Katrina, Gustav, New Orleans and Republicans

Funny, "Heck of a job, Brownie." was the final straw for me, too. It was like I'd been watching my elderly uncle put the salt in the refrigerator and the sugar bowl in the wastebasket for awhile without saying a word, but now, here he is, dancing on the front lawn with his underwear atop his head. Now ya gotta do something about Uncle George.

I truly believe that if he'd only come out and said "Quit blowing smoke up my shorts, Brownie." the Republican party would stand half a chance this year. Oh, wait.. Now we have Uncle John.

I agree with you Rod that this must be giving the GOP folks nightmares.

Needless to say it was not handled the way it should have ebbn. However I do wonder if this had happen under a President Obama / GOvrnor Jindal dynamic id the result would have been the same. I suspect it would have. It was a huge major disastor like no other

I knew we were in trouble when the blame game started while the waters were still flooding the city and we had a crisis in the other parishes. Quickly it became apparent to me that people on the left and right were more nterested in using the crisis to score political points. A lot of people joined in on that.

I was much more concerned about solving problems than deciding whose head was going to roll.

Though I must say the response was much better to Huyrricane Rita weeks later so if you wish to crucify Bush, the Governor, etc one balanced that out with the Rita response

As the for the "bottom falling out" I wonder if that for anyone happened with the media. They were broadcasting the most wild rumors that could have caused a huge public panic. One of my National Guard friends in the SUperdome told me that was averted somehow but people hearing about people getting killed in the dome being ate etc did not help.

I suspect the the media and journalist will take a pass on those failings as they recount others instead

It would be better if it were keeping the FEMA people up at night.

Nicely put.

Maybe it was the picture of the dead grandmother rotting in her wheelchair that did it.

GW could have ordered the 82nd Airborne to parachute in, equipment and all. Having spent 3 years at Fort Brag with Pope Airforce base right next door I know that can do that sort of thing, since it's their mission to be anywhere required in 18 hours.

The Republicans took office on the premise that government doesn't work, and then then went about proving it for eight years. The disaster would have happened anyway, taking three days to do anything about it did not.

And it's all the media's fault? Funny how Anderson Cooper could manage to broadcast from the disaster area, yet the entire United States Army could not be mobilized to send a few bags of ice to the Dome; a fairly large landmark to aim troops at don't you think?

Anyway there's that whole bridge disaster in Minnesota they can focus on instead if they want?

Slight correction, Anderson Cooper was in Mississippi, a place where help was botched as well.

@Charles you sir, are.. hmm... how can I put it? Simple & wrong?

Here's a hint -- people, rational, intelligent people, can care about what happens to others, as opposed to only caring about themselves. Of course those people don't tend to be Republicans, or lovers of W...

As Mark illustrates, the people of the US -- as in the really patriotic, as opposed to the flag-pin-wearers -- went out of their way to support their fellow citizens, their fellow humans, in a situation where our government failed miserably.

1) What has happenned to all of the money that has been sent to rebuild NOLA? http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2007/08/10862.php

2) What about an accounting of all of the Federal and state monies (millions)that have been appropriated to the levee districts since the 1960's and the last major (Betsey)hurricane?

@ Charles Cosimano:

Are you related to or one in the same with former state representative and judge Chuck Cosimano of Jefferson Parish? Given that Senator David "No Pants" Vitter and other residents of Old Metairie lost their homes (in a zip code that included Joe Cannizaro, one of the biggest Republican and Bush/Cheney donors nationwide), I suspect both to be unlikely given your amateur numenology.

More likely your use of the term "up here" outs you as a member of the Yankee branch of Clan Cosimano. Because a Louisiana Cosimano would have the sense to realize that in non-internet world your asinine gum flapping would be received with an invitation post haste to the parking lot to try a little of your hooks and habs on ole hoss. And that might be form folks you consider to be "trash" or perhaps not.

GW could have ordered the 82nd Airborne to parachute in, equipment and all. Having spent 3 years at Fort Brag with Pope Airforce base right next door I know that can do that sort of thing, since it's their mission to be anywhere required in 18 hours.

