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I tried to make a post saying something about Katrina, but I really suck at talking about real world events. Everything to say just seemed so obvious, or else much better said by people on my flist. One thing is I find I'm kind of surprised by the surprise at the way the government is handling this, just because honestly, hasn't this administration always been pretty open about their priorities? Their response to this seems completely in-line with their response to everything else. I can't even imagine them handling this responsibly. There's no Jeckyl and Hyde thing going on here. Trying to claim that there were no signs of the true heart and mind of this administration is about as strange as Michael Brown claiming the government didn't know about anybody was at the Convention Center until Friday morning. There is a really desperate need for a change in attitude here, and as we know from experience, this adminstration is going to do everything in its considerable power to make sure it doesn't happen.
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Russert hammered him with all the previous studies and articles about the vulnerablility of the city and repeatedly the answer was:
SEC'Y CHERTOFF: Well, I think if you look at what actually happened, I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, "New Orleans Dodged The Bullet," because if you recall the storm moved to the east and then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing worse. It was on Tuesday that the levee--may have been overnight Monday to Tuesday--that the levee started to break.
Over and over again, the same excuse. These people are clueless!. The EYE of the storm passed slightly to the east of NOLA. Hurricanes are HUNDREDS of miles across. I live on the West Coast of FL and we were getting rain/wind from Katrina as it hit the upper gulf coast.
The entire Homeland Security Department needs to be dismantled and everyone FIRED--not reassigned--FIRED!!!
Link to "Meet the Press" transcript.
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And there has to be a central authority for any federal resources, including troops, to go to, which has already been in place, advising as to the extent of the disaster, and the means if any which are already in place. What has been done? Which neighborhoods have already been evacuated? Where should evacuees be taken? Who will decide and inform? If these resources are not already on the ground and operating, troops, rescue workers both paid and volunteer who do not know the area, will be lost.
The extent of this disaster is larger than the news pics out of New Orleans. It covers Mississippi and Alabama, too. And for the white horse rescue, wouldn't Trent Lott, a Republican, have been one of the first to be saved from disaster? The man lost his house, just like his neighbors. And has been helping in the best way he knows how, with logistics close to the disaster in his home state.
We're not a tiny country. Volunteers from California have not casually driven to LA, MS and AL for an evening's cruise. They *need locals to tell them where to go and what to do*. This didn't happen. The local and state level plans fell through. I suppose they could be given a pass because this sort of disaster went beyond the 'worst-case scenario' anyone could think of when formatting those plans. But then, they also live in the shadows of the levees and would know more than the folks in WA what might happen. Someone on TV said this was a once in three hundred years event, and that the chances of it happening were at .05, while their worst-case scenario took into account the other 99.55 possibilities.
On the convention center, the reports I saw myself on Thursday night indicated that they were just thinking of opening it. Though, I could be mistaken, I'm pretty sure that the first report I heard of anyone being in there were 500 people, on Friday, and the Red Cross were hoping to be able to get in 7,500 more.
The minute the feds got in, airlifts began, busses began moving in and transporting people out of there. Triage areas were set up. The injured and ill were taken to functioning hospitals. Most definitely it should not have taken so long. But the responsibility for a local area rests on the shoulders of the local government first, then the county or parish, then the state, and lastly on the feds. I'm completely against a blanket federal presence in the smaller divisions of government, because no matter which party is in the majority, those people don't get things done. Too much paperwork, too many levels to get through. Red tape and molasses. And without guidance from locals who had the strings in their hands, they had to start from scratch, making it even worse.
The thing that appalled me the most was the violence in the Superdome itself. Murders, rapes, the worst known in the city were shoved into the arena with decent people. !!!WTF??? All those stories of crime and corruption in the Big Easy, mingled with the rest of that city's populations. Horrible! And, no power, so the crimes occurred in total darkness. Talk about a nightmare scenario!
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The whole thing made me realize I'm just not going to talk about current events at all on my lj because I just have no more words, I'm just so fed up and angry and sad. I'm just going to try to remain informed and write letters to my senators.
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The president's Gulf Coast road show
When even the extraordinarily conservative Washington Times is wondering what happened to "the president we saw standing atop the ruin of the World Trade Center, rallying a dazed country to action," you know that George W. Bush has got trouble on his hands.
The president made his way back from vacation Wednesday, and Friday he traveled along the Gulf Coast to check in on hurricane damage and relief efforts. We said Friday morning that he probably couldn't expect a hero's welcome. What we didn't anticipate was just how tone-deaf he'd be in making the rounds.
Before leaving Washington Friday morning, Bush said that the results of the federal government's relief efforts were "not acceptable." He promised to make things right when he landed in Mobile, Ala., a few hours later, but he also offered up a shout-out to FEMA Director Michael Brown. "Brownie," he said, "you're doing a heck of a job."
In the same speech, the president noted that Trent Lott's oceanfront home in Pascagoula, Miss., had been destroyed, and he promised that it -- like all of the Gulf Coast -- will be built again better than it was before. "There's going to be a fantastic house," Bush said, "and I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." There was laughter as the president spoke in Mobile, but probably not so much among the mostly African-American victims still waiting for help in New Orleans. It was Trent Lott, after all, who once observed that America would have been better off if it had elected segregationist Strom Thurmond to the White House in 1948.
Bush stopped next in Biloxi, Miss. He tried to comfort an African-American woman he met there, but it's not clear that he succeeded. The woman was sobbing. She had returned to her home to get clothing for her son, and there was nothing there. "My son needs clothes," she said. "Ma'am," Bush said, "there's a Salvation Army center that I want to, that I'll tell you where it is, and they'll get you some help." The woman repeated that she was looking for clothes, and the president said the Salvation Army center would get her some. But then another resident -- a white man the president high-fived -- told Bush that the location where Bush thought the Salvation Army center was had been "wiped out." The president told the woman to "hang in there."
While in Biloxi, Bush made it clear that he wasn't admitting any kind of failure or mistake when he announced earlier that the "results" of the relief efforts were "not acceptable." Asked why help hadn't come more quickly, Bush talked of progress in New Orleans and said: "I am satisfied with the response. I'm not satisfied with all the results." Asked what "results" he had in mind, Bush said: "Well, I'm talking about the fact that we don't have enough security in New Orleans yet."
Finally, Bush flew by helicopter over New Orleans. After he landed -- and just before he left again on Air Force One -- the president went before the cameras on the airport tarmac. He vowed that New Orleans would be rebuilt. He said something odd about Houston -- that he believed it would be "that very same town . . . a better place to come to" -- and he joked about how he used to "enjoy" himself, "occasionally too much," there. He referred to the suffering citizens of New Orleans as "the good folks" in "this part of the world," as if he were among foreigners in some land far from home. And he said that that they needed to "understand" that hard work was being done and progress was being made. He said that people are working around the clock to repair levees, that the New Orleans convention center has been secured, and that "caravans" of buses were taking victims to safer ground.
If anyone is interested in the follow-up articles, there are several about "Karl Rove's attempt at spin control" by sending Bush back with a more sombre outlook.
This is absolutely pathetic behaviour even for THIS administration.