AmericaBlog has two gems this morning:
HED: Bush says today he will investigate himself
That’s nice. Bush is going to investigate his OWN bungling of Hurricane Katrina.
That’s nice. Will he be investigating why he remained on vacation until the 3d day AFTER the hurricane destroyed New Orleans? Will he be investigating why Condi Rice went on vacation to NYC for most of the week? Why Dick Cheney and Andy Card STAYED on vacation even after the hurricane struck? Why it took Bush until Wednesday to chair a meeting at the White House with his cabinet to address the catastrophe?
Talk about your conflict.
HED: 3 Duke students travel to New Orleans, rescue people, come back while feds say they couldn’t help anybody
But hey, in all fairness, George Bush was on vacation.
A trio of Duke University sophomores say they drove to New Orleans late last week, posed as journalists to slip inside the hurricane-soaked city twice, and evacuated seven people who weren’t receiving help from authorities.
The group, led by South Carolina native Sonny Byrd, say they also managed to drive all the way to the New Orleans Convention Center, where they encountered scenes early Saturday evening that they say were disgraceful.
“We found it absolutely incredible that the authorities had no way to get there for four or five days, that they didn’t go in and help these people, and we made it in a two-wheel-drive Hyundai,” said Hans Buder, who made the trip with his roommate Byrd and another student, David Hankla….
At 2 p.m., the trio decided to head for New Orleans, Buder said. After looking around, they swiped an Associated Press identification and one of the TV station’s crew shirts, and found a Kinko’s where they could make copies of the ID.
They were stopped again by authorities at the edge of New Orleans, but this time were able to make it through.
“We waved the press pass, and they looked at each other, the two guards, and waved us on in,” Buder said….
“Anyone who knows that area, if you had a bus, it would take you no more than 20 minutes to drive in with a bus and get these people out,” Buder said. “They sat there for four or five days with no food, no water, babies getting raped in the bathrooms, there were murders, nobody was doing anything for these people. And we just drove right in, really disgraceful. I don’t want to get too fired up with the rhetoric, but some blame needs to be placed somewhere.”
And finally, from Daily Kos (via E&P):
“And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this (she chuckled slightly)–this is working very well for them.”
– Barbara Bush, as recorded on APM’s Marketplace, after touring Katrina refugees in Houston.
