Democrats and Others Criticize White House’s Response to Disaster

The White House battled a chorus of criticism throughout the day as bloggers made much of the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, vacationing in New York during the disaster, where she was spotted at a Broadway show and was to attend the U.S. Open. By Thursday evening, Ms. Rice had cut short her vacation and returned to Washington, where she headed to a staff meeting to discuss ways of coordinating offers of foreign assistance from more than 30 countries and organizations.

Posted by: b | Sep 2 2005 12:39 utc | 3

curious: do I need to remind you that the enormous stink against the RC, led by FOX and O’Reilly led to them changing their procedures for disaster donations. You can now earmark your donations to specific disasters. Also, if you are not aware, the ICRC spends a lot of money helping in crises the no one is contributing to. I will be travelling to Brazzaville next month and the ICRC is the only relief organization there. They are serving refugee camps for Rawandans that are still in the Congo years after the conflct has finished. Many in the camps are Hutu who fear reprisal and the war crimes tribunal if they return. Other Hutu’s there have no place to return to after the Tutsi militias took over and burned many villages and demolished Hutu homes.
b: Well those Dems criticizing Bush apparently don’t include Sen. Landrieu. Anderson Cooper had to smack her down on CNN for her constant backslap praise of Bush while thousands are dying and rats are eating corpses in front of him. Goto crooksandliars.com to see the footage.

Posted by: Bubb Rubb | Sep 2 2005 13:04 utc | 5

In one part of the interview Nagan says something like the place of the failure of the levee was pointed out to FEMA before the Hurricane and they were asked to defend it. The same with the elecricity station that drieves the watersupply. He says he beggged them.

Posted by: b | Sep 2 2005 13:39 utc | 7

The Real News

There are many infants and elderly people among them, as well as many people who were injured jumping out of windows to escape flood water and the like — all of them in dire straights.
Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint. Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. Tensions are very high, and there has been at least one murder and several fights. 8 or 9 dead people have been stored in a freezer in the area, and 2 of these dead people are kids.
The people are so desperate that they’re doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the eldery in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.

Posted by: b | Sep 2 2005 13:57 utc | 9

We just had a national collection day for the victims of very severe flooding and landslides here in Switzerland…. People wanted to donate for NO at the same time. We were told this was not possible, because:
a) The US would likely refuse help
b) the Collecting Agency, run in part by the Gvmt. and called La Chaine du Bonheur – note the positive rather than the sadistic spin – has no agreements with Sister Organisations in the US to receive the money, as it has for many other countries in the world. This last was glossed over somewhat, and the reasons not really specified, different newspapers gave different reasons. One related it to history, and the fact that the US in any case will never publicly accept charity money from individuals elsewhere; another stated that the Chaine du Bonheur has rigorous criteria concerning the spending or affectation of the money, and (it was implied) these would not be fulfilled in Bush-run US in any case, so no money could be sent. (The journalist forebore to mention the Ivory Coast or other delicious examples..)
The tabloid advised people to give to Catholic Relief (I think, but it hardly matters) over the Internet, or to give to trusted individuals / organisms.

Posted by: Noisette | Sep 2 2005 14:36 utc | 11

On Huffington:
black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive.
If this doesn’t happen, then I don’t know where the soul of America is. May it burn.

Posted by: Lupin | Sep 2 2005 14:42 utc | 13

I heard the Nagin interview this morning (6:30ish) on NPR, Morning Edition. Unexpurgated. I heard it again in the second cycle. He was bleeped. I can’t find it at all on the website though there is a long list of the other stories from this morning’s program.

Posted by: beq | Sep 2 2005 14:48 utc | 15

Freeper style:
“It has been my policy for the last few days to look for and point up the brightest news I could find, because I knew what we might be facing long before Katrina ever made landfall. In my opinion, the time for optimism has passed. New Orleans did not dodge a bullet, New Orleans suffered a worst case doomsday scenario. But this is far far bigger than New Orleans alone.
By my count, America has lost not one city, but nine of them…. My purpose in being deliberately blunt today is twofold.
(…)
“To those who would blame the mayor of New Orleans, I would ask you to prepare, in the course of three days, to completely evacuate and rebuild a city of approximately one million people. I would further constrain you by telling you to expect that the energy to be released on your city in the coming days will be equal to the detonation of one United States W81 0.5 megaton thermonuclear warhead on your city and the surrounding areas, each and every single minute that the storm is overhead.”
Winds of Change – Sept. 1

Posted by: Noisette | Sep 2 2005 14:56 utc | 17

I’m watching Bush on wwwltv, and these mother fuckers are doing nothing but kissing bushes ass thanks for the thanks for that FEMA has been great the government has been great THESE MOTHER FUCKERS NEED TO BURN!!!!

