You gotta give it up for people who have endured so much chaos and still find it in themselves to party as hard as New Orleanians will today.
A rundown of President Miserable Failure’s miserable failure in rebuilding the Gulf Coast was at the top of my docket today. But, an extremely bright sixth-grade blogger named Kalypso derailed my plans. She made a video documentary last year (available after the jump) that both celebrates her hometown’s first post-Katrina Mardi Gras and details some of her family’s struggle to rebuild.
Kalypso’s dad also has a blog and recently had this to say about the government’s less-than-adequate post-Katrina rebuilding efforts:
…Before Katrina, I was a classic big government liberal. If there was a problem, I thought, legislate it away, get a government board to fix it. That has all changed now. Maybe the four paid contractors who four different times knocked on my FEMA trailer door to paint the oven knob red changed my mind. In my opinion, local, state, and federal government has failed us, and it has created a bureaucracy that is expensive, inept, and moreover, it makes recovery much more difficult than if it were not involved. I think this excellent article by Christopher Cooper sums our situation up pretty well. But for now, please ask your congressional leaders to do away with the Stafford Act, as the government did for Florida after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Manhattan after 9-11-2001. I still can’t believe that bureaucratic bottlenecks such as this are in place. It makes me think that I’m being punished by W. for living in the great state of Louisiana.
One can hardly blame the guy for feeling the way he does. No matter who the next President is, that person is going to have a tough time restoring people’s faith in government.
37 Responses to “Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez …if you can”
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No matter who the next President is, that person is going to have a tough time restoring people’s faith in government.
Then it’s mission accomplished for the people currently in charge.
What an incredible kid. Thank you.
Damn. I’m envious of a ten year-old kid today. Not only is she a promising videographer, she has a cooler name than I do.
My heart really goes out to the victims. If they have learned that they can’t rely on government to fix things, however, at least some good has come of the disaster.
Please explain to me why Katrina was GW’s fault. Why is he blamed more than Nagin or Blanco? GW should shoulder some responsibility, but not all of it. I think he erred when he assumed that the local elected leaders would step up like the local elected leaders in areas affected by 11 Sept. Unfortnuately, Ray Nagin is no Rudy and Kathleen Blanco is no Pataki.
As I remember it, it was the largest airlift ever attempted and it was put together with extreme speed. Were there mistakes? Of course there were. But here’s another question: what US President has had to put up with more catastrophic events that occured outside his control than George W. Bush has? Furthermore, if he is such a moron, then why has his economic policies kept the economy flourishing despite those catastophies?
You could argue that Bill Clinton did. After all, the first World Trade Center bombing, the Khobar Towers bombing, Black Hawk Down, and the attack on the USS Cole all occured during his Presidency….he has the indictments to prove it. A lot of good those did.
It pays to click on the links.
What I remember most is the cheering from the Superdome as George W. flew in on his Majikal Jetpack to put quarters under the pillows of all the good boys and girls who had lost baby teeth in the hurricane. Although his polite rebuke of the local politicians and newscasters who kept pleading for the feds to stay away was pretty stirring too.
And which one has ever shown more initiative in creating their necessary conditions? Huh, Roxanne? Huh?
“And which one has ever shown more initiative in creating their necessary conditions?”
Wow. That one is hard for such a bloviating idiot like myself to respond to. Take the Bill Clinton Presidency. I’ll give him the first World Trade Center bombing. That was early in his presidency. So what did he do about it, other than issue indictments? The answer is nothing.
Then we have Somalia. As soon as that looked like it might be tough, he cut and ran and 18 soldiers were killed, but that isn’t the worst part. The worst part is that Osama bin Laden noticed his cowardice and put the planning for 11 September 01 in motion. After all, why not? The Americans are cowards and we have free reign on attacking them without a real response.
Then we had Kosovo. I believe this was a legitimate operation. But why did we get involved? After all, Clinton HATES war. Oh yeah, wasn’t he having “issues” with an intern at the time?
