Criminally Out Of Touch -- On Tape!

In the "once again, I told you so" department, new evidence has just surfaced that Preznit Can't Find My Ass With Two Hands And A Flashlight was warned about the impending disaster of Hurricane Katrina well in advance of the actual event -- in, as is being reported, "dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms." And there's videotape of the briefing that has been obtained and is now being released.

It seems that the Preznit and his lying crony Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, were briefed intensively on just what the potential for disaster was, and how they needed to respond to the breaching of the levees and the looming death and destruction that lay just hours ahead. And yet they did nothing. Oh, sure, Bring 'Em On George spent a few days swanning around Crawford and then Southern California, strumming a gift guitar and making a speech comparing the Iraq invasion to World War II (and himself to FDR), but as far as making any real plans to help people, uh, well, not so much.

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."

The footage _ along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press _ show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

...

Bush declared four days after the storm, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees" that gushed deadly flood waters into New Orleans. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility...

I railed at the time about the inexcusable response to the disaster in the Gulf (and was accused then of "blaming Bush for the hurricane," thank you very much, Lanz), and about how the federal government should have been prepared ahead of time and should have done more -- much more -- in the days leading up to it and immediately after. Since then, all evidence points to that view being the correct one. Preznit AWOL was explicity told what would occur; he asked no questions, and in his public appearances in the following few days, showed little or no concern for the people in the area. It wasn't until four days after Katrina hit that he began to express some worry and try to snow the country with the lie that his administration was doing "a heckuva job" in responding to the crisis. Too little, too late, you bastard.

This is a president who has been shown many times over to be a serial liar, an incompetent bungler and a miserable failure. In this instance he was either criminally disengaged or criminally negligent. Which one was it? Either way, it's just one more reason to impeach the Idiot King NOW.