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FullMetalPatriot on Obama Photobombs History
Scapegoats ‘R Us
We still haven’t gotten everything taken care of in New Orleans, but there’s a lot of folks eager to find their someone to blame. Ok fine, who’s responsible for this Hurricane Katrina mess? Let’s see…
• New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin – The primary responsibility for the citizens of New Orleans rests squarely on the stooped shoulders of Mayor Nagin. His emergency plan for the city of New Orleans was never implemented. The plan called for the use of busses to evacuate people who had no cars of their own, but obviously that didn’t happen. In fact, Governor Blanco had to interrupt Nagin at dinner after having been begged by President Bush to begin a mandatory evacuation of the city. He could have ordered the mandatory evacuation 36 hours earlier than he did. It shouldn’t have taken a phone call from Bush (the supposed villain in all this) to get Nagin to do the right thing. In addition, the plan to house New Orleans residents in the Superdome as a “refuge of last resort” was ridiculously underplanned; you don’t put 9,000 people into a building for shelter without any plans for food, water, sanitation, and security. Nagin played the odds on this storm and the citizens of New Orleans had to pay the price.
• Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco – Despite the impending storm, she just couldn’t make up her mind to call out the National Guard and request federal assistance. It took her over 24 hours to even figure out which Federal plan to implement! Mayor Nagin was on CNN, describing how she froze up:
NAGIN: The president looked at me. I think he was a little surprised. He said, “No, you guys stay here. We’re going to another section of the plane, and we’re going to make a decision.”
He called me in that office after that. And he said, “Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor.” I said — and I don’t remember exactly what. There were two options. I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision.
S. O’BRIEN: You’re telling me the president told you the governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision?
NAGIN: Yes.
S. O’BRIEN: Regarding what? Bringing troops in?
NAGIN: Whatever they had discussed. As far as what the — I was abdicating a clear chain of command, so that we could get resources flowing in the right places.
S. O’BRIEN: And the governor said no.
NAGIN: She said that she needed 24 hours to make a decision. It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out. It didn’t happen, and more people died.
It took her several days to reach out for help. And even then, she resisted giving control to federal officials.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request.
All these people dying and the horrific carnage all over the city, and she was worried about playing politics! I’m betting that the people stranded on cars and roofs couldn’t care less about whether their rescuers were under state or federal control.
• The New Orleans Police Department – About 2/3 of the local police force abandoned their duty, leaving the city in the hands of the lawless mobs that looted plasma TVs and jewelry as soon as they could wade through the water. The lack of civic order also made the situation much more dangerous and added time to the emergency response teams. (hat tip: Solomonia)
Q: One quick follow-up. Is it fair to say, using the convention center as an example, that one reason it took until Friday to get aid in is the National Guard needed time to build up a response team with military police to ensure law and order because the New Orleans Police Department had degraded so much?GEN. BLUM: That is not only fair, it is accurate. You’ve concisely stated exactly what was needed, and I told you why. We took the time to build the right force. The outcome was superb. No lives hurt, nobody injured. It was done almost invisibly.
Q: And you estimate there’s about a third of the New Orleans Police Department left. Do you remember about how many are in the New Orleans Police Department?
GEN. BLUM: On a normal day they should have 1,500 paid officers in New Orleans, give or take. Some people have said it’s 1,650. It’s in the rough order of 1,500-man police force, and I think the mayor told me they’re down to less than 500.
• Snipers & looters – Even when the rescue crews did arrive, these idiots opened fire on the helicopter crews and boats, making an already-dangerous job even more perilous. John Bambenek at Part-Time Pundit described it very well:
The emergency plan has two large gaping holes. It included no contingencies for riots and no contingencies to bring food and supplies INTO the city. The plan called to keep moving people out. However, because of the damage there was little or no way to get in, and the few ways rescuers were able to get in were impeded by the looting and rioting. (Food notwithstanding. People were trying to “boatjack” rescuers.) These two holes played into each other, with people beginning more and more to choose the side of the criminal element because there was no plan to help them from the outside in place.
• The Army Corps of Engineers – For not upgrading the levees from Category 3 to Category 5 levels like they had planned to.
• Environmentalists – For suing the New Orleans distict and stopping the levee upgrades proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers.
• Residential developers – For the steady destruction of coastal marshes and wetlands, at the rate of 25 square miles per year.
• FEMA – For being so oblivious to the immediate needs of the survivors, namely food, water, and evacuation. Although initial responsibility in a crisis situation remains with local authorities, and those in Louisiana didn’t immediately request federal aid, FEMA is far too mired in red tape & bureaucracy to be as effective as it should.
• Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff – For shifting the focus of FEMA from domestic and natural disasters and putting too much emphasis on terrorism.
• Race vultures – Those crowing in the media and the blogosphere, trying to turn the tragedy into a racial issue. The speed of response was a matter of poor planning, not some ingrained racism. Unless you believe that a black Democrat mayor of New Orleans and a Democrat governor of Louisiana had it in for the poorest citizens of that city and were taking their time in order to winnow out the “blackest” among us.
• Congress – For not authorizing the money to rebuild the levees. And for being so damned eager to politicize this catastrophe for personal gain.
• President George W. Bush – For cutting the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget for the Lake Pontchartrain levees by more than 80 percent in order to fund the war in Iraq. For staging a Medicare event, a photo op where heplayed guitar, and celebrating John McCain’s birthday while American citizens were suffering the effects of the deadliest hurricane to ever hit the United States. And especially for not leaving his ranch sooner and coming to the site of the devastation to take charge. His lack of decisive action then overshadows everything he does now. Making the call to evacuate New Orleans was good, but he should have been on the ground immediately after the storm, if for no other reason than to reassure Americans that their top official cares and was going to do everything necessary to help everyone affected by this tragedy. Mobilize every resource to find every survivor and keep them safe. That should have been his first priority, not to go about his regular agenda as if nothing important happened. You know, actually leading.
• God – Well, He caused the hurricane, didn’t He? Oh wait, I forgot, that was Bush’s fault too.
Satisfied? There’s mud and blood on everyone’s hands. But I hope we can alllearn from this. This blame game is pointless, there’s plenty to go around. Let’s learn from this and make sure it never happens again. Should we fire everyone who shares responsibility? Good luck with that.
In the meantime, New Orleans, Biloxi, and Mobile are being flooded… with support. I hope that’s what lasts longer than the finger-pointing.
Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT
