TC the Terrible

I’ve got my issues with the NAACP and how they treat white people today because of what some white people did 150 plus years ago.  But I’m in their corner on this one.

Score:
NAACP – 1
PETA – 0

Ok, let’s talk about Katrina for a couple of minutes.

I’ve avoided this topic because there was so much other clutter on the Internet and television over the past week.  Almost all of the coverage has been focused on the mistakes that were made at various levels, and a good part of that is justified.  Leadership at all levels made some really bone-headed mistakes.  There is no doubt about that.  

The mistakes start at the bottom, with Ray Nagin the mayor of New Orleans.  He had a really crappy plan for getting his citizens out of town.  Once he was aware that the storm was coming at the town, he did only the minimum that he was required to do. If he wants to scream on television that his town was left to swim or drown on its own, then he should start by screaming at himself.

The governor of Louisiana is not in much better of a position.  For all of her cries that the Federal side of the house didn’t act quickly enough, she was the one turning away help in the early hours of this disaster.  It took until Thursday, after the hurricane hit on Monday, for Governor Blanco to sign an order releasing school buses to move the evacuees.  When the National Guard first tried to send troops, she turned them aside in favor of the troops that she could control from her own state.  In fact, she has still not relinquished control of the National Guard troops to Federal authority.  This move alone would eliminate miles of red tape and ease many of the problems she is complaining about.

President Bush is at fault too.  His budgeters have cut resources for the New Orleans Corps of Engineers over the past few years.  The New Orleans corps had wanted to study the effects on the area of a force 5 hurricane, that and to re-enforce some of the levees.  Ironically, the levee that caused the most damage when it broke was one made of concrete, not dirt.  He’s also taken a lot of heat for not sending troops in sooner to help with the chaos.  He did, give him credit here, ask Blanco to order a mandatory evacuation of the city nearly a full day before Katrina hit land.

What most people don’t get is that it would violate several dozen laws if he tried to send in the military.  A state has to request aid from the Federal government before it can receive any.  Governor Blanco was told by members of the President’s staff that she needed to request aid.  She chose to wait an additional day before she did that.  Only adding to the problems and suffering in the Superdome and elsewhere.  Contracting out help from a fired FEMA employee was not a real smart move either.  It does, however, give her a stronger position in the Democratic Party when she makes a future move in her career.  

Mark this one fact down, even if you forget all the rest, in less than 48 hours after the request for additional National Guard troops was made over 20,000 of them were on the ground or enroute.  That number reached almost 44K total troops with boots on the ground in less than 96 hours from the time the request for aid was sent.  Don’t tell me for a second that is not a sign of success by the military.  And did you happen to notice how quickly the violence died down, or how fast the supplies were delivered once the National Guard was allowed to do its job?  Imagine what it could have been like if they were allowed in sooner, and were under a central point of control.

The British have a pretty good perspective on what I’m talking about.

To bring this thing to close on a positive note, here are some stats from the Department of Homeland Security:

Highlights as of 1 p.m., Sept. 6, 2005, of the federal rescue effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to information released by the Department of Homeland Security.
Rescues performed 32,000
Shelters 559
People housed in shelters 182,000
FEMA responders 7,000
U.S. Coast Guard personnel 4,000
National Guard personnel 43,000
Active Duty Military 15,000
MREs provided (meals) 11.3 million
Water provided (liters) 18 million

I stole this from the Daily Quickie on ESPN.com.

The best part? His reasoning:It’s not for love of sport.Or love of Tour glory.Or even love of his woman.

No: He’s doing it for spite.He hates the French media so much after this latest round of allegations that he is willing to consider unretiring simply to throw another Tour de France title in their face.

Simply put: There has never been a more honest reason offered by an athlete to un-retire.Root for Lance’s 2006 return:”Riding for the Love Loathe.”

Could it get any better?????