[transparentaura]

Its another case of Pennywise and pound foolish. In 2004. FEMA engineers, in a report requesting a budget that would allow strengthening and raising the levee's around N.O. cited an eerily prescient scenario that would follow a direct hit by a major storm. They recieved 20% of that amount, not nearly enough to accomplish this. The department of Homeland security (again, I'm not sure I've got the correct agency, I've been ploughing through so much info about this tragedy)
listed a storms direct hit on N.O. along with another major quake in the SF bay area and terrorist attacks as the biggest potential tragedies in america. Now one of these has occured and we are woefully unprepared to handle it. The promise of wetland preservation that was put on the back burner is another case of shortsightedness, as it is pretty well accepted that the barrier marshes that used to border this area were a natural buffer from storms. I understand the philosophy of shrinking Govt. but I think it has to be balanced with some common sense, the one thing that we do need the federal govt. for is infrastructure and resources to protect and react in these situations. The JIT business model leaves us vulnerable to disaster when its applied to running a nation. Now I've heard that now is not the time to point fingers and assign blame , that it doesn't help and its divisive, but I'm tired of people fucking up and hiding behind that excuse, we've heard that about the war too(which also sapped precious resources, 1/3 of the LA national guard is in Iraq along with most of their equipment) But at some point there has to be some accountability for the harm that this governing ideology is inflicting on our country. I'm sure that this opinion will be slammed for politicizing a natural disaster, but to me the two are intertwined and we ought to learn something from this. The recent release of figures stating that the ranks of americans below the poverty line has grown by 1,000,000 this year,a huge jump for the 3rd straight year, also sheds some light on a problem related to this disaster. Many, many people had no way to evacuate for the storm although the implication was that they chose to stay. Its a crime that so many poor, sick and elderly were left to fend for themselves or if they could, make their way to an un-supplied unsanitary, unsafe sports stadium to be warehoused while those who could afford it were advised to flee for their lives. Does this mean that if you cannot afford to leave a life threatening situation, then your life is expendable? I see so much focus in the media about looters, but nothing about why they are there. When the city was a deadly place to occupy, these people were basically told, there it is, its all yours, see ya! Now that the storms over, they want everybody to leave their stuff alone and behave, well I think when they forfeited these peoples lives, they forfeited the cities contents. Now there is martial law and everybody gotta leave, why didn't this happen before the storm, where were the busses that are now taking them to the Astrodome for storage? The ones left behind got the message loud and clear what the priorities of this country are now, and the only place that people come before property is on an alphabetical list.