NEW ORLEANS — Three and a half years after Hurricane Katrina, the National Guard is pulling the last of its troops out of New Orleans this weekend, leaving behind a city still desperate and dangerous.

Our long national nightmare is over.

• Gustav Keeps On Coming
• Gustav Keeps On Coming
• Katrina: Lessons Learned Part II
• Katrina: Lessons Learned Part II
• Here Comes Gustav

BATON ROUGE, Sept. 2 — He talks about “helo assets,” military-speak for helicopters. He delivers recovery statistics rapid-fire. And in a nod to local sporting passions, he frequently resorts to football analogies.

“The evacuation was the pregame,” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) announced at a press conference Tuesday, appearing calm and unruffled amid the commotion of Hurricane Gustav. “We’re not yet at halftime. We have a lot more work ahead of us.”

Thrust in the spotlight by Gustav, Jindal, 37, a political whiz kid in office for all of eight months, is asserting mastery over his state’s response to the natural disaster — just the sort that can have serious consequences for politicians.

(…)

“Bobby Jindal has been pitch perfect during Gustav,” said Douglas Brinkley, who wrote “The Great Deluge,” which describes the chaos after Katrina. “He promised to be a hands-on administrator, and I think he delivered. He had such an easy factual grasp of the situation. It’s almost the exact opposite of Blanco and [New Orleans Mayor C. Ray] Nagin during Katrina.”

Is that the sole reason that Gustav did not prove to be as big a humanitarian crisis as Katrina ? Perhaps, perhaps not, but at least Jindal didn’t fiddle while New Orleans drowned like his predecessor did.

• Gustav Keeps On Coming
• Gustav Keeps On Coming
• Here Comes Gustav
• Here Comes Gustav
• Jindal To McCain Campaign: Please, Please Don’t Pick Me

Republican officials said yesterday that they are considering delaying the start of the GOP convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul because of Tropical Storm Gustav, which is on track to hit the Gulf Coast, and possibly New Orleans, as a full-force hurricane early next week.

The threat is serious enough that White House officials are also debating whether President Bush should cancel his scheduled convention appearance on Monday, the first day of the convention, according to administration officials and others familiar with the discussion.

For Bush and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Gustav threatens to provide an untimely reminder of Hurricane Katrina. A new major storm along the Gulf Coast would renew memories of one of the low points of the Bush administration, while pulling public attention away from McCain’s formal coronation as the GOP presidential nominee.

Senior Republicans said images of political celebration in the Twin Cities while thousands of Americans flee a hurricane could be dubious. “Senator McCain has always been sensitive to national crisis,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, noting that the senator postponed announcing his presidential candidacy in 2000 because of the war in the Balkans. “We are monitoring the situation very closely.”

This morning, Gustav is still a Tropical Storm and still south of Cuba, but the forecast track has it heading for New Orleans and the Louisiana Gulf Coast, with a projected arrival sometime Wednesday morning:

Doesn’t look good, does it ?

Of course, as one former White House adviser notes, Gustav could do McCain a favor if it forces Bush to cancel his speech:

Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who said in a recent book that Hurricane Katrina left “an indelible stain” on the Bush presidency, said Bush should be making plans to cancel his speech.

“If it’s a major hurricane, I think that they certainly need to show they learned lessons from three years ago, both from a policy and perception standpoint,” McClellan said.

He also suggested that McCain could benefit politically from such a scenario: It would allow Bush to mount an effective GOP response to a disaster, while removing the unpopular president from the convention roster. “It could be a two-fer,” McClellan said.

Given the fact that a McCain-as-third-Bush-term idea is clearly going to be a part of the Democratic campaign this fall, Gustav could end up doing John McCain a favor.

• Republican Convention Back On Track
• Republican Convention Back On Track
• Here Comes Gustav
• Here Comes Gustav
• Gustav Keeps On Coming

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin has suggested that the slow recovery and rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina — which has prevented many black former residents from returning — is part of a plan to change the racial makeup and political leadership of his and other cities.

