Friday, March 03, 2006
AP Caught Lying About Katrina Video
Okay, so that's not really news, in its strict definition, per Webster: "fresh information of something that has lately taken place, or of something before unknown". Everyone knows the AP lies about all sorts of things, usually in an attempt to slander President Bush. And true to form, they're at it again.
While the idiot left is still all over this AP story claiming Bush knew about the Katrina levee breaches, those interested in the truth can read any number of corrective (that is to say honest) accounts, beginning with Daffyd at Big Lizards, who pulls no punches: "if the video footage offered by AP in support of this accusation is the best AP has... then I have to flatly state that writers Margaret Ebrahim and John Solomon are liars" which, while true, is no surprise to anyone used to fisking the crap that daily emanates from AP.
The story claims the AP's "confidential video footage" shows that "in dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers."
That's an outright lie. In fact the video shows no such thing and never mentions the breaching of the levees. It shows Max Mayfield, head of the National Hurricane Center, warning the President the levees could be overtopped, which is nowhere near breaching in either nature or effect. The truth is neither AP nor anyone else has shown Bush being warned prior to the event that the levees could be breached because no-one considered that a threat at the time, including the Governor of Louisiana. Further, it was Bush who exhorted Governor Blanko (and I do mean Blanko) to get her paralysed ass in gear and declare a state of emergency.
Daffyd raises another point that reinforces the obvious malice and hypocrisy of the critics who have seized upon the AP's lies to continue whallowing in BDS: "It seems the same people who turn into hysterical toddlers at the thought that Bush might have slightly overstepped his authority in recording calls and e-mails sent between al-Qaeda enclaves abroad and their sleeper agents inside the country are now becoming apoplectic because Bush didn't gallup far beyond his authority, sending federal troops into Louisiana to evacuate New Orleans at riflepoint, in flagrant violation of the authority of a minority mayor and a female governor. Quelle horror!" Just as the same people who declared "limits on freedom of speech" in answer to the Muhammed cartoons are now citing the inviolability of the First Amendment in support of this idiot. In fact, the President's powers in such a case as Katrina are severely limited by laws separating Federal from State jurisdiction; the President followed those laws, while Nagin and Blanko were too busy panicking to make a decision about anything, except to turn down Amtrak's offer to assist in an evacuation, and to leave about a thousand schoolbuses dormant while thousands of refugees waited for their Governor and Mayor to do something. Anything.
Here are a few facts the BDS idiots ignore:
Only Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanko (and I do mean Blanko) could have ordered an evacuation of New Orleans, which is why Bush finally begged Blanko (AIDMB) to give the order.
The National Guard can only be ordered into an area after a request from the area's State Governor.
Posse Comitatus prevents the President from employing the Army in a civil matter, even a natural disaster of the nature of Katrina.
FEMA could not enter the zone without authorization from the Governor, who was late in making that request.
Remember, these "Bush knew" stories are from the same bunch whose Katrina "journalism" brought you cannibalism, murders, toxic flood waters, snipers and gang rapes at the Superdome. That's the state of journalism today in the MSM: first bash Bush, ignore the facts and lie in service to your "reporting". Wait five minutes, then serve up the whole steaming pile of crap to the idiots, who will gobble it all down without a single thought. That's what makes them idiots, and that's why the MSM panders to them.
More:
Wizbang: Rewriting Katrina History - AP Style
Power Line: More Leaks; This Time Katrina
Captain's Quarters: Katrina Tape Half-Story
Patterico: L.A. Times Dishonestly Portrays...
While the idiot left is still all over this AP story claiming Bush knew about the Katrina levee breaches, those interested in the truth can read any number of corrective (that is to say honest) accounts, beginning with Daffyd at Big Lizards, who pulls no punches: "if the video footage offered by AP in support of this accusation is the best AP has... then I have to flatly state that writers Margaret Ebrahim and John Solomon are liars" which, while true, is no surprise to anyone used to fisking the crap that daily emanates from AP.
The story claims the AP's "confidential video footage" shows that "in dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers."
That's an outright lie. In fact the video shows no such thing and never mentions the breaching of the levees. It shows Max Mayfield, head of the National Hurricane Center, warning the President the levees could be overtopped, which is nowhere near breaching in either nature or effect. The truth is neither AP nor anyone else has shown Bush being warned prior to the event that the levees could be breached because no-one considered that a threat at the time, including the Governor of Louisiana. Further, it was Bush who exhorted Governor Blanko (and I do mean Blanko) to get her paralysed ass in gear and declare a state of emergency.
Daffyd raises another point that reinforces the obvious malice and hypocrisy of the critics who have seized upon the AP's lies to continue whallowing in BDS: "It seems the same people who turn into hysterical toddlers at the thought that Bush might have slightly overstepped his authority in recording calls and e-mails sent between al-Qaeda enclaves abroad and their sleeper agents inside the country are now becoming apoplectic because Bush didn't gallup far beyond his authority, sending federal troops into Louisiana to evacuate New Orleans at riflepoint, in flagrant violation of the authority of a minority mayor and a female governor. Quelle horror!" Just as the same people who declared "limits on freedom of speech" in answer to the Muhammed cartoons are now citing the inviolability of the First Amendment in support of this idiot. In fact, the President's powers in such a case as Katrina are severely limited by laws separating Federal from State jurisdiction; the President followed those laws, while Nagin and Blanko were too busy panicking to make a decision about anything, except to turn down Amtrak's offer to assist in an evacuation, and to leave about a thousand schoolbuses dormant while thousands of refugees waited for their Governor and Mayor to do something. Anything.
Here are a few facts the BDS idiots ignore:
Only Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanko (and I do mean Blanko) could have ordered an evacuation of New Orleans, which is why Bush finally begged Blanko (AIDMB) to give the order.
The National Guard can only be ordered into an area after a request from the area's State Governor.
Posse Comitatus prevents the President from employing the Army in a civil matter, even a natural disaster of the nature of Katrina.
FEMA could not enter the zone without authorization from the Governor, who was late in making that request.
Remember, these "Bush knew" stories are from the same bunch whose Katrina "journalism" brought you cannibalism, murders, toxic flood waters, snipers and gang rapes at the Superdome. That's the state of journalism today in the MSM: first bash Bush, ignore the facts and lie in service to your "reporting". Wait five minutes, then serve up the whole steaming pile of crap to the idiots, who will gobble it all down without a single thought. That's what makes them idiots, and that's why the MSM panders to them.
More:
Wizbang: Rewriting Katrina History - AP Style
Power Line: More Leaks; This Time Katrina
Captain's Quarters: Katrina Tape Half-Story
Patterico: L.A. Times Dishonestly Portrays...
