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You know, I really
wanted to wait a while before I tackled the topic of whose to blame for
the amount of casualties stranded in New Orleans. Unfortunately I read an
article by Paul Krugman in the NYT today where he blamed the whole thing
on the Bush administration. This act prompted me to tackle it now. You see
If I had read his article in the paper I would have been just as mad but
could have waited. The Times online not only has the article but also a
picture of him and...well anyone who has seen him knows what I mean. His
left wing, liberal rhetoric matches his face. He looks sort of like a
bearded ferret who got away with peeing on the couch. Never the less it's
my turn to throw my hat into this polluted political ring.
First off. Anyone who has even the smallest amount of knowledge about the way our governmental system works will tell you that when it comes to disasters such as this you work from the ground up. In other words the local, then the state and then the federal government. Everyone automatlicaly blames the federal government because everybody expects the federal government to save them. If that's the case why have any local or state government at all? So. Lets look at this from the ground up. The City of New Orleans has an emergency plan in place. It was adopted in 2000. One of the main points in the plan is the evacuation of residents, and to do this quickly and effectively the city is to use all the school and mass transit busses at it's disposal. That's over 500 busses. The Mayor of New Orleans never implemented this emergency plan. The result? The AP picture which has now become famous of a buss yard filled with school busses under water. Busses that could have saved thousands of lives. This Emergency plan also calls for the evacuation of the city of New Orleans. A mandatory evacuation. The mayor or Orleans did not order the evacuation until 24hours before the storm made landfall. This was only after the president, the same one who is being accused of wanting all these poor black people to perish called the mayor and begged him to evacuate the city. I'm surprised the mayor listened to him being that he didn't listen to the National Hurricane Center when it phoned him telling of what to expect. The left continues to claim that the president doesn't care and hasn't got a grasp on the situation but he was the one calling for the immediate evacuation of the city days before the storm hit! Stop me if I'm being too technical... Lets move on to the National Guard. The National Guard can only be called in by the governor, not the Feds unless the state cedes all power to the Federal Government. Once again the Mayor dropped the ball. Now we have looting. In comes the military and everyone expects them to curb all the violence however the military cannot act in a policing manor. Another tiny law no one knows about because no one seems to do any research. And then there are the Levees. If anything the Mayor could have checked to see if all the pumps were working. Apparently he was busy not ordering the evacuation to do this. The result? Three of the four pumps were disabled. Hmm. If the Bush administration is to be blamed for anything it would be acting 24 hours too late. However by the time the call for help was issued the city was under water, the pumps were not working and tens of thousands were stranded and, logistically speaking FEMA cannot station any relief near the storm or it will suffer the same fate as the city so it could not have moved any quicker once it was sent to the region. Paul Krugman won't tell you any of this I thought you might like to know -Bert |