WP:

Wow! That's quite a laundry list of corruption.

The Bush team pulls it off like pros... One might think that a list of screw-ups like this would require some planning.

Great post!

I submitted this in previous comments but am repeating it here 'cuz it's even more appropriate...
_______________________________

At a discussion forum I frequent, someone recently asked "How far is too far?"

This far.

This far, and no further.

When thousands of our own citizens die needlessly, and the lives of the living, the dead, and the dying in the aftermath of a disaster, are trivialized by politicians who ignore the fact that they have failed in their mission to serve the people, that is when things have gone too far.

This is the point at which we must, as a nation, stand up and cry defiantly "This far, and no further".

This is the point when thousands of evacuees and millions of Americans must confront their leaders and say "enough".

This is when the "accountability moment", the "Monica moment", the "Plame game", and the "blame game" must be met with realism.

This is when the sound and the fury of a nation scorned through spin must take back the attention of the faux leaders.

This is the point where those who have sown the wind must reap the whirlwind.

Frederick Douglass, appropriately enough, provides us with a few other pertinent quotes:

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. "

"The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. "

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. "

"It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake."

What else to say? What other thoughts inscribed on the collective subconsious could stir the souls of many to find their voice?

"Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country."

That phrase was created to test the typewriter, but it works well.

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

Those are the words of Thomas Paine, which he wrote during a time when our nation was in the midst of casting off the demon of tyranny.

They - the fear-mongers, the plastic figureheads, the conniving manipulators, the instapundits - have gone too far.

Collectively, we must all now stand up and shout "Too far! Too much! This far, and no further, shall you advance your petty agendas at the cost of our nation and our lives!"

Before it is too late.

*crossposted on DailyKOS, here.

People, stop acting surprised. The Bushco's PNAC plan has always been a twisted form of fascism to fill up their pockets with oil money.

Its part of the "cleansing" that must happen if the have mores are to finally take over and the oil companies to own the land and drill out every drum of fuel before peak oil ends.

Its all an act of desperation plain and simple.

Unlike fascists of the past, the PNAC-led crooked mafia is incompetent beyond words. They are so stupid, they even make the likes of Mussolini, Antoine Marinette and Nixon look like angels.

Because of this blatant stupidity, they have almost no control over events "going" the way they want them to. Louisiana wasn't about to give up their whole state to the band of FEMA children fascists and nobody need think that is happening anytime soon.

But at the same time, FEMA's goal as directed by PNAC remains true: Scare the bejeesus out of everyone as fast as possible so they either leave or die and the oil companies can move in for the money.

However, no one needs fear the TRUTH. These idiots couldn't get one thing right, ONE THING, and never have. They are more dangerous to themselves than anyone else, or anyone has ever known. They are so callous and stupid they succeed at killing their own people and then in a horrendous mistake, say playing chess while a tornado destroys Crawford Texas becomes reality.

Like I say, this is about being the opposition and going into the war-battlefield. Give these bastards and their incompetent crooks, their own medicine by cutting through the echo chamber and bringing about impeachment. Bring it about every day in some way and the masterful media manipulation will dissolve like alice in wonderland.

Doug E.

{The very long and plaigiarized comment pasted in this space has been deleted. Nice try, Rj. If you want to paste a paragraph and a link we will allow it. WP}

WP,

WOW! Thank you for all the time and effort and thought you surely must have put into compiling the information in this article, and laying it out in such fine fashion. You are stellar, not to mention fascinating! I had seen some of the info, but hardly all of it. I'll take a few breaths, and see if there is anything of substance that I can add. This isn't just a light bulb, it's a klieg light.

VG

Brian Williams on the Daily Show just now mentioned again the incident posted above by WP, that "..a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media..."

This snippet is from another horrifying eyewitness report, by two paramedics from California. Very, very chilling:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090805A.shtml

Paramedics: Police Prevent People from Leaving New Orleans
"Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky, paramedics from California who were attending the EMS conference in New Orleans, detail their own
experiences during and after Katrina. Their reports show that official relief efforts were callous, inept, and racist..."

