SHOCKING: Bush admits mistake

It's no secret that the Bush administration screwed up in cutting funds for flood/hurricane control.



Krugman asks in his NY Times op-ed the question that everyone, including a bipartisan group of senators, wants to know:

Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.

So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11, hard questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then buried under a thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need accountability.

But even the President of the United States of America will admit dissatisfaction with response to the emergency:

The criticism of the federal government's response came from across the political spectrum, including former president Bill Clinton, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), the Congressional Black Caucus and a sputtering, angry mayor of New Orleans. A Senate committee plans to open hearings next week into what critics called a sluggish response that has left many thousands of people hungry, homeless and hopeless.

While both parties rallied behind Bush's request for $10.5 billion for initial emergency aid and Congress last night sent him the legislation for signature, lawmakers and other politicians lambasted the administration. Democrats accused Bush of a failure of leadership at a desperate moment. Republicans focused their fire on Bush's government, rather than the president, but were at times scathing.

Bush, who almost never publicly acknowledges mistakes, paid deference to the rage yesterday with a rare concession that his administration's efforts fell short in the opening days of the crisis. "The results are not acceptable," he told reporters on the South Lawn before leaving the White House for his tour of afflicted areas. He added: "We'll get on top of this situation and we're going to help people that need help."

And one would have to be BLIND to not have noticed a blatant trend in the demographics of the victims and the looters shown in the photographs. Kanye West, during the benefit show "A Concert for Hurricane Relief" didn't beat around the bush (no pun intended):

"George Bush doesn't care about black people" and said America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."

Well, I honestly can't say how much of that is true. But I sincerely hope things will change for the better. The only way to go from there is up. Much-needed supplies arrived at the devastated regions of the country.





The sheer power of nature is breathtaking, isn't it?