THE PROGRESS REPORT
by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney, and Christy Harvey
September 6, 2005
KATRINA
Rove's Finger Pointing
KATRINA
Not Prepared For Another 9/11
UNDER THE RADAR
Go Beyond The Headlines
For news and updates throughout the day, check out our blog at ThinkProgress.org.
Sign up | Contact us | Permalinks/Archive | Mobile | RSS | Print
HOW TO HELP: Charity Navigator has assembled a list of highly rated charities working to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
KATRINA
Rove's Finger Pointing
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, "This is not a time to get into any finger pointing or politics or anything of that nature." Apparently, Karl Rove didn't get the message. The New York Times reports that Rove and White House communications director Dan Bartlett have "rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina." The core of the strategy is "to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana."
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL LIES TO WASHINGTON POST: The Washington Post, citing an anonymous "senior administration official," reported on Sunday that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco "still had not declared a state of emergency." That wasn't true. Hours later the Post ran a correction, acknowledging that Blanco "declared an emergency on Aug. 26." (Read it here.) Newsweek also reported that, as late as Sept. 1, Blanco was "hesitant to declare martial law or a state of emergency, which would have opened the door to more Pentagon help." The magazine has yet to issue a correction.
ADMINISTRATION ACKNOWLEDGED RESPONSIBILITY FOR RELIEF EFFORTS: The White House effort to shift the blame for the response to Katrina contradicts its public statements before the storm hit. An Aug. 27 declaration on the White House website "authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts." The order specifies that "FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency." Jane Bullock, former FEMA chief of staff, said, "The moment the president declared a federal disaster, it became a federal responsibility.… The federal government took ownership over the response." This is consistent with the DHS website which states plainly, "In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility ... for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort."
BUSH TRIES TO SHIFT BLAME: Now that things have gone poorly, the White House wants to pretend it wasn't in charge. President Bush said the magnitude of the storm "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable." Dan Bartlett told the Washington Post, "The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana." The message from Bush and Bartlett is that state officials were "slow to call for outside help." The reality is that Louisiana state officials reached out to the federal government for assistance before the storm hit. On Aug. 27, Gov. Blanco sent a detailed letter to President Bush requesting assistance because "this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster."
KATRINA
Not Prepared For Another 9/11
In just five days, Americans will mark the four-year anniversary of 9/11. Many will ask the question: are we prepared for another terrorist attack? The response to Hurricane Katrina has demonstrated that there are many concerns about our nation's disaster preparedness. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has given the Department of Homeland Security and the federal government's response to the hurricane disaster so far a grade of "F." Sen. Jon Kyl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee that oversees homeland security, has expressed concern about our nation's ability to respond to a terrorist strike. "I am not at all confident, based on what we've seen, that we'd have the ability to handle that," Kyl said.
INABILITY TO ASSESS TRUE THREATS: In 2001, prior to 9/11, the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked a major hurricane strike on New Orleans as "among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country," directly behind a terrorist strike on New York City. A few months later, terrorists struck New York City, and President Bush's response in the first few hours to that disaster was "flatfooted" and "awkward." Bush later acknowledged to Bob Woodward that he had not been "on point" prior to 9/11 about the threat of an attack. In admitting last week that the response to Katrina by the federal government was "unacceptable," concerns arose anew about the Bush administration's inattention to true threats. Instead of focusing on the identified threats, the administration, as Michael Lind notes, focused its priorities on Iraq.
ADMINISTRATION UNDERMINES CONFIDENCE IN NATION'S PREPAREDNESS: The take-away lesson to many observers from the hurricane response was clear: Katrina shows we're not ready for catastrophe. "This damage could just as easily have been caused by a terrorist attack, and many if not most of the same elements are involved in responding to natural disasters," Sen. Kyl said. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told CNN (9/2), "our government failed in both its preparedness and its response to the disaster. If terrorists rather than a hurricane had attacked, the result would have been no different." And according to Nikolai Spassky, the deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, terrorists took notice. The response to Hurricane Katrina sent "an extremely unpleasant signal" about the U.S.'s ability to cope with disaster, said Spassky. Even House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, though unwilling to acknowledge the administration's poor response to the hurricane, has said the nation's terrorism preparedness needs a thorough review.