There are alot of horrors reported on truthout.org. This is from Thursday's NY Times:

Offers Pour In, But the US Is Unprepared
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090805B.shtml

Countries are offering aid, food, etc but are being told by the US to send money instead. SOMEONE should tell them (maybe?) to route it through Cindy Sheehan or Michael Moore, who have asked for items like diapers, not just cash. I don't know if they can get it in at this point either though...

Please have a look at this post from Bob Harris.

For me and for many people I know, the end of tolerance for Bush's Trail of Disaster has been reached. But it's hard to explain it to others, partly because it's so confusing and partly because so much of it is so hard to believe and partly because of the nearly insane defenses for Bush that others will put out as if they made sense.

I mean, people will say with a straight face that we shouldn't be so hard on Fema because logistics take time and confusion is to be expected in a catatastrophe. Sure, but obviously, that's why you have an agency charged with planning ahead and charged with making sure there are enough resources, prepositioned as much as possible and making sure that communication is clear. Making sure that a ship that could have helped doesn't sit off the coast for days doing little, as just one example.

WP's link has the goods too. Too many things to highlight, but here's one:

snippet----

In national security: every terrorist on Earth can now see that the U.S. is vastly less capable of providing for its own people than anyone previously thought. I'm guessing here, but it doesn't seem a real stretch to figure that the perceived effectiveness of (and therefore incentive for) another attack has now leapt dramatically. (And Iraq has sure been a peachy incubator of terrorists.) And even if nobody does anything horrible anytime soon, every American living in a likely earthquake, tornado, or hurricane zone --- which is to say, about two-thirds of the population --- must now realize that if the shit comes, you may just be on your own.

----------------

PLEASE, PLEASE Remember Katrina the next time you vote. Remember what they did. And act accordingly.

The next elections are a year away. Don't let what the government did go unanswered. Keep Katrina close to your heart the next time you enter a voting booth. ALL incumbents must go. If you have to vote for a radical, do so. They could not ever do any worse than the current criminals have done.

This is definitely the time to play the blame game, so the future disasters aren't even worse.

Laura Bush doesn't understand what the blame game is.

"My husband doesn't deserve this criticism

Either this crazy bitch is completely tripped up on drugs and lying, or she is utterly oblivious to Bush's callousness.

There is no physical way the relief disaster was not due in part to racial class racism against the poor. The have mores have admitted it was due EXACTLY to that. And since they have, in fact if it was not due to callous disregard, he would be even more incompetent than Don Knotts.

And that would be truly frightening. even more horrifying than you imagined. So we must assume that he is extremely callous and completely ignored the fact the minorities were being killed and slaughtered.

Now is the time to stress that point in the timeline over and over again, especially when someone like Laura defends it.

Doug

FEMA, if my memory serves me right, this agency is the one that was to be used to enforce Marshall Law, suspending all our rights, etc. FEMA authority was divided into 10 areas, I will have to look back on some of my material. I don't know what happened when DHS took them over but I keep wondering if this is a ruse, "create the problem and then come up with a solution". Everyone is wondering where is FEMA....just doesn't feel right to me. Further info at Wealth4freedom.com/FEMA.html

WP

Please encourage people to take to the streets peacefully Sept. 24th. An old fart like me can remember that during the Vietnam War the msm down played the size of the AntiWar movement until 500,000 + appeared on the mall in DC. as well as large demonstrations in other cities. That event was hard to spin. The msm coverage of the war and the govt changed after the people took to the streets in such massive numbers. Never thought I'd say this but "Remember the Ukrane". Those brave people who refused to be bullied and lied to should be an inspiration for all Americans. We must show resistence. Thanks to all of you that make this forum possible.

#16:

"Marshall Law"??? Do you mean "Martial Law" by chance? I am from Germany, English is only my second language, but sometimes i wonder if that isn't true for a lot of Americans

#3 Doug, you said:
"...These idiots couldn't get one thing right..."

I think the terrifying fact is that they are very good at one thing: military force.

I hope people READ the horrific stuff WP reported above. I hope people are going to the posted links & reading some of these ABSOLUTELY HORRIFYING EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS about how the military are treating our own people in New Orleans!!

