President Bush's approval rating drops to 38%

[nChrist]

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The Consequential Timeline of Hurricane Katrina - Page 5

30 AUGUST -- TUESDAY

New Orleans is left with no power, no drinking water, dwindling food supplies, widespread looting, fires and steadily rising waters from major levee breaches. Efforts to limit the flooding are unsuccessful and force authorities to try evacuating the thousands of people at city shelters.

Fox News correspondent Major Garrett reports that the American Red Cross was ready to go to the Superdome "on Monday or Tuesday" to assist in the relief of the 25,000 people who had taken refuge there but were prevented by the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security from doing so. According to Garrett, the reason given was because their presence "would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city." This is confirmed by Red Cross.

Democrats from NOLA to Congress start blame-game -- calling for Congressional inquiry, but in the days that follow, it appears that the greatest share of blame will land at the feet of Democrats in Louisiana -- so Democrats reject Republican offer to establish committee of inquiry.

4,725 LA National Guardsmen deployed. Prisoner evacuation from two jails begins.

Coast Guard and Army helicopters continue rooftop evacuations.

At the Wal-Mart on Tchoupitoulas Street, an initial effort to hand out provisions to stranded citizens quickly disintegrates into mass looting. Authorities at the scene say bedlam erupted after the giveaway was announced over the radio.

City officials say they might open the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center as a temporary refuge to shelter an estimated 50,000 people made homeless by the storm, but do not advise FEMA or LA Homeland Security officials that they plan to use the Center to house evacuees.

FEMA deploys 23 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams from all across the U.S. to staging areas in Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, and Louisiana and is now moving them into impacted areas. Seven Urban Search and Rescue task forces and two Incident Support Teams have been deployed and propositioned in Shreveport, La., and Jackson, Miss., including teams from Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Three more Urban Search and Rescue teams are in the process of deployment. FEMA is moving supplies and equipment into the hardest hit areas as quickly as possible, especially water, ice, meals, medical supplies, generators, tents and tarps.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) dispatches more than 390 trucks to deliver millions of meals ready to eat, millions of gallons of water, tarps, millions of pounds of ice, mobile homes, generators, containers of disaster supplies, and forklifts to flood damaged areas. DOT has helicopters and a plane assisting delivery of essential supplies.

The National Guard of the four most heavily impacted states are providing support to civil authorities as well as generator, medical and shelter with approximately 7,500 troops on State Active Duty. The National Guard is augmenting civilian law enforcement capacity; not acting in lieu of it.

Hospitals are being evacuated and rescue operations continue. The Governor made it clear that search and rescue was the highest priority: Blanco said that while search and rescue operations continued that officials were also getting supplies to hospitals and people who sought refuge at the Superdome, which is receiving more residents by the hour. After officials have completed all of their rescue operations, they will begin to assess how to evacuate other people in the city who are in high, dry locations.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says Katrina inflicted more damage to the state's beach towns than did Hurricane Camille, and its death toll is likely to be higher. In Mobile, Alabama, the storm pushed water from Mobile Bay into downtown, submerging large sections of the city.

============================See Page 6

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The Consequential Timeline of Hurricane Katrina - Page 6

The U.S. military starts to move ships and helicopters to the region at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. USS Bataan was positioned near New Orleans prior to Katrina making landfall, and begins relief operations.

President Bush establishes "White House Task Force on Hurricane Katrina Response."

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff activates the National Response Plan and declares Katrina an "incident of national significance": The National Response Plan (NRP) fully mobilizes the resources of the entire federal government to support response and recovery efforts for state and local authorities -- particularly in the event of a catastrophic incident. Secretary Chertoff has declared the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina an incident of national significance -- the first-ever use of this designation.

2215: Governor Blanco releases a statement calling for the evacuation of the Superdome. She set no timetable for the withdrawal but, "It's a very, very desperate situation," Blanco said. "It's imperative that we get them out. The situation is degenerating rapidly."

Katrina is downgraded to a tropical depression.

31 AUGUST -- WEDNESDAY

President Bush surveys Gulf Coast damage from air as he returns to Washington, and tells ABC "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did appreciate a serious storm but these levees got breached and as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded and now we're having to deal with it and will."

