Katrina: Patience Can't Last Forever

From the September 2005 archives of this blog:

Patience is a virtue...

...but survival is an instinct. Here is a prime example of the disconnect between the government and the everyday citizens on the street:

"Certainly there are some people out there that are frustrated and in need of assistance," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One. "We've got to continue working to get them assistance as quickly as we can."

"There is some level of patience that obviously is going to be required during this time," he said, "but we are urging everyone to move forward as quickly as they can to get people the help they need."

These wackos in charge forget that the victims of Hurricane Katrina did not have the luxury of being patient. They were dying. What's abhorrent is that it didn't have to be that way. If FEMA would've done its f*cking job, then the response would've been adequate, the food and water would've been delivered, and we wouldn't be hearing political bullshit like this:

On another front, 21 House Republicans sent a letter demanding that Bush find spending cuts in federal programs to offset the massive cost of rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Conservatives, worried that the deficit will balloon, have been alarmed at the pace of spending with no talk of how to pay for it.

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., suggested dropping the Medicare prescription drug plan, which he has long opposed. "It was supposed to cost $400 billion," he told CBS Evening News. "It's now up to $700 billion. We ought to cancel it, go back to square one."

Bush last week ruled out raising taxes to pay Katrina expenses and said other government spending must be cut. His aides have said, though, that no such cuts have yet been identified and that the hurricane relief effort will temporarily swell the deficit.

Further proof that politics will always trump the greater-good with the Bush misAdministration. Wake me up when their reign of terror is over. I've run out of patience. Just like these people:

A year later, and this is the situation on the ground

President Bush said Monday the huge job of rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina was just beginning a year after the massive storm but expressed hope that the $110 billion of help sent from Washington would be enough.

The Times-Pacayune, who rocked in their coverage last year and continuing through today, offers a several-page exposé on the conditions of the levee system in New Orleans. The opening paragraph says it all

Although the Army Corps of Engineers has spent more than $352 million to bring levees, floodwalls and drainage systems in the New Orleans area back to where they were before Hurricane Katrina hit a year ago, crucial improvements aimed at upgrading the system to the level long ago authorized by Congress are barely past the planning stages.

Patience is not an option for an area that remains under threat of another catastrophe. This is yet another one of those rotten fruits that have sprung up from the seeds of failed leadership at all levels. Vote them all out.