Newsweek: How Bush Blew It ( a scathing indictment of Bush)

[Pirate Smile]

How Bush Blew It

Bureaucratic timidity. Bad phone lines. And a failure of imagination. Why the government was so slow to respond to catastrophe.

A woman walks in the flooded streets of the 9th Ward of New Orleans

By Evan Thomas
Newsweek

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.

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.

-snip-
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.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/site/newsweek/

[Spazito]

1. I think it is, overall, an excellent summary of what was going on

behind the scenes, well worth reading.

[Trevelyan]

2. Keep posting articles from the MSM that are not turning back.

Apparently MSNBC is "catapulting the propaganda" once again.

Email thanks to those who are telling the truth. Did anyone receive their Washington Post Sunday. We didn't and a link to WaPo from Ed Schultz wasn't working. I thing WaPo owns Newsweek and read a war profiteer now owns the Washington Post. Does anyone know the facts?

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/printme.php?eid=67680

Deadline Hollywood
They Shoot News Anchors, Don’t They?
Media moguls, not looters, killed Katrina’s truth tellers
by NIKKI FINKE

For the first 120 hours after Hurricane Katrina, TV journalists were let off their leashes by their mogul owners, the result of a rare conjoining of flawless timing (summer’s biggest vacation week) and foulest tragedy (America’s worst natural disaster).

[ClintonTyree]

47. That's because they were in New Orleans, live.........

and their reports weren't subject to censorship by the big wigs and crunched into 30 second sound bites that would paint Der Failure as a steadfast and resolute leader again. The brass couldn't control the information coming from NOLA and I imagine they were PLENTY pissed about that.
I knew it wouldn't take long for them to rein them in after the initial live reports. Now everything's back to normal, in the sanctity and comfortable spaces of the studio where the message can be controlled.
I hope some sort of alternative News Agency comes out of this. Lord knows there's enough reporters who WANT to tell the truth, it's just a matter of LETTING them tell the truth.

[Demeter]

3. New Meme: Instead of POTUS, How About PUTZ?

Truth in advertising, that's my goal!

[ET Awful]

7. Just change the meaning of POTUS . . . how about

Pimple On The Underbelly Of Society?

:evilgrin:

[Demeter]

8. Or Maybe, POS for Short?

Kind of like the nicknames Bush gives out to his buddies, isn't it?

[Nostradammit]

35. Piece Of Thick, Ugly Shit

???

:shrug:

[Puglover]

4. Just concrete proof

of how "librul" the media is.
:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Pirate Smile]

5. It needs more votes to get on GP. More:

"Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a motherly but steely figure known by the nickname Queen Bee, knew that she needed help. But she wasn't quite sure what. At about 8 p.m., she spoke to Bush. "Mr. President," she said, "we need your help. We need everything you've got."

Bush, the governor later recalled, was reassuring. But the conversation was all a little vague. Blanco did not specifically ask for a massive intervention by the active-duty military. "She wouldn't know the 82nd Airborne from the Harlem Boys' Choir," said an official in the governor's office, who did not wish to be identified talking about his boss's conversations with the president. There are a number of steps Bush could have taken, short of a full-scale federal takeover, like ordering the military to take over the pitiful and (by now) largely broken emergency communications system throughout the region. But the president, who was in San Diego preparing to give a speech the next day on the war in Iraq, went to bed.

By the predawn hours, most state and federal officials finally realized that the 17th Street Canal levee had been breached, and that the city was in serious trouble. Bush was told at 5 a.m. Pacific Coast time and immediately decided to cut his vacation short. To his senior advisers, living in the insular presidential bubble, the mere act of lopping off a couple of presidential vacation days counts as a major event. They could see pitfalls in sending Bush to New Orleans immediately. His presence would create a security nightmare and get in the way of the relief effort. Bush blithely proceeded with the rest of his schedule for the day, accepting a gift guitar at one event and pretending to riff like Tom Cruise in "Risky Business."

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. The FUBAR president...sounds like a good bumper sticker...

[Liberty Belle]

9. Nominating -- 1 more needed. Kick!

This is a blistering presentation that lays the blame squarely on Bush's shoulders, demonstrating his incompetence and detachment from reality. When a vacation is more important to the president than taking decisive action to save lives, he is not fit to lead.

