Bush on Katrina: Who Knew it would be this bad?

The Bush Administration has more blood on their hands and obsessive compulsive washing is not going to do the trick this time. Some confidential video taken prior to Hurricane Katrina hit detail the extent of Bush's involvement in hurricane preparations. In conclusion it is not much. Here are a few of my favorite lines from the article:

Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on August 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

The White House and Homeland Security Department urged the public Wednesday not to read too much into the video footage.

"I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing," presidential spokesman Trent Duffy said, citing a variety of orders and disaster declarations Bush signed before the storm made landfall. "He received multiple briefings from multiple officials, and he was completely engaged at all times."

Homeland Security officials have said the "fog of war" blinded them early on to the magnitude of the disaster. But the video and transcripts show federal and local officials discussed threats clearly, reviewed long-made plans and understood Katrina would wreak devastation of historic proportions. "I'm sure it will be the top 10 or 15 when all is said and done," National Hurricane Center's Max Mayfield warned the day Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast.

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. He later clarified, saying officials believed, wrongly, after the storm passed that the levees had survived. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility even before the storm -- and Bush was worried too.

Excuse me while I barf.... Read the entire thing here.
Katrina links: technorati wikipedia
Bush links: technorati wikipedia