Caught on Tape
This Washington Post editorial cuts through the smokescreen of Bush's Katrina apologists.
Washington Post
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ON THE DAY before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, federal emergency officials warned President Bush that the hurricane could be “the big one,” the storm the region had long feared; that the Superdome, the shelter of last resort in New Orleans, was below sea level and might well lose its roof; that medical and mortuary teams might not be prepared; and that the levees might not hold back the floodwaters. Mr. Bush, speaking during a videoconference, a tape of which was obtained by the Associated Press, responded by reassuring state officials that “we are fully prepared.”
Without a doubt, the tape provides evidence that the White House received ample warning of the catastrophe. Yet within days of that videoconference, Mr. Bush would excuse the federal government’s extraordinarily poor performance by telling an interviewer that “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” Moreover, at the time of the conference the White House had no idea whether federal emergency services were truly prepared.
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Herman Melville’s "Moby Dick" is a portrait of the American character, and like the crew of Ahab's ship we are complicit in self-annihilation.
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Health experts say the coming decades will see an epidemic of asbestos-related diseases in Asian countries where the material is still used in construction. China and India, with their rapidly developing economies and huge populations, are expected to be the hardest hit.
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Thousands of Palestinians marched Saturday to mark the "Nakba," or "catastrophe" of the creation of Israel in 1948, and to honor the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced into exile after the nascent state of Israel seized Arab land.
Because if it's not in the history books, it didn't happen. Today's Orwell Award goes to the Israeli government, whose education minister has decided to remove references to what Palestinians call the "catastrophe" -- when Israel defeated five Arab nations in a 1948 war and expelled 700,000 Palestinians -- from textbooks given to Arab schoolchildren.
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