Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a motherly but steely figure known by the nickname Queen Bee, knew that she needed help. But she wasn't quite sure what. At about 8 p.m., she spoke to Bush. "Mr. President," she said, "we need your help. We need everything you've got."
Bush, the governor later recalled, was reassuring. But the conversation was all a little vague. Blanco did not specifically ask for a massive intervention by the active-duty military. "She wouldn't know the 82nd Airborne from the Harlem Boys' Choir," said an official in the governor's office, who did not wish to be identified talking about his boss's conversations with the president.
Blanco didn't know the secret word(s): "There's an election soon and the Republican candidates could use some support."
Today always makes me think of you, you know, and that's not a tease. I saw your posts first at Vanessa's, informing us of the plane(s) hitting the twin towers. I think EverDawn might have posted first, but I saw your post, first
Just the bearer of glad tiddings. *sigh* It was such a surreal day
Just the bearer of glad tiddings. *sigh* It was such a surreal day
Was it ever. I pretty much went from reading your posts, to packing up Julia and Chris to go to Ben's Kindergarten Tea Party.
How Bush Blew It
Longish
Newsweek
article - interesting. A (supposed) behind-the-scenes look at how Bush and his aids did and did not handle the crisis.
President Bush knew the storm and its consequences had been bad; but he didn't quite realize how bad.
The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.
How this could be—how the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century—is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace.
Yep. That's my question. How could the POTUS know less than the average citizen?
Foreign papers have also been commenting on Bush's apparent lack of any human feeling, and his inability to even fake caring. Among other things they've been commenting on.
I have a friend who's simply refusing to talk about it or think about it, at all, because it's too upsetting. As opposed to me - I can't stop thinking about it, and I'm sure that a number of people wish I'd shut up about it.
Yep. That's my question. How could the POTUS know less than the average citizen?
He seemingly knew less than I did, and I am news avoidant. I don't know if I watched a full hour of coverage over the course of that week. I don't get the daily papers any more. That's scary. And what's scarier, is that given that he doesn't keep up with the news himself, that his staff didn't make it more obvious to him on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Gus, I'm not getting the wiki. I'm getting an ad for webhosting. Do you have the URL right?
Also, here is a thing for you: [link]
I think the biggest single cause of fuckup was simply that the Bush Adminstration redirected FEMA after 9/11 so that it was not in charge of an emergency situation, but there to serve local administrators basically doing what they asked.
Which is totally fucked up.
You want disaster experts organizing a mass of resources rather than having them try to round up buses for evacuation (for two days) after the local authorities know to ask for them.
Everybody expected the federal government to lead the relief efforts (as they had always done), whereas they had been completely restructured to assist local authorities.
But, of course, local authorities especially in a state as poor as Louisiana, especially after being hit by a massive hurricane, were not in a position to lead the relief effort. Nor were they disaster experts.
So FEMA was restructured along the Bush Admin's anti-Federalist, anti-Big Government philosophies and consequently lots and lots of dead people.
