It's my blog, I can cry if I want to
Kristin** and I agree on some points below. But I think there's one place we will probably not agree and I get to post this point twice.
The responsibility rests here: the Department of Homeland security.
Here is the DHS's mission statement in case you don't want to go to the site. You don't even have to read past the first and second points of the statement--as in these are the agency's MOST important functions.
1. Increase overall preparedness, particularly for catastrophic events
2. Create better transportation security systems to move people and cargo more securely and efficiently
3. Strengthen border security and interior enforcement and reform immigration processes; 4. Enhance information sharing with our partners
5. Improve DHS financial management, human resource development, procurement and information technology
6. Realign the DHS organization to maximize mission performance
This particular disaster could never have been dealt with on a local or state level--and it expands into many other states now (and did before) anyway. Mayor Hardin has asked for help repeatedly over the years. Maybe he and others aren't blameless but those school buses no one other than Jabbor used? Good but would have been using a teaspoon to bail out a boat.
I've read that corruption at the local level (not mentioning the mayor himself) has kept the levees from being shored up. In face of such immediate danger--and the DHS has known that NO is in danger, it was in their top six scenerios of disasters****--they should have used their awesome powers that were gutted from FEMA to do something.
If the stories of corruption were true, then all I have to say is. . .The government that can read private citizens' library lists to see what we're up to, all in the name of Homeland Security, sure as hell ought to be able to expose some obvious public corruption. In the name of security. (Wait. Isn't the whole emergency thing another function of the Department of Justice? Yup there it is, the front page. Emergency planning. And there's not a lot duct tape and plastic wrap could have done against Katrina.)
Nope. Sorry. I know who I blame and they're the ones up top.
Oh to answer one of your questions, Kristin: Guess why the LA National Guard couldn't respond. Yup. They were in Iraq. That's where most of the LA Guard's helicopters still are. I posted about this here.
______
** Now I'm hungry. I visited her blog and read her breakfast menus that she posts every day. Yum.
**** I'm wrong DHS didn't know jack about the problem. It was the Army Corp Of Engineers and the Times-Picayune that knew. They tried to warn government officials in charge of protecting us, but since the information was out in the open instead of in private emails or library records, the officials probably weren't interested in reading it. Damn, I'm pissed.
OH and hey . . . sort of on topic, I love this post by Holly Lisle.
The responsibility rests here: the Department of Homeland security.
Here is the DHS's mission statement in case you don't want to go to the site. You don't even have to read past the first and second points of the statement--as in these are the agency's MOST important functions.
1. Increase overall preparedness, particularly for catastrophic events
2. Create better transportation security systems to move people and cargo more securely and efficiently
3. Strengthen border security and interior enforcement and reform immigration processes; 4. Enhance information sharing with our partners
5. Improve DHS financial management, human resource development, procurement and information technology
6. Realign the DHS organization to maximize mission performance
This particular disaster could never have been dealt with on a local or state level--and it expands into many other states now (and did before) anyway. Mayor Hardin has asked for help repeatedly over the years. Maybe he and others aren't blameless but those school buses no one other than Jabbor used? Good but would have been using a teaspoon to bail out a boat.
I've read that corruption at the local level (not mentioning the mayor himself) has kept the levees from being shored up. In face of such immediate danger--and the DHS has known that NO is in danger, it was in their top six scenerios of disasters****--they should have used their awesome powers that were gutted from FEMA to do something.
If the stories of corruption were true, then all I have to say is. . .The government that can read private citizens' library lists to see what we're up to, all in the name of Homeland Security, sure as hell ought to be able to expose some obvious public corruption. In the name of security. (Wait. Isn't the whole emergency thing another function of the Department of Justice? Yup there it is, the front page. Emergency planning. And there's not a lot duct tape and plastic wrap could have done against Katrina.)
Nope. Sorry. I know who I blame and they're the ones up top.
Oh to answer one of your questions, Kristin: Guess why the LA National Guard couldn't respond. Yup. They were in Iraq. That's where most of the LA Guard's helicopters still are. I posted about this here.
______
** Now I'm hungry. I visited her blog and read her breakfast menus that she posts every day. Yum.
**** I'm wrong DHS didn't know jack about the problem. It was the Army Corp Of Engineers and the Times-Picayune that knew. They tried to warn government officials in charge of protecting us, but since the information was out in the open instead of in private emails or library records, the officials probably weren't interested in reading it. Damn, I'm pissed.
OH and hey . . . sort of on topic, I love this post by Holly Lisle.
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