I have not written very much about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, believing there are many others in a much better position to comment on the level of (un)preparedness and the responses at all levels of society, from the individual to the community to the city, state and federal governments. Where I do think I can contribute is in understanding the responses of the critics in the MSM and the public square, whose behavior has been problematic.
After 9/11, there was a period of time measuring in weeks/months during which there was very little overt criticism of the government and bureaucracy by the Democrats and the MSM. It was obvious that there were significant failures of our intelligence and policing that allowed the terrorists to succeed but the time for recriminations was put off until the 9/11 Omission was able to lurch into (in)action. Their failures are being documented daily and eventually will be a focus, perhaps only indirectly, of Congressional hearings in the fall (specifically, the Able Danger hearings, which should be fascinating).
After Katrina, however, there has been no such hiatus in the criticism, some merely contradictory, some unforgivably execrable, directed toward the Bush administration (and, interestingly, directed away from those who could properly be considered more at fault, the local and state authorities whose mismanagement will someday become the stuff of legend.) I will not go through the arguments point by point; here is an excellent summary response thus far to the accusations: I've had it with people blaming this crisis on Bush, so here's a documented list of state and local failures. Obviously, there will be more accusations to come; the left leaning MSM and Democratic party, along with the racial profiteers and professional victimologists, can not help themselves.
Once the waters recede and a more serious evaluation can be done, it will likely be clear that there were major errors by the local and state authorities in Louisiana. Interestingly, despite the fact that the damage in neighboring states was just as bad (and in many cases, worse), there has been little press coverage of the calamity of a Cat 5 Hurricane devastating Mississippi (courtesy of Captain's Quarters):
However, vast stretches of Mississippi have been devastated by Katrina, with towns like Biloxi and Gulfport almost completely destroyed. The area of destruction requiring attention comprises the same square mileage as England. Getting resources to all affected points within that zone simultaneously would take an unprecedented, Herculean effort that no one could have anticipated prior to landfall on Monday morning.
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So why doesn't the media give coverage to the wider devastation of Katrina? For one thing, they have the same problem in Mississippi that the rescuers have -- a lack of access for their reporters. However, by narrowing the scope of the disaster recovery facing the states and federal emergency responders, it makes it easier to blame them for a poor response, when in fact the turnaround time for assistance on Katrina has historically been one of the best for hurricane disasters.
Chrenkoff points out that another reason for so little coverage of Mississippi is that the Governor of Mississippi is a competent Republican while the state of Louisiana has been burdened with incompetent, but Democratic, leadership, often supplied by members of designated victim groups.
I read Gov. Blanco's (D-LA) statement too with some weird bemusement. Free tip - contrast the Louisiana situation with the one next door in Mississippi - Gov. Barbour (R-MS). What's been lost in all the blather over New Orleans is that it was really Mississippi that took the big hit. The buildings in New Orleans are still standing; the Gulf Coast of Mississippi basically has been scrubbed, like God took out a pencil eraser and just erased it. (Up in the northern hemisphere, since storms spin counterclockwise, the worst part of a hurricane is the "right-front" quadrant - because the wind is going with the momentum of the storm's movement, plus the wind pushes the storm surge along. The center hit basically at the MS/LA state line, so MS was on the bad side.)
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Mississippi got hammered much worse than Louisiana but is barely in the news because the leadership has been much more competent. Ms. Blanco is clearly way out of her league in this situation.
This was a good reminder that LA has for decades been our worst managed and most corrupt state. I briefly caught a bit of the News Hour last night, and David Brooks pointed that out; he also pointed out something that's pretty obvious - for the most part, the South has been booming for the past 25 or so years. The major cities went from backwater jokes to leading cities - Atlanta, Raleigh, Dallas, all of Florida, etc. The "hole in the map" in all of this has been Louisiana - it's like the last 25 or 30 years of southern growth have passed it right by. Get away from the gussified tourist areas and NO is a pretty awful city.
There has been some disagreement in the blogosphere as to the best response to the increasingly shrill and reality-free complaints by the MSM. I typically do not diagnose people who I have not directly examined but we are dealing with some relatively unprecedented situations. The MSM/Democratic convergence (MSMemocrats?) is threatening our civic discourse, our ability to solve some very serious problems we are facing both at home and abroad, and our social compact.
The piece meal, ad hoc, response to the charges of the MSM cannot work long term. Every time one attack is parried with facts, another is made. It does the country no good for the administration to address every attack that comes along in such a manner. Yet there is a model for successfully dealing with exactly the type of behavior the MSMocrats are exhibiting.
Most of today's post is necessary preamble. In the next few days, I hope to present evidence that our MSMocrats are behaving in precisely the manner expected of a person whose personality has been deformed by the development of a hostile-dependent relationship with their parent(s). This is a familiar and difficult personality type, with normal variants that are ubiquitous in adolescence, and I hope to be able to elucidate my points further in future posts.
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