KATRINA HAMPERS ABILITY TO RESPOND TO TERRORIST ATTACK: "If this was a terrorist event, is this the kind of response we would have?" asked James Lee Witt, the FEMA director under Clinton. The administration has struck the wrong balance between providing safety against terrorist attacks and preparing for natural disasters. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spends $1.1 billion each year for states to combat terrorism, but just $180 million to help prepare for disasters such as Katrina. The total cost of the catastrophe is now expected to exceed $100 billion. Furthermore, as the National Guard is pulled into hurricane recovery duty, it is being strained and stretched as never before. While FEMA and DHS previously over-committed their resources to terrorism rather than disaster preparedness, the current crisis has left the federal government hobbled in its response to both. As response units across America switch gears from counter-terrorism to hurricane recovery, even administration-backers like Newt Gingrich are left wondering: "if we can’t respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the gulf for days, then why do we think we’re prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?” Despite the fact that Bush claims we have "plenty of resources" to secure the homeland and recover from the hurricane, experts such as former Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Admiral James Loy candidly admit, "I can't tell you that we're lock, stock and ready to go."
Under the Radar
ADMINISTRATION -- THE MISEDUCATION OF MICHAEL BROWN: "In recent days, politicians and officials in both parties have derided [FEMA Director Michael] Brown's qualifications to head the nation's chief disaster-response agency -- as well as the performance of the agency and its federal, state and local partners." Judging by Brown's paltry experience in emergency management, his performance has hardly come as a surprise. Before joining FEMA in 2001, Brown "had a full-time job overseeing horse-shows as the commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association." Eventually he was "asked to step down" because of what the Boston Herald described as "a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures." His main FEMA job qualification? Brown was the college roommate of Joseph Allbaugh, "the previous head of FEMA until he quit in 2003 to work for the president's re-election campaign."
PROPAGANDA -- ADVOCACY GROUPS RECEIVED $4.7 MILLION TO PROMOTE BUSH EDUCATION POLICY: "Federal investigators probing the Education Department's public relations contracts have found a pattern of deals in which advocacy organizations received grants totaling nearly $4.7 million to promote Bush administration education priorities in newspaper columns and brochures, but didn't disclose that they received taxpayer funds, as required by law," USA Today reports. More than a third of the money -- some $1.7 million -- "went to outside public relations contracts that officials said resulted in no visible media products." In 10 of 11 cases examined by Inspector General John Higgins, the groups that received federal money "didn't disclose — in print, on radio or in other media, such as brochures or handbooks — that taxpayer funds were used."
ECONOMY -- LOOMING BANKRUPTCY BILL PLACES DISASTER VICTIMS IN CROSSHAIRS: As new bankruptcy legislation was being pushed through Congress last April, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) called for an exemption for Americans whose finances were impacted by a natural disaster. "Bankruptcy reform should address many specific issues, such as the negligent mismanagement of money, but to hurt those who are already suffering from flooding or a collapsed roof or a house that has gone out to sea is absolutely ridiculous," Jackson Lee said on the House floor. Her amendment was flatly rejected. Now, Reuters reports, "Hurricane Katrina is expected to cause a spurt of bankruptcy filings by storm victims -- and sweeping changes in U.S. bankruptcy laws may leave them even more strapped than they otherwise might be." Reps. Jackson Lee, John Conyers (D-MI) and two other House members have announced plans to introduce legislation to exempt victims of Katrina from "the most onerous provisions of the new law."
RACE -- AFRICAN AMERICANS GOUGED ON HOME LOAN RATES: "Blacks who bought homes in communities across America last year were four times as likely as whites to get high interest rates for mortgage loans," according to an analysis of records from 25 of the nation's largest lenders by the Charlotte Observer. The wide disparities in interest rates occurred even when blacks had substantially higher incomes. "Even blacks with incomes above $100,000 a year were charged high rates more often than whites with incomes below $40,000."
