Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach Him Now

George W. Bush thinks FEMA's leaders are just swell:

Michael Berube: George W. Bush, waving his arms woodenly and stumbling through simple sentences until he gets to that funny little joke about sitting up on Trent Lott’s porch. And let’s not forget the immortal line, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” I see a Medal of Honor in Mike Brown’s future...

The Boston Herald is a newspaper:

BostonHerald.com - Business News: Brown pushed from last job: Horse group: FEMA chief had to be `asked to resign': By Brett Arends: Saturday, September 3, 2005: The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows. And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position. The Oklahoman got the job through an old college friend who at the time was heading up FEMA....

I look at FEMA and I shake my head,'' said a furious Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday, calling the responsean embarrassment.''... Brown - formerly an estates and family lawyer - this week has has made several shocking public admissions, including interviews where he suggested FEMA was unaware of the misery and desperation of refugees stranded at the New Orleans convention center.

Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado. We do disciplinary actions, certification of (show trial) judges. We hold classes to train people to become judges and stewards. And we keep records,'' explained a spokeswoman for the IAHA commissioner's office.This was his full-time job . . . for 11 years,'' she added.

Brown was forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures. ``He was asked to resign,'' Bill Pennington, president of the IAHA at the time, confirmed last night....

Josh Micah Marshall:

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: August 28, 2005 - September 03, 2005 Archives: Atrios has a string of posts up today pointing to a common global explanation of what happened last week, a failure not of resources and capacity but coordination and executive leadership.

An article in the Post suggests the US military was ready to begin emergency food drops into New Orleans much earlier in the week. But they were waiting on a request from FEMA.

Lousiana Gov. Blanco accepted an offer of state National Guard troops from New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday, just before the storm hit. But the paperwork from Washington, allowing the troops to deploy, didn't come until Thursday.

Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach him now.

Comments

[Porco Rosso]

Seems like the philosophy of devil take the hindmost has almost run its coarse/course.

Can we find a leader who believes no one should be left behind?

[SteinL]

It's unlikely that Bush has committed an impeachable offense in connection with Katrina (at least one that they can't spin away by claiming that the president's entourage was on top of events, all along. For instance, governor Blanco was in contact with the president's office on August 28, requesting Federal assistance, and Bush supported her call for a mandatory evacuation).

HOWEVER - It would be very interesting to have a handle on the DoD's role in this. I am convinced that Rumsfeld was doing what he could to prevent that the National Guard or other military assets should be diverted to New Orleans, hoping that the storm would not be as severe as promised.
His rotation plans for Iraq are strained beyond the breaking point, as August was the third deadliest month since the start of the war (combat deaths) - and we can be fairly certain that he did not recommend that forces should be sent to the area of impact for Katrina, thus delaying the effort significantly.

Another issue is the fact that significant assets have been diverted to Iraq, due to the fact that the military is pursuing a 20 division strategy with ten divisions over there - forcing it to gut the National Guard.

One element that should at least have GOP politicians and the administration running scared is the fact that the Dept. of Homeland Security evidently is perfectly useless. I'd say that the one thing they should have been planning for, is large scale evacuations of the population from cities - and NOT knowing that the Houston Astrodome only had capacity for 11.000, while sending 25.000 evacuees there, perfectly sums up the bass-ackwards idiocy of that office, from day one. The only thing they were good at, was issuing danger level threats before last years elections, to keep people afraid enough to vote for Bush.

[Davis X. Machina]

If we impeach Bush, it will send the message to terrorists that by causing a large enough disaster, inevitably triggering an inept response, they can affect our political process.

By supporting the present administration, despite its manifest incompetence, we send a clear signal that we won't have our political process manipulated by terrorists.

In fact, the larger the fuck-up, the greater the display of our resolve. We're saying to potential terrorists "Unless you unleash even more havoc than Katrina has, you can't affect our choice of leadership."

(Can I have a job at National Review Online, can I? Can I?)

[strictlyplaid]

As bad as the mismanagement of this crisis has been, I don't think the President has committed any "high crimes" or "misdemeanors" around New Orleans. It's not against the law to be really bad at your job or even callously indifferent to your citizens' plight. Therefore, while I certainly do not support our President, considerations of procedural justice incline me to say that this is something that has to be resolved at election time. I'll be right there with you to vote out the Republicans in 2008.

