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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (728933)	3/3/2006 1:35:50 PM
From: Jorj X Mckie	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 769670

What does it matter what Bush knew about the New Orleans levees. Without the cooperation of the local officials he couldn't have done anything anyway. It isn't the role of the federal government to bail out every city that has a natural disaster. The fact that Bush's name is brought up in any context with regard to Katrina just proves what an entitlement state the U.S. has turned into. Now, the port controversy is relevant. The role of the federal government is definitely to ensure the national security and defense. And I think the port deal will have many unintended consequences and unforeseen threats. And I totally agree, because a mistake is made by allowing the Chinese (or any other) government to control one of our ports, doesn't justify doing it again.

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (728933)	3/3/2006 2:12:24 PM
From: PROLIFE	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

I totally disagree with you about thinking the President lied. I believe you are in Louisiana, right? I hope you did not lose your home, but to say the President lied is just hogwash. He already took responsibility for the failure of FEMA, but the libbers cannot let it go. Read some of my other posts to pitytime and karen lawrence, you will see what I mean about not lying.

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (728933)	3/3/2006 2:28:01 PM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769670

Friday, March 3, 2006 11:54 a.m. EST Bush Didn’t Lie About Levee Breaching News sources have reported that President Bush lied when he said he wasn’t warned that the levees in New Orleans could be breached during Hurricane Katrina. But a videotape of a key meeting between Bush and hurricane officials supports the president’s contention that the breaching of the levees was unanticipated. On September 1, four days after Katrina struck, Bush said: "I don’t think anybody anticipated a breach of the levees.” The Associated Press on Wednesday claimed that "federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees.” The Democratic National Committee attempted to make political hay out of the AP report, stating that "during the briefing, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield told the president that the integrity of the levees was ‘a very, very grave concern’ that the president appears to have ignored.” However, the tape shows that what Mayfield actually told Bush was: "I don’t think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but that’s obviously a very, very grave concern.” Mayfield told NBC News on Thursday that he warned only that the levees might be topped – that is, the storm surge could push water over the top of the levees – not breached, and that on the many conference calls he monitored, "Nobody talked about the possibility of a levee breach or failure until after it happened.” Mayfield even told Bush: "The forecast now suggests that there will be minimal flooding in the City of New Orleans itself.”

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (728933)	3/3/2006 2:33:39 PM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769670

No Katrina coverup March 3, 2006 This week's Associated Press reporting on the leaked Katrina briefing tapes contains a seemingly minor but actually quite significant factual error and subsequent hit job on President Bush. The reporting buried among sturdier assertions the claim that Mr. Bush was warned about possible breaches of the levees on Aug. 28-29, right before and during Hurricane Katrina's onslaught on the Gulf Coast. In reality, he was warned about many potential problems on these tapes -- but levee breaches weren't among them. The AP reported this as though it were fact, and then uncritically quoted Democratic partisans who were only too happy to parrot it. As the tapes show, the president was warned extensively about storm surges, water topping over the levees, flooding in addition to storm surges and the possibility of significant losses of life across the Gulf Coast. Clearly, warning signs were in place for a major disaster. "I'm sure it will be in the top 10 or 15 when all is said and done after the post-analysis," said the half-prescient National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield. But breaches? There was only one mention of breaches -- which Mr. Mayfield raised briefly in a confused-sounding sentence only to dismiss the possibility. "Louisiana can talk a little bit more about this than I can, but it looks like the Federal levees around the City of New Orleans will not have been [incomprehensible] any breaches to," he said on Aug. 29. This was the very day the levees were breached. The previous day, Mr. Mayfield had actually dismissed the possibility of major flooding in New Orleans. "[T]he forecast we have now suggests that there will be minimal flooding in the city of New Orleans itself," he said. Storm surges were the overwhelming preoccupation. "The big question is going to be: will that top some of the levees?" In other words, if the president heard any predictions that the levees would be breached, or even reports of breaches as they occured, the evidence is nowhere on these leaked tapes. This is significant. The levee breaches were the cause of most of the destruction in New Orleans. If it were true that Mr. Bush heard predictions of levee breaches before the storm hit, then that makes a despicable and costly lie of his statement four days after the hurricane that "I don't think anybody anticipated the breaches of the levees." While that statement was plainly wrong -- federal investigators had worried for years that the levees would fail in a major hurricane -- it wasn't a lie. The truth, instead, is that no adviser warned the president of the possibility that the levees could fail. Of course, it makes a juicier story to suggest that the president was warned. "This administration was told what Louisiana already knew: that our federally constructed levees could certainly fail," the AP uncritically quoted Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana Democrat, as saying. None of this excuses the president's handling of the crisis. It does not excuse the plainly incapable officials who advised him. And it means little to the many victims of Hurricane Katrina who died, lost loved ones or their homes and livelihoods to the floodwater. But it does show that people calling the president a liar still have no evidence for their assertions. This was a case of mismanagement, not deception. The mainstream media is helping partisans obscure that fact. washingtontimes.com