Katrina-Bush and the political questions begin

Corps projects plentiful in Louisiana
But many unrelated to flood prevention

By Michael Grunwald
The Washington Post
Updated: 11:31 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2005

Assigning blame
Charles Krauthammer (archive)

September 9, 2005

WASHINGTON -- In less enlightened times, there was no catastrophe independent of human agency. When the plague or some other natural disaster struck, witches were burned, Jews were massacred and all felt better (except the witches and Jews).

A few centuries later, our progressive thinkers have progressed not an inch. No fall of a sparrow on this planet is not attributed to sin and human perfidy. The three current favorites are: (1) global warming, (2) the war in Iraq and (3) tax cuts. Katrina hits and the unholy trinity is immediately invoked to damn sinner-in-chief George W. Bush.

This kind of stupidity merits no attention whatsoever, but I'll give it a paragraph. There is no relationship between global warming and the frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes. Period. The problem with the evacuation of New Orleans is not that National Guardsmen in Iraq could not get to New Orleans, but that National Guardsmen in Louisiana did not get to New Orleans. As for the Bush tax cuts, administration budget requests for New Orleans flood control during the five Bush years exceed that of the five preceding Clinton years. The notion that the allegedly missing revenues would have been spent wisely by Congress, targeted precisely to the levees of New Orleans, and reconstruction would have been completed in time, is a threefold fallacy. The argument ends when you realize that, as The Washington Post notes, ``the levees that failed were already completed projects."

Let's be clear. The author of this calamity was, first and foremost, Nature (or if you prefer, Nature's God). The suffering was augmented, aided and abetted in descending order of culpability by the following:

1. The mayor of New Orleans. He knows the city. He knows the danger. He knows that during Hurricane Georges in 1998, the use of the Superdome was a disaster and fully two-thirds of the residents never got out of the city. Nothing was done. He declared a mandatory evacuation only 24 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit. He did not even declare a voluntary evacuation until the day before that, at 5 p.m. At that time, he explained that he needed to study his legal authority to call a mandatory evacuation and was hesitating to do so lest the city be sued by hotels and other businesses.

2. The Louisiana governor. It's her job to call up the National Guard and get it to where it has to go. Where the Guard was in the first few days is a mystery. Indeed, she issued an authorization for the National Guard to commandeer school buses to evacuate people on Wednesday afternoon -- more than two days after the hurricane hit and after much of the fleet had already drowned in its parking lots.

3. The head of FEMA. Late, slow and in way over his head. On Thursday he says on national television that he didn't even know there were people in the Convention Center, when anybody watching television could see them there destitute and desperate. Maybe in his vast bureaucracy he can assign three 20-year-olds to watch cable news and give him updates every hour on what in hell is going on.

4. The president. Late, slow and simply out of tune with the urgency and magnitude of the disaster. The second he heard that the levees had been breached in New Orleans, he should have canceled his schedule and addressed the country on national television to mobilize it both emotionally and physically to assist in the disaster. His flyover on the way to Washington was the worst possible symbolism. And his Friday visit was so tone-deaf and politically disastrous that he had to fly back three days later.

5. Congress. Now as always playing holier-than-thou. Perhaps it might ask itself who created the Department of Homeland Security in the first place. The congressional response to all crises is the same -- rearrange the bureaucratic boxes, but be sure to add one extra layer. The last four years of DHS have been spent principally on bureaucratic reorganization (and real estate) instead of, say, a workable plan for as predictable a disaster as a Gulf Coast hurricane.

6. The American people. They have made it impossible for any politician to make any responsible energy policy over the last 30 years -- but that is a column for another day. Now is not the time for constructive suggestions. Now is the time for blame, recriminations and sheer astonishment. Mayor Nagin has announced that, as bodies are still being found and as a public health catastrophe descends upon the city, he is sending 60 percent of his cops on city funds for a little R&R, mostly to Vegas hotels. Asked if it was appropriate to party in these circumstances, he responded: ``New Orleans is a party town. Get over it.''

This kind of stupidity merits no attention whatsoever, but I'll give it a paragraph. There is no relationship between global warming and the frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes. Period.

Mr. K needs to do some fact-checking.

Quote:

This kind of stupidity merits no attention whatsoever, but I'll give it a paragraph. There is no relationship between global warming and the frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes. Period.

Warm water feeds hurricanes and makes them stronger. Period.

The pair are among the 25 EMS workers and firefighters from the ruined city flown to Las Vegas with their spouses or partners for a free five-day getaway paid for largely by Allegiant Airlines, which chartered their flight from Baton Rouge, and Station Casinos Inc., which donated the rooms at the Boulder Station Hotel-Casino about 5 miles east of the Las Vegas Strip.

Surrounded by devastation back home, the stress has become too much for some on the front lines. At least two New Orleans police officers have committed suicide. Hundreds of others are unaccounted for, with some simply abandoning their posts.

FreeDuck wrote:

Mr. K needs to do some fact-checking.

Quote:

This kind of stupidity merits no attention whatsoever, but I'll give it a paragraph. There is no relationship between global warming and the frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes. Period.

Warm water feeds hurricanes and makes them stronger. Period.

Ducky, you got that right. Even the fish know it. They got reservations for the cooler waters of the San Francisco Bay.

BBB

Go FreeDuck go FreeDuck...

Blessed be the factfinders.

Notice that EMS workers and firefighters are not "60 percent of the cops".

They are 0% of the cops. What was your point?

FreeDuck wrote:

Notice that EMS workers and firefighters are not "60 percent of the cops".

They are 0% of the cops. What was your point?

Mayor Nagin has announced that, as bodies are still being found and as a public health catastrophe descends upon the city, he is sending 60 percent of his cops on city funds for a little R&R, mostly to Vegas hotels.

Former FEMA chief Allbaugh in the middle

Ticomaya wrote:

They are 0% of the cops. What was your point?

Perhaps you re-read your own quote and what FreeDuck responded to that?

Walter, I know you've probably never done it before, ...

Ticomaya wrote:

FreeDuck wrote:

Notice that EMS workers and firefighters are not "60 percent of the cops".

They are 0% of the cops. What was your point?

That Mr. K needs a fact checker, same as before.

From your posted article:

Quote:

Mayor Nagin has announced that, as bodies are still being found and as a public health catastrophe descends upon the city, he is sending 60 percent of his cops on city funds for a little R&R, mostly to Vegas hotels.

There's an awful lot of falsehoods flying around, and they seem to all be coming from the same direction.