“Ladies and gentlemen, what happened in New Orleans could happen anywhere,” Nagin said at a dinner sponsored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a trade group for newspapers that target black readers. “They are studying this model of natural disasters, dispersing the community and changing the electoral process in that community.”

Nagin’s remarks Thursday night recalled the controversy stirred up by his prediction in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech in 2006 that, despite the evacuation of thousands of black people in the wake of Katrina, New Orleans would once again become a “chocolate city.” The mayor later apologized for the comment, which had infuriated many whites and African Americans.

Nagin, who won reelection last May over Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, referred obliquely to the “chocolate city” comment at the dinner and suggested that his assertion that New Orleans would once again be a majority-black city had made him a political target.

Calling this guy an idiot would be an understatement.

• Katrina And God VII
• Katrina And God VII
• Lousiana On Gustav: We’re Not Going To F**K It Up This Time
• Lousiana On Gustav: We’re Not Going To F**K It Up This Time
• Katrina vs. Rita: A Study In Contrasts Part II

WASHINGTON — The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, getting hoodwinked to pay for season football tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found.

Prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address, and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to wrongly get taxpayer help, according to evidence that gives a new black eye to the nation’s disaster relief agency.

Federal investigators even informed Congress that one man apparently used FEMA assistance money for a sex change operation.

Because, of course, his sexuality was devastated in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. And that, sadly is only the tip of the iceberg:

The investigative agency said it found people lodged in hotels often were paid twice, since FEMA gave them individual rental assistance and paid hotels directly. FEMA paid California hotels $8,000 to house one individual _ the same person who received three rental assistance payments for both disasters.

In another instance, FEMA paid an individual $2,358 in rental assistance, while at the same time paying about $8,000 for the same person to stay 70 nights at more than $100 per night in a Hawaii hotel.

FEMA also could not establish that 750 debit cards worth $1.5 million even went to Katrina victims, the auditors said.

And just what were those debit cards used for ? Well, lets just say it wasn’t roofing supplies. The booty included:

• an all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic.
• five season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games.
• adult erotica products in Houston and “Girls Gone Wild” videos in Santa Monica, Calif.
• Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages in San Antonio.
• a divorce lawyer’s services in Houston.

I’d say I was shocked by this latest abuse of government largesse, but, sadly, I am not.

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Governor Blanco, Mayor Nagin, its called leadership.

H/T: Gateway Pundit

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Hurricane Katrina evacuees hastily handed $2,000 in federal relief money last month have been living it up on Cape Cod, blowing cash on booze and strippers, a Herald investigation has found.Herald reporters witnessed blatant public drinking at a Falmouth strip mall by Katrina victims living at taxpayer expense at Camp Edwards on Otis Air Force Base. And strippers at Zachary’s nightclub in Mashpee, a few miles from the Bourne base, report giving lap dances to several evacuees.

“They were tipping me $5 a pop,” said a Zachary’s dancer named Angel. “I told them I felt bad taking their money. But I still took it.”

Another dancer said a large group from the military base was in Zachary’s recently and she gave lap dances to several of the victims.

But wait, there’s more:

On Oct. 5, the Herald observed a virtual parade of evacuees from a bus stop in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Falmouth to nearby liquor stores. Some emerged and openly swilled from brown-bagged containers, while others poured booze into
jugs or plastic cups and casually sipped drinks at the Wal-Mart bus stop.The refugees have access to daily trolley service from Camp Edwards to the Falmouth Mall.

One elderly man poured a bottle of Ruble vodka into a water bottle and spent the afternoon sipping the liquor outside the Wal-Mart. Two other men were seen buying 32-ounce Coors Light cans at George’s Liquors and drinking at the bus stop.