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 2 2005 15:30 utc | 19

not to mention that bush is in mobile, ala, surrounded by white guys in dockers standing around doing nuthin’, w/ an empty rescue chopter as a set prop. bush is a prop. ignore him.

Posted by: b real | Sep 2 2005 15:39 utc | 21

REPORT FROM MEXICO
As the government of the United States fumbles, the world looks on in disbelief.
I live in Queretaro, Mexico, a provincial capital of about one million inhabitants located about two hours northwest of Mexico City.
Each morning I go for coffee and breakfast with a group of cafeteros who meet each morning to do the same. There are usually between one and two dozen who sit at a large, long table and exchange barbs and pleasantries.
For the past four mornings, the situation in New Orleans hasn’t been much of a topic of conservation. But this morning, since I am the only gringo in the group, I became the butt of all jokes.
It all began when one of the cafeteros started asking me questions:
Don’t they have truck trailers in the United States?
Don’t they have airplanes in the United States?
Don’t they have helicopters in the United States?
Don’t they have bottled water in the United States?
Don’t they have pre-packaged snacks and food in the United States?
Then one cafetero hypothesized that perhaps the administration is trying to promote cannibalism in the United States, followed by a rather graphic description of carving off a nice filet from a dead body.
Then someone suggested that Mexico can send help.
Another suggested that Iraq can send help.
Then they joked about how it had taken three days for the U.S. government to wake up to the fact they had a problem and for someone to start issuing orders. “When we have a natural disaster here in Mexico, the president immediately takes charge and issues orders. Do this! Do that! Of course that doesn’t mean anything is going to get done, but at least he issues orders,” they jested.
Then the conversation turned a little more serious. It was ilogico that the United States, the richest and most powerful nation on earth, couldn’t get water and food to these people stranded in NO.
“It must be that these people are black, latino and poor,” hypothesized one.”
“But if a latino is born and raised in the Unites States, should we care what happens to him?” another queried.
“Claro que si, carbron, son parte de nosostros,” came the immediate reply, which translates: “Of course, you son of a bithch, they are part of us.”

Posted by: GlennS | Sep 2 2005 15:42 utc | 23

The City is ON FIRE
Teams Alpha and Bravo finished the medium range recon and there are 3 separate locations on fire. We have pictures coming shortly.
During the recon, I spoke to some Federal Marshalls and NOPD. Morale is LOW. Very low. They’re not seeing the military presence they say they were promised. I told those guys they can’t possibly imagine how much we (the world) appreciate their dedication. I asked what civil rights the citizens have and the US Marshalls looked at me like I just fell off the turnip truck and chuckled. I asked if citizens can have guns for protection and he said if someone thinks he needs a gun, he should have already evacuated. He also said they are setting the city on fire.
The NOPD wants to know where “the two active duty brigades” were that he says they were told were supposed to arrive today. When I asked him what he would want to tell the world, he said Everyone keeps talking about the military presence in the city, and then asked me,” Do you see any military around here” in dusgust.
We reconned our roof also, to get a better view of the city and took… I hesitate to call them “amazing” pictures. My city… it has been punched in the face and is on the canvas being counted out.
And yes, that’s smoke you see out of the windows. The city is under a haze from the fires. Smoke and ash are floating miles away from the fires.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/

Posted by: Greco | Sep 2 2005 15:49 utc | 25

Priorities:
Bush Bypasses Senate to Install Official

Bush used a “recess appointment” Wednesday to name Alice S. Fisher to lead the agency’s criminal division. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., had blocked the nomination because he wants to talk to an agent who named Fisher in an e-mail about allegedly abusive interrogations at the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo.
The agent wrote that in weekly meetings with Justice Department officials “we often discussed (Defense Department) techniques and how they were not effective or producing (intelligence) that was reliable.” In the next sentence, the agent said Fisher, then the No. 2 official in the criminal division, was among Justice officials who attended the meetings.
Fisher has said she does not recall participating in the discussions, and Justice officials have said the agent did not intend to say she had. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declined to let senators question the agent, saying it would violate long-standing policy.

