Bush delegates too much! They didn't tell him until Thursday???

[The Backlash Cometh]

That's a valid excuse for the federal delay to NOLA's plea for help? Are people really accepting that sorry excuse?

He's the president of the United States and from the beginning, the pundits were fawning over him because they claimed that he knew his weaknesses and would surround himself by "good" people. Well I say, garbage in, garbage out. All Bush had to do was select who was going to be part of his inner circle and those "good" people he picked haven't gotten it right yet. For the Iraq war, there was infighting among them and he made the ultimate decision to believe the chickenhawks. No surprise there because they were the people he could relate to the most.

And now regarding NOLA, he said that his people didn't recognize the seriousness of the situation until Thursday night because EVERYBODY on t.v. were reporting that a bullet had been dodged. That has got to be the biggest lie. In the first 24 hours after the storm, most DUers noticed that the news from NOLA was lacking. There was just not enough specific information. As news began to trickle out, first CNN, and then MSNBC began to report the horrors of what was happening in NOLA. I have no idea what FoxNews was reporting, but if there was a difference that may be the reason why Bush's people just didn't get it.

He keeps relying on the wrong people and so keeps getting it wrong. Garbage in, Garbage out. Maybe Bush would be wise to start paying attention to the polls, instead of his handpicked inner circle.

[demnan]

1. Why is Bush always the last to know?

I mean the world knew! They should hire someone to keep up with the news by watching T.V.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. That's the most shocking thing of all.

This man has access to Nagin and Blanco if he wants it, and instead he's getting his information from the people who he put in charge of watching t.v. for him?

[tblue37]

24. Excep that Blanco and Nagin couldn't get through when they called.

Blanco was shunted from one low-level functionary to another when she tried to call the WH and was unable to get hold of anyone higher up, especially Bush. But she couldn' get Card or Cheney or anyone else, either.

[SeattleGirl]

5. OnTom Hartman just now, he's talking about how the staffers were

"afraid" to tell him about how devastating Katrina really was. They were trying to figure out how to "delicately" tell him. "DELICATELY"??? Grown men and women (okay, that's a qualified "grown") AFRAID to tell the pResident about a national disaster? Trying to frame it delicately???? That seals it for me. George W. Bush is a tyrant!! How else to explain his staff's reluctance to tell him about Katrina? Aargh!!!

:banghead:

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. It means he doesn't welcome news that doesn't fit his ideology.

This man is not capable of working outside his plan. That's why they don't want to give him information that contradicts what he expects to hear. That's why he doesn't want to see the polls.

This guy has a terrible personality to be a leader!!! How did we get into the modern world believing that someone like him can run a super nation?

[Garbo 2004]

18. Jus like no one wanted to wake the Fuhrer on D Day. n/t

[teamster633]

21. A more apt analogy I can't imagine...

[GreenPartyVoter]

26. Agreed

------------------------------------------------------
URGENT yet easy! Hold the government accountable for Katrina's aftermath
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4736062

[bloom]

19. That just sounds like BS to me.... eom

[KansDem]

23. "You tell 'm!" No, YOU tell 'm!" NOOO. Let's get Mikey!!"

HE'S INCOMPETENT!!!

This seems to fit into all those stories about how Bush flies into rages and lashes out at people if he hears or sees something he doesn't like. Perhaps his stooges were reluctant to give him this information for fear of becoming a verbal punching bag.

"Mikey" Brown is incompetent, the perfect person to relate to George. It makes sense: if you want to give bad news to an emotionally-disturbed wacko, have the most incompetent person do it. Every one else can go out for pizza.

[The Backlash Cometh]

27. He stays on course, which means he's not a proactive leader.

Everyone has to fall all over the place to fit his plan. Life isn't like that.

[Bob3]

2. there is a saying in business: A people hire A people

B people hire C people.

Until till now we've never known who C people pick - now we do fawning sycophants who don't bother the emperor with bad news since he's doing, well, something (god knows what it is, he doesn't read, he doesn't watch a lot of tv, he doesn't listen to music - does he just spend his days staring into space? You have to wonder.)

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. I want to know who in the hail thought this was a good idea?

Who thought that it was a stroke of brilliance that Bush would get to select his own inner circle, and that inner circle would advise him properly? I'll tell you who. Chris Matthews. That's who.

