2007 Former Fed Chief Attacks Bush on Fiscal Role
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 — Alan Greenspan, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve for nearly two decades, in a long-awaited memoir, is harshly critical of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the Republican-controlled Congress, as abandoning their party’s principles on spending and deficits.
....He praises President Bush for letting the Fed stay independent of political pressure, saying he was scrupulous in not trying to interfere with monetary policy — which he contrasts sharply with the pressure exerted by his father, George H. W. Bush, in the early 1990s. For years, the first President Bush has blamed Mr. Greenspan for contributing to his defeat in 1992 by failing to prevent a recession by cutting interest rates.

Sep. 7 - U.S. President George W. Bush makes light of his slips of the tongue, during an APEC address.

The Genius of George W. Bush video

Sunday, June 3, 2007 The Twelve Main Failures of the Bush-Cheney
Administration: A Terrible Legacy

Wednesday 02 May 2007 Bush Vetoes Bill Tying Iraq Funds to Exit The president called the bill a “prescription for chaos and confusion,” setting up a further battle with Congressional Democrats.

Wednesday 02 May 2007

Iraq - what is to be said? While George Bush, as expected, has vetoed the Iraq bill, there is no lack of dismal reports about failures at every level, not only military failures, but most disturbing for the future economic outlook, degenerating infrastructure Iraq rebuilding 'is failing'

Our final contribution to stimulate your thoughts has to be the delicious scandal coming out of Washington about Deborah Jeane Palfrey's Black Book, reported to include a Bush administration economics official and the head of a conservative research group. If you like sex

Apr 29, 2006 Colbert Roasts President Bush - 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner
An excerpt from the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner. Comedian Stephen Colbert made humorous remarks about various 4* 19370 ratings

April 1, 2007 nyt Ex-Aide Says He's Lost Faith in Bush
The chief 2004 campaign strategist for President Bush said he was disappointed with Mr. Bush's leadership.

Wed1306 14 March 2007 Meanwhile, President Bush has been on a lightning visit to Latin America [not the usual focus of this administration] - ostensibly to create an alliance that would give Brazil a key regional and global role. We regretfully agree with Fernando Báez's op-ed in the New York Times: "Time is the one thing that the current White House administration has most flagrantly wasted, and given the electoral campaign that looms on the horizon, the Republicans’ rush to reactivate the dialogue with Latin America isn’t seen as a step forward in the development of constructive policies. On the contrary, the visit seems to underscore an ever-growing discrepancy between American desires and those of the leftist movement championed by Venezuela along with Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua."

Stephen S. Poloz VP EDC Economics Weekly Commentary
Bush's Lost Jobs - The Fuller Story - March 14, 2007
George W. Bush has been blamed for many things. But one that comes up repeatedly is the loss of 3 million manufacturing jobs, which many critics attribute to his trade policies.
Past issues | his WN page

Commentary podcast.

Jan 22 video Charlie Rose - Robert Rubin some surprising comments

Thu 08/02/2007 The budget Fiscal frustrations George Bush sent his budget to Congress. The $2.9 trillion request asks for more funding for the military and reduces spending on health care and other domestic programmes over five years. It also forecasts reduced federal deficits that eventually reach a surplus in 2012. Sceptics wondered how this could be twinned with Mr Bush's request to extend his tax cuts. See article

Following is a transcript of President Bush’s State of the Union address as recorded by The New York Times, with audio excerpts and analysis by The Times’s David E. Sanger, plus links to related articles and Web sites. Words he used

Friday 12 January 2007 maisonneuve.org
BUSH SINKS HIS FOOT IN DEEPER
The Globe fronts, and the Post, the Star, the Citizen (not available online) and the National go inside with reports that US President George Bush is expected to announce a plan to increase the number of American troops serving in Iraq. The plan, dubbed a “new way forward,” apparently includes putting as many as 20,000 more soldiers on the ground in Iraq, increasing spending on security (among other things) by more than $1.4 billion, and setting benchmarks for the Iraqi government to start easing tensions between Sunnis and Shiites, the Globe reports. The Post focuses on a report that Bush “will cite the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in an effort to build public support,” when he lays out the plan on national television tomorrow night. Most reports suggest Bush’s expected actions will go strongly against the current trajectory of public opinion, and the Citizen writes that Bush has explicitly “rebuffed two of the Iraq Study Group’s central recommendations,” namely, withdrawing combat troops and starting talks with Iran and Syria.

