The news coming from New Orleans keeps getting worse. FEMA was systematically dismantled under the current administration, resulting in the weak and incoherent response. Hell, the head of FEMA used to be an estate planning attorney with no experience in disaster management! Where are the National Guard troops that should be helping manage this crisis? Oh, I forgot, half of them are over in Iraq fighting an unnecessary war that this administration started. On top of it all, money that should have been used to reinforce the levees was diverted to fight the war in Iraq.
Even though National Guard staffing is at a low and FEMA is a mess, had proper leadership stepped up right from the beginning, the damage toll could have been mitigated. Had Bush not been on vacation, he could have ordered Naval hospital ships and other military units to be standing by at alert as early as Friday when Katrina crossed the southern tip of Florida. Had they been ordered to, Guard units could have been evacuating the stragglers as early as Monday evening by helicopter. Air drops of food and water could have been implemented as well. And if a clear chain of command had been established, National Guard helicopters may have been able to sandbag the breaches in the levees on Tuesday before the entire city flooded.
People are saying that we shouldn't politicize this disaster, but we can lay much of the blame directly at the feet of this administration. Don't we deserve a leader who can actually lead? Where was Bush when all of this was happening? On a five week vacation. He's already taken a full year of vacation as president. As events began unfolding on Monday and Tuesday, Bush was gallivanting around having cake with John McCain and playing guitar. Even when reports started trickling across the wire on Tuesday morning that the levees had been breached, what did he do? Fly home to Crawford, and then fly into Washington on Wednesday. It's somewhat reminiscent of the way he sat around in the classroom on 9/11 reading "My Pet Goat" for seven minutes and then promptly spent the rest of the day hiding by flying around on Air Force One. George W. Bush - the great American Nero.
I didn't bother me when W went into hiding on 9/11. Not that I would really give a fuck if he died, but, in theory, our president should be kept safe. I don't see the point of him flying to D.C. if you think D.C. is possibly under attack.
But with New Orleans, I think it looks bad. I'm really not big on symbolic gestures by politicians. I really couldn't give two fucks whether they march in parades, go to funerals, all that bullshit. But in this case, I really think W should have shown up a little faster. This is an absolute disaster, and even if there's nothing he personally could do to help, it seems pretty fucked up to not even check out the site for 4 days or whatever it was.
Well you know, he's not good with things like thinking.
My concern is the reports of 100s of thousands of people that are still, STILL in the city. Why have they not been taken out? The mayor and governor have been saying for the last day and half that everyone needs to get out and still no authority has showed up to move them out quickly, thoroughly and effectively.
This is reason #8392 why you don't send everybody to war.
It's so bad Venezeulan president, Chavez, is offering humanitarian help.
I know you need to keep the president safe, but it became evident on 9/11 after a couple of hours that it was all the result of terrorists hijacking planes. He certainly did not need to hide for the rest of the day. But that's all in the past. He needs to step up now, but I just don't think he's capable of doing it.