Brownie: White House sought to manipulate Katrina aid (Rub Blanco's nose in it)

[Bluebear]

NEW YORK-- Former FEMA director Michael Brown says politics were a factor in decisions over whether to take federal control of areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Brown, in a lecture in New York, says some in the White House suggested only Louisiana should be federalized because it was run by a Democrat, Governor Kathleen Blanco. He says he recommended that all affected areas be federalized. That would have put the federal government in charge of all agencies responding to the disaster.

Brown says someone at the White House said Blanco's "a white, female Democratic governor and we have a chance to rub her nose in it." He didn't identify the person.

White House spokeswoman Eryn Withcer says Brown "is still hurling false statements about the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina."

http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5965253&nav=0nqx

[pnwmom]

1. Congress should add THIS to the list of investigations. Wow.

Thanks for the post.

[liberaldemocrat7]

7. After Kathleen Blanco signed the anti abortion law

I really don't care about her fate. She's running against Bobby Jindal this year and I don't care who wins. I consider her a DINO, just like Senator Landrieu.

[pnwmom]

13. It's not about Blanco. The people in New Orleans were made to suffer longer

because Bush was trying to force Lousiana to federalize. Remember? How the trucks suddenly rolled in on Thursday only AFTER he gave up on forcing Blanco to sign the agreement? Bush and Rove wanted a big PR moment -- she agrees to federalization, the Federal heroes suddenly move in -- and so they held the people of New Orleans hostage, with the supply trucks kept waiting outside the city.

It was despicable.

[va4wilderness]

56. They won't stop till....

New Orleans & Louisiana are colonies. This reeks to high heaven.

[Bluebear]

14. Oh my, don't you see, this is so not about Landrieu?

It is about the White House again plyaing with people's lives, planning their response to a disaster in POLITICAL terms.

[EFerrari]

15. Have you seen the Greg Palast piece that got him arrested?

[Bluebear]

16. I have not!

[EFerrari]

18. Heartbreaking.

I've got to crash but I'll see if there's a link somewhere in the a.m.

He teased out that the White House knew, they knew, that the levies were breached and sat on that. And he also interviewed people locked out of their untouched by Katrina public housing.

It was a devastating piece. And about a week after it was released, he was arrested. Purportedly for filming a site with national security consequences (don't remember, maybe an Exxon installation or something like that) in the very background but, yeah. Right.

I'll be back.

/oops

[EFerrari]

44. Ack. I can't go to his site on this back up machine. Argh.

Can't do video for a few more days. But, here's a link to one time Amy Goodman had him on DemocracyNow!


http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/29/1416211&mode=thread&tid=25

[femmedem]

26. link to Greg Palast's piece:

http://www.gregpalast.com/hurricane-expert-threatened-for-pre-katrina-warnings/

snip

Back at LSU, van Heerden astonished me with the most serious charge of all. While showing me huge maps of the flooding, he told me the White House had withheld the information that, in fact, the levees were about to burst and by Tuesday at dawn the city, and more than a thousand people, would drown.

Van Heerden said, “FEMA knew on Monday at 11 o’clock that the levees had breached… They took video. By midnight on Monday the White House knew. But none of us knew …I was at the State Emergency Operations Center.” Because the hurricane had missed the city that Monday night, evacuation effectively stopped, assuming the city had survived.

[EFerrari]

45. Thank you so much!

[Bluebear]

47. "Dr. van Heerden offered this life-saving info to FEMA. They wouldn’t touch it."

MURDERERS.

These people belong in prison!!!!

[EFerrari]

48. Not only would they not touch it, he was threatened with his job.

These people are murderers.

It couldn't be more clear.

/grammar

[colorado_ufo]

55. I had read that, also, some time ago.

I am inclined to believe Brown. Every thing that was released to the press about him seemed to be set up to "throw him under the bus," so to speak. A perfect scapegoat.

[JHB]

71. Yeah, I remember after they released the video of his briefing Bush...

...thinking "Y'know, for all of the crony-ism in his getting the job, he seems to be a lot more on top of things than we were led to believe." It was * sitting there like they were interrupting his bicycle time that pointed at the real problem.

Typical Bush 'tude: demanding absolute Loyalty Up, but giving zero Loyalty Down.

