Why am I so angry?

A few folks have asked that question in comments and emails. Why are you so angry about this?

Here’s why.


A row of school buses sits in floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005 east of New Orleans. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

68, count them, 68 school buses. Under water. Unused.

By a rough guess, that’s four thousand people that could have gotten out of the city.

Four thousand people.

For something that people saw coming.

This, in microcosm, is the story of the tragedy.

And instead, we get crap like this:

The Lickspittle Sycophant Responds:

As a bedtime gift for you, the angry and stupid left:

The absence of large portions of the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama National Guards is dismissed as unimportant, because after all, 3,500 guards are available in LA, 1600 in MS, and 750 in ALthose numbers are perfectly sufficient! Or maybe not. Oh, and what about their equipment, trucks, helicopters, halftracks, and etc?

But even more, Trevino states “Show me, please, that the funds were diverted specifically for the war; and that they would have averted the present disaster.”…

So, Trevino, Cole, Erick, and the rest of you shameless, heartless, blind idiots, here’s the data

So, Trevino, Cole, Erick, and other lickspittle, lapdog, sycophantic propagandiststhem’s the facts.

A city is destroyed, and in large part this disaster was eminently preventablebut the money, planning, coordination, and people necessary to accomplish that prevention and mitigation were diverted from already identified urgent needs and projects and sunk into the bloody sands of the Iraqi desert and siphoned into the bulging pockets of your campaign contributors and rich beneficiaries of your stupid tax cuts.

Happy now?

I am sure the other ‘lickspittle, lapdog, sycophantic propagandists’ will respond tomorrow to the ‘facts’ as outlined by this impenetrable fool, but just so you haven’t missed the premise, I will restate it for you:

“Bush is to blame for the levee breaking because if just a few more million had been spent the Category 4-5 hurricane would have been stopped in its tracks by a decades old levee project designed at best to stop Category 3 hurricanes.”

And there you have the angry left in all their incomprehensible glory.

Incomprehensible?

New Orleans is gone. It will cost 30 billion dollars to repair, if it can be repaired at all. (Personally, I’m not sanguine about that. With all the toxic gumbo now floating around down there, between gasoline, sewage, corpses and disease carrying bugs, it ain’t likely.)

And that’s not counting the loss of revenue and impact on the economy that the city represented. Let’s Fermi it out: 1.3 million people, average income $10K each (yes, it’s low) and that’s a billion dollars gone in annual federal income tax alone.

From there, it gets worse. The Port of New Orleans was the fifth largest port in the world, by tonnage.

Gas shortages are already showing up in the Carolinas. Atlanta is reporting $5/gallon (that was quick). Ten additional airports may have to close because there’s no fuel for the planes– Lisa, if you’re reading this, head for the airport NOW.

And that’s this week. Next month, we’re really going to be in trouble. The largest port in the western hemisphere is closed for import/export business for the foreseeable future. Nothing comes in country, nothing goes out. 20 states lose their Mississippi River shipping access. Minneapolis, Davenport, St. Louis, Memphis, Baton Rouge, Pittsburgh, Omaha, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Wheeling, and Louisville, all lose water access– unless they want to go up through the Great Lakes. Harvests will have no way to get out. Goods will have no way to get in. Oh hell, read more here.

This was predictable. And it was.

This was preventable. And it wasn’t.

20 million dollars to shore up the levees seems cheap now, doesn’t it? And that was slightly more than half of the tax cut Bill Gates received in 2003. But no, Bush felt Bill needed the money, as well as everybody else who benefitted from his ridiculous tax cuts. And then he set us to war in Iraq, costing nearly 200 Billion and counting, not to mention thousands of National Guardsmen who could have been used to, oh, I don’t know, drive school buses to get people out of town.

To have one 9/11 sized disaster on your watch, well, you can say you weren’t ready. But two looks like you just don’t give a damn.

You didn’t plan for this, Bush? Are you that dense? Are you surrounded by that many fools?