On, but don't you know, apparently they didn't request help through the correct channels and there were all sorts of complicated legal hurdles to jump. Because, you know, it's inconceivable that FEMA actually attempt to manage emergencies. They damn well better not move until all forms are filled out in triplicate, and no one damn well better have unexpected emergencies.(1) And must never, ever, actually volunteer to help in any way.

More to the point, those are the rules. Because we all know the Bush administration would never consider operating outside the rule of law in an emergency. Except that one time they wiretapped people without warrants for four years. Or those times they imprisoned people without charge, and sometimes tortured them.

Posse Commitatus is a law. The rules about the operation of the National Guard are a law. Apparently it's too much work to ignore those laws in an actual emergency(2) for a few days with the majority support of the American people, but it's okay to secretly walk all over the Constitution for half a decade.

The Republicans took office on the premise that government doesn't work, and then then went about proving it for eight years. The disaster would have happened anyway, taking three days to do anything about it did not.

People ask me if I want the government in charge of my health care. I don't want this administration in charge of refilling soda machines!

A working government, as you pointed out, disproves their entire philosophy. I cannot possibly imagine why anyone elects them...it's one thing to say 'X is too large and unwieldy, and I should be elected to trim it down', and another to say 'X is inherently bad and doesn't work, and I should be elected to...um...make it work, even though that would prove us wrong.'

The Republicans slipped over that line about two decades ago.

But Bush added an incompetence to the failure. Before, they would cleverly have the government fail. They'd always be some logical reason that it wasn't their fault. Bush's Administration, however, is too incompetent to fail correctly. That wasn't deliberate per se, but is what happens when you stock a government with friends instead of actual competent people.

1) That sounds like a joke, but the really sad part of this is that it wasn't an unexpected emergency. Actually, what was expected, that Katrina would hit New Orleans and obliterate the entire town, was a good deal worse than what actually did happen, and we knew about that possibility days in advance.

Flooding and hurricanes, unlike massive earthquakes or tornadoes or terrorist attacks, we actually have a few days warning on, which is why it is just amazing that this was bungled so badly. FEMA should have been positioned in advance with much more resources, because it was entirely possible that they were going to have to medically airlift tens of thousands of seriously injured-by-the-hurricane people out of a demolished city. The flooding should come as an anticlimax!

2) 'Actual emergency' being defined as 'people actually dying right then'. The last 'actual emergency' with terrorism was the anthrax attacks.

"Flooding and hurricanes, unlike massive earthquakes or tornadoes or terrorist attacks, we actually have a few days warning on, which is why it is just amazing that this was bungled so badly. FEMA should have been positioned in advance with much more resources, because it was entirely possible that they were going to have to medically airlift tens of thousands of seriously injured-by-the-hurricane people out of a demolished city. The flooding should come as an anticlimax!"

If people wish to fund FEMA more and give it a few hundred helicopters and the support staff well go for it.

It should be recalled the entire scope of this devastation. For instance as to New Orleans was it in anyones prediction that waht happened to St Bernard Parish would happen? We had a situation that was a crisis from west of New Orleans to Alabama.

IN the end it was a massive act og God that was devastating. While it is tempting to point fingers all around and indeed mistakes should be learned from. Just perhaps there was only so much that could be done.

It was tragic no doubt

I've yet to see evidence that Katrina played any appreciable role in the collapse of approval ratings for Bush or the GOP. Certainly it's not helping Obama or hurting McCain in Louisiana or any of the other gulf coast states.

Bush's personal inattention to the Katrina tragedy in its early stages was appalling and politically tone deaf. And "Brownie" was the classic Washington hack -- useless or worse.

But most people are smart enough to understand that basic responsibility for the tragedy lies elsewhere:

1. The inadequate levies and the longterm, bipartisan micromanagement of the Army Corps of Engineers via Congressional earmarks.

2. The buffoonish incompetence of Mayor Negrin and especially Gov. Blanco.

3. Above all, the grim realities of geography and climate. When a port city lies below sea level in a hurricane zone, an epic disaster is inevitable. There is only so much that can be done to mitigate the damage.

It was the Weather Channel, of all people, who summed life in the entire Gulf Coast with the very apt, "Cone of Uncertainty". That Cone has shifted east a bot, and opnce more our dangling peninsula is in the way. Perhaps N.O will be spared. No one knows. Storms happen (I just saw what looks to be a very cool book about the effect a hurricane had on the formation of our Nation in 1775). So what is required of us is not to sit and wring our hands, but to get prepareed, and to help others when the rain and the wind and the surge comes. Three years ago the White House was in full CYA mode. The Scarecro-W had no clue and Tinman-C didn;t care - until it effected his oil revenues. It took normal people helping hurting people to actually bring about some change.

By the way, Mark - chill out, guy. Aside from your anger, I think your vocabulary reflects more of a FOXgnus approach to civil discourse than what most folks here attempt.

Simon: Bush approval ratings were still above 50% before Katrina. After Katrina they slid well below 40%. This has been exceedingly well documented: check the NBC/Wall Street Journal approval ratings available here. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/07/26/bleak-assessment-of-bush-and-congress/

The lesson to be learned, FOR INTELLIGENT PEOPLE, is that faith in beaurocracies to "save" you is stupid.

THAT must explain the groundswell of Libertarians voted into office over the last few years. The invisible hand will fix everything and what's left over the Red Cross and churches can handle.

The reality is, Allstate isn't going to load up C-130's to fly aid and support infrastructure into disaster zones. That is the province of government, it's what we pay taxes for.

No one expects everyone can be saved, but even the most die hard Liberterians must have been shocked at the paralysis that occurred after Katrina. Cable channels had reporters on the ground broadcasting pleas for aid, live from the dome for two days while clueless FEMA officials did nothing. The man at the top, George Bush could have simply ordered immediate action regardless of in-fighting.

More over, after 9/11 it was stunning to know that the government had no ability to respond in a timely, organized manner with water and ice for heaven's sake. Suppose that had been a suitcase nuke that went off instead of water rushing over the city? Four years after a major terrorist attack against just part of a major city, and this is the level of readiness our billions bought?

And then people starting wondering if maybe Iraq was being run just as stupidly. And they were proven right.

> "even the most die hard Liberterians must have been shocked at the paralysis that occurred after Katrina."

No. We weren't.

Katrina was a wonderful lesson on why socialism is evil.

If not for the moral hazard inherent in socialism, New Orleans wouldn't even be there right now.

If not for the moral hazard inherent in socialism, New Orleans wouldn't even be there right now.

So George Bush is a Socialist? I know he's an incompetent for sure, but I had no idea about the other thing.

There's a great section of links for tracking Gustav on http://www.USAMediaGuide.com. It has links to the projected path of the storm, National Hurricane Center coverage, local TV and newspaper coverage, live webcams, and other Gustav stuff.

The blacks hate the whites

That would come as quite a shock to Mrs. Bottoms. Were you to say African Americans hate the Republican party, by and large I might agree with you.

You had three chances with young blacks, Martin Luther King's birthday (which Mr. McCain voted against I believe), followed by Bob Jones, and again with Katrina.

Try us again in twenty years or so.

I've often wondered why in the world did Bush appoint "Brownie" to the head of FEMA?

A comment made earlier was that he was a typical Washington hack - I think that comment is an insult to hacks everywhere.

That one decision by Bush - to put this incredibly unqualified person into such a high visibility position - really did damage Bush's credibility. If this sounds like Bush bashing I also believe a great deal of well deserved blame for the Katrina debacle was deflected from the city and state due to "Brownie"

Again - a truly inexplicable decision that did Bush some real damage.

To |, who posted at 1:58, the title of the book is,
"Hurricane of Independence: The Untold Story of the Deadly Storm at the Deciding Moment of the American Revolution by Tony Williams"

I just found it on amazon.com, though I saw it in a local Books A Million. The whole comcept looks cool. I am fascinated by the way history is effected by weather and climate. I served a church that, decades before I arrived, chose its denominational affiliation based on whose representatives showed up the night of a big sNOw storm. Not hard to guess it was the congregationalists - no weather will keep them down.

