New Orleans Repeating Same Old Mistakes

Most of us who voted for Bush were ashamed that he didn't do a better job in responding to Katrina. Instead of proving correct our assumption that republicans would more efficiently run a big ol' government agency, he instead provided the same ol' slow (7 days) and dunderheaded response that FEMA always has. The mayor behaved as all his predecessors had (no planning or actions), and the governor didn't follow the required processes to obtain a FEMA response. Yet officials of Walmart and other private companies, rather than leaders of the supposedly efficiently republican executive branch, disregarded local foolishness and quickly responded, and did so in ways that should embarrass those of us who had believed that republicans were smarter than democrats.

Meanwhile, the only reason that the calamity occurred in the first place is that the people who live in that area for decades have consistently made very poor choices. I am not speaking of those wallowing in poverty, but rather those who run the area, including just simple middle-class people who have jobs, who participate in the voting process, and who make choices about such matters as where and how to build and occupy houses. These people -- wealthy business owners, government officials, and self-sufficient middle class people -- collectively run a region.

Whereas the similar population of some region of Alaska obtained for themselves a needless, state-of-the-art "bridge to nowhere", this population in the NOLA region couldn't even trouble themselves to obtain an adequate levee system... or even *TRY* to obtain such. Now these same people are building fine new homes on land that received 20 feet of flood water, and they are shirking guidelines to inconveniently elevate these homes.