Posted on 09/03/2005 9:43:35 PM PDT by freedom44
Hurricane Katrina will probably go down in our nation's history as the greatest economic disaster to date and the country's worst natural catastrophe in decades. Surely, the number of dead that lie beneath the petroleum and fecal-contaminated waters that cover the city of New Orleans will be high in number.
That has not stopped the liberal political and media class from dwelling upon their most dangerous enemy. Their enemy is more feared than any class 5 hurricane or earthquake, and certainly more hated than any terrorist this side of Osama Bin Laden. That enemy is George W. Bush.
I am not in the habit of writing meaningful prose for the sole purpose of protecting Bush, or any Republican. Indeed, I have of problems with some of his decision-making and economic miscues. I write what I believe in.
In short, I, and I will recklessly speak for many conservatives in this, know that this president has been abysmal on nearly anything to do with immigration reform or border control. Bush's Medicare prescription drug bill, which will cost taxpayers in excess of 720 billion over 10 years, is not a highlight of achievement for him.
The signing of the McCain/Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill was a direct assault against the First Amendment. The bloated Farm Bill, which came in at 190 billion over ten years, is nothing if not wasteful. The recently signed Highway Bill, with its 6,000 put-aside pork projects, is a mockery that begged for Bush's first presidential veto. Needless to say, that never happened, as that veto pen seems lost in this administration.
Even the way Bush has handled the war in Iraq has at times irked those who support him. If you were to ask me why, I would tell you that Bush has — at times — held back the military in Iraq for the sake of political concerns. What he should be doing is flattening dens of terrorism like Fallujah, and sending terrorist enablers like Syria a serious and time-sensitive ultimatum.
Putting this aside, Bush has had a lot on his plate these last five years, and none of the problems he has had to deal with have been particularly easy. The recession, the war, bitter Democrats, the economy again, Democrats, natural disasters, Democrats, Democrats, Democrats...
The left never seems to tire of being absurd. With Hurricane Katrina leaving — and what will most likely turn out to be thousands of dead in Louisiana and Mississippi and hundreds of thousands homeless — liberal soothsayers like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, and former Clinton senior advisor Sidney Blumenthal decide its just politics as usual, never mind the dead.
Even foreign-fringe leftists like Germany's environmental minister, Jurgen Tritten, jump on board the idiocy bandwagon. Writing in the publication Frankfurter Rundschau, this tower of "intellect" stated: "By neglecting environmental protection, America's president shuts his eyes to the economic and human damage that natural catastrophes like Katrina inflect on his country and the world's economy."
Blumenthal has made it even more personal, by citing cuts that the Bush administration enacted over the course of his presidency, thereby directly leading to the disaster we see on television today. Never mind the fact that the levees were built to withstand no more than a category 3 hurricane, and that local city and state government have known of this problem for decades, as Hurricane Betsy showed to all in 1965, swamping New Orleans under 8 feet of water.
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, who, last seen disguised as a talking memo board for nearly every radical liberal group that now runs the Democratic Party, dispels any doubts as to her political "savvy" and general "functionality" by blaming Bush for Hurricane Katrina. Sheehan goes on to say that Bush is "heading to Louisiana to see the devastation that his environmental policies and his killing policies have caused."
Indeed, there are giant minds within the Democratic Party, and Cindy Sheehan, Sidney Blumenthal, and Robert Kennedy, Jr., are just a few of its "shining stars."
But the fact remains that the Democratic Party, or people long-associated with the party, have never missed an opportunity to politically grandstand atop the misery of others. The party of Howard Dean did this after 9/11. Democrats did this (and are still doing it) regarding the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They did this during the recession of 2001. So no one should be surprised that Democrats, or liberals, or whatever they want to call themselves, do it now with eyes-wide-open as death and suffering are taking place in the Gulf area.
Yet we are always surprised. Though we have seen and heard some of the vilest and politically motivated performances from the left since Bush took office, nevertheless, we are surprised.
At least after 9/11, the Democrats managed to submerge for a few weeks their basic instinct of party politics over the broken bodies beneath the World Trade Center, long enough to make some people believe that certain things are bigger than the party and politics.
But like a shark is drawn to blood, so too are today's modern-day leftists, who cannot wait to even let the dead start to decompose in New Orleans and Mississippi before they are blaming Bush for random acts of nature.
