I guess I'll finally post about it...

So, I haven't posted anything about Hurricane Katrina and the current mess that's being cleaned up...mostly because I get angry. I frequently get angry at those on the left that seem to think the whole affair is President Bush's fault (never mind what everyone's government classes should have taught them about State rights). So...I'll let someone speak for me. Bryan Preston at Michelle Malkin has a great post on who is at fault for the current state of things: Apocolypse Now in New Orleans.

Instead of acknowledging the faults that lie at city level and stepping in to organize relief efforts, Louisiana and New Orleans officials spent most of last week lashing out at the Bush administration, though its response was three times faster than the response to hurricane Andrew just 13 years ago. Government actually got quicker at doing something, in spite of the massive increase in the number of lawyers on the public dime in the intervening years. The locals blamed the feds even though the administration, whatever its faults, was ahead of all local officials when it came to declaring a state of emergency and requesting a mandatory evacuation. A massive butt-covering exercise is underway in Louisiana as I write, so massive it is second only to the actual relief and law and order efforts going on in the vast Katrina destruction zone.

Here's Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, threatening to punch President Bush if local officials come under any criticism.

Here's a local New Orleans official bizarrely suggesting that the head of the government needs to be "chainsawed off."

These officials and dozens like them all across Louisiana are trying to shift blame to Washington for their own failures.

The buses I mentioned earlier and have blogged about extensively all weekend are evidence of and a symbol for those failures. They sit unused and waterlogged, their empty seats representing lives lost to the flood. Their useless presence in flooded parking lots demonstrate that the best plan is useless if it's never implemented. And they fact of their unuse demonstrates a deeper pathology at work in New Orleans government: The entire thing was rotted from the inside out. New Orleans' government was a disaster waiting to happen.

Read it all and understand.

Update: The Anchoress pointed out this snippit from a Washington Post article:

Other federal and state officials pointed to Louisiana’s failure to measure up to national isaster response standards, noting that the federal plan advises state and local emergency managers not to expect federal aid for 72 to 96 hours, and base their own preparedness efforts on the need to be self-sufficient for at least that period.

I think every tornado alley city and state knows this. Why shouldn't New Orleans?