How Carl Rove played politics while people drowned

[SMM]

I had never heard the full tale of the Bush administration's mishandling of the Katrina disaster. I mean, I kinda thought I knew the basics of it, and that was bad enough. Today, I read a much more detailed account of what really happened. It brought tears to my eyes. I offer this link (http://www.salon.com/books/excerpt/2008/06/06/rove_katrina/index.html) to the story for you. I warn you, it is grim reading.

[iJohnHenry]

That's a fair bit of reading, for a Saturday night, after a few lagers.

BUT, I now have new-found respect for Ted Kennedy. He only "killed" one person.

I wish him good luck now, in his fight for his health.

[leekohler]

Though, is this anything we didn't already know about Rove and Uncurious George? Thanks for posting this. It's nice to hear it from someone who was there. Bush is absolutely the worst president we've ever had.

[SMM]

Though, is this anything we didn't already know about Rove and Uncurious George? Thanks for posting this. It's nice to hear it from someone who was there. Bush is absolutely the worst president we've ever had.

Lee, I should know that nothing is outside of Rove's inhuman actions, this still set me back. I knew of the incredible incompetent mishandling of the Katrina disaster, I was unaware of the political BS that was going on behind the scenes. I shudder to think about the depths of immorality he would stoop to. What he did during Katrina is no less disgusting than the acts of Heinrich Himmler. The man does not possess one human quality. Bush is not nearly clever enough to come up with something like this on his own. But, his guilt is just as bad for following the script. They both have blood on their hands. I guess it is no coincidence that Bush changed the document, which gives him dictatorial powers, to include natural disasters and the right to assume control of all state and local national guards and law enforcement agencies.

[Iscariot]

Playing politics? I'm surprised he wasn't playing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, since it's so thematically relevant.

[leekohler]

Playing politics? I'm surprised he wasn't playing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, since it's so thematically relevant.

This pretty much goes beyond playing politics, my handsome friend. This is pretty much criminal. :mad:

[iJohnHenry]

How about a trial in the Hague, for both the Rove crew and those ******* generals in Miramar??

[leekohler]

How about a trial in the Hague, for both the Rove crew and those ******* generals in Miramar??

I'm not opposed to such a thing.

[iJohnHenry]

Like it would ever happen.

But we can dream, can we not??

:apple:

[Iscariot]

This pretty much goes beyond playing politics, my handsome friend. This is pretty much criminal. :mad:

Wouldn't "criminal" be an accurate description of much of this administration, though?

[leekohler]

Wouldn't "criminal" be an accurate description of much of this administration, though?

Yes, it would. These people deserve to fry, although they never will.

[Gelfin]

As if the story is not disturbing enough on its own, it most bothers me when I read it along with the other thread about a possible attack on Iran.

A part of me still wants to believe that these people could not be so utterly monstrous as to launch a mass slaughter for no other reason than to tilt the domestic political field for the sake of an election. Then I read a story like this and am reminded that banking on their better angels in any circumstances is a fool's bet.

[Desertrat]

I imagine any of us can figure out a way to spin the stories about any event for either a favorable or unfavorable view.

Popular Mechanics magazine isn't a political mouthpiece for anybody, so far as I know. So, regarding Katrina stories, check out http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/2315076.html

From the Salon article, note that the 500 FEMA buses could not have gotten to New Orleans within the alleged timeframe. Once the storm came onshore, it was flat-out physically impossible until miles and miles of downed trees were removed. And the fact remains that some 300 school buses were already on hand and available--and unused. That's why Nagin got nicknamed "Schoolbus". If you recall, one 19-year-old "stole" a bus and drove a load of people to Texas.

Note that the New Orleans population was some 500,000. Only some 20- to 30-thousand were actually trapped. The rest did evacuate.

Now, I don't doubt for a moment that Rove played the spin game. But that spin had little to do with what actually went on in the real world outside of the Beltway or the governor's office in Baton Rouge.

FWIW, I drove from Georgia to Texas, passing through Louisiana on the Saturday before Katrina. There was little evacuee traffic on I-10. A helluva lot of folks waited way too long to "get the hell out of Dodge".

'Rat

[SMM]

I imagine any of us can figure out a way to spin the stories about any event for either a favorable or unfavorable view.

Popular Mechanics magazine isn't a political mouthpiece for anybody, so far as I know. So, regarding Katrina stories, check out http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/2315076.html

From the Salon article, note that the 500 FEMA buses could not have gotten to New Orleans within the alleged timeframe. Once the storm came onshore, it was flat-out physically impossible until miles and miles of downed trees were removed. And the fact remains that some 300 school buses were already on hand and available--and unused. That's why Nagin got nicknamed "Schoolbus". If you recall, one 19-year-old "stole" a bus and drove a load of people to Texas.

Note that the New Orleans population was some 500,000. Only some 20- to 30-thousand were actually trapped. The rest did evacuate.

Now, I don't doubt for a moment that Rove played the spin game. But that spin had little to do with what actually went on in the real world outside of the Beltway or the governor's office in Baton Rouge.

FWIW, I drove from Georgia to Texas, passing through Louisiana on the Saturday before Katrina. There was little evacuee traffic on I-10. A helluva lot of folks waited way too long to "get the hell out of Dodge".

'Rat

Speaking of spin, you do a very good job spinning for the republican talking points. You missed the whole story. Probably because you were thinking about your response instead. Or, did you even read the story? It sure does not sound like it.

[Desertrat]

SMM, I read enough of the Salon article to see where it was going. Did you read my third paragraph where I spoke to one of the writer's pointless points?

I don't know about your own past career, but I've worked hurricane relief efforts, and worked with folks like Herb Saffir and Bob Simpson. And Neil Frank, for that matter, when he ran the Miami Hurricane Center. I know a bit about what's possible and what's not possible. And, I've travelled I-10, I-12 and US 90 numerous times. I'm quite familiar with the area and its problems.

The upper echelon of FEMA bureaucrats are the usual Beltway types, overwhelmed by delusions of competency. Arrogant twits. We did better in Texas back when FEMA was four guys in an office in Dallas, just a gleam in an empire builder's eye. FEMA's not like a fine wine; it doesn't get better with age. It's just like Homeland Security: No matter who's president, I don't expect any improvement.

[solvs]

Now, I don't doubt for a moment that Rove played the spin game. But that spin had little to do with what actually went on in the real world outside of the Beltway or the governor's office in Baton Rouge.
As SMM said, you're missing the point of the article. While there is plenty of blame to go around, I read this earlier (was going to post it to the thread about Bush being unpopular - one of them) and the part that really bothered me was that rather than actually do something, or even plan better, the spin machine went into effect. Part of that constant campaigning over actually governing that McClellan has been talking about. Bush seemed completely oblivious even during, and rather than work with the also incompetent local gov, the blame game they later blamed on everyone else started. And while everyone was sitting around wondering who's fault it was, blaming everyone else, playing political football, people were suffering. That's why Bush's numbers went down after that. People were starting to see what they rest of us had, and he hasn't recovered since. Even his speech where he acted like he was taking the blame was just more of the same, and as I said then, very disappointing. Unlike his 9/11 speech, it seemed the opposite, more tearing apart and blaming everyone else than saying we should do something (or you know, still, actually doing something... preferably not making things worse when they did, which is what happened), instead of trying to bring us all together.

The lack of action, and the action that made things worse was bad enough, but playing politics while NOLA drowned, well that was just unforgivable, no matter how many times it's still spun away from that.

But no 'rat, under better administration (local and fed gov) FEMA actually could work, no matter how many times those telling you gov doesn't work go out of their ways to prove it.