Toolkit

Meet the F--kers
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/TDS-Meet-the F--kers-9-7.wmv
http://canofun.com/blog/videos/tdskatrinagwblewinsky.wmv

Iraq war delayed katrina relief effort, inquiry finds
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1003-01.htm
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article316682.ece

TIMELINES

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/katrina-timeline.php
http://www.thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/duncanblack/npr2.htm
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/duncanblack/npr1.htmpt. 2

-the president's timeline
http://canofun.com/blog/videos/tdsbushtimeline.wmv

-gov. blanco declares a state of emergency Friday, August 26, 2005
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=973

-gov. blanco asks the president to declare a federal state of emergency
Saturday morning, August 27 , 2005
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976

-the president declares a state of emergency
Saturday, August 27, 2005
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html

-what that means under the stafford act and the national response plan
from http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/7/141812/3897

Under the National Response Plane (see p. 93, Figure 11), once the President declares a State of Emergency the Department of Homeland Security is supposed to implement the Plan. Initially, DHS is supposed to deploy an Emergency Response Team to the State to provide expertise in assessing needs and determining appropriate courses of action. Moreover, on p. 52 of the NRP the President may act proactively under the Stafford Act.

Folks, these are not OPINIONS, these are cold, objective facts. However, MSNBC and other members of the Main Stream Media are confused about what is a fact and what is opinion.

-where the president declared a state of emergency—upsidedownland
http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/637/1/

-the storm hit monday, august 29

the president had cake with john mccain
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/images/20050829-5_p082905pm-0125-515h.html

and talked about medicaid
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050829-11.html

-what the pesident did on the 30th
http://loco4lorca.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/captcapm10208301856bush__capm102.jpg
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/San_Diego_hospital_closed_to_acommodate_Bush_visit_No_ch_0906.html

-when the president ended his vacation, wednesday, aug. 31st
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/nation/12514844.htm

-and the rest of the cabinet?

condi was buying shoes, going to the us open, and catching spamalot
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054110
cheney was too busy buying a house
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/breaking-cheney-was-shopping-for.html
rumsfeld was watching baseball
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001055561

-the president accepts full accountability 9/13-- 15 days after katrina hit
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/09/13/national/w090358D94.DTL&feed=rss.news
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/13/taking-full-responsibility/

daily show take
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/The-Daily-Show-Katrina-Disaster.mov


-other federal actions

cheney's office prioritized the restoration of power to an oil pipeline over hospitals-- while he remained on vacation
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050911/NEWS05/509110304

-day the feds realized there were people in the superdome, thursday, sept. 1
according to fema director mike brown
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/01/fema-director-we-did-not-know-new-orleans-convention-center-was-a-hurricane-shelter/

with paula zahn
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Paula-Zahn-Fema.wmv

on nightline
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Nightline-Fema.mov

and homeland security director michael chertoff
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4828771

-on friday, september 2nd, the president:
congratulated micheal brown, brought in rescue equipment for a photo op, and blocked actual food distribution
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050902-2.html
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8040
http://www.nola.com/weblogs/print.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/print076556.html

pr instead of rescues

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197
excerpted here

ATLANTA - Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?"
As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.
On Monday, some firefighters stuck in the staging area at the Sheraton peeled off their FEMA-issued shirts and stuffed them in backpacks, saying they refuse to represent the federal agency.
Federal officials are unapologetic.
"I would go back and ask the firefighter to revisit his commitment to FEMA, to firefighting and to the citizens of this country," said FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak.
But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

bush goes back to n.o. and turns on lights long enough for another photo op 9/15
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9314188/#050916

-the spin and outright lies

ken olberman on countdown- who said what when
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Countdown-Timeline-Katrina.wmv
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Countdown-Timeline-Katrina.mov

the katrina myths debunked
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/13/katrina-myths-debunked/

—inaction because “we dodged a bullet”
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/06/dodged-a-bullet/
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/12/bush-relaxation/

-the lies revealed
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/michael-chertoff/index.php#chertoffs-reading-habits-123841
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/bush-just-lied-about-hurricane.html

