CNN article entirely on DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OFFICIAL VERSION AND TRUTH

[Nothing Without Hope]

There is a huge amount they're missing, but the main point is clear: Bush administration officials are LYING. No, the article doesn't use that resonant L-word, but verbatim quotes are placed side by side and it is very clear that the authors are PISSED. And THERE ARE ACCOMPANYING VIDEOS for some of the statements. (I could not get direct video links, but if you go to the article you can use the live links in the text.)

(Mods - This excerpt contains two CNN introductory paragraphs and one quote by a CNN employee. The remainder are quotes from non-CNN employees. The 4-paragraph rule is obeyed.)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html

The big disconnect on New Orleans

The official version; then there's the in-the-trenches version
Friday, September 2, 2005; Posted: 5:17 p.m. EDT (21:17 GMT)

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Diverging views of a crumbling New Orleans emerged Thursday, with statements by some federal officials in contradiction with grittier, more desperate views from the streets. By late Friday response to those stranded in the city was more visible.

But the conflicting views on Thursday came within hours, sometimes minutes of each of each other, as reflected in CNN's transcripts. The speakers include Michael Brown, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, evacuee Raymond Cooper, CNN correspondents and others. Here's what they had to say:

Conditions in the Convention Center

• FEMA chief Brown: "We learned about that (Thursday), so I have directed that we have all available resources to get that convention center to make sure that they have the food and water and medical care that they need."
  (See video of Brown explaining how news reports alerted FEMA to convention center chaos. -- 2:11)
  
• Mayor Nagin: The convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running out of supplies for the 15,000 to 20,000 people.
  (Hear Nagin's angry demand for soldiers. 1:04)
  
• CNN Producer Kim Segal: It was chaos. There was nobody there, nobody in charge. And there was nobody giving even water. The children, you should see them, they're all just in tears. There are sick people. We saw... people who are dying in front of you.
  
• Evacuee Raymond Cooper: Sir, you've got about 3,000 people here in this -- in the Convention Center right now. They're hungry. Don't have any food. We were told two-and-a-half days ago to make our way to the Superdome or the Convention Center by our mayor. And which when we got here, was no one to tell us what to do, no one to direct us, no authority figure.

(snip)

There are also side by side comparisons of quotes and some more video clips on the following topics:

Uncollected corpses

Hospital evacuations

Violence and civil unrest

The federal response

Security

The word is spreading. The Bush Administration is trying to spin its way out with lies again, but it's not going to work this time.

NEVER AGAIN. THIS IS THE TURNING POINT.

[Bumblebee]

1. There is also a great AP article and a good one in the WP

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Katrina-Happy-Talk.

Newsview: Rhetoric Not Matching Reality




By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 2, 2005

Filed at 11:14 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Iraqi insurgency is in its last throes. The economy is booming. Anybody who leaks a CIA agent's identity will be fired. Add another piece of White House rhetoric that doesn't match the public's view of reality: Help is on the way, Gulf Coast.

As New Orleans descended into anarchy, top Bush administration officials congratulated each other for jobs well done and spoke of water, food and troops pouring into the ravaged city. Television pictures told a different story.

''What it reminded me of the other day is 'Baghdad Bob' saying there are no Americans at the airport,'' said Rich Galen, a Republican consultant in Washington. He was referring to Saddam Hussein's reality-challenged minister of information who denied the existence of U.S. troops in the Iraqi capital.

To some critics, President Bush seemed to deny the existence of problems with hurricane relief this week. He waited until Friday to acknowledged that ''the results are not acceptable,'' and even then the president parsed his words

Republicans worry that he looks out of touch defending the chaotic emergency response.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/02/AR2005090202215_pf.html

A Day of Contradictions

By Dana Milbank
Saturday, September 3, 2005; A15

"I'm looking forward to my trip down there," President Bush said in the White House driveway yesterday morning before leaving to tour the storm wreckage.

Something must have happened in flight, because when he arrived in Mobile, Ala., two hours later, he reported: "I'm not looking forward to this trip."

For Bush, it was that kind of day. Nursing the lowest standing of his presidency, he could have used another bullhorn-atop-the-wreckage moment to symbolize his strong leadership.