So what is the impetus behind Bush’s potentially alienating and unpopular plan? The Post runs a comment piece by New York Times writer David Brooks (not available online), who argues the so-called “surge” strategy—increasing the number of troops on the ground—should have been instituted at the outset, rather than the “light-footprint approach,” which served to render the Americans ineffective at achieving anything resembling security or stability. Brooks believes it may now be too late for a simple increase in firepower to achieve such ambitious goals as Bush has in mind. And besides, if the approximately 130,000 troops already in Iraq can’t keep things safe, it’s hard to see how 20,000 more would make a significant difference. While a new swath of young Americans in tan fatigues start preparing for battle, some politicians in the newly powerful Democratic Party are also rolling up their sleeves for a fight. The Democrats have come out in favour of reducing the military presence in Iraq, but are also wary of appearing to abandon their soldiers by, for example, failing to approve Bush’s request for more money. It will be interesting to see how both battles are spun in the wars for security and support, at home and abroad.

A few new bumper stickers...

• 1/20/09: End of an Error
• That's OK, I Wasn't Using My Civil Liberties Anyway
• If You Can Read This, You're Not Our President
• They Call Him "W" So He Can Spell It
• Jail to the Chief
• We Need a President Who's Fluent In At Least One Language
• We're Making Enemies Faster Than We Can Kill Them
• Impeach Cheney First
• The Republican Party: Our Bridge to the 11th Century
• What Part of "Bush Lied" Don't You Understand?
• One Nation Under Clod

2006

The Genius of George Bush - Google Video

Monday Nov 13, 2006 Wed1289
WELL, It's a new era south of the border and none too soon for many of us.In our opinion, one of the best commentaries is in the Economist which concludes "Though the Democrats have dealt him a mighty blow, the biggest problems that face Mr Bush today are exactly the same as they were last week: Iran's growing ambitions, Kim Jong Il's unpredictable dictatorship and, above all, the ongoing disaster in Iraq. Mr Bush's allies abroad may be forgiven for taking some pleasure in his humiliation. But they have a strong interest in making sure that American power is not too diluted. The radical Islamists and rogue states who wish America harm are no more benevolent when it comes to the rest of the civilised world."

Thursday 09 November 2006 Bush impeachment off table
With Democrats seizing control of the House of Representatives in this week's mid-term elections, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi is poised to become the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives and third in line to the presidency.

Saturday 04 November 2006 MONTREAL: CANADIANS FIGHTENED OF BUSH'S INFLUENCE ON WORLD
A public opinion survey taken in Canada and three other nations indicates that many consider U.S. President George W. Bush more dangerous than such personalities as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the leader of the Lebanese guerilla group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah. The other three nations were Britain, Mexico and Israel. A majority of Canadian, Mexican and British respondents said they thought that the Bush government has made the world a more dangerous place. Those Israelis asked said that Mr. Ahmadinejad and Mr. Nasrallah are more dangerous than the U.S. president. However, only one-fourth of the Israeli respondents said they thought that American foreign policy had made the world safer since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Wednesday 01 November 2006 It's Lonely At the Top

How the election became a referendum on an isolated President--and how it is likely to reshape American politics
"Stay the course" is a time-honored rallying cry in politics. But it has always been more a slogan than a strategy, meant to show the steadfastness of the person who shouts it rather than what he actually intends to do. More telling is when staying the course turns into "constantly changing tactics to meet the situation on the ground." That is how President Bush is now describing the battle plan in Iraq. It also pretty neatly sums up what his presidency has come to as he reaches the eve of a midterm congressional election that has turned into a referendum on Bush himself--and on a policy in Iraq that has left him more isolated than at any other point in his presidency.

Saturday Oct 28, 2006 Mohawks dealt a bad hand with U.S. crackdown on internet gambling
A tsunami hit the online gambling industry this month and it washed right up to the doors of a building...Signed into law on Oct. 13 by President George W. Bush, the legislation outlaws most online gambling and prohibits credit-card and electronic fund transfer companies from processing transactions from U.S. players. [..well he got that right!]

