USA Hurricane Katrina Looters carry off goods from stores along Canal St. in New Orleans, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday August 30, 2005.(Matt Rourke / Austin-American Statesman/ WpN
Posted on 08/31/2005 4:24:31 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
The problems confronting a governor in the position of Louisiana's Kathleen Babineaux Blanco are overwhelming.
Since this space so frequently roasts Dems, fairness compels us to say that Blanco, a Democrat, comes across as about as reasonable and authentic as an elected official can be expected to be under the circumstances. Compare and contrast with Dem Sen. Mary Landrieux, who at every press conference seems to focus more on ostentatious emoting than on getting things done.
In any case, the Today show offered surprisingly extended video coverage of looting in New Orleans. Given that 100% of the looters shown were African-American, one might have thought that Today's PC instincts would have discouraged them from running the footage. But for whatever reason Today did, and when Matt Lauer interviewed Blanco, he asked her numerous pointed questions about the looting.
Blanco essentially deflected the questions, offering blandishments to the effect that "we certainly don't like looting," but also making clear that stopping it wasn't a priority.
Frankly, she might well be right: in a catastrophe like this, government must prioritize, and compared to stopping the levee breach and rescuing stranded people, stopping some guy from ripping off a pair of $150 Nikes could be trivial.
Speaking of the levees:
Louisiana and New Orleans are known as some of the most notoriously corrupt places in the USA. Over decades, the government should have had one overweening infrastructure priority: to ensure the levees worked.
They didn't, and now millions suffer and billions of dollars are lost. If the politicians had been honest and spending money on the right things, one must believe they could have created a levee system that would have worked the first time it was really called upon.
Had your priorities in order I see ;-)
I think the water comes out at the bottom of the levee and then the levee sort of crumbles. I think we don't see water pouring over, it is sort of flowing in the breech.
"During a natural disaster of this magnitude, I would have sympathy for people taking food and necessities to feed their families but to steal everything that isn't nailed down and them blame it on oppression is about as low as it gets. I have come to the conclusion that there are NO morals in the hip-hop community as evidenced by the "gangster rapper" underclass lifestyle and the failure of hip-hop leadership to not only condemn it but to glorify it, and promote it as being responsible acceptable behavior. The looting that is going on is just an extension of the "gangsta" (I will take it from somebody else if I want it) mentality. Sad but true"
Aren't some of these comments incredible?
Horrid indeed. And while this was a natural disaster I have no doubt most of the suffering in New Orleans could have been avoided if honest politicians had focused their priorities on creating and maintaining effective levees.
I predict as time goes by, this will become a HUGE story. Why did the levees break? We will hear about corruption, sub-standard materials, poor design, etc.
I saw in the WSJ this morning that the Times-Picayune (I think that's it) in LA ran a series in 2002 about the levees and the potential for disaster in a hurricane.
Landriuex (sp?) has been saying the feds haven't done enough. But one disquieting thing I heard on the news is that some think the levees may have been shrinking (compression? erosion? why wasn't mentioned) over the years. Obviously, I don't know the ins and outs from one bit on the news, but it made me wonder what kind of regular inspections (if any!) the state/city has been doing all these years. Any genuine studies (not boondoggles) of the situation? Has LA ever applied for federal funds to rehab or replace or do anything about the levees? Inquiring minds want to know!
The levees were probably not designed to take the brunt of level 5 hurricanes, or the volume of water generated.
In the midwest flooding of 1993, levees that had been built to withstand quite a bit, broke wide open because they were just not made to handle the volume of water that came down. People didn't believe it would ever happen.
Lessons learned.
My understanding is that Mary Landrieau's father "Moon" was in charge of New Orleans during a previous scandal about federally provided pumps that were left sitting in a warehouse (uninstalled) for more than a year because he had neglected having installation charges included in the low bid he accepted. New Orleans flooded then too.
So, take Senator Mary's Bush bashing with a huge does of salt. She may be trying to deflect criticism from her own family.
Incompetence at the helm.
Ye gad. That explains a lot.
Not surprising. Otherwise, the Superdome isn't looking good. I knew my instincts were right. I said to myself I'd rather walk out of NO.
When it hit, Katrina was a category 4, but leaving that aside, I would ask, why WEREN'T they designed to take the brunt? When you have a city lying well below sea level, and sitting in a major hurricane zone, why wouldn't building absolutely essential levees be THE major priority?
Looting: Where's Jesse Jackson when you need him?
Same here. These liberals are elected on emotion ("I feel your pain") and when a crisis happens, that's all they have.
I kept thinking, is this a female thing? No...there are plenty of women in administrative roles who don't look as weak, Ms. Rice comes to mind.
It's all Bush's fault anyway.
USA Hurricane Katrina Looters carry off goods from stores along Canal St. in New Orleans, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday August 30, 2005.(Matt Rourke / Austin-American Statesman/ WpN
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