After writing my earlier post, just after midnight, about
the lack of preparation on the Government’s part for the disaster in the Gulf, I
received an email alert about a new article just released by Knight Ridder.

“Federal
government wasn’t ready for Katrina, disaster experts say” is the title of
the article and it goes along with what I was saying earlier about the lack of
preparation.

“What you’re seeing is revealing
weaknesses in the state, local and federal levels,” said Eric Tolbert, who until
February was FEMA’s disaster response chief. “All three levels have been
weakened. They’ve been weakened by diversion into terrorism.”

Our country has blindly turned an eye to other disasters
and placed all its resources in terrorism. An agency like FEMA should have been
kept out of the terrorism loop for the most part and kept to focus on other
devastations like hurricanes or earthquakes.

The article goes on to talk about a mock disaster drill
that was conducted last year, simulating a hurricane hit to the gulf coast. The
description of this drill almost mimics the real life reports we are now hearing
from Katrina.

Last year, FEMA spent $250,000 to
conduct an eight-day hurricane drill for a mock killer storm hitting New
Orleans. Some 250 emergency officials attended. Many of the scenarios now
playing out, including a helicopter evacuation of the Superdome, were discussed
in that drill for a fictional storm named Pam

They were to meet this year again and try to work out all
the problems that a training exercise such as this is common to highlight.
Unfortunately budgets were cut and the problems got ignored. Now we see the
devastating cost of that budget cut.

The other sad part is the levee system.

Federal flood control spending for
southeastern Louisiana has been chopped from $69 million in 2001 to $36.5
million in 2005, according to budget documents. Federal hurricane protection for
the Lake Pontchartrain vicinity in the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget dropped
from $14.25 million in 2002 to $5.7 million this year. Louisiana Democratic Sen.
Mary Landrieu requested $27 million this year.

Now we see what that budget cut has cost us. The levee
system does not just protect New Orleans, it protects our nation. If you don’t
believe that, then look at oil prices. The fact that the area is still under
water, and mostly impassible, makes it that much more difficult for crews to get
back to refineries and oil rigs to give them the needed repairs.

Today Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu said in a news
conference that thousands are dead in her state. This is an alarming figure.
While death was a certainty, we must step back and wonder how many died in the
actual hurricane and how many have died from this disastrous lack of
preparation.

Bush told

Good Morning America earlier today:

“I think there ought to be zero
tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether
it be looting, or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of
charitable giving, or insurance fraud”

While I agree with most of that, I can not agree with the
looting part. Most of these people are taking food and necessary commodities to
survive. These are commodities that will sit on the shelf and expire as it is.
If Bush wanted to protect the business’s from looting he would have been in
Washington this weekend ordering the deployment of troops to the region in order
to secure it. Instead he waited until it was to late.

“If people need water and food,
we’re going to do everything we can to get them water and food. But it’s very
important for the citizens in all affected areas to take personal responsibility
and assume kind of a civic sense of responsibility so the situation doesn’t get
out of hand, so people don’t exploit the vulnerable,”

President Bush, where was your personal responsibility? You
hold the highest responsibility in this country, since you are the leader. It
was more important for you to go play guitar on stage for a photo-op on Tuesday
then it was for you to do your job and oversee this catastrophic disaster.

Even Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chavez, who has been at
the center of controversy lately involving our country, commented on your lack
of concern and action by calling you the “Cowboy”. From

Reuters:

“That government had no evacuation
plan, it is incredible, the first power in the world that is so involved in
Iraq … and left its own population adrift,”

“That man, the king of vacations
… the king of vacations in his ranch said nothing but, you have to flee, and
didn’t say how … that cowboy, the cowboy mentality,”

Chavez issued a statement offering help quicker than Bush
did. Chavez offered oil and food to the victims on Tuesday, while the President
was busy getting that guitar.

This is not a time for politics, but rather a time for
healing and rebuilding. If you are a die hard Republican, you too must see the
failures Bush is making during the wake of this disaster. Items are just now
starting to get sent to the region that was hit four days ago. That is an
unacceptable delay. President Bush has now proven he is the worst President in
this country’s history.