[ricardo]

SteinL...

Sounds about right to me. I have read elswhere that half of the National Guard's heavy equipment is in Iraq - and that includes generators and vehicles capable of maneuvering in high water. I was struck by Bush's statement yesterday while touring the damage that "we (the United States) have the resources" to deal with the recovery effort...it seemed to me he was trying to deflect criticism how over-stretched we are...

I posted earlier that if Rumsfeld had sent the C-5A's home from Iraq overnight it would be a "tacit admission that domestic security had been compromised."

And I see in the papers today that we have just launched a large scale urban assault on Tal Afar (sp?) in Iraq - something on the order of Fallujah last year. Rumsfeld must have needed his materiel badly...

[cm]

I figure many of these "leaders" never really had to make any effort in their lives, being from a background where they get most things, no the least their career, arranged for themselves "from cradle to grave". Or, alternatively, when entering the network of buddies through the party career ladder, becoming quickly complacent.

The glaring incompetence in doing obvious things is in part, I suspect, that those things are simply not obvious to them. For example that people need water, food, shelter, and sanitation. When you are getting your food served and housekeeping done by servants or staffers, and move between stays in full-service hotels your whole life, and everything is there at a snip of a finger, how would you know?

This relates very much to the "cognitive elite" thread of a few days ago.

[Charles]

Brad DeLong writes: "The Boston Herald is a newspaper:"

When did this happen, Brad?

-------

One of those brilliant comments one sees around the blogs and wishes that one could remember the poster's handle to credit them:

"If we don't rebuild New Orleans, God will have won."

[nathaniel]

Not only were these guys worthless, know-nothing incompetents, but they did their level best to remake FEMA in their own image.

This rage-inducing article (click my name below) describes Bush's appointees' systematic degradation of FEMA's institutional capacity to deal with natural disasters. Their failure, FEMA's failure, is George's responsibility.

[Eli Stephens]

Resign. Now. Because the dead and dying can't wait for impeachment.

http://lefti.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_lefti_archive.html#112567639040552607

[PaulC]

Following Brad's link, Josh Marshall brought up something I was wondering yesterday but thought it might be a dumb question. Where the heck is Dick Cheney? I realize that VP is historically not a very visible role, but Cheney is supposed to be an exception. And God knows, there's enough work to go around. Even Condi was persuaded to cut short her shopping trip. Was Cheney spirited off to an undisclosed flood shelter somewhere? Not only hasn't he said a word about the hurricane but there is no report on his whereabouts.

[larry birnbaum]

Actually, "Brownie's" resume sounds a lot like the President's: failure, lack of experience, rescue by political connections.

[PaulC]

Another thing from Josh Marshall's page. It seems there's at least some attempt to spin Bush's outrageous comment that no one could have anticipated a levee breach by saying that Army Corps of Engineers plans ruled it out.

I have a response to that: anyone who's heard the story about the little Dutch boy is going to wonder if the levees will hold up. As was pointed out on a previous thread, there's a difference between this and the 9/11 excuses. While it's strictly false to say that nobody anticipated planes being used as bombs, a lot of otherwise intelligent people might be astounded to hear of this happening. By contrast, nobody with a shread of sense is going to say "Never in my worst nightmares would I have imagined that one of these levees could actually fail in a hurricane." People might have varying levels of confidence in the levees, but they will anticipate failure in the sense of worrying about what would happen if they do fail.

And if the Corps of Engineers thought they had a good reason to rule it out of their models, it appears that their models, and not common sense were what was flawed.

But I just wonder if this spin might yet succeed provided it is repeated loudly and often enough. At one time I would have said it's impossible, but at this point I have no idea.

[Bruce Webb]

Bush appointed his campaign manager and long time flunky Joe Allbaugh as head of FEMA. Joe bailed out his college roommate after he got fired for incompetence overseeing a show horse organization by making him his Deputy. After Joe resigned from FEMA to set up a consulting firm explictly designed to help corporations get government contracts in Iraq, the Deputy gets elevated to Director.

