Patterico's Pontifications

3/12/2006

Los Angeles Times Corrects False Assertion in Letter About Bush and Katrina

Filed under: Dog Trainer — Patterico @ 12:39 am



Regular readers will remember that I recently wrote the L.A. Times requesting a correction of a letter making a false claim about President Bush and Hurricane Katrina. It has taken a full week, but my request has finally resulted in the following correction:

Levees: A March 3 letter said the Associated Press reported that before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, President Bush was warned that the levees protecting the city could be breached. AP later clarified that, on Aug. 28, before the storm hit, Bush was warned that the levees could be topped by floodwaters, not breached. The Army Corps of Engineers uses the word “breach” to mean a hole developing in a levee, AP said.

(My emphasis.)

The distinction between a “breach” and “topping” was significant, because Bush had said that nobody had anticipated the “breach” of the levees. After the publication of the AP story, poorly informed people across the country claimed that Bush’s assertion had been been a lie, because they thought that Bush had been warned about a possible breach. But the AP story proved no such thing.

I don’t really blame the letter writer, though. He was simply parroting what he had read in a front-page Times story, which had falsely claimed that Bush had been warned about a concern that the levees might not “stand up against the storm.” Having read this story, the letter writer can hardly be blamed for thinking Bush had been warned of a possible breach — after all, that’s clearly what The Times article was trying to imply.

On second thought, I do blame the letter writer — for relying too heavily on the AP and L.A. Times as primary sources of news. As incidents like this one show, that’s a recipe for ignorance.

34 Responses to “Los Angeles Times Corrects False Assertion in Letter About Bush and Katrina”

  1. This post proves what I posted last night on several different blogs. The American people are being brainwashed by the former MSM and the majority have no way to get the ‘truth’ in news. How many people will ready the first letter but never see the correction? The former MSM print/broadcast what they should or do know is lies and hope they don’t get caught. Just like the stupid broad Plame and the CIA. Any real reporter could have determined in ten minutes that she was not and had not been a covert agent for years, if ever. The so called news agencies went nuts (lied) for days for their own political purposes which makes them ‘non news’ agencies but does make them propaganda outlets.

    FireMed (a90377)

  2. This is a weak defense of Bush anyway. Even assuming that the Pres. was only warned about topping rather than breaching the levees, it’s still a lie to afterward say “I wasn’t warned about it.” If this was important enough to demand our president’s time before it even occurred, then this wasn’t just about the possibility of a few buildings being barely flooded. Bush actually feigned concern in the video – you think his alarm was just about a few inches of water in NO? He was being warned about an event much more serious. You do have somewhat of an obsession with lying, don’t you Patterico?

    I’ll throw you a bone here: Bush’s best defense for the charges of incompetence was that he was dealing with a skeleton staff of advisors and that they were too a’scared to tell him any bad news. So that’s why he piddled while NO flooded.

    Before anyone throws out the silly “What could he have done before the flood?” strawman, the problem is that he was MIA after it happened, not before it happened.

    Psyberian (9eb2a7)

  3. That’s just wrong, Pysberian — and it was an obvious LIE to present the story as it was presented — anyone with a functioning brain and a first grader’s understanding of liquids and gravity should understand the difference between the consequences of breaching a levee and the consequences of merely topping it. If the water tops the levee, only a small part of the floodwater gets to the wrong side — the levee has done what it’s supposed to do: hold back the floodwaters, preventing massive damage. If the levee is breached, all of the water above the level of the breach gets through (which means pretty much all of it, since once the breach occurs, the moving water washes away whatever barrier remains). If the warning was only for topping, not a breach, then the expected worst case would indeed have been only minor damage from floodwaters.

    TNugent (6128b4)

  4. You do have somewhat of an obsession with lying, don’t you Patterico?

    I am, arguably, obsessive about accuracy.

    Patterico (de0616)

  5. To say that (paraphrasing) that “No one anticipated the levees being breached” uses such a weasel qualification, it shouldn’t even be taken seriously TNugent. Does hair-splitting like this actually work in court? I sure hope not.