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090805A.shtml

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090805B.shtml

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090705E.shtml

I've used up all the words of outrage I can think of.. shameful..criminal..unconscionable..unthinkable..etcetcetc..

THEY ARE DESTROYING US

CALL WRITE EMAIL: DEMAND THEY RESIGN OR IMPEACH THEM

Doug, Laura Bush and Barbara Bush live in a different world than we do. But you have to wonder that all this suffering where is the "compasionate conservatism"

Brian Williams's comment, "wonder if the helicopters would have gotten there sooner if this had happened in Nantucket or Boston?"

Well, actually everything got to a disaster site in Florida just before the election. People were paid who hadn't even lost anything in the hurricane.

Here is a listing of bus trips to DC or SF/ LA, most states listed:

Transportation to September 24 National Mass March in DC & regional actions in San Francisco, Los Angeles & Seattle

Texas/Joan:

No, unfortunately they are even incompetent when it comes to the military.

All they do is run in and do run and gun patrols, Rumsfeld hears a disturbance he thinks its world war 3. This is why we have so many deaths of soldiers, because of his neanderthal incompetence as a princeton nerd.

Each and every disaster is due to this piss poor strategy and planning, not even republicans can stand the idiot rumsfeld. And each time a group of "insurgents" or "citizens" set a trap, whether it be in N.O. or Iraq they fall for it and then US soldiers die. That's what is sickening. He's bound to blow everyone up by his sheer stupidity.

It is much, much worse than you thought.

Louisiana not responsible for national emergencies, newsflash Laura!
Doug E.

WP -

I'd read every one of those articles (and more) over the last few days and come to the same inecapable conclusions. That's why I haven't been around much. Outraged and heartsick doesn't begin to describe the feeling. And deep, deep anger.

Amen to that Peg (#23).

I copied and pasted this article to Word (so I could read it slowly and in depth), along with the one from RawStory talking about how Rep. Baker of Baton Rouge felt that the flooding was cleansing the poor from low income housing.

I am too sad and depressed by these harsh realities to be angry right now. I also am getting the chest pains that I always feel when I am in deep stress.

But when the sadness and stress leaves, you can bet that this will stir up anger the likes of which I have never had my whole life (until now).

I always try to be the peacemaker and negotiator. But BY GOD, WHY DOES THE PUBLIC NOT WANT TO SEE BUSH AND CHENEY IMPEACHED??? HOW CAN THEY NOT???

The people are poor and dying because they want to be????

How can any Christian rightist approve of this behavior?

I know in my heart that Jesus is weeping much worse than I am right now.

It's hard to imagine that anyone who thinks that these events are a good thing (e.g. neocons and their apologists) could ever be found acceptable by Jesus into heaven. Their hearts are as cold as Satan's.

The incompetence is real, but don't believe any of the nonsense about a secret government plot.

The mention of Alex Jones should send up a red flag. Alex is a fellow Austinite who believes many strange things:

the rulers of the world worship Moloch
feminism is a government plot
environmentalism is a government plot
anyone in favor of gun control is a Nazi
Arnold Schwartzeneggar is part of an Austrian plot to take over America
there are live AIDS vires in the corn, etc.
the Rothschilds funded Hitler
the Quakers are communists
gays actively recruit in our schools
all terror attacks are part of a government plot
Traffic intersection cameras are a government plot.
Thumb-scanning is a government plot.
Most power outages are government plots.
Domestic terror attacks are government plots.
Illegal immigration is a government plot.
The counterculture is a government plot.
there is a secret world elite that can live forever
Vaccines are part of a secret plot to kill 80% of us
etc., etc.

These are all things Alex has said, often many times. We here in Austin love Alex, but you mustn't believe a word he says.

Let us never forget how corrupt the government is in the state of Louisiana. It's not just a federal issue. I've been living in Louisiana all of my life and my grandparents cannot even remember a time when our state wasn't a corrupt one.

added note to above -
Seems to me the press see's a woman governor who's democrat and a black mayor who's a democrat and hell...let's find a white male conservative somewhere that we can blame this on.

