Please elaborate, how the people failed themselves in their actions during the disaster. I find it hard to believe you consider the actions of FEMA a success when their own former leader acknowledged mistakes, but OK, if you prefer to live in fantasy, your choice.

Left by Ruth on August 27th, 2007 at 2:30 am

Yeah, sorry Robbie, you probably need to explain your stance on this a little more. Why isn’t the government to blame? And what else could the citizens of New Orleans do when the floods came?

Jonny

Left by Jon on August 27th, 2007 at 2:36 am

Having watched a lot of the coverage on Katrina and several congressional hearings, I found myself seeing Americans that were almost like they were from a different country. At one Senate Hearing the charges made by supposed spokespersons for the people (citizens of New Orleans) were so outrageous that they had to be reminded they were under oath. I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it. I believe those people were beyond help.

That said, how could any government agency be any worse than FEMA was during that crisis? I have to agree that putting FEMA under Homeland Security was a major mistake of the administration. And, Nagin and Blanco must rank among the worst public servants in the country.

Put all these factors together and what you get is disaster after disaster.

Left by Dianne on August 27th, 2007 at 8:40 am

My favorite part of this post? Blaming the (poor and downtrodden) victims — a favored tactic of many on your blogroll.

Left by Matt Ortega on August 27th, 2007 at 9:13 am

Matt — people who were able to but did not evacuate are to blame for their own plight. People who stayed behind to loot and pillage from their neighbors? They’re to blame, too.

People who have been living off the teat of the welfare system in New Orleans and continue to live off the teat of the welfare system 2 years later, they are to blame.

Voting in crooks like William Jefferson and Ray Nagin? That’s their own damn fault.

I’m not blaming all of the victims. But some of them are to blame for some of their own problems.

Do you really not get that?

Left by Robbie on August 27th, 2007 at 10:44 am

I’ve heard of kicking people when they’re down Robbie but this is a little too far for my liking!

Jonny

Left by Jon on August 27th, 2007 at 12:36 pm

Look. New Orleans was a failed and crooked city LONG before Hurricane Katrina.

The disaster was as bad as it was — not because of FEMA (though FEMA was no saviour, either) or President Bush, as Sen. Obama points the finger — because of the local failings: local politicians, local leaders, local thugs, local apathy, etc.

And the failure associated with New Orleans’ inability to recover two years later are more indicative of the folks who live(d) there than on anybody else, too.

Sorry if pointing out the truth bothers some people. But that’s one of the problems with Liberalism: people don’t ever have to take responsibility for their actions or decisions; they are always victims; and they are always victims of the Federal Govern’t.

Left by Robbie on August 27th, 2007 at 1:30 pm

Jonny, you feel sorry for people who loot and pillage from others? You feel sorry for people who cheated the system by taking double payouts on rent assisance from FEMA .. or using their FEMA assistance card checks for designer handbags worth hundreds of dollars? You should have listened to the senate hearings where agency officials couldn’t account for payments for rental of expensive boats that had been sold even before the flood and other such scams. Tens of millions of dollars just gone, unaccounted for. Sure, they were supposedly tracking the perpetrators, but the general consensus was it would be impossible to find most of them. Even before the flood the city had the highest crime rate in the country.

This from a MSNBC news article, “The two audits found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under FEMA’s emergency cash assistance program — which included the $2,000 debit cards given to evacuees — were based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names. The GAO audit was first reported by NBC News last Friday.”

NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND people cheated the system on the debit cards alone. That’s about a third of the entire pool of applicants. It’s pretty hard to feel sorry for them.

Left by Dianne on August 27th, 2007 at 1:46 pm

New Orleans has always been an open cesspool. The streets were dirty and even the air seemed tainted. And they live below sea level.

I say knock the levees down, let the water go where it goes, and rebuild on higher ground.

Left by Gary on August 27th, 2007 at 1:52 pm

Jonny, you feel sorry for people who loot and pillage from others? You feel sorry for people who cheated the system by taking double payouts on rent assisance from FEMA .. or using their FEMA assistance card checks for designer handbags worth hundreds of dollars?

No Dianne, I feel sorry for those 2,000 people who died because of Katrina.
The fact that assistance to those stranded was slow to non existant didn’t help matters.

….people who were able to but did not evacuate are to blame for their own plight. People who stayed behind to loot and pillage from their neighbors

I thought the flood defenses failed AFTER Katrina left? Therefore those who stayed behind in New Orleans though the worse was over.

Should we blame those people in Hull (UK) because the drainage system failed in our recent floods?

Sorry, although I understand looting happened after Katrina, I find the focus of this particular blog entry rather sick.

Jonny

Left by Jon on August 27th, 2007 at 3:06 pm

Sorry, although I understand looting happened after Katrina, I find the focus of this particular blog entry rather sick.

Then you misunderstood the focus, which is that the local government and leadership was to blame for the resulting disastrous response and preparation for Hurricane Katrina. NOT the Federal govern’t, as Sen. Obama claims.

The fact that assistance to those stranded was slow to non existant didn’t help matters.

And again, Jon, that failure was squarely on Mayor Nagin and Gov. Blanco, not on President Bush or his administration.

Left by Robbie on August 27th, 2007 at 3:44 pm

So these guys didn’t need outside help?
I understand that Nagin and Blanco where the first port of call but surely if they where obviously not up for the job, the boss man should step in?
In my mind, it was Bush’s administration that failed in this situation.
If my company messed up on such a scale, I wouldn’t expect an employee of mine to take the can.

Jonny

Left by Jon on August 28th, 2007 at 4:15 am

Exactly, Jonny. If Bush thought Nagin and Blanco were not up for the job he should have doubled his efforts not head off to McCain’s birthday party or pose for photo ops.

Left by Preston on August 29th, 2007 at 6:49 am

I quite agree Preston.
I would like to have seen the same floods in Washington.
I feel the efforts would have been slightly more enthusiastic.

Jonny

Left by Jon on August 29th, 2007 at 5:18 pm

And, if Clinton really cared about peace in the mideast, he wouldn’t have left Arafat waiting for him in the Rose Garden while Monica gave him a blow job.

Left by kma on August 29th, 2007 at 10:09 pm

Hey Robbie! Slublog over at Ace’s has a nice article about NO you may find interesting.

Left by kma on August 30th, 2007 at 9:38 am

Again, slublog’s article points out over 200 billion dollars has been given to NO. People commenting are those who live in NO and those who are there working as some part of aid program. The gist of the problems appears to be corruption by the local politicians and locals.

Left by kma on August 31st, 2007 at 9:08 am