[monarch]

2. When can we start rubbing Joe Lieberman's nose

in Katrina fallout?

[Maccagirl]

3. On this issue I have no doubt

which side to believe. It's the White House who lies, lies, lies.

[tblue]

4. And how many hundreds died so they could rub a Dem's nose in it? Allez au diable, *!

[EFerrari]

5. I hate these people.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

65. That about sums it up for me n/t

[lligrd]

6. This Demands Investigation

I have never been so disgusted in all my life than I was at the Katrina debacle. I remember not even worrying when the levees broke, afterall, America was well equipped to deal with such emergencies. And then the horror set in, as night after night we waited for the Feds to do what we pay them to do. And nothing... Night after night.

How many of us will ever trust the government to come to our aid again? And why the f*** do I pay taxes? Apparently just to kill people in countries far away and allow those at home to die for naught. If Saddam deserved to be hung, what does Bush deserve?

[malaise]

8. I'm taking bets Rove said that

These criminals should be led out in chains.

[EFerrari]

11. It's worse than that. The White House was informed the levies

had breached a whole day before NOLA drowned. They didn't notify anyone. They didn't tell the little old ladies that were up in their attics. They murdered people.

This can be no doubt, none, that our present government is homicidal.

[diane in sf]

9. There was a lot of discussion of this in earlier threads here right after Katrina. If you remember

the videos of the president of Jefferson Parish he was very eloquently describing FEMA cutting the communications and stopping aid from reaching flood victims. I also feel the Bushites/Cheney wanted a chance to try out martial law and grab as many local powers as possible which is another reason for holding up Blanco and trying to make her give up control by holding the people of Louisiana hostage.

I've been so apalled by the actions of these criminal shits. Katrina and people jumping out of the buildings and getting crushed and burned at the World Trade Center were pretty comparable. I believe in MIHOP for 9.11 and "Made It Worse On Purpose--MIWOP" for Katrina. What did they have to gain? Running blacks out of NOLA, stealing real estate, crooked rebuilding contracts, eliminating Democratic voters, etc!

[EFerrari]

10. Stealing real estate and eliminating a Democratic stronghold.

Plus, we can't overlook, this administration views us as a cash cow, not as a citizenry.

/oops

[colorado_ufo]

57. Important and keen observations.

[Raine]

12. DISGUSTING

they are the lowest form of life on this planet. :puke:

[rodeodance]

17. Joe L. has said his committee will not investigate any more Katrina

stuff.Recall he said that a few weeks ago.

[Bluebear]

19. Correct. Lieberman is the decider & has said Katrina investigation is over.

Thank you, Connecticut!

[Tin Man]

24. Quid Pro Joe says, "Move along, nothing to see here, folks..."

[conscious evolution]

27. joey boy may not investigate

but Waxman will.
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1097

[TankLV]

59. Ahh - thanks for reminding us of that fucking repuke asswipe TRAITOR!

Can we have an investigation NOW - preferably WITHOUT his involvement?!...

[cassiepriam]

20. Everything is a an opportunity to grab power or money. Typical sociopaths.

[sammythecat]

21. If this isn't a clear case of criminal negligence

I don't know the meaning of the term. "Negligence rises to the level of criminal negligence where the conduct reaches a higher degree of carelessness or inattention, perhaps to the point of indifference". That's the definition I read. And this is the best bushco should be able to hope for.

"... murder requires either the intent to kill, or a state of mind called malice, or malice aforethought, which may involve an unintentional killing but with a willful disregard for life." If this isn't a case of "willful disregard for life", then what is?

If this becomes a dead issue, which is what I fear, what hope have we? If the Democratic leadership rolls over on this my disgust will be total and complete. We need a goddamn hero in this country. Bad!

[rudy23]

22. This is why the water and rescue trucks were turned away--to make Blanco pay for not federalizing

They wanted to make people suffer the consequences of Blanco's decision, then hang it on her, in true Rove fashion

That's why Anderson Cooper was able to get to people that the water trucks couldn't. That's why all those forms of help were turned away. This is all while people are literally dying of thirst and heat exhaustion.

