W. House accused of foot-dragging in Katrina probe (Lieberman)

Can't get no respect from the fRepublicans, after everything he's done for them.

:eyes:

One who says things like this and his evil twin who can't kiss *'s ass enough.

Or it could be the possibility of a primary fight is reminding him of what party he belongs to.

he has a pretty liberal voting record.

first to see if a wishy washy 'no chance in hell it will pass anyway' vote is OK

...this would be an excellent subject for Michael Moore to dig into. The time-lines, who called or emailed who, how come America knew the hurricane was going to hit New Orleans 48 hrs. before it happened but Bush at his ranch said he heard nothing about it, Brown worried more about dinner reservations than the people in the Superdome, how the hell did a horse show judge qualify for directer of FEMA, etc.

Michael is real good about diggin' it up, finding them skeletons in the closet. :evilgrin:

so, they'll be a total of four, at least.
spike is aiming to have it shown by next september.

peace.

Holy Joe just noticed this lack of cooperation from the White House? They've evaded answering ANY questions when it comes to their ineptness right from the start. This has been the most secretive administration ever, and that includes Tricky Dick's paranoia palace.

HELLO, JOE! Did someone wake you from your slumber or did you finally remove your head from bush's ass? :wtf:

to the fire when, every time you do so, you get a hot-foot.

Surely they have only the best interests of the Amreican people in mind!

:sarcasm:

sounding like a Dem on this.

haven't figured that out yet, eh Joe?

Now would be a real good time to burnish your credentials as a member of the opposition party. Now the question is, how loud and how public are you willing to be with your charge that the White House is trying to run out the clock on this investigation?

and I'm a constituent who has so far supported you but am questioning whether that's wise this time around

on his show today and he pointed out that from 1997-2001 the Congress supoened the Clinton Admin over 1200 times, and this Congress has supoened the Bush Admin exactly 3 times in 5 years-all three about Katrina-related emails, etc. The point was that this Congress DOES NOT do it's job-period. He also talked about the Abramoff-DeLay connection re: Indian casinos and DeLay stopping a law protecting overseas workers (mostly women) working in US owned sweatshops sold into prostitution and forced to have abortions. "Culture of Life" my ass. They said that Brian Ross of ABC did a good expose of the workers plight, but I haven't heard DeLay being called on it.

stop * before the "unitary executive" takes over entirely.

Do your jobs, Congressmen and women!!!

So what will you be doing once you are out of the Senate?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060124/ap_on_go_co/katrina_congress_3


Senators: White House Stalls Katrina Probe
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 34 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The White House is crippling a Senate inquiry into the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina by barring administration officials from answering questions and failing to hand over documents, senators leading the investigation said Tuesday.

In some cases, staff at the White House and other federal agencies have refused to be interviewed by congressional investigators, said the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In addition, agency officials won't answer seemingly innocuous questions about times and dates of meetings and telephone calls with the White House, the senators said.

A White House spokesman said the administration is committed to working with separate Senate and House investigations of the Katrina response but wants to protect the confidentiality of presidential advisers.

"No one believes that the government responded adequately," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. "And we can't put that story together if people feel they're under a gag order from the White House."

Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record) of Maine, the committee's Republican chair, said she respects the White House's reluctance to reveal advice to President Bush from his top aides, which is generally covered by executive privilege.

MORE AT THE LINK

Who would want to prevent a probe of such crimes against America?

Those involved in the crime.

was met with anything more than stonewalling from this gang of criminals?

Bush reacted to the tsunami by ordering that no action would be taken until the amount of aid needed was fully assessed. Bush probably told his staff to hold off on Katrina too. That's the way he thinks.

I think that's what they are trying to hide.

Bush Administration is impeding? Wouldn't this alarm most normal people?

with all the foot draggin going on over ever single investigation that is tainted by his* brand of bullshit. I have never in my life seen one fuck up after another, one lie after another and one investigation after another.
I wonder if the colossal baffoon now holds the record for the total amount of investigatons against one pResidency?

colossal sack of shit failure*

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 - The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain documents about Hurricane Katrina or make senior White House officials available for sworn testimony before two Congressional committees investigating the storm response.

The White House this week also formally notified Representative Richard H. Baker, Republican of Louisiana, that it would not support his legislation creating a federally financed reconstruction program for the state that would bail out homeowners and mortgage lenders. Many Louisiana officials consider the bill crucial to recovery, but administration officials said the state would have to use community development money appropriated by Congress.