James Lee Witt turned FEMA from a near joke (FEMA advice on surviving a nuclear attack during the Reagan Administration 'dig a hole and put a door on top') to a professional, effective organization. Bush saw it as a comforable place to reward a long time political aide, and saw no reason not to later put that aide's former roommate into the top job despite the tiny fact that he had absolutely no qualifications for the job.

You can boil down the Bush Administration to a single instant and three words "Watch this drive". Read the 'Great Gatsby' or 'Vanity Fair', the world is ruled and largely has been ruled by people who sincerely believe they deserve to be running thngs just because of who they are. "If God didn't love me above most others why did he let me be born into a wealthy, powerful family? See? Proves it"

[Robert the Red]

From coldfury.com

And for the entire time Bush was in the state, the congressman said, a ban on helicopter flights further stalled the delivery of food and supplies.

This is grounds for impeachment, in my opinion. Or flogging.

[Tom F]

"Read the 'Great Gatsby' or 'Vanity Fair'..."

Or Jeeves and Bertie, except Bush doesn't have a Jeeves to bail him out/set him straight.

Re: the delays in military resources...I just saw that a hospital ship based in Baltimore is just steaming out today and will not arrive in NO until Thursday after a brief stop for personnel and supplies in Florida. That is amazing. The thing should have been sailing out by Tuesday at the very latest when the magnitude of the destruction was clear; in fact, SOP should have required it to set sail over the weekend when the strength and direction of Katrina was well known...hell, they could have always turned around part way if their aid turned out not to be needed. I think there is a similar ship on the West Coast (San Diego?), but in a major quake in LA/SF/Seattle, how long would we have to wait?

[_PK_]

I think it is unfair to use the line "Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job" against President Bush. Think about it from this perspective -- relative to Bush, anybody is doing a heck of a job.

[masaccio]

Anger and helplessness are a good recipe for depression. Giving a few bucks seems totally pathetic. Ranting at a keyboard, a wife, a friend on the phone, useless. Listening to spineless politicians dodging reality is disgusting. Seeing the incompetence of leadership is overwhelming and frightening.

What should we do? Get guns?

[hbj]

Why Oh Why isn't incompetence leading to genocide an impeachable offense?????

We need a serious look at this constitution before the US is just a shadow of a memory of a decent place.

[Charles]

Speaking of things that make one go crazy, the Times-Picayune is reporting that the Bush visit held up delivery of relief supplies. Because the link is not permanent, AmericaBlog provided an excerpt at (no www)

americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/breaking-bush-visit-to-new-orleans.html

[Charles]

Permalink on how Bush further disrupted rescue efforts: www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html#076556

"“We had arrangements to airlift food by helicopter to these folks, and now the food is sitting in trucks because they won’t let helicopters fly,” O’Shea said Friday afternoon. The food was expected to be in the hands of storm survivors after the president left the devastated region Friday night, he said."

[ricardo]

Charles...

Another example of Bush and his reverse midas touch...

[ricardo]

Just remembered something about the court of Louis XIV...

according to my Oxford Concise Dictionary a levee is a "reception of visitors on rising from bed"...maybe Bush Jr. has simply been confused all along about the breach of the levees...

[J Thomas]

"What should we do? Get guns?"

Masaccio, you should spend some time preparing for a disaster in your own community. Given the chance of random terrorist threats, no place in the USA is exactly safe.

1. Set up a small pack you can take with you if you have to walk. It should include:

space blanket for each person in your group. Space blankets can mean the difference between cold and hypothermia in mild weather, or life or death in moderate weather. And they're trade goods.

A light plastic tarp. Ditto. 50' 120# test parachute cord.

3 days food for each person in your group. Plastic tunafish packets are fairly light and cheap and have protein. Look for other light easy-to-eat choices. MREs are ideal but expensive.

A candle stove. Extra wax. Matches. A candle. A small pot.

A box of safety razorblades. A small sharp knife. Both in a bag that's brightly colored and hanging outside the pack to help you remember to dump it if you have to go through security.

Safety pins. Needles and thread. Soap. A washrag. toothbrushes. a few safety razors.