Instead, while a flood of sewage and corpses filled lawless New Orleans, Bush found himself in an awkward photo op in an airport hangar, accepting hosannas from government officials and a pair of Republican governors.

"Thank you for all the help," Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said.

"Your people have been great," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said.

When it was his turn to talk, Bush congratulated the governors, then turned to FEMA Director Mike Brown and said, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Addressing another member of his party, Sen. Trent Lott (Miss.), Bush promised: "Out of the rubble of Trent Lott's house -- he lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."

The performance, broadcast on most networks, drew ridicule from CNN anchor Daryn Kagan. "The president, finally making it to the Gulf Coast after five days . . . getting a briefing that frankly he could have gotten back at the White House," she said. "A lot of that seemed like a political opportunity for the cameras and the Republican governors."

Kagan, who has dated Rush Limbaugh, is no Bush basher. But yesterday was open season on the president. Democrats were brazen in their condemnation of his performance, and even Republicans were surprised and critical of him.

The day began with a damning lead editorial in the normally Bush-friendly Washington Times. "We expected to see, many hours ago, the president we saw standing atop the ruin of the World Trade Center," it said. Instead, "he risks losing the one trait his critics have never dented: his ability to lead, and be seen leading."

[faithnotgreed]

3. thankyou for posting this - i hadnt seen it

[Bumblebee]

4. There is also this from the NYT -- he had a BAD day

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/national/nationalspecial/03assess.html?pagewanted=print

September 3, 2005
In First Response to Crisis, Bush Strikes Off-Key Notes
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 - From the moment he walked out of the Oval Office toward his helicopter on Friday morning until he left New Orleans at the end of the day, President Bush's task was to erase the hardening impression that his administration had failed to act with sufficient urgency to address the suffering of tens of thousands of people.

Mr. Bush has been imperiled politically by the deep gulf between the disturbing reality in the storm-ravaged South and what was widely perceived to be a slow federal response detached from the desperation felt on the ground.

He used his trip to try to close the perception gap and made some progress, demonstrating compassion toward those he ran into, particularly in Mississippi, which represents politically solid ground. The impact of his trip was magnified by the fact that it coincided with those of convoys carrying food, water and troops.

But the overall impression Mr. Bush gave was tentative, particularly compared with the confident visit he paid to New York four years ago, just three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Then, he took up a bullhorn to hail rescue workers at ground zero; on Friday, he steered clear of the streets of New Orleans, whose stricken population could not be counted on to hail him with open arms.

Mr. Bush began his day by saying on the South Lawn of the White House that the results of the federal effort so far were "not acceptable." But he qualified that criticism as the day wore on, apparently out of discomfort with the implication that he was criticizing rescue and relief workers.

At times he seemed off balance, on a trip that took him to Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, and he struck a few discordant notes along the way. In Mobile, Ala., he touched only briefly on how hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the region would be housed in the weeks and months ahead, but singled out Senator Trent Lott's intention to rebuild his home in Pascagoula, Miss.

At several stops Mr. Bush appeared as concerned with bucking up the morale of government officials, like Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, as with reassuring people whose health and livelihoods were at risk. Even as he pledged to right what had gone wrong with the rescue and relief effort, he congratulated Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, whom he called Brownie, for doing "a heck of a job," an evaluation not widely shared in New Orleans.

Fortuitously or by design, Mr. Bush reached the region on the very day that a huge influx of supplies and waves of troops arrived in New Orleans, palpably easing the crisis. And he generated scenes that will no doubt help repair his image, as he hugged victims of the hurricane in Biloxi, Miss., and stood near the site of the main levee breach in New Orleans.

[chomskysright]

5. ..."Fortuitously or by design..": what a mother-fucker he is

[Nothing Without Hope]

6. WOW! Thanks! That line about "by design" is telling.

But you need to cut back to 4 excerpted paragrahs or the mods may cut your post. (Sorry to sound preachy, but I'd hate to see it go.)

I love this. I believe it shows some genuine outrage:

Fortuitously or by design, Mr. Bush reached the region on the very day that a huge influx of supplies and waves of troops arrived in New Orleans, palpably easing the crisis. And he generated scenes that will no doubt help repair his image<, as he hugged victims of the hurricane in Biloxi, Miss.,[b> and stood near the site of the main levee breach in New Orleans.

