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Oh shizzzle. Newsweek blasts Bush

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How Bush Blew It

Sept. 19, 2005 issue - It's a standing joke among the president's top aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe before the displeasure of the president of the United States, or, as he is known in West Wing jargon, POTUS. The bad news on this early morning, Tuesday, Aug. 30, some 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina had ripped through New Orleans, was that the president would have to cut short his five-week vacation by a couple of days and return to Washington. The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card; his deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin; his counselor, Dan Bartlett, and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, held a conference call to discuss the question of the president's early return and the delicate task of telling him. Hagin, it was decided, as senior aide on the ground, would do the deed.
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...President Bush knew the storm and its consequences had been bad; but he didn't quite realize how bad.

The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.

How this could be—how the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century—is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace.
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But it is not clear what President Bush does read or watch, aside from the occasional biography and an hour or two of ESPN here and there. Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with disloyalty. After five years in office, he is surrounded largely by people who agree with him. Bush can ask tough questions, but it's mostly a one-way street. Most presidents keep a devil's advocate around. Lyndon Johnson had George Ball on Vietnam; President Ronald Reagan and Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, grudgingly listened to the arguments of Budget Director Richard Darman, who told them what they didn't wish to hear: that they would have to raise taxes. When Hurricane Katrina struck, it appears there was no one to tell President Bush the plain truth: that the state and local governments had been overwhelmed, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was not up to the job and that the military, the only institution with the resources to cope, couldn't act without a declaration from the president overriding all other authority.
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More at the link, of coures. Five pages.
 
I can't say I disagree.

I lost more faith in Bush (who I voted for) from this single event than from the entire debacle that has become the war. I am becoming less and less of a fan.
 
The denial and the frustration finally collided aboard Air Force One on Friday. As the president's plane sat on the tarmac at New Orleans airport, a confrontation occurred that was described by one participant as "as blunt as you can get without the Secret Service getting involved." Governor Blanco was there, along with various congressmen and senators and Mayor Nagin (who took advantage of the opportunity to take a shower aboard the plane). One by one, the lawmakers listed their grievances as Bush listened. Rep. Bobby Jindal, whose district encompasses New Orleans, told of a sheriff who had called FEMA for assistance. According to Jindal, the sheriff was told to e-mail his request, "and the guy was sitting in a district underwater and with no electricity," Jindal said, incredulously. "How does that make any sense?" Jindal later told NEWSWEEK that "almost everybody" around the conference table had a similar story about how the federal response "just wasn't working." With each tale, "the president just shook his head, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing," says Jindal, a conservative Republican and Bush appointee who lost a close race to Blanco. Repeatedly, the president turned to his aides and said, "Fix it."

According to Sen. David Vitter, a Republican ally of Bush's, the meeting came to a head when Mayor Nagin blew up during a fraught discussion of "who's in charge?" Nagin slammed his hand down on the table and told Bush, "We just need to cut through this and do what it takes to have a more-controlled command structure. If that means federalizing it, let's do it."

A debate over "federalizing" the National Guard had been rattling in Washington for the previous three days. Normally, the Guard is under the control of the state governor, but the Feds can take over—if the governor asks them to. Nagin suggested that Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, the Pentagon's on-scene commander, be put in charge. According to Senator Vitter, Bush turned to Governor Blanco and said, "Well, what do you think of that, Governor?" Blanco told Bush, "I'd rather talk to you about that privately." To which Nagin responded, "Well, why don't you do that now?"

The meeting broke up. Bush and Blanco disappeared to talk. More than a week later, there was still no agreement. Blanco didn't want to give up her authority, and Bush didn't press. Jindal suggested that Bush appoint Colin Powell as a kind of relief czar, and Bush replied, "I'll take that into consideration." Bush does not like to fire people. He told Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to go down to Louisiana and sort out the various problems. A day later FEMA's Brown was on his way back to Washington.
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Ok, Blanco, nice knowing you. If you're not term limited, then I sincercely hope you're voted out of office next election cycle. As for Bush not pressing the issue, that reminds me of the republican caricature of liberals being too wishywashy and worrying too much about public opinion before making a decision.
 
This article makes Bush sound less like a President and more like a Middle Ages king who executes messengers for bringing them bad news. Off with their heads!
 
Everyone knows terrorists hijacked the waves. They did it to succeed the 9/11 attacks. Anyone who thinks otherwise is quite frankly a misinformed, poorly educated liberal in denial. Michael Moore will try to convice everyone that the waves were an act of nature, but that's just liberal propagnada.

Thank god for the leadership of George W. Bush. What liberals don't realize is that he was praying when he flew 5,000 feet over the disaster. Prayers are more effective when you are flying over one huge area. If he is on the ground, he would have been only to pray for the area that he was currently in. Bush is a master of the power of prayer. People mad at him because he chose to initally fly over the disaster simply don't know what they're talking about.
 
