OK, now that things are calming down a little in NO, and that opportunist Dems are in full spin and attack mode, I will step lightly into how the politics will likely play out here.
If a friend of mine were to ask what I thought of everything that’s happening in NO, I would ask whether s/he were talking about the PR or the reality. They are not the same here.
The great, initial failures here, the ones that put thousands of people in life-threatening conditions, start locally and move out from there. People are beginning to realize this as they are begin to put two and two together.
Let’s start locally. The local government is the first responder to any disaster, especially those that have been expected as long as this one. It has been expected for decades.
One must ask:
- If the mayor is going to send thousands of citizens to the Superdome, why was it not stocked with water, food and most importantly, emergency personnel? Generators? This could have arranged from days to years before the storm.
- Where were the police? Where was their post-disaster command center? Why not the Superdome? I’m not being facetious...
- By now you may have heard about the hundreds of local buses that were not used to help. The above link does the math.
To be clear, I don’t think the feds are off the hook, but it’s clear that the feds have saved a vast amount of lives -- a claim neither the city of NO or the state of LA can make. Trust me, no one has lower expectations of goverment than I, but facts are facts.
Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco are in full political posturing mode -- and are saving no lives but their own. The former should be in handcuffs and the latter should simply be given a quiet space away from pills and sharp objects.
Update: count the “whatever/whenevers” in this interview...
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