MUST READ: Krugman on Bush's utter failure to save American lives

[BigBearJohn]

Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.

So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11, hard questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then buried under a thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need accountability.

First question: Why have aid and security taken so long to arrive? Katrina hit five days ago - and it was already clear by last Friday that Katrina could do immense damage along the Gulf Coast. Yet the response you'd expect from an advanced country never happened. Thousands of Americans are dead or dying, not because they refused to evacuate, but because they were too poor or too sick to get out without help - and help wasn't provided. Many have yet to receive any help at all.

There will and should be many questions about the response of state and local governments; in particular, couldn't they have done more to help the poor and sick escape? But the evidence points, above all, to a stunning lack of both preparation and urgency in the federal government's response.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/opinion/02krugman.html
http://www.americablog.org/

[DELUSIONAL]

1. I am afraid that this was a LIHOP --

Apparently it is now a crime to be poor and black -- and for this crime the penalty if caught is death by dehydration, starvation, drowning etc.

Let this be a warning to any other area of the country that could be hit by a natural disaster -- tough luck -- your fault sucker for living in an earthquake zone, or a tsunami zone, or tornado zone or flood zone or hurricane zone OR volcano zone (what happens if/when Yellowstone or the volcanoes along the Pacific rim erupt?)

The Federal Government is a useless money pit -- The States are on their own, and everyone is on the own.

I feel like this is the death of the United States -- I feel like I have been grieving for a parent or aunt or beloved grandparent.

Everything went to hell when bushie stole the election in 2000 and he was allowed to repeat the same theft in 2004. Kerry why the hell didn't you fight?

If the Democratic leadership and elected democratic members of Congress don't start fighting RIGHT NOW -- they they are part of the problem.

I've only seen photos and a video feed on the BBC and the words from people who have seen the death and destruction -- I don't know how those of you who are watching TV are holding up.

We are going to have a collective case of Post Traumatic Syndrome -- from watching what is happening to our fellow humans. Right now my head hurts from the grieve I feel for all the people in the Gulf states who are suffering -- wondering where and when they will find food and water, clean clothes, a bath, and a clean bed where they will feel safe again.

Animals owners would be in jail for treating their pets like human beings are being treated by the GOVERNMENT in New Orleans and other Katrina affected areas.