The Katrina Smoking Gun: The NY Post Gets Letters

The NY Post, the Murdoch-owned conservative rag, never ceases to amuse me.

Last week, Bush administration pal John Podhoretz wrote a column blowing off the AP video. Readers sent in letters and, not having a personal relationship with the neocons in the White House, don't share his breezy attitude to the horror that was the federal response. In the actual paper, the Post's intro to these letters states the subject is the new video "suggesting" that the President was warned of the dangers to New Orleans. Suggesting?!! It was all there in the video! That's like saying that 'Brokeback Mountain' "suggested" a sexual relationship between Jack and Ennis. Luckily, some of the Post's readers are smarter than their editorial staff...

The letters-
#1-

John Podhoretz asks about the leaked Katrina video, "Cui bono? To whose benefit does the leak accrue?" ("Brownie's Revenge," PostOpinion, March 3).

The answer is not Michael Brown, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

It benefits the American people, those who still harbor false hope that President Bush can, or will, ever help anyone.

The sooner they dis- abuse themselves of this notion, the sooner they can prepare to fend for themselves during the next disaster.

We still have three years left of this presidency.

Emery Lapinski
Louisville, Ky.

#2-

Subsequent to Hurricane Katrina's strike, Bush sought to take the American people for fools, stating that no one could have predicted the magnitude of the disaster.

Experts had warned that the city could not withstand a Category 5 hurricane, that massive loss of life would occur.

We now learn through taped evidence that a prediction was made as to what would occur after Katrina made landfall. The details were communicated directly to the president, who responded that the nation was ready.

No government entity was ready, least of all the federal government.

I have not often longed for the days of President Clinton, but I believe that he and his FEMA team would have provided the dying and suffering souls of New Orleans an effective and timely response in their hours of unspeakable anguish and terror.

Oren Spiegler
Upper Saint Clair, Pa.

#3-

Bush knew beforehand the probability that the levees were going to break after the hurricane.

He also knew that troops, buses, ships, airplanes, water, food and medicine had to be prepositioned to help save our fellow citizens.

It was arrogant and incompetent for Bush to stay on vacation while Americans were literally up to their necks in water.

Thousands of people perished or were displaced or injured.

All that was needed was fast action and common sense.

Neil Harry Lori
Montclair, N.J.

Sounds right to me.

And the Washington Post has a great article on the aftermath of the tape's revelations:
Katrina Video Refuels Debate Over Response-
White House Issues Defense Of Bush's Handling of Storm

And many people still continue to wonder when Bush will be held accountable for all of this.

[PS- Semi-off-topic... The Post thinks the White House needs to be more open- about how great the war is!!]