Hurricane Katrina...My Turn To Rant - Stop The Blame Game Already!

First of all, pre-rant - Jon Ballard has been found! Bet he didn't even know he was missing. *lol* But, thanks for the emails even if most of you had no clue who the hell he was. And this John Ballard the parapsychologist appears to be interesting indeed. But then, spooky stuff always is!

First of all, let me say, I'm neither on the "left" or "right" of this issue. I am more "centrist" than anything with a few leanings towards the right, but I don't think, in this case, blame can be assigned to either or to any political philosophy or party. But ya know, Hurricanes are like that. They don't pick partisan areas to hit. They're pretty indiscriminate when it comes to destruction. They are an equal opportunity force of nature.

Ok, now this has been a long time coming because I wanted to let it stew in my head for a while, I wanted to see what others (by "others" I mean peers, politicians, pundits, polls, morons, liberals, republicans, and the average everyday idiot) had to say. I wanted to allow more time to pass before I cast some stones of my own.

But see that's the problem to begin with. There are already too many people out there casting stones of their own and they have no friggin clue what they're talking about anyhow. Not that I'm any sort of preiminent expert of distaster preparation, evacutaion and response. But it really pisses me off to see Senator Mary Landrieu (D)LA, make the following statement:

".....officials at all levels eventually would share blame for an inadequate response, but she cited only the administration for the finger-pointing that followed the killer storm.

"While the president is saying that he wants to work together as a team, I think the White House operatives have a full court press on to blame state and local officials, whether they're Republicans or Democrats. It's very unfortunate," she told CBS' "Face the Nation."

And when she was on a show, I can't recall the name, in which Chris Wallace hosted it, he mentioned that famous photo of all those busses that were underwater. He asked her why Mayor Naigin couldn't have used those buses to get folks out to which she replied that they were all under water.

Well no shit! NOW they are under water. But they were NOT underwater pre-Katrina and with a little coordination on the part of Naigin, the local police/sheriff and community services could have gotten a hell of a lot of those folks out. But ya know what Naigin's response was when he was questioned about using those buses? He wanted more "comfortable" buses/charter buses for his citizens. WTF???? Just get them the hell out, don't worry about comfort. I'd be willing to bet they would not have given a rats butt about what mode of transportation for them out, just as long as it has wheels and ran.

Anyhow, back to what I was saying.

I'm so freaking tired of hearing everyone blame President Bush for what happened. Someone, please logically point out how he failed to do anything? They go so far as to blame him for the hurricane itself. Again I say, WTF? Yeah sure, he, Cheney and Rove were all out in the Bermuda Triangle (and here you thought he was at the ranch in Crawford all that time!) mixin' up some bad juju, just pushing those bad ass storms towards the "black" parts of the US, hoping to wipe them out. Yeah, ok, next conspiracy theory please. This kind of crap is the same BS that those who think that Bush, et all planned 9/11 and planned to blow the WTC buildings up. Those are some mighty strage drugs ya'll are taking.

I'm no huge Bush supporter by any stretch of the imagination, and I do wish they'd get someone in to "pinch hit" for him when it comes to speaking publicly. Know what I mean? The man opens his mouth and I put a pillow over my head. I don't mind the general gist, just how he speaks and for God's sake, get a pinch hitter in there that can correctly pronounce the word NUCLEAR.....George, babe, it's NOT Nu-KU-ler!

But please, the man is not to blame for hurricane Katrina or the aftermath. It was, in all brutal honestly a total cluster-f*ck on all levels of government. But from my point of view, the mayor of New Orleans bears a lot of responsibility, as far as what happened to the folks down there, I think he should step up to the plate and own up to some accountability for that. Bush phoned Naigin 48 hours before Katrina hit and implored Naigin to place the city of New Orleans under a mandatory evacuation order. Naigin waited until 24 hours before Katrina hit to do that and declared the Superdome a "refuge of last resort"....what sheer brilliance that turned out to be.

Sure, if you wanna tell me that Bush is to blame for that incompetent panty-waist, Mike Brown, former head of FEMA, well ok...but not really. Chertoff had something to do with that. When Brown came into their radar as a possible head of FEMA, someone didn't do their job and verify every bloody thing in the man's resume. But bottom line kiddies, Bush didn't hire him, Chertoff did.

