A DEAF MAN SPOUTING-Katrina Video Defines Bush Presidency (Sid Blumenthal)

[kpete]

A deaf man spouting

A videotape of Bush's briefing before Hurricane Katrina exposes him as out of touch with reality

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday March 9, 2006
The Guardian


On the eve of George Bush's presidential campaign in 2000, the neoconservative Kenneth Adelman cast him as Prince Hal, who "puts the indiscretions of his youth behind him" and "redeems his father's reign". After September 11, Bush was wreathed with regal laurels as Henry V by a clerisy of pundits. From Ground Zero to the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln ("Mission Accomplished") the president struck bold poses, but his choreographed gestures have especially illuminated his hollow crown in the darkened breach of New Orleans.

For the first time, last week, the public has seen the spontaneous Bush behind closed doors, in a leaked videotape that recorded his briefing the day before Hurricane Katrina struck. Teleconferenced in from his Crawford ranch, Texas, Bush listens to disaster officials inform him that the storm will be unprecedented in its severity and consequences. "This is, to put it mildly, the big one," says Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Centre, warns: "This hurricane is much larger than Hurricane Andrew ever was." Bush asks not a single question, says, "We are fully prepared", and departs.

The Katrina videotape is defining for Bush's presidency. It exposes a deaf man spouting talking points. After the hurricane hit, he stayed on vacation, went to a birthday party, strummed a guitar with a country and western singer, and on September 1 said: "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." On his flight back to Washington, four days after landfall, his aides gave him a DVD of television news reports of the hurricane's impact about which he had done nothing to learn on his own.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1726482,00.html

[chelsea0011]

1. Yesterday Bush said the levees will be built to be "as good, if not

better" than prior to the hurricane. As good? If not better? This is our President. But we have known for years how bad he tryly is. Now, hopefully, the media catches on. But that video doesn't define his Presidency anymore than his dumbfounded response and look after being told of the WTC attacks. Should I be a President our should I continue with this children's book? He didn't know. He was told what to do.

[hippiechick]

2. And I heard on NPR yesterday...

... that the levees are being re-built to 1950's standards. So they're STILL not being given the reinforcements/ upgrades that were requested by the Army Corps of Engineers or whoever that was (and denied by Bush) in 2003.


A prime example of 'those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it'. :(