I was at at a BBQ yesterday and someone there said that even though the NO offcials were at fault and didn't prepare properly for the worst case scenario, that the Fed Govt is ultimately responsible for not ensuring that they did. They said they would have to have been reporting what they were doing up the ladder leading up to it. Hence why folks are blaming Bush. I didn't stay for long.
They may have been reporting, but I suspect they were reporting that they had everything under control. Do you think Nagin reported early that he didn't have a clue what was going on (I gather their communications network was out of commission and that various agencies had incompatible equipment)? Maybe not, but didn't Nagin and/or Blanco deny early reports of shootings?
Did anyone else hear the official from Houston who spoke on FOX earlier? He talked about the change in the state's earlier approximation of the number of survivors they could take care of.
He stumbled a bit and explained that the survivors were individuals with needs not previously anticipated. He even spoke of the policing needed.
Sad. So many of the survivors are good people who suffered a tragedy which could have happened to anyone of us. They deserve our kindest, most generous "hand up."
The criminal element destroys so much.
the left has been successful, in part, of making alot of americans believe that the federal government is their "nanny" - from cradle to grave.
I would have told them that efforts to politicize a natural disaster are directly responsible for the deaths of storm victims who survived the hurricane and flood, who would have otherwise survived the aftermath as well, if some people weren't interested only in what benefit they can wrest from this catastrophe.
I would have included the term "vultures" and the phrase "feeding on the dead".
With any luck at all, some of them would have been...offended.