Bush's Katrina sidekick says levees sabotaged

Total Information Analysis
Aug. 28, 2006

Rocky Vaccarella, who traveled to DC to heap praise upon GW Bush, says on MSNBC's Hardball that he thinks the levees were sabotaged under the cover of Hurricane Katrina!

Here's a transcript of the relevant remarks, from Hardball, Aug. 25, 2006:

"ROCKY VACCARELLA, KATRINA SURVIVOR: I live in St. Bernard Parish, and I was born and raised right there. I fished off them levess. And them levees held up during many hurricanes that came through. And you know, back in '65 -- it was a proven fact that the levees were blown up! And i feel my opinion about the levee is a little bit different than some other opinions...

Because I was actually on my roof when the levees broke, and I just have concern that it might have not been a "weak levee." I rode my bike on that levee as a child... to me the levee was like the Great Wall of China.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC HOST: Yeah --

VACCARELLA: I was inside the levee protection system. I felt safe. We beared the storm. And then the next thing you know, the levees were breached.

MATTHEWS: Let me--

VACCARELLA: And you know what, sometimes the levees were breached to protect other cities...
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When Vaccarella says "back in '65," he is referring to Hurricane Betsy. During the that storm, the levee along the Indutrial Canal was breached, flooding the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish.

It is bizarre that this man so fervently supports the figurehead of the federal government while simultaneously believing the federal levees were covertly sabotaged -- and presumably covered up by that same federal government. But such perhaps is the doublethink endemic in traumatized 21st-Century America.