Denial STILL Not Just A River in Egypt
Just when All the President's Men thought they had seen everything - Iraq Civil War, Jack Abramoff Scandal, Cheney Shooting, Port Controversy, etc.
As this post is being written, the Associated Press is releasing a videotape made in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina's landfall. In that videotape, you will see federal disaster officials (including the oft-maligned Michael Brown) warning President Bush and Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff that the storm could breach the levees around New Orleans.
That doesn't mean President Bush and Co. could have done anything to stop the levees from breaching, but for President Bush to claim after Katrina hit that "no one could have anticipated" the scenario is eerily reminscent of the president's claims that "no one could have anticipated" terrorists using planes to ram into buildings despite the fact that he had an intelligence report sitting on his desk titled "Terrorists' Plot to Use Planes in Attacks" a few days before 9/11.
Everyone get your hip-waders on. The BS Spin is about to get really thick.
As this post is being written, the Associated Press is releasing a videotape made in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina's landfall. In that videotape, you will see federal disaster officials (including the oft-maligned Michael Brown) warning President Bush and Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff that the storm could breach the levees around New Orleans.
That doesn't mean President Bush and Co. could have done anything to stop the levees from breaching, but for President Bush to claim after Katrina hit that "no one could have anticipated" the scenario is eerily reminscent of the president's claims that "no one could have anticipated" terrorists using planes to ram into buildings despite the fact that he had an intelligence report sitting on his desk titled "Terrorists' Plot to Use Planes in Attacks" a few days before 9/11.
Everyone get your hip-waders on. The BS Spin is about to get really thick.
posted by cvo @ 2:43 PM
1 Comments:
At 4:41 PM,
Meredith said…
I'm no Bush apologist, and I'm not trying to split hairs, but I feel obligated to point out one possible explanation for the confusion.
When I lived in New Orleans, there was endless discussion of the state of the levees, and every time a hurricane approached, we held our collective breath. During these discussions, we did not use the terms "top" and "breach" interchangeably. I believe if you'll watch the videotape again, Chertoff (or Brown, or both) refer to the possibility of the levees being "topped." Topping refers to the flow of water over an intact levee due to the channel being filled beyond capacity.
What actually happened, and what Bush said "no one could have anticipated," was that the levees were breached. Breaching refers to the actual physical failure of the levees. Debate still abounds regarding what caused the failure, but nonetheless, the levees were breached in several places.
I have not heard this distinction discussed anywhere in the media, but it's a hot topic among people who have lived there or continue to live there.
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