The Katrina golf open

There's too much going on right now and I just don't have the emotional energy to respond coherently to the video which proves beyond doubt the total failure of a president we have in George W. Bush.

I'll just post this photo of a bumper sticker I saw this morning and leave that as at least one New Orleanian's response to the Bush presidency.



Mixter and Steve first brought the story to my attention.

I'll note that the AP reporter has an error in the report, citing the date of the meeting as Sunday, August 29th -- but Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on Monday, August 29th.

Dan Froomkin repeated an Evan Thomas article in Newsweek last September:

White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast

People were climbing out of the rushing water and trying to survive on their rooftops as Bush golfed. Think Progress has Bush's vacation itinerary, and features a comment by a reader who noted that while Bush vacationed, television footage showed "a man crying because he couldn’t hold his wife in the current." I've commented in PGR extensively on Bush's record-breaking vacation agenda.

Source Watch has a well-written, multi-sourced feature documenting the Bush administration response, with an incredibly shocking revelation of George's incompetence:

Bush didn't ask any questions during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29.

Shit jack! I mean, wouldn't anyone want to know how evacuations were proceeding, what preparations there were to rescue people if the city flooded, was there enough food and water for emergency personnel, could the military be of any use -- but no, nothing!

NOLA.com has links to a bunch of videos:

• Bush gets storm warning
• Top weatherman on storm strength
• Bush speaking with former FEMA chief Michael Brown
• Brown hears from state officials
• New Orleanians react
ABC26:
• Video shows Bush got storm warning

ABC's Elizabeth Vargas interview with Bush shows a smirking, squirming Bush, and one of the most vacuous minds I've ever observed (transcript, video).

VARGAS: Your desk is so clean Mr. President.

BUSH: Yeah, well, you know that is what happens when you have desk cleaners everywhere.

VARGAS: Do you spend a lot of time here?

BUSH: I do. This is where my main office. I've got an office here obviously, and I've got one upstairs in the White House on the second floor, right down from our bedroom. It's called the treaty room. I like to work here 'cause I like how open it feels.

VARGAS: It is ... very.

It's not the first time that Bush was late to react (Froomkin quoting the 9/11 commission report):

The President was seated in a classroom of second graders when, at approximately 9:05, Andrew Card whispered to him: 'A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.' The President told us his instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis."

But even after he left the classroom, he didn't call the Pentagon. He didn't ask if there were other aircraft hijacked or missing. Instead, he and his staff worked on a statement to the press.

Here's a video of that moment in the classroom.

Finally, Froomkin finds the call for impeachment reaching an unavoidable fever pitch.

Here's Garrison Keilor:

The peaceful lagoon that is the White House is designed for the comfort of a vulnerable man. Perfectly understandable, but not what is needed now. The U.S. Constitution provides a simple ultimate way to hold him to account for war crimes and the failure to attend to the country's defense. Impeach him and let the Senate hear the evidence.

And Lewis Lapham:

I don't know why we would run the risk of not impeaching the man. We have before us in the White House a thief who steals the country's good name and reputation for his private interest and personal use; a liar who seeks to instill in the American people a state of fear; a televangelist who engages the United States in a never-ending crusade against all the world's evil, a wastrel who squanders a vast sum of the nation's wealth on what turns out to be a recruiting drive certain to multiply the host of our enemies. In a word, a criminal -- known to be armed and shown to be dangerous.