Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina

The Associated Press obtained the confidential government video and made it public Wednesday, offering Americans their own inside glimpse into the government's fateful final Katrina preparations after months of fingerpointing and political recriminations.

"My gut tells me ... this is a bad one and a big one," then-federal disaster chief Michael Brown told the final government-wide briefing the day before Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29.

The president didn't ask a single question during the briefing but assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

The footage — along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by AP — show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Click to watch the video.

I have only one question: why were all those high-ranking officials wasting their time discussing a non-existent scenario? Surely they could've used their time better, wouldn't you think? Who cares what nonsense people like Max Mayfield hallucinate about.

tags: bush  fema  mayfield  dhs  brown  coverup  chertoff  katrina