Then we had the attack on the USS Cole. This was late in his presidency so who knows what would have happened if he had a chance to respond. We do know though that the mastermind is now enjoying his 30 virgins since the CIA found and killed him after Bush took office. I wonder if a copy of the indictment Clinton would have issued is in his coffin with him.
Then a head of state tried to assasinate a former US President.
Then we have 11 September 01, an event put in motion 8 years earlier by our retreat from Somalia.
Then we remove the Taliban who was harboring Osama bin Laden. Clinton bombed the Sudan for the same reason. Kind of makes you wonder why you would bomb a country that was offering you your objective. Talk about an unjust conflict. But wasn’t that about the time his problems with Paula Jones was hitting the fan?
Then we remove Saddam Hussein who we had been at war with since 1990.
Where in this did GW create any “conditions” to bring about these events. I think you are pointing to the wrong President.
Anyway, all of this is so far off topic, it really shouldn’t be here but the point is that there is a whole heck of a lot of blame that could go around regarding the response to Katrina. Unfortunately, most people are so clouded by their hatred for GW that they fail to see improvements that need to be made that he has, nor ever had, control of.
My brain hurts, I’m going to take a nap.
Considering that Bush was warned about both 9/11 and Katrina, I think your point falls flat.
He may not have flown a plane into a building or personally torn down a levy, but he had the chance to mitigate both disasters. He didn’t.
Sorry, but if you are given a warning, ignore that warning, and then what you are warned about comes true, it’s your fault.
It’s “rouler”, BTW.
Some librul you are, can’t even speak French correctly….
Katrinia actually made me more of a big government liberal. I saw why you need a national government.
Rush, born yesterday: But here’s another question: what US President has had to put up with more catastrophic events that occured outside his control than George W. Bush has?
9/11 and Katrina certainly couldn’t have been nearly as hard to deal with as the events of Lincoln’s and FDR’s presidencies. GWB is special, however, in that when confronted with catastrophes needing immediate government attention, his reaction was more incompetent and counterproductive than any previous president’s. Even Hoover’s weak response to the 1929 economic crash wasn’t as inept as GWB’s response to 9/11. At least what little Hoover did didn’t make the crash enormously worse than it otherwise might have been. Whereas GWB’s Iraq fiasco, together with his curious inability to focus on the 9/11 attack’s actual perpetrators themselves, has left us with more numerous and more dangerous enemies in 2007 than we faced in 2001.
Please explain to me why Katrina was GW’s fault. Why is he blamed more than Nagin or Blanco?
Because he was playing guitar with a country music star while people were drowning in New Orleans.
Oh, and i love the whole, “But George W. Bush is just unlucky” meme that Rush posted. Leave aside that it was Bush I who actually got us started in Somalia — it was all Clinton’s fault.
Hell, if we want to get historical, it was Reagan’s cut-and-run from Lebanon after the Marine barracks bombing in 1983 that really got bin Laden’s attention, even as he took money from the CIA. But God forbid we should blame Reagan for anything — it’s all Clinton’s fault!
Can’t you guys accept even the smallest fucking particle of responsibility for anything you’ve done? Ever? You sound like the kid who broke the neighbor’s window and can’t understand why you have to pay for it.
“Considering that Bush was warned about both 9/11 and Katrina, I think your point falls flat.”
Well, the point would fall flat if the statement was accurate. No.
Bush had as much warning as the local government in Louisiana about Katrina. Early estimates were that there would be 10,000 dead. It turned out to be less than 2000. Still a tragedy, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been. Not nearly as good as it could have been if the Mayor had actually used the buses for something instead of personal flotation devices or if the governor had either used her power or handed it over to the federal government.
As for 9/11, the Bush administration had general bulletins about any number of terrorist plots and activities. To try and equate that with any type of reasonable warning is not appropriate.
Bottom line: Those who waited for the government are still largely waiting. Those who learned to rely on themselves are getting on with their lives.
Rush - you left out the part where Clinton bombed the last remnants of Saddam’s WMD programs into dust. And expanded NATO peacefully, negotiated safeguards on Russian nukes and nuclear know-how, and presided over the largest peacetime economic expansion in history.