Duct tape. Sterile gause pads. Antibiotic cream, antifungal cream, whatever broad-spectrum antibiotic you can get.

2 liters of water for each person. An empty 3 liter bottle for each person, to hang outside the pack. A funnel. A disinfectant -- chlorox, peroxide, or iodine.

Rationale: light weight. useful stuff. If you need help people are more sympathetic when you're clean, shaved, and not too ragged. If you have food for 3 days you can share and still have food for a day. Candle stove and pot gives a chance to cook if you get food that needs cooking, and a chance for warm water to wash.

2. Set up a small emergency pack for each of your cars. Like above but also

heavier tarp
bigger pack
a couple of towels
Some kind of rope
more empty water bottles
7 days food each
1 spoon each, and a can opener
2 small headlamps, spare batteries
zzzip stove with a spare battery
bigger cooking pot
plastic bucket
A change of clothes for everyone
trowel, small shovel
2 cans tire repair goop.

Rationale: With food for 7 days you can share and still have enough for 2 days. Your batteries won't run out -- if you're on the road that long you're in serious trouble anyway.

I recommend not carrying firearms. There are some things you can talk your way out of, some you can shoot your way out of, some that both work and some neither. When your goal is to get through instead of conquer, you have a better chance without the gun. You might get robbed but you're less likely to get shot. It feels a lot scarier but it works better.

Every few months replace the water and check the food.

If someone has better ideas I'd be glad to hear them.

[Saheli]

Actually, you should have crossfiled this with "Why can't we have a competent press corps". The fact that this didn't come out when the guy was appointed is apalling. I realize it wouldn't have made any difference at all. But at least we would have known. And lexis-nexising for things like the Red Cross and FEMA makes me realize that our press corps is terrible about covering disaster-relief issues in general, which is inexcuasable post-9/11. The appointment of a new head of FEMA should have been given a detailed nit-picking.

[J Thomas]

If you want to assist with a large emergency in your town, there will be a group that's planning for that which you can probably volunteer for.

As the NO experience shows, communication becomes very limited. So one thing that could be generally helpful would be to keep a GPS receiver, a cell phone, and a small shortwave radio set in a faraday cage. Then during an emergency you could take the GPS and travel by bicycle or motorcycle, depending on how daring you are, and have a decent chance to report what you see. If you evacuate you could take those in your car or even on foot. If you are an information source you can do some good. And also you will be a priority target for rescue. The people who tell the public how bad it is are the first ones to get rescued and shut down.

The cell phone probably won't work. But it's worth having it in case it does work.

[johne]

J Thomas, why keep your electronic stuff in a Faraday cage? To protect it from a nuclear weapon's electromagnetic pulse?

[ken melvin]

So, if you are having a dog and pony show, Brownie's your man.

[Charles]

Ok, now we have a possible explanation for why the military side of the response to the hurrican was so slow.

It appears that Bushie was starting a wonderful new adventure in a town called Tall Afar. See: phoenixwoman.blogspot.com/2005/09/why-they-couldnt-save-new-orleans-they.html

[donna]

One of my college boyfriends became a paramedic so I learned a lot about first aid from him. I always keep a full first aid kit in my car and a smaller one with me at all times. The other thing I do is carry around a bottle of baby aspirin in my purse, because once a lady asked me if I had any when her husband was having a heart attack and that was what the doctor had told them to do. Fortunately we were right outside a Target at the time so I was able to help her. I got two bottles, one for her and one for me, and have always carried baby aspirin since then.

I just signed up for Red Cross membership and am going to go through their disaster training (I've volunteered for them before and am CPR and first aid trained, but didn't do disaster training.)

This government, or ANY Republican administration from now on, will NOT take care of you. I advise getting trained yourself, and VOTING DEMOCRATIC, so we can have a government that will take care of its citizens. Sorry to get political, but it IS political, and I am disgusted at this mess.

[Charles]

The American Red Cross is reporting that Homeland Security is still denying them access to New Orleans.
(www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html#4524)

I guess they're worried that rescue workers will eat too many donuts or something.