The entire region is declared a public health emergency amid fears of diseases that could spread because of the contaminated, stagnant water. Evacuations from the Louisiana Superdome to the Houston Astrodome begin. About 20,000 people are expected to be transferred from New Orleans to Houston. When asked about the number of dead, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin replies, "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands."

First responders are kept out of New Orleans as gangs of looters shoot at them. Jeff Winn of the New Orleans police SWAT team says, "We're having some pretty intense gun battles breaking out around the city. Armed gangs of eight to 15 young men are riding around in pickup trucks looting and raping." Some 600 of New Orleans 1,600 police officers fail to report for duty.

1000: Governor Blanco makes the request for President Bush to send Federal troops to help with evacuations and rescues. They could not be deployed before as the constitution requires that the Governor make a specific request to have federal troops deployed in a state.

Governor Blanco calls for a total evacuation of the city of New Orleans, saying, "We've sent buses in. We will be either loading them by boat, helicopter, anything that is necessary." Blanco says she wanted the Superdome -- which had become a shelter of last resort for thousands -- evacuated within two days, along with other gathering points for storm refugees.

FEMA is providing 475 buses for the convoy and the Astrodome's schedule has been cleared through December for housing evacuees, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry said.

State officials say they hope that bringing in the Army to help with search, rescue and relief efforts will allow National Guard troops to redirect their efforts to restoring order and curtail the widespread looting taking place in New Orleans and elsewhere. "We're trying to shift our resources," said Denise Bottcher, a Blanco spokeswoman.

========================See Page 7

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The Consequential Timeline of Hurricane Katrina - Page 7

"This is one of the largest, if not the largest evacuations in this country," said Col. Jeff Smith, deputy director of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

1340: State Secretary of Transportation and Development Johnny Bradberry says Lake Pontchatrain has receded by two feet since Tuesday as water levels equalized between the lake and the flooded city interior. "The good news here is that we've stabilized. Water is not rising in the city," Bradberry said.

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt Wednesday declares a federal public health emergency and accelerates efforts to create up to 40 emergency medical shelters to provide care for evacuees and victims of Hurricane Katrina. Working with its federal partners, HHS is helping provide and staff 250 beds in each shelter for a total of 10,000 beds for the region. Ten of these facilities will be staged within the next 72 hours and another 10 will be deployed within the next 100 hours after that. In addition, HHS is deploying up to 4,000 medically-qualified personnel to staff these facilities and to meet other health care needs in this region.

Governor Blanco issues an Executive Order allowing the National Guard to seize school busses in order to help in the evacuation:

National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Pete Schneider, said the order, signed by Gov. Kathleen Blanco late Wednesday, means "we are going to take the buses. We need to get people out of New Orleans. ... Either they will give them up or we will take them."

01 SEPTEMBER -- THURSDAY

7,500 National Guardsmen from AR, CO, KS, MO, NV, OH, OK and TX are deployed in Louisiana. In flooded New Orleans, stranded people remain in buildings, on roofs, in the backs of trucks or gathered in large groups on higher ground. Violence continues to disrupt relief efforts as authorities rescue trapped residents and try to evacuate thousands of others.

National Guardsmen accompanied by buses (475 in all) and supply trucks arrive at the Superdome. President Bush tells ABC: "I fully understand people wanting things to have happened yesterday."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announces that 4,200 National Guard troops trained as military police will be deployed to New Orleans over the next three days. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco requests the mobilization of 40,000 National Guard troops. In an interview he admits he knows nothing of the people stranded at the convention center. FEMA Director Brown says he just heard about people stranded at the convention center "a few hours ago."

Governor Blanco announces at a press conference that there are less than 2,400 people left at the Superdome.

The Defense Department announces the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops to the Gulf region.

State and Federal authorities begin the evacuations of Charity and University Hospitals. They are halted briefly when shots are fired at helicopters evacuating patients.

Gasoline prices spike as high as $5 a gallon in some areas as consumers fearing a gas shortage race to the pumps.

=====================See Page 8

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The Consequential Timeline of Hurricane Katrina - Page 8

02 SEPTEMBER -- FRIDAY

The Coast Guard announces it has rescued more than 10,000 victims of the hurricane and flood.

