[Big Matt]

So much finger pointing and blame revolving around New Orleans and Katrina.....
.....no one calls out the people who are truly at fault for the whole disaster: The people and politicians of New Orleans themselves.

The Orleans Levee District -- responsible for most flood control in the city and armed with a $40 million annual budget and nearly 300 employees -- had branched out over the years to build parks, marinas, an airport and a dock it leased to a casino gambling boat. Critics and some former board members say the board had lost sight of its original mission. TO PROTECT THE CITY FROM DISASTER!

With backing from the Legislature, the Orleans board branched out into areas only tangentially related to flood control. "We never talked about levees," recalls Peggy Wilson, who served on the Orleans levee board in 2001 and 2002.

During the year before Katrina, the Orleans board spent considerable time discussing the commuter airport it owns, modifying its lease with a floating casino and reviving a proposal to build a $280 million man-made island and fishing piers in Lake Pontchartrain. Anything but levees.

Meanwhile, the Army Corps repeatedly warned local officials over the past two years that long stretches in the 350-mile levee system were sinking into the region's soft soil. In some cases, they were already as much as 3 feet lower than when they were originally built. The Corps said the levees urgently needed to be "lifted" but that it had no money to perform the work. Because New Orleans spent the money on subsidizing casino's and gambling to gain tax revenue and thus gambled with the lives of the citizens of New Orleans......and LOST!

For all of Bush's faults he declared a state of emergency more than 2 days prior to Katrina's landfall........I don't care how poor or bad-off someone is.....if it were me I'd grab what I could carry and beat feet for higher ground!......the Govenor of Louisiana did not put the national guard into action until after the fact despite the requests of the Bush administration......(the federal governement can't activate the "state" guard)......Ray Nagan had access to dozens of school buses that could have been used to evacuate thousands of residents but did not act........and so many many people died.

...there were so many things that were squarly on the shoulders of New Orleans herself and the state of Louisiana as far as all the lives lost and the damage done.....

Sorry.....as much as I can fault Bush for in the current times....the Katrina disaster is not one of them.....

[tsc]

I would agree up to the point that there are many people and organizations that deserve blame. To leave out the Bush administration is insane. The scenario in New Orleans has been predicted for decades. It was well known that this would be one of the worst natural disasters the country would ever see. It would be impossible for local government (city and state) to handle such a disaster on their own. This was known. The federal government made several mistakes, both in preparing for this (again, this was no freak occurance, it was just a matter of when it would happen) and dealing with things as they happened. The same for the state, the same for the city. It is a text book case for the failures of government at every level. Despite other shortcomings, I will say this for governor Blanco: She was the only person that publicly accepted any blame for what happened.

on a side, the corps of engineers built the levee system, and at the time knew it wouldn't withstand such a scenario as what happened. Faulting another group for not making up for somebody else's flawed engineering isn't quite fair. That is of course for that one particular issue. If it involves LA politics and any group or organization within... there are bound to be major #$%@ups and "misplaced money" etc. etc. etc.

There are so many examples of things that went wrong. These come from every level of government. No one person or group deserves the entire blame, but all involved should face up to their part and work on preventing these failures from every happening again. To exclude someone from criticism when they deserve it is to quarantee they will do the same in the future.

TSC

[anabolicrhino]

Originally Posted by Big Matt

So much finger pointing and blame revolving around New Orleans and Katrina.....
.....no one calls out the people who are truly at fault for the whole disaster: The people and politicians of New Orleans themselves.

For all of Bush's faults he declared a state of emergency more than 2 days prior to Katrina's landfall........I don't care how poor or bad-off someone is.....if it were me I'd grab what I could carry and beat feet for higher ground!

Sorry.....as much as I can fault Bush for in the current times....the Katrina disaster is not one of them.....

I agree that self preservation begins with yourself. Personal responcibility and accountability are what make a great society and historically Lousiana has been a "role model" for political corruption.( I am fron NJ I know how it feels)

However, if you can fault Bush for the "current times" you should be able to fault his administration for Katrina.

Bush promotes himself as the " great decider ", making us a safer nation. I would think this "safety" would include natural disasters.

The Bush appointed federal emergency management association (FEMA) was incompetent in its execution of any plans for both evacuation and rescue of Katrina victims. Mostly because its top level of experienced managment were either recruited for the new Homeland Security Department or were deployed as reservists to address the Iraqi conflict. Bush created Homeland security and he was at least "somewhat involved" in the decision to invade Iraq. Do you really think he should get a "free pass" on Katrina? He did correctly declare the Katrina area a "disaster area" in an appropriate time frame, but then it was like he said "okay, I did my part, now I'm out, good luck y'all"

[Big Matt]

Originally Posted by anabolicrhino

I agree that self preservation begins with yourself. Personal responcibility and accountability are what make a great society and historically Lousiana has been a "role model" for political corruption.( I am fron NJ I know how it feels)

However, if you can fault Bush for the "current times" you should be able to fault his administration for Katrina.

Bush promotes himself as the " great decider ", making us a safer nation. I would think this "safety" would include natural disasters.

The Bush appointed federal emergency management association (FEMA) was incompetent in its execution of any plans for both evacuation and rescue of Katrina victims. Mostly because its top level of experienced managment were either recruited for the new Homeland Security Department or were deployed as reservists to address the Iraqi conflict. Bush created Homeland security and he was at least "somewhat involved" in the decision to invade Iraq. Do you really think he should get a "free pass" on Katrina? He did correctly declare the Katrina area a "disaster area" in an appropriate time frame, but then it was like he said "okay, I did my part, now I'm out, good luck y'all"

Not giving Bush a free pass at all.....just saying there are others more responsible before Bush should get his fair share of blame.......everyone knew of this impending disaster for DECADES!! They just dodged the hurricaine bullet for so long it became a kind of status quo.....so no one did anything....for DECADES!