The White House's stance on storm-related documents, along with slow or incomplete responses by other agencies, threatens to undermine efforts to identify what went wrong, Democrats on the committees said Tuesday.

"There has been a near total lack of cooperation that has made it impossible, in my opinion, for us to do the thorough investigation that we have a responsibility to do," Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, said at Tuesday's hearing of the Senate committee investigating the response. His spokeswoman said he would ask for a subpoena for documents and testimony if the White House did not comply.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/politics/25katrina.html?hp&ex=1138251600&en=8d29a3cd95560931&ei=5094&partner=homepage

911 related documents,oh,and plamegate related documents..the cloak of secrecy permeates this stinking whitehouse. sad sad commentary.....

last week's electric bill. :sarcasm: With the fences and barrier, anti-aircraft guns and missles, the White House should probably more accurately be called the White Fortress instead. Forget that "people's house" stuff, cause it ain't any more.

Cheney's "energy summit" that, in my opinion, laid all the groundwork for the bush administration's plans to invade Iraq and "liberate" their oil.
That was the harbinger of things to come for anyone demanding oversight of this criminal regime.

BUSH FAILED TO LEAD ON PURPOSE.

The incompetence was deliberate.

...In response to questions later from a reporter, the deputy White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, said the administration had declined requests to provide testimony by Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff; Mr. Card's deputy, Joe Hagin; Frances Fragos Townsend, the domestic security adviser; and her deputy, Ken Rapuano.

Mr. Duffy said the administration had also declined to provide storm-related e-mail correspondence and other communications involving White House staff members. Mr. Rapuano has given briefings to the committees, but the sessions were closed to the public and were not considered formal testimony.

"The White House and the administration are cooperating with both the House and Senate," Mr. Duffy said. "But we have also maintained the president's ability to get advice and have conversations with his top advisers that remain confidential."

Yet even Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, objected when administration officials who were not part of the president's staff said they could not testify about communications with the White House.

Arizona Daily Star
AP
Senate panel: White House obstructing Katrina inquiry
01.25.2006

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/112896

WASHINGTON — The White House is crippling a Senate inquiry into the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina by barring administration officials from answering questions and failing to hand over documents, senators leading the investigation said Tuesday.

In some cases, staffers at the White House and other federal agencies have refused to be interviewed by congressional investigators, said the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In addition, agency officials won't answer seemingly innocuous questions about times and dates of meetings and telephone calls with the White House, the senators said.

pooopy!

this dance.

The White House is stonewalling? And Congress has no response?

:eyes:

This whole damn thing is getting depressingly familiar - they stonewall and after a while the whole thing is put in the backgorund and eventually droppped. That is what to be expected and that is what will happen. The administration has effectively done what it pleases with the able assistance of the rethuglican congress.

And Bush means what he says ... and says what he means!

---snip---
A White House spokesman said the administration is committed to working with separate Senate and House investigations of the Katrina response but wants to protect the confidentiality of presidential advisers.
========================

how many times are the bushies going to use that excuse? We're talking about how many people dead? Brazzillions in damage? Lives totally destroyed - and the bushies are concerned about confidentiality of presidential advisors?

but confidentiality is not a concern when it comes to tapping our phones, email and snailmail????

looks to me like the bushies real concern is how to cover their collective butts on this one

from the nytimes link above

..."When you have a natural disaster, the president needs to be hands-on, and if anyone in his staff gets in the way, he needs to push them away," said Representative Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican and member of the House investigating committee. "The response was pathetic."

Even before the House and Senate investigations began, Democrats called for the appointment of an independent commission, like the one set up after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to investigate the response to the most costly natural disaster in United States history. The 9/11 Commission, after extensive negotiations, questioned Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney and received sworn testimony from Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser.

"Our fears are turning out to be accurate," Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said Tuesday. "The Bush administration is stonewalling the Congress."

Mr. Duffy, along with officials from the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, said that although not every request had been met, the administration had provided an enormous amount of detailed information about nearly every aspect of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

(I can't recall which, I was flipping channels) showed the clip of Lieberman, then showed the 'Pam' mockup FEMA exercise, then powerpointed the pre-Katrina memo saying NOLA was anticipating the worst, including the breach of the levees .... and then showed Bush in is Press Conference with Pops and Big Dawg saying "We never anticipated that the levee's would be breached ... we had no idea ...blah blah".