If Bush wouldn't appointed someone capable to head FEMA...he would have been able to finish off the rest of his vacation no problemo.

Wait...5 WEEK VACATION?!?
 
Just going by the quotes in the thread, that article undresses Blanco far more then Bush. What was said about the Pres isn't exactly new, or shocking. The Blanco stuff on the other hand is pretty damning.
 
Fight for Freeform said:
If Bush wouldn't appointed someone capable to head FEMA...he would have been able to finish off the rest of his vacation no problemo.

Wait...5 WEEK VACATION?!?
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http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20031001.html
How many vacation days has George W. Bush taken to date as president? How does that compare with Clinton?
According to an August 2003 article in the Washington Post, President Bush has spent all or part of 166 days during his presidency at his Crawford, Texas, ranch or en route. Add the time spent at or en route to the presidential retreat of Camp David and at the Bush family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, and Bush has taken 250 days off as of August 2003. That's 27% of his presidency spent on vacation. Although to be fair, much of this time is classified as a "working vacation."
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What about Clinton? As of December 1999, President Bill Clinton had spent only 152 days on holiday during his two terms, according to CBS News. A former staffer noted Clinton was such a workaholic that "it almost killed Clinton to take one-week vacations during August." In 2000, Clinton cut his summer vacation short to just three days, so he and his wife could concentrate on her Senate race and fundraising for Democrats. While we couldn't find the exact tally for Clinton's last year in office, it's reasonable to expect he didn't increase his vacation rate. And in barely three years in office, George W. Bush has already taken more vacation than Clinton did in seven years.
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damn that's a lot of brush-clearing.
 
The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card; his deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin; his counselor, Dan Bartlett, and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, held a conference call to discuss the question of the president's early return and the delicate task of telling him. Hagin, it was decided, as senior aide on the ground, would do the deed.
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The fuck? There's this much head churning when something needs to get to the president? A damn conference call on how he will get the info? My God. And cutting a 5 week vacation by a couple of days? Blasphemy.

Just read all of it. This is one of the most scathing and blunt article in this type of publication about the federal gov, and the pres in particular, that Ive ever read.
 
haha, "the delicate task of telling him". Oh man, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower need to saddle up their ghost horses and come kick some fucking MANHOOD into our President.
 
george bush is like the reserve president from last season of 24.
 
Diablos said:
Everyone knows terrorists hijacked the waves. They did it to succeed the 9/11 attacks. Anyone who thinks otherwise is quite frankly a misinformed, poorly educated liberal in denial. Michael Moore will try to convice everyone that the waves were an act of nature, but that's just liberal propagnada.

Thank god for the leadership of George W. Bush. What liberals don't realize is that he was praying when he flew 5,000 feet over the disaster. Prayers are more effective when you are flying over one huge area. If he is on the ground, he would have been only to pray for the area that he was currently in. Bush is a master of the power of prayer. People mad at him because he chose to initally fly over the disaster simply don't know what they're talking about.
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That just drenched in sarcasm.
 
The insularity of the President and the total removal of the policymaking process from the administration were the REAL damning points of Paul O'Neill's book, not the Iraq War passage which everyone focused on. ..and it's what seperates Bush II from previous presidents.
 
Drinky Crow said:
haha, "the delicate task of telling him". Oh man, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower need to saddle up their ghost horses and come kick some fucking MANHOOD into our President.
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Hahaha, have you ever seen that SNL Cartoon the X-Presidents? Basically Bush 41 realizes that his son has been using him to get all this shit done that shouldn't be done, so he calls in all his old friends, even the dead Presidents. Reagans ghost comes back, as do a ton of other peoples ghosts. Andrew Johnson got to the Oval Office and Dick Cheney was like, "Who are you?!" Then Johnson flipped out cuz nobody ever remembered him as he beat the shit out of Cheney. The best part was when Thomas Jefferson told Don Rumsfeld "I'm gonna hang you on the wall by your nuts!" and then does it, hahaha. Probably the funniest SNL cartoon I've ever seen.

edit: here's the link. You can't d/l the episode or the cartoon, though, but this is the one I was talking about.
 
catfish said:
george bush is like the reserve president from last season of 24.
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:lol God I hated that little scrot...

And that vacation comparison between Bush and Clinton is a laugh riot...let me guess, that's the Clinton comparison neocons WON'T use whenever Bush gets dumped on.
 
hey don't blame him for not thinking Katrina was goin to be disaster. It just wasn't on his mind okay. Jeez leave the poor rich guy alone. Don't forget he is a War President, War is always on his mind 24/7. man i swear, every fuckin republican president time.
 