Bush’s Potemkin village: coming to hurricane devestated areas with crates of food and water– and shipping all the supplies back out once he’d had his photo-op.
I don’t think any other US President has ever done anything so hard-hearted and vile.
Ah, I think we see more of GBaker’s “sincere religious belief” in action here.
The people of NOLa speak an arcaine form of French, when they do, FYI. You’ll find the same kind of grammatical “errors” in Canada.
As for 9/11, the Bush administration had general bulletins about any number of terrorist plots and activities. To try and equate that with any type of reasonable warning is not appropriate.
Now “Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside U.S.” is a “general bulletin”?
You know, Jesus had a lot to say about liars and hypocrites. You’re in for a hot time when you get to the afterlife, sweetie.
Rush,
Lord help us. Why do you Republicans continue to point the finger at clearly incompetent leaders like Blanco and Nagin — yes, Democrats — without also pointing the finger at the penultimate failure, George W. Bush, yes, a Republican, and the worst president ever. Look at the guy. He screwed up on 9/11, he lied to get us into the Iraq quagmire, and he hasn’t fufilled his promises to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
Ask any New Orleanian who they blame for the failure of recovery in New Orleans? Hint: it ain’t about which party they belong to. Nagin, Blanco, and, yes, Bush, *all* get criticized. In case you didn’t notice, we don’t give a flying f**k about which party a person belongs to anymore. Every partisan and every apparatus of government has royally f**ked us over. It would be refreshing if the rest of the country saw things the same way. As a matter of fact — their lives and their livelihoods may depend on it — think about it!
true roxanne, but still “laissez les bon temps rouleZ”, and any other permutation you might imagine, is mostly perpetrated by the many non-francophone residents of NOLA. it’s not so much directly from creole (which i consider a legitimate linguistic tradition, and french canadian too, even though they sound silly) as it is repeatedly garbled by average joes and tourists.
err, not “french canadian” but rather “canadian french”, or quebecois, i am a jerk.
“Ask any New Orleanian who they blame for the failure of recovery in New Orleans? ”
Who they blame is irrelevant. Despite the government failures at all levels, the simple fact is that it is not the responsibility of government to restore uninsured homes, businesses, etc. They gambled, they lost. It’s bad enough they want others to pick up the tab, but they want to be put back into the same flood endangered areas. I think it’s time they took a little responsibility for themselves.
Mnemosyne,
Now “Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside U.S.� is a “general bulletin�?
You know, Jesus had a lot to say about liars and hypocrites. You’re in for a hot time when you get to the afterlife, sweetie.
I would say Bin Laden Determined to attack inside US is pretty general. Considering the amount of area to cover, the number of possible attack venues, and the fact that the time frame was infinite, I would argue that it would be very hard for the warning to be more general.
I am not particularly worried about the state of my “afterlife climate control,” but thank you for your concern.
Samantha,
“Bush’s Potemkin village: coming to hurricane devestated areas with crates of food and water– and shipping all the supplies back out once he’d had his photo-op.”
That is a very serious matter. Do you have any documentation that actually occurred?
It’s bad enough they want others to pick up the tab, but they want to be put back into the same flood endangered areas. I think it’s time they took a little responsibility for themselves.
Distasteful as this statement is, I’d be more willing to consider it if this way the way FEMA handled all disasters. As we know, Katrina victims haven’t been treated the same way victims of other disasters have been treated:
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/state/16737686.htm
“It’s bad enough they want others to pick up the tab, but they want to be put back into the same flood endangered areas. I think it’s time they took a little responsibility for themselves.”