    OK, since President Bush was evidently not bright enough to consider that hurricanes might cause mass destruction, here is what should have been explained to out brilliant leader:

    Hurricanes are sort of like tornadoes, except they usually come from the ocean. (They don’t directly grow out of the ocean per se though; they just tend to hit land from an ocean most of the time.) Hurricanes have a lot of power to destroy property (homes, buildings and such). Now there is a hurricane heading toward Louisiana. Now if the hurricane directly hits New Orleans’ levees (which keep the water out), then a lot of people could die.

    Note that it doesn’t matter in this case whether the levees were indeed directly hit by the hurricane, the possibility was there and he should have noted it.

    This defense of Bush simply doesn’t work.

    Psyberian (9eb2a7)

  6. A semantic victory that utterly reorients the record of Katrina mistakes and redeems the Administration’s response, eh? Had Bush said “no one thought the levees would fail,” this coroner’s report would have still another denotation. Happy days are here again.

    The storm was bending east. Everyone, including Max Mayfield at the National Hurricane Center, expected NOLA to get a serious, but glancing blow. What doesn’t change is the fact the levees were old and improperly maintained. No one should have expected they were up to any serious challenge.

    Claude Allen handled the Katrina task force at the White House in the early days after the disaster. He has the receipts.

    steve (469181)

  7. Bush said ““I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

    Michael Brown did. He told Bush about it, repeatedly. Under the most charitable interpretation of the events: Bush didn’t pay attention and “forgot”.

    m.croche (85f703)

  8. Here we go again. The usual suspects rush to blame George W Bush for something, anything, topping-breaching whatever, but not one mention of the Mayor of New Orleans or the Governor of Louisiana.

    The two local officials were directly and primarily responsible for the welfare of the city’s many visitors and remaining inhabitants, and they sure didn’t do much to save the people trapped in that hellhole. But, there’re Democrats and get a free pass for their gross incompetence and dereliction of duty. Looking the other way for Democrats is what’s going on in this case.

    So here come the knee-jerk accusations: blame GWB. It’s a flagrantly bogus charge, from obviously biased Bush Bashers. And, these people want to lead the country, when they can’t see beyond the end of their own noses.

    Anyone who blames GWB for the NOLA disaster, while ignoring the primary responsibility of Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco, disqualifies themselves from being taken seriously.

    Black Jack (d8da01)

  9. Come on, Black Jack – where did anyone here say that it was all dubya’s fault? Sure, there are other officials who should have done a better job too. I believe that Nagin even admits that. The post was about dubya, so we’re talking about dubya (oddly enough).

    Psyberian (9eb2a7)

  10. The storm was bending east. Everyone, including Max Mayfield at the National Hurricane Center, expected NOLA to get a serious, but glancing blow. What doesn’t change is the fact the levees were old and improperly maintained. No one should have expected they were up to any serious challenge.

    Assuming for the sake of argument that “No one should have expected [the levees] were up to any serious challenge,” what exactly do you think Bush should have done that he did not do?

    Stu707 (18fdc8)

  11. “I was never warned that Hurricane Katrina would have relations with that levee.”

    President George W. Bush

    nosh (d8da01)

  12. The criticism of Bush has descended into the realm of graffiti – no relevance or substance, just defacing the landscape. Latest on the canal levee failure is that a layor of clay was weaker than the designers expected, obviously Bush’s fault.
    What we do know its that if the proposals, years ago, to install flood gates had not been halted by greenie objections the consequences of the failure would have been much less.

    Walter E. Wallis (7ea451)

  13. Psyberian,

    Its never been a secret that N.O. was a bowl in-between the Mississippi River and the hurricane ridden Gulf of Mexico. It’s also not a secret that the Environmental groups have been a main source of problems when it came to building stronger levees and other safety measures for N.O. The only real secrets are kept hidden by crooked Democrat politicians in Louisiana and New Orleans…secrets like what happened to the millions (perhaps billions) of U.S. tax-dollars that were sent to strengthen levees (etcetera) long before Hurricane Katrina.

    Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that happened to New Orleans since the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, and i am sure that some Americans cried and blamed Thomas Jefferson for paying “3¢ per acre”. Thomas Jefferson needed no “defense” for his Louisiana Purchase, and President “W” doesn’t need any “defense” for ORDERING Hurricane Katrina into New Orleans…so to speak of that Democrat *RAT* Hole being in need of some serious flushing for decades.

    KårmiÇømmünîs†

    KarmiCommunist (958188)

  14. Moral of the Hurricane Katrina story: Don’t live at the mouth of a large river (where it meets a hurricane ridden Gulf, Sea, or Ocean) if you as a human have become nothing more than chattel ‘pumping’ votes for the Democrat Party.

    KarmiCommunist (958188)

  15. Nice work, P

    Steve, I laughed in spite of myself at this-

    “Claude Allen handled the Katrina task force at the White House in the early days after the disaster. He has the receipts.”

    Is it true that Allen was involved?

    See Dubya (36439c)

  16. Most Liberals/Democrats/Socialists claim that they like nature, but show no *RESPECT* for Mother Nature or, even the concept of a higher power than themselves. These same Liberal/Democrat/Socialist *MORONS* actually believe that Mother Nature needs them for Her own survival!?!?!?!

    Well, Mother Nature has been watching over Planet Earth for a *VERY* long time, and history has shown that She doesn’t cut the weak on Planet Earth any slack…as in no slack at all.

    Most, who are reading this, have heard of “Greenpeace”, huh; however, how many have heard of Greenspirit or even Patrick Moore??? Pat is a founding member of Greenpeace…enough said.

    We Americans gripe and cry about rights, taxes, healthcare, and expect someone to change our diapers for us…so to speak of such ‘Thangs.

    Mother Nature watches and listens to such weaknesses, for just so long, whilst expecting even more signs of strength from the former so-called “Strong”, and then She unleashes the weaker upon the so-called “Strong” or, just wipes out a whole species in mere Dualistic seconds of Earthly time. Yes, Mother Nature can multitask time, if you wondered. She can do Dualistic, Universal, and Karmic time all at the same time that She does Her own time. In other words, or even in imaginable human time or worlds, Mother Nature is an expert on Time, and on survival on Planet Earth. BTW, She does not do diapers or windows (human windows, if Bill (Gates) wondered…nor human diapers, if Hillary (Clinton) wondered).

    Life on Earth is a *LOT* like Life in a Prison and/or ‘Da *SWING* of a Pendulum…

    KårmiÇømmünîs†

    KarmiCommunist (f111e7)

  17. Example: Just look at the “See Dubya” reply here; Their slips are showing beneath their skirts, and “See Dubya” thinks that is funny. The only chance of survival for such weak males in any Prison, would require them becoming ‘females’…in a War, they would have no chance for survival. Weak human males are pathetic…at best.

    KårmiÇømmünîs†

    KarmiCommunist (f111e7)

  18. Weak human males are foaming so much at their mouths, that their arses are dry, and this site can’t keep up with such Liberal/Democrat/Socialist dryness.

    Hey, ‘Da *TRUTH* hurts, and this ain’t the Planet Aquarius (if there is even one)!!!

    KårmiÇømmünîs†

    KarmiCommunist (f111e7)

  19. Tic Toc Tic Toc Tic Toc goes Mother Nature’s Clock…so to speak of time running out for weak males here in America.

    Tic Toc Tic Toc Tic Toc Tic Toc Tic Toc Tic Toc Tic Toc goes Mother Nature’s Clock.

    KarmiCommunist (f111e7)

  20. Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that happened to New Orleans since the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. – Karmicommunist

    Well, aren’t you a piece of work? You’re happy that over one-thousand people were killed there? Then I take it you’re not the “kinder, gentler” type of compassionate conservative. So now you’re just waiting, I imagine, for when the big earthquake finally hits California too? If I’m reading you right Karmicommunist, you’re beneath contempt.

    Psyberian (9eb2a7)

  21. Psyberian,

    Are you really this stupid???

    You’re happy that over one-thousand people were killed there?