Outlaw Pro Mod said:
God bless free speech.

I'm actually looking forward to Bush' term coming to and end just so the hate threads will stop polluting the forum.
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Yeah, cause I'm sure there won't be hatred for the next president. :lol It comes with the territory, though Bush gets it more then most because frankly he's sucked more then most.
 
Outlaw Pro Mod said:
God bless free speech.

I'm actually looking forward to Bush' term coming to and end just so the hate threads will stop polluting the forum.
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So did you actually read the article or not?
 
In all my years of being alive there has never been a president who actually made me HATE the office of POTUS more than Bush Jr. There have been times that I've disagreed with many presidents, but by and large I've generally understood and in many cases accepted the decisions they have had to make. Bush has dumped all of that. The gross negligence and incompetence by him and his staff cause me to doubt the very nature of the government of the country in which I live completely and entirely. This administration is by far the absolute worse in every way and make me embarassed to be an American.

I personally hang my head in shame at the disaster that the US government has become.
 
In all my years of being alive there has never been a president who actually made me HATE the office of POTUS more than Bush Jr. There have been times that I've disagreed with many presidents, but by and large I've generally understood and in many cases accepted the decisions they have had to make. Bush has dumped all of that. The gross negligence and incompetence by him and his staff cause me to doubt the very nature of the government of the country in which I live completely and entirely. This administration is by far the absolute worse in every way and make me embarassed to be an American.
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I concur.

Dare I say the Bush administration and co. reminds me a bit of the flagrant wankery present in the GAF Administration. The difference being Drinky Crow can be charming, and doesn't have any long term affect on the free world.
 
The Take Out Bandit said:
I concur.

Dare I say the Bush administration and co. reminds me a bit of the flagrant wankery present in the GAF Administration. The difference being Drinky Crow can be charming, and doesn't have any long term affect on the free world.
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Except for our younger members who leave here mentally scarred. ;)
 
I'm still stunned why he hasn't been forced to resign over all this crap. If this happened in the UK the Blair would have been forced out by now. If not by the press then by the public. Why does the maerican people tolerate so many fuck ups and say "Well only 2 years left" Thats 2 more fucking years too long!
 
pulsemyne said:
I'm still stunned why he hasn't been forced to resign over all this crap. If this happened in the UK the Blair would have been forced out by now. If not by the press then by the public. Why does the maerican people tolerate so many fuck ups and say "Well only 2 years left" Thats 2 more fucking years too long!
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There really is no legal mechanism in place for such a thing to take place on the federal level. And, really, anything remotely like that would be abused pretty much immediately.

Also, remove Bush and Cheney would be in charge. Nothing would really change; arguably, he's the puppet master anyway.
 
xsarien said:
There really is no legal mechanism in place for such a thing to take place on the federal level. And, really, anything remotely like that would be abused pretty much immediately.

Also, remove Bush and Cheney would be in charge. Nothing would really change; arguably, he's the puppet master anyway.
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You're serious? o.O

Holy fuck...
 
Vennt said:
You're serious? o.O

Holy fuck...
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Short of him doing something outright illegal, or a rather nebulous claim of "abuse of power," nope.

Of course, it doesn't really help that his own party controls both houses of Congress. Hopefully that will change during next year's mid-term elections.
 
The only way to get him out, is impeachment. Now, if the Democrats get control of both houses, and even before Katrina it looked possible, now it looks almost likely, he could be impeached. It would be a true test of the Democratic party. If they get control and don't do something, then I don't know what to do. I'm a real partisan Democrat, active in the Party and such, but if they can't man up and ruin this little fucker, I don't know where to turn.
 
Hmm, could somebody give me an "impeachment for dummies" primer, I ignored the whole Clinton thing beyond thinking "He got a BJ in the WH? Ahahaha what a pimp mofo..."
 
Wikipedia:
Procedurally, it is a two-step process. The House of Representatives must first pass "articles of impeachment" by a simple majority. The articles of impeachment constitute the formal allegations. Upon passage, the defendant has been formally "impeached."

Next, the Senate tries the accused. In the case of the impeachment of a President, the Chief Justice of the United States presides over the proceedings. Otherwise, the Vice President, in his capacity of President of the Senate, or otherwise the President pro tempore of the Senate (Temporary President) presides. It should be noted that this would include the impeachment of the Vice President him- or herself. In order to convict the accused, a two-thirds majority of the Senators present is required.
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But basically, in laymans terms, the House of Rep. must "charge" him with the crime, then the Senate holds the trial. Clinton's charges I think were just the obstruction of justice and perjury, nothing else passed muster. The 2/3 majority would be the kicker for the Dems if they were gonna go after Bush. They could get a Majority in '06 but 2/3 would be tough, but getting republicans to impeach bush would be the best way for them to save their own asses for '08 and beyond.
 
