CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE!!!

In yesterday's post, I characterized as "criminal incompetence" the failure of the Army Corps of Engineers to prepare the levee system for anything more than a fast-moving category 3 hurricane. I am now revising that characterization, because "incompetence" suggests that the accused actually tried to do something to prevent the current disaster from unfolding.

Even worse than a failure of leadership, what is happening in New Orleans now can only be characterized as CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE!

While appreciating the fact that B. and I were able to get out of New Orleans before Katrina struck, the total chaos of armed thugs running the streets of New Orleans, on top of the levee disaster, and the utter failure to grasp the rescue and relief effort is a total fiasco.

Police being shot at? Rescuers being held at gunpoint? Looters breaking into homes up and down St. Charles Avenue?

Where are the troops? Why wasn't any planning done to have boots on the ground immediately after the hurricane passed. I'm talking about the need for tens of thousands of troops to handle the multiple needs of rescue, relief, and security.

I am in a complete rage over this fiasco. To have survived the hurricane, