You don’t see how Bush has anything to be blamed for? The very nature of his office makes him responsible for what happened on his watch. The fact that it’s his hand chosen cabinet members who are dropping the ball only reenforces that fact.

And when he finally did get on the ball, what did he do? Well, I think this small quote from a first hand account of escape from the city (which I’ve also posted about here) says it all:

We arrived at the airport on the day a massive airlift had begun. The airport had become another Superdome. We 8 were caught in a press of humanity as flights were delayed for several hours while George Bush landed briefly at the airport for a photo op.

You do have a valid question about what was done with the funding that was given to reenforce the levees. A quick search has brought up some answers:

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security — coming at the same time as federal tax cuts — was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

I’m certain further investigations will bring even more details to the fore, but I doubt the story will change much. The reconstruction efforts were woefully underfunded and the war in Iraq is one major reason why the funds weren’t there. A war, I might add, that was sold to the world and our nation as a hunt for Weapons of Mass Destruction and is now being peddled as an attempt to build democracy in the Middle East. And instead of the American-styled democracy everyone was hoping for, it looks like Iraq is either going to ripped to shreds in a civil war or become an Islamic republic somewhat in the style of Iran.

I’m all for sharing the blame here, but Bush can’t shy away from his share.

As for the President of Jefferson Parish, I’m positive that he wasn’t just sitting there twiddling his thumbs waiting for someone else to do the hard work. But at the same time, part of his job is to get those reinforcements there when needed. Think of it like a battlefield commander calling in for air support. If he’s not calling and recalling in the middle of a fire-fight, no one is going to know where to send the help.

Mike, I share in your hopes that something good can come of this and that lessons are learned. But I think for that to truly happen, a lot of people are going to have to be held to account — more than we could possibly imagine. For that to happen, we have to demand answers of all our elected officials and those in their employ. No free passes, period.

Watch these clips for the Sunday morning news shows and try telling them that the President that the President doesn’t deserve some of the blame:

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard (Very dramatic)
Senator Mary Landrieu’s Helicopter tour of the effected areas

Also, keep in mind that a good part of the state’s contingent of National Guard troops aren’t here, they’re in Iraq fighting. Having the National Guard anywhere but in our own country protecting us and assisting us in national disasters is ludicrous!

FEMA being part of the department of Homeland Security is even more asinine! They should never have been made part of that agency. Homeland Security should control things like intelligence gathering, law enforcement, and not disaster relief! They should never have lost their seat on the cabinet — that has done nothing but add to the lag in important decisions being made.

Instead, this man is calling the shots:

Homeland security director Chertoff

And his boss, all he can do is tour around and tell these people that there’s “hard work” ahead. I swear I want to wretch every time he says it, because I don’t feel that the man has ever known what real hard work is. A hard working president doesn’t take a whole friggin’ month off!

In all likelihood this tragedy could not have been avoided, but it certainly could have been lessened.

Google Maps of New Orleans (Press the Katrina button in the upper right to see recent satelite photos of the flooded city)

The human part of it though, is another matter.

The evacuation plans never fully accounted for those who didn’t have the means to escape the city. Those poor people who don’t own cars, the elderly, etc. Perhaps a greater effort should have been made to rescue these people before the storm hit? There would have still been those too stubborn to leave the city (there always is), but the numbers may have been much less. The role of a good government is to help those who cannot help themselves, and I think that the local government certainly can hang its head a little lower over this.

As for the federal government, perhaps some changes in procedure should be made for future category 5 storm strikes. At least a small contingent of national guardsmen should have been en route to the city before the storm ever hit. Maybe order would have been preserved a bit longer — at least at the rescue centers, where reports of beatings and rapes have been heard at the convention center and the Superdome. Sadness upon grief.

Finally, there are two forthcoming numbers that are going to chill everyone: the death count and the cost to rebuild the city.