Katrina's POLITICAL aftermath (keep the political discussions HERE)

"No one can say they didn't see it coming"
In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

Amazing prophetic article from last October in National Geographic:

It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

"I think it puts into question all of the Homeland Security and Northern Command planning for the last four years, because if we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?" said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

San Andreas rolls over, burps, and says "I'm still here!"

(nothing greater than a 4.5 in this "swarm" so far)

NEWT GINGRICH OTM!

xpost holy shit donut

sorry. that just seems like it bears repeating.

Xpost

There could very well be a news item on this tonight... although this is just a car vandalization after all. News may be slow here, but not that slow.

Hahahahaha!

New slogan/tee shirt

More like, Newt Gingrich on the campaign trail. But yeah, even that tells you something.

That explains all the noise in the basement whenever I've visited.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html

[insert snarky comment about holding press conferences to state how well you're handling emergencies in an age of digital cameras and blogs]

Dreher on the Corner -- he was extremely annoyed with Bush speeches earlier in the week:

ANARCHY, AGAIN. [Rod Dreher]
Heard just now from an old journalism school friend, now living in Atlanta, who sent the following desperate message by e-mail: I am hoping you can help. I am friends with a NOPD police officer Elizabeth Garcia. Things are MUCH MUCH worse in New Orleans. The inmates took over Central Lock up in New Orleans and took over the armory. They are targeting police and the police are under seige. She and 9 other police officers are running out of ammuntion and are being held down at the Hampton Inn across from the Convention Center. She just got her cell phone access and is calling everyone she knows to get out the information. They need assistance immediately. Please help in any way you can.

I called my friend just now to verify this. She said things have improved a bit since she sent the mail earlier this morning. She said that she got it to CNN, who relayed it to authorities. My friend, Lee, said that she spoke by phone to Officer Garcia (who can't call anybody locally, but who can call out of the 504 and 225 area codes), who said the criminal gangs have automatic weaponry because they looted the police armory. According to Lee, Ofc. Garcia told her that the police can't help people because "anybody in a uniform is being targeted" by these gangs. NOPD is receiving reports of children being raped and killed by these thugs, but they are outgunned and powerless. "It's complete and total anarchy," Lee quoted Ofc. Garcia as saying.

I ask you: WHERE IS THE ARMY? WHY ARE WE LEAVING THESE AMERICANS TO SUFFER AND POSSIBLY DIE? Honestly, folks, I cannot believe federal authorities are leaving these police officers and civilians to this. Is this America, or Somalia? The government has failed. Is failing. It is an outrage.

Lopez trying to run flack:

I THINK, ROD [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
That would be part of what the troops rolling in will be handling, I'd imagine. The local government appears to have failed in very many ways. And the federal government and many private organizations are working to pick up the slack. But I don't know it's the right time to declare "mission failed" here. More like "must be done better." Terrible things are happening, but broken record me: I think that message has gotten across. I hope your cop gets reenforcement quick. And no local government in the U.S. is ever as ineffectual as this one seems, especially in the face of widespread disaster and dismay.

Lopez a little while later (Derbyshire and Podhoretz have also trashed Bush's actions/reactions this week):

THIS ONE'S FOR YOU, DICK CHENEY [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
An e-mail came in this afternoon:

Subject: Pollyanna + Apologist = Kathyn Jean Lopez

Rod, Derb, and JPod are the only ones left with any sense.

The e-mail address ends in halliburton.com.

yeah, i'm sure it's just distancing at this point, but still the fact that he feels that comfortable breaking ranks is noteworthy..plus that particular statement was (scarily) probably 100% true.

I like how CNN just uses the word "clueless" as a matter of course:

(See video of CNN asking why FEMA is clueless about conditions -- 2:11)

Bush to women: "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. I'm sorry.... They'll help you.....
Woman 1: "I came here looking for clothes..."
Bush: "They'll get you some clothes, at the Salvation Army center..."
Woman 1: "We don't have anything..."
Bush: "I understand.... Do you know where the center is, that I'm talking to you about?"
Guy with shades: "There's no center there, sir, it's a truck."
Bush: "There's trucks?"
Guy: "There's a school, a school about two miles away....."
Bush: "But isn't there a Salvation center down there?"
Guy: "No that's wiped out...."
Bush: "A temporary center? "
Guy: "No sir they've got a truck there, for food."
Bush: "That's what I'm saying, for food and water."
Bush turns to the sister who's been saying how she needs clothes.
Bush to sister: "You need food and water."
Damn, it reads like a Saturday Night Live skit.

you guys don't know newt very well if you think he's always been about crowing the party line. i mean, i don't like the fucker, but he's not a goosestepping aparatchik or whatever they were called. and there's no way he's ever running for anything ever again.

NO, KEVIN: Kevin Drum wants to say that the difference between conservatives and liberals is that liberals believe in funding organizations like FEMA or the Corps of Engineers and conservatives don't. Nuh-huh. Real conservatives believe that the state should do a few things that no one else can do - defense, decent public education, police, law and order among the most obvious - and leave the rest to individuals. Funding FEMA and having a superb civil defense are very much part of conservatism's real core. It's when government decides to reshape society, redistribute wealth, socially engineer, and take over functions that the private sector can do just as well that conservatives draw the line. The reason I'm mad as hell over Katrina is precisely because I'm a conservative and this kind of thing is exactly what government is for. Bush in this sense is not now and never has been a conservative. A man who explodes government spending but can't run a war or organize basic civil defense is simply a fiscally reckless incompetent. If this were a parliamentary system, we'd have a vote of no confidence. Instead we have three years of more peril.

Everybody knows this but Newt. I agree that he doesn't have a prayer of winning anything, and might not even actually run, but he's very much paving the way for a potential candidacy in '08. He's all but confirmed that he's considering it.

But whatever his motivations, I also agree that he's always been capable of the occasional burst of off-the-reservation candor.

"Feeling the pressure, Bush confers with Tom Green on what to do next."

Bush: "zzz..."

Bush: Response to Katrina Was Mishandled

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
6 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Scorched by criticism about sluggish federal help, President Bush acknowledged the government's failure to stop lawlessness and help desperate people in New Orleans.

"The results are not enough," Bush said Friday in the face of mounting complaints from Republicans and Democrats alike.

Remember, Brownie's doing a great job!

oh yeah, and dig this quote:

"Where it's not working right, we're going to make it right," the president said after walking through a devastated neighborhood of Mobile, Ala. "Where it is working right, we're going to duplicate it elsewhere."