GBaker, you are a clueless pig. Where do you live? Have any federal infrastructure? Highways, bridges, dams, levees, reservoirs, viaducts, irrigation systems? How would you fare if the infrastructure you take for granted failed. What economic and cultural contributions that Louisiana has given to the rest of the nation far out of proportion to her population and well-being could you give up — oil, jazz, the economic expansion of the last 200 years largely fueled by a port city at the foot of the Mississippi? There are a lot of farmers throughout the Midwest who might take issue with your ill-considered statement that New Orleans isn’t worth rebuilding. Would you make such a ridiculous statement about 9/11 victims? “Oh, they gambled about terrorists flying planes into a skyscraper and lost. It’s time they take a little responsibility for themselves.” Not only is your remark ignorant, it’s immoral and antithetical to everything it means to be an American, where the basic precept is that we’re stronger as a union, and where we take care of our people in need. So why don’t you go live somewhere else where your bootstrap ideology runs rampant and people only look out for themselves.
Schroeder,
I’m all in favor of taking care of people in need. I’ve been involved with several of the projects that had a hand in providing services, money, jobs, housing, etc. for the victims and displaced. The problem is not one of support, it is one of responsibility. Many of the people took little or no action to take care of themselves. They did not have insurance. They built in areas that were prone to floods. The state and local government moved funds that were earmarked for levy maintenance and infrastructure to other programs. I’ll do everything I can to help someone that is at least trying to take care of themselves. But when they show complete disregard for protecting themselves, it’s hard for me to sympathize, and even harder for me to support providing millions so that they can do the exact same thing again.
Rebuild the port. It can pay for itself. If anyone else wants to go back, they have my blessing, but let them do it on their own dime.
Gbaker: Rebuild the port. It can pay for itself. If anyone else wants to go back, they have my blessing, but let them do it on their own dime.
The port will only pay for itself if people are there to work in it. Those people will only be there if they have places to lives, schools for their kids, etc.
I was off work the week of/after Katrina, and watched a lot of cable news coverage.
Joe Scarborough really surprised me. He pointed out, often and strenuously, that the Bush Administration’s response to the Florida hurricanes, particularly in 2004 just before the election, was swift and thorough, and that the response to Katrina was tepid, disorganized and practically criminally negligent.
One thing about the “But! But! The buses!” people: they don’t seem to understand — or simply refuse to understand — that Nagin and Blanco both triggered higher levels of assistance well before the damage happened. Before the storm hit, even. And the reason for this procedure is that local and state governments simply don’t have the resources to deal with the kind of destruction a major storm does on their own.
Despite the early warnings and early requests for assistance, the Bush Administration did nothing until well after the city was flooded.
I will also point out that, unlike Mississippi, the New Orleans area survived the actual storm relatively undamaged. It was not until the levees gave way — the levees, of course, being a federal project and therefore responsibility — that the city and surrounding area were flooded.
And who cut funding for levee repair and strengthening?
Zuzu,
“Despite the early warnings and early requests for assistance, the Bush Administration did nothing until well after the city was flooded.”
Because Nagin and Blanco did not yield the Feds authority to operate. And I don’t understand the comment about resources. They had the buses. They didn’t use them. The buses flooded.
It’s all very well to say “Hey! I need some help.” If you don’t cede the authority for help, then you’re not likely to get it.
Chattanooga,
“The port will only pay for itself if people are there to work in it. Those people will only be there if they have places to lives, schools for their kids, etc. ”
Which can be easily funded and paid for through port taxes in a limited area. There is no need to spread out over the entire flood-prone penninsula. There is no way that people will not recognize the opportunity. Build a smaller, sustainable area. Don’t try to recreate everything. The taxpayers have already been taken for millions through false claims and subsidizing people that took no steps to protect themselves.
Because Nagin and Blanco did not yield the Feds authority to operate.
You’ll have to post reference there, because that sounds like a steaming pile of tripe.
Ooofha. Mixed metaphor. Bad fox.
Gbaker, Blanco declared a state of emergency on Friday, August 26, 2005:
Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco declared a state of emergency for the state of Louisiana.[4] The declaration included activation of the state of Louisiana’s emergency response and recovery program under the command of the director of the state office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to supply emergency support services. Following the declaration of a state of emergency, federal troops were deployed to Louisiana to coordinate the planning of operations with FEMA.[5]
Blanco was not required to “cede” authority to the federal government, simply to declare a state of emergency and request assistance from the federal government. There are well-established protocols for federal involvement in natural disasters, and none require the ceding of state sovereignty to the feds. National Guard troops remain under the control of their state governors, though their deployment has to be coordinated through Washington.
