Monday, September 1, 2008

Gustav, Another Katrina?

The evacuation of New Orleans is in full swing, as reported by CNN. Having learned so much from Katrina three years ago, today's evacuation numbers are impressive.

About 1.9 million of Louisiana's 2 million coastal residents had fled ahead of Hurricane Gustav by Sunday evening in the largest evacuation in state history, Louisiana's governor said.

The Republican National Convention activities in Minneapolis for Monday have been mainly suspended. But I wonder if anyone really believes McCain is talking straight. Isn't he just concerned that the country will associate the John McCain folks with the ineptitude that tainted the Bush administration three years ago?

"This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics and we have to act as Americans. We have to join the 300 million other Americans on behalf of our fellow citizens. It's a time for action. So, we're going to suspend most of our activities tomorrow except for those absolutely necessary," said McCain, speaking from St. Louis, Missouri.

And it seems even Bush himself has learned something from the past mistakes. This time he's acting even before the devastation.

The president ordered federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in the areas in the forecast path of Hurricane Gustav. Bush and his administration were heavily criticized in 2005 for not moving fast enough to send federal help to the Gulf Coast when Hurricane Katrina hit.

Over at The Riff Blog there's a very entertaining series of articles entitled, "God Understands Irony." The story includes a link to the hysterical speech, although he was seriously trying to make his conservative point, by Stuart Shepard encouraging people to pray for rain to drown out Obama's speech. It's really funny that the very type of rain he was describing for Obama, is actually interfering with the Republican activities. That's irony and schadenfreude all rolled into one.

2 comments:

  1. Mike,

    While I don't deny there was incompetence on the part of the administration; I find it interesting that you don't mention the problems at the state and local levels.

    Care to contrast Blanco's actions with Bobby Jindal's?

    As far as those praying for anything that doesn't bring glory to God, they will answer to him for that issue. I find it funny that both sides are trying to use natural disasters or the potential of disasters for their own advantage. Neither side should be doing that, it's ridiculous.

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  2. Ridiculous it is. Amen, brother.

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