President Bush visits New Orleans, taking a helicopter tour with Mayor Nagin. According to the Mayor, Bush tells him that "he [the President] was fully committed to getting us the resources we need," Nagin said in the tattered Hyatt hotel next to the Superdome. "I told him I knew we could work together, and he said he understood."

Gov. Blanco rejects Bush administration proposal asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans. 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. (My Note: The Constitution requires that many forms of assistance MUST first be requested by the Governor of a State, so the rejection of this offer by Louisiana officials was binding.)

President Bush visits Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, and later signs a $10.5 billion disaster relief bill.

Tired and angry people stranded at the convention center in New Orleans welcome a supply convoy carrying food, water and medicine.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimate it will take 36 to 80 days to drain the city.

Texas officials say nearly 154,000 evacuees have arrived there.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus criticize the pace of relief efforts, saying response was slow because those most affected are poor and black.

03 SEPTEMBER -- SATURDAY

Officials in New Orleans clear final evacuees from the Louisiana Superdome and Convention Center.

Utility companies work to restore power to more than 1 million Gulf Coast customers.

The Army Corps of Engineers brings in pumps and generators from around the nation to help get New Orleans pumps back on line and bail out the city.

Water and air rescue efforts continue in New Orleans; the U.S. Coast Guard says it has rescued more than 17,000 people, almost twice as many as it had saved in the previous 50 years combined, but that thousands of people remain stranded. Helicopters drop emergency food and water to people awaiting rescue.

04 SEPTEMBER -- SUNDAY

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announces plans to give his police officers some R&R, and asks FEMA to fund a week in Los Vegas for all NOLA police officers.

=========================See Page 9

[nChrist]

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The Consequential Timeline of Hurricane Katrina - Page 9

05 SEPTEMBER -- MONDAY

17th Street Canal breach closed with truckloads of rock and sandbags. Canal reopened so it can be used for pumping water out of city.

Suburban Jefferson Parish, across the 17th Street Canal from the levee breach that flooded much of New Orleans, begins allowing residents to return temporarily to retrieve their belongings.

Officials encourage residents remaining in New Orleans to evacuate. Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley said that "there is no reason -- no jobs, no food -- no reason for them to stay."

President Bush makes his second visit to the stricken region since Katrina struck, meeting with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and other officials at the state's relief headquarters in Baton Rouge.

IN THE DAYS THAT FOLLOWED:

President Bush asks Congress for an additional $50 billion in aid, and a week later proposes a relief package that may cost more than $200 billion, but includes private sector initiatives, tax relief and incentives, etc., which make up part of that "cost."

President Bush issues an executive order suspending the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, allowing federal contractors rebuilding after Katrina to pay below the "prevailing" (read: union) wage.

FEMA director Michael Brown is removed from directing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in New Orleans by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. He is replaced by Vice Admiral Thad W. Allen, chief of staff of the U.S. Coast Guard. Brown later resigns.

Forty-five more bodies are found in the flooded-out Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans. At this time, it is the largest cluster of corpses to be discovered in post-Katrina New Orleans. Louisiana's death toll rises to nearly 280.

U.S. Congress approves tax-relief bill for Hurricane Katrina victims, including elimination of early withdrawal penalty on retirement accounts, forgiven debts are not taxable, and more.

After starting to allow residents back into the city, the Mayor of New Orleans orders another evacuation for fear of Hurricane Rita; with the levees and pumping system in a weakened state, even a near-miss could bring flooding back to areas that have begun to dry out.

The official death toll in all states is now 973. Mississippi has refused to raise its death toll above 218, or to explain why. Thousands of dead in Mississippi and Louisiana have not been counted, nor have the bodies been retrieved.

Virtually all of New Orleans 1.4 million residents had to evacuate, and most of the city -- almost 180 square miles -- was swamped by Lake Pontchartrain. The cost of hurricane damage and recovery may exceed $200 billion, a price tag far above the recovery costs of 9/11. (For reference, the material losses from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 totaled $12.5 billion.)

Inevitably, in the Katrina after-action report, serious errors at the local, state and national level of government will be discovered, and emergency plans will be revised accordingly.