And here’s what happened on Saturday, August 27, 2005 (my emphasis):
At 5:00 PM EDT, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced a state of emergency and a called for a voluntary evacuation. He added that he would stick with the state’s evacuation plan and not order a mandatory evacuation until 30 hours before the expected landfall. This would allow those residents in low-lying surrounding parishes to leave first and avoid gridlocked escape routes. However, he did recommend that residents of low-lying areas of the city, such as Algiers and the 9th Ward, get a head start. Nagin said the city would open the Superdome as a shelter of last resort for evacuees with special needs. He advised anyone planning to stay there to bring their own food, drinks and other comforts such as folding chairs. “No weapons, no large items, and bring small quanties of food for three or four days, to be safe,” he said.[7]
Governor Blanco sends a letter to President George W. Bush asking him to declare a major disaster for the State of Louisiana, in order to release federal assistance.[8]
In response to Governor Blanco’s request, President Bush declared a federal state of emergency in Louisiana under the authority of the Stafford Act, which provided a, “means of assistance by the Federal Government to State and local governments in carrying out their responsibilities to alleviate the suffering and damage which result from such disasters,…”[9]
The emergency declaration provided for federal assistance and funding, as well as assigned, by law, the responsibility for coordinating relief efforts with those government bodies and relief agencies which agree to operate under his advice or direction, to the FEMA federal coordinating officer (FCO).[10] It also provided for military assets and personnel to be deployed in relief and support operations, although the Posse Comitatus Act imposes strict limitations on the use of Active Duty soldiers in law enforcement.
That night, National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield briefed President Bush, Governor Blanco, Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, and Mayor Nagin on the status of Hurricane Katrina.[6]
This is two days before the storm made landfall. The following day, Nagin declared mandatory evacuation.
It wasn’t until five hours after the storm made landfall that Heckuva Job Brownie asked his boss for authorization to get 1000 FEMA employees into the area. Three days after they were first requested.
And not until “late Tuesday” does Cherthoff do his job: “Late Tuesday”: DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff declares Katrina an ‘Incident of National Significance’, “triggering for the first time a coordinated federal response to states and localities overwhelmed by disaster.” Declaration is first use of DHS National Response Plan.
It wasn’t until Wednesday, August 31 — two days AFTER the storm — that Bush bestirred himself from his vacation compound.
Now, zuzu, don’t you go disturbing their sincerely-held beliefs about how George W. Bush is always right with such blasphemies as actual facts. Don’t you know that’s bigotry?
Rush, for most of Bush’s life, he’s done nothing but get high and fuck up while living on his or his parents’ trust fund. Then he sobered up and began a career of fucking up in the private sector. Then he became governor of Texas, a job so lacking in consequence even his propensity to fuck up couldn’t make a difference either way.
But never mind that. Put Bush’s previous experience from your thoughts. Just consider this: After six straight years of fucking up Every. Last. Thing. he puts his hand to in a job that is consequentual, when are the ‘wingers planning to accept that maybe this isn’t simply a matter of Bush having really, really bad luck?
Let us know when. We’ll throw a parade.
“After six straight years of fucking up Every. Last. Thing. he puts his hand to in a job that is consequentual, when are the ‘wingers planning to accept that maybe this isn’t simply a matter of Bush having really, really bad luck?”
Right after they convince enough of the sheep to vote for the next Reichwing puppet. McCain? Jeb Bush?…
And when the next earthquake levels a major city on the West Coast, when the next terrorist attack happens in NYC, when the next wave of tornadoes sweeps through the Midwest, we should say to them, “You knew it was bound to happen eventually, so you’re on your own.”?
People are so short-sighted that it would be sad if it wasn’t so damned predictable.