Fucking Liar. Caught on national television. Dumbass Punk. :mad:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4645448.stm
BBC: The White House is crippling a Senate inquiry into the US government's response to Hurricane Katrina, senators leading the investigation have said.

Democrat Joseph Lieberman, a member of the Senate panel, said warnings about the risk Katrina posed to New Orleans had been ignored. He accused the White House of being unwilling to hand over documents which might explain why no action was taken. A White House spokesman insisted the administration was co-operating fully.

Homeland Security Committee senators said agency officials had refused to answer questions about times and dates of meetings and telephone calls with the White House. "No-one believes the government acted adequately," Senator Lieberman said. "We can't put a story together if people feel they are under a gag order from the White House."

The committee's Republican chairwoman, Sen Susan Collins, echoed his criticism of the government.

<snip>

A White House spokesman said the administration was committed to working with investigators but it had a responsibility to protect the confidentiality of the president's advisers. "The ability to get advice from advisers on a confidential basis is a critical need for any US president and that is continuing to influence how we cooperate with the committees," spokesman Trent Duffy said.

/more...

"A White House spokesman insisted the administration was co-operating fully."

I wish I had figured out this response when I was a child. "But Mom, I'm cooperating with you fully. What's the problem?"

On a more serious note, It's time for a senator or group of senator's to bust the balls of the White House on this shit. This has gone on far too long. This IOKIYAR bullshit is getting old. Very old.

Congress collectively cry, "ENOUGH"?!

If I'd tried that line with my mom it would have taken me a week to find my head. The idiots out there who accept this behavior from BushCo were obviously coddled as children and have no sense of personal responsibility as adults.

It was a fucking hurricane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What possible need could there be for confidential advice?!!!!!!! Jesus H. Christ I hate theses bastards!!!!!!!!

Neither The Times nor CNN, in their reporting of the damage which occurred, mention any number close to the actual death total. CNN mentions hundreds of deaths while the Times focuses on the dollar amounts of damages, probably under-reporting even that.

From CNN:

"Any storm rated Category 4 or greater on the Saffir-Simpson scale will likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching, leaving the New Orleans metro area submerged for weeks or months," a Department of Homeland Security report warned August 28, the day before Katrina came ashore at the Louisiana-Mississippi state line.

The documents were released as the Senate committee prepares for a hearing on the response to Katrina, which killed hundreds in the two states and left about 80 percent of New Orleans under water when portions of three levees failed. The breach of the levees was predicted by a 2004 emergency management simulation called the "Hurricane Pam exercise."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/24/katrina.levees/index.h ...


from The Times:

The Congressional investigations began in September, shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, flooding New Orleans, devastating much of the rest of the region and causing more than $100 billion in damage.

http://nytimes.com/2006/01/25/politics/25katrina.html?p ...

How any reporting medium can continue to think of itself as reputable and relevant when, as it reports on Katrina, no real mention is made of the numbers of deaths which occurred is way beyond me. Worse, there appears to be no inclination to find those numbers. The media is giving aid and comfort to an entire administration which ultimately, by history, might yet be considered to have been an enemy of The United States of America.

Also, the Times makes use of what I think is a frequently used tactic of this administration by reporting the actual number of documents released to the investigation, as if the sheer volume of documents provide evidence of 'unprecedented' (another misdirecting phrase commonly used by the administration) cooperation:


The Department of Defense, for example, has provided 18 officials for testimony, and 57 others have been interviewed by Congressional staff members, said Maj. Paul Swiergosz, a Pentagon spokesman. It has also turned over an estimated 240,000 pages of documents.

Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, said his agency, which oversees FEMA, had been similarly responsive, providing 60 officials as witnesses and producing 300,000 pages of documents.


Obviousman (from Wiley) has intervened and informed us that having provided 1 million documents is insignificant if the 1,000,001st has the crucial information and was not provided.

There's no way they can justify withholding information on this. They look like they're stonewalling and everyone thinks so.

what and whose confidentiality is being protected and why. Are they afraid that someone will find out that they failed at their job? It is no secret to the U.S. or the world that the response to Katrina was bungled. It is no secret to the U.S. or the world that if we can't prepare for a weather event when we have days of warning in advance that we are unprepared for another terrorist attack. I can't think of any information that this investigation might turn up that would jeopardize our national security. I can see no logical explanation for stonewalling on something like this.