Jindal asks for Federal help

Truly amazing to watch the revisionist history that flies around DC. Especially when it comes to blaime for something gone bad.

I have thrown a lot of rocks at Bush 2 for Iraq and a number of other things, but in this case--having seen several months of the Katrina bureaucracy mess up close and personal--I would put minimal blame on Bush for this one.

I'd assign the biggest slice of it to the local bureaucrats who were ill prepaired and who refused to play nice with each other. Too many of them were too worried about how to spin it for their political immage. Add a healthy dose of incompetence--for which you can blame the LA voters for electing them if you wish. Listening to telcons with some of these buffoons, all I could keep thinking was "too bad you were one of those who survived". I know it's not a nice way to think, but too often they were ranting about trivial stuff and not focused on saving ruined lives.

Brown gets a good dose as well. He was not up to the job. He seemed to believe everything else could come to a grinding halt to take care of this, and had no comprehension that in DC politics is ALWAYS in play. To be effective you don't have to like the politics, but you need to know how to work within the construct. He didn't--and he showed no leadership that I could see. I saw a tinge of panic, and some lack of confidence in his convictions, which are about the last things you need in that situation.

Bush could be blamed for having Brown in that position, but that's about it. Oh, and I'll balme him for telling people we would rebuild New Orleans when we should have admitted NO is not an intelligent location for a city.

If you want to find people to praise in the post Katrina events, look three places to start. The convoys of volunteers & goods that flooded in to help--it was American generosity at it's best and was completely non-partisan. The comunities that took in and truly embraced so many of the refugees. And the active duty military folks who were once again given a job outside their job description and did it well in spite of the politicians who wanted to interfere.

It wold not be a problem if the states sent the money to the federal government rather than the other way around.
Take care of the local and states first and then fund the federal government. This method would insure that the federal govbernment could only do what is allowed by the constitution.

So? Which is it morons? The federal government should assist or not?

But, but, but,.....

Not democrat policies but democrats.

Of course you are citing a person who is trying to salvage his reputation.

So you're saying the levees failed because of Democrat policies?

Stretch a little farther and you can blame them for voodoo in the Quarter. Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

Yeah! It's called "graft" when the Dims pocket the tax payer's money and don't deliver the secure levees and quality oversight and maintenance they promised the public.

I was an IDIOT.... I was inside of my house in suburban New Orleans, that night.... where in the fuck were any of you idiot / experts?

LOTS of REAL PEOPLE fucked up that day/night.... get over it!!

GOVERNMENT was NOT THE FUCKING PROBLEM!!!!

I was an IDIOT.... I was inside of my house in suburban New Orleans, that night.... where in the fuck were any of you idiot / experts?

LOTS of REAL PEOPLE fucked up that day/night.... get over it!!

GOVERNMENT was NOT THE ONLY FUCKING PROBLEM!!!! Originally Posted by MrGiz

Fixed that for ya!!!

"The reality is that we have a job to do to get flood protection in place, and we're not going to play any games on this,'' Mr. Graves wrote.
That is the responsible position, and it should be shared by all parties. Flood protection is far too important to New Orleans, and threatening to halt or delay it ill serves the public, including those neighborhoods that the non-flood asset board ostensibly want to help.
"This is a much larger issue -- it's an issue for the entire city,'' said Flood Protection Authority-East President Tim Doody. "We need to be about the business of flood protection. And every day matters.''
He's right, and this incident again calls into question the decision to create an authority specifically for the old Levee Board's non-flood assets.
That happened in 2007. Derrick Shepherd (D) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Shepherd], then a state senator who is now serving time in a federal prison, filed legislation to create a new entity to manage the land holdings. That was clearly an effort to inject politics back in the equation, and it's unfortunate that he succeeded.
While the new levee authorities were made up of people with expertise and training, such as geologists and hydrologists, the non-flood authority is made up of people recommended by New Orleans lawmakers.
The new levee board wanted to focus on its flood protection mission, and rightly so. Removing responsibility for non-flood assets was part of that effort. But the constitutional amendment that abolished the Orleans Levee Board and created the new regional flood authority boards provided a method for dealing with the old levee district's land holdings. In fact, the levee board and the state Division of Administration were working on a plan to divide those assets up among existing agencies when the Legislature created the new entity.
The main argument against creating the non-flood authority was that it created a potential patronage bonanza. But now, only a few years later, the non-flood authority showed that it has the potential to interfere with flood protection.

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.s..._first_an.html



Residents push to rid N.O. levee boards of politics
By Anne Rochell Konigsmark, USA TODAY Posted 12/22/2005 8:00 PM

NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans citizens' group has gathered more than 47,000 signatures in the latest attempt to unite the region's six levee boards and stamp out any political patronage within them.
The Citizens for One Greater New Orleans is pushing Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) to call a special session of the Legislature in January to pass a law creating a single levee board made up of hurricane experts. Levee boards now contain political appointees.
Levee commissioners will play a critical role in the recovery of New Orleans because the federal government has promised more than $3 billion for rebuilding and repairing the levees, which failed during Hurricane Katrina and caused disastrous flooding.
Blanco did not support a levee consolidation bill that died last month in the state House of Representatives.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...ee-board_x.htm

Sorry.... but that is just another BULLSHIT EXCUSE!!

Who were the IDIOTS who ALLOWED those government officials / politicians to be in place??

WE own our destiny... this country is OURS!!
We deserve whatever type of government we (collectively) ALLOW to be in place!!

Waaaaaay too many cry-baby assholes around , blaming everyone else, but themselves!

Sorry.... but that is just another BULLSHIT EXCUSE!!

Who were the IDIOTS who ALLOWED those government officials / politicians to be in place?? Originally Posted by MrGiz

As a N'awlins resident. you should know. It's the same ones who kept voting "Dollar Bill" Jefferson back into office time and time again, and then replaced the respectable Cao (Joseph) Quang Ánh with the corrupt Cedric Richmond. And Nagin and Landrieu are products of the same corrupt system.

Those local levee boards were nothing more than a source of graft and patronage for local politicians, and public safety was always neglected for a local politician's greed. So no, it's not a "bullshit excuse".

You are not paying attention to simple facts!

Collectively.... WE are responsible for the public officials we ALLOW to be in place!!

But , then again.... every now and then, gifts like Katrina come along to enlighten a few, to get the fuck away from such idiots and make a choice to improve their own destiny!

You are not paying attention to simple facts!

Collectively.... WE are responsible for the public officials we ALLOW to be in place!!

But , then again.... every now and then, gifts like Katrina come along to enlighten a few, to get the fuck away from such idiots and make a choice to improve their own destiny! Originally Posted by MrGiz

Sorry, but a constituency that re-elects Nagin and replaces Cao with Richmond hasn't "improved" its destiny. At least they got rid of the local levee boards; that was a major step in the right direction.

I said "a few "!!

You might want to recognize my subsequent re-location....
Thank You , Katrina!!