Hi Doug - "have mores" is nice, but I like how one of the Red Sox (I think it was Kevin Millar) put it: "the haves and the have yachts"

#18...yeah, you are right..and english is my first and only language..duh. I really qualify to be on this board "incompetence". LOL

Yesterday i saw a link to photos of bodies in NO. I believe it was at Raw Story, but I am not sure - was in a hurry and didn't bookmark it.

When I went to the link I found a message from the web host say they had to take down the photos because they were they were under a denial of service attack. They alluded to it being the government doing the hacking.

Anyone else come across this or follow up to it?

"because they were they were"

From the department of redundancy department

The Bush Admin doesn't want the photos to be seen because their credibility would go in the toilet, there'd be a revolt. The pictures are such an embarassment for our government's failure that they HAVE TO keep them out of sight....like whining children.

Doug E

Today, I found something very very interesting and I spent all day working on the analysis for it. Please take a look at it. On Aug 26, Bush authorized relief for Louisana, prior to the Hurricane. What's interesting about is that it doesn't cover the parishes most likely to be hit, it covers the parishes LEAST likely to be hit. Also, it covers the 63% of the red parishes which includes 50% of the red population and 50% of the blue parishes which includes 10% of the blue population.

The parishes covered under Bush's order are almost exactly the opposite of the parishes listed in Blanco's request for emergency relief. Bush did not order relief for a single parish Blanco listed as 'expecting major damage'. Of the parishes she listed as 'expecting significant damage', he listed only six. For the parishes where damage was not expected but rather she'd expect them to have a huge influx of refugess, he ordered relief to every single one of those. Two were not mentioned by Blanco as needing federal aid, but Bush sent aid to one.

I find this the most incredible thing I've ever seen. I spent all day today working on it, so please go give it a look and send it out to others. It's well done and fully sourced.

Bush relief order leaves Louisana's blue parishes wanting

While you're there, please contribute to the We The People Project, for use by Mr. Conyers and the House Judiciary Committee. This is the project that helped him with his timeline for the hearings.

Patriot: I don't anybody has more callous disregard for his opponents than the president does.

He is so infuriated by blacks and so called "democrats", that he does anything in his power to stop their "slimy takeover" according to his mother. He despises his opponents with a passion.

That is very scary isn't it, a man who has no respect whatsoever for the majority of african americans or people who vote against him. This has been consistent in his way since being raised by Barbara, who is a racist, genocidal freak as near as anybody can tell.

She is an aristocrat and anything that helps the welfare state, helps terrorism in her view. No blacks or poor in our world we'd be alot better off. George follows this mantra. A few times he's been the opposite of barbara though and helped the poor, wanted to make a difference. I don't think he knows how and I don't believe he cares. His disregard for the democratic districts in both states reflects the truth.

Doug E

A lot of Americans don't seem to care if our military kills a lot of innocent people from other countries.

Now we will see if they care whether Bush kills Americans.

Dems tried to tell America Bush had been a failure at everything he'd ever done and that he was likely to be a failure as president. Now, 10 months after the election, people will have to ask themselves if maybe they've made a small mistake by voting for him. Will they be able to be seen in public without being ashamed?

Impeach and convict the Bush administration now. If you don't your community, your home, your family may be next (especially if you live in a "blue" city or state). Remember what they did to California and New York City and now New Orleans (all "blue").

Doug, thanks for the response. Did you take a look at my analysis? Any comment?

Does anyone know what the source of his decision is?

I'm working on impeaching him. Working on a database of all the corruption and lies, that's how I came upon this disaster of an order.

It may be why FEMA didn't move into New Orleans right away... because Bush didn't give aid and relief to that entire area in this order.

Mary
http://soapbox4truth.org

To #31 Doug Eldritch:

I agree all except for when you said, "A few times [Bush] has been the opposite of Barbara though and helped the poor, wanted to make a difference".
This was just Bush pandering, trying to curry favor and suck away some the Dems.' vote; as far as Bush "wanting to make a difference", well, believe me it's not any difference that would help the poor or the middle-class but differences that would advance the agenda of the bourgeoisie. He couldn't really give a damn about the poor if he tried; having everything handed to him all his life but not being smart, curious or caring enough to try to expand his intellect and awareness, he can't empathize even if he had to. He is intellectually stilted and has lived in a bourgeois bubble since day one, so he is as he appears, an unconvincing puppet.

