About this blaming of the mayor thing....

[distantearlywarning]

So let's just say, hypothetically, that the mayor of New Orleans IS completely and totally incompetent. He completely screwed up and because of his actions, by Monday evening of last week, his city was in chaos.

Ok, fine. There might even be some truth in that. Nobody really knows for sure.

But the question still remains: WHERE THE FUCK WAS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT???? Isn't it still their job to take care of shit when other people fail? If they thought the mayor was hosing things up so badly, why weren't they in there SOONER taking over rather than waiting until Friday?

Are the Faux and freeper people blaming the mayor essentially saying that if your city's mayor turns your city into a disaster area through negligence that the federal government is powerless to do anything about it? Because it sure sounds like that's what they're saying. That a single mayor of a ruined city is capable of preventing all of the best efforts of FEMA and the administration.

That makes the feds' actions even more pathetic. Sitting outside a city where people are dying and waiting for the mayor to give you permission to come in? Hanging around picking your nose watching the mayor screw everything up and kill people? Yeah, now that's competence.

NEWS FOR LURKING FREEPERS: THIS DOESN'T MAKE YOUR ADMINISTRATION LOOK BETTER - GET A NEW TALKING POINT!

[MADem]

1. NOLA is a NATIONAL SECURITY area

That's where the gas and oil are, ergo, the feds should have been on the scene IMMEDIATELY. If the mayor of Seabrook, NH, where the nuke plant is, has a crisis, they sure as fuck would not leave him to fend for himself...

This blame game is total bullshit--NOLA is one of the nation's key gas stations, damnit...not just a tourist attraction.

[Prodemsouth]

2. Okay, the governor..oops she sent Bush a urgent reuest for help

before the hurricane even made landfall.

[libhill]

3. They have no talking points -

People have fucking died - women, children, babies, elderly folks, have died, and people have suffered, because of their incompetent President and his fecal matter fucking mal - administration. There is no excuse, and they're going to pay big time in '06 and '08, and they know it. Read the handwriting on the wall, ass hats - your President has been judged, and for to be severely wanting. And your media whore friends can lie all they want to, they're just pissing in the wind.

[Robert Oak]

4. the mayor

The only real thing I can see to criticize on the mayor is not getting
the elderly, disabled and poor picked up via public transport, truck
and what not and get them out before the storm.

Then, he refused to relocate to outside the city and had limited communications as a result.

Ya know, yes great he would have a phone on the other hand, out of the city he wouldn't know what was going on.

In 2004 Bush cut funding to the NO army corps of engineers for the levees, 80% funding cut, also a hiring freeze on the NO army corps of engineers.

I would not be surprised in funding and resources came into play in terms of getting out the elderly and disabled.

All across the nation, with no hurricane, the elderly and disabled cannot get to the hospital and around except via emergency vehicle.
The lack of support for people is appalling and the hurricane is just bringing the truth of this to light.

[nyhuskyfan]

8. He still would have to bring them somewhere...

And that somewhere would naturally be somewhere outside of New Orleans. Hence, the logistics would need to go beyond his control.

If some people didn't have the wherewithal to get to the Superdome within NO and were killed by the Hurricane itself, you could certainly question the mayor's role in that.

[Pirate Smile]

5. How shocking it would be that a city 80% underwater would be unable

to gather the resources to deal with the catastrophic issues by itself. Wow, it is such a surprise.

edit to add - it is also the 5th poorest city in the country. I'm sure with that huge tax base they are able to just cover everything themselves.

:sarcasm:

[Retired AF Dem]

6. Lesson learned here is

the politicians from local Govt to Fed Govt no matter which party is worthless under pressure. The days of the "professional" politician needs to come to an end. The professional politicians only care about how they look not how they perform. I think the Govt both Federal and State ran better when it was run by people who considered it a civic duty to do it for one or two terms than got back on with their civilian lives. Flame suit on. :)

[Old and In the Way]

12. Do you think Clinton would have responded differently?

I do. I think the person sitting in the Oval Office has a big impact on the situation. It's not just Bush's inability to understand or care. It is the people that he puts in charge of critical departments and the people they bring along. One has to look no further than Chertoff in DHS and Brown in FEMA to see how a President makes all the difference in the world.