-chertoff on meet the press
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/scarboroughchertoffmtp.wmv

the blame game
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Imus-Gregory-Scotty-Blame-Game-9-8-Katrina.mov

wife, laura chimes in
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/What-is-The-Name-of-That-Hurricane.mov

-what's up with fema?

mike brown

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1103003,00.html

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=100857
excerpted here

The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows.
And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position.
The Oklahoman got the job through an old college friend who at the time was heading up FEMA.
The agency, run by Brown since 2003, is now at the center of a growing fury over the handling of the New Orleans disaster.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/05/AR2005090501590.html
excerpted here

Joe M. Allbaugh -- a college friend, former Bush campaign manager and past FEMA director who hired Brown as FEMA general counsel in 2001 -- offered a qualified defense.
Allbaugh called the government's overall performance "unacceptable" but added: "Blaming one agency, you cannot do that." Still, he acknowledged that FEMA had lost independence and clout with the White House. "I had a unique relationship with the president, having been his chief of staff," Allbaugh said. "If you don't have that kind of relationship, it just makes things tougher."

If anything, Brown's political background has become a liability, leading to charges that he was given his job as patronage. He got his start in politics as an Oklahoma native with Allbaugh but ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1988, winning 27 percent of the vote. He has chaired the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority and served as a City Council member, examiner for the Oklahoma and Colorado supreme courts, and assistant city manager.
Allbaugh hired Brown after an acrimonious end to a nine-year stint as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association. Former officials say he was forced out; a friend and lawyer of Brown's said he negotiated a settlement after withstanding numerous lawsuits against his enforcement of rules for judges and stewards.

What about the rest of fema?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090802165.html
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/06/fema-deputies/
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002560.html

RESPONSES FROM NO

Mayor ray nagin
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/raynaginno.wmv
http://www.atypical.net/mm/nagin.mp3
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/cbs_60min_ray_nagin_050904a.wmv

Jeffrey Broussard, Jefferson Parish President. On Meet the Press 9/4/05:

Sir, they were told like me. Every single day. The cavalry is coming. On the federal level. The cavalry is coming. The cavalry is coming. The cavalry is coming. I have just begun to hear the hooves of the cavalry. The cavalry is still not here yet, but I have begun to hear the hooves and were almost a week out.

Three quick examples. We had Wal-mart deliver three trucks of water. Trailer trucks of water. Fema turned them back, said we didn't need them. This was a week go. We had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a coast guard vessel docked in my parish. The coast guard said come get the fuel right way. When we got there with our trucks, they got a word, FEMA says don't give you the fuel. Yesterday, yesterday, fema comes in and cuts all our emergency communications lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in. he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards said no one is getting near these lines.
The guy who runs this building I'm in. Emergency management. He's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said. Are you coming. Son? Is somebody coming? And he said yeah. Mama. Somebody's coming to get you.. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday. And she drowned Friday night. And she drowned Friday night. Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The Secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For god's sakes, just shut up and send us somebody.

video here:
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Meet-the-Press-Broussard.wmv

[Backlash
from wikipedia
On September 25, 2005, Broussard was interviewed again on Meet the Press, and host Tim Russert asked him about the timeline discrepencies noted in the MSNBC story. Broussard did not directly account for those discrepencies, repeating the statement that "this gentleman's mother died on that Friday before I came on the show." In his subsequent remarks, though, he said that:

• The story as related by him in his earlier appearance was the story told to him by his staff.
• Tom Rodrigue was very distraught over his mother's death, and he (Broussard) wasn't inclined to interrogate him as to the specifics because of that.
• For people to nitpick over the specifics of the story is a sign of "a sick mind": "What kind of sick mind, what kind of black-hearted people want to nitpick a man's mother's death? You want to come and live in this community and see the tragedy we're living in? Are you sitting there having your coffee, you're in a place where toilets flush and lights go on and everything's a dream and you pick up your paper and you want to battle ideology and political chess games? Man, get out of my face. Whoever wants to do that, get out of my face."

• Mistakes were made at all levels of the disaster response.
• He hadn't had a full night's sleep in the past 30 days, and would be happy to debate someone as to the specifics of his story after having one.