Tuesday 10 October 2006 A new opinion poll shows that U.S. President George W. Bush's approval rating has dropped to a new low of 33 per cent. That's a three-point drop from August. Nearly 60 per cent of those polled expressed overall disapproval of how the president is handling his job. The U.S. Defence Secretary's rating is worse than the president's. Donald Rumsfeld gets just 30 per cent approval, and 48 per cent say that he should step down. As for the Iraq war, 66 per cent of Americans say that it has not made their country safer from the threat of terrorism. The survey was conducted by the American magazine, Newsweek.

Monday Sep 25, 2006 Wed1281
George Bush spoke too and announced that the U.S. is not at war with Islam Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad followed, having announced earlier that Iran has "very clear and transparent views about how to the manage the world." Aren't you glad?

maisonneuve.org SETTING THE CIA SPIN CYCLE
by Simon Tudiver
September 7, 2006

The beauty of admitting something everyone already knows is that expectations are low; the initial damage was done when the truth leaked out in the first place. Alas, acknowledging truth sometimes isn’t about admitting wrong, but rather about fashioning facts to suit your own purposes. Case in point: George W. Bush, who yesterday admitted the CIA has been operating clandestine prisons, so-called “black sites,” to hold and interrogate terrorism suspects. The Washington Post broke the story nearly a year ago, and the Bush administration has been evading the issue ever since. But yesterday, instead of sheepishly confirming the questionable facilities, Bush puffed out his chest and called them “vital to the security of the United States and our friends and allies.” They give investigators crucial access to terrorist information, Bush argued, information that has helped thwart several attacks on the US since September 11, 2001.

Along with the admission came some complementary moves. The prisons are now empty, Bush says, and all the former inmates have been moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, “where they will be tried for war crimes against the United States under legislation being put before Congress,” according to the Post. Also publicized today are the Pentagon’s new rules banning certain interrogation techniques. Old favorites like sexual humiliation, food and water deprivation, mock executions and electrical shocks are now taboo, the Globe reports. The Star, however, is alone in pointing out that the CIA will not actually be subject to the ban. Of course, Bush was adamant yesterday that torture has always been unacceptable. He calls the interrogation techniques used in the clandestine prisons “tough,” but not cruel. The reverse may be said of Bush’s politically-charged timing. With the announcements coming just days before the fifth anniversary of 9-11, it seems the president may be looking to profit from the still-tender wounds of the tragedy. CTV News journalist Tom Clark interprets Bush’s message to Americans accurately, if ignoring somewhat the implicit and threatening irony: “look what we’ve done for you so far; you might want to keep us around.” MediaScout hopes Americans will look hard at what Bush has done, and choose to the stop the spin before it wobbles out of control.

Sep 5, 2006 truthdig TRUTHDIG ON ROCKY ANDERSON
"Truthdigger of the Week: Mayor Ross 'Rocky' Anderson" -- Truthdig salutes Rocky Anderson, the Salt Lake City mayor who spoke out against the war and reminded the world that "blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism." Anderson welcomed Bush to his city with a fiery protest speech and these searing lines: "A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president."

vudeo Will Ferrell - Bush on Global Warming

Sunday Jul 23, 2006 On Wednesday, President Bush rejected legislation to expand federally supported embryonic stem cell research. Mr. Bush said the bill violated his principles on the sanctity of human life by encouraging the destruction of embryos left over from fertilization procedures. Proponents of the measure have argued that such embryos would be destroyed anyway. In support of his veto of the bill, President Bush arranged for the presence of appealing infants who had been frozen embryos.

May 10, 2006 Poll Gives Bush His Worst Marks Yet
Unhappiness about gasoline prices and Iraq have created a grim political environment for the president, according to the latest Times poll.

May 2006 Colbert Roasts President Bush - 2006 | 2 President Bushs at the White House Correspondents Dinner | Menu

Friday May 12, 2006 All the President's Books (Minding History's Whys and Wherefores) A recent floodlet of books illuminates the Bush administration's penchant for circumventing traditional processes of policy development.

Thursday May 11, 2006 Poll Gives Bush Worst Marks Yet on Major Issues Unhappiness about gasoline prices and Iraq have created a grim political environment for the president, according to the latest Times poll.

