Placing the Blame

As we all continue to try and make sense of Hurricane Katrina, blame is being thrown at the Bush administration left and right. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin blames President Bush, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid blames President Bush, and even uber-musician Kanye West blames President Bush.

With Democratic leaders demanding answers, the Republicans have tried to distance themselves from the situation, calling for a bipartisan committee to examine the delayed reaction to the disaster. The question is: whose fault is it?

President Bush, for starters.

This is the part in the post when the right wingers complain about how unfair it is for the left to blame President Bush for everything gone wrong in the U.S. To them I say: a sitting President should be held accountable for the successes and failures of this country. It's just part of the job.

When President Kennedy helped establish equal rights in this country, many staffers that worked tirelessly on the bill received little or no public praise for their work. Conversely, during the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy was, and should have been, ripped apart by the press and now by historians. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush and his administration needs to be blamed for the response time it took to get relief to the people of the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29th. Relief took nearly a week to come. We have already heard the spinmeiters in the Bush administration say that they couldn't put people on the ground right away, couldn't get supplies there, etc. Why wasn't help in the region in advance? Where were the National Guard?

On August 26th a CNN report warned of the pending force of the Hurricane. So there was ample time to get support in place before Katrina hit. You'd think the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a division of Homeland Security, would have figured that out in advance...

Unless the Director of FEMA, Michael Brown, had NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE in disaster relief. You see, Director Brown was the former head of the International Arabian Horse Association, a job that he was fired from. So, if there happens to a be a disaster involving horses, saddles, or any other equestrian needs, it's safe to say that Brown's got you covered.

(In a curious moment of logistics, Brown's official title is actually Under Secy. of Homeland Security for Emergency Prepardness and Response. This makes him director of FEMA, and also...it's good, wait for it...responsible for directing the Nuclear Incident Response Team. After this debacle, I'm sure you're as psyched as I am that this is the unit responsible for the nukes. This information is straight from FEMA.gov, kids.)

I'm not suggesting that President Bush or Under Secy. Brown is responsible for the entirety of the unacceptable relief efforts. Blame needs to also fall on Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, and Gov. Blanco (D-La.) Unlike former New York City Major Rudolph Giuilani, who strode into the 9/11 chaos from day one, Mayor Nagin did not set foot in New Orleans until almost a week later. He claimed he could not properly communicate with both city officials and Washington from New Orleans. Maybe, but Nagin could have helped to restore order in a panic-striken Superdome, as well as direct the rescue effort in the French Quarter, an area left without someone calling the shots.

Both Mayor Nagin and Gov. Blanco completely dropped the ball on evacuating the people of their state, especially the thousands of people living under in poverty who did not have the means to leave their homes. Their struggles are well known, and both politicians should have had police officers patrolling around several days before, picking up the people that didn't have the means to leave. Not to mention providing at least one shelter that allowed pets -- which would have saved hundreds of lives.

I am shocked that, post 9/11, our disaster relief consists of looking like a deer in the headlights for three days before we even figure out ways to fix the problem.

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty scared for the next disaster...