Where I have a HUGE problem is with the declaration of this day of prayer coming from the President of the United States.  He did a fancy, formal proclamation to officially recognize today.  I can't begin to list on how many levels I find it wrong that this man presumes to inform us that an appropriate way to honor the victims of Katrina is to have a day of prayer because he says so.  My physical reaction to that is visceral and deeply resentful.

So, I came up with my OWN prayer that I would have wanted to read on behalf of the victims who died in the aftermath of Katrina.  It is styled after the 23rd Psalm:

If Bush is my Shepherd, then all is lost.
He maketh me to lie down in putrid water:
He leadeth me beside the dead bodies.
He breaketh my faith.
He leadeth me only to seek profits, for his name's sake.

Yea, though I cry for mercy in the shadow of death,
I will find no help. For Bush leadeth me.
His indifference and disdain confronts me.
He preparest a table before those who give him money;
And annoistest the chosen with contracts; while my life runneth out.

Surely the goodness and mercy of God will haunt him all the days of his life,
For I, unjustly dying, WILL dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Prayers are personal and that one is mine.  I admit more than a small amount of spiritual trepidation at even posting such a knock-off of what has always been a beautiful Psalm... But I think the Presidential proclamation is a far greater affront and warrants that fervent prayer from me.

posted by RenaRF at 3:00 PM 6 comments links to this post

posted by RenaRF at 8:19 AM 5 comments links to this post

And finally, New Rule: America must recall the president. That's what this country needs. A good, old-fashioned, California-style recall election! Complete with Gary Coleman, porno actresses and action film stars. And just like Schwarzenegger's predecessor here in California, George Bush is now so unpopular, he must defend his jog against...Russell Crowe. Because at this point, I want a leader who will throw a phone at somebody. In fact, let's have only phone throwers. Naomi Campbell can be the vice-president!

Now, I kid, but seriously, Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you anymore. There's no more money to spend. You used up all of that. You can't start another war because you also used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people.

Yeah, listen to your mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit card's maxed out, and no one is speaking to you: mission accomplished! Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service. And the oil company. And the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or spaceman?!

Now, I know what you're saying. You're saying that there's so many other things that you, as president, could involve yourself in...Please don't. I know, I know, there's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela, and eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote. But, sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm surprised you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man.

Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire metropolis to rising water and snakes.

On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two Trade Centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans...Maybe you're just not lucky!

I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. So, yes, God does speak to you, and what he's saying is, "Take a hint."

After a lot of ranting and frustration on my part, I was joking about being placed on some kind of "no fly" list as a result of a letter I sent to the President and about which I posted a diary. He asked if I would send the letter along in an email because I referenced that it was the one things that I've written of which I am proudest. So I sent it to him. After the conversation and the email, this was the reply I received:

Wow! That is an emotional but controlled admonishment. A very powerful ending. I want you to know something. I have reached a turning point in my eroding support for this president. Your fair but painful observations are to be recognized as a real light on the circumstances and characters involved. How have we come to this? It IS time for a substantial overhaul. Whatever support you need from me, you have it. Let me know how I can help you continue your much needed efforts. Keep me in the loop on your postings and letter writing campaigns. I'm sick in my heart at what has happened and I agree with you totally about Bush and his administration. Thank you for your patient and consistent presentation to someone who didn't want to see the shameful shortcomings of these people. Any good that may have been gleaned from their policies can no longer keep us from holding them responsible for the unimaginably bad judgment and ensuing fatal decisions.

I have reprinted this here with his permission, by the way.

This really does go to show that there is a whole block of Republicans out there for whom there is a line. That line was crossed, I think, by the government's woeful disregard for the survivors of hurricane Katrina. There aren't a lot of ways to parse and spin the starvation and dehydration of American citizens it seems. In some ways I find it ironic as well - because Bush is a self-styled "war President", those who buy/bought into his mission and rhetoric further seem to assume that he could have and should have marshalled the resources to get New Orleaneans some water. Talk about being hoist on one's own petard.

I'm posting this mainly as encouragement of the activism that has sprouted exponentially on this site since August 29th, the landfall of Katrina. Activism does work, and it works even better when there's an example of the real human cost of ineptitude. Hurricane Katrina is a metaphor for failure and one that can be applied to a host of other examples provided in the actions of this Administration.