[Charles]

One of the NPR reporters had a great comment. He said, "Here are all these people forced [ed: literally, at gunpoint, by troops] to live like animals. And yet they chose to treat one another with dignity, to share small kindnesses."

[dragan]

- "It's unlikely that Bush has committed an impeachable offense"

- "As bad as the mismanagement of this crisis has been, I don't think the President has committed any "high crimes" or "misdemeanors" around New Orleans"

Let me ask for a clarification here - And Clinton did?
We had to endure that circus so the threshold for impecheable offenses ought to be terribly low.
Seriously, there is no chance that he will be impeached by that wingnut circus that is the Congress but one never knows till one tries.

[J Thomas]

Johne, yes. If you're going to have electronics stored away for an emergency, there's no good reason not to keep it in a faraday cage. There's a fair chance that if you need the thing there won't be any other electronics working to communicate with, but there might be and it's cheap and easy to do.

[anne]

Could it be remotely possible that the Red Cross is denied access to New Orleans by Homeland Security?

[Charles]

Anne, not only possible, but according to their website as of a few hours ago, still on. Homeland Security does not want the Red Cross in New Orleans.

www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html#4524

[tom f]

The Politics of Katrina

Does anyone know what level of neglect state and city politicians gave to levee construction ? If we think critically, do we know that Bush policies were a major cause for the lack of disaster avoidance and mitigation?

Secondly, I haven't seen a thorough and well-documented explanation for the slow response. Certainly there's reason to criticize the slow federal response and reason to suspect gross incompetence, but I don't yet know that this occurred. We're sure to learn more.

Bush's corruption, recklessness, negligence and incompetence have been fully documented across the policy board (human rights, foreign, fiscal, trade environmental, and military policies),

but I'm not coming to any conclusions yet other than that Katrina needs to be a political issue.

Those who wish to depoliticize Katrina and criticize the left are simply true to form: "bad intelligence", "bad apples", "Laffer curve"/"stimulus package", "doubts about the science", etc... (A political philosophy that considers itself skeptical of government power miraculously propagates itself among those who are incapable of seeing a quest for power and priviledge as the intent behind Bush's policies.)

However, I'm not yet convinced of the degree of Bush's culpability for this tragedy (that, in my opinion, dwarfs 9/11).

[Ian Whitchurch]

Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Ian Whitchurch

[tom f]

from Stephen Zunes at commondreams.org (http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0903-21.htm):

"Walter Maestri, the emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, which includes New Orleans' western suburbs, noted in June of last year that anticipated funding to strengthen the levees had been diverted to pay for the war. Indeed, federal assistance to the Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Project dropped precipitously following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003...

"WGNO-TV, the ABC affiliate in New Orleans, reported on August 1 that 'Dozens of high water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators are now abroad,' warning that 'in the event of a major natural disaster, that could be a problem.' They interviewed Lieutenant Colonel Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard, who observed that 'The National Guard needs that equipment back home'...

"The Washington Post quoted Lt. Andy Thaggard, a Mississippi National Guard spokesman, as saying, 'Missing personnel is the big thing in this particular event - we need our people.'

"Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade and Mississippi's 155th Armored Brigade, both of which are currently in Iraq, include engineering and support battalions specializing in disaster relief."

[Leila]

Here in California we have to come up with out of state phone numbers when we register our kids for school, in case of earthquake. The local phones might not work while long distance might. Besides buying more bottled water today, I also emailed my various local and out of state relatives with the phone numbers we're using. Also suggested to hubby that he carry said # in his wallet.

Thanks to the person who posted the suggested get-out-of-town kit list. God knows if I'll ever pull such a kit together but maybe the space blankets and tunafish I can manage. I have two young children, one of them mildly handicapped, and I can't imagine walking very far with them. What we really need is a rickshaw. (which I may want anyway if gas goes to $5 a gallon, so I can ferry them about on our daily 2 mile schools circuit)

[Dimitar Vesselinov]

"Hurricane Katrina Relief Ideas: What took so long? Why aren't we doing more? Here are 25 ideas that would bring relief to Hurricane Katrina's victims."

http://www.workingpodcast.com/index2.html

[monkyboy]

I just saw the lineup for Sunday's talk shows. Chertoff is on every single one of them. Isn't he supposed to busy managing the federal government's relief effort?