[opihimoimoi]

7. He must be watching cartoons and porn.....

[Jade Fox]

11. Interesting. I've never heard that but....

I agree with it.

Competent people appreciate the competence of others. Imcompetent
people prefer to be around those who make them look good.

[Maraya1969]

4. Everyone here who made a call to the White House or FEMA

is a witness that this is a lie. On Tuesday there was a thread on here screaming to people to call the White House and tell them to drop water and MRE'!

If anyone wants proof that they were informed it is right here on DU.

And in all the news programs where the reporters were saying no one was there to help. You'd have to convince a jury that not one in the administration watched the news channels to get that one through.

[ima_sinnic]

13. BINGO! forgot to mention that in my post below

and I of course have the copy of my e-mail that I sent out en masse to my list, subject "urgent," asking for Congress and the White House to be flooded with e-mails and calls--as well as my own e-mails to Congress and The Great Pretender. It was duly noted here on DU that the White House had disconnected their 800# after the calls started pouring in.

[nini]

8. If he can't be bothered to do the job then step aside

or better yet IMPEACH the SOB.

[Jade Fox]

9. I'm wondering if Bush was set up by some of his underlings....

You know, the ones we hear rumors about who are tip-toeing around
trying to avoid Bush's rage-aholic episodes?

Maybe they decided to stop covering for him. As President, no one should
have had to tell him to be on top of the pending disaster on the Gulf
Coast.

[ima_sinnic]

10. I went to bed worrying about the people in the Superdome the

night of Katrina--why didn't he? At dawn I went online immediately to find out what was going on--why didn't he?

The guy is OBVIOUSLY UNFIT to be a dog catcher, let alone President of the U.S.

IMPEACH, INDICT, IMPRISON the ENTIRE BUSH ADMINISTRATION FOR GROSS CRIMINAL NEGLECT, MASS MURDER, COMPLETE AND OVERWHELMING INCOMPETENCE, DIVERTING PUBLIC FUNDS FOR PRIVATE PROFIT, etc. etc. AD NAUSEUM.

[Garbo 2004]

22. Because you have an active sympathetic/empathetic imagination

and can feel for folks in such a situation. A part of that is relating to others as yourself thinkng, what would it be like if you were in their shoes?

This is something Bush never has. Others are the "other" to him and his kind. He's not bothered by any of this "fellow feeling" crap. It's not happening to him and his imagination does not encompass or comprehend the suffering of others except perhaps as an abstraction to which he occasionally must pay public lip service for PR purposes. And then it always rings false (he's parroting scripted "heartfelt" remarks) or results, if he's speaking spontaneously, in some howlingly inappropriate remark.

He is his mother's son for sure.

[On the Road]

12. Bush Doesn't Delegate -- He Relegates

at least on issues he doesn't care about and hopes they just disappear. Then when something goes drastically wrong, he wakes up and says "What? There was a problem?"

[oasis]

15. Bush is surrounded by subordinates. There is no way he wasn't advised to

turn the tv on to see the misery and death in the Superdome that Fox's Shep Smith was wailing about.

Then, Mr. President,if you're the leader of the free world, why didn't you pick up a phone and make it stop.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Bush didn't have to rely on the news. He could have called in directly

to every governor in every state affected. How long after Florida was hit did he pick up the phone to call Jeb?

[oasis]

17. You can be sure Jeb and Chimpyboy were is constant communication before,

during and after the hurricane in Florida during an election year.

The Chimp told Blanco to take a number and get in line.

[KittyWampus]

20. Oh, And Rove Had Kidney Stones

[Garbo 2004]

25. But I think too it's part of the "blame staff" excuse for Bush. But the

problem with that approach, if that's the inside line being fed to the media, is that it shows a president dangerously out of touch and uninterested on what's going on not only in the world but in the country.

It's not expecting too much to expect the POTUS to at least have a passing first hand awareness and understanding of current events. Any boob with a TV knew what the situation was in NOLA.

If this "inside" info was intended to let Bush off the hook, it doesn't. It's damming. They create their own reality, as a Bushie once told Ron Suskind, but here it just left them in their own private Neverland, peddling their happy talk in press conferences, while tens of thousands suffered live on TV while the whole world watched.

[applegrove]

28. They have been putting incompetents & hostiles in governance agencies

for years. This is a pattern. So Corporations can run in and save the day.