Just one person changing their mind doesn't make a movement - but one person talking to another person who talks to his/her family members etc. and so forth IS a movement. Ours has begun, and it's WORKING. That's what I wanted to share.

My point in bringing this all up is an interesting discussion in one of the diary's comment threads over the past two days. I wish I could remember which user had the idea so I could ascribe appropriate credit, but there's just too high a volume of comments to go back through and find it. The comment, in summary, indicated the writer's deep belief that the progressive community had to find the Katrina-equivalent to the 9/11 widows. As I'm sure we all recall, the 9/11 widows were a compelling and powerful force that almost single-handedly, through shame and pressure and testimony and lobbying, forced the 9/11 Commission into being. Those women spoke absolutely from a position of power and sympathy. The fear at Daily Kos and other sites is that, as the stranded have been evacuated, the public pressure and attention on what in God's name happened will fade. Any investigatory commissions will be watered-down and ineffectual - in essence, without a 9/11-widow-like presence, nothing will be learned or changed as a result of this tragedy.

So. The idea of a Katrina Victim presence takes on importance and power. But who should be on it?

Bob Johnson did an outstanding diary about Charmaine Neville, New Orleans resident and member of the famed musical Neville family. From Bob's diary, you can navigate to links of Charmaine Neville's videotaped account of her frightening story (click here to view it if you're on a PC and here if you're on a Mac). This is, in my opinion, required viewing for progressives who want to effect change in the wake of Katrina. She is an articulate and visible presence with a harrowing story of what really happened, and a story that can't be whitewashed. I would nominate her for Katrina-Victim status.

Another great story has emerged around Dr. Gregory S. Henderson, a New Orleans resident and doctor who has just been scathing in his criticism of the way relief and aid efforts have been (mis)managed since Katrina struck the region. The Wilmington Star-News has a nice article up about Dr. Henderson. Further, this transcript from CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 underscores his efforts and comments. I think somehow (it's a gut reaction) that it's important that any 9/11-widow-type group have a diverse public face - faces of all colors, all income levels and all backgrounds. Dr. Henderson goes a long way toward that end.

The only other person I think it would be interesting to talk to is the gentleman who, off-camera during Dick Cheney's visit to Mississippi yesterday, expressed his true feelings. "Go f--k yourself, Mr. Cheney," he said - and then again, "Go f--k yourself." If you missed this particular clip, Crooks and Liars has provided it. Click here for a Windows Media version and here for a QuickTime version. The problem is I can't find any reference as to who that individual is and he never appears on-camera before he is "escorted" away. If anyone has that information, that would be excellent.

That is all I've come up with as to actual people that I've seen in the news. I don't think that these people can be politicized because they are not politicians - they are survivors. And I, along with everyone else, am witnessing the attempt to shift blame and deflect and change the subject. We cannot allow that to happen.

There are so many things which need to be investigated in the wake of this disaster. I certainly don't need to be convinced that there is plenty of blame to go around - Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco need to be held accountable for their missteps prior to the storm hitting - but the lion's share of the debacle rests with the Federal Government. This was a disaster they knew was possible and imminent. What this says about disaster response is that we are less prepared than we were before 9/11. Imagine if this had been a terrorist attack on a moderate- to large-scale: if, knowing in advance of Katrina that a disaster loomed, the response was so utterly lacking, what kind of response can we expect to an unforecast disaster?? My God.

First and foremost on the list of things I think are critical to investigate is the role of FEMA and the harm done to FEMA by demoting it from cabinet-level independence to place it within the massive Department of Homeland Security. This will be a complicated investigation - it will be difficult to separate the question of the competence of leadership at the very top of FEMA from the question of funding and preparedness when FEMA became a (relatively) small part of a much larger whole. I caught this commentary from Jack Cafferty on CNN's The Situation Room yesterday which I found appalling:

CAFFERTY: Indeed I do, Wolf. Thanks very much.

Somewhere along the way, FEMA became a dumping for the President's political cronies with little experience in disaster relief. The Agency's first director was Joe Albaugh. He was President Bush's 2000 campaign chairman. Albaugh brought in the current failure, Michael Brown. His previous work was with Arabian horses. The number two guy, Brown's top deputy at FEMA is a fellow named Patrick Rhode. He worked for the President's 2000 election campaign. The number three guy at FEMA is Brooks Alchuler. He used to work in the White House. His job was planning Presidential trips. And FEMA's long-term recovery director is a guy named Scott Morris. He produced television and radio commercials for the Bush campaign.