Posted by: b | Sep 2 2005 16:00 utc | 27

Transcript of Mayor Ray Nagin Interview by Karen Wehrstein – I don´t know if its complete

Ray Nagin: You just tell him we had an incredible crisis here, and that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice. And that I have been all around this city, and I am very frustrated because we are not able to marshall resources, and we’re outmanned in just about every respect.
You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people, that were stuck in attics, man… old ladies… when you pull off the doggone ventilator vent, and you look down there, and they’re standing there in water up to their fricking neck…!
And they don’t have a clue what’s going on down there. They flew down here one time, two days after the doggone event was over, with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kinds of goddamn — excuse my French, everybody in America, but I am pissed.
Garland Robinette: Did you say to the President of the United States, I need the military in here?”
RN: I said I need everything. I will tell you this, I’ll give the President some credit on this: he sent one John Wayne dude that can get some stuff done, and his name is [Lieutenant] General [Russel] Honore. And he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving. And he’s getting some stuff done. They ought to give that guy — if they don’t want to give it to me, give him full authority, to get the job done and we can save some people.
GR: What do you need right now to get control of this situation?
RN: I need reinforcements. I need troops, man. I need 500 buses. Man, they were talking about… you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here … I’m like, you’ve got to be kidding me! This is a national disaster! Get every doggone Greyhound busline in the country, and get their asses moving to New Orleans. That’s them thinking small, man…. this is a major major major deal!
And I can’t emphasize this enough, man — this is crazy! I’ve got 15,000-20,000 people over at the Convention Centre, it’s bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines parish… they’re air-vacc’ing people over here in New Orleans… we don’t have anything and we’re sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines parish. It’s awful down here, man.
GR: Do you believe that the President is serious, holding a news conference on it, but can’t do anything until [Louisiana Governor] Catherine Blanco requests him to do it, and do you know whether or not she’s made that request?
RN: I have no idea what they’re doing, but I’ll tell you this. You know, God is looking down on all this… and if theyre not doing everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay the price. Because every day that we delay, people are dying… and they’re dying by the hundreds, I’m willing to bet you.
We’re getting reports in calling that are breaking my heart, from people saying, ‘I’m in my attic…I can’t take it any more. The water’s up to my neck. I don’t think I can hold out. And that’s happening as we speak.
And you know what really upsets me, Garland. We told everybody the importance of the 17th Street Canal issue. We said, please, please take care of this, we don’t care what you do, figure it out.
GR: Who did you say that to?
RN: Everybody — the governor, Homeland Security, FEMA… you name it, we said it.
They allowed that pumping station, next to Pumping Station 6, to go underwater. Our sewage and waterwork people [unclear] stayed there and endangered their lives. And what happened when that pumping station went down, the water started flowing again in the city, and started getting to levels that probably killed more people.
In addition to that, we had water flowing through the pipes in the city, that’s a power station over there. So there’s no water flowing on the east bank of Orleans Parish, so critical water supply was destroyed because of lack of action.
GR: Why couldn’t they drop the 3,000-pound sandbags or the containers that they were talking about earlier? Was it an engineering feat that could not be done?
RN: They said it was some pulleys that they had to manufacture but you know, in a state of emergency, man, you are creative, you figure out ways to get stuff done. Then they told me that they went overnight, they built 17 concrete structures, and they had the pulleys on them and were going to drop them.
I flew over that thing yesterday [Wednesday] and it’s in the same shape as it was after the storm hit. There’s nothing happening. And they’re feeding the public a line of bull. And they’re spinning and people are dying down here.
GR: If some of the public called, and they’re right, that there’s a law that the president, that the federal government, can’t do anything without local or state request, would you request martial law?
RN: I’ve already called for martial law in the city of New Orleans. We did that few days ago.
GR: Did the governor do that, too?
