[Dean's World] Dean: Drove My Chevy To The Levee But The Levee Was BreachedTopped

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Posted by Dean:
Drove My Chevy To The Levee But The Levee Was BreachedTopped
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1141662770.shtml


   Since I talked about it with the Pundit Review guys, I might as well
   write something about it. Last week the news media went insane with
   the "news" (I call it "nooz," because it looks like news but isn't)
   that Bush was supposedly warned that the levees were breached but he
   supposedly was unresponsive and did nothing.

   I found this "nooz" meaningless on several levels, first off because
   there was nothing we hadn't heard back when Katrina hit. Second,
   because the snippet of video being paraded around was too short and
   was being examined out of context, a context where we know certain
   other things happened, like the President personally calling Ray Nagin
   before Katrina hit and urging him to evacuate the city.

   But ultimately it turned out that the President had been warned that
   the levees were topped, not breached. The significance of that one
   word is huge. I well remember it at the time: there were reports all
   over the place the morning after that the levees were topped. That
   means water ran over them, and would cause some flooding. I also
   remember the report of the first levee breach, and it looked like just
   one breach that could be handled appropriately.

   So in short, at first it looked like the levees mostly held. It wasn't
   until almost a full day after that it was realized that there was
   catastrophic breaching all over the levees.

   I don't expect this all to mean much to a lot of people but we just
   had a week-long scourging of the administration over what turns out to
   be a massive, out of context egaggeration. Lovely.

   Instapundit has [1]a coupious link roundup. Be especialy sure to check
   out Patterico's stuff.

References

   1. http://instapundit.com/archives/028915.php