In Katrina’s Wake, Some Things to Remember
Presstitutes, a new blog on the block, has a post up summarizing the right’s new framing for the Katrina aftermath. It goes something like this: “It was all made up.” This is because of some recent articles stating that the reports of the conditions in the Superdome were somewhat exaggerated.
This is apparently part of the one-two punch combo to reframe the post-hurricane response failure. Its compliment is most likely FEMA’s former head fuck-up Mike Brown’s testimony, laying the entire failure at the door of the two major Democratic officials in the affected region.
Here’s what to remember about Katrina.
- Bush didn’t declare a state of emergency for the affected areas, which is what Blanco asked for.
- Brown waited until hours after the Katrina struck to speak to Chertoff about sending in relief workers.
- Even the most conservative bloggers slammed Brown for his incompetence and Bush for giving him the job.
- Bush’s first response was a fly-over photo-op.
- Bush and conservatives defunded FEMA to the point of crippling the agency.
- Chertoff waited 36 hours into the storm to do anything.
- Brown promised Blanco buses, and told her not to use the school-buses. Blanco commandeered buses. Brown’s buses were days late.
- The poor, elderly, sick, and weak were abandoned.
And anyway, we all know what we saw.
September 28th, 2005 at 1:07 pm
FEMA Redux
With Michael Brown spouting revisionist history on Capitol Hill, now seems like a good time to remind ourselves of FEMA’s criminal incompetance during the Katrina aftermath. Under Michael Brown, Michael Chertoff, and George W. Bush, this agency…