    No, i am happy that Ray “School Bus” Nagin and MSM were both wrong by 10’s of thousands on their predicting and so-called reporting…so to speak to one as weak as you.

    BTW, learn to read Dualistically first, before you try again…so to speak gently to a weak male.

    KårmiÇømmünîs†
    Former Prison Pimp

    KarmiCommunist (f111e7)

  22. Whilst gentle and patient humble hermit me waits for Psyberian to catch up, and for this website to keep up with such foaming from the mouth…please allow this:

    THE DEMOCRATS’ (SECRET) PLAN FOR AMERICA

    Waiting…

    KarmiCommunist (f111e7)

  23. Karmicommunist, you’re a nut. It’s impossible to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t know how to say what they mean.

    You seem like such a bitter person; did someone hurt your feelings?

    Do you need a hug?

    Psyberian (9eb2a7)

  24. OK…this waiting, and Psyberian have become a tad too boring. Psyberian, have you ever seen or even imagined something like this:

    The Neal Boortz Commencement Speech

    Yawn…Psyberian, you are on ‘Da Clock!!! Tic Toc…

    KårmiÇømmünîs†

    KarmiCommunist (f111e7)

  25. Psyberian,

    Do you need a hug?

    No, why do you ask??? Are you another sheepherder wannabe Cowboy??? i am a hermit…pay attention to what is going on around you. Just a suggestion…

    KårmiÇømmünîs†

    KarmiCommunist (f111e7)

  26. Well take it easy swamp hermit. Things are going to work out OK. But you probably should get out more. Just a suggestion…

    Psyberian (9eb2a7)

  27. Well, if Patterico is willing to treat a Fuc…weak male…like Psyberian gently, then i shall try also.

    Psyberian…Mother Nature cares a lot for gay and weak males…well, maybe, but i think that you and i both doubt that, huh. i am a hermit because i am tired of weak humans, so why should i “get out more”??? i am waiting for the beheaders of other humans to show up…simple as that.

    i don’t need “a hug” or even Female companionship , and you have no clue what i am talking about.

    Well, you might be in luck, because the beheaders are coming, and they are in serious trouble once they reach here. Don’t look or expect me to save you or Yours, since i would only watch and wait.

    However, your beheaders will be repaid…as in “Ditto” or 10,000 thousand heads for yours.

    Call me “Karmi” from now on, since your hugging days are about over…

    Karmi
    Gentle one

    KarmiCommunist (9bba48)

  28. OK, Karmi: you may be batshit insane, but at least you’re sort-of interesting. So I have to ask… What gives you the impression that I’m weak? Who are the “beheaders” and why are they going to kill people?

    Psyberian (9eb2a7)

  29. This whole breach vrs top argument is quibbling. Bush was warned the levees might fail to protect New Orleans. They did. The fact that the exact failure mode was somewhat unexpected is not very significant.

    If Bush did not intend to use breach in a narrow sense when he stated he was not warned the about a possible levee breach then he was wrong. If he did intend the narrow technical sense then he was engaging in the sort of artful wording for which Clinton became infamous.

    James B. Shearer (fc887e)

  30. TNugent, you are wrong about breaching being more serious than topping. If you have a 25 foot storm surge and a 17 foot levee you do not get just a little bit of water on the wrong side of the levee, you get 25 feet of water in New Orleans. If you read some of the hypothetical accounts written before Katrina you will see discussion of dynamiting the levees after a storm has passed to let the above sea level water drain out before pumping out the rest. Actually in practice topping will likely lead to breaching shortly thereafter if the back sides of the levees are not protected against erosion (as many in New Orleans were not).

    James B. Shearer (fc887e)

  31. Don’t live at the mouth of a large river (where it meets a hurricane ridden Gulf, Sea, or Ocean) if you as a human have become nothing more than chattel ‘pumping’ votes for the Democrat Party.

