LIHTDI - The truth of the matter on Bush**'s NOLA/Gulf failure.

[benburch]

Let It Happen Through Depraved Indifference.

I seriously believe that Bush was too busy partying - too busy with the last "bender" of his vacation to bother to give the orders or to even delegate the powers to have an effective Federal response to the Katrina. He was drinking Crown Royal and injecting cocaine (if you believe the rumors), and was not in a "mood" to deal with this problem until long after it was far too late to save those lives. And after he screwed it up he did what he has always done with his failures; Pretended everything was fine, and staged photo-ops to make him look caring, followed by excuses "Nobody could have forseen..." and then blaming others for his failure to act in a decisive manner.

So, not MIHOP (he cannot control the weather, though such technologies to STOP a storm have been proposed) and not LIHOP (he had no plans - thats the problem), but LIHTDI.

Depraved Indifference is cause in most states for a homicide conviction, and I think the governments of the Gulf States should convene grand juries at once to indict him on those charges.

[Wind Dancer]

1. Excellent article!

We aren't the only ones wondering what the hell is going on!



People of the Dome

-snip-

There is something sinister going down -- it's not just incompetence or negligence.

How could FEMA and Homeland Security not have something so basic as bottled drinking water in the SuperDome, which was long a part of the hurricane plan? One police officer in charge of his 120-person unit said yesterday that his squad was provided with only 70 small bottles of water.

Two years ago, New Orleans residents -- the only area in the entire state that voted in huge numbers against the candidacy of George Bush -- also fought off attempts to privatize the drinking water supply. There have also been major battles to block Shell Oil's attempt to build a Liquid Natural Gas facility, and to preent the teardown of public housing (which failed), with the Mayor lining up in the latter two issues on the side of the oil companies and the developers.

One of the first acts of Governor Kathleen Blanco (a Democrat, by the way) during this crisis was to turn off the drinking water, to force people to evacuate. There was no health reason to turn it off, as the water is drawn into a separate system from the Mississippi River, not the polluted lake, and purified through self-powered purification plants separate from the main electric grid. If necessary, people could have been told to boil their water -- strangely, the municipal natural gas used in stoves was still functioning properly as of Thursday night!

-more-

http://www.counterpunch.org/cohen09032005.html

[glitch]

2. Depraved indifference is good, but I think it was more intentional.

When you divert funds and loot programs designed to prevent the loss of life and property, it's not indifference. It's RICO.

[benburch]

5. Well...

They INTENDED to skim off whatever funds they could into Haliburton's coffers. That much is true, but I think they expected to get "lucky" with the weather so nobody would notice.

Sort of like how the Titanic was designed with double-acting davits that could deal with six lifeboats each, but the builders only supplied one boat per davit.

[TimeChaser]

3. Thanks!

I've been looking for a nifty acronym that fit what I thought. And to tell you the truth, yours is much better than LITBTDGAS (Let it happen because they don't give a shit)

[tulsakatz]

4. I think we should find a way...........

........to connect the incompetence of this administration related to their actions of 9/11 and Katrina. For instance, when 9/11 happened he sat in a classroom listening to kids read and then spent part of the day flying around the country. When Katrina happened, he remained on vacation for 2 days and when he finally did go back on the clock, it took him another 2 days before our govt reacted to the crisis!!

I definitely think that either we need to frame this argument or the democrats needs to. If he had reacted suspiciously in only 1 situation then, yes that could have been a reasonable mistake. But to react similarly in 2 separate crisis indicates a pattern.

And if we can't depend on him in a crisis........well, we might as well not have anyone in charge!!!

[longship]

6. This is the drum we must keep beating.

We know that FEMA knew about the levees since FEMA commissioned an LSU study which published those exact findings in 2001 after Chimpy took office.

We know that FEMA knew about the seriousness of Katrina since they issued an emergency alert on Saturday after weather forcasters predicted on Friday a LA-MS landfall of a Category 4 or 5 hurricane.

We know that FEMA should have known about the Convention Center debacle since the news media were *all over it* throughout the week days before the FEMA reaction on Friday. Then, on Meet the Press, Chertoff lied about it by saying that they were supplying meals for days.

We know that the LA Governor requested emergency assistance before Katrina hit because the LA Gov Office published the request on the Web, dated Sun 28 Aug. It was addressed both to FEMA and the President and asked for assistance in both evacuation and after-disaster support. N.B., that in order to assist in evacuation, the feds would have to act immediately. They did nothing.

We know that NM Gov Bill Richardson had authorized NG assistance to NOLA early in the week, which was agreed to by LA Gov. Thousands of NM NG troops sat on the ground for days awaiting the requisite Presidential approval which did not happen until Thursday. Chimpy was too busy eating cake, playing golf, and pandering to act.

There's more, I'm sure.

The administration was woefully negligent in their lack of response.
They are lying about their role in this debacle.

Oh! I almost forgot...

Where's Crashcart?

[benburch]

7. I agree...

And we need to beat it in time! Right now what we have sounds like an accident in a drum factory.

[benburch]

8. Some stuff on the weather control technology I mentioned.

This is a technology to disrupt storm systems by literally soaking up the water in their clouds with a powder that absorbs several thousand times its weight in water. The problem is that it has never been tested on more than a small thunderstorm system, and if you use it on a hurricane and even if it diminishes the storm, some damned lawyer will sue you for damages claiming that you had the opposite effect.

http://www.wfmy.com/watercooler/watercooler_article.aspx?storyid=42089

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2004-09-14-anti-cane-schemes_x.htm

http://www.dynomat.com/storm.shtml