No matter how the mainstream media (MSM) tries to bend this, the simple inescapable fact is that when you have a cluster f_k, it begins to unravel at the bottom.
Simply put, the "meltdown" started at the Mayor's office and spread upwards towards the Governor's office in a flame of confusion. It' s the story of cowardace under fire - nothing more, nothing less.
The story of New Orleans and how it used/misused the funding it received to enrich corrupt politicians, not only of the City but also the State of Louisianna, and didn't spend in on their poor - hoping they would keep hidden, reminds me of the movie Poltergeist, where at the end it is discovered that the entire subdivision where the haunted family lived was build on a grave yard. The "shocker" at the end, the headstones where removed, but not the bodies.
If Katrina is a indictment, it's an indictment of a City and a State that didn't take care of, and indeed tried to hide it's neglected poor.
I wonder, as others have, what would be the coverage if the President of the US was a Democrat, and the Mayor of New Orleans was white and Republican and the Governor Republican as well.
I would imagine the press would be praising the President for his swift response (as they falsely did in 1999 describing the response to Hugo) and the city and state for bungling the whole thing. The MSM's response to this disaster has been entirely predictable and nauseating.
If you want to see how it's done, Mayor Nagin, and Governor Blanco read here.
See what happens when you have competence over incompetence, courage over fear, and a plan that you actually follow?
The point? Louisianna - the Mayor and the Governor are reponsible not for the Hurricane happening - but for the chaos afterwards. Nothing the MSM media can do to change that.
Katrina and it's aftermath is simply the lesson of the toothpaste tube. That lesson is that if you want to see what is on the inside of the tube you have to apply the pressure. The pressure was applied on the leadership in New Orleans and Louisiana and what came out was confusion and chaos.
This isn't to say that there weren't problems with the Federal Government's response. I'm not, nor have I ever been a fan of FEMA (by the way created by President Carter in 1979).
But the Federal Government and FEMA seemed to worked well last year during four consecutive hurricanes in Florida. There were some problems to be assured, but as someone who lives here, I was proud to be a Floridan, because this State has it's stuff together.
There is a lot of talk - again, from the MSM about "Commission" and "Senate Hearings". Great! Let's have them to see what took place. I welcome them, so we see the meltdown as it really occured - not as the MSM would like us to believe. It's time to stop letting the bias and slanted MSM define "what happened" for us.
Now with that said, here's my take on disasters (man made and natural).
On this day we remember another disaster - September 11th, 2001
The commissions/investigations for that disaster are long behind us, and they told us some things, and left other things unsaid.
But the fact is that four years ago on September 11th, the United States of America got caught with it's collective pants down around it's ankles. We weren't ready for that day. We weren't ready to have two planes fly into two buildings loaded with people. That's the simple fact.
Yes, we had talked about the possibility of an attack. Written about it. But no one thought it would happen. But it did.
So we had our meetings, we fixed at least some of the stop gaps, not all, but most of them, and it hasn't happened since.
When Katrina bore down on New Orleans, there was a collective, "Oh my God!" from all involved - Mostly from the inept leaders in Louisiana.
Again, people had talked about it, written about it, but no one really thought it would happen. But it did. We'll fix some of the problems, not all, but most of them, and move on.
Yet as the Sun rises and sets, there will someday be another disaster. It's not a matter of IF but of when.
Human beings have the tendency to doubt "the inevitable"; by nature they refuse to believe, "It could happen to us!"
Otherwise when it does happen - and again, it's only a matter of time - we wouldn't say, "How, could this happen to us?"
That happens when you whatever you have as a "stop gap" and it gets overloaded.
I don't care what defense one builds - ULITMATELY there will come a time when someone or something will overcome what you have built thus far.
What you do after that is clean up and build a new "more improved" stop gap - it's all you can do.
But when it does happen, it's not the leadship you have at the top that is going to count. While we like to think the Federal Government is the "save all" of everything, the fact is that they don't run local and state governments. Katrina was first a local and state issue. The local and the state officials fell on their collective asses. That - more than anything else - defined the chaos to come.
In war it's the "grunt" leadership on the ground that had better have it's dufflebag properly packed. They had better have whatever game plan they have studied and be prepared to follow to a "T", and especially not "duck and cover" when the crap hits the fan.
UPDATE: Here is an article showing that the MSM reporting on the FEMA reponse is just plain wrong.
Filed under Katrina disaster relief new orleans emergency response FEMA
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