pointed critically to the administration's Katrina response.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_congress

[rodeodance]

1. It took the punch out of Bush pounding nails down in NO

[EFerrari]

2. "Suffering" not yet past tense for many Katrina survivors.

K&R

[shamrock]

3. It never will be

really past-tense. Imagine losing all of your family, or even just one member, as well as all of your possessions. Can't even imagine the grief.

[Erika]

4. This entire administration should be scrapped

W playing the guitar, Condi shopping for shoes, Rummy at a ball game - while New Orleans flooded.

Brownie being told he was doing one heckuvajob while people were still without food and water.

[Kurovski]

5. Senator Susan Collins took every opportunity at the press conference

to pet George W. Bush.

The mixed messages are getting to be a bit much. Or perhaps Collins was merely signaling how FOX affiliates should procede on the story.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1042100

[NavyDavy]

6. Did anyone see I think it was cbs or abc evening news?

all the disgusting emails they got about them showing a "nonstory" like katrina

[MissWaverly]

7. well, they're just have to keep on for the rest of us

everyone is worried that Katrina could happen in their town now that the weather has become
like an episode of survivor.

[valerief]

8. Yeah, when they could have been reporting

NATALEE HOLLOWAY!!!!!!

[Kurovski]

9. No, I hadn't heard. do tell...

did the email addys all end in ".gov"? Were they from the White House or George's pig ranch in Texas? :-)

[misanthrope]

10. It was NBC...

...and let me tell you, to this person living right next door to the Katrina Zone, it was infuriating. That jerk-off in the Dakotas who talked about "surviving stuff like that all the time" can come down here and go on the body retrievals, can sort through the miles and miles of devastation in two states before they run their mouth again.

[NavyDavy]

12. sorry about taking so long to respond,

but I am still learning the ropes on this site

yeah they all made me sick to my stomach, I was so angry.....I want to find that ND jerk

[OneBlueSky]

11. "So first you wreck the program, then you claim its failures are . . .

the result of the fact that 'government programs don't work' - relying on amnesia about the fact that it worked just fine before they started "fixing" it - and then they decide we need to abolish it rather than putting it back the way it was when it used to work."

American Scream
http://sideshow.me.uk/sapr06.htm#04271543