From a local angle... with an important ending!!!

Several of my friends are long-time residents of New Orleans, and they said even before the crisis that this was going to be bad because the politicians involved got to the top of their profession by being good at graft, corruption, and patronage. The politicians are thoroughly incompetent, otherwise.

If reports are to be believed, Governor Blanco was still trying to maintain personal control over the situation Friday afternoon! The good news is that General Honore, FEMA, and President Bush exceeded their authority and did what had to be done. They should have done it earlier or forced Blanco to make a decision to allow the Federal government to take over. They're going to own the problem anyway, so do it and accept the consequences later. As one of my long-time friends said on Wednesday, "Anytime you hear that FEMA is working with state and local authorities, it's going to get screwed up."

The other thing was that the governor was apparently very busy setting up a state-based relief fund. As a person who has seen southern politics for decades, I believe it. She wanted to set up a fund that she and her cronies could steal from and direct high-priced projects to companies owned by her family and friends. Tens of thousands of Americans are left to in the 5th circle of hell, and she's doing crap like this!?

I'm socked, socked, to discover that there is graft in Louisiana politics.

And finally, the bad news for the rest of us is that in the wake of this mess Congress is certainly going to rewrite the rules and allow the military to conduct operations without anyone elses approval. I'm sure it will be sold as only for humanitarian missions, but we need to be very careful about how the law is changed to allow the federal government to step in and take over state and local affairs, particularly when it involves using military force.

God, what a mess.
Posted by: kevino