“I’m at ease knowing I did everything I could.”

At ease? Everything he could?

Well, considering he didn’t have a drop of disaster response experience and was appointed to be the head of the federal disaster response agency, I guess he did do everything he could.

Which was f*ck all.

Now is when I’d normally bust out a tyraid about how our overbearing federal government has laid down all kinds of laws to make people not think for themselves and be automotons of the federal government’s laws. I’ll save it for later. However, I love spouting this kind of tripe, so if anyone trolls me, I’ll lay it on :)

The people in New Orleans who got the shaft are predominantly black, but they are also predominantly poor. I have a feeling that the poor and black coorelation have quite a bit to do with each other (the coorelation), rather than the slow response being directly because people were black. IMO, the slow response of the federal government was much more of a socioeconomic issue than a race issue (the causation). These people don’t have the same influence as those on Florida’s bling-bling shores. (They also don’t have a Jeb Bush, but that’s another story).

So Craig, I’ve heard you describe yourself as a conservative before. Are you really a conservative, or just are relative to these guys…because I’m finding myself agreeing with you more and more, which is beginning to scare the crap out of me.

I would also have to say I agree with most your own comments above, although I do have to part ways on the whole “Bush doesn’t care about blacks” which is generally the precursor to the argument that “the Federal Government responded slowly because it was just poor black people involved”.

Maybe I’ll save that point for a future post.

“Brownie” resigned, clearly indicating where the bulk of the failure lies.

Rise, I don’t mean to pick on you, but I do not believe that Brown’s resignation alone clearly indicates anything. In his mind, it was likely a reaction to public preception and the growing criticism. In this case, I am certainly left with a feeling of ‘good riddance’, but he certainly defended his reposne in his resignation announcement:

“This was a catastrophic disaster, and in every disaster, there are mistakes, and it’s not always smooth and pretty,” Brown said of Hurricane Katrina. “I’m at ease knowing I was doing everything I could.”

I definitely agree with Craig that the government failed the people of New Orleans at all levels, local, state, and federal. Not that it’s a big surprise to my government-fearing self. It’s inherent to our system of government, and I do not feel that there is any way to change it…we can only understand the bureaucracy (and its inherent limitations) and work within and around it.

On a related note, today marks a historic occasion, where GW Bush actually accepted accountability for the fed’s fuckups. I don’t know how far it really goes, but it’s a whole hell of a lot better than “we won too fast” or regretting appointments (although it may all come down to the latter). I guess that it helps that he doesn’t have an election in sight.

For what it’s worth, i basically agree with most of what you say, including agreeing that Nagin is doing his best to escape what is rightfully his responsibility for poor execution of a flawed evacuation plan.

The only place where I think I have a problem with what you’re saying (and it’s more a question of emphasis and implication than anything you’ve said outright), is when you quote Rev. Peterson saying, “The mayor failed in his duty to evacuate and protect the people of New Orleans… The truth is, black people died not because of President Bush or racism, they died because of their unhealthy dependence on the government and the incompetence of Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco,”

The truth is, despite the human brain’s desire to see the world in terms of stark alternatives, it’s not an either/or proposition. The Hurricane Katrina deathtoll is a floor wax _and_ a dessert topping. Black people died because Nagin didn’t have a plan for getting the poor out of New Orleans, but rather relied on the federal “cavalry” to come rescue them after 48-72 hours. They died because he didn’t have a coordinated plan with the governor to relocate those people outside the city before the storm. They died because he inexplicably didn’t order a mandatory evacuation on Saturday, but instead waited until Sunday.

They died because Gov. Blanco didn’t have a better idea of what National Guard troops should be assigned where, and didn’t coordinate more effectively with both Mayor Nagin and with the federal authorities.

They _also_ died because Bush has systematically gutted FEMA of the competent leadership that was the result of Clinton-era reforms, replacing them with mediocre fuckups cast in his own mold. They died because Bush, and the more-intelligent members of his administration who are better than he is at thinking on their feet and making good decisions in a crisis, were on vacation, insulated from unfolding events that it is their sworn duty to be aware of.

They died because (and yeah, I actually believe this is an accurate statement), “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Just as George Bush doesn’t care about Democrats, and Californians, and people who think he’s not qualified to be president, or pretty much anyone who’s not in his little circle of sycophants. George Bush basically doesn’t care about _anyone_ other than George Bush, and in this crisis the stunted nature of his emotional development really showed.

But more than any of those reasons, the residents of New Orleans died because people are really, really good at lying to themselves. They ignore the evidence of their own senses, the workings of their own miraculous brains, which have the ability to make a model of the world and predict with a fair degree of accuracy that if A and B, then C (but which also have the ability to pretend that C won’t in fact happen, if that fantasy is more convenient than the truth).

If you build a city on a subsiding delta in the path of hurricanes, and chanellize the river to send its sediment out to sea, the city will predictably sink. If you pull money away from levee construction and maintenance so you can lard more pork-barrel spending elsewhere, if you develop coastal estuaries to make short-term profits for real estate developers, you hasten the day when disaster will strike.

We’re like a trail of ants going back and forth across a driveway. Twice a day a car drives over us, crushing a bunch of us, and for a minute or so we scurry around waving our antennae in the air, pumping out alarm pheremones, hyperalert to every danger. Calamity! Disaster! Woe betide us!

Then the effect wears off, and we go, “Huh, no big tires have crushed anyone lately. I guess we’re safe.” And we go back to our former habits. Until the next time.

This happened to us because we weren’t honest with ourselves. And to the extent we aren’t honest about what happened, it will happen to us again. When Nagin seeks to preserve his own political skin by obscuring his own role, he’s helping to make sure it will happen again. When Bush seeks to preserve _his_ political skin by obscuring _his_ role, he’s helping to make sure it will happen again. Both of them are clearly doing that.

And when we give in to our too-human tendency to believe the comforting lies told by “our” side, as they seek to lay the blame on the “other” side, we’re helping to make sure it will happen again.

It’s our fault.

Thats issue number one, because its been 40 years of neglec.
Issue number two as just state would be the lack of a plan by the local officals for getting people out. Knowing damn well they have crap leeves.
Issue number three would be why in the world the national gov/FEMA didn’t have a relief plan, because anyone could make the evalution that the local officals and the people in the city don’t have the know how or the ablities to get out 80,00 people.
Issue for of course it took way to damn look for FEMA to react, as state.

Once again the real issue is national and state govs need to put huge amounts of money in leeve systems like they have in europe. America is basiclly a big loose ass. Anything and everything can penitrate it. And we welcome a lot of shit into it, however we get pissed whenever it hurts. Its time to stop trying to catch bullets and start building a hell of a local defence.

What was the timeline of the deaths here? How many died, and when did they die? If they died in the first 48 hours, then you’re probably right that it’s the fault of the locals. If they died after that, it’s the Feds.

I think it’s also natural for most of us to focus on the federal government in this tragedy because most of us don’t live in Louisiana. Sure, I wouldn’t vote for Nagin or Blanco if I lived there, but the only bastards I can vote out of office in response to Katrina are the national politicians.

The best way I can see of limiting Bush’s ability to further harm this country is to bring Democratic majorities to Congress.

“Brownie” resigned, clearly indicating where the bulk of the failure lies.

And no, nobody listens to Jesse Jackson — at least in the sense that nobody listens to Pat Robertson.