Very soon, you will see the old media get behind this latest attempt by Democrats of "Bush did it" with all its full-throated might. The facts will not get in the way of the story, as they seldom have with this president and this media. The strategy here for those who set the Bush-bashing agenda and those who run with it must be to wear the American public out, because none of what the Democrats and the old media have been doing has worked thus far.
Americans have overcome a history of trials and tribulations, and the destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina will be no different. Though it may take years, there is no doubt that the "Big Easy" will rise from the flood waters to reclaim her spot in America.
But I cannot not say this of a Democratic Party which has let — even welcomed — its most unhinged and caricaturized voices take the lead on party ideology and its path.
Astonishing as it seems to me and many others that some could stoop so low as to wring political traction out of the bodies of thousands of dead American citizens, what is even more alarming is that I have now accepted this as the political norm for the Democratic party as a whole.
Until saner heads step-up and exorcise the wild-eyed leftist and sixties leftovers that run the Democratic Party, it will not be taken seriously, nor should it.
As exhibited by their willingness to say anything — no matter what the consequences — the Democratic Party as it now stands today is a danger to the overall well-being of the country.
It sure is!! What a bunch of loons! Imagine them in charge for the last 5 years. Man, that's a terrifying thought! We'd all be wearing burkas and praying to Allah 7 times a day, and NO would be nothing but a floating cemetery for years to come!
Bush didn't do it.
The Mayor and the Governor had total failure of leadership.
576 buses left underwater in NO.
Almost 30,000 more people could have been evacuated before the storm. If they weren't squandered, it would have only taken 2 more trips each to clear the city.
Could have been evacuated by Wednesday.
Sorry, long story/post, but its to set up a Hurricane opinion!
I've never been poor...but the other week, I was ringing someone up at a local grocery store, and I had to explain to a nice older lady how to use the food stamp machine. (They're not actually stamps anymore, but more of a credit card if you will.) I had to make sure to explain to her that her gold braclets cant get in the way of swiping the card, and for her to be careful not to loose her card in the genuine aligator leather purse she owns. And I'm sure I can hear it now..."well maybe she owned those items before!" Yes, maybe she did...but she bought some fancy items with her food stamps too. I believe over 150 dollars worth. Of course, she ate better than my family does on two paychecks.
I know many people do not abuse the foodstamp/welfare system, but all I ever seem to know are the people who do abuse it. So excuse me, and rest of unpolitically correct America, if we sit in our Ivory Tower (which by the way, WE payed for without any sort of stamp, check, or special benefit from the United States Government), and judge the citizens who are putting the lives of resuce works in jepordy.
When the President address the situation two days beforehand, declaring a state of emergency, and having to FORCE the "mayor" of New Orleans to order a manatory evacuation...Somehow most of the city gets to leave. But the 150,000 or so who do not leave have their reasons.
The infirmed, disabled and/or ill (these are people who should be rescued first), or the THOUSANDS of medical works who stayed to man the hospitals...only to GET SHOT AT FOR THEIR DRUGS, they also should be resuced first. But the people who were stuck at the Super(Bad Idea)Dome should be delt with according to the standard everyone else is being resuced with. At least these people have a place to stay that is supposed to be dry...and don't tell me about "no food, water" because I distinctly remembering them being told to bring 3-4 days worth of food for themselves, if they chose to come.
I am sick and tired of hearing people who claim to want to help, blaming and yelling that those of us uneffected (at least physically) by this hurricane. Why doesn't the excellent mayor get off the National Radio scene and GO HELP HIS PEOPLE. Instead of telling us that "we're being racist because we didnt send any buses" why doesn't go drive a few of the 500 left behind.
I'm sorry for this tirade but these attacks on conservatives and President Bush have to stop...
By the way, this was a post I made on a local discussion board, so if some of this stuff seems off topic, IT IS! lol...
Death and liberal idiocy usually go hand-in-hand.
Right there with you, I didn't want this to be political, the President tried his best not to be political, but the Rats just couldn't resist once again putting party over country. Senator Frist is down there, not as a Senator, but as a doctor. Tell me, how many Rats are down there actually trying to help. They're not, and why? Because they don't want to do anything to make President Bush look good. It's sickening.
