The View From 103

I will soon have to stop thinking about the New Orleans catastrophe.When I think about it, I get very, very angry.

The looting pissed me off, but I have to let that go. New Orleans, for all of its virtues, is probably the most corrupt city in the US, and it is located in what is --by a mile-- the corrupt state in the US. So when the blacks, and the whites, and the kids, and cops, in uniform, are to be found robbing the shelves of a Wal-Mart with an air of insouciance and entitelement, why the hell should I be surprised? At least Wal-Mart can afford it ( and has nonetheless donated to the relief of the city whose citizens robbed them ).

But the absolute, staggering incompetence of the government is what killed hundreds of people. People who did not have to die.

We know where the buck stops, but the buck starts somewhere, too. Lets devote a bit of time to Mayor Nagin.

Last night, Matt Drudge replayed an interview Nagin did right before the storm hit. Literally with a Starbucks in hand, there was no sense of urgency. The mayor said essentially that " all those who wanted to be out were out of the city " and that those with no other option were at the Superdome, where " doctors were waiting for them ", and that those who stayed could expect no help for days.

Meanwhile, a huge armada of school buses was only a mile away from the Convention Center. They, and the city's mass transit buses, could have been used to take a lot of the city's poor to a safer place. But those buses, every one of them under city and state authority, were never used. Not one.

The city had an evacuation plan. It was rehearsed --to failing grades-- 13 months ago. But it really failed when Katrina hit, because the evacuation plan's written process of evacuation using city vehicles was never implemented. Its not that it was not implemented in full, but that it was not implemented at all. Not one bus carried one passenger.

Many of the people stuck in the city wanted to be there, having ridden out all the other storms. Others were afraid of what might lay ahead, or that their meager belongings would be stolen. But some people wanted to leave but could not. And there was zero effort on the city's part to help them.

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Blanco, she who cries in front of TV cameras, spouted legalities when Bush wanted to federalize the New Orleans National Guard. Weak, indecisive, emotional, she is not worthy of another keystroke.

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The truth of the above will not be seen in the NY Times, or most mainstream media, but the truth will out. Nagin and Blanco should face jailtime for this, the murderous incompetence is so overwhelming.

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Bush, you are not off the hook. I will cut you some slack for being on your monthlong or yearlong vacation in that your Crawford rathole, with media whore Cindy Sheehan preening outside.

I will you some slack for being dazed and slow off the bat for the first few days. You were slow off the bat on 9/11, but came back very strong.

But I cut you zero slack for appointing nobody Michael Brown as head of FEMA. This guy's qualifications are that he is a fund-raiser for the Republicans. FEMA has refused aid from other states, and botched the Federal Government's role in every conceivable way.

Nagin, Blanco and Brown. Each holds high office, each has the blood of New Orleans on their hands.

I will roast Bush for appointing Brown. But the voters in Louisiana and New Orleans actually voted the other two into office. They wanted to let the good times roll, but Katrina was in no mood to play.

There is a flood of information coming out on this from here, from the National Review, here, Mother of God from from the BBC, who even sees fit to now publish the schoolbus armada photo

Posted by The Phantom on Tuesday, September 06, 2005 at 11:25 PM | Permalink