'Duct Tape Man' and other nonsense

If Michael Brown’s resignation this afternoon as the head of FEMA was supposed to end the political controversy over the administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, it probably won't.
Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann is keeping his critical eye focused on the Bush administration with his latest blog post on "Duct Tape Man" David Paulison, who told Americans every home should stock up on duct tape and plastic sheeting.

Meanwhile, the failure wants to reassure America that no taxes will be required to pay for Gulf Coast reconstruction. "You bet it will cost money," he said, "but I’m confident we can handle it."

Well, that makes me feel better. George W. Bush is confident that we can handle it. His assessments have been so dead on in the past. He went on to tell us that, "It’s going to cost whatever it’s going to cost," demostrating his unique insight into the situation. In case you're wondering, you can also expect recontruction to take as long as it takes and fix whatever it fixes.

By the way, how are we going to pay for this? The same way we'll pay for everything, Pinky, spending cuts. Ahhh, panacea of the borrow-and-spend republicans. All spending can be paid for with spending cuts. Who needs that pesky math, anyway.

Don't worry though, Bush assures us that they'll be "wise about the money we spend."

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I'm not even going to bother with that one. If you want, you can read the MSNBC article on Bush's little fantasy world.

By the way, they also have this article on the who-knew-what-when question, where they note that:

Bush told ABC on Sep. 1 that “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” In its storm warnings, the hurricane center never used the word breached.” But a day before Katrina came ashore Aug. 29, the agency warned in capital letters: “SOME LEVEES IN THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA COULD BE OVERTOPPED.”

National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield also gave daily pre-storm videoconference briefings to federal officials in Washington, warning them of a nightmare scenario of New Orleans’ levees not holding, winds smashing windows in high-rise buildings and flooding wiping out large swaths of the Gulf Coast.

A photo on the White House Web site shows Bush in Crawford, Texas, watching Mayfield give a briefing on Aug. 28, a day before Katrina smashed ashore with 145-mph winds.