http://www.townhall.com/columnists/charleskrauthammer/ck20050909.shtml

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.''



©2005 Washington Post Writers Group

Hey now....the libs can't handle the truth.....they may have to see their therapists after being exposed to that bit of reality.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

What I find most interesting about the whole hurricane Katrina affair is the local and state officials essentially had a dress rehearsal last year when hurricane Ivan just missed NOLA. Last year they had the same problems the local officials failed to evacuate NOLA and their disaster plan failed. Now, skip forward one year and they still had the same problems, in the ensuing year they had done nothing to help themselves, they failed to improve their evacuation plan. The only difference is last year they got lucky and Ivan took a last minute turn and came ashore at Gulf Shores Al.
And it's all W's fault

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I'm sick of .sig files

FEMA led two drills for state and local gov this passed spring. The first drill indicated an evacualtion/decision making problem, which is why they ran a more comprehensive 2nd drill. Guess what....

Bot

Good post LP, glad I got a chance to read it. It seemed well thought out and fair.

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone

thanks, concur

I really like CK, you can tell he sticks to the issues and doesnt get into personality bashing like so many others...

I like the way this sentence is ended "Period" sounds like an order for people to except, or else! My way or the Highway! But it's just opinion really, and not fact based, he doesn't know the answer to that question anymore than the rest of what the Washington Post writer writes here in his article you have pasted here, Luvrpgrl

You sound like a hate monger, I just think you like to bash anyone who doesn't agree with George Bush!

Funny.....its fine for the lefties to bash bush for no reason what-so-ever. But those same Bush bashers can't take the heat when its directed back at them....

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

This seems to be the least politically biased, most informative writing on the Katrina catastrophe I have read so far. Perhaps it sums up my feelings fairly well, from what I could glean from numerous newscasts, articles, and interviews. God bless those who are there helping, and those who are helping from afar with donations, etc. WTF to those looking to place blame, and use this for political grandstanding and party positioning...

Let our thoughts and prayers be with those who are displaced, and have lost their lifes possessions, etc, and those who are placing life in harms way to help recover as well as can be...

Disasters can and do bring out the best and worst... lets focus on the best and save the worst for analysis after NO is "restored"...

__________________
RM Smith
1988 560SL

"Where is it again that we are going, and why are we in this handbasket"?

Do you even know what a hate monger is???

OK, now that you have looked it up, we can talk some more.

Sometimes people make it really, really easy for you to know they judge you based on major, major pre conceived ideas.

You think I hate anyone who bashes Bush. Fact is, I bash Bush myself, so I must be into self loathing (****, I must be becoming a liberal and dont know it )

So, please quote me where I peddle Hate.

Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Bush haters, those are real Hate mongers. "The hairy hand of the white man is on everything that happens in your life"

A black leader says that to an audience, yes, this man has a worldwide audience. That is hate mongering.

The Jews have an old saying, If you dont hate that which is evil, then you will wind up hating that which is good"

Yes, I hate liars who lie for their own gain.
I hate people like Jessie Jackson who uses race to extort money instead of getting his fukking hands dirty and going into the inner cities and getting these poor uneducated black kids to realize that getting an education doesnt "make you white", al sharpton too, I just as soon **** in their mouths as hand them a cool towel on a hot day.

You want proof I hate that? Our church has a program and we raise funds, we take the money, go into the inner cities and speak with teachers who see kids who have alot of potential but are being influenced by "hate mongers" and are borderline going the wrong way, and we talk to the parents, we usually get them to agree to send the kid to a private school, we fund it, we have teachers who dontate their time, we often re locate the family to get them out of gang infested areas.

Do I hate anyone who peddles false racism? You bet I do, when we go back and find out about some 11 year old who was shot in the fukking head cuz he thought peddling drugs was the only way in a white racist world where education wouldnt get him anything.

(HINT: hating something cuz its evil isnt hate mongering)
Now, if you still care to think Im a hate monger, go ahead, ignorance still flourishes..............

..........when and where?