    KarmiCommunist (6a68a2)

  32. …i’m starting to see some money to be made in Shrunken Heads and/or Tsantsas. If America loses this War Against Moslem Terrorism/Jihadism/Radical Islamism, then there is going to be a lot of beheaded Americans with skulls left in those lopped off heads. Clearly, the Moslem Terrorists/Jihadists/Radical Islamists are not into the ‘Spiritualization of Headhunting’, but they might wish to purchase a Tsantsa for either a ‘conscience cleansing’ potion or a trophy for their Trophy Wall…so to speak of such a Capitalistic ‘Thang or thought. http://karmicommunist.blogspot.com/2005/10/shrunken-heads-and-psychological.html

    Yes Karmi, you worry me. I believe you should get some professional help because no one is talking about “lopping off heads” for money here yet. Or if your friends or associates are talking about it, then I can see why you are a hermit! You are more of a concern than our left-sided conspiracy theory commenters here too.

    Incidentally, from what little I’ve read on your site about your idol – Dr. Jack Wheeler, I think he is stealing a lot of those ideas from Nietzsche. (I have a B.A. in philosophy.) Painting Nietzsche as a far right philosopher is not that difficult to do if you pick through his ideas and ignore the others. So skip Jack and read Nietzsche yourself – it would probably better for you than listening to “Dr. Jack” at any rate.

    Psyberian (9eb2a7)

  33. Interesting that we are still trying to ride this dead horse for all it’s worth.

    Did anyone seriously believe the levees would allow, by whatever means, 20 feet of water into the better part of NO that couldn’t possibly be pumped out? Evidently the mayor didn’t because he didn’t take every precaution possible to include starting up the school buses and mandating an evacuation. Evidently the governor didn’t for the same reason. Evidently the people who lived there didn’t because far too many of them stayed. Some because they wanted, though they had the option to leave, and some because they had no other option.

    Was it possible for the levees to fail? Of course. Was Bush warned that various people were concerned about what the storm might do in the worst case scenario? Unequivocally yes. Did anyone, including the ACoE imagine that the levees were actually defective? Not that I’ve been able to determine. Did the levees fail because they were defective or becasue they were overtopped? The jury isn’t fully in yet, but at least some of the failure was due to defective engineering and construction.

    When the brunt of the storm made landfall to the east of NO, everyone, including the governor, thought NO had dodged another bullet as it had done in the past. The levees and seawalls subsequently failed at least in part, due to the levees being undermined and displacing, taking the sea walls with them.

    Is the DHS actually ready for a 9/11 size terrorist attack? I’d be surprised if they are. Have most municipalities wasted the better part of the emergency readiness funds budgeted in the aftermath of 9/11? I’d be surprised if they haven’t.

    If we really want to worry about something, let’s worry about the state of DHS, FEMA, and whether any of the billions of dollars allocated for disaster readiness in the aftermath of 9/11 have actually been spent on better preparing first responders to do their jobs. In the case of NO, they should have had $24 million of communications equipment that would have enabled them to respond effectively. It wasn’t there even though some $56 million of federal funds remained unspent.

    However, the ultimate responsibility for DHS lies unquestionably with Bush. I’m not at all convinced that Chertoff has a clue what he’s doing at DHS. I truly hope I’m wrong, but FEMA’s post-Katrina relief effort does not inspire me.

    The real tragedy is that while we pick fly poop out of pepper parsing every off-the-cuff comment of GW Bush, there are true deficiencies at the federal (and local and state) level worthy of serious attention and discussion. These include a completely porous southern border and less than adequate air and sea cargo screening in addition to the effectiveness of the leadership at DHS and FEMA.

    And we haven’t even begun to discuss whether anything like pre-Katrina NO even ought to be rebuilt, if so where, what the costs will be, and how to protect whatever we rebuild from the next Katrina.

    Harry Arthur (b318a5)

  34. Oh goody. Another thread turned into Bush is responsible for Katrina.

    Patterico, congratulations on shaming the Times into a correction. I must say, I am a bit taken aback that they corrected this. After all, they didn’t write it. I’m sure you remember my comment a week or so ago about how I didn’t think they’d correct their wording on the original story.

    My opinion on it stems from watching so many more egregious examples of errata ignored. Maybe they’re changing their approach, perhaps they realize that people can see what they’re doing?

    ………….nah.

    Dwilkers (a1687a)


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