[Bluebear]

61. aw once more!

[truthisfreedom]

10. HOW DARE THE MODS MOVE THIS OUT OF LATEST-BREAKING NEWS?

what has happened to DU? has it been taken over by corporate interests?

[Pirate Smile]

11. This does have new info in it. It isn't an opinion piece.

:shrug:

[DeepModem Mom]

13. You'll notice this article was posted in LBN previously...

and moved previously, after quite a bit of response. I've suggested that when major articles such as this, which evoke a strong immediate response, appear in LBN that they might be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and possibly allowed to stay in LBN. I've seen many worthy articles moved to Editorials and Other Articles, and not get a single response after they're moved. And many DUers subsequently miss seeing them. I occasionally repost in GD, but it moves so quickly that even the best of articles usually disappear in a short time.

And, sometimes, I think, the very appearance of a major article in a publication is news in itself.

[Pirate Smile]

15. I agree. Thanks. This is on GP now so hopefully it will get more

attention.
:hi:

[hiley]

12. hmm

wonder more and more what is going on?
Edit to say I recommend this article..
and sending it out.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. I don't think this is an editorial judgement...

but a strict interpretation of DU rules. Please see my post #13 for a suggestion I've made concerning this issue.

[demgrrrll]

20. Have you been noticing that too? All the good current articles are

moved around and harder to find. Interesting.........

[DS1]

25. because it's not NEWS?

Maybe?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

36. Get Real. "taken over by corporate interest?". What planet are you on?

[Beetwasher]

16. This is In The NEWSTAND Issue!

I expected it to be an online only as stuff like this usually is, but it's not! :wow:

[KoKo]

24. Don't get too excited from the snips though. It's not trashing Bush as

much as one might think. As you get further into the article you can see where Thomas is "REALLY" placing the blame. :shrug:

[Pepper32]

38. I agree, seems to me they're making excuses for our selected President

Give me a break, that asshole knew what he was doing, he's knows everyone thinks he is beyond ignorant so now he's using it to get out of trouble. Ah, ah I didn't know, I swear. :eyes:

Think about how much you could get away with just by claiming you're too stupid to know better?

edited: typos

[I Have A Dream]

17. DON'T FORGET TO RATE THE STORY HIGH AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE!!

[KoKo]

26. This story IMHO does NOT deserve DU Front Page....No Way!

It's Rove Propaganda...don't be sucked in by it...PLEASE!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

37. Null

Null

[kskiska]

18. Last Paragraph

Late last week, Bush was, by some accounts, down and angry. But another Bush aide described the atmosphere inside the White House as "strangely surreal and almost detached." At one meeting described by this insider, officials were oddly self-congratulatory, perhaps in an effort to buck each other up. Life inside a bunker can be strange, especially in defeat.

[IndianaGreen]

19. Hitler threw a temper tantrum when he was awaken with news of D-Day

Bush's henchmen were afraid to tell the American Fuehrer that he will have to cut short by 2 days his 5 week vacation in Crawford. Excuse me while I go puke!

[I Have A Dream]

22. Yeah, and how dare that bitch (sarcasm!) Cindy Sheehan...

interfere with his peace and tranquility of 5 WEEKS OF VACATION!!!

Big time :sarcasm:!!


(On edit: fixed typo.)

[sam sarrha]

41. Hitler was a drug addict too.. there are similarities between them

[KoKo]

21. This article goes on to lie about Nagin and Blanco and takes digs at

them. At first it seemed the article was finally criticizing Bush...which is interesting because Evan Thomas has been a total supporter of Bush, the Iraq Invasion and all else Bush. But, as I read the article I started to see what he was up to. Saying Nagin ordered the evacuation of NO a whole day after Mississippi had evacuated its coast and then calling Blanco "a motherly figure known as Queen Bee" who he says "dithered" over whether toops should be brought in.

Except for a mild criticism of Bush lacking what he calls "imagination" which some of us here might say is "Empathy" and not "imagination" the article slyly casts blame off Bush and the Administration onto Nagin and Blanco...I finall gave up after page 3...I couldn't stand the propaganda any more.

I saw it as Newsweek propaganda rewriting a Katrina Timeline that came straight from Rove.