Do you comprehend why we’re angry? Hell, why aren’t you?

14 thoughts on “Why am I so angry?”

  1. 1 So explain to me how this blog is “elevating the discourse” as you say? This is just more of the same old left-wing partisan bullshit. Nothing new, nothing useful. This will be my last visit.

  2. Hey Mike… Why leave? Look, I like Glenn. He’s a good guy, just angry, and I don’t blame him for it. Heck, I’m angry too. I’m just not dumping all this manure at Bush’s doorstep. Leaving won’t solve anything and if you run away just because someone’s blaming the president, maybe deep down inside you do too. If you wan to “elevate the discourse”, you have to start one. Like this:

    Glenn, you fruitcake, they’ve known about New Orleans for more than 40 years and nothing was done. Bush has only been president for 5 years. Clinton had eight. Bush’s Father, Reagan, Carter, Nixon, Ford, Johnson and even Kennedy all knew that a good strong Hurricane could wipe New Orleans off the map. They took a gamble. They lost. the levees were built to with stand a Cat three hurricane, so it’s likely they wold have withstood a weaker hurricane.

    Bush isn’t responisble for what happened in New Orleans. Hell, Even the people blaming him for global warming are off base on this one since hurricane’s gain their strength from the warmth of the surrounding ocean, not the air.

    And for what itt’s worth Glenn, if you feel you’re being taxed too little, you’re not required to take back your tax refund and you can even send them more.

  3. Glenn, you raise every point that gives one cause to dislike the current administration’s policies. More people dead due to lack of foresight. It is angering, but even moreso, saddening.

    And Mike, if a Democrat were in charge and everything still happened as it did, do you truly believe that Republicans would just let it slide? While I am a Democrat, I would hope to be open minded enough to lay into any President who *waited until after the storm was over* to end his vacation. He may not even have been able to do anything, but by staying on vacation he sent the message that the hurricane wasn’t important enough to him to get back to the job.

  4. Which kind of shows the lack of reasoning involved to blame a man for things he has no control over. I seem top remember that Clinton did stay away from a hurricane disaster ( I think it was Fran) during his tenure and his reasoning was that he wanted to stay out of the way. Which makes sense. The governor of a state is the person to decide if the federal government needs to be involved and to what extent.

    Furthermore, the President is President no matter where he is, vacation or not, and has advisers around him to keep him informed. short of a national threat such as 9-11 there’s no reason for him to interupt a vacation.

  5. I hate to say it, but I see this as something that could happen to any government in any country.

    Really, you see it all the time: governments like taking chances in favour of the short-term bottom line. They know the odds are that they won’t be around by the time something happens, so why bother?

    That’s not to say that anyone can or should be excused for dropping the ball…but I do think it’s tough to put it all on just one person.

  6. New Orleans is gone. It will cost 30 billion dollars to repair, if it can be repaired at all. (Personally, I’m not sanguine about that. With all the toxic gumbo now floating around down there, between gasoline, sewage, corpses and disease carrying bugs, it ain’t likely.)

    yeah, I’m worried about that as well…and where exactly are they going to pump this toxic soup? Into the ocean?

    And that’s not counting the loss of revenue and impact on the economy that the city represented. Let’s Fermi it out: 1.3 million people, average income $10K each (yes, it’s low) and that’s a billion dollars gone in annual federal income tax alone.

    Now I’ve seen all kinds of estimates of the population–AP had something like 500000, which did seem a bit low to me. I assume that the higher number is the entire metro area. Does anyone know if it is the city proper or the entire metro area that is being evacuated?

    From there, it gets worse. The Port of New Orleans was the fifth largest port in the world, by tonnage.

    Yep. For people who ask why they built a city in an area that gets creamed by hurricanes I just point out that it is usually very convienent to have a city near a river or ocean. New Orleans has both.

    Such advantages have their drawbacks as we have seen.