It would be nice if one of the hosts asked why the heads of Homeland Security and FEMA are spending countless hours yakking on TV...unless, of course, they are blinking coded instructions to their subordinates while flapping their pie holes.

[YetAnotherRick]

Bush's first mistake was not locking up the Mayor and declaring martial law on Sunday morning.

[Bruce Webb]

"Does anyone know what level of neglect state and city politicians gave to levee construction ? If we think critically, do we know that Bush policies were a major cause for the lack of disaster avoidance and mitigation?"

Flood control is specifically in the hands of the Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA. In bureaucratspeek they are the Lead Agencies. Bush Administration budget cuts for Corps flood projects generally and for New Orleans projects specifically are widely documented and in many cases specifically attributed to diversion to Iraq. Equally documented is the change in mission of FEMA from disaster preparation to disaster relief with the former job delegated to an Office of Preparedness still on the drawing boards at Homeland Security.

During the Reagan Administration FEMA was directed to focus on survival after a nuclear strike. Billions were spent building hardened underground regional control centers and devising strategies for delivering the mail. Meanwhile disaster control efforts went to shit. In the wake of 9/11 a similar shift was ordered. FEMA is now officially focused on recovery from terrorist attacks and not natural disasters.

Flood control is a federal responsibility. Period. Attempts to deflect blame anywhere else is a non-starter. Iraq is Bush's war, the human disaster that has been New Orleans is Bush's disaster. Choices were made at the highest levels of government that led to thousands of deaths in Iraq and thousands of deaths in the New Orleans and there is exactly one person on record as saying "I get to make the decision".

(And Rehnquist chose this moment to die. And Georgia kicked the crap out of Boise State, which means nothing most places but is a profound shock to the Northwest which saw Boise State go 35 and 2 over the last three years. Death in Iraq, death in DC, death in New Orleans, football, housing bubble - you don't know where to open the newspaper anymore. Thank God Dagwood and Blondie are celebrating their 75th Anniversary tomorrow - because I am having a difficult time processing all this information.)

[tom f]

thanks for the reply Bruce.

Have you checked out today's NYTimes? Revkin "Gazing at Breached Levees, Critics See Years of Missed Opportunities"

Bush did cut the Corps, and did diminish FEMA. However, this article puts such cuts in a larger context. Revkin calls the failure to safeguard the levees was a result of "40 years of compromises".

Later on, the article discusses Congressional, as well as Executive, priorities for New Orleans flood control:

"Mr. Naomi noted that since 2000, Congress had financed the corps request for a study to increase New Orleans's protections for the strongest hurricanes. But he acknowledged that the sum was a fraction of the request and that the study would take years to complete."

Too little, too late, before Bush.

[liberal]

YetAnotherRick wrote, "Bush's first mistake was not locking up the Mayor and declaring martial law on Sunday morning."

What this kind of idiocy overlooks is that the Mayor of NOLA is only responsible for protecting the citizens of NOLA. Bush's radical degree of incompetence threatens the security of us all.

[Evelyn]

I pray that I am wrong, but I am afraid that we will find thousands in the attics of houses under water. If this had been a foreing country, Bush would have sent in troops and gotten those people out. I believe he is guilty of murder and not only should be impeached, but should be tried for murder!!!!!! And Brown along with him!

[Realist]

yeesh, you people are delusional. Bad staffing decisions do not an impeachable offence make.

[dragan]

"Bush's first mistake was not locking up the Mayor and declaring martial law on Sunday morning."

uhm, wasn't he still on vacation cutting the cake and strumming the guitar. also, you missed several Parish presidents and Mississipi officials. their people got left behind as well.

[dragan]

" { NYT reports 40 years of levee neglect }
Too little, too late, before Bush."

I think for that conclusion to follow, we would have to establish that Ws actions ( or lack thereof ) since 2000 did not have any material impact on the levee performance. That is not by any means consensus view. I will have to hear from more professional/ reliable sources ( say Assoc of Civil Engineers, independent commision, significant number of retired ACE PEs) before I jump on the "Absolve Bush. Absolve Him Now" bandwagon.