[Ms. Clio]

9. Et tu, Washington Times? As if Chimpy could lead his way out

of Rove's ass.

[renate]

10. A great quote from the WaPo article

"Extremely disappointed by the tardiness," was the view of Rep. Katherine Harris (Fla.).

What's that up in the sky? It's a pig! With a lot of makeup on!
I guess that old "pigs might fly" expression is true!

[Moderator]

23. Bumblebee

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[TankLV]

34. The problem is, HE WAS AWOL ON 911 TOO!

He was "not there right away" on 911 - bunerboy (hence the name I've been calling him from that day on) was busy running away - OUT OF COMMUNICATION for a DAY, running first from one "safe location" to another until he found his way to Colorado and his "rabbit hole" and "bunker" where he gave a half-hearted and disjointed CANNED - not live "speach".

It is another LIE - one of many - INVENTED BY THE WHORE MEDIA from day one!

[craigolemiss]

2. This is one of the most important articles I have seen so far.

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. You're not a "new guy" any more, but I'll still take this opportunity to

welcome you to DU, craig! :hug:

I hope that you and your family and friends are safe and well.

[Swamp Rat]

7. kick and recommended! n/t

[liberal43110]

11. nominated

thanks for 3 great pieces...i must admit, i am quite surprised that the corporate media are doing anything like this...

[Nothing Without Hope]

12. Did you see what Fox - FOX!!!! - showed? The young hero stealing the bus:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4596231

[Nothing Without Hope]

13. Paul Krugman BLASTED the Bush Administration in his Friday op/ed

Be sure to read the whole thing. It's devastating and the 4 paragraphs I can excerpt don't do it justice. Yes, he's seen by some as a "partisan liberal." But facts are facts and he lays it all out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/opinion/02krugman.html?th&emc=th
Op-Ed Columnist

A Can't-Do Government

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 2, 2005

(snip - much more)

I don't think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn't rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad. Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn't get adequate armor.

At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.

Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.

So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.

E-mail: [e-mail]

[ibegurpard]

14. Gee, you think?

And how is this any different than anything coming from this administration in the past 5 years?
It's LONG past time for the media to start reporting things like this.

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. Oh yes, it's LONG LONG past time for the Poodle Press to start telling

the truth. The fact that it's starting to break through is the best sign of hope that the Bush Administration's free ride is finally ending, years too late but at last.

[Nothing Without Hope]

16. Maureen Dowd's Sept 3 NYT op/ed: "The United States of Shame"

She pulls out all the stops. The clear warnings for both the hurricane --long and short-term -- as well as for the 9/11 attacks and the situation in Iraq. The lame, heartless photo-op posing by Bush when people nearby were literally dying. The levees. The cut funding. The lack of National Guard due to Iraq. And this finale:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html
Op-Ed Columnist

United States of Shame

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: September 3, 2005

(snip)

Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center.

(Here Dowd points out that instead of firing Brown, yesterday Bush told him "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.")

It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue and attended "Spamalot" before bloggers chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked empathy but could get the job done. But it is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode.

When the president and vice president rashly shook off our allies and our respect for international law to pursue a war built on lies, when they sanctioned torture, they shook the faith of the world in American ideals.

When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700 guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us ashamed.

(snip)

She ends with the inescapable question: "Who are we if we can't take care of our own?

Maureen Dowd's email: [e-mail]

[Nothing Without Hope]

17. Maureen Dowd's NYT op/ed and this David Gonzales one FINALLY cite RACE

AND POVERTY as affecting who suffers and dies in this hell. Well, DUH!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial/02discrim.html?th&emc=th

The Victims
From Margins of Society to Center of the Tragedy

By DAVID GONZALEZ
Published: September 2, 2005

The scenes of floating corpses, scavengers fighting for food and desperate throngs seeking any way out of New Orleans have been tragic enough. But for many African-American leaders, there is a growing outrage that many of those still stuck at the center of this tragedy were people who for generations had been pushed to the margins of society.

