New Orleans-The Blame Game??

The Internet, the television, and the newspapers are filled with condemnation of President Bush and the federal government for their handling of the Katrina disaster in New Orleans. The Monday morning quarterbacking should continue for months. Shouldn't we clean the mess up and then figure out who to blame?

I may as well jump in since no one else wants to wait. There is more than enough blame for everyone, we just need to take a few minutes to parcel it all out. Bush is the easy target, he should have kicked FEMA into gear a lot sooner. He should have shown up on the scene and taken charge as soon as was possible. Sorry, G.W., you snooze, you lose. But why did George even need to show up?

The female Democrat purporting to govern Louisiana did not fumble the ball. She didn't even know where the game was. Let's see, the largest city in my state is below sea level and there is a Category 5 hurricane on the way, do I do anything? What, other than bitch about Bush, did Blanco do?

The solid favorite in the blame game is the Mayor of the Big Easy. Do I use the school and transit busses to evacuate the poor without cars? Do we have adequate security in place at shelters? Do we even have enough shelters? The City of New Orleans had a plan for hurricanes. It seemed to consist of "Call the feds, we need help!!" How many task forces and planning groups did it take to put that plan together? Hell, it must have taken seconds to come up with that one.

In reality, the blame for this does not belong to any of the individuals mentioned above. It belongs to several layers of government from local to federal. This pack of geniuses allowed, even encouraged, the building of a major American city in a swamp. For more than 150 years they have tried to keep the Mississippi River out of New Orleans and failed. It doesn't matter whether the National Guard was activated or even if there were relief supplies pre-positioned, the city is in a swamp below sea level. It's a no-win situation.

Stop the insanity!!! Pump out the water so folks can retrieve their belongings. Once that time is up, blow the levees and the river walls. Whatever remains above water can stay, without any obligation for any government to help them again. With any luck, there is oil under the ground there.

They call New Orleans The Big Easy." They also say "Easy come, easy go."