Some thoughts on New Orleans

I have taken alot of flak from my family for my views on this issue, so I will use the only forum they don't read to blatantly attack them! :) I would like to start where all issues in America should start, the top. I will quote an article for you to read and then add a little of my own "wisdom."

"Every city and town in Louisiana that wasn't blasted by the hurricane is full of evacuees. Then there are the tens of thousands in Texas and the multitudes scattered across neighboring states. Their host communities have the best of intentions, but many won't be able to stand the added drain on resources indefinitely. Where will these people go? Why wasn't there a plan?
That's when I start my finger-pointing, because a few days in and around this ground zero have convinced me that there are two things the federal government failed to do, and that for these failures there's ultimately no one to blame but the president.

First, an administration that since Sept. 11, 2001, has told us a major terrorist strike is inevitable should have had in place a well-elaborated plan for evacuating a major American city. Even if there wasn't a specific plan for New Orleans -- although it was clear that a breach of the city's levees was one of the likeliest natural catastrophes -- there should have been a generic plan. George W. Bush told us time and again that our cities were threatened. Shouldn't he have ordered up a plan to get people out?

Second, someone should have thought about what to do with hundreds of thousands of evacuees, both in the days after a disaster and in the long term. As people flooded out of New Orleans, it was officials at the state and local level who rose to the challenge, making it up as they went along. Bring a bunch of people to the Astrodome. We have a vacant hotel that we can use. Send a hundred or so down to our church and we'll do the best we can."

~Eugene Robinson

The most valid point in this article has to be this: A president who is constantly holding the threat of a terrorist attack on a major American city should have plans to evacuate cities in case such an attack or disaster takes place. Isn't this why we have a department of homeland security? This President organized our Department of Homeland Security. Clearly, it is a huge piece of crap. What if a nuclear bomb went off in Atlanta? Would the government take 5 days to react (or would they just invade France for no reason at all)? Would the government just randomly send people in buses to random cities without telling them what to hope for in the future? Probably so, hopefully no. I hope that we can learn from this horrible disaster and prepare for the future, hopefully when Iraq uses their "weapons of mass distruction" against us.
We have a responsiblity to our citizens to look after them. In times of trouble, people will always look to the government, the government better have answers or they will be critizied like you have seen recently.


p.s. To all you "liberal media" assholes, what do you think Bill O'Reiley, Sean Hannity, and all the fox news bunch would say if a democrat or independant was the president ? HOW BOUT THEM APPLES?!?