The Federal agency charged with handling national emergencies is staffed at the very top by a bunch of political hacks with virtually no experience that qualifies them to respond to something like Katrina.

But I digress.

He wasn't kidding.

Further revelations have bubbled up as the dust is settling, and many important ones have been diaried over at Daily Kos:

• Dire Warnings: FEMA Ignored These *Official* Forecasts
  
• What REALLY happened in New Orleans: Denise Moore's story
  
• Documents: FEMA Chief Waited Until After Storm Hit RandyMI
  
• FEMA -- damning info w/link to Brown's memo
  
• flipping the rock
  
• The Cover-up Begins: Cops attack Photographers in NO
  
• "Brownie, You're Doin' A Great Job"
  
• FEMA's Brown padded resume: hardly a lawyer, either
  
• ABC: FEMA Employees Union blames Bush
  
• My Shocking Telephone Call to Joe Lieberman's Office

That is just a tiny sampling of the information swirling out there and all of the balls that were dropped. I'm missing more than I highlighted - I just wanted to give a flavor.

The Republican Administration is trying to baffle us with bullshit, folks. They're throwing so much crap and so many smokescreens that we run the risk of becoming distracted and confused. A Katrina-Victims panel would speak volumes and speak them clearly with the authority of someone who has lived to tell of an ordeal. If I can get the suggestion of a few more names of people who would be suited to carry this powerful message of accountability, I will do my best to contact the news agencies and individuals and see if we can't get a face on this. A real, human face. Your help is desperately needed.

The Boston Globe - FEMA's Focus

Chertoff wants to eliminate the FEMA role in disaster prevention and have a separate office do its liaison work with state and local governments. This reorganization, planned before the hurricane struck, is supposed to focus FEMA on its core mission: responding to disasters. Elimination of powers diminishes agencies, however, not strengthens them.

The Boston Globe LTEs:

• Who Has Done More Damage?
  
  
• The Buck Stops in Washington
  
  
• What Did He Know and When Did He Know It?
  
  
• The Bush Administration Needs To Go

The New York Times - No Strangers to the Blues

The tragedy in New Orleans did not occur in a vacuum. There is no way, even in the face of a storm as violent as Katrina, that a great American city should have been reduced to little more than a sewage pit overnight.

The monumental failure of the federal government to respond immediately and effectively to the catastrophe that resulted from Hurricane Katrina was preceded by many years in which the people of New Orleans (especially its poorest residents) were shamefully neglected by all levels of government.

New York Times LTEs:

• Maybe It IS Time to Fix Blame

The Washington Post - Mr. Bush's Storm

PRESIDENT BUSH'S response to Hurricane Katrina has been, to put it kindly, faltering. He has fallen short both rhetorically and substantively. The rhetorical failure is less important but perhaps more surprising for a politician with his strong communications skills. One of the highlights of Mr. Bush's presidency, and one of the keys to his reelection, was his ability to rally a country stunned by the Sept. 11 attacks -- perhaps most vividly in his visit to the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center. President Bill Clinton rose to an earlier challenge after the Oklahoma City bombing, using the bully pulpit of the presidency to reassure and console the nation.

Washington Post LTEs:

• A Gumbo of Blame for the New Orleans Debacle

The Chicago Tribune - When Governments Fail Citizens

The initial federal response, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was a tangle of red tape. It wasn't until several days after the flooding that the cavalry arrived: 6,500 National Guard troops. Relief supplies followed, order was restored and an evacuation proceeded.

Once the flood survivors are stabilized, Americans will demand that officials at all levels of government sort out what went so horrendously wrong. The president and Congress have vowed to investigate. One logical tool: an independent, bipartisan panel, like the 9/11 Commission, to autopsy these failings and prescribe remedies for the future.

Chicago Tribune LTEs:

• Politics and Disaster
  
  
• Bush's Reputation
  
  
• Barbara Bush's Comments

The Dallas Morning News - Is America Prepared? Leadership Was Lacking at Every Level of Crisis

If the terror attacks of 9-11 redefined the politics of disaster planning, then the emergency response to Katrina's wrath does little to answer the question the nation posed four years ago:

Is America really prepared to respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on our soil?

• Perhaps They'll Notice

The Los Angeles Times - It's Time for Action, Not Words

With "TURF WARS" consuming Louisiana and federal officials over who should have responded to what and when, the Times-Picayune of New Orleans on Wednesday gave the most clear-cut advice to the bureaucrats: Enough.

