This morning, Yahoo News was displaying a headline stating the White House is attempting to place blame on state and local authorities for the mismanagement of aid and national guard support.
Don't believe it!
Read today's editorial from Louisiana's largest newspaper, The Times-Picayune. Titled "An Open Letter to President Bush," it points out how everyone seems to be able to get into New Orleans to help (tractors from Wal-Mart bringing in supplies and Harry Connick Jr.) and yet the Federal government is still a no-show, three days after President Bush's visit and his promise to help. Here is an excerpt:
...[T]here were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.
Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.
Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.
We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.
*****
There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.
We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.
No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.
Related topics
Read what Wonkette has to say here. It's an interview from this morning's Meet The Press in which they asked president of the Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, Aaron Broussard, about the recovery efforts. Harrowing. Disturbing.
Read Oliver Willis post here regarding Mary Landrieu's response.
If you've been fed the line that the Gov of Louisiana didn't proclaim a state of emergency, (that is what WAPO and Newsweek both said over the weekend, falsely), and that is why the federal government didn't get involved, then read this from Talking Points Memo. By the way, Gov. Blanco declared state of emergency on August 26th.
And while you are at it, check out this post also on Talking Points Memo. Evidentally there is a "National (disaster) Response Plan that the administration promulgated last December which seems to say explicitly that in the event of a catastrophic disaster the federal government need not wait for any explicit request for the local authorities in the affected regions."
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