Poll Gives Bush His Worst Marks Yet nyt May 10, 2006

Taken: 29 April 2006 Stephen Colbert @ The W H C A D the white house correspondents association dinner 24 min 10 sec Video

Monday Apr 24, 2006 1 Million Dead Iranians By Chris Floyd
....The planes are already on continuous alert, making "nuclear delivery" practice runs along the Iranian border, The New Yorker reports, and waiting only for the signal from President George W. Bush to drop their payloads of conventional and nuclear weapons on some 400 targets throughout the condemned land.

Apr 23, 2006 Bush faces real dilemma with generals

Apr 22th 2006

Saturday Apr 22, 2006 nyt Bush and Hu Vow New Cooperation< President Bush and China's president, Hu Jintao, made some progress on nuclear proliferation and trade imbalances, but broke no new ground on the most delicate issues that divide the two nations.

So Much for Those World Trade Talks Susan Schwab, the woman President Bush has nominated to become United States trade representative, has neither the respect abroad nor the access to the president to be good at the job >P>Saturday Apr 22, 2006 rci Chinese President Hu Jintao has concluded his four-day visit to the U.S. with a speech at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Mr. Hu told an audience of students that China's rapid development isn't a threat to the rest of the world. About 4,000 demonstrators marked his arrival on Yale's campus, half of them to show support and the others opposition. Among those opposed were supporters of Taiwan and of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. Last night, Mr. Hu addressed a business group at a dinner in his honour. He told his audience that his government would continue to act to reform the trading value of the yuan but provided no specifics. The U.S. has complained continually in recent years that the government's control of the Chinese currency is an unfair trade advantage for Chinese exporters and is a factor in the $202-billion U.S. trade deficit with China. On Thursday morning, the Chinese leader met at the White House with U.S. President George W. Bush. They didn't reach an agreements either on the issue of the yuan or in North Korea's and Iran's nuclear programs. Mr. Hu was due later on Friday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he'll spend three days. Oil supplies will be Mr. Hu's main concern. The Chinese economy's thirst for oil is one of the reasons why world oil prices reached $75 on Friday.

Saturday Mar 18, 2006 nyt Judges Overturn Bush Bid to Ease Pollution Rules By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
The clean-air regulation would have let many power plants, refineries and factories avoid installing costly new pollution controls.

Friday Mar 17, 2006 nyt Call for Censure Is Rallying Cry to Bush's Base By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Republicans have found a new rallying cry in the dreams of liberals about impeaching or censuring President Bush.

Can the English language survive?

 

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country" - George W. Bush

 

 "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." - George W. Bush

 

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'." - George W. Bush

 

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future." - George W. Bush

 

"The future will be better tomorrow." - George W. Bush

 

"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world." - George W. Bush

 

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made." - George W. Bush

 

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe- George W. Bush

 

"Public speaking is very easy." - George W. Bush

 

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls." - George W. Bush

 

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur - George W. Bush

 

"For NASA, space is still a high priority." - George W. Bush

 

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children." - George W. Bush

 

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." - George W. Bush

 

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system." - George W. Bush

 

And something to be REALLY worried about:

 

"God help America".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 23rd qualm

(written by a retired Methodist minister.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want. He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests. He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness. He restoreth my fears. He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace for his ego's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war, I will find no exit, for thou art in office. Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me. Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion. Thou anointest my head with foreign oil. My health insurance runneth out. Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term. And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.

Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 268.2.1/279 - Release Date: 3/10/06

Friday Mar 3, 2006 ts Video shows Bush was briefed on Katrina
Federal disaster officials warned President George W. Bush before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, according to confidential video footage. Associated Press reports.

Wednesday Feb 1, 2006 nyt Bold Visions Have Given Way to New Reality
By DAVID E. SANGER
Instead of evoking the grand ambitions that have suffused his presidency, President Bush emphasized the familiar and the modest.

Tuesday Jan 17, 2006 rwr Bush Has Crossed the Rubicon
Dictatorships seldom appear full-fledged but emerge piecemeal. When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with one Roman legion he broke the tradition that protected the civilian government from victorious generals and launched the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Fearing that Caesar would become a king, the Senate assassinated him. From the civil wars that followed, Caesar’s grandnephew, Octavian, emerged as the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus.

2005

January 30, 2005 nartion The Impeachment of George W. Bush
Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush--not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress. As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so. thanks to Ron R

Thursday Dec 8, 2005 nyt b Economy Lifts Bush's Support in Latest Poll
By ROBIN TONER and MARJORIE CONNELLY
President Bush's approval rating improved markedly, but concerns remain about his handling of the war in Iraq.

