If there has to be lefty finger-pointing, we shouldn't yet focus on speculation on global warming effects - which may prove true, but currently are speculation until Katrina becomes a regular occurrence. The real outrage is our nation's inability protect a major domestic metropolis from a Cat 4 hurricane. When both the Army Corps of Engineers and New Orleans Corps of Engineers were massively short-budgeted by the feds in 03 and 04 to help subsidize Iraq; when they decided that Cat 3 protection was sufficient because that's all they had funding for; and when a state's national guard is drafted into active military duty in a foreign country and not enough guardsmen are serving at home... THAT is an outrage.
This post makes it sound as though New Orleans is like any other major US city when we all know that is simply not the case. New Orleans could be made more safe in the same way the Netherlands has been reclaimed from the sea. The project to strengthen the levies was expected to take several years to complete so funding it or not in fiscal '03-'04 would have made no difference for this storm so it's a moot point. More than 9000 guardsmen were available in states bordering the storm areas so the number of available guardsmen was NOT the problem; piss poor planning and communication on the part of the governor of LA was the culprit. Compare her respose with the response to hurricane Andrew (Gov Lawton Chiles-D.) and the '04 storms (Gove Jeb Bush-R.) to see what good planning and disaster response looks like.Here's a quote from the St.Pete Times article on Andrew-10 years after
The president was not solely at fault for the post-Andrew difficulties. Then-Gov. Lawton Chiles shared some of the blame. The Democratic governor did not formally request federal assistance until three days after Andrew hit. He later said he incorrectly assumed that FEMA's response would be sufficient to trigger help from all federal agencies.
So neither Florida Gov Lawton Chiles nor President Bill Clinton had any experience with a storm of this magnitude or coordinating such a massive relief effort. Neither had FEMA up to that point. But the relief effort was STILL better than what we have seen with Katrina. And Andew came along with very little warning; unlike Katrina which chugged along for nearly a week before going ashore right where they said it would.
By the time the '04 storms hit, both George and Jeb Bush had taken heed of the past mistakes of both state and federal gov'ts disaster responses WRT Andrew, and as a result the relief effort for the '04 storms was well coordinated and efficient.
So now comes the '05 storm season with Katrina and some people are now saying that W just forgot how to get a disaster relief up and running, or that maybe he bungled it on purpose to punish the folks of New Orleans??!! Hog Fu--ing wash! The governor of LA is to blame for not requesting federal aid in time, not requesting guardsmen on time and not having acquired the
means to stay in communication (we HAVE the technology!) with the federal and (neighboring) state agencies. This is a simple lack of planning. These are all lessons a COMPETENT governor would have learned by example from the experience of FL governors past, had she been paying attention.
It is good to remember that wherever you live in the USA, generally speaking, you are NOT under the everyday control of the US (federal) government. Neither is the US government responsible for you health and safety; these are the purview of the government of the state in which you reside. Furthermore, the federal govenment may not casually take control of, meddle or interfere with the affairs of the state governments unless requested by the state's governor to do so. The governor of LA failed to do so in a timely manner WRT Katrina. The president cannot simply call in federal army troops to straighten things out; that is ILLEGAL. The governor of any state OTOH, can call up state guard troops, can request guard troops from another state or even federal troops. The governors have that authority; The president does not.
Jimbo