"For many Americans -- certainly for me -- the bottom fell out for the Bush administration with Katrina and 'heck of a job, Brownie.' "

That's when the bottom fell out for me, too, but not for the Bush Administration. It was the final straw for me with respect to pseudo (i.e., Libertarian) conservatives who join with Democrats and turn to character assassination because they disagree with the President's war on terror. It's truly shameful.

Even the average student of politics knows that the President's comment has been taken out of context. The comment regarding the job Brown was doing was immediately and directly in response to Bush being told by star-struck officials in Louisiana how well Brown was doing under the circumstances. Objective people are aware that Brown was being praised by those officials and that the "Heck of a job, Brownie" comment was made only in that context, yet the character assassination of the President continues. Sad.

The totally political Governor Blanco's refusal of a Republican president's early offer of Federal assistance, and NO Mayor Nagin's almost criminal incompetence are completely ignored by those who choose to further the calumny.

The real story--the monumentally stupid rebuilding of a city below sea level with billion$ of federal tax dollars--goes unreported. Why aren't Libertarians and the MSM screaming about that? Because they know Democrats (who would lose one of their vote-growing plantations) would make good on their threat to cry "racism!"

And the beat goes on.

Rod Dreher
If only Louisiana had had a Democratic governor, and New Orleans a Democratic mayor when Katrina hit, none of that would have happened! Oh, wait...

I know Nagin was sitting there with a D after his name, but you should actually look at him and realize he was a Republican in Democrat's clothes. He was registered Republican, he ran as one before he ran for the mayorship, he promised to run New Orleans as a business.

New Orleans elects Democratic mayors, making the actual actual election take place in the primary. A Republican won the Democratic primary and was elected.

Or, perhaps more accurately, parties are almost meaningless at the local level. Here in my state, we elected all Democrats to all state offices until about 2002, at which point we started elected all Republicans...and it's almost the exact same people.

As for the governor, she's the only person who tried to do anything in advance, and ran into delays at the higher up and lower down. Some of her action weren't that helpful, but she, at least, wasn't sitting around until the flooding started, like Nagin was, or even after the flooding started, like Bush was.

I see several favorable comments about my "cool" new book, "Hurricane of Independence: The Untold Story of the Deadly Storm at the Deciding Moment of the American Revolution." Thank you.

In the course of my research and writing about the deadly hurricane that pounded America in 1775 and eventually hit Newfoundland, killing 4,000, I couldn't help but compare hurricanes then and now.

First of all, it was a nearly universal belief that hurricanes and other natural disasters were a sign of divine providence in human affairs. How it played out during the Revolution is a key part of my narrative. Ben Franklin was perhaps the exception, and his materialist understanding of nature seems to have taken hold to the exclusion of a religious understanding of hurricanes (for the most part) today.

Secondly, there was very little government aid at the time, and when there was, it was generally to prevent starvation rather than rebuild. There was also relatively little insurance, save maritime insurance, so people generally relied upon family, neighbors, and their own work ethic to pull themselvs up after the devastation of a hurricane.

Thirdly, there were usually one or two mentions of the storm in each of the sources I used. It struck me as odd, but I believe I figured it out. There was no blame game for years as with Katrina as bloated bureaucracies each blamed the other for the failures. People suffered the devastation (without warning, mind you), cleaned up, buried and mourned their dead, and moved on with their lives. Life was hard and not too many people listened when you complained.

I'll be glad to add more insights from my book. For a plug, get it on Amazon.com and catch me on C-SPAN's Book TV in the coming months.

Thanks!
Tony Williams
Author, "Hurricane of Independence"

Kathleen Blanco was the most inept governor ever to lead a state, along with mayor ray naygen and sen. mary launder the democrats were more concerned with their political careers then the people of new orleans never since nero fiddled while rome burned have we ever seen such a display of incompetence, Gov. Jindal will make sure the state is prepared for gustav.