"The footage along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster."
All of this is such terrible news. The idea that the President knew all about how bad the situation could potentially become and didn't force the governor of Louisiana to step down so that the federal government could unconstitutionally pre-empt her authority is outrageous. And to think that G.W. Bush had the audacity to personally take full charge of the operations of FEMA and then boldly accepted the declinations of the state and local authorities, as if they came from responsible adults, is an outrage. Making matters worse, as if that were possible, he allowed the officials at FEMA to actually count among the roster of available rescue workers, the entire police force of the City of New Orleans! Imagine the nerve! To think that the local police would actually be available and willing to do their jobs! Absolutely outrageous!
Until we all recognize that Louisiana is a welfare state and that the President has the legal and moral obligation to supersede all local authority and treat the people of Louisiana as the welfare orphans that they really are, we will never have an end to this type of federal abuse of the privacy and autonomy of the several and varied states of the union.
It's simply unfair to expect any state to recognize what is best for them and to be prepared to protect and provide for themselves. The federal government should always take control. And to imagine that the states should be prepared to pay their own way is an even further abuse of the Principle of Dependency on which this great nation was founded.
Whenever the Federal Government, years ahead of any disaster, gives a state tens of millions of federal dollars to correct known flaws in their infrastructure and the state decides to squander the money on pursuits other than to provide for their own good, the rest of the nation clearly has the obligation to shoulder the cost of the individual state's mismanagement of federal grant money and fiscal irresponsibility. I mean after all, these people have Mardi Gras to think about. And where, might I ask, were the federal dollars to assist with that major production? Hmmm?
The next thing you know, Federal judges will, and without the aid of any specific law, take it upon themselves, and against the will of the states' local populations, to declare it legal to kill an unborn child while doctors profit, yet expect the rest of the nation to shoulder the long-term financial burden of that as well. Outrageous! (They did? Really? But I don't... I mean... wow!)
[It wouldn't hurt, I don't think, to look at the silver lining in all of this condemn-all-but-the-elected-responsible approach.
( http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1681772 )
Given that New Orleans is known for having one of the highest crime rates in the nation (the character of its police force not withstanding) shouldn't we be celebrating to some degree, the enormous reduction in actual crime in the aftermath of Katrina's visit as compared to the everday violence that's part of New Orleans culture and charm? Besides, it wouldn't be the first time a flood served to clean up the decacdence and corruption of a civilization. But, come to think of it, that time the two-by-two method used opposite sexes. Maybe it is hopeless after all. Nevermind.]
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