I've been offline for nearly a week now while I upgraded my computer and reinstalled the OS and programs. What a time to be out of things. While I've been distracted my other pressing matters and haven't been motivated too much to post lately, there's has been some outrageous stuff being tossed about in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

Charges of racism coming into play in the failure to evacuate New Orleans. The person with the primary responsibility for the safety and security of N.O., mayor Ray Nagin, is black. Why then, if racism is an issue, didn't he swiftly and decisively act to ensure the safety of New Orleaneans?

Slow evacuation. Why did Nagin refuse to use the 500+ school and city transit buses immediately at his disposal to evacuate those in the Superdome and the Convention Center per the established disaster plan? His excuse...they weren't good enough. He wanted "...every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country..." brought in, no matter how long it took, no matter how many people were raped, beaten and killed in the interim.

Nagin was not so slow to respond to the need for emotional relief for city officials, first responders, and their families. He decreed September 4 that "five-day vacations - and even trips to Las Vegas - to the police, firefighters and city emergency workers and their families would be paid for by the citizens of New Orleans." Nagin first tried to get FEMA to pay for his largesse, but they correctly refused. No doubt that will be the subject of a future foul-mouthed diatribe, the likes of which we come to expect from C. Ray.

Charges of failure to address the levee issues are mis-leading at best, some would call them out right lies. Others would say they are "smoke" to obscure the real failures of the liberal local and state officials, as well as the Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu.

That Louisiana is the leading recipient of federal Corp of Engineering dollars is unquestionable, some $1.9 billion in the last five years. The question is, how were those taxpayer dollars spent? Of the more than $590 million in the 2006 budget, millions are designated for projects of questionable merit.

The Washington Post (Registration Required) reports Sen. Landrieu inserted language in an Iraqi spending bill that forced the Corps for "cook the books" to justify a project studies had considered of little cost/benefit.

It seems Sen. Landrieu had little regard for the people of New Orleans and what she describes as the widely known problems with the levee system. Otherwise she would have inserted language to force the Corps to accelerate the work already in progress on that issue.

Speaking of the levees, there have been some wild charges that the levees were intentionally breached by operatives of the Bush administration. No one of a sane mind would give this theory any credence, but who said those desperate souls on the left are sane? Of course, in the U.S., everyone loves a conspiracy theory.

Is the federal response to little? As as of right now, more than $62 billion has been approved for Katrina disaster relief. That is more than $200,000 per each of the 300,000 evacuees. Even if you spread it over the estimated 1 million affected people in the area, that corresponds to $62,000 per individual. Too little, hardly.

Certainly there were failures on the part of FEMA to ramp up response. But when dealing with the largest natural disaster in United States history. A disaster covering an area of 90,000 square miles and involving over 1 million people, response cannot be instantaneous.

Logistically there is a huge process of mobilizing an effective response. That is why the state and local officials are the primary responders. That is why emergency preparedness begins with local planning. It was those plans that were ignored by Mayor Nagin and others, opting to wait for Federal response instead of taking responsibility for their constituency.

If there are lessons to be learned it is that:
1) Government cannot protect citizens from all possible harm.
2) The Liberal line that government will be the father protector is untenable.
3) When faced with hard decisions, human nature will prefer to do nothing.
4) When difficult events happen, those in charge will blame instead of protect.
5) Those best equipped to respond in a disaster are in the private sector.

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