it's really unbelievable that some of you are so quick to call bush a liar but when the governor of that state says something false, she is just missinformed or had a lack of info. think about that for a minute. if the governor of louisiana doens't have all the info on the levees, how in the hell does the president? she is the freakin' governor of the state. she has a lot more information and knowledge of the levee system than the president (or you would think she does). if you are calling bush a liar then you have to call blanco one too. personally, i see so many people to blame on this. from the city of new orleans, to the state of louisiana, to fema, and to the president. you can't simply just call the president a liar and blame the mass destruction of new orleans on him. it's obvious that the city and state were not prepared themselves for this and had not taken the appropriate measures to protect their citizens in a situation like this. it's also clear fema was run by complete and utter morons, and that happened under bush's watch so he is partly to blame on fema's failure.
Why would the governor of Louisiana know less what was happening on the ground in New Orleans than some meteorologist or worse, a bureaucrat, at the NWS?
How about we call <b>no one</b> a liar and just understand that this was an <b>unprecendeted</b> event and that mistakes were made by many and that in a highly politicized climate, everybody does damage control so as not to provide fodder for their own political destruction? You admit a mistake and you get impaled with it.
We are using the guidelines for a liar set out by Bush supporters. "Bush didn't lie about Iraq he just had bad intel." (Later we found out that Bush had the right intel as well, and then lied about that, but that's another thread) In this case somebody predicted to Bush that the levees were likely to be breeched prior to the event. Bush later claimed that nobody predicted the levees would fail. He lied. Blanco admitted not being sure but said something that was incorrect. By the standards previously laid out by Bush supporters Blanco wasn't lying. Does that mean she doesn't deserve blame? Of course she definitely deserves blame. I haven't seen anybody say that she doesn't deserve blame. You claim a lot of people are arguing for that, but I haven't seen it. Whether or not somebody lied is different than whether or not they deserve blame. In Bush's case he did lie, and he deserves blame. In Blanco's case she deserves blame, but may not have lied.
Incorrect. When somebody shows me that Blanco knew the levees had failed prior to her saying they didn't, I will have no problem calling her a liar. There is video of Bush being told that the levees would likely fail, the superdome might not be safe, that the roof wasn't designed to handle the kind of winds that Katrina had, that it was 12 feet below sea level, and it might flood, that hospitals, prisons, and other places weren't being evacuated, and that gettings supplies in would be a problem if the levies broke. Bush was told that information straight up before it happened. He later claimed that nobody predicted what happened. That is a lie. Blanco made claims to the best of her knowledge while admitting that she was unclear about some things. That is not a lie. Show me the proof that she was told one thing and then claimed she was never told that. I will call her a liar. Was she incompetant for not knowing? I would lean towards yes. Does she deserve some blame? Most definitely. Is she a liar? That has yet to be proven. The same can not be said of President Bush.
Let's call someone who lied a liar. Let's not call someone who didn't definitely lie a liar, though they may still share the blame. If somebody claims nobody predicted something that somebody predicted, it is wholly accurate to say that person lied.
The article places the NWS paragraph as a counter to Blanco's statements thus giving the impression to those of a less discerning nature that she lied. In fact, it doesn't show whether she lied or not... it just shows that the Feds screwed up even more... note the times... morning for reports of breaches, evening for the info to get to the WH. That's bad. I have no doubt that the "bureaucrats" on the ground in the middle of the storm, pushed the info up the chain. I have my doubts that the leadership was really doing anything with that info. The article points out more than ever that the Command and Control function was broken at the Fed level.
That is defeatest talk. If it is proven that Blanco knew the levees failed then she too would be a liar. Until that point, she is just under-informed. Bush = Liar Blanco = Ignorant Which is better? Dunno. But since Bush is pretty much a pathalogical liar, I'll say Blanco's statements are less consequential.
Bush lied. He lied with words, but most importantly, he lied with his actions and lack thereof. Here's another lie... not a direct one, but one which surely gives people the wrong impressions about his actions... Here's Newsweek...