I'm more concerned by the fact American's must blame somebody for a natural disaster relief effort that is nearly impossible to prepare for. Let's be honest with ourselves- are we just blaming somebody in a position of authority because we feel they actually had the power or the resources to do something about it? For lack of clear concrete evidence I can't really lay blame on Bush for the events following Katrina. I simply don't have the information or knowledge to make the claim that Bush should somehow be burdened with the task of Hurricane relief when it is nearly impossible to predict something like this. Is it taboo to point the finger at LA state and local offices for not being prepared for a hurricance of significant magnitude? It seems like they are far more responsible for the events following the storm than anyone on the fed level. Again, for lack of any better knowledge I'm just throwing much of this out there. I'm not going to pretend like I have an answer or that I agree with much of the popular opinion.
 
Totally differant to the UK in some ways. Basically if a Prime minister becomes VERY unpopular then they tend to resign, basically for the good of their party (Thatcher did so). Members of Parliment can call a vote of no confidence in their leader and if the vote goes against then they are removed from office. Most of the time if it tends to be more than 30-40 MP's voting no confidence then their position becomes risky and they resign. Popular public opinion has a huge effect on whether or not a PM can stay in office. This also means that the whole process of removal of a PM is very quick and clean. After his removal the deputy Prime minister takes over until a replacement is voted for by the political party.
 
evilromero said:
I'm more concerned by the fact American's must blame somebody for a natural disaster relief effort that is nearly impossible to prepare for. Let's be honest with ourselves- are we just blaming somebody in a position of authority because we feel they actually had the power or the resources to do something about it? For lack of clear concrete evidence I can't really lay blame on Bush for the events following Katrina. I simply don't have the information or knowledge to make the claim that Bush should somehow be burdened with the task of Hurricane relief when it is nearly impossible to predict something like this. Is it taboo to point the finger at LA state and local offices for not being prepared for a hurricance of significant magnitude? It seems like they are far more responsible for the events following the storm than anyone on the fed level. Again, for lack of any better knowledge I'm just throwing much of this out there. I'm not going to pretend like I have an answer or that I agree with much of the popular opinion.
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It isn't impossible to prepare for. The problem is that people needed to be doing stuff sooner than when they actually did it. If the Guard had been called up and mobilized right when the shit started hitting the fan, say Wendesday, lives could have been saved.

Watch this video (hosted at MichaelMoore.com but its from Meet The Press last weekend) and tell me you don't think someone should be held responsible.

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard on MTP

The last time I cried was on 9/11 until I saw this.
 
pulsemyne said:
Totally differant to the UK in some ways. Basically if a Prime minister becomes VERY unpopular then they tend to resign, basically for the good of their party (Thatcher did so). Members of Parliment can call a vote of no confidence in their leader and if the vote goes against then they are removed from office. Most of the time if it tends to be more than 30-40 MP's voting no confidence then their position becomes risky and they resign. Popular public opinion has a huge effect on whether or not a PM can stay in office. This also means that the whole process of removal of a PM is very quick and clean. After his removal the deputy Prime minister takes over until a replacement is voted for by the political party.
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Those difference are sort of from the whole idea of the Presidency as an institution, as opposed to Prime Minister who is sort of the guy in charge. Remember, we made our country different from yours so we could ensure stability to some degree. Would it be better if we had the same sort of system? I dunno. The problem with the way things are is that the people that can change the ways things work dont want to change anything that may remove them from power.
 
It isn't impossible to prepare for. The problem is that people needed to be doing stuff sooner than when they actually did it.
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Blame the state and local governments. Bush warned that a powerful hurricane was coming and people needed to evacuate.
 
GhaleonEB said:
Assman: living up to his handle.
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From what I udnerstand this is true. He called the Govenor of LA to evacuate and she didnt bother. Under the constitution Bush could not call in federal aid unless LA asked for it which it didnt till late in the game.
 
Gek54 said:
From what I udnerstand this is true. He called the Govenor of LA to evacuate and she didnt bother. Under the constitution Bush could not call in federal aid unless LA asked for it which it didnt till late in the game.
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The White House didn't even include New Orleans in their pre-emptive declaration of disaster areas to expedite emergency responses.
 
"There's no question the federal government plays a major role in disaster relief. But federal officials say in order to get involved, they must first be asked to do so by state officials.

As one FEMA official told ABC News, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco failed to submit a request for help in a timely manner.

Shortly before Katrina hit, she sent President Bush a request asking for shelter and provisions, but didn't specifically ask for help with evacuations. One aide to the governor told ABC News today Blanco thought city officials were taking care of the evacuation."
 
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