The day before yesterday Rachel Maddow pointed out that the "Decision Points Theater" inside the new Bush Library is a National Scandal because of it's attempt to re-write history and reality and turn Bush's choice to invade and destroy Iraq into a inevitable, unavoidable decision.
Last Night Melissa Harris-Perry, temporarily taking Rachel's place for the evening, continued the focus on the DPT, only this time the focus was on Bush's decisions regarding the response to Hurricane Katrina.
Believe it or not, instead of addressing his decisions to party first with John McCain on the day of landfall, and then with a country star on the following day after the levies had been breached, or the next day when he flew over the area in Air Force One, or
another two days after that when
his staff presented him with a DVD of local news footage so that he would FINALLY BEGIN TO PAY ATTENTION the Decision Point Version of this history focus on his choice of whether or not...
to Send Federal Troops into the Area to Restore Order and Prevent Looting.
Not to bring water. Not to bring food. Not to relocate people from the overflowing SuperDome, or trapped on a Freeway Overpass where the Coast Guard left them.
"Not Looters"
"Looters" cuz,well y'know...
What the Decision Points Theater apparently doesn't mention is the fact that President Bush was specifically
warned that a storm as large as Katrina could potentially
Overtop the Levees by NOAA.
It was even caught on camera.
In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans’ Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.
Bush didn’t ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: “We are fully prepared.”
"Fully Prepared" for this? Really?
Really?
Days after being briefed, after the levees had been breached, Bush was complaining "No one could have anticipated" such an event.
Yeah, no one could have imagined anything like this.
Bush declared four days after the storm, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees" that gushed deadly floodwaters into New Orleans. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility -- and Bush was worried too.
White House deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Brown discussed fears of a levee breach the day the storm hit.
But instead of focusing on Bush's
Non-Decision on making sure that proper supplies and support was available for the contingency that
he had been specifically warned about - he went on vacation. He
checked out.
Decision Points gives you the impression that the President was highly engaged, riveted to footage of looters - agonizing over the decision of whether to send in Federal Troops, but not the 475 Buses that Michael Brown promised Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin? (Which ultimately took a full week to show up) Not to send food. Not to send the Medicine. Not to let the Red Cross in, who were kept out for days? Not to allow in the supply trucks from Walmart, or experienced Firefighters who'd traveled across country to help? How did the Royal Canadian Mounted Police manage to get to New Orleans (traveling via land) before our own National Guard?
And speaking of law and order, the real problem in New Orleans wasn't brown skinned looters - as the News Footage and DPT would assert - it was roving gangs of white people with guns where were randomly shooting down black and brown people who they assumed were looters.
http://thinkprogress.org/...
Earlier this week, A.C. Thompson of The Nation revealed that after Hurricane Katrina, white vigilante groups patrolled New Orleans, blockaded streets, and shot at least eleven black men. It “was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it,” said one vigilante. Color of Change is organizing a campaign to tell Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and state officials to investigate the shootings, as “Louisiana’s broken law enforcement agencies have refused to investigate these crimes.” Watch Thompson’s video on his report:
So here we are years later, and rather than address the truth of what happened in New Orleans, the police abuses while BlackWater Troops patrolled the streets, the preventable death's days after the Hurricane due to dehydration, hypothermia and lack of food - Bush's Library tries to turn his actions during these days into a
Heroic Act Restoriing Law and Order?
That's more than a National Scandal, that's a Crime Against Common Sense.
Vyan