========================See Page 10

[nChrist]

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The Consequential Timeline of Hurricane Katrina - Page 10

But -- individual preparedness is the front line of national preparedness. Local, state and federal government agencies could not begin to pre-position emergency-relief inventories for every contingency plan across the nation. Government agencies will likely not be able to meet even minimal needs for days or even weeks, depending on the nature of the catastrophe, and only then after the surge of response and recovery efforts is sufficient. (FederalistPatriot.US posts an excellent resource page "Recommended Action Plan" at

http://FederalistPatriot.US/useprpc/

with all you need to know about emergency preparedness measures for yourself and your family.)

(My Note:  The blame game continues and it is grossly misdirected. The vast majority of the blame rests on Louisiana officials, first the Mayor of New Orleans and second the Governor of Louisiana. Only the people of Louisiana have the power to replace the officials most responsible in the management of this catastrophe. Most specifically, I would say that the continued party-going attitude and actions of the New Orleans Mayor represented gross incompetence. The failure to issue timely orders, request assistance, and accept offered assistance rests on the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana. The problems with the Federal response pale in comparison to the local and state response.)

[nChrist]

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Disastrous politics... - Page 1

The Federalist Patriot

Patriot No. 05-38 Digest | 23 September 2005

THE FOUNDATION

"I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious." —Thomas Jefferson

TOP OF THE FOLD

Disastrous politics...

As residents in coastal Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama continue to piece their lives back together, there are two persistent questions about Hurricane Katrina at the forefront of acrimonious political debate (http://FederalistPatriot.US/news/quotes.asp) this week.

First, there is the lingering question of who is responsible for the lack of planning, preparation and infrastructural improvement in the days, weeks, months and years leading up to the hurricane. This all-important question, however, has spawned a concerted effort to focus on the sluggish federal response as a diversion. (As a resource for this question, please see the Katrina Consequential Timeline (http://FederalistPatriot.US/news/Katrina.asp).)

Clearly there were bureaucratic failures by FEMA—but that is the nature of the beast, and no amount of reform, other than decentralization, will change that. The most productive thing President George Bush can do to alleviate the bureaucratic abysses is to eliminate it. As noted in this column last week, "As a first measure, the President should fire every senior executive service lawyer in DHS, FEMA, DoD, et al. The entire federal bureaucracy is hamstrung by legalities."

As for the question of accountability in New Orleans, by now, everyone on the planet knows that most of New Orleans, with the exception of the original city settlement, has been developed below sea level—surrounded by expanding levees intended to protect it from Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River and the Gulf. Those levees, designed to withstand a category three hurricane, were never upgraded to withstand a category four or five hurricane, though clearly such a storm was inevitable.

On a good day, New Orleans continuously pumps water out of the alluvial bowl created by its levees, though building structures there continue to sink. In the event of a category four or five hurricane, however, 80 percent of the city would be swamped, and every politician from the city's mayor to the state's governor knew it. But the Big Easy is a party town—a gambling destination—and the city's leadership wagered the city against odds of a big hurricane.

In the years prior to Hurricane Katrina, there were numerous factors that precluded the strengthening of New Orleans' levees. The primary burden for inaction lies with generations of corrupt Louisiana politicians, from the Huey Long dynasty forward. Despite the city's continued below-sea-level expansion, these crooked and negligent pols paid little regard to levee strength, even in the face of repeated warnings about their inadequacy. There were also successful legal challenges brought by environmental groups who blocked the expansion and hardening of levees in an effort to protect the neighboring wetlands. Indeed, New Orleans' hurricane-defense system—such as it was—would have been greatly improved by the Army Corps of Engineers had it not been for environmental lobby lawsuits in both 1977 and 1996.

In recent years, Louisiana has received more federal taxpayer-funded Corps of Engineer grants than any other state and has received more levee funding under the Bush administration than it did under the Clinton administration. However, that funding has been limited by massive boondoggle infrastructure projects like the 700-percent cost overrun for Ted Kennedy's Big Dig—$16 billion American tax payers spent on 7.5 miles of Boston highway that could have been spent on NOLA levees, but we digress.