Investigations NOW

[rudy23]

23. I PROMISE that if we heard those "embarassing emails" Lieberman won't investigate, IMPEACHMENT would

follow. No doubt about it. I bet their e-mails, about the citizens of New Orleans drowning, and dying from heat and thirst, make Brownie's emails look pretty tame.

[Neecy]

28. I don't doubt that, either

How much do you want to bet some of those emails deal with the political angle of this? All it would take is one - ONE - email originating from the WH mentioning that Blanco is a Democrat and they could 'rub her nose in it' or similar and this administration is toast. They let people die for politics. IMPEACH.

[deminks]

25. KKKarl, was that you that said that???

I am convinced that agencies were told to stand down. It will come out if it happened. Joe Lieberputz is just in the Senate. He doesn't control everything. Bushco turns everything around politics. It is all that they know. They don't feel like they have to know anything else. Katrina may be the crime that brings them down.

Tell me what is the difference between Smirky and Katrina, and a diktater killing his own people. Tell me.

[The Backlash Cometh]

29. Shocking. Truly, truly shocking. We knew in our gut that's what was

going on. But, it's still shocking to hear.

[Cass]

30. Wow! Scheming up political games while Americans drowned in the streets.

Brown, in a lecture in New York, says some in the White House suggested only Louisiana should be federalized because it was run by a Democrat, Governor Kathleen Blanco. He says he recommended that all affected areas be federalized.

Brown says someone at the White House said Blanco's "a white, female Democratic governor and we have a chance to rub her nose in it." He didn't identify the person.

Holy cow. This is explosive and most certainly deserves an investigation. Sounds to me like its a distinct possibility the response in NOLA was delayed to portray Blanco and other local democratic politicians in a negative light.

[rudy23]

35. Agree 1000% nt

[spanone]

31. That sounds just like our kind and gentle VICE president Dick Go FuckYourself Cheney.

[in_cog_ni_to]

32. Isn't it amazing how what we say, here at DU, seems to ALWAYS come true? WE knew what they were

doing. Here's MORE:


<snip>Brown, speaking at the Metropolitan College of New York, said he had recommended to President Bush that all 90,000 square miles along the Gulf Coast affected by the devastating hurricane be federalized _ a term Brown explained as placing the federal government in charge of all agencies responding to the disaster.

"Unbeknownst to me, certain people in the White House were thinking, 'We had to federalize Louisiana because she's a white, female Democratic governor, and we have a chance to rub her nose in it,'" he said, without naming names. "'We can't do it to Haley (Barbour) because Haley's a white male Republican governor. And we can't do a thing to him. So we're just gonna federalize Louisiana.'"

Brown, 52, declined to say who in the White House had argued for federalizing the response only in Louisiana. He said that he'd later learned of the machinations through Blanco's office and from federal officials.

Blanco reacted sharply to Brown's remarks.

"This is exactly what we were living but could not bring ourselves to believe. Karl Rove was playing politics while our people were dying," Blanco said through a spokeswoman, referring to Bush's top political strategist. "The federal effort was delayed, and now the public knows why. It's disgusting."<snip>

emphasis added is mine.

http://www.comcast.net/news/politics/index.jsp?cat=POLITICS&fn=/2007/01/20/566587.html

[Virginia Dare]

33. I've said it before, and I'll say it again...

what happened in New Orleans was nothing less than a crime against humanity. :cry:

[malaise]

36. Agree 100%

Bush et al should be in prison for New Orleans alone.

[malaise]

37. Agree 100%

Bush et al should be in prison for New Orleans alone.

[G_Leo_Criley]

40. Crime against humanity ...

is absolutely right Virginia Dare!

We can never forget the images we all saw of our own fellow citizens begging for help, drowning, dying, and scavenging in the streets, of an American city. Never forget.

One of the many, horrors that b*shco has brought about.

glc

[Bluebear]

49. kick

[TankLV]

60. Don't forget - Saddam was hanged for "only" killing 125 people...

I want to know what kind of punishment bush* & company is going to get for killing a few thousand in NOLA alone...

[notadmblnd]

34. I remember.....

There was a letter writing campaign here urging her not to turn control of a over to the Feds. I'm surprised it took them 2 years to come to the same conclusion we did on day 1.