The victims, they note, were largely black and poor, those who toiled in the background of the tourist havens, living in tumbledown neighborhoods that were long known to be vulnerable to disaster if the levees failed. Without so much as a car or bus fare to escape ahead of time, they found themselves left behind by a failure to plan for their rescue should the dreaded day ever arrive.

"If you know that terror is approaching in terms of hurricanes, and you've already seen the damage they've done in Florida and elsewhere, what in God's name were you thinking?" said the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. "I think a lot of it has to do with race and class. The people affected were largely poor people. Poor, black people."

In the days since neighborhoods and towns along the Gulf Coast were wiped out by the winds and water, there has been a growing sense that race and class are the unspoken markers of who got out and who got stuck. Just as in developing countries where the failures of rural development policies become glaringly clear at times of natural disasters like floods or drought, many national leaders said, some of the United States' poorest cities have been left vulnerable by federal policies.

(snip - much more)

[Nothing Without Hope]

18. Ah, Condi - you really are such a lousy liar. Quote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/national/nationalspecial/03voices.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=701f5b453c07f07a&hp&ex=1125806400&partner=homepage
But noting her own roots in Alabama, and her father's in Louisiana, Dr. Rice announced plans to visit the region this weekend and said, "That Americans would somehow in a color-affected way decide who to help and who not to help - I just don't believe it."

Beyond contemptible. How can anyone ever take her seriously? She can't even LIE convincingly, though she certainly has had plenty of practice trying.

[AbbyR]

22. I didn't want to think it was race, either, but

If this had happened in La Jolla, Calif, or some other very white, very wealthy area, I don't think there would have been a wait for a photo op.

[Nothing Without Hope]

19. kick n/t

[Mutley]

20. I am so happy that CNN is sticking to their guns.

It seems for a few moments here and there that they are reverting back to their corporate whore ways, then something like this article comes from them. IF they keep this up, I might decide I like them again, and I might even watch them regularly again. And I've emailed them to tell them so.

[coeur_de_lion]

21. GREAT article. Thanks for posting this

Finally, MSM is telling the truth. Might not be as strongly worded as we would like, but it's a start.

[Nikki Stone 1]

28. kick

:kick:

[bleever]

24. Great post. Thanks, Hope.

:hug:

[JNelson6563]

25. My brother is going down there

to help collect the bodies (he's trained with haz. waste etc.). I told him to get me pics of what he found and I'd post them on the internet to get the REAL story out.

Should be a few days before I hear back.

Julie

[Nothing Without Hope]

27. Looking forward to getting some truth out. We'll get those pictures -

modified to preserve the dignity and hide the identy of victims - the attention they need to show the desolation that is REALLY the truth.

[Nothing Without Hope]

26. kick n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

29. I hope people read the NYT articles I posted in the replies to the OP

They are excellent and important.

[Nothing Without Hope]

30. The info in these articles is still important and timely. n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

31. a dupe thread has been started:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4624314

[Nothing Without Hope]

32. Unfortunately the other important articles in this thread are not

collected and presented anywhere else. This is a loss. I'm trying to keep this thread kicked because of the value of ALL the articles in it, but it's hard in this fast forum.

Sometimes DU is so frustrating. It's like "Well, nothing more than 24 hours old could still be important." Something needs to be done about this damaging lack.

[McCamy Taylor]

33. Big Disconnect between CNN reporters and CNN Corporate Bosses

[Nothing Without Hope]

35. Yeah. Some reporters are still human. Or maybe they think reporters are

supposed to report rather than spin after staged photo-ops.

The new meme is clearly that none of this is Bush's fault, it's the locals and state officials and "partisan bickering." Clearly, the thing to do is to give Bush MORE POWER. Then he can get the job done. Martial law, though they won't call it that and it won't be nationwide all at once. Gotta go in steps, see?

David Brooks wrote such a twisted article about the Katrina disaster that it was posted at Du as evidence that "the worm was turning" - these optimistic people actually thought he was blaming Bush! But quite the opposite, and what he wrote is very revealing. I wrote a long post to try to show what Brooksie was REALLY saying and really NOT saying. Don't know if I can convince anyone - see what you think. Here's a link to my post in that thread - the link to the Brooks NYT article is in the OP.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4616247&mesg_id=4632830

I'd be grateful if anyone reads through my analysis in that post and sees whether they agree. Actually, I think his sorry piece of Brooks' propagandizing is both sickening and scary because it's a preview of spin as well as their view of the future.

