After the Catastrophe of Katrina

The nation's best wishes and open pocketbooks go out to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

The nation's pride and gratitude goes out to those brave first responders who risk life and health to help the victims and restore order.

The nation's-and also the world's-scorn goes out to the savages of New Orleans. Within 24 hours of Katrina's landfall, the scum began taking over.

The nation's disgust should go out to the local and state officials of Louisiana who were unprepared before and after the storm for the most likely event...flooding and looting. New Orleans has long been known as a corrupt and lawless city-by its politicians and gangsters.

The nation's contempt must go out to the New Orleans mayor, whose ineptness and confusion continues to fuel the catastrophe. His response? To rail against those in state government, but mostly those in Washington.

Remember, folks, our homeland defense, including FEMA, relies on a chain of command. That's local governments first, then state, then federal. Of course, the feds coordinate, but the structure realizes that communication will be difficult, so local and state are the first responders. Well, the city and state failed big time in New Orleans because neither were up to it. So naturally the blame is against the feds.

Well, we in Florida know better. We've had 6 hurricanes hit us in 13 months. Our local and state (thanks to Jeb Bush) were more than equal to the task. FEMA was only needed to pay up after the clean up. And apparently Mississippi and Alabama were both up to the task this time. Hmmm, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi have Republican governors who are competent. Louisiana is a nest of Democrats. What possibly could this mean?

One thing we once again learn is that the American people are brave, will almost always be stoic and try to help themselves and will risk their lives to save others. And the people can be counted on to open their wallets and give, which will always be significant even in relation to what the governments will spend. But we sadly again learn that a strata of America are whiners and takers, ill prepared and refuse to take responsibility for their own safety and welfare. And that there is a sub-strata who prey on weaknesses in people and systems. Thankfully, they are few, but right now they are both very vocal (the whiners) and very visible (the gangster scum). The majority of the brave and stoic are there, but they don't get the screen time since they go about picking up their lives or saving the lives of the whiny and scummy.

UPDATE
See antimedia's comments at Media Lies. He writes about the chaos in New Orleans:

"I heard one announcer (it doesn't really matter which — they're like clones spewing lines) say of the government, "They had a week to prepare before the hurricane hit. How could they be so unprepared to respond?"
I thought the same thing myself. Why didn't people stockpile bottled water? Why didn't they get together the canned goods and other things that don't spoil in the heat and can sustain you for days? Why didn't they evacuate when they were told to? Why didn't they prepare? Why did they just wait, helplessly, without any
preparation at all, for the government to save them?

But the answer to my question has been staring me in the face for days. "The people" have been conditioned to depend upon the government to take care of them. Taking care of themselves never even crossed their minds."

Spot on, antimedia!

ANOTHER UPDATE
See GayPatriot for more great comments. One particular example:

"Further, as I reported before, it was President Bush… not Blanco or Nagin… who had to demand the evacuation of New Orleans on Sunday.
I’m sure that the President and FEMA assumed that New Orleans and state officials would follow their own evacuation plans, especially since they refused Federal help on Sunday. And that they would use the buses to save lives that are normally used to make sure Democrats get to the polls on time every four years.
Blanco and Nagin should be impeached."

It's such good writing by antimedia and Gay Patriot that make me question why I started this blog.