Monday Dec 5, 2005 nyt What Would J.F.K. Have Done?
By THEODORE C. SORENSEN and ARTHUR SCHLESINGER Jr.
What President Bush could learn from John F. Kennedy about Iraq.

27 November 2005 nyt Help Wanted: Academic Economists, Pro-Bush
IT'S no secret that hurricanes and wars have swamped the economic agenda that George W. Bush planned for his second term. In the commotion, however, one fact has gone largely unnoticed: much of Washington's expert economic team has disappeared.

Saturday Nov 26, 2005 nyt Even Supporters Doubt President as Issues Pile Up
By KATE ZERNIKE
Many people who voted for President Bush a year ago have trouble pinning their current discontent on any one thing.

Thursday, November 17, 2005
Afternoon Edition - George W.'s Latest Approval Rating
mp3 (click here to download)

Sunday Nov 13, 2005 nyt v Remedial Ethics
By CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY
President Bush's staff finally gets a refresher course on ethics.

Monday Oct 31, 2005 ec Immediately after the toughest political week of his presidency, with his approval ratings at their lowest level in five years, George Bush has nominated a staunch conservative, Samuel Alito, to the Supreme Court. comes out fighting

Saturday Oct 29, 2005 rci There has been a major political development in Washington. The top aide to U.S. Vice-president Dick Cheney has resigned. Lewis Libby quit after being charged with five offenses in connection with a prosecutors attempt to find out how the name of an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency was made public. The uncovering of a CIA agent is illegal under U.S. law. Mr. Libby faces various charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice. He was involved in important policy matters in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. A recent book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward reported that Mr. Libby presented a document to the administration which claimed that the régime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, which after the successful war to topple it were never found. The author also writes that the document also claimed that there were possible contacts between Saddam's régime and an organizer of the Sept. 11 attacks, which has not been proven.

Friday Oct 28, 2005 ec The Bush administration’s woes
As speculation intensifies over possible indictments of senior Bush administration officials in "Plamegate", Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination for America’s Supreme Court. But the president's problems go much deeper than a much-derided lawyer and a zealous special prosecutor
Full article

Friday Oct 28, 2005 nyt A Long, Rocky Road With 39 Months to Go
By TODD S. PURDUM
It seems safe to say that President George W. Bush has never had a worse political week than this one - and it is not over yet.

Wednesday Oct 26, 2005 Bush faces his worst week yet
It was inevitable that George W. Bush would hear the echo of a scandal that shook the nation some 30 years ago as he endured his worst week in almost five years in the Oval Office, writes Tim Harper.

Tuesday Oct 18, 2005 ts How Bush marketed Iraqi war
With the scent of political blood hanging in the autumn air, the White House is proceeding with business as usual as a federal prosecutor decides whether to lay charges against officials in the highest echelons of the Bush administration. Analysts expect charges are coming, sparking an unprecedented crisis for Bush, perhaps within days, writes Tim Harpur.

Tuesday Oct 18, 2005 ts Short-sighted of Bush to refuse funds
For four straight years, President George Bush has refused to release $34 million that Congress approves annually for the United Nations Population Fund, which supports the U.N.'s reproductive health work in the world's poorest countries. Instead, ordinary Americans have donated $2.7 million to a grass-roots effort called the 34 Million Friends campaign. The idea is for 34 million individuals to donate a dollar each to save the lives and health of women and children overseas. The donations are a direct rebuke to Bush's policies.

Thursday Sep 15, 2005 rci U.S. President George W. Bush told the UN World Summit that the U.S. is prepared to eliminate "all tariffs, subsidies and other barriers" to free trade on the condition that other nations do so as well. Mr. Bush's government offers American farmers $18 billion in subsidies a year, while Japan grants its farmers $32 billion, and the EU $88 billion. The president also called on his listeners to help make the world safe from terrorism by eliminating the conditions that cause it. He mentioned spreading democracy, alleviating poverty and disease and offering debt relief.

Thursday Sep 15, 2005 nyt A Fatal Incuriosity
By MAUREEN DOWD
The president should stop haunting New Orleans, looking for that bullhorn moment. It's too late.

Thursday Sep 15, 2005 President Says He's Responsible in Storm Lapses
The president suggested he was unsure if the country was prepared for another catastrophic storm or terrorist attack.