#30 Patriot--

Just checked out your research-- pretty damning, looks like to me. I hope this gets the attention it deserves from the few honest pols who are still fighting.

Patriot #30

Also see this, which has a clickable map to the parishes Bush orders FEMA to protect Upsidedownland and a lot of questions.

----snippet-----

Picking up on a thought bouncing around back at TMW after a Chris Floyd post, I thought I'd find out for myself exactly which Louisiana parishes were and were not included in George W. Bush's declaration of emergency effective August 26th, which you can also reach by clicking the map itself.

I checked the parish map against the White House's own press release, posted on their own site. I have tried to figure out how this is my own mistake, but I can't find it. And the results are frankly so bizarre I had to make the graphic in order to properly show you.

Welcome to upside-down-land: the areas at risk for Katrina were quite remarkably the areas not included in Bush's declaration of emergency.

-------more at link----

The man says "heartwarming." Yeah, since when are banks warm and fuzzy? Could it be that this arrangement is for corporate/contractor convenience and makes things like say...money laundering easier?...or is that too paranoid?
Jeff Parish banks to open Monday in shared offices
Saturday, 4:13 p.m.

In an unusual move, most banks and savings associations in Jefferson Parish will reopen Monday for limited hours in shared offices.

For example, the Chase Bank location at 3783 Veterans Memorial Blvd. will house not only Chase bankers, but bankers from AmSouth Bank, the Bank of New Orleans, First American Bank and Trust, Guaranty Savings Association and Parish National Bank. Customers of any of those banks and thrifts can get services there.

In all, at least 23 banks and thrifts will open in 13 locations on the East and West banks, although more may join later. The banks will be open from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. and will provide most banking services, such as check cashing. The banks plan to open daily through Friday and may stay open in subsequent weeks until normal banks and branches are able to open. The locations will have 24-hour security.

“Commerce is starting in Jefferson Parish,” said John Ducrest, the commissioner of the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions. “We need to have geographically dispersed banking services.”

The idea was hatched by various bankers and the Louisiana Bankers Association. The bank commissioner said it is very unusual for banks to cooperate in such a manner.

“There’s a lot of competition among bankers,” Ducrest said. “To see this kind of cooperation is heart warming.”

Don't forget Cheney's son in law.

So, if we are now more convinced that we are only in 'recovery' mode regarding N.O. and we have rough estimates of when water and other services might be restored......

Is there any talk, let alone estimates, of 're-patriation'/relocation of evacuees whose homes are in-tact and how and when that may happen?

I still fear that America will shrug even as a major city is confiscated, civil rights excised and it is shown and talked about endlessly.....Like weight-loss or anything else, we 'feel' like we're doing something if we talk about it a lot and it's all over our media....

The founding fathers and Goddess of Liberty weep.

#22

""Louisiana not responsible for national emergencies, newsflash Laura!""

Doug was there a "Louisiana Secession" before the storm hit. I missed that part.

Where was Howard Dean during all these attacks? I thought he was a Doctor. Why is he not down there helping?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/...TICS/09/08/katrina.dean/

Oh here he is.

Dean: U.S. must face 'ugly truth' about Katrina
Democratic chairman: Bush lacked vision in handling disaster

Thursday, September 8, 2005; Posted: 1:55 p.m. EDT (17:55 GMT)

(CNN) --- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said that in Hurricane Katrina's wake Americans need to face the "ugly truth" that race and class played a significant role in who lived and died.

Dean also said that "lots of people perished" because the Bush administration lacked "vision" in handling the disaster.

Perhaps God really does what W wants. Katrina takes out Cindy and Rita will make landfall on Saturday Sept. 24th. I can't help but see a little irony in this. I still will not dismiss Haarp and the Neocon agenda of the people by damned.

Katrina wipes out Cindy and Katrina wipes out Sept. 24. Interesting. The Neocons hate America.
Haarp, Haarp, Haarp, Merifour.

In the past few days I have seen an amazing number of reports indicating that, in the wake of Katrina, things are not as they seem. On the surface, they seem awful. But behind the curtain they may well be much worse.

what is it?