I imagine others will see it differently, though. I just had to rant about what I think is garbage from Thoms...:shrug:

[jasmeel]

23. I agree with you. I really am confused about all the Blanco-*

talk. It looks like Nagin prompted the discussion between * and Blanco. She wanted it to be private. Then nothing got done. I'm really really confused. Why did the effort have to be federalized to cut through red tape?? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

[DaveT]

27. The is the MSM -- read it with a jaundiced eye.

This is a major development in the corporte media universe -- White House aides are cited as the source for a narrative that has Bush's advisors dreading the prospect of telling him that it was raining outside. It took them three days of palace guard intrigue and required the intervention of a "show and tell" DVD to get the lazy prick's attention. Attention to HIS JOB, for God's sake.

For whatever weight the rest of the article adds to the idiotic food fight that Rove's army of liars are trying to wage across the political junky subculture, this basic picture of Shrub is devestating.

The first question to ask is whether Newsweek is accurately quoting its blind sources. Based on Newsweek's corporate pedigree and its membership in the small coterie of "respectable" national news platforms, I find it easy to believe that these are accurate quotes.

The second question to ask is what motivated these blind sources to tell this story of POTUS asleep at the switch. It suggests very strongly that the truth is much, much worse.

God only knows what this hyperactive psychopath does with his "spare time" that his aides are too terrified to interrupt even in the face of a national security emergency.


Bush the person is in some real trouble for the first time in his life. Daddy's money and connections have gotten him out of every fix until now -- but now his infinite irresponsibility is threatening to cause real trouble for his sponsors.

I don't think this will necessarily doom the neocon project -- but Shrub has screwed up so bad that, at best, he is going to limp through the rest of his term in disgrace.

Stay tuned.

[KoKo]

28. Good points...thanks. I found the article less negative than you, BUT

your observation about how many anonymous aides and sources talked to Newsweek, might mean "somethings up" inside the bubble.

No one has dared speak to the press before...no aid and only fluff news from "WH Officials," in the past.

Still, I have problems with Thomas and notice that "Blue Dress" Issikoff is one who worked with Thomas on this article so I was naturally skeptical.It's possible there is some "tension" in the ranks inside the bubble. :D could be a good sign. Thanks for that extra insight.

[rodeodance]

57. yes, all these aides talking--lots of tension within the 'ranks"

[hraka]

34. He's lost it. Here are a few polls

Zogby had his approval rating at 41% on 9/08. An AP-Ipsos poll on 9/09 had him at 39%. And a Newsweek poll 9/08 - 9/09 has him at 38%.

The Newsweek poll gives you a great view into his popularity ups and downs. You can see their polls for the past 4 1/2 years, as well as other polls including CBS, AP/Ipsos, Zogby, Pew, and many others, at http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm

[CJCRANE]

40. The bit about the DVD got me too.

Why has he got no curiosity about his own country?!

Even Saddam Hussein used to watch CNN to see what was going on in the world.

[NJCher]

54. Uncurious George

Why has he got no curiosity about his own country?!


He's a puppet, not a player.




Cher

[Drewskie]

56. sources

The sources have to be pretty solid. After all, Newsweek is the same publication that was attacked by the white house over the Koran abuse story and, supposedly, resultant riots in the muslim world. Issikoff even offered his resignation over that if I remember right.

A good article. The "what if watergate happened now" parody, by Alter, from a few months ago is my personal favorite Newsweek work of recent vintage, but this one is plenty good.

[jaysunb]

29. Still bullshitting though...

Saying , Iraq was an intelligence failure sounds more like CYA from an outfit that promoted and enabled the invasion.

[ginnyinWI]

30. I'm glad I'm a subscriber

For MSM, they are pretty good. Of course you always need to add a side serving of something more, like The Nation, or DU. :)

[hraka]

31. I passed this around at work today

and was hoping to be the first to post it here. Oh well, it is by far one of the best written articles I've seen so far. It doesn't point fingers or lay blame. It puts everything on tha table and lets you decide for yourself. I woulda liked to have been a fly on the wall when New Orleans Mayor 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.'"
I'll bet monkey boy just looked over his shoulder and said, "Fix it."

[hraka]

32. Oh yeah, and KICK!

[hraka]

33. I was vote 24! It should be there soon!!

[CJCRANE]

39. He's just a trust-fund kid

He expects to be paid just to live an easy life: ride his bike, watch sport on TV, hang out at his ranch etc.