September 6, 2005
KATRINA
Rove's Finger Pointing
KATRINA
Not Prepared For Another 9/11
UNDER THE RADAR
Go Beyond The Headlines
For news and updates throughout the day, check out our blog at ThinkProgress.org.
Sign up | Contact us | Permalinks/Archive | Mobile | RSS | Print
HOW TO HELP: Charity Navigator has assembled a list of highly rated charities working to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
KATRINA
Rove's Finger Pointing
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, "This is not a time to get into any finger pointing or politics or anything of that nature." Apparently, Karl Rove didn't get the message. The New York Times reports that Rove and White House communications director Dan Bartlett have "rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina." The core of the strategy is "to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana."
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL LIES TO WASHINGTON POST: The Washington Post, citing an anonymous "senior administration official," reported on Sunday that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco "still had not declared a state of emergency." That wasn't true. Hours later the Post ran a correction, acknowledging that Blanco "declared an emergency on Aug. 26." (Read it here.) Newsweek also reported that, as late as Sept. 1, Blanco was "hesitant to declare martial law or a state of emergency, which would have opened the door to more Pentagon help." The magazine has yet to issue a correction.
ADMINISTRATION ACKNOWLEDGED RESPONSIBILITY FOR RELIEF EFFORTS: The White House effort to shift the blame for the response to Katrina contradicts its public statements before the storm hit. An Aug. 27 declaration on the White House website "authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts." The order specifies that "FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency." Jane Bullock, former FEMA chief of staff, said, "The moment the president declared a federal disaster, it became a federal responsibility.… The federal government took ownership over the response." This is consistent with the DHS website which states plainly, "In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility ... for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort."
BUSH TRIES TO SHIFT BLAME: Now that things have gone poorly, the White House wants to pretend it wasn't in charge. President Bush said the magnitude of the storm "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable." Dan Bartlett told the Washington Post, "The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana." The message from Bush and Bartlett is that state officials were "slow to call for outside help." The reality is that Louisiana state officials reached out to the federal government for assistance before the storm hit. On Aug. 27, Gov. Blanco sent a detailed letter to President Bush requesting assistance because "this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster."
KATRINA
Not Prepared For Another 9/11
In just five days, Americans will mark the four-year anniversary of 9/11. Many will ask the question: are we prepared for another terrorist attack? The response to Hurricane Katrina has demonstrated that there are many concerns about our nation's disaster preparedness. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has given the Department of Homeland Security and the federal government's response to the hurricane disaster so far a grade of "F." Sen. Jon Kyl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee that oversees homeland security, has expressed concern about our nation's ability to respond to a terrorist strike. "I am not at all confident, based on what we've seen, that we'd have the ability to handle that," Kyl said.
INABILITY TO ASSESS TRUE THREATS: In 2001, prior to 9/11, the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked a major hurricane strike on New Orleans as "among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country," directly behind a terrorist strike on New York City. A few months later, terrorists struck New York City, and President Bush's response in the first few hours to that disaster was "flatfooted" and "awkward." Bush later acknowledged to Bob Woodward that he had not been "on point" prior to 9/11 about the threat of an attack. In admitting last week that the response to Katrina by the federal government was "unacceptable," concerns arose anew about the Bush administration's inattention to true threats. Instead of focusing on the identified threats, the administration, as Michael Lind notes, focused its priorities on Iraq.
ADMINISTRATION UNDERMINES CONFIDENCE IN NATION'S PREPAREDNESS: The take-away lesson to many observers from the hurricane response was clear: Katrina shows we're not ready for catastrophe. "This damage could just as easily have been caused by a terrorist attack, and many if not most of the same elements are involved in responding to natural disasters," Sen. Kyl said. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told CNN (9/2), "our government failed in both its preparedness and its response to the disaster. If terrorists rather than a hurricane had attacked, the result would have been no different." And according to Nikolai Spassky, the deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, terrorists took notice. The response to Hurricane Katrina sent "an extremely unpleasant signal" about the U.S.'s ability to cope with disaster, said Spassky. Even House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, though unwilling to acknowledge the administration's poor response to the hurricane, has said the nation's terrorism preparedness needs a thorough review.
