The Blame Game

Apologists for the Administration took to the airwaves and blogosphere to defend what many thought was indefensible: the Bush Administration's Incompetent Response to Hurricane Katrina. But now e-mails showing what was going on and what FEMA and the Administration knew at the time leave no doubt that this was a failure of leadership of the highest magnitude.

Marty Bahamonde was FEMA's man on the ground in New Orleans during Katrina. He sent e-mails back to Washington about what was going on.

An e-mail sent to the FEMA team on Monday August 29, at 1:38 p.m., made clear that Marty was reporting that the levees had been breached and that there was 11' of flooding in the city.

Then, the next day, at 7:02 a.m., Marty e-mails Department of Homeland Security officials about Brown (referred to in the e-mail as "US" or Undersecretary):

What is happening with the US travel this morning, when is he coming to New
Orleans? The area around the superdome is filling up with water, now waist
deep.

Then Marty e-mails Brown himself on Wednesday August 31 at 11:20 am:

Sir, I know that you know the situation is past c r i t i c a l . Here some
things you might not know.
Hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the streets with no food or water. Hundreds still being rescued from homes.
The dying patients at the DMAT tent being modivac. Estimates are
many will die within hours. Evacuation in process. Plans developing for dome
evacuation but hotel situation adding to problem. We are out of food and
running out of water at the dome, plans i n works to address the critical
need.
FEMA staff is OK and holding own. DMAT staff working i n deplorable
conditions. The SQoner we can get the medical patients out, the sooner wecan
get them out.
Phone connectivity impossible
More later

Doesn't seem like Brown responded. Then the best e-mail is this one, sent by Brown's press secretary at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, August 31, about three hours after Bahamonde's e-mail to Brown above:

Please schedule Joe Scarborough this eveninq for 9pmCST period. Sooke with his
producer and told him to call you. Mr. Brown wants to do this one.
Also, it is very important that time is allowed for Mr. Brown to eat dinner.
Gievn that Baton Rouge is back to normal, restaurants are getting busy. He needs much more that 20 or 30 minutes. We now have traffic to encounter to get to and
from a location of his choise, followed by wait service from the restaurant
staff, eating, etc. Thank you.
Sharon Worthy
Press S r w t r r y

And here's Bahamonde's response after reading this e-mail:

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! NO won't go any further, too easy of a target. Just tell her
that I just ate an MRE and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome along
wirh 30,000 other close friends so I understand her concern about busy
retaurants. Maybe tonight I will have time to move the pebbles on the
parking garage floor so they don't stab me in the back while L
try to sleep, but instaed I w i l l hope her wait at Ruth Chxist is short. But I know she is stressed so I won't make a big deal about it and you shouldn't either.
Sent from my B l a c k B e r r y Wireless Handheld

And to those who say, well, maybe Brown was a hack, it's not like the White House knew what was going on, there's this tidbit to chew on:

In an Aug. 29 phone call to Brown informing him that the first levee had
failed, Bahamonde said he asked for guidance but did not get a response.

'He just said, `Thank you,' and that he was going to call the White
House,'' Bahamonde said.

How 'bout them apples? I'm sure we'll see a correction in the right-wing media about this one.
- posted by Joshua @ 12:14 AM