Wednesday, January 25, 2006

In the Court of King George

The Bush adminsitration's power grab and concomitant use of "executive privilege" grows more mindblowing -- and frightening -- by the day.

Documents released yesterday by a Senate committee show that the White House was told in the hours before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans that the city probably would be inundated with floodwater, forcing the long-term relocation of hundreds of thousands of people. This puts the lie to the Bush administration fiction that it was surprised as anyone when the levees were breached and . . . hundreds of thousands of people had to be relocated.

The administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch communications, said today that it would not turn over certain Katrina documents or make senior officials available for sworn testimony before two Congressional committees investigating the response to the storm.

Not surprisingly, but nevertheless appalling.

(Hat tip to Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly.)

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