    Gas shortages are already showing up in the Carolinas. Atlanta is reporting $5/gallon (that was quick). Ten additional airports may have to close because there’s no fuel for the planes– Lisa, if you’re reading this, head for the airport NOW.

    Yeah, I’ve had to cancel my Labor Day vacation plans. The price of gas here in North Carolina has gone up about $1 over 3 days. There’s a rumor that we will run out so EVERYONE is topping off their tanks–as it turns out, there is never enough gas available for everyone to do that, so it actually creates a shortage where none may have existed.

    And that’s this week. Next month, we’re really going to be in trouble. The largest port in the western hemisphere is closed for import/export business for the foreseeable future. Nothing comes in country, nothing goes out. 20 states lose their Mississippi River shipping access. Minneapolis, Davenport, St. Louis, Memphis, Baton Rouge, Pittsburgh, Omaha, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Wheeling, and Louisville, all lose water access– unless they want to go up through the Great Lakes. Harvests will have no way to get out. Goods will have no way to get in. Oh hell, read more here.

    Um, while things are bad, let’s not go nuts. “No way to get out”? Trucks. Although that will certainly drive the cost of food up, givin the price of fuel. I’m not so sure that port is damaged to the degree that the rest of the city is. The link you provided was interesting but raises as many questions as it answers. I’ll see if we can find more info.

    This was predictable. And it was.

    yep, people have been predicting it for decades.

    This was preventable. And it wasn’t.

    Are you sure? According to the guy above the levees were designed to stop a cat 3 hurricane. This was a cat 4-5.

    Now if it can be shown that Bush budget cuts are responsible for levees that would have been able to withstand a cat 4-5 hurricane not being ready last week you will have every reason to be angry. As will we all. If that’s not the case, this is just posturing.

    20 million dollars to shore up the levees seems cheap now, doesn’t it? And that was slightly more than half of the tax cut Bill Gates received in 2003. But no, Bush felt Bill needed the money, as well as everybody else who benefitted from his ridiculous tax cuts. And then he set us to war in Iraq, costing nearly 200 Billion and counting, not to mention thousands of National Guardsmen who could have been used to, oh, I don’t know, drive school buses to get people out of town.

    See above. Proof that the 20 million would have made the difference has not yet been provided.

    As for the national Guard–again, is there evidence that the busses would have been running if the 3500 LA national guardsman in Iraq were there? That still left about 7000 guardsmen in the state. Why they were not driving those busses is something you might want to ask the mayor or the Governor, or is blame only to be doled out to people who don’t vote the way you do?

    To have one 9/11 sized disaster on your watch, well, you can say you weren’t ready. But two looks like you just don’t give a damn.

    You didn’t plan for this, Bush? Are you that dense? Are you surrounded by that many fools?

    Do you comprehend why we’re angry? Hell, why aren’t you?

    Adulthood.

  7. With the full realization that some members of teh “reality based community” have shown themselves to be anything but–emotionalism, not reason rules the day– here’s a few money quotes from the Chicago Tribune:

    Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the corps’ chief of engineers, said late Wednesday that the corps’ requests cited in Landrieu’s figures were the amount that would be needed to finish the work in a given year. But he said the corps, working with the administration, rarely requests the full amount in the budget.

    “There are limited resources and there are huge demands on it,” he said. “Very rarely do we fund at full capability.”

    Even if the projects had been funded at the highest amounts, Strock said it might not have changed the situation in downtown New Orleans. He said the levee near the 17th Street Canal, where one of the breaches occurred that emptied water into the city, was fully completed.

    A corps plan to shore up the levees began in 1965 and was supposed to be finished in 10 years but remains incomplete. “They’ve never put enough money in to complete it,” Parker said. He said the corps’ budget has been regularly targeted by the White House because public works projects are perceived as pork and aren’t considered “sexy.”