And frankly, as far as the cost of all the rebuilding...I'm sort of torn on all that. Everyone seems bent on blaming the republicans for the state of the levees and the state of the poverty that a good percentage of the folks in New Orleans live in. Oh give me a break! People live in poverty for one of two reasons - they don't wanna get off their butts and work, or they are born into circumstances that leave them little alternative. Period! I can see how it's much easier to sit there and wait for your AFDC check every month, and your food stamp allocation, and know that you're on Medicaid and it must be so much easier to sit there and accept the handouts than get off your butt and get a job.

And that's one of the huge problems with this entire thing. A lot of those people live in this "entitlement delusion" most of the time. They feel they're entitled to the gov't taking care of them and that they somehow deserve to be borne on the backs of working taxpayers. If you're handicapped, or mentally unable to work or care for yourself, that's one thing, but if you are able-bodied and with no such "challenges" then what's your excuse? Take some personal responsibility for your life and stop letting your fellow man bear the brunt of supporting your lazy ass. Have some pride!

So now, when all hell breaks loose, you blame the feds for the state your life is in.

Something is really wrong with that picture. Really really wrong!

Yeah, I get that you are pissed off about what happened at the Superdome and the Convention Center. But I think perhaps you need to aim the stones you've been casting in the direction of your Mayor and even Govenor Blanco. The feds have nothing to do with declaring which shelters one will go to in the event of a disaster. That kiddies, is your local and state government.

And as far as the time it took to respond, again, look to Naigin and Blanco. They're supposed to have stuff like that covered, well in advance to allow for the time it will take to get the feds into the disaster zones.

Back to the point I was starting to make about the rebuilding. Good intentions are one thing, but New Orleans is just messed up to begin with. The levees are crap, the city is shaped like a bowl and all of the deltas that used to surround the area and absorb a lot of the water from passing storms, are gone. And I don't say this lightly. I've been to NO several times and loved each visit. 3 of those visits occured during Mardi Gras. There is really no place on earth quite like it and no place I've found where I can get bengiets like I can in NO. But I don't know that rebuilding is such a good idea.

But I'm torn on totally rebuilding it and it ending up being a half-assed effort. And now everyone is complaining and moaning and groaning about where all the money is going to come from in order to accomplish it. Well folks....reach into your pockets and grab your wallets, cause that's where it's coming from.

I was out reading the aforementioned Jon Ballard's blog and he mentions the big oil companies should be coughing up some cash for this. Hell they're profiting from it more than anyone. And I think Ballard is right when it comes to that. If you're going to profit from a massive disaster of this magnitude, then you outta put your money where your mouth is and contribute to the effort to rebuild, or restructure. But that's about as likely to happen as pigs flying outta my bum.

And lastly, this whole deal with Bush hating blacks. Oh FFS already! Yeah, he hates blacks so much that's why he placed Condi Rice in the position she's in. Anyone remember Colin Powell? Um, wasn't he black too? Still is last I recall. Yeah, that good ole boy Bush hates blacks so much and wants to wipe them out, that he conjured up a bad-ass bitch of a storm and tried to wipe all of them out along the gulf coast.

Oh but see there's one small problem with that.

The majority of those affected in Mississippi and Alabama were WHITE! Yeah, that's right Kanye...they were WHITE! But you go on thinking that Bush hates blacks if it makes you feel better. If it gives your life some meaning, then hey, embrace it and build up all that hate. Because really, all these people that are making lame comments like that, all your doing is harboring a whole lotta hate yourselves.

Or is it just the blacks in New Orleans that Bush hates?

In the end, I don't understand any of this whole "blame game" everyone seems so bent on playing. The hurricane happened. Some really unfortunate consequences resulted due to a lack of planning and prepartion. All that we can do from here on out is aid those affected and learn from the mistakes.

But still it won't surprise me to see Cindy Sheehan start opening her mouth again and be the megaphone that she is for the far-left and say that this was all Bush's doing in an attempt to divert attention from Iraq.

Don't worry Cindy, I'm sure "the next big thing" will come along and you'll have something else to blame Bush for.

Thank God he's only in office for another three years. I'm getting tired of the constant mantras from those who have little better to do than hate this man. I hope both parties are putting their ideal candidates through a boot camp of sorts so that they can handle the onslaught....because, no doubt, it will happen and both sides will start another massive slanging match.

Sometimes though, I'd like to take the leaders of both sides and stick red-hot fire pokers in their eyes. I wouldn't waste any spoons on either of them!

Thus endeth my rant.