All his life he's had a permanent financial safety net so never had to exert himself or be concerned about what's going on in the outside world.

[Boo Boo]

42. "The war in Iraq was a failure of intelligence."

No it wasn't. Unless, of course, the intelligence we are talking about is the kind that exists between someone's ears; or in Bush's case, doesn't.

The government's response to Katrina—like the failure to anticipate that terrorists would fly into buildings on 9/11—was a failure of imagination. On Tuesday, within 24 hours of the storm's arrival, Bush needed to be able to imagine the scenes of disorder and misery that would, two days later, shock him when he watched the evening news. He needed to be able to see that New Orleans would spin into violence and chaos very quickly if the U.S. government did not take charge—and, in effect, send in the cavalry, which in this case probably meant sending in a brigade from a combat outfit, like the 82nd Airborne, based in Fort Bragg, N.C., and prepared to deploy anywhere in the world in 18 hours.

Oh, I see... We are talking about that kind of intelligence!

Jeebus.

I hate the way this guy furthers the old "intelligence failure" bullshit for no other reason than it makes a nice literary device. Furthermore, Bush went charging into Iraq because he couldn't imagine it going bad. He thought Iraq was going to be a slam-dunk; a freebie. Lack of imagination is symptomatic of a lack of intelligence. Not a failure of intelligence, but a lack of it.

Bush is not smart enough to be President.

[skyounkin]

43. Where is the Condi Coverage?!

If ANYONE needs a look at how criminally detached this admistration is from the REALITY the rest of us live in it is that the Secretary of State was buying FUCKING SHOES!!! She wasn't on the goddam phone begging for help from other nations, she wasn't coordinating efforts with international partners. She. Was. Buying. Fucking. SHOES!!!!

All this ignorance stems from the fact that the * administration has no understanding that there are people in America who are living in poverty, who can't just drive outta New Orleans. It stems from the most unfathomable belief that people are poor because they choose to be.

Impeach them all.

"We need your help, send me everything you got."....

After a few days of total bullshit, I don't really blame her for not wanting to turn over control to the idiot king.

[stevietheman]

44. "Failure of intelligence" is *only* a literary device... too bad it....

happens to not be true. The American people were bamboozled into war with lie on top of lie, and this journalist should have been smart enough to know that these lies are thoroughly documented... I mean, how are we to take factuality of this article seriously if the author gets a point like this *so* wrong?

Also, I am sick and tired of the "federalizing the NG" and "single command structure" canards, as if the effort in NOLA wasn't already federalized. FEMA already had the authority to coordinate whatever troops and other resources were available, and they simply failed to do that. I wonder if the article written to "criticize Bush" wasn't really a device to slip in this canard in hopes of unfairly diluting responsibility for this disaster. This failure was *mostly* federal, and there's no way around it.

[cordelia106]

45. I am floored ...

I am floored that this piece appeared in a major mainstream

publication like Newsweek.Good job Newsweek,well written, well

researched.I had been wondering this weekend about Bushco's

attempts to have the true numbers of the dead hidden.Like

everyone I do not wish the figures to be high, but how can they

be only in the hundreds?How is that possible?

[ClintonTyree]

46. The spoiled little Frat Boy doesn't want to hear bad news.........

or ANY news for that matter. "Just leave me alone, I didn't steal this presidency so I'd have to WORK, damn it!"
And all this time I thought "presidentin' was hard work"? :shrug:
Now, we wouldn't want to interrupt his 5 week vacation just 'cause Americans are dyin' all over the place, would we? I don't think that's something the president of the United States should have to worry about, do you?
The spoiled little rich boy gets cranky if someone tells him bad news? WAKE UP, ASSHOLE, your time in the White House has been NOTHING BUT BAD NEWS! What a fucking idiot. THIS is THE BEST the Republican Party could give us? And people VOTED for this retard, TWICE? A big old :wtf: is in order here!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

48. Excellent article

Not just an indictment of Bush (who definitely deserves his lumps) but an overview of what went wrong at all levels.

[savemefromdumbya]

49. snippet

now they are talking about the levees being sabotaged?

[mcg]

50. So not bothering Bush to them is more important than human lives???

That is so sick.