Monday Sep 12, 2005 ts Bush support at all-time low
WASHINGTON—Four years ago this week, George W. Bush took a bullhorn in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York and rallied his country from unthinkable disaster.

Sunday Sep 11, 2005 bg Will Bush wriggle out of this one?
IT'S AN ILL wind that blows no good. But how will the political winds shift as the enormity of the Katrina disaster sinks in?

Sunday Sep 11, 2005 nyt Breakdowns Marked Path From Hurricane to Anarchy
By ERIC LIPTON, CHRISTOPHER DREW, SCOTT SHANE and DAVID ROHDE
An initial examination of Katrina's aftermath demonstrates the extent to which the federal government failed to face domestic threats as a unified, seamless force.

Sunday Sep 11, 2005 nyt a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/opinion/11brooks.html?th&emc=th" target="_" >The Best-Laid Plan: Too Bad It Flopped
By DAVID BROOKS
Katrina was the most anticipated natural disaster in American history, and still government managed to fail at every level.

Sunday Sep 11, 2005 nyt The Storm Next Time
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Now that we've all seen what a Katrina can do, President Bush should tackle global warming.

Tuesday Sep 6, 2005 nyt Bush Makes Return Visit; Two Levees Secured
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and CLYDE HABERMAN
President Bush returned to the Gulf Coast, and Army engineers resealed two levees that had been breached and cautiously began pumping water out of New Orleans.

WASHINGTON By REUTERS nyt | September 5, 2005 Under Fire, Bush Seeks to Reassure Katrina Survivors
POPLARVILLE, (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, under fierce criticism for his government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, sought to reassure storm survivors on Monday as a veteran lawmaker complained that bureaucratic red tape was hampering relief efforts in Mississippi.

Monday Sep 5, 2005 ec The consequences of Katrina
Almost everyone in need of food and other supplies in the wake of Hurricane Katrina now has access to them, and the evacuation of New Orleans is largely complete. Who is to blame for the botched relief effort: George Bush, local officials, or no one in particular?

THE WHITE HOUSE UNDER WATER

The New Yorker Issue of 2005-09-12 The Talk of the Town

One of the creepier vanities of most political leaders is the private yearning to be tested on a historical scale. Bill Clinton used to confide that, no matter what else he did as President, without a major war to fight he could never join the ranks of Lincoln and F.D.R. During the Presidential debates in 2000, George W. Bush informed his opponent, Al Gore, that natural catastrophes are “a time to test your mettle.” Bush had seen his father falter after a hurricane in South Florida. But now he has done far worse. Over five days last week, from the onset of the hurricane on the Gulf Coast on Monday morning to his belated visit to the region on Friday, Bush’s mettle was tested—and he failed in almost every respect.

Obviously, a hurricane is beyond human blame, and the political miscalculations that have come to light—the negligent planning, the delayed rescue and aid efforts, the thoroughly confused and uninspired political leadership—cannot all be laid at the feet of President Bush. But you could sense, watching him being interviewed by Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America”—defensive, confused, overwhelmed—that he knew that he had delivered a series of feeble, vague, almost flippant speeches in the early days of the crisis, and that the only way to prevent further political damage was to inoculate himself with the inevitable call for non-partisanship: “I hope people don’t play politics during this period of time.”

And yet, to a frightening degree, Bush’s faults of leadership and character were brought into high relief by the crisis. Suntanned and relaxed after a vacation so long that it would have shamed a French playboy, Bush reacted with fogged delinquency, as if he had been so lulled by his summer sojourn that he was not quite ready to acknowledge reality, let alone attempt to master it. His first view of the floods came, pitifully, theatrically, from the window of a low-flying Air Force One, and all the President could muster was, according to his press secretary, “It’s devastating. It’s got to be doubly devastating on the ground.” The moment demanded clarity of mind and rigorous governance, and yet he could not summon them. The performance skills Bush eventually mustered after September 11th—in his bullhorn speech at Ground Zero, in his first speech to Congress—eluded him. The whole conceit of his Presidency, that he was an instinctive chief executive backed by “grownups” like Dick Cheney and tactical wizards like Karl Rove, now seemed as water-logged as Biloxi and New Orleans. The mismanagement of the Katrina floods echoed the White House mismanagement—the cavalier posture, the wretched decisions, the self-delusions—in postwar Iraq.