Pudgy 'ol Al Gore showed up for a photo op. Does that count?
Hey...I like this writer.
He forgot to mention that Pres. Bush also had to deal with a confrontation with China over knocking our spy plane out of the air.
And he failed to mention that, as far as President Bush is concerned, Veto is a mafia hit man.
Taz......you sound very familiar. Are you an FC'er too, perchance?
I can appreciate your story. Mine was watching a young girl with 2 kids and a boyfriend who looked like he was from a Latino Gang. She could not figure out how many things she could buy with the $13.72 left on her Food Stamp card. At a convenience store to boot. She ended up with 2 individual serving bags of chips , 1 small Snack-pac Cracker thingy, and a single tube of crackers for $13.00. My wife could feed herself and me for 3 days on that much.
THEY HAD A PLAN
They just didn't follow it. So they were planning to fail. By "they," I mean pretty much every government official in Louisiana, and by "plan," I mean a signed-off set of procedures they were supposed to follow in the event of a catastrophic hurricane. You know, like the one that just hit. And by "fail" I mean complete catastrophic failure.
Here's the southeast Louisiana evac plan supplement, most recently revised in 2000. Go to page 13, read paragraph 5. It states:
5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.
Well, well. Can you say "smoking gun," Mr. Mayor? Mr. Ebbert? How about a smoking arsenal? I guess whether or not you decide to act is based on how you define "school and municipal buses" and "staging area." Or "hurricane." Or "mandatory," as in "mandatory evacuation."
Also see page 18, paragraph 2a 2 and 3.
Page 20, paragraph 3a 5.
Page 21, paragraph c 4.
Page 29, all of it.
And this is just one part of a 250-page state Emergency Operations Plan.
Consider this strange quote too:
Previous hurricanes evacuations in New Orleans were always voluntary, because so many people don't have the means of getting out. Some are too poor and there is always a French Quarter full of tourists who get caught.
So the existence of people who may be stuck in the bowl actually leads to a decreased hurricane evacuation level to match their helplessness instead of increased urgency and planning for buses? Are you kidding me? Is that called "Nawlins logic" or what? Well, now we know why the President of the United States had to be the one to give the order for a mandatory evac. Sad.
The poor folk provide crucial votes for the local politicians, and the tourists provide the dollars, but yet before a major hurricane they can't even get a bus ride? If the MSM did not exist, President Bush might be seen as a hero now to the survivors of New Orleans for at least trying to force the local pols to get a clue and to think about the poor, sick and helpless for once when it's not election time. That's compassionate conservatism. He feels your pain before you do and tries to prevent liberals from inflicting it.
There is something very peculiar about a city and a state that have a plan on the books for years that outlines what to do when a hurricane is about to strike, yet when a hurricane comes roaring in, the responsible officials just chuck the plan and try winging it. Delaying and then winging it in the face of a monstrous Cat 4/5 hurricane is never, ever a good idea, especially for New Orleans.
So when the situation goes south, the levee breaks and the people who should have been evacuated based on the plan are dying, these same officials who decided to improvise the whole thing now blame it all on the President who begged them to just get everyone the hell out of there already.
Nice.
(I added a couple more paragraphs above since posted just a bit ago. See below for further updates...Chris R)
MORE: Some thoughts on planning vs. failure from a Powerline reader who says the NOLA folks knew all about regular mandatory evacuations. Maybe that was before Mayor Nagin came along.
UPDATE: Yep, it looks like this will go down in history as gross (local) negligence:
A year ago, New Orleans reviewed its hurricane disaster plans after Hurricane Ivan gave the city a major scare forcing the evacuation of nearly 1 million people from the area.
What happened last September bears striking similarities to the problems encountered before Hurricane Katrina struck. The only difference was Ivan missed the city.
There were hours-long traffic jams. Those who had money fled, while the poor stayed. The warnings were the same: Forecasters predicted that a direct hit on the city would send torrents of water over the city's levees, creating a 20-foot-deep cesspool of human and industrial waste.
"They say evacuate, but they don't say how I'm supposed to do that," Latonya Hill, 57, told the Associated Press at the time. "If I can't walk it or get there on the bus, I don't go. I don't got a car. My daughter don't either."
Advocates for the poor were indignant in 2004 – just as they are complaining now.