RN: I don’t know. I don’t think so. We called for martial law when we realized that the looting was getting out of control and we redirected all of our police officers back to patrolling the streets. They were dead tired from saving people. They worked all night because we thought this thing was going to blow wide open last night, and so we redirected all of our resources and we held… I’m not sure we can do that another night, with the current resources.
I’m telling you right now, they’re showing all these reports of looting, people doing all that weird stuff, and they are doing that. But people are desperate. They’re trying to find food and water. The majority of them.
You have some knuckleheads out there, taking advantage of the lawlessness, this situation where, you know, we can’t really control it, and they’re doing some awful, awful things. But that’s a small [minority] of the people. Most people are looking to try and survive.
Nobody’s talked about this: drugs flow in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area so freely they were scaring me. That’s what we have an escalation in murders. People don’t want to talk about this, but I’m going to talk about it. You have drug addicts that are now walking around this city, looking for a fix. That’s the reason why they were breaking into hospitals and drug stores. They’re looking for something to take the edge off of their jones, if you will. And right now they don’t have anything to take the edge off, and they’ve finally probably found guns. So what you see is drug-starving, crazy addicts, drug addicts, that are wreaking havoc. And we don’t have the manpower to adequately deal with it. We can only target certain sections of the city, and form a perimeter around them, and hope to God that we’re not overrun.
GR: You and I must be in the minority, because apparently there’s a section of our citizenry out there that thinks because of a law that says the federal government can’t come in unless requested by the proper people, that everything that’s been going on to this point has been as good as it can possibly be.
RN: Really?
GR: I know you don’t feel that way.
RN: Well… did the tsunami victims request? Did they go through a formal process to request? Did Iraq — did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there?
What is more important? I tell ya man, I’m probably going to be in a whole bunch of trouble, I’m probably going to be in so much trouble it ain’t even funny. You probably won’t even want to deal with me after this interview is over.
GR: You and I will be in the funny place together.
RN: But — we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq, lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers — lickety-quick — to take care of New York and other places. Now you mean to tell me that a place where most of the oil is coming through… a place that is so unique, when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody’s eyes light up… you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands people that have died, and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can’t figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.
You know I’m not one of those drug addicts, I am thinking very clearly. And I don’t know whose problem it is. I don’t know whether it’s the governor’s problem, I don’t know whether it’s the president’s problem. But somebody needs to get their ass on a plane, and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now.”
GR: What can we do here?
RN: Keep talking about it.
GR: Okay, we’ll do that What else can we do?
RN: Organize people to write letters, make calls to their congressmen —
GR: Emails…
RN: — to the president, to the governor. Fill their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous.
I don’t want to see anybody do any more goddamn press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don’t do another press conference until the resources are in this city, and they come down to this city, and stand with us, with their military trucks and troops that we can’t even count. Don’t tell me there are 40,000 people coming here, they’re not here! It’s too goddamn late!
Get off your asses and let’s do something. Let’s fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country!
GR: I’ll tell you, right now, you’re the only politician that’s called, and called for arms like this. And whatever it takes, the governor, the president… whatever law precedent it takes, whatever it takes… I bet that the people listening to you are on your side.
RN: Well, I hope so, Garland. I am just… I’m at the point now, where it don’t matter. People are dying. They don’t have homes. They don’t have jobs. The City of New Orleans will never be the same. And it’s time.
(Then there’s silence. Background studio noise comes up as the microphones self-adjust to pick something up. You hear sniffling… Nagin’s in tears. Interviewer too.)
GR: We’re both pretty speechless here.
RN: I don’t know what to say. I’ve got to go. Okay. Keep in touch.

