The tone of this article is much more forgiving to the incompetent and irresponsible BLANCO, isn't it??? The same woman who had to be TOLD to evacuate residents was merely "mistaken"....I WONDER IF SHE "ASKED ANY QUESTIONS" about the levees....
The LameStream Media sucks. BIG TIME.
Well, see, it's like this. Blanco knew the *levees* were intact, because they were. They were keeping the Mississippi and most of the Gulf of Mexico out of the New Orleans gumbo bowl.
GWBush and everyone at FEMA also knew the *levees* were intact, because they were.
What Blanco *found out* and Nagin *found out* and didn't bother to pass along up the line was that the *canal floodwalls* which kept Lake Pontchartrain out of the gumbo bowl were NOT intact. They weren't overtopped, either. They were breached, broken, undermined, compromised and useless. Not all, but some.
Now we know more of the story, 6 months later. I'm guilty of saying "levees" but meaning "canal floodwalls" so I'm certain GWB and FEMA are, too. We just have to know when to speak precisely to nawlinsians and when we can talk Texan to the Prez.
Dey's riverpeoples, we be cowpeoples. FEMA's gonna hafta pony up some extra $$ for interpreters next hurricane. That's what they like to call lagniappe.
It's time to stop blaming the lamestream media for this gross misrepresentation of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Indeed we should stop blaming the Dems and their partisanship on the matter, particularly the Louisiana Dems and Repubs that are only trying to pilfer money from the federal government.
Bad decision get made from bad information. And THIS is the basis for Bush to come out kicking and screaming. Yes Bush. Not you, not I, not Rush Limbaugh.
I'll roughly try to paraphrase an effective speech by the prez to set this mess on the right track.
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Good evening American citizens
I speak to you tonight not to cast aspersions on any American institution or the opposing party. I speak to you as your lawfully elected leader and with an eye to setting the record straight on the events of Hurricane Katrina, its aftermath and how we can benefit from lessons learned (plug for the White House report here.)
For no business makes important decisions based on faulty investigation and information. Such as profit and loss, market studies, study teams....all are set up to provide accurate and insightful information that will avoid bad decisions by management. To base conclusions on bad or biased information is to continue on with faulty behavior and not in the best interest of the business.
So too must a government study past events and with ACCURATE information, draw conclusions that will avoid repeats of past mistakes.
There were problems with Hurricane Katrina at ALL levels. I've already taken full responsibility for failures at the federal level. Which is not, good citizens of America, to be construed that the main failure of Katrina was on the federal government. To conclude so based on misleading and somewhat hysterical media reporting is to condemn us to keep repeating the mistakes.
Citizens of the United States, I take this time to look you collectively in the eye and ask if you truly think it would be wise for the FEDERAL government to command mandatory evacuations to any locality across the land in the event of an emergency?
To those of you who live in Littlecounty, Indiana, what would your reaction be if you heard across the media that Washington D.C. has demanded an evacuation of your area? Wouldn't your first reaction be...'why on earth is the FEDERAL government demanding this? Where are the local people?"
American citizens, the decisions NOT to proclaim a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans was a local decision and I respected it. Yes, I suggested a mandatory evacuation would be wise to the local authorities but in the end, I respected their decision. They know the area better than the congress, president or senate.
The local officials chose not to call for a mandatory evacuation and as a result, school buses were left in feet of water and New Orleans citizens, including the helpless in hospitals and nursing homes, left to whatever forces Hurricane Katrina would bring.
And good citizens of America, had I overrode the wishes of the local authorities there would have been no end to the investigations, blue ribbon panels, demands of impeachment and general political mayhem. I made the right decision to give the local authorities the final word on Hurricane Katrina and I'd do it again should an emergency occur in your part of the country.
After the storm went through, those were United States Coast Guard helicoptors plucking New Orleans citizens that were stranded on rooftops. It was National Guard soldiers helping to evacuate the stranded and helpless. The federal government was on the job and any problems on that front IS my responsibility and I acknowledge there were some.
But to continue this arguement that only the FEDERAL government failed during Hurricane Katrina is to avoid a better local response in the future. American citizens, we depend on your local authorities as a first responder in such emergencies and there's a good reason for this.
I'd urge all Americans to check out their local government's plan for emergency evacuation. Find out who's in charge. The federal goverment has awarded millions of dollars to local police and first responders for just this purpose. We didn't do this so that failed first responders could blame the FEDERAL government for bad choices.
======= So okay, Bush probably won't give the above speech. But he oughta. Because I'm so sick of all the shrill about Katrina when it was LOUISIANA who took a chance. They didn't want to endure the cost of evacuation and when they rolled the dice and lost, then they want to blame the very people who gave them authority to decide and subsequently respected their decision.
I see Bush and company ignoring this bashing, once again, and I'm moving on. If Bush can't defend himself, particularly in this case where bad decisions might be the result, then I just don't care.
Well I care, but I can't do anything about it. Only Bush can and that's a fact. He needs to re-locate that bully pulpit.