"If the government asks people to evacuate, the government has some responsibility to provide an option for those people who can't evacuate and are at the whim of Mother Nature," said Joe Cook of the New Orleans ACLU.
With Ivan, city officials first said they would provide no shelter, then, just hours before the storm was set to hit land, they agreed that the state-owned Louisiana Superdome would open to those with special medical needs.
Mayor Ray Nagin's spokeswoman, Tanzie Jones, insisted that there was no reluctance at City Hall to open the Superdome, but said the evacuation was the top priority.
"Our main focus is to get the people out of the city," she said.
But again, in 2004, no city or school buses were used to take people to safety.
Callers to talk radio complained about the late decision to open up the dome, but the mayor said he would do nothing different.
And, indeed, he didn't do much different last weekend before Katrina struck.
Even the problems that occurred at the Superdome this week had a precedent – during a threat by Hurricane Georges in 1998. An estimated 14,000 poured into the stadium, but theft and vandalism were rampant.
During the threat by Ivan, only 1,100 fled to the Superdome and they were supervised by 300 National Guardsmen, who were able to avoid major crime problems.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Nagin both acknowledged after the Ivan near miss they needed a better evacuation plan.
Wow. Speechless.
As Instapundit has been reminding people, this storm wasn't a surprise. The blogosphere and Accuweather were on top of it very early.
JPod sums it up nicely:
With the local and state governments of Louisiana collapsing both tactically and emotionally, there was nowhere for that sense of frustration to flow other than toward the federal government. And there it will remain until the president succeeds in convincing the nation that he has taken personal responsibility for the management of this unprecedented disaster. At which point the responsibility might well begin to flow back again to the local and state authorities whose negligence in the days preceding the catastrophe border on the homicidally negligent. But not until then.
I think it's starting. The MSM just hasn't caught up to the blogosphere.
UPDATE: Mudville Gazette has more info on the New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan which has a few more specifics but is still not nearly as detailed as you would think it should be in following state guidelines. Both plans are just outlines for what is in other SOPs.
...Due to the geography of New Orleans and the varying scales of potential disasters and their resulting emergency evacuations, different plans are in place for small-scale evacuations and for citywide relocations of whole populations.
...Major population relocations resulting from an approaching hurricane or similar anticipated disaster, caused the City of New Orleans Office of Emergency Preparedness to develop a specific Hurricane Emergency Evacuation Standard Operating Procedures, which are appended to the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan.
The SOP is developed to provide for an orderly and coordinated evacuation intended to minimize the hazardous effects of flooding, wind, and rain on the residents and visitors in New Orleans. The SOP provides for the evacuation of the public from danger areas and the designations of shelters for evacuees.
...Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the Mayor of New Orleans in coordination with the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, and the OEP Shelter Coordinator.
The SOP, in unison with other elements of the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, is designed for use in all hazard situations, including citywide evacuations in response to hurricane situations and addresses three elements of emergency response: warning, evacuation, and sheltering.
I saw that. Gore was in some airport or something. What has he gained now 80 pounds? He looks terrible.
Very soon? Goodness they have been leading the way.
"Until saner heads step-up and exorcise the wild-eyed leftist and sixties leftovers that run the Democratic Party, it will not be taken seriously, nor should it."
The problem is, who would be left after these people are purged?
The Republicans had a similar problem, having to disassociate themselves from the reactionary right. But these crackpots were marginal, anyway. It's like removing a limb or organ that is cancerous. At least you've saved the rest of the body.
However, what do you do when the whole sickness has metastasized? When it has overrun your system? By getting rid of the lunatics the Democrats end up destroying themselves. (Which they're doing, anyway.)
Unless President Bush uses his power to by pass the enviro crazies in Washington, this problem will continue. We need a lot more refineries. NOW, and the lefites and their lawsuit tactics to stop them from being built should be thrown out of courts. I wonder how the NE Libs like that sky high gas now. Farmers shouldl be getting ready to harvest their crops. Do they think the PORT of NO is going to be in operation? Just a few of the problems. But people can't see past their own noses anymore.
I'm also sure lawyers have already drawn up the papers for a class-action lawsuit against the city of NO and the US Gvmt.
Check out democraticunderground.com.
Actually, if you look around in the hundreds of threads, you'll find a whole lot of folks here who are very intelligent and have their head on very straight.
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