    Whao, waitaminnit. The levee that broke was completed??? But…but…but…

    And The project began in 1965 and was supposed to end in 10 years???? But that means that every president since Johnson must have been cutting the budget! But….but…but…

    And here’s the irony–I’m really pissed at the administration. They passed, with congress’ willing compliance, a frikkin pork laden transportation bill that includes bridges to nowhere and a multitude of wasteful crap, that cost hundreds of billions. What a waste! Pretty much would have been better spent on ANYTHING.

    There’s a great argument right there. But, predicably, some on the left can’t resist acting like petulant children, making themselves look as unnattractive as possible in the process.

    This is a great opportunity for a leader to emerge. So far the only one who has even remotely impressed me is Haley Barbour–words I never imagined saying.

  8. School Buses.

    Has anyone who is so incensed about the school buses thought to realize that those drivers were more than likely busy taking care of their own personnal business and evacuating their own families?

    And of those complaining, who of you are do eager to run to work even when told so by your boss? I know I’m usually one of two removing snow at my job. I was one of 5 who reported to work last year during the blackout. Here in NY during 9/11, most people refused to come to work for days, why? No idea?

    I just wish people would be less eager to blame the leadership of this country, states, cities, Republican party, Democratic party, etc before they look in a mirror and to the person next to them.

  9. Yeah but here’s the thing–while those suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome go nuts with the idea that somehow it was Bush’s responsibility to see that the buses were mobilized, it IS true that SOMEONE should have. Unfortunately, the city and state officials who are supposed to have these things planned were so incompetent that they didn’t even order a mandatory evacuation of the city until a certain ex-governor of a southern state called up Louisiana’s governor and asked her to do so.

    (I won’t risk giving the Bush bashers an aneurysm by mentioning this fellow by name).

    It doesn’t take a National Guardsman to drive a bus. It doesn’t take a Bus Driver to drive a bus. I drive a bus on occasion. They are much like cars, only bigger. I guaran-damn-tee that 68 people could have been found in less than an hour willing to drive those buses. And to make things worse, there are something like 350 city buses in addition to these. Which means that pretty much EVERYONE potentially could have been evacuated.

    Blame Bush if it makes you feel good, but keep in mind that doing so will mean that the ones who screwed this up will get away with it and have little incentive to improve things for next time. Which will mean more deaths someday. But hey, a man’s got to have his priorities.

  10. Wow. Disagree with you and doubt Bush is a wonderful fellow who did everything he possibly could have from his secret Crawford command center, and you’re causing deaths.

    What exactly are you smoking toady, Bill…?

  11. Wow. Disagree with you and doubt Bush is a wonderful fellow who did everything he possibly could have from his secret Crawford command center, and you’re causing deaths.

    Oh, I have no doubt that Bush did NOT do everything possible. You’re setting up a straw-man argument. But you probably know that.

    No president responsible for the pork-laden transportation bill, money that could have been far better spent buying rubber rafts for New Orleans and printing up pamphlets so that officials there would know how to blow them up, can claim to have done everything possible.

    What exactly are you smoking toady, Bill…?

    Smoking toady? You LICK toads. Try this: “What exactly are you smoking, toady Bill.” To paraphrase the late Everett Dirksen, a comma here, a comma there, and pretty soon you have got a full sentence.

  12. Oh, I have no doubt that Bush did NOT do everything possible. You’re setting up a straw-man argument. But you probably know that.

    No, actually I’m responding to your straw man argument, with sarcasm. But you probably know that.

    Smoking toady? You LICK toads. Try this: “What exactly are you smoking, toady Bill.” To paraphrase the late Everett Dirksen, a comma here, a comma there, and pretty soon you have got a full sentence.

    If you feel so insecure you need to attack slips of the keybaord, go right ahead. I’m human, and make mistakes. Unlike some, I’m even willing to admit it.

  13. In further correction, upon rereading your comment, let me clarify that my keyboard slip was typing “toady” instead of “today”.

    While I may disagree with you at times, and think perhaps you are engaging in recreational pharmaceuticals, I do NOT believe you are a toady. *g*

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