WHERE DO THESE DOUCHE BAGS HAVE THE NERVE TO BLAME THE LOCALS?

I'll admit, I too was wondering why there was not a more expansive busing out program for the poor and I was wondering if perhaps the local officials could have done more.

Then it occurred to me: THE LOCAL OFFICIALS WERE ABLE TO GET OUT 80% OF THE CITY IN ONE DAY!  And on top of that, they were able to get a significant portion of those left behind into the Superdome before the storm hit.  IN ONE DAY!  Do you realize how impressive that was?  They actually got things done when it was in their ability to get things done.

However, after the Hurricane struck and the levees broke, it took the Federal government more than 4 DAMN DAYS of sitting on their damn hands before they even started to get supplies to the dying people who needed them.  In that time people were dying preventable deaths at a time when the Federal government was the only power that could actually get anything done.

(More below the jump)

So let's think about that: in ONE DAY, the local authorities manage to get out 80% of the people of NOLA.  However, the Federal government can't even get out the remaining 20% in an entire week because they're busy vacationing and acting like bureaucratic pussies.

How dare they try to blame the local officials.  Is it true that the state and local governments could have done more?  Probably yes, but at least they did something, which is light-years more than the nothing that the Federal government did while infants, seniors, and the infirmed died unnecessary deaths.

I think that Mr. Born Again President would do well to read a few verses from the Gospels, namely Matthew 7:3-5, in which Jesus states:

7:3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 7:4 Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your own eye? 7:5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.

Mr. President, the state and local officials may have specks in their eyes, but you have one BIG FUCKING LOG in yours.  It's a log that has killed thousands of people and you better deal with that log first before you send your hypocrite heartless kiss-asses to go point out specks.

•  "Not a time for finger pointing"

  That was the Repug talking point yesterday. Didn't last long, did it?

  by daulton on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:32:20 AM PDT

  •  Don't point the finger at us

    Until we get our story out first, and Karl has signed off on the talking points.

    Everyone back from vacation - check
    We told them to evacuate - check
    Couldn't have predicted - check
    Bush arrives before the troops - check
    Gonna build this city up better than new - check
     (better = no low income housing...)
    Blanco to blame - check

    Now, what were you saying, you dirty whiners?

    by samia on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:42:43 AM PDT

  •  I was driving

    yesterday (carefully husbanding my tank of gas)  and all I could get was conservative talk radio.  I listened for about 10 minutes (all I could take and continue to drive sanely), but the jist of the calls and the commentary were things like:

    Why didn't Nagin commandeer 200 school buses before the hurricane and evacuate the poor and sick from the city?  Why didn't he ensure that there were adequate water and food supplies in the superdome?  Why didn't he put police and security in areas where the devastation was going to occur?

    And I'm thinking:  first - a mayor has jurisdiction over his city.  If he's evacuating 100,000 people by bus, he's gotta have somewhere to SEND them and somewhere to put them up.  And for possibly an indefinite period of time.  Is there any way a city has the resources or the budget for that?  Wouldn't it require coordination at least at the state government level?  And was there time to go go through the political/bureaucratic machinations to bring that about?  

    Second - how come mayor Nagin, with limited resources and manpower, is supposed to have the ability to predict the damage that would occur, whereas the president, with authority and control over a vast array of federal agencies and their resources, is not only excused from convening a pre-emptive crisis meeting with all these agencies to consider worst case scenarios, but this inaction is further justified because "he never could have predicted. . ."  

    I know, I fell for the trap - trying to make logical sense out of delusional RW jabbering.  

    by writeout on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 09:01:10 AM PDT

•  Not a time for finger pointing.

  It's the time for accountability.

  It's the time for competence.

  It's the time for humanity.

  It's the time for impeachment.

  by wrights on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:34:58 AM PDT

•  if I was to point a finger,

  I would point it at the media for swallowing the repub talking points as well as other bodily fluids for over 4 years now.  It is their fault for not pressing them on the issues such as ....what projects are cut so billionaires can have a tax cut.

  The deaths in New Orleans and the blood in Iraq are a direct result from the failure of the media in the United States to do its job.  We have to recognize this fact and put it right back in their face....then start the impeachment hearings.  

  by jalapeno on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:39:27 AM PDT

  •  Picket Fox

    With signs, such as:

    • Meat Puppets Kill

    • Fox-ism Drowned New Orleans

    • Fox Kills

    Other ideas?

    by daulton on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:42:24 AM PDT

    •  maybe..

      your tax cut killed thousands in New Orleans

      your war in Iraq killed thousands of Americans

      have you no shame?

      by jalapeno on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 09:51:36 AM PDT

      •  A pix of the devastation, and...

