Hip-Hop speaks with one voice in calling for the censure of President Bush.

“Shut ‘em down!” so says T.J. Crawford, Chair of the National Organizing Committee of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention (NHHPC), in response to late breaking newly released video of President George Walker Bush on August 28th, the day before Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast, receiving information from both hurricane and national emergency experts (including ex-FEMA Director Michael Brown), that there was serious doubt that the levees, the Superdome and the emergency response systems of New Orleans could stand up against "the Big One": Katrina.

We in the hip-hop community have suspected this, but now we have the video and transcripts of Bush's lack of response, paired with his cold and empty assurance that his administration was "fully prepared."

Last night NHHPC joined the League of Pissed Off Voters, the Hip-Hop Caucus, the Finding Our Folk Tour to stand in solidarity in calling for a unified response from the hip-hop community.

Will you act?

The Action

a. Demand Congressional Censure for lying to the American public.

b. Take immediate steps to investigate the Bush administration. In order to impeach, we must investigate.

Visit www.colorofchange.org/bush/?org=l to join a mass movement to send your message to Bush and his administration, as well as the media that sat on this information in those first crucial and traumatic days, and over these long and tragic months.

Send the text message “Shut Em Down” to 78247 to become part of a national hip-hop text messaging network for action on this issue. Is your community mostly offline? Share this texting action with them as a step to getting involved. Also, print out this release, and make sure they have the news. We will follow up with a flyer of phone campaign options.

The Details of the Lie

4 days and a minimum of 1,300 American deaths after Katrina and the levee breach, Bush said: "I don''t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded. And now we are having to deal with it, and will."

But the video shows the National Hurricane Center's Max Mayfield warning the White House of a possible Levee Breach. “‘I don''t think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not but that is obviously a very, very grave concern,’ Mayfield told the briefing.”

Bush, claiming he wasn’t getting good information from the ground, said: “Listen, here's the problem that happened in Katrina. There was no situational awareness, and that means that we weren''t getting good, solid information from people who were on the ground, and we need to do a better job.”

But the video shows ex-Fema Director Michael Brown clearly expressing concern: "''I''m concerned about … their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe,'' Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall.”

Brown was fired by the Bush administration for not acting to protect the Gulf region. In fact, he called for officials from the local to national level to cut through the red tape to do everything possible to help. "Go ahead and do it," Brown said. "I''ll figure out some way to justify it. … Just let them yell at me."

Brown can also be seen on the video expressing specific concern about the Superdome, which was the prime site for evacuees on the ground to gather: "The Superdome is about 12 feet below sea level…. I don''t know whether the roof is designed to stand, withstand a Category Five hurricane.”

Indeed it was not. Join the Hip-Hop Community in calling for an end to this administration’s violent attack on our people.

ACT NOW TO CENSURE THE PRESIDENT

www.colorofchange.org/bush/?org=l

See the video at www.colorofchange/bush/video.html