The closest Broussard came to acknowledging making an error in his original appearance was this response:

"Sir, with everything I said on Meet the Press, the last punctuation of my statements were the story that I was going to tell in about maybe two sentences. It just got emotional for me, sir."

http://movie.crooksandliars.com/RussertBroussard.wmv]

open letter from the times picayune
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#076771

other media

anderson cooper
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Anderson-Cooper-Landrieu-Katrina.mov
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Anderson-Cooper-Landrieu-Katrina1.wmv
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Anderson-Cooper-Trent-Lott-Katrina.wmv
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Anderson-Cooper-Where-is-the-help-Katrina.wmv

on real time
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Real-Time-Anderson-Cooper.wmv

shepard smith and geraldo rivera
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Hannity-Colmes-Smith-Rivera-freak-in-NO.mov
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Hannity-Colmes-Smith-Rivera-freak-in-NO.wmv

brian williams
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9216831/#050905

ken olberman
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/
the video
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/olbermannwhostoblamecommentarysep5.wmv

jack cafferty on cnn
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/The-Situation-Room-Cafferty-on%20Katrina.mov
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/The-Situation-Room-Cafferty-on Katrina.wmv

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/The-Situation-Room-Cafferty-Bush-Work.mov
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/The-Situation-Room-Cafferty-Bush-Work.wmv

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/cnn_lt_cafferty_katrina_investigation_050920a.mov
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/cnn_lt_cafferty_katrina_investigation_050920a.wmv

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/The-Situation-%20Room-Cafferty-Bush-phot-op.mov
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/The-Situation-%20Room-Cafferty-Bush-phot-op.wmv

9/6
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/The-Situation-Room-Cafferty-Brown-fired.mov
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/The-Situation-Room-Cafferty-Brown-fired.wmv

Why are we talking about the "blame game" - there are thousands of people dead because government officials failed to do what they're supposed to be doing. That's criminal behavior. I mean, that's no game. There are poeple dead in the city of New Orelans and up and down the gulf coast because people charged with seeing to their welfare failed to do that. I don't understand this relecutance to say, Mr. Brown, you failed in your assignment. You're out of here. Go away. Go back to Colorado and go back to working for the Arabian Horse Association that we got you from.

9/8

Somewhere along the way FEMA became a dumping ground for the president's political cronies with little experience in disaster relief. The agency's first director was Joe Albaugh. He was president Bush's 2000 campaign chairman. Albaugh brought in the current failure Michael Brown. His previous work was with Arabian horses. The number two guy, Brown's top deputy at FEMA, is a fellow named Patrick Rhode. He worked for the 2000 election campaign. The number 3 guy at FEMA is Brooks Altshuler. He used to work in the White House. His job was planning presidential trips. FEMA's long term recovery director is a guy named Scott Morris. He produced television and radio commercials for the Bush campaign. The federal agency charged with handling national emergencies is staffed at the very top by a bunch of political hacks with virtually no experience that qualifies them to respond to something like Katrina. But I digress.

...

Where are the qualifications of these people? None of these guys is qualified based on the stuff I'm reading, to head up an emergency management agency. One of these guys worked with Arabian horses, The rest are all off the campaign trial. Planned presidential trips. Produced TV commercials. Don't you need somebody at the top running the organization who has some semblance of an idea of what the hell is required when there's an emergency?

the future of no
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/WSJ_White_rich_escape_New_Orleans_chaos_dont_want_blacks_poor__0908.html

detainment camp?
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/fema.html

pointed observations on the empty suit--
why new yorker's hate bush, and why the victims of katrina and rita will eventually hate him too..
http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2005/09/we-told-you-so.html

as also pointed out here
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0536,lombardi,67520,5.html

blog sources
http://atrios.blogspot.com/
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
http://www.crooksandliars.com/
http://americablog.blogspot.com/
http://www.tpmcafe.com
http://thinkprogress.org/
http://www.wonkette.com


media resources
http://www.crooksandliars.com/
http://www.canofun.com/blog/default.asp

updated 12/30