In an angry editorial, the Times-Picayune wrote that the feds, who accused local officials of hampering relief efforts by protecting their state's home "turf," are the ones engaging in an "awfully convenient dodge" of accountability. Further, establishing a federal commission to investigate the disaster response may help in the long run, the editorial said, but it "won't address what ought to be everyone's immediate priority: getting New Orleanians to safety and ... the reconstruction underway."

Los Angeles Times LTEs:

• Federal Response to Katrina is Under Fire
  
  
• Examining the Reaction to Hurricane Katrina

The Seattle Post Intelligencer - Gulf Coast is Apocalypse Now

There is a difference between politics and governance. The Bush administration is very, very good at politics, and the business of making itself look good. The administration is far less able at governance, the business of doing a good job. The distinction has been brought into sharp relief by the apocalyptic events in New Orleans, where failures in governance would not be spun away.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer LTEs:

• First Mother Can Keep Her Silver at Home

Have at it, folks - should we all be coordinating an LTE campaign with stronger language and rhetoric?

BROWN: I don't know how many stories there are like the one we're about to tell. This is the story of three young men, college students at Duke University who, while watching us late last week, decided to get in a car, drive to New Orleans and save a life or two, ending up loading relief supplies at a TV station. And in doing so, they were generous and ingenious and energetic and a little larcenous. They left behind good deeds and brought back some wisdom. We talked with Sonny Byrd, Hans Buder and David Hankla late today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Million -- literally millions of people, tens of millions of people, were sitting around the other day watching all of this play out. What is it about you or the three of you that made you think, you know what, let's go there and do something? HANS BUDER, DIKE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: You know, I've always criticized myself for dreaming big, but not having the initiative to go through with it. And just this one time I decided I'm not going to be an armchair humanitarian. So I just talked to Sonny and Hankel and we went down.

BROWN: And, Sonny, when he turned to you and said, let's go there, did you think for a second, that's crazy?

SONNY BYRD, DUKE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: That did cross my mind, but the first thing that left my mouth was I'll be there in five minutes.

BROWN: David, you're on the road now, you're heading towards the great unknown, and I suppose to some extent, a great adventure. Did it feel like you were off on a great adventure?

DAVID HANKLA, DUKE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: It wasn't so much a great adventure as a great opportunity. Everything that's we can do and everything that's available for us to do to really help people, we need to do that.

BROWN: Did you have any idea, not so much what you'd find, because you'd seen picture of it, so you had some idea what you'd find. Did you have any idea of what you'd do?

HANKLA: We'd hoped to do basically what -- exactly what we did.

BUDER: What we did. That was our plan. We got to the Convention Center.

HANKLA: Exactly. Our goal was to get to the Convention Center, where no one else seems to be going, and find a way to get people out. Just get our way into the heart of the city and find people who need help and find a way to help them.

BROWN: Hans, let's talk a little bit about getting to the Convention Center itself. Actually, driving there wasn't the hard part. I guess getting past the security along the way was. Whose idea it was to steal the press passes?

BUDER: This was Sonny Byrd. We actually took a business card, an AP pass and also a television shirt with the embroidery from the station. And we scanned in the business card and the press passes and changed the names to our names. And we went past the military blockade, just waved, and didn't even roll down the windows, and they let us through.

HANKEL: It was unbelievable. Literally, like, we're sitting there, working at the station, and we were just like, I really wish there was some way to get past. And Sonny was like, yes. Seems like a lot of press people seem to be going. I was like, I wish we had a pass. And Sonny just kind of paused, walked out of the room, came back a couple of minutes later and said now we do. What can we do with these?

BROWN: All right. You get to the Convention Center and, in truth, things are better than they had been the day before. But they're hardly pleasant. Sonny, what did you see? What do you remember? How did it feel?

BYRD: The first thing, we were extremely surprised when we came upon the building, because we really didn't think we would be able to drive right up to it, but we were able to do that. And there were military helicopters flying through the sky, there were National en and women all over the place with guns and military supplies. And just the entire Convention Center was trashed. It was just a disaster. And we walked up to it, and we walked right inside. And there was just the impression that we got, the smell was overwhelming, there was feces and urine everywhere, and it was just an absolute nightmare.

