I know that many diaries have been posted to refute individual GOP talking points regarding the response to Hurricane Katrina, and they were much appreciated.
However, there seems to have been a crystallization and dissemination of certain specific GOP points over the last week.
I've been hearing the following talking points (which, naturally, accuse Democrats of all wrongdoing) everywhere in the past few days, and I would like to develop a
concise, convincing refutation of each point, which can then be copied to one single document for emailing and/or use for background in a LTE campaign. I'll need your help to develop it.
More after the jump.
The GOP spin is summarized quite neatly in a letter received by Josh Marshall at
Talking Points Memo.
The points are as follows:
- The levee failures were due to corrupt local government. "The local Levee Boards(run by Democrats, as is the City of New Orleans, for decades) stole or misspent milllions of taxpayer dollars when their sole responsibility was a prevention of the failure of the levees."
- The school busses! The SCHOOL BUSSES! "The cable TV guy-turned Mayor refused to let 40 school buses (now under water) be used to evacuate people, another Dem."
- The Democratic Governor was responsible for the Red Cross not being let into New Orleans. "The Governor, a Dem as well, refused to let in American Red Cross disaster aid already waiting in trucks because she didn't want to create a "magnet" for evacuees to the Superdome and Convention Center."
- Disaster response is the local government's baliwick, not federal. "The local government is "First Responders" in an emergency. The State is Second. The Feds are Third, only allowed in at the request of the Governor."
And of course, that old canard:
5) Local politicians didn't ask for help (in the right way/in a timely manner/using the secret FEMA decoder ring they were issued!)
If we could get together a concise, short, and convincing refutation of each of these points, backed with hard facts and links to resources, it would be really useful.
Standard caveat: if an identical diary to this one has been posted, I apologize. I wasn't able to find one in the last 200 diaries. [I remember seeing a really large and detailed refutation diary within the last week or so, but it was much more detailed than what I'm looking for, and I can't seem to locate it anyway.] Thanks.