Posted by: b | Sep 2 2005 16:25 utc | 29

Mayor Nagin now: “At least 50,000 still in the city”

Posted by: b | Sep 2 2005 16:30 utc | 31

WWL TV showed a press conference with Jesse Jackson MASSIVLY busting Bush’s “cerimonial tour”
“120,000 people in New Orleans make less than $8000 a year. They could not evacuate”
“We don´t know how many dead are lying under the rubble of New Orleans”
“How can blacks be left out of the leadership of this effort (Bush sen/Carter”
“The prisoners had better priority and treatment than the taxpayers”

Posted by: b | Sep 2 2005 17:25 utc | 33

You gotta listen to this – I heard part on CNN. This should have been said Monday.
Pls. Save B-‘s account. Go listen on americablog!

Posted by: jj | Sep 2 2005 17:42 utc | 35

The REAL problem in Lousiana is that the governor does not have the proper BONA FIDES
fuck ’em, they don’t vote for us anyway.
Nice little city you have here, you wouldn’t want it to go the way of New Orleans, would you?

Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 2 2005 18:31 utc | 37

Major oil spill on Mississippi River

Posted by: Nugget | Sep 2 2005 18:45 utc | 39

fuck ’em they don’t vote for us anyway
could this be all the diff between a hurricane response in FL and one in LA? FL is where Brother Jeb holds court and rigs elections for la famiglia, and the wealthier bits are chockfull of wealthy White Republican retirees. NOLA is/was majority Black with Democratic (big-D) tendencies.
so… no emergency response for blue states? is that the wave of the future?
“never attribute to malice what can be explained by simple incompetence.” but I think we’re going way beyond what simple incompetence can explain here.
this is, to use JHK’s favourite obscenity, a clusterf**k of epic proportion if we are to believe the incompetence theory. and if we start to doubt the incompetence theory — what message is being delivered here to the Mayors of dissident cities across the US — cities that are ratifying Kyoto, challenging the PATRIOT Act, etc?
the anecdote from Mexico is sobering.

Posted by: DeAnander | Sep 2 2005 18:54 utc | 41

Waxman urged Bush to fire Michael Brown as FEMA head in January
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla) has urged President Bush to fire Michael Brown as undersecretary of the Homeland Security Department in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Wexler cited reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that FEMA under Brown’s management inappropriately gave away $30 million in disaster relief funds to people in the Miami, Florida, area even though they were not affected by Hurricane Frances, which made landfall more than 100 miles away…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 2 2005 19:00 utc | 43

And the message to any urban minority population in the US is in the event of disaster, patience and fortitude will not be rewarded: you will be fucked over, so get mean early.
Again – the threshold for calling for martial law in ANY urban emergency has just been lowered drastically.

Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 2 2005 19:11 utc | 45

Buses & gas? Why not airplanes – a helluva lot quicker, you get 10x the number of people on each one. And, oh by the way, why not airplanes on Saturday & Sunday.
Poster on americablog explained Doofus who “heads” FEMA. His Profession: Estate Law Attorney.

Posted by: jj | Sep 2 2005 19:34 utc | 47

When Hurricane in Fla. coming, Big Bro’ declared State of Emergency BEFORE THE HURRICANE. As soon as it is declared, National Guard moves troops there to be ready & FEMA has supplies pre-positioned.
New Orleans is one of the Nation’s most imortant cities it turns out, which is why it’s so old – sitting where Ole Miss. hits the Gulf.
Speaking of how Fla. v. NO have been treated, would it have mattered one whit to the Nation if we lost Fla? Other then a Space Launch Center, does anything else of importance happen there?

Posted by: jj | Sep 2 2005 19:42 utc | 49

Other then a Space Launch Center, does anything else of importance happen there?
massive election fraud?

Posted by: DeAnander | Sep 2 2005 22:26 utc | 51

GlennS quoted this:
That has to be one of the finest speeches I have ever heard.
Passion. Integrity. Straight from the gut and right to the heart.
This is what amazes me. This guy loves his city and feels responsible for it. You can tell. And he’s a politician.

Posted by: jm | Sep 3 2005 6:56 utc | 53

Maybe there’s a translator to translate this – my english is real terrible… By the way:
IT’S German!
Meine Hochachtung und Respekt für Ray Nagan! Unangenehmes muß man aussprechen dürfen – und einem Bürgermeister dürfen nicht nur die Nerven durchgehen, sie müssen es – wenn völlig absehbar Menschen sterben, Werte in unglaublicher Höhe zerstört werden. MEIN BEILEID GILT DEN BEWOHNERN VON NEW ORLEANS – niemandem sonst!AUF EUCH BIN ICH STOLZ. Amerika muß nun wirklich umdenken: Nicht alles darf dem schnellen Profit, der Freiheit und dem Traum geopfert werden. – Manches muß langsam wachsen um stabil zu sein – Amerika ist erst 230 Jahre alt. Wachst langsam aber stabil, ein Baum braucht 100 Jahre, ein Fels 10.000. Was hält wohl länger? Sympathy to Ray Nagan, shame to Mr. Bush. By the way: I love your Amerika!

Posted by: Ralf Martin | Sep 7 2005 0:40 utc | 55