Beware the Idles of August, when our President takes time off.

[Tom Rinaldo]

Just reported from Army Core of Engineers Press Conference. Head guy trying to cover for Bush by saying underfunding of flood control did not contribute to the New Orleans disaster. That's because the Levees, even if the proposed plans had been fully funded, were only designed to withstand a Category Three Storm. In his words, Katrina exceeded the design capacity of the New Orleans flood control system, which could not be expected to hold up under a Category 4 or Category 5 Storm.

I could argue that point, since everyone knows that design capacity is the level at which one should assume something will operate as intended, and frequently things still work when design capacity is exceeded. Had those levees, which did not fail immediately when Katrina struck, been fortified as planned, perhaps New Orleans would have been saved.

Still the contradiction in Bush's efforts to avoid responsibility remains. Either it was foreseeable that a Category 4 or 5 Hurricane might overwhelm New Orleans flood defenses or it wasn't. You can't have your lake and drain it too. Here we have a Bush Administration that cut back on protection to defend New Orleans, against expert advice. Here we have a Bush Administration caught flat footed when disaster actually strikes. Was that disaster unpredictable? Not according to the Army Core of Engineers, who claim even a strengthened levee system would not have protected against a Category 4 or Category 5 Hurricane.

The math was not complicated. New Orleans protected for up to a Category 3 Storm, with Category 5 Katrina bearing down on New Orleans. All the weather forecasters said it was coming. We had about two days warning. Bush stays on vacation. It reminds us of the briefing Report that Bush got while vacationing in August of 2002; "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S". That happened right on schedule too.

God protect America while President Bush is on vacation, because Bush sure as hell doesn't, and unfortunately, Bush takes a lot of vacations. Smirks and slogans can't protect America, but our government should. With our National Guard pinned down in an elective Iraq war, with the Army Core of Engineers under staffed and under funded, with FEMA given over to patronage appointees, Bush crippled our governments ability to meet dire needs at home. This is a President who so strongly believes in the private sector that he let contractors interrogate prisoners in Iraq, which led to Abu Ghraib. So why is Bush so strangely reticent now to marshall the private sector to save America lives in our own Gulf region? It took a State Representative from Louisiana to beg surrounding businesses to send buses to New Orleans. It took the Congressional Black Caucus to urge American Food Companies to rush food to New Orleans. It takes a leader to lead, and this nation sorely needs one.