Just as serious, the President’s priorities, his indifference to questions of infrastructure and the environment, magnified an already complicated disaster. In an era of tax cuts for the wealthy, Bush consistently slashed the Army Corps of Engineers’ funding requests to improve the levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain. This year, he asked for $3.9 million, $23 million less than the Corps requested. In the end, Bush reluctantly agreed to $5.7 million, delaying seven contracts, including one to enlarge the New Orleans levees. Former Republican congressman Michael Parker was forced out as the head of the Corps by Bush in 2002 when he dared to protest the lack of proper funding.

Similarly, the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which is supposed to improve drainage and pumping systems in the New Orleans area, recently asked for $62.5 million; the White House proposed $10.5 million. Former Louisiana Senator John Breaux, a pro-Bush Democrat, said, “All of us said, ‘Look, build it or you’re going to have all of Jefferson Parish under water.’ And they didn’t, and now all of Jefferson Parish is under water.”

The President’s incuriosity, his prideful insistence on being an underbriefed “gut player,” is not looking so charming right now, either, if it ever did. In the ABC interview, he said, “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.” Even the most cursory review shows that there have been comprehensive and chilling warnings of a potential calamity on the Gulf Coast for years. The most telling, but hardly the only, example was a five-part series in 2002 by John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, a newspaper that heroically kept publishing on the Internet last week. After evaluating the city’s structural deficiencies, the Times-Picayune reporters concluded that a catastrophe was “a matter of when, not if.” The same paper said last year, “For the first time in 37 years, federal budget cuts have all but stopped major work on the New Orleans area’s east bank hurricane levees, a complex network of concrete walls, metal gates and giant earthen berms that won’t be finished for at least another decade.” A Category 4 or 5 hurricane would be a catastrophe: “Soon the geographical ‘bowl’ of the Crescent City would fill up with the waters of the lake, leaving those unable to evacuate with little option but to cluster on rooftops—terrain they would have to share with hungry rats, fire ants, nutria, snakes, and perhaps alligators. The water itself would become a festering stew of sewage, gasoline, refinery chemicals, and debris.” And that describes much of the Gulf Coast today.

— David Remnick

"Be Innovative, Be Responsive, and Operate with a Touch of Class”
from the blackboard of a division commander of the Army Corps of Engineers as quoted in the New Yorker

---

Monday Sep 5, 2005 nyt A Failure of Leadership
By BOB HERBERT
President Bush's performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever by a president during a dire national emergency.

Killed by Contempt
By PAUL KRUGMAN
The government's lethal ineptitude in the Katrina disaster was a consequence of ideological hostility to the very idea of using government to serve the public good.

Monday Sep 5, 2005 alj
Bush, aides move to counter criticism that it did not move aggressively enough right after Hurricane Katrina swept through the US Gulf Coast.

September 4, 2005 nyt
Falluja Floods the Superdome By FRANK RICH
The failures of 9/11 come home to roost.

September 04, 2005 11:30 PM ET
NEW YORK In its Sunday edition, the Washington Post quoted a "senior Bush official" who said that "as of Saturday [Louisiana Governor] Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency." This, of course, was meant to make the governor look foolish and spread the blame around for the disastrous response to the disaster, though it was hard to imagine on what grounds the newspaper would quote an unnamed source in this case.
Several hours of blogosphere howling ensued. Later in the day, the Post ran this correction, or rather, 180-degree turn:
"A Sept. 4 article on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina incorrectly said that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) had not declared a state of emergency. She declared an emergency on Aug. 26."

September 4, 2005 nyt Emergency Management: Homeland Security Chief Defends Federal Response
By ERIC LIPTON and SCOTT SHANE
Michael Chertoff said the storm was particularly unpredictable and that the government had not expected large sections of the levees protecting New Orleans to fail. [...This is disgraceful! The Administration is lying, rather than accepting responsibility - everyone knows the levee system was in bad shape prior to the storm DTN]

Op-Ed Columnist nyt

United States of Shame

By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: September 3, 2005

Stuff happens.

And when you combine limited government with incompetent government, lethal stuff happens.

America is once more plunged into a snake pit of anarchy, death, looting, raping, marauding thugs, suffering innocents, a shattered infrastructure, a gutted police force, insufficient troop levels and criminally negligent government planning. But this time it's happening in America.

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