The Hightower Report

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WHILE NEW ORLEANS DROWNS, FEMA DOES PR

Of all the awful stories that poured out of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans about the deadly incompetence of Bush, FEMA, and homeland security czar Michael Chertoff, the most damning are those detailing how the Bushites' top priority was to shore up their own political standing.

Take FEMA ... please – OK, that's a bad joke, but so is this so-called emergency agency, which Bush has staffed with political hacks and imagemakers. You could ask some 1,400 firefighters about that. FEMA summoned them from as faraway as Utah and Oregon to help deal with the Katrina disaster, and they eagerly responded. They brought their own fire gear, first aid kits, sleeping bags, MREs – they were trained and ready to wade into the treacherous floodwaters, fight fires, go door-to-door ... save lives.

So, imagine their shock, amazement, and anger when they found themselves not in the thick of urgent action on the Gulf Coast, but stuck by FEMA officials in a hotel conference room in faraway Atlanta! While New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin was on TV literally begging for firefighters to supplement his exhausted forces, FEMA sequestered these 1,400 professionals in a daylong training session. Minutes into it, murmurs began, with these well-trained specialists asking one another, "What the blank are we doing here?"

The answer quickly became apparent. They were not to be used as emergency workers, but as PR agents for FEMA! This skilled battalion was being trained to go into evacuation centers wearing FEMA T-shirts and hand out to victims community-relations fliers promoting the agency's phone number. Instead of dealing with the Katrina disaster, they were being put on the front lines of FEMA's political disaster.

One lucky group of 50 firefighters finally did get to go to Louisiana a week after Katrina hit. They were not sent to rescue people – but to be props standing around George W. as he made a PR tour of the area.

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GEORGE W.'S NEW CHARITY

Won't you give? Water pumps are needed, as are school supplies, and so much more. We know that you'll come through, for the American people are phenomenally generous ... so, please, open your pocketbooks now.

This is not a plea for charitable donations to help rebuild our country's devastated Gulf Coast, but – get ready to be whopper-jawed – a desperate plea by Bush & Company for us Americans to make donations to their favorite cause: rebuilding Iraq!

You might recall that the Bushites originally told us that reconstruction over there would cost us taxpayers no more than $1.7 billion. But – oops – the rebuilding tab has now topped $30 billion, for which we've gotten very little progress. So, in addition to throwing ever more of our tax dollars at the problem, George W.'s crack team of problem solvers has now set up an Internet fundraising operation asking that you and I also divert our charitable giving to Iraq.

They're calling this a public-private partnership to give the American people "a further stake in building a free and prosperous Iraq." A further stake? Excuse us, George, but We the People have already "donated." We've given the lives of some 2,000 American troops and more than $210 billion from our public treasury to your war of lies, not to mention the sacrifices of the severely wounded or the severe damage that our nation's reputation has suffered.

Unfortunately for the Bushites, the timing of their charitable appeal could not be worse. A new poll shows that more than 50% of Americans are either somewhat or very worried that Iraq is draining away money that's needed here at home. Also, 90%, including a majority of Republicans, would oppose cuts in education, health care, and other domestic programs to continue financing Bush's war.

A news report notes that, so far, George W.'s charity drive for Iraq has brought in $39. I wonder if even a dime of that came from him?