===================See Page 2

[nChrist]

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Disastrous politics... - Page 2

The funding New Orleans did receive was often diverted by the city's Levee Board to other projects. For example, the Board spent $2.4 million of levee funding on a Mardi Gras fountain near Lake Pontchartrain, and $15 million more on overpasses to riverboat casinos. All the while, a big storm was on the horizon.

On Monday, 29 August, after a few days of evacuation flip-flops, tens of thousands of New Orleans residents emerged midday to the realization that Katrina's worst winds had landed to the east. Although Katrina was now tearing into Mississippi and Alabama, New Orleans had—or so it thought—dodged the bullet.

As waters continued to rise against levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain, there was some concern that Katrina's massive rainfall might yet overtop the levees. However, it appears now that the levees were not overtopped. In fact, there is compelling evidence that the floodwalls failed structurally in two locations—which would not have happened if they had been built to specifications. (Contrary to assertions by Nation of Islam agitator Louis Farrakhan, the levees were not "blown up" in order to divert flood waters from "white" to "black" parts of the city.)

Simply put, somewhere there is a contractor, and a whole cadre of well-grafted inspectors, who are accountable for the structural failure of the levees. Finding that contractor will be one of many serious tasks facing congressional investigators in the coming months.

As you recall, in the immediate aftermath of the levee failure, Democrats were waving accusatory fingers and demanding an "inquisition commission." They were hoping for colorful headlines blaming the Bush administration and, by extension, anyone on a Republican ticket in the upcoming election year. Then, when Republicans joined in the call for investigations, Democrats quickly backed down and, indeed, refused to take part altogether. Upon reflection, they determined that an inquiry into factual communication, material distribution and evacuation failures after Katrina would instead bury Louisiana Democrats—from buck-passing New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (see his evacuation plan)

(http://FederalistPatriot.US/news/depot.asp)

to lachrymose Governor Kathleen Blanco to hysterical Senator Mary Landrieu.

Truth be told, congressional investigators need only do one thing to get to the bottom of the floodwaters in New Orleans—follow the money.

Rep. Tom Davis, chairman of the Select Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina, said this week that his investigation will "move ahead" with or without Democrats. Rep. Davis, who also chairs the chamber's Government Reform Committee, said, "At the end of the day, we must come together for good, hard fact-finding." But, he noted, Democrats "could tie up the process forever, and losing time is losing information." (Of course, the Demos will obstruct the investigation, claiming it is a Republican cover-up.)

Perhaps the committee's first witness should be Bill Nungesser, a former Levee Board chairman who tried to reform the system. Mr. Nungesser says of the levee failure, "Every time I turned over a rock, there was something rotten. I used to tell people, 'If your children ever die in a hurricane, come shoot us, because we're responsible.' We throw away all sorts of money." (In other words, Louisiana Democrats had looted New Orleans long before Katrina hit.)

Rotten indeed, which leads us to the second pressing question about Hurricane Katrina this week: Who's going to pay for what—and how?

President Bush has proposed a massive reconstruction effort that will ultimately cost perhaps $200 billion both in hard-dollar reconstruction costs and soft-dollar tax incentives, enterprise zones and the like. The President also called for modest cuts in other government programs to offset the reconstruction costs, anticipating that congressional Republicans would follow suit with more aggressive proposals for cutting other department budgets.

=================See Page 3

[nChrist]

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Disastrous politics... - Page 3

On that note, House Republican Study Committee chairman Rep. Mike Pence announced "Operation Offset" Wednesday, a proposal to cut $500 billion over the next decade. "We must begin now, as the American people expect particularly Republican majorities in Washington to do, to make the hard choices," said Pence, who anteed up $16 million earmarked in the just-passed highway bill for his district's roads and infrastructure. Pence was quick to add that cutting all the pork out of the massive $284-billion highway bill (about $120 billion) would offset only about half the Gulf Coast reconstruction costs, and that there would have to be substantial cuts across the board in other bloated programs.

In a remarkable move, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was quick to comply, announcing that she would return $70 million of the $129 million in highway-bill earmarks that she'd grabbed for her district.

Speaker Dennis Hastert warned, "We all know that we have a fiscal responsibility throughout this process. We want to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being used for their intended purposes and not being misspent."

