Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath have revealed to the American public many sad truths about George W. Bush, his administration, and his fellow Republicans.
The people on this site and other progressive sites have been doing a wonderful job in documenting the many crimes of this band of thugs; their callous disregard for global warming, the slashing of funding for flood control, etc.
And yet the apologists for Bush shoulder on. This has nothing to do with Kyoto, they cry. Bigger levees still wouldn't have helped, they claim.
But there's one thing not one single person in America can disagree with, and it is a point that we
must hammer home:
Four years after 9/11 this nation is still absolutely fucking unprepared to respond to a terrorist attack.
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans the needs of that city became exactly the same as that of a city hit by a dirty bomb or other large scale terrorist attack:
Evacuation of a large number of people. Approximately 80% of New Orleans' residents were able to evacuate. This is perhaps the one and only thing that was performed well, although getting a heads up of several days certainly helped. Terrorists don't give such advance warnings (and when they do Condi ignores them anyway.) But 100,000 other people, mostly poor and without transportation, but also tourists unable to secure flights or rental cars, were left behind. Applying the same percentages to a city the size of Chicago would mean 600,000 individuals stranded.
Food.
Potable water.
Medical attention.
Shelter.
Preservation of order.
We will probably never be able to obtain an accurate estimate of just how many of New Orleans' citizens died, not from the immediate effects of the storm, but from the lack of food, water, medicine, shelter, and law enforcement.
George W. Bush has had four fucking years to prepare us for this. The Department Of Homeland Security has spent billions of dollars of taxpayer money and has produced what exactly? A pretty color chart. Maybe they can sell it to Benjamin Moore or Glidden to recoup some of the tax money they've apparently thrown down a rat hole!
George W. Bush has not made America safer. Katrina has proven that he and his administration, for all the money they've spent, have done nothing, absolutely nothing to make us better able to respond to a terrorist attack.
And that is a message that resonates, deeply resonates, with every American, even if they've heretofore been proud to support Bush.
And it is a message that we must scream from the rooftops.