[yellowcanine]

51. Saying Bush lacks "situational awareness" is a kind way of saying he is

ignorant and likely to stay that way, given his lack of intellectual curiosity. Man do I miss the big dog.

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

52. "Life inside a bunker can be strange, especially in defeat."

The last line in the article. Freaky.

[kalavaughn]

53. Too bad

his handlers didn't think to get out that "poorly tailored shirt" shrub wore for the presidential debates last fall, before he got loose in NO, spouting his foolish bs for all the world to see. Maybe they could get Nancy Reagan to appear with him, and feed him lines like she used to do for Ronnie.

[fishnfla]

55. Of all the problems: Communications is key

The chimp was out of touch to be sure. Lack of communication on alot of levels led to problems...

But when the power went out and cell phones and blackberries and all the fancy techno-gadgets upon which people seem to over-rely (IMO)failed, people on the ground and the various agencies were left out of touch too and in the dark. Then they could not charge batteries for handheld devices, and all inter-agency communications were lost.

This failure compounded the problems and interfered, indeed heeded, the storms recovery. Countless stories, one of which we just read, to Drs in the hospitals, of lack of communications

Anyone remember what happened on 9/11 with the Motorola devices?

This problem needs to be addressed. Someone could save alot of lives if more reliable emergency communication devices and systems can be brought into play.

We could see things that were happening on the ground( even though the chimp wasn't paying attention), via media nad internet, but the boots in the field were cut off.

[plunger]

58. INCOMPETENCE PAYS !

Incompetence Pays:

Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Disaster Capitalism in New Orleans

The cost of cleaning up the results of Bush's negligence in failing to deal with global warming and spending money needed for New Orleans levees on his war in Iraq may be as much as the $300 billion spent in four years to fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Of course, what most people would regard as a cost, the entrepreneurial politicians in the Bush White House see as yet another opportunity to transfer money from taxpayers to their personal friends. The scheme is blatantly obvious:


1. Bush has started to issue Iraq-style no-bid contracts, with cost-plus provisions that guarantee contractors a certain profit regardless of how much they spend.

2. Old buddies like Halliburton, Bechtel, and Fluor are first in line. Joe Allbaugh, the former director of FEMA, is lobbying for Halliburton, and another winner of the Katrina windfall, Shaw Group Inc.

3. In order to increase profitability at the expense of the working people most affected by the hurricane and thus most in need of money, Bush has removed (or here) federal minimum-wage provisions from the reconstruction contracts.

The concept of 'disaster capitalism', a term coined by Naomi Klein, is now being applied to the United States itself. Klein wrote:

"Last summer, in the lull of the August media doze, the Bush Administration's doctrine of preventive war took a major leap forward. On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate 'post-conflict' plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries 'at the same time,' each lasting 'five to seven years.'

"But if the reconstruction industry is stunningly inept at rebuilding, that may be because rebuilding is not its primary purpose. According to Guttal, 'It's not reconstruction at all - it's about reshaping everything.' If anything, the stories of corruption and incompetence serve to mask this deeper scandal: the rise of a predatory form of disaster capitalism that uses the desperation and fear created by catastrophe to engage in radical social and economic engineering.

"A group calling itself Thailand Tsunami Survivors and Supporters says that for 'businessmen-politicians, the tsunami was the answer to their prayers, since it literally wiped these coastal areas clean of the communities which had previously stood in the way of their plans for resorts, hotels, casinos and shrimp farms. To them, all these coastal areas are now open land!'"

Just like New Orleans! If the Bush Administration has elaborate pre-made plans to make money off conflicts which have yet to occur in other countries, why would they not also have elaborate pre-made plans to make money off natural disasters that occur within the United States? A book of plans for New Orleans, a book of plans for Florida, a book of plans for San Francisco . . the money to be made is enormous! The implications of FEMA's 'incompetence' and Bush's inexplicable failure to do anything about the plight of New Orleans until it was too late become rather obvious. Competence just leads to fewer chances to make money.

http://xymphora.blogspot.com/

[TexasLawyer]

59. Tragic picture in the Newsweek article

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/page/5/

[ladylibertee]

60. You just can't stop. LOL. You must have a strong stomach. I guess

it's good that someone makes everyone aware. Shock people into reality and just how bad Bush's screw up really is.So, on that note, I can control the nausea and see the bigger picture (oops)