Rep. Tom Tancredo added his concern about how reconstruction funds will be used: "The head of the FBI in New Orleans just this past year described the state's public corruption as 'epidemic, endemic, and entrenched. No branch of government is exempt.' The question is not whether Congress should provide for those in need, but whether state and local officials who have been derelict in their duty should be trusted with that money."

Undoubtedly, the potential for fraud is as massive as the reconstruction effort, and some of this "cost offsetting" is tantamount to dumping unconstitutional pork from one plate to another.

Amid all of this rancorous debate about who's to blame and who will foot the bill, the plight of those on the Gulf Coast who actually lost family members, homes and businesses somehow gets lost. Those at ground level are not worrying about political agendas. They're busy trying to provide for their families. Or perhaps they're searching through the rubble, trying to find fragments of family heirlooms and photographs. It is for them that we continue to pray every day.

Quote of the week...

"[For President Bush] to give credence to the notion that black poverty of recent years in New Orleans reflects racial discrimination and lack of opportunity was anything but an act of compassion toward blacks. He is either uninformed, which of course is troubling, or willing to bury truth for political ends, which is also troubling... The truth about black poverty today, as Kay Hymowitz of the Manhattan Institute has aptly put it, is that it is 'intricately intertwined with the collapse of the nuclear family in the inner city.'... Black children don't need politicians of any color who claim to hold the keys to their future. They need parents who know their names. Two of them." —Star Parker
On cross-examination...

"Among the pictures from New Orleans were lots of heart-rending shots of displaced mothers and children, but few of fathers and husbands. Liberal critics say Hurricane Katrina ripped aside the veil on America's extreme poverty. What it really ripped aside was the veil over the collapse of family, particularly among inner-city blacks, that lies at the heart of poverty." —Thomas Bray

========================See Page 4

[nChrist]

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Disastrous politics... - Page 4

Open query...

"Last week, President Bush promised the nation that the federal government will pay for most of the costs of repairing hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, adding, 'There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.' There's no question that New Orleans and her sister Gulf Coast cities have been struck with a major disaster, but should our constitution become a part of the disaster?" —Walter Williams
Beyond New Orleans...

"Television does not capture the scale, the breadth, the intensity of the destruction. There are communities literally without any inhabitable structures. The size of this devastation is genuinely unprecedented in American history. Let me say right here that the federal government has been a good partner to us. Have they done everything perfectly? No, but neither have I. Neither has any mayor or any supervisor or any local government—but they have done so much more right than wrong." —Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour
The BIG lie...

"Katrina stripped away any image of competence and exposed to all the true heart and nature of this administration. The truth is that for four and a half years, real life choices have been replaced by ideological agenda, substance replaced by spin, governance second place always to politics... This is about the broader pattern of incompetence and negligence that Katrina exposed and beyond that a truly systemic effort to distort and disable the people's government and devote it to the interests of the privileged and the powerful. The plan they're designing for the Gulf Coast turns the region into a vast laboratory for right-wing ideological experiments." —John Kerry on the President's free enterprise proposals as part of the Gulf Coast reconstruction effort. Kerry stopped by to survey the damage

(http://FederalistPatriot.US/news/kerry.asp)

in New Orleans.

This week's "Braying Jackass" awards:

"The stark and tragic images of human suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have reminded us yet again that civil rights and equal rights are still the great unfinished business of America." —Ted Kennedy, who reminds us of some other unfinished business, that of Mary Jo Kopechne's civil and equal rights
This week's "Braying Jenny" award:

"You know, the questions that have been raised about the competence and the effectiveness of this administration certainly are not limited to what's happened with Katrina." —Hillary Clinton

[Soldier4Christ]

(My Note:  The blame game continues and it is grossly misdirected. The vast majority of the blame rests on Louisiana officials, first the Mayor of New Orleans and second the Governor of Louisiana. Only the people of Louisiana have the power to replace the officials most responsible in the management of this catastrophe. Most specifically, I would say that the continued party-going attitude and actions of the New Orleans Mayor represented gross incompetence. The failure to issue timely orders, request assistance, and accept offered assistance rests on the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana. The problems with the Federal response pale in comparison to the local and state response.)

Amen Brother. A very long read but well worth the time for anyone that is really concerned about hearing the truth of the situation.