BUDER: We saw a kid on the corner who had a sign that said need food and water. One gentleman had been stranded in a tree when the flood waters came up, he didn't know how to swim, so he was trapped in the tree, and fire ants devastated his face, welts on his face, all over his body. Took him out and three women the first trip and then we came back the next morning at first light.

BYRD: When we were leaving New Orleans, the ladies in the back seat were jubilant when they saw street lights. And we passed a dumpy little strip mall and they were just like oh my God, look at this, look where we are. They were crying. They said at last we're free, God almighty we're free. And we were just leaving the city, you know?

BROWN: Where did you take them when you took them?

BUDER: We took them to Baton Rouge to reunite with family, and eventually to get them on buses to Texas.

HANKEL: If we'd had another day to run people in and out, we probably could have gotten appreciably more people. I mean --

BUDER: A hundred.

HANKEL: Yes. We could have just gone in and out, in and out all day. I mean, we found places to get gas. It really was not that big of a -- it wasn't that hard once we actually got in there and had a plan in action.

BROWN: Are you shocked that it was -- I don't want to say it was easy, you guys went to a fair amount to do it, but it wasn't swimming across the ocean either. But it was no harder than it was to do what you did and that there were so many people who needed to be moved that weren't moved?

BUDER: Yes, shocked.

HANKEL: Extremely, extremely shocked.

BUDER: The overarching question that we had was, how did we get in there, we've never been to New Orleans before, how did we get in there where these people have been stranded for four, five days with no food and water, living in a lawless anarchy environment, how do we get in there in 20 minutes in a Hyundai Elantra? And why did they not get out four days before that?

HANKEL: Why couldn't anyone else allegedly get in when we could, with such relative facility. I mean, once we were past the National Guard, it literally, it was a direct drive.

BUDER: We saw 150 empty buses driving the other way on I-10 as we were going into the city.

HANKEL: As we were driving in, bus after bus after bus that was completely empty, no people they were evacuating, driving away from the city or parked roadside.

BYRD: A lot of people, including the people at the Convention Center, they weren't trapped by hurricane damage, they were trapped by red tape. And if we could drive right in there in 20 minutes, there's no reason why help couldn't have gotten to them sooner.

BROWN: Well we're lucky to talk to you and we're pleased at what you did. Don't be so hard on yourself. You went out and did a great thing. Good for you.

BYRD: Thank you, Mr. Brown. Thanks very much.

BROWN: Nicely done, guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: So imagine getting a call from your kid saying, I want to go to New Orleans and help. Hope you'd say yes. Hope I'd say yes. Coming up, the waters of New Orleans receding revealing dangers of a different stripe. There are dangers in the waters. Much more ahead on this Special Edition of NEWSNIGHT. Break first.

But no. The incompetence and the ludicrous prioritization will forever be symbolized by one gaffe by of the head of what is ironically called "The Department of Homeland Security": "Louisiana is a city..."

Politician after politician - Republican and Democrat alike - has paraded before us, unwilling or unable to shut off the "I-Me: switch in their heads, condescendingly telling us about how moved they were or how devastated they were - congenitally incapable of telling the difference between the destruction of a city and the opening of a supermarket.

And as that sorry recital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment. The focus needed to be on the efforts to save the stranded - even the internet's meager powers were correctly devoted to telling the stories of the twin disasters, natural... and government-made.

But now, at least, it is has stopped getting exponentially worse in Mississippi and Alabama and New Orleans and Louisiana (the state, not the city). And, having given our leaders what we know now is the week or so they need to get their act together, that period of editorial silence I mentioned, should come to an end.

No one is suggesting that mayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, should be able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we should ever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city, ahead of $454 million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska.

But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans - even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection - or at least amelioration - against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.

It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?

I don't know which 'we' Mr. Bush meant.

For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been - as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be - whether or not I voted for this President - he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government - our government - "New Orleans."

For him, it is a shame - in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st Century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was just a quick "I'm not satisfied with my government's response." Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have foreseen," had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930's. "The responsibility," of government, Churchill told the British Parliament "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."

In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself - it damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.

As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitable for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found, or the last artifact of the levee break, dug up. Could be next March. Could be 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even find our government's credibility.

Somewhere, in the City of Louisiana.

And that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

The Boston Globe - Catastrophe

But even before engineers repair the damaged levees and begin the long process of pumping New Orleans out, the city's residents deserve to know whether human actions or inactions bear a share of responsibility for this catastrophe. There is strong evidence that they do and that the entire Gulf area will be at risk of future Katrinas if policies and priorities are not changed.