I'll post again later on some other recent GOP spin explosions.

[Nothing Without Hope]

36. Check out this thread: the spin and lies are intensifying. Will post more

later.

Here's the thread I'll send you to now, all I have time for now:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1753133
thread titles: Bush Administration Puts Katrina PR Campaign Into Overdrive

[deutsey]

37. If this is true, please write to CNN expressing your support

Let's let them know, en masse, that there is an audience for independent journalism out here.

[Nothing Without Hope]

39. so true - and very important. You can bet they got freeper-attacked for

telling the truth. We have to show them there's a bigger audience that will make honesty profitable.

[Nothing Without Hope]

38. WONDERFUL NEWS!!! Bush has finally been forced to accept aid from foreign

countries - and they are going to give A LOT.

This will FINALLY bring aid, comfort and so much more to those traumatized people.

Less immediately important but highly significant for the ability to get the TRUTH about what is going on in our country: there is BOUND to be more coverage of facts in the foreign press. We can get that information and make sure we can bypass Bush's Poodle Press to get those FACTS to the American public. This is going to make the endless lies harder to launch successfully.

And when the American public finds out how they have been duped and looted and killed for lies all along, they are NOT going to put up with it.

edited to add the thread about the foreign aid:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4634032
Thread title: I cried after reading this: World offers cash, aid to stricken southern US
My question and its answer that Bush DID change his decision on allowing it in are near the bottom of that thread. It's glorious to see all the people in the world wanting to help.

[FreedomAngel82]

40. Earlier this morning I saw Maher's show

and he had Anderson Cooper on and he seemed pretty pissed off. Of course Maher asked him where he was with questioning Bush on Iraq and Cooper was like "well everybody thought Saddam had WMD's" nonsense of an excuse. Maher didn't call him out on that though. *sigh* If I was there I would've told him that if that was true why did other countries pull out? Doy. But anyways, Cooper you could tell was truly pissed off about what was happening in New Orleans. Oh and also I wanted to say with the Iraq question there was a weird uncomfortablness with Cooper as he answered Maher. :shrug:

[Solly Mack]

41. CNNI ran the article as a live story on the news yesterday

Where they showed the comparison of conflicting stories live, with the contradicting video back to back


In one part, it shows that the government (federal) had 4 days before Katrina struck land to ready supplies and that as a category 4, it was OBVIOUS how bad it was going to be....it also showed footage that was shown prior to Katrina hitting land of how bad the New Orleans "bowl effect" would get.

I watched as clips were shown of people saying one thing from safe ground (Fema, etc) - then switching to inside New Orleans showing a different thing....

and over and over and over again the phrase coming from Bush Inc

"Help is on the way" (but somehow never getting there)

[Independent_Liberal]

42. Kick!

[Nothing Without Hope]

43. Will post more "lies exposed" threads tomorrow and invite you to also

Would be useful to compile these as a resource. Got a good start here, can build on it.

Too late tonight to do more - will come back tomorrow. I hope they don't archive this thread yet, because I'm hoping to compile more links here.

[Nothing Without Hope]

44. LA TImes, Hiltzik: "Bush's Hurricane Response a Disaster" - The TRUTH!

Even now, after all the days of deadly delays and all the rest of the clear evidence of Bush and his top appointees' culpability, new articles STILL avoid blaming Bush. They talk about "partisan bickering" and "diffuse authority" or "playing the blame game" and allow the obvious, provable lies of Bush, Chertoff and others to stand unchallenged except by citing opposing opinions of other people. See, both sides have to be handled as if their statements are equally valid even though the facts overwhelmingly prove otherwise. This is contemptible and doing a very grave disservice to the victims of the "incompetence" and to the American people. This is a familiar ploy by now, used to deflect accountability and muddy the facts.

So I am very glad indeed to see this LA Times article, which appeared in the Business section of the paper. May there be many, many more in the press who dare to speak the truth. It is way, way, WAY past due and desperately needed.