        Either:

        • Your tax cut at work.

        • Paris Hilton's tax cut at work

        BTW, the approx $100 million cut from hurricane prep. ect.--damage estimates are now $100 BILLION.

        So for EVERY $1 saved to pay Paris Hilton, Dick Cheney, etc.; we will owe $1,000.

        by daulton on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 10:01:15 AM PDT

  •  Hear, hear!

    You are EXACTLY CORRECT.  However, there will be more places to properly point the finger.  Ultimately the media's failure to expose this empty suit years ago, and to fall for the Rovian bullshit machine, apparently willingly, will need to be seriously addressed.

    by beemerr90s on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:48:18 AM PDT

•  It's

  about all they have left. Anyone who thinks these crooks are going to take it like a man and fess up haven't been paying attention to the last four years. And despite that TP being vomitted up by the Cabinet when given a mike and a camera, the media has laid into the Bush WH with a ferocity I've never seen before. My guess is the TP isn't doing them much good in swaying opinion outside of their core base, whose initial premise is that facts don't count anyway.

  by DarkSyde on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:41:29 AM PDT

•  question

  it's hard to keep the timeline straight--when did Nagin make the evacuation mandatory?  my mother (conservative) was blaming the locals, saying Nagin should have made the evacuation mandatory earlier.  does anyone know?

  by emartin on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:43:17 AM PDT

  •  The evacuation order was made mandatory

    Wikipedia is here

    by Greuben on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 09:08:35 AM PDT

  •  Mandatory on Sunday

    Voluntary on Saturday.

    I remember because we were all discussing it here on Kos. (One great way to check out timelines would be just to look through all the diaries on Kos -- a huge project, I don't mean you should do it, but for people trying to clarify timelines.) On Saturday night, people were saying, "Why isn't it mandatory yet? What's he waiting for?" On Sunday, sometime in the morning IIRC, it was mandatory.

    by Noisy Democrat on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 09:15:16 AM PDT

•  Nerve is all they have.

  How do they have the nerve to blame the local officials?

  How did they have the nerve to lie about WMD to start a war?

  How did they have the nerve to use 9/11 for political gain?

  How did they have the nerve to smear a decorated Vietnam War Vet when Bush went AWOL?

  How did they have the nerve to smear the mother of a dead soldier?

  How did they have the nerve to out a CIA agent?

  All they have is nerve.

  by landrew on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:48:46 AM PDT

•  Here's one you haven't heard yet

  My son's friend (about 28 or so) said anyone who stayed behind deserved what they got because they were offering FREE TAXI and BUS RIDES!!!  Can you believe the crap that's floating around?

  by lxxf on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:57:13 AM PDT

  •  I had Cspan on for awhile

    this morning during call-in time, and you wouldn't believe all the idiots calling in and saying that these people got what they deserved for saying...ofcourse, they were also saying that it was all their fault for not "being on their own" afterwards.

    I'd just love to see some of these smug fools loose everything they own, have their whole state devastated and manage all "on their own".

    by tjb22 on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 09:04:43 AM PDT

•  70% WIthout Power

  Remember after Katrina, passed through 41% of Louisiana was without power.  The entire state was devasted.  80% of New Orleans was underwater.  No city or state could have dealt with this on their own.  Everybody knew this days in advance.  The city and state asked for help in advance.  80% evacuated is what all the exercises predicted.  There is just no excuse for a 4 day delay in massive federal asisstance.

   

  by BTower on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:58:04 AM PDT

•  They get away with it...

     ...because they know the Democrats won't stand up and defend their own.

     Same song, different verse.

     The Democratic Party is over.

  by Buzzer on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 09:01:47 AM PDT

•  About the only thing so far that you can possibly

  fault the local officials for is the police going AWOL en masse--depending on where you read, either 200 policemen or 80% of the police force skipped town after the evacuation order.

  There is no defensible reason, other than having relatives who are infirm or very young, for a policeman to abandon his city in a crisis.  The chief of police should be fired, and Nagin has some explaining to do.

  Even this, however, pales in comparison to the criminal incompetence of FEMA.

  by Christian Dem in NC on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 09:07:22 AM PDT

  •  "80% of the police force skipped town"

    I wonder how many of them are just dead.  Drowned in their attics.  

    by strengthof10kmen on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 10:05:29 AM PDT