The New York Times - Waiting for a Leader (also featured in this diary)

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

The Washington Post - The Great Flood of '05

But over the longer term, it will be extremely important to better understand the causes of this long-predicted disaster and to determine what, if anything, could have prevented it. This administration has consistently played down the possibility of environmental disaster, in Louisiana and everywhere else. The president's most recent budgets have actually proposed reducing funding for flood prevention in the New Orleans area, and the administration has long ignored Louisiana politicians' requests for more help in protecting their fragile coast, the destruction of which meant there was little to slow down the hurricane before it hit the city. It is inappropriate to "blame" anyone for a natural disaster. But given how frequently the impact of this one was predicted, and given the scale of the economic and human catastrophe that has resulted, it is certainly fair to ask questions about disaster preparations. Congress, when it returns, should rise above the blame game and instead probe the state of the nation's preparation for handling major natural catastrophes, particularly those that threaten crucial regions of the country.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution - No plan ever made to help New Orleans' most vulnerable

Each time you hear a federal, state or city official explain what he or she is doing to help New Orleans, consider the opening paragraphs of a July 24 story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

"City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give the poorest of New Orleans' poor a historically blunt message: In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own."

--snip--

And yet apparently there was no emergency plan and no resources to evacuate "the carless, the homeless, the aged and infirm."

In this era when we are a nation at risk of terrorism and natural disasters, we can only hope that what is happening in New Orleans is not built into the fabric of our national homeland security policy. We should provide security for everyone, including the poor, aged and infirm.

The Chicago Sun-Times - The New Orleans tragedy...

Watch for a public uproar when statistics show how many impoverished citizens of New Orleans were killed by Hurricane Katrina because they couldn't afford to flee.

--snip--

"We knew the hurricane was going to hit New Orleans and Mississippi hard. Why didn't we send buses in to get the poor people out before disaster hit? We spend millions on recovery and rescue AFTERWARDS . . . when we could have alleviated so much death BEFORE?"

The Houston Chronicle - We saw it coming, yet we still didn't prepare

No one can say they didn't see it coming.

For years before Hurricane Katrina roared ashore Monday morning, devastating the Gulf Coast, officials from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have been warning about their vulnerability to the storms that swirl menacingly in the Gulf of Mexico every hurricane season.

Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation.

--snip--

"If we had been investing resources in restoring our coast, it wouldn't have prevented the storm but the barrier islands would have absorbed some of the tidal surge," said Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La. "People's lives are at stake. We need to take this more seriously."

The Los Angeles Times - The Crescent City blues

Certainly the sacrifices of New Orleans need a kind of national reckoning, one that would enable the people to see the president who forgot to care for what he is. Every great disaster -- the Blitz, 9/11, the tsunami -- has a political dimension. The dilatory performance of George Bush during the past week has been outrageous. Almost as unbelievable as Katrina itself is the fact that the leader of the free world has been outshone by the elected leaders of a region renowned for governmental ineptitude.

--snip--

This president who flew away Monday to fundraisers in the West while the hurricane blew away entire towns in coastal Mississippi is very much his father's son. George H.W. Bush couldn't quite connect to the victims of Hurricane Andrew, nor did he mind being photographed tooling his golf cart around Kennebunkport while American troops died in the first Iraq war. After preemptively declaring a state of emergency, the younger Bush seemed equally determined to show his successors how to vacation through an apocalypse.

Finally, a few cartoons I found in my traverse of MSM editorials on Katrina...

These questions are totally righteous IMO. The reality is that a natural disaster or terrorist attack could occur at any time. It is not an act of Bush-hating to question how this went so badly and to try to plan so that improvements are made in the future.

An interested editorial I read in The LA Times talked about preparedness in the advent of a major earthquake. They are asking those types of questions, thinking about a catastrphe in their region and their ability to respond. The Miami Herald had an article on preparedness for another category 5 of Katrina's size and duration and indicated that Andrew, while strong, was much smaller and went through more quickly. They are now thinking about the devastation that could be wrought on South Florida with a Katrina-like storm and, hopefully, planning ahead.

New Orleans and the whole Gulf region deserved better. Those people deserved better - the ones that survived and the ones that didn't. Asking question and issuing criticisms will help us step forward in the next tragedy.