Least we forget.

Some quotes taken from the book: CNN Katrina State of Emergency

"I told him, "This is going to be a defining moment for a lot of people"

National Hurrican Center director Max Mayfield to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Aug 27th 2005/

"The problem we have with this storm, if those storm surges are that high, they will top our levees, and there will be lots of water in the city of New Orleans" Mayor Ray Nagin August 28th 05

" I know they are saying get out of town, but I don't have anyway to get out. If you don't have any money, you can't go."

Hattie Johns age 74

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees".

-President George Bush

" An evacuation plan that consists of telling people to get out on their own, is not an evacuation plan."

-Amy Sullivan, Washington Monthly

" You can tell them you talked with the FEMA director, and its going to happen."

-FEMA Director Micheal Brown, o Anderson Cooper.

"Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job"

-President Bush to FEMA Director Micheal Brown during a press breifing in Mobile, Ala.

"The dreadful aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has exposed personal and structural failings in America's government, an eroded respect for the country around the world."

-The Economist magazine

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."

-U.S. Rep. Richard Baker (R-La).

BLOG Posted 09/06/2005 @ 1:08pm
Finally, we have discovered the roots of George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism."
On the heels of the president's "What, me worry?" response to the death, destruction and dislocation that followed upon Hurricane Katrina comes the news of his mother's Labor Day visit with hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston.
Commenting on the facilities that have been set up for the evacuees -- cots crammed side-by-side in a huge stadium where the lights never go out and the sound of sobbing children never completely ceases -- former First Lady Barbara Bush concluded that the poor people of New Orleans had lucked out.
"Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them," Mrs. Bush told American Public Media's "Marketplace" program, before returning to her multi-million dollar Houston home.
On the tape of the interview, Mrs. Bush chuckles audibly as she observes just how great things are going for families that are separated from loved ones, people who have been forced to abandon their homes and the only community where they have ever lived, and parents who are explaining to children that their pets, their toys and in some cases their friends may be lost forever. Perhaps the former first lady was amusing herself with the notion that evacuees without bread could eat cake.
At the very least, she was expressing a measure of empathy commensurate with that evidenced by her son during his fly-ins for disaster-zone photo opportunities.
On Friday, when even Republican lawmakers were giving the federal government an "F" for its response to the crisis, President Bush heaped praise on embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown. As thousands of victims of the hurricane continued to plead for food, water, shelter, medical care and a way out of the nightmare to which federal neglect had consigned them, Brown cheerily announced that "people are getting the help they need."
Barbara Bush's son put his arm around the addled FEMA functionary and declared, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
Like mother, like son.
Even when a hurricane hits, the apple does not fall far from the tree

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