Crisis threatens to swamp Bush White House

[cal04]

US President George W. Bush is facing a political crisis that could swamp his second-term administration and undermine support for the war in Iraq as the blame game over the Hurricane Katrina disaster starts. Mr Bush is facing fierce criticism, even within his own party, over his administration's preparation and response to the disaster in New Orleans when levees designed to protect the below-sea-level town failed, as many predicted they would if a storm the size of Katrina swept in. Yesterday, intensified relief efforts saw the mass evacuation of survivors from the streets of New Orleans.

The urgency at the White House was clear at the weekend when Mr Bush's September calendar was torn-up to focus almost solely on the management of the crisis. This included the dramatic cancellation of the much-anticipated visit this week of Chinese President Hu Jintao. The criticism of the Bush administration has been so acute that, in a rare public acknowledgement of problems, Mr Bush admitted at the weekend that mistakes had been made. But he also attempted to shift the blame to state and local authorities.


Mr Bush is suddenly dealing with an urgent domestic agenda, not the war in Iraq, as the disaster unfolds. Petrol prices are soaring thanks to a cut in petroleum production out of the Gulf Coast and attention is shifting to how the US will cater for an estimated 1million displaced people within its borders. While refugees asked how the US could successfully invade a country but not drop adequate supplies to thousands of dehydrated refugees in one of the nation's most prominent cities, newspaper editorials were lashing the administration for not focusing enough on domestic issues such as poverty and inequality.

Inspired by the stark images of poor African Americans stranded and dying in New Orleans, The Boston Globe called for a "War on Poverty", while the New York Times said Mr Bush's tax cutting for the rich had to stop. After touring the Gulf Coast at the weekend, Mr Bush is due to conduct another visit in the early hours of tomorrow morning, Australian time.



rest of the article
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16492814%255E601,00.html

[skooooo]

1. Hurricane of anger headed for Bushco

[cami715]

2. And no one deserves it more!

[katmondoo]

3. To think he could have avoided all of this backlash if he had a brain

How smart are these people if they cannot not to see the outrage coming. Had Bush acted like a president he wouldn't have to work overtime on the cover up. ***holes!

[applegrove]

4. No - he has a long-standing policy of purposely diminishing governance

organizations by putting neocons into the top jobs..so that they can create a vacuum that corporations can then run in and fill.

It is a pattern.