Wednesday, September 07, 2005

My Last Katrina Post - I Hope!

Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool

Now that the way in Iraq is over--What do you mean it's not over? It's not on the news, so it must be over.

A lot of people are upset that Bush didn't have troops in New Orleans as soon as the last drop of rain fell from Katrina. News headlines on Tuesday morning proclaimed, with relief, "New Orleans Dodges Bullet" and reported that Katrina didn't directly strike the city. Within hours, the levee holding back Lake Ponchatrain broke and the city was flooded. Thousands died. Thousands that didn't have to if Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, had only ordered the city's school buses into action to enforce the mandatory evacuation. (Thousands cleaned out a wal-Mart, and not for just food! I understand looting for food. I don't understand looting for clothes and TVs.) But no, Nagin, a Democrat, announced the evacuation (but, only after the state ordered an evacuation) and promptly evacuated, leaving the poor citizens of his city to fend for themselves. After the hurricane was over, he wondered why the Feds weren't doing anything to help the folks he abandoned. Why isn't Mayor Nagin being called to task for abandoning the sick and the elderly in their hospitals a nursing homes? Why aren't Mayor Nagin's feet being held to the fire for his city's lake of preperation for the catashtrophe? Could it be because he's a Democrat, and as we all know, they can't do anything wrong?

Signs showing water levels in category 1 2 and 3 hurricanes.  Katrina was a category 4!

What really offends me is the effort to accuse and blame only Bush. If you ask me, there's enough blame to go around at all levels of government. Nagin didn't provide a means of evacuation to those that needed it. And FEMA was slow in getting people into the field. ALL levels of government are at fault here, people! Not just the Feds!

But some bloggers insist on blaming Bush and the people who elected him. One blog even flirted with the idea of abandoning New Orleans completely because Louisiana was a Bush state. Then he remembered that New Orleans voted for Kerry and that the mayor was a Democrat, so he decided to help with relief efforts. One blogger said it was the fault of the sheep who elected Bush and hoped they could live with it. He used a few expletives to describe people with different views than he held, the first rule in civilized debate and tolerance, no doubt.

This Balkanization of the country, this division between Right and Left, has been building over the last 20 years or so, making any crisis political, and as a result, divisive. This appears to be the real legacy of Katrina.

4 Comments:

Blogger Jay said...

I've heard rumors that buses require gasoline to operate. Of course...that could just be a lie put out by those danged liberals, but I think it's something you should check into. I sure is a puzzler why they couldn't use those school buses to transport a half million people to....er....well...somewhere, I guess.

9:25 AM  
Blogger hiikeeba said...

I hadn't heard that New Orleans ran out of gas before the hurricane hit! That must be the fault of the evil, war mongering conservatives. They had places to take people, however, it was in their unused evacuation plan. Ditto on the evil conservative thing.

11:36 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You idealogues, left and right, are pathetic! Thousands of Americans die due to government inaction and you believe the president is getting too much blame? As far as I am concerned, not one person who is a member of this government today should be returned to office ever. The only reason for GWB to be president is that he was going to provide for our common defense; as cinc he failed. It's time to make a high profile example of him, as a lesson to rest. The stakes are too high for failure, incompetence and butt covering to be allowed to continue. And we have to keep throwing the bums out (Democrat, Republican, red, blue and purple) until the government gets the message. Your dreams of a conservative dynasty or liberal hegemony are over, washed away with the dead of New Orleans and true Americans are madder than hell and won't take this anymore!

12:00 PM  
Blogger hiikeeba said...

Anonymous,
I love people who are afraid to stand behind their opinions.

If you would have actually read my post, you would see that I agree with you. Government at every level has dropped the ball here. However, what irritates me is that the blame is falling only at the Federal level. By taking each and every opportunity to attack the other side, the country is being split apart and driven to each others' throats.

2:35 PM  

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