LA is in deep trouble politically. Denying responsibility and blaming the Republicans, race baiting, lying...was not a great strategy for building credibility and trust. In addition, greed and corruption...
It requires political capital for elected officials to take on the expenses to rebuild NO and a great risk of looking like they wasted money on LA official corruption. Especially since LA officials will blame any problems they create on Republicans. It is a costly no win situation.
It felt good for Chocolate Nagin and drugged Blank-o in the moment, to go on a campaign of shriking responsibility with national Democrats and the Media Party; doesn't feel so good anymore. Who will forget that witch Mary Landreu (sp!) threating to beat up the President if he mentioned anything about flooded school buses.
They succeeded in hurting the President's image in the US and abroad with their lies and hysteria. Let's see how it serves them now. And I agree, George and Laura should go no where near LA. The slime will probably kill them.
Lousyana has made a spectical of itself from top to bottom.
From BLANK-O's whining, blubbering and spending $550,000 on her office renovations to Nagin's Chocolatetown statement, the state has made an utter ass of itself for the last 5 months.
I'm sure the rest of the country is looking at us as one would a retarded cousin.
Here's a LA family with some smarts:
Katrina evacuees settle into new life
By KAREN OGDEN
Tribune Enterprise Editor
Almost five months after they struggled through waist-deep floodwaters in Violet, La., the Kramer family is tentatively putting down roots in Great Falls.
"Everything is looking good," said Tracey Kramer, who arrived in northcentral Montana days after Hurricane Katrina with his wife, Jean, and their youngest son, William. "We're just pressing forward and thank God that we came this far. I'm just looking forward to a new year and a better year."
The family is grieving the death of Kramer's 86-year-old mother, Mildred, who was among the nearly three dozen patients who drowned as floodwaters swamped the St. Rita's Nursing Home.
Kramer is still waiting for officials at a morgue in Carville, La., to finish DNA testing to identify and release her body. He will then return home to plan a funeral with his siblings.
In the meantime, the family is focused on starting over.
Tracey and Jean, who are retired, are looking to buy a house in Great Falls.
The Kramers are luckier than many: Their insurance covered the flood damage to their house in Violet, roughly 20 miles south of New Orleans. Although the home is structurally sound, it would have to be gutted to make it livable because of water damage and mold.
"I don't feel that it would be wise for me to take all our money and go back down there and redo our house," said Kramer, who plans to salvage what he can when he goes home. "I already made up my signs: 'for sale as is.'"
More violent storms are predicted this year, Kramer added. One team of meteorologists at Colorado State University's Tropical Meteorology Project predicts nine hurricanes in 2006.
"I think we're going to stay here and invest my money in Great Falls," said Kramer, who as a young man was an airman stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
Jean is from Conrad and has a sister, Cathy Christiaens, in Valier. Another sister, Mary Lee Berry, lives in Whitefish.
The Kramers' two sons, Edward and William, are finding it more difficult to get jobs and housing in Great Falls.
William, 35, who came to Montana with his parents, worked security at Bally's Casino, which floated on Lake Pontchartrain. Katrina smashed the building against the wharf.
He's applying for detention officer and security jobs, but he is having little luck because his references and employment records were destroyed or scattered in the hurricane.
Now he's looking into general labor jobs and possibly renewing his qualifications as a certified nursing assistant.
His older brother and sister-in-law, Edward and Bonnie, arrived in Great Falls a month after the storm to join the family.
Their homeowner insurance did not cover their flood losses.
Edward, who was a head technician for a Goodyear Tires store in Louisiana, is still looking for work.
Asked if he's angry about his family's ordeal, Tracey Kramer directs his frustration at Louisiana's congressional delegation, as he did in the weeks after Katrina.
Area residents lobbied for years for the Army Corps of Engineers to close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, which is blamed by some for flooding St. Bernard Parish.
"If they'd have fought hard enough to close that thing up, I am positive our hometown wouldn't have been destroyed," Kramer said.
The family is looking into joining a possible class action lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers over the outlet failure.
Kramer follows the debate over the canal, as well as developments in his hometown, on the Internet.
But he's focusing on his new life in Great Falls.
"I'm just looking forward for a healthier new year," he said. "... I'm not only talking for us, I'm talking for the whole world because we definitely need it."