The lesson we need to learn here, is that the Party who wants to privitize our country and run it like a business don't understand the essential nature of government. They are absolutely the worst people for the voter to choose. NO didn't happen in a vacuum....this administration has made asset allocation decisions for 5 years that have shorted the public's commonwealth to the benefit of a very small investor class of this country. Their gain has become our loss.

[Retired AF Dem]

13. You might be old

but you sure aren't in the way. Good post. I'm divided on this issue. One us southern DU members (I'm in Alabama) have caught alot of crap from DU members in the past year, mostly how worthless we are, the south should be wiped off the face of the earth ad nausem. So please understand I'm a little suspect about the so called concern I see on DU at this time. Of course I'm suspect of the asshole in the oval office, I'm suspect of local and state govt, I'm suspect of the cops which don't do anything or quit their posts mostly because they have been hired to be cops by the say so of a friend of the chief of police. I'm just fed up with the whole situation.

[Old and In the Way]

14. I'm not one of 'em.

I've never gotten into the regional flame wars. That's divisive to the point of non-productivity. It's what the Republicans want us to do. They rule by dividing. I've never bought the "red" vs. blue" pictures of states like we see broadcast at election time. That is a tactic to pit state against stae.

I don't know Nagin or Blanco...but I've seen Bush in action. Do I think either they Mayor or the Governor would not do everything in their power to protect their state and its people? Absolutely. Their loved ones, their reputation, their hearts are there. They had the motivation to protect and serve. Did Bush have the same motivation? What is his connection to NO or Louisianna? What is his connection to anyone other than his family and political cronies? He was in a position to be an effective force for good. He chose to ignore his oath of office, yet again. No American should look at NO and not realize that the next time, it could be his or her disaster.....

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Amen - The Dept of Homeland Security is in charge

of running natural disasters and they failed miserably.

Mayor Nagin did his best. Sunday he was begging for help. FEMA and HS kept telling him help was coming but it never came.

Homeland Security knew that there were 100,000 HOUSEHOLDS just in NEW ORLEANS that did not have transportation. Many of these households are people are sick, elderly and poor. Then the officials kept saying this was a Mandatory Evacuation so it people's own fault for not getting out. How the hell are you supposed to get out when you can't even walk?

The proof that they knew and did nothing is in the hospitals. There was NO ATTEMPT MADE to evacuate the hospitals before the storm and after the storm hasn't been much better.

Fuck the freepers. Hell doesn't have enough rings left to house them all.

[Old and In the Way]

9. What could any mayor, confronted with this natural disaster, do?

This is why drowning the federal government in a bathtub is ludicrous proposition bought to you by people who hate America.

I cannot fault this guy for the total devastation that he was confroted with....what do people expect him to do? Wave a magic wand and make it better? I can't fault the Governor who made her request for immediate aid on the 28th. I can fault the only person in a position to really mitigate the human misery...the guy eating cake and strumming a guitar while NO went under.

[itzamirakul]

10. The Republicans have taked the Feds out of EVERYTHING in their

effort to make "smaller government" and privatize most gov, services. Now we see what happens withoug a strong government agency to depend on.

[newswolf56]

11. "Blaming the mayor" is obviously...

Bush's revenge -- no doubt orchestrated by the doctrines of Rove/Norquist/Goebbels -- against the mayor for speaking out: denouncing the genocide-by-indifference with which the Bush Administration was killing his city. I expect we'll hear a lot more attacks against the mayor, not just from the freepers but from the administration's many puppets in the corporate media.

We should be outraged at the attacks and aggressively supportive of the mayor: his angry denunciation of the relief effort was the most honest statement any politician associated with the debacle has yet uttered.

[bklyncowgirl]

15. Mayor Nagin made the emperor look bad

He is being swiftboated.

Is anyone surprised?