Last Tuesday, one 52-year-old evacuee, who told a reporter he was originally from Cuba, stood in the rain outside Wal-Mart for several hours drinking gin and orange juice from a thermos. The same day, a female evacuee bought ice at a supermarket and roughly $30 worth of hard liquor before being driven in a car back to Camp Edwards. Evacuees are banned from bringing booze onto the base.

And who’s paying for all this ?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has issued more than $1.5 billion to 607,000 Katrina victims in the form of individual cash handouts of $2,000. There are no restrictions on how the money can be spent, FEMA officials said.Gov. Mitt Romney and the Legislature approved a $25 million emergency aid package to feed and house 235 of the evacuees at Camp Edwards. As of mid-September, the Red Cross had doled out another $25,000 in debit cards for victims sent to the Bay State.

That’s right, you and me for the most part. And the refugees seem to be having a high time spending other people’s money. Maybe they should run for Congress.

H/T: Catallarchy

• If Wal-Mart Is Bad For America, Why Does John Edwards Shop There ?
• If Wal-Mart Is Bad For America, Why Does John Edwards Shop There ?
• Republican “Office Supplies:” Booze, Lots And Lots Of Booze
• Republican “Office Supplies:” Booze, Lots And Lots Of Booze
• Ever Wonder Where The Campaign Dollars Go ?

Police spokesman Marlon Defillo said police are looking into the possibility that up to 12 officers were involved in misconduct.

The Police Department has 1,750 officers.

He rejected the use of the term “looting” but said authorities were investigating “the possibility of appropriation of non-essential items during the height of Katrina, from businesses.”

Apparenty, someone has stolen the English language.

H/T: Michelle Malkin

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) ? A state senator in Alabama says Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment on a sinful part of America.

State Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, wrote in a weekly column for news outlets: “New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness. It is the kind of behavior that ultimately brings the judgment of God.”

Erwin, a former conservative talk-radio host and now a media consultant, wrote the column after a tour of hurricane-wrecked Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss., and Bayou La Batre on the Alabama coast.

“Warnings year after year by godly evangelists and preachers went unheeded. So why were we surprised when finally the hand of judgment fell?” Erwin wrote. “Sadly, innocents suffered along with the guilty. Sin always brings suffering to good people as well as the bad.”

Sadly, there are people out there who think this makes sense.

Previous posts:

Katrina and God VII
Katrina And God VI
Katrina And God V
Katrina And God IV
Katrina And God III
Katrina And God Part II
Katrina And God

Technorati Tag: Hurricane Katrina

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Rita and Katrina have both been events of massive force, sweeping away an awful lot, but Katrina – because of the ghastly failure of the authorities to prepare and to rescue those at risk – is thought by some to have done more than physical damage.Bill Clinton is among many eminent Americans who wonder whether Katrina’s biggest impact might be psychological, political.

Mr. Webb, the social and economic system you are criticizing also happens to be the most vibrant economy in the world. Home of the people who created the Internet, the computer industry, countless numbers of pharamceuticals, and contributed more to the world in the past 200 years than your British Empire has in 5 times that amount of time.

Not only that, but Americans, especially wealthy Americans, are among the most generous in the world, and American charitable organizations are always on the front lines of disaster no matter where in the world it might strike.

Apparently, Mr. Webb doesn’t like charity very much, though:

Charity is part of the warp and weft of American life and it is telling that Hurricane Katrina has encouraged an outpouring of giving on a scale never seen before.Americans are cross with the government and disappointed with the response from Washington, but they have not sat on their hands and waited for the government to sort itself out. Much the opposite.

And thank god for that. Why wait for government to do something that we know we can do ourselves, better ? Even the government recognizes this and utilizes the Red Cross and Salvation Army as intergral parts of its response to disaster. Why ? Because these organizations can move in faster, and cheaper, than the government can.

Apparently, Mr. Webb thinks its a bad idea that we are so generous. He seems to think we should sit on our hands and wait for the state to take care of the damage from Rita and Katrina. I can’t think of anything that would be more un-American.

H/T: Ann Althouse

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