[Gormy Cuss]

38. Too bad Brown can't bring himself to name names.

Without a direct accusation this revelation will go nowhere. It will be dismissed as as sour grapes from the designated Katrina scapegoat, unfortunately.

[G_Leo_Criley]

39. Maybe Henry Waxman will listen

If Brownie would like to talk.

glc

[meuniermr]

41. Bob Zimmerman, "Sundown on the Union"

"This world is ruled by violence, but I guess that's better left unsaid."

[Bluebear]

42. Crime against humanity. IMPEACH. IMPRISON. nt

[EFerrari]

46. "Impeach, indict, say goodbye, it's time to go."

[dsharp88]

66. Just how low can they get?

I guess those of us in LA weren't red enough for the repubs what with a Democrat as governor and all.

[Cha]

43. FUCK joe LIEberman.

And the FUCKING WARMONGERING ELEPHANT he weaseled in on.

[seabeyond]

50. then investigate the murder of all those people... oh no wait.. lieberman

wont do it...

pisses me off

[Fovea]

51. He didn't identify the person.

Under oath, in front of congress, asap.

[Bluebear]

52. BINGO nt

[Bluebear]

64. sunday kick

[Virginian]

62. The Hague n/t

[brettdale]

53. kick

kick

[MasonJar]

54. Hey, way to go, Browny, tell the world; it was always obvious to

most of us, but I appreciate your confirming the obvious for the 33% bobos.

[colorado_ufo]

58. Bush "playing" a guitar while NOLA drowned.

Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

Chilling.

[jmowreader]

67. Nero didn't actually fiddle while Rome burned

http://www.trivia-library.com/b/nero-didnt-fiddle-while-rome-burned.htm

Apparently, when Nero, who was forty miles away at the time of the Great Fire of Rome, heard that Rome was burning he went straight back there, helped to get the fire under control, and allowed the newly homeless to live in his palaces while he paid for their food with his own money.

After he got the disaster mitigated, he then blamed the fire on the Christians and killed a hell of a lot of them--some he crucified, others he fed to dogs. But while the fire was burning, he was a good leader.

And the "fiddling" Nero would have done would have been "fiddling around," not "playing his fiddle"--the violin was invented 1500 years after he died.

Bush, on the other hand...

[colorado_ufo]

70. Thanks for the very interesting info.

Having taken three years of Latin, I always enjoy a little info on the Romans. I did know that the violin was invented sometime later (not much Roman music written for it), but it was the image from the almost classic reference that I could not help envisioning, and comparing.

[jmowreader]

72. You're quite welcome

[Beetwasher]

61. Well Well Well

I think we can all probably pretty much identify the unnamed "someone" to whom that quote is attributable. Oink oink.

[Imagevision]

63. Interesting that Bush assigns Lieberman with Katrina investigations

that's like sending Gerald Ford into snoop the Warren Commission for Johnson

[helderheid]

68. kick

[protect our future]

69. A hateful memory, revisited

This thread brings back the enragement (is that a word?) I felt when the first levee was breached, which was announced on CNN through a phone call from a New Orleans hospital employee shortly after it happened. That phone call, the fact that water was pouring into Orleans Parish and flooding Canal Street, and the implications were discussed right here at DU minutes after the CNN story aired. And this administration DIDN'T KNOW???

Then on the next Meet the Press, several days later, Chertoff had the gall to try and cover up exactly when that levee was breached. His manipulative words gave the impression the levee was breached about one day after it actually was in an effort to make the public believe the federal response was "timely."

Am I off-topic? Well I couldn't help myself.

I'm going to go beat up on something now.

[Horse with no Name]

73. It would have been more credible if he had said this when he had

something at stake to lose.
As it is...well, I can't decide to believe him only when it suits me.
I don't trust the guy. Whether he is on my side now or not.

[Bluebear]

77. I hear you. Perfect reason to subpoena him now. nt

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

74. I Hope To Hell They Have Thorough Investigations About Katrina, And Have Lots Of Subpoenas.

I look forward to some of this truth finally surfacing and hope to hell the Dems get started on this tragedy.

[Glimmer of Hope]

75. The scum need to start paying a price for their crimes against humanity.

They are just pure evil.

[bridgit]

76. gee, do'ya think...