KATRINA HAMPERS ABILITY TO RESPOND TO TERRORIST ATTACK: "If this was a terrorist event, is this the kind of response we would have?" asked James Lee Witt, the FEMA director under Clinton. The administration has struck the wrong balance between providing safety against terrorist attacks and preparing for natural disasters. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spends $1.1 billion each year for states to combat terrorism, but just $180 million to help prepare for disasters such as Katrina. The total cost of the catastrophe is now expected to exceed $100 billion. Furthermore, as the National Guard is pulled into hurricane recovery duty, it is being strained and stretched as never before. While FEMA and DHS previously over-committed their resources to terrorism rather than disaster preparedness, the current crisis has left the federal government hobbled in its response to both. As response units across America switch gears from counter-terrorism to hurricane recovery, even administration-backers like Newt Gingrich are left wondering: "if we can’t respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the gulf for days, then why do we think we’re prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?” Despite the fact that Bush claims we have "plenty of resources" to secure the homeland and recover from the hurricane, experts such as former Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Admiral James Loy candidly admit, "I can't tell you that we're lock, stock and ready to go."
Under the Radar
ADMINISTRATION -- THE MISEDUCATION OF MICHAEL BROWN: "In recent days, politicians and officials in both parties have derided [FEMA Director Michael] Brown's qualifications to head the nation's chief disaster-response agency -- as well as the performance of the agency and its federal, state and local partners." Judging by Brown's paltry experience in emergency management, his performance has hardly come as a surprise. Before joining FEMA in 2001, Brown "had a full-time job overseeing horse-shows as the commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association." Eventually he was "asked to step down" because of what the Boston Herald described as "a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures." His main FEMA job qualification? Brown was the college roommate of Joseph Allbaugh, "the previous head of FEMA until he quit in 2003 to work for the president's re-election campaign."
PROPAGANDA -- ADVOCACY GROUPS RECEIVED $4.7 MILLION TO PROMOTE BUSH EDUCATION POLICY: "Federal investigators probing the Education Department's public relations contracts have found a pattern of deals in which advocacy organizations received grants totaling nearly $4.7 million to promote Bush administration education priorities in newspaper columns and brochures, but didn't disclose that they received taxpayer funds, as required by law," USA Today reports. More than a third of the money -- some $1.7 million -- "went to outside public relations contracts that officials said resulted in no visible media products." In 10 of 11 cases examined by Inspector General John Higgins, the groups that received federal money "didn't disclose — in print, on radio or in other media, such as brochures or handbooks — that taxpayer funds were used."
ECONOMY -- LOOMING BANKRUPTCY BILL PLACES DISASTER VICTIMS IN CROSSHAIRS: As new bankruptcy legislation was being pushed through Congress last April, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) called for an exemption for Americans whose finances were impacted by a natural disaster. "Bankruptcy reform should address many specific issues, such as the negligent mismanagement of money, but to hurt those who are already suffering from flooding or a collapsed roof or a house that has gone out to sea is absolutely ridiculous," Jackson Lee said on the House floor. Her amendment was flatly rejected. Now, Reuters reports, "Hurricane Katrina is expected to cause a spurt of bankruptcy filings by storm victims -- and sweeping changes in U.S. bankruptcy laws may leave them even more strapped than they otherwise might be." Reps. Jackson Lee, John Conyers (D-MI) and two other House members have announced plans to introduce legislation to exempt victims of Katrina from "the most onerous provisions of the new law."
RACE -- AFRICAN AMERICANS GOUGED ON HOME LOAN RATES: "Blacks who bought homes in communities across America last year were four times as likely as whites to get high interest rates for mortgage loans," according to an analysis of records from 25 of the nation's largest lenders by the Charlotte Observer. The wide disparities in interest rates occurred even when blacks had substantially higher incomes. "Even blacks with incomes above $100,000 a year were charged high rates more often than whites with incomes below $40,000."
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