The article, by Michael Hiltzik, is titled "Bush's Hurricane Response a Disaster" and is reported in this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x153609
Thread title: "Michael Hiltzik: Bush's Hurricane Response a Disaster"

This thread is unfortunately posted in the Editorials forum, where too few will see it. I hope a lot of people read this post and are directed to it and will read the article. It is superb and is NOT just an opinion piece; it is full of damning facts.

[Nothing Without Hope]

45. ABSOLUTE MUST-SEE OR READ: KEITH OLBERMANN SAYS IT ALL!!!!

If this doesn't move you, you're not paying attention. That's why I am hoping that the millions who saw it will remember Keith's forceful, passionate conviction as he says what the media SHOULD have been saying all along. A few have, and I'll continue to post on them here, but non with the impact of what Keith did in this editorial report on his show.

Keith's outrage is ours. The Administration is going to try to get him for this, or at least suppress him. Nothing like this has ever been seen on TV about Bush and Cheney, I'm sure of it. He is absolutely speaking from the heart and he knows the facts. Anyone who sees this will comprehend that.

A video clip with Olbermann's piece, "The City Of Louisiana," has already been put up by a generous person and posted on the DU thread about this. A Windows Media version is up at Crooks & Liars, with a QuickTime version promised soon.

Collecting the links to this INCREDIBLE, THRILLING, TRUTH-TELLING MIRACLE from Keith:

Here is a link to the DU THREAD which discusses this amazing show segment. Note again that the opening post MISTAKEN - the link in it is about Keith's BLOG ENTRY on this and NOT the show transcript, which has not yet been posted by MSNBC.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4652755

Here is a direct link to a VIDEO CLIP of Keith's wondrous editorial report, which you MUST MUST MUST see. It was posted in the DU thread in the link above (Reply #11) by Cush:
http://media.putfile.com/OlbermannSwings
Here is a permalink to the entry on Keith's blast at Crooks & Liars:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/05.html#a4810
This entry has a link to a Windows Media version of Keith's wonderful piece. Here is a direct link to this VIDEO CLIP IN WINDOWS MEDIA:
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Olbermann-Blasts-on%20-Katrina.wmv
Crooks & Liars says that a QuickTime version will be added soon (in the same entry).

Here is a link to KEITH'S BLOG HOME PAGE by Keith on the same subject, which is posted in the opening post of the DU thread about the show. At the moment, his entry that is related to the "City of Louisiana" piece is at the top, but it will move down as he posts more blog entries. THIS IS NOT A PERMALINK. For some reason, the time stamp for the entry - which is usually a live link to the permalink URL - is NOT a live link for this entry. Don't get conspiracy-theory worries, I'm sure it's just a glitch. Again, this is NOT the show transcript, but a much briefer personal commentary.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240

Again, I'll post a link to the SHOW TRANSCRIPT as a reply to this post when it becomes available - assuming this thread has not been archived.

[BikeWriter]

47. Wow, just wow!

[Nothing Without Hope]

46. BBC News article blames Bush Admin, wonders if US media is growing a spine

This article lays out the reasons why the US media is "timid" and "self-censoring" as well as tightly connected with the Administration through their corporate bosses. But the author believes that the examples of hitherto rare truth-telling by some TV news reporters during the days of murderous delays and negligence by the federal government may signal an important shift. He pointed out the obvious lies or "breathtaking ignorance" of the federal authorities, "and you did not need a degree in journalism to know it either." He was clearly impressed at Geraldo's tears, and overall has judged that the "masterfully aggressive spin-surgeons of the Bush administration" are not going to be able to get away with it this time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4214516.stm


Caption: Thousands were forced to wait days for food and shelter

Viewpoint: Has Katrina saved US media?

By Matt Wells, BBC News, Los Angeles
Last Updated: Monday, 5 September 2005, 16:48 GMT 17:48 UK

As President Bush scurries back to the Gulf Coast, it is clear that this is the greatest challenge to politics-as-usual in America since the fall of Richard Nixon in the 1970s.

(snip)

As the heads of the Homeland Security department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) appeared for network interviews, their defensive remarks about where aid was arriving to, and when, were exposed immediately as either downright lies or breath-taking ignorance.

(snip)

When the back-slapping president told the FEMA boss on Friday morning that he was doing "a heck of a job" and spent most of his first live news conference in the stricken area praising all the politicians and chiefs who had failed so clearly, it beggared belief.

