After the outpouring of help for the tsunami victims last winter, a similiar effort may be coming to New Orleans.

Is a dying city actually going to see that? Maybe, maybe not. Even though many countries are graciously offering their assistance and specifically stating what they will provide, Bush refuses to accept their offers at this point. He has already turned away Canadian & Jamaican assistance and we’ll see if the administration follows suit with these offers as well. Why? I’m sure they’ll claim security reasons and use the buzzword of the century (terrorism), which is a pathetic excuse.

This is just a continuance of what has amounted to a man-made natural disaster. The natural disaster part was of course the hurricane, but the damages incurred were only magnified by human neglect before, and after the hurricane. Last Sunday, the National Geographic Channel aired a few hours of natural disaster programs, showing not only what has happened, but what can happen. During one of these segments, they used the tsunami to jump into a “What-if” scenario in New Orleans. What if a hurricane or tidal wave broke the levee and flooded the city? I was shocked at the scenario and stunned to learn that it would infact happen if a class 5 (possibly even class 4) hurricane made a direct hit on New Orleans. Well, the next day it happened.

President bush stated on Good Morning America

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded. And now we are having to deal with it and will.”

Sorry, the worst case scenario was considered and prepared for. FEMA started stockpiling food & water in strategic locations in New Orleans days before (allegedly). Hell, even the lump of clay Mr. Bill knew this was inevitable.

Speaking of FEMA, how can this entire situation be handled so poorly when plans & scenarios for this specific catastrophe have already been thought up, and exercises conducted? Listen to NPR’s Robert Siegel tear Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff a new one as to why FEMA’s efforts have been so abysmal (link).

Another reason why could be the organization’s director Michael Brown has shown in his incompetence in running FEMA. Rep. Robert Wexler urged President Bush to fire Brown in January for improperly handing out $30 million to Dade County for Hurricane Frances damages. Well, Hurricane Frances didn’t even hit Dade country, but rather 100 miles away. It turns out Brown doesn’t have the greatest track record in the world. His last position was director of the International Arabian Horse Association where his performance was “An unmitigated, total fucking disaster. I was shocked as hell when captain clueless put him in charge of FEMA a couple of years ago.” (link). Glad to know a regions fate and countless lives lie in the hands of his ability, or inability, to mobilize the rescue efforts.

Watching Fox News today (CNN was at commercial), they decided to take this opportunity to push their “Destroy the Alaska Wildlife Refuge so we Can Drive our Hummers” agenda by bringing on panelists to debate the topic. Of course they bring in lobbyists and oil execs to face off against a nobody conservationist who Neil Cavuto discredited anything that came out of her mouth. So, with Fox News always good for entertainment, there have been a few clips surface on the internet of the media’s take of this whole fiasco. One of them being Geraldo and Shepard Smith being dumbfounded as to why this whole situation is being handled so poorly.

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Another clip that I came across was Anderson Cooper tearing into Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu on her political back patting and the government’s lack of effort. I found it quite entertaining and Cooper has been one of the more vocal members of the media about how appalling this whole situation is. I, along with the rest of the people with actual hearts, thank him for it.

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There isn’t one person down there helping out that isn’t giving their best effort, and they’ve already saved countless lives. The problem here lies with the management and their inability to properly lead these rescue efforts. Herding people into the dome and the convention center through the hurricane was a good idea. Forcing them to stay there for 6 days with little or no food or water while garbage, human waste, and unfortunately human corpses, piled up was not. Reports say that much of the New Orleans police force just gave up and left the city because there was little or no communication or leadership in telling them what they should be doing.

Many people fall back to the argument that there is a time and a place to point fingers and play the blame game, and it isn’t now. Well guess what? If nobody speaks out, if Geraldo in typical Geraldo fashion doesn’t over-dramatically hold a crying baby in his arms, if Cooper doesn’t attack a political leader in her home state and hopefully motivates her to do more, if the blogosphere doesn’t explode with these stories, and we sit on our hands waiting for this man-made disaster to stabilize, more people will suffer and more people will die. Hopefully with the airlift out of the convention center occurring today, 4 days too late I might add, the worst is over and these people can begin an attempt at piecing back together their shattered lives.