Joseph:

The article saddens me. I can understand why the right wants to limit the political damage that this will do to their national-level prospects. But I would hope that responsible people on your side will eventually stand up and actually advocate serious disaster planning and disaster management policies. Such policies are likely to be expensive, but in all likelihood they are a more efficient use of resources, dollar for dollar, than foreign adventurism of the Iraq variety. I see absolutely no reason to believe that the past six years have proven the superiority of Republican leadership in disaster management, but maybe I’ve missed something.

I work in the field of bio/chem warfare detection so have been involved in a number of disaster scenario planning exercises, and like the fog of war there always will be a fog in disaster response since disasters never seem to go exactly as planned. I have also been the victim of two major hurricanes, the eye walls of both Fran and Floyd made landfall at my front porch at the tip of Cape Fear --I reject the notion that the Feds were slow with Katrina; they were much quicker now than in 1996 and 1998. And this really is a testable hypothesis (and a far better approach than a "hindsight" analysis) -- with Katrina calculate the number of personal, tons of supplies, and material moved in a window of time after the state gives authorization, and compare it with Fran, Andrew, and Florida hurricanes. I am guessing that the Feds moved faster this time than ever before -- if not, then spread the blame around. From my experience facts really are the demise of liberal nuttiness. How many NO cops really showed up for work? -- looks like about 40%; how many busses were used for evaculation as per the NO disaster plan -- about 25 out of 2,000 from what I can tell. We need more data, then build opinion -- and the data so far points clearly to the absolute collapse of local and some state institutions as the real cause of the extended pain and suffering in NO.

One inescapable fact for you liberals. States run by republicans are doing better than Lousiana which is run by democrats. Oh, and by the way they got hit harder than New Orleans did.

This is a failure at the state and local level.

My congratualtions to the Presdident and the federal government for their efforts in cleaning up this democratic mess.

Since our government is composed of both political parties, perhaps we should start laying the blame were it truly belongs: the government as a whole. But, of course, the blame then comes straight back to ourselves. Whatever the government is, it is because we have allowed it.

One inescapable fact for you, Pete, is that there’s no city even close to being as large in any of the other states that "got hit harder," which is a rather subjective statement anyway. In case you don’t get the point, any natural disaster that occurs in a large metropolitan area is going to be more devastating that one that hits a less densely populated area. So New Orleans, being a large metropolitan area, is obviously going to be more of a logistical mess than a smaller town would be. More people to feed, hydrate, clothe, shelter, and evacuate.

Careful, Phil, you are verging on reason. Next you’ll be telling us that 1) Bush didn’t spawn the hurricane, 2) Bush responded about as quickly as one could expect, and 3) racism played no role in any of this. Beware...that way lies sanity.

Brett, given that the article details the sustained failures of a city government long run by Democrats and that you’re apparently a Democrat, I can see why the article might sadden you. To me, however, it seems like a well-supported and detailed account of how inept and indifferent Democratic Party officeholders lethally neglected the safety of the public whom they’re supposed to serve. What your feeling ’saddened’ by this account (rather than by the underlying dereliction) has to do with anything of significance is beyond me. Carping about Bush and the GOP can’t change the horrifying fact of all those CITY-owned buses that sat unused because the New Orleans mayor (who happens to be a Democrat) and his lieutenants don’t seem to have known or cared much about what could be done with them.

https://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050901/480/flpc21109012015

Is moveon.org really using footage of the hurricane victims in a commercial slamming John Roberts. I think Fung should read this article by USA Today and then ask himself who is really using this diaster for political motives.

Fung (Freud + Jung=Fung) isn’t reading at the moment. His moral self-righteousness got the better of him...he’s pouting.

PJC:

What saddens me about the article are the cheap shots that the authors take. We’ve got all the right’s talking points: no relationship between hurricane strength and climate change, all responsibility at the feet of local officials. It is entirely one-sided. More fundamentally, given the critical function that New Orleans plays in our commercial life, I would have thought that it was part of being a responsible national executive to be better prepared for natural conditions that everyone thought were inevitable in one form or another. I seem to recall a lot of criticism of Clinton for not anticipating 9/11. Don’t see why that sentiment doesn’t apply here with equal force, unless one is just trying to protect the reputation of the GOP.

Brett, read the WaPo article below, and weep. You will see three things in this article from a decidedly liberal newspaper. First, Louisiana led the nation in civil engineering projects funded by the Feds...by far. Second, the Bush administration actually outspent Clinton on such projects in LA. Third, a good chunk of this Federal money funded pork projects, not the levees. And fourth, experts claim that the levee system was inadequate as designed. No one in the LA Democrat Party had suggested Level 5 levees, and that’s about the only thing that would have saved New Orleans.

Bottom line...wake up and smell the coffee. Bush is innocent of these accusations.

LA Civil Engineering Projects & Pork

Four, you will see four things in the article.

Mea culpa...forgive my Pythonesque mistake :)

This is a piece of interesting information. It seems Louisiana state officials blocked the red cross and salvation army from helping people mere hours after the storm hit. Was this done on purpose? Who knows, but it is surely appalling.