(snip)

Blaming the state and city officials, as the president is already trying to do over Katrina, will not wash.

(snip)

[Nothing Without Hope]

48. Paul Krugman/NYT op-ed nails it: "Killed By Contempt"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/opinion/05krugman.html?th&emc=th
Op-Ed Columnist

Killed by Contempt

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 5, 2005

Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized.

Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients.

(snip)

But the federal government's lethal ineptitude wasn't just a consequence of Mr. Bush's personal inadequacy; it was a consequence of ideological hostility to the very idea of using government to serve the public good. For 25 years the right has been denigrating the public sector, telling us that government is always the problem, not the solution. Why should we be surprised that when we needed a government solution, it wasn't forthcoming?

(snip)

The administration has always tried to treat 9/11 purely as a lesson about good versus evil. But disasters must be coped with, even if they aren't caused by evildoers. Now we have another deadly lesson in why we need an effective government, and why dedicated public servants deserve our respect. Will we listen?
E-mail: [e-mail]

[Gabi Hayes]

49. nudge

[Nothing Without Hope]

50. Incredible (literally) Mike Brown interview on 8/29 adds to the legend:

An Associated Press story reported in this DU thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4653021&mesg_id=4653021
(snip)

Brown, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, said the evacuation of the city and the general emergency response were working as planned in an exercise a year ago. "I was impressed with the evacuation, once it was ordered it was very smooth," he said. And with the storm moving north, Brown said he expects to see flooding in Tennessee and the Ohio Valley.

Speaking earlier Monday from Baton Rouge, just upriver from New Orleans, Brown said that his agency had "planned for this kind of disaster for many years because we've always known about New Orleans' situation." Much of the city is below sea level, making it extremely vulnerable to storm flooding.

(snip)

[Gabi Hayes]

51. whoaaaa! I missed that one....thanks!

haven't heard that interview discussed anywhere but here.....nothing on radio/tv, etc.

[Nothing Without Hope]

52. ChiTrib: "Nearby Navy Ship Underused" - doctors idle, hospital beds empty

Meanwhile, people are still dying of prolonged neglect. And wasn't there a story of a mother giving birth to a baby in one of those noisome evacuee pens and both of them dying?

I can't understand why Americans have not realized before that the "Culture of Life" meme of the neocons is one of the cruellest Orwellian jokes of all.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509040369sep04,1,4144825.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cset=true
chicagotribune.com >> Nation/World
GULF COAST CRISIS: OFF THE GULF COAST

Navy ship nearby underused

Craft with food, water, doctors needed orders
By Stephen J. Hedges
Tribune national correspondent
Published September 4, 2005

ON THE USS BATAAN -- While federal and state emergency planners scramble to get more military relief to Gulf Coast communities stricken by Hurricane Katrina, a massive naval goodwill station has been cruising offshore, underused and waiting for a larger role in the effort.

The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It also can make its own water, up to 100,000 gallons a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came roaring ashore.

The Bataan rode out the storm and then followed it toward shore, awaiting relief orders. Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans residents.

But now the Bataan's hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty. A good share of its 1,200 sailors could also go ashore to help with the relief effort, but they haven't been asked. The Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military unit, but federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship.

(snip)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/wood090305.html
Sept. 3, 2005

Military Expresses Frustration Over Red Tape

BY DAVID WOOD?c.2005 Newhouse News Service

(snip)

As of Friday morning, according to officers here, only 12,000 Guardsmen from all contributing states were on station in Louisiana and Mississippi. That's less than half the 30,000 National Guard troops available for deployment from the immediate region -- Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida -- according to officials at the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Va.

"There is a tremendous amount of frustration here, that we have assets stacked up ready to go and we don't have the requests for them," said an officer who asked not to be identified. "All we can do is nudge the folks at FEMA and say, `How about if we do this or that?"'?

FEMA spokeswoman Natalie Rule defended her agency's coordination efforts with the Pentagon.?

"The military has been joined at the hip (with FEMA) since this storm was approaching Florida," Rule said. "We were working all together on the national coordination response in Washington as well as at the regional level 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

(snip)

(David Wood can be contacted at [e-mail])