I would also like to add to the comments on the "Individual preparedness" section at the start of the article. I realise that it is sometimes hard for people in the poverty level to sometimes be able to afford to be ready for such disasters. Yet at the same time I agree with the writer of this article. To many people are taking on that socialist attitude that it is the governments responsibility to take care of them. They carry this to the point that they are not able to care for themselves at all.

There were many things that these people could have done for themselves to at least lesson the tragic things that they had to go through. There is an old saying "God helps those that help themselves". No this statement is not in the Bible as some people think but it is a wise saying anyway and it is true. It came into being because of people that sat around doing absolutely nothing for themselves waiting for God to do it all for them.

[Florida_Catholic]

Wow, you beat me there - no way am I going to subject myself to reading that long of an article from a source of Bush administration propaganda.  For one, you might refer to a reputable source of news; second, highlights and a link would be much more conducive to a healthy debate.  Blaming local residents is exactly the type of ridiculous political shift the blame approach that the Bush administration campaign led by Karl Rove is pushing.  Totally disgraceful.

Think about it in these terms . . . mantaining a levee; not something that a local resident can do.  Preparing for a disaster of this scale that has been expected for years requires Federal action.  The Bush budget cut funding for projects to prepare for this problem with the levees!  Also, who was most effected by this disaster?  The poor.  As Christians, the plight of the poor is something that should be of interest to all of us.  Another example of Bush's failures: Under the Bush administration the poverty rate has increased every year and under Clinton the poverty rate declined every year.

[Soldier4Christ]

Several points.

1. No one said that all the fault belonged on the residents, especially the poor. It was said that they could have reduced the problems that they had. Absolutely no disaster preparedness on their part whatsoever. I have lived through a number of typhoons, one was a super typhoon. The people of that area, although they are well down into the poverty level, at least took some kind of self preservation preparations as there was no possible way to evacuate.

2. It is the peoples responsibility to put people in office that will do their job (levees) this includes the Mayor and Governor. It is their city/state after all. As it was said all people irregardless of their position took an attitude of "it isn't going to happen here" let's put the money into partying.

3. Clinton Administration. Yeah .... let's go back to that so that we can have another 9/11 or worse and do nothing about it. I would not want to see what the Clinton administration would have done with 9/11 or Katrina/Rita.

If President Bush had forged ahead and took control of the Katrina situation instead of waiting for the Governor to relinquish control or to ask for specific things then he would be under attack right now for "bullying" is way in, "overstepping his bounds". It is a no win situation where the liberals are concerned.

[nChrist]

Wow, you beat me there - no way am I going to subject myself to reading that long of an article from a source of Bush administration propaganda.  For one, you might refer to a reputable source of news; second, highlights and a link would be much more conducive to a healthy debate.  Blaming local residents is exactly the type of ridiculous political shift the blame approach that the Bush administration campaign led by Karl Rove is pushing.  Totally disgraceful.

Think about it in these terms . . . mantaining a levee; not something that a local resident can do.  Preparing for a disaster of this scale that has been expected for years requires Federal action.  The Bush budget cut funding for projects to prepare for this problem with the levees!  Also, who was most effected by this disaster?  The poor.  As Christians, the plight of the poor is something that should be of interest to all of us.  Another example of Bush's failures: Under the Bush administration the poverty rate has increased every year and under Clinton the poverty rate declined every year.

Florida_Catholic,

It's easy to see why you are clueless on this situation. According to you, it wasn't worth your time to become informed about the facts, yet you still wish to point fingers without a clue of the facts. Had you bothered to spend 5 minutes of your time, most of your questions would have been answered.

The Federalist has been around a very long time, and it has nothing to do with President Bush. It is a Christian publication to inform Christians about politics and government. I am a Christian, so I appreciate and enjoy Christian sources of news. The perspective of the Federalist is as a Christian Founding Father, so I can understand why you would wish to avoid reading such a publication.  

In the meantime, the facts are public record, and it will be impossible for the liberals to hide or ignore them. So, it's really not material whether you wish to become informed or not.

Love in Christ,
Tom

Romans 8:1-2 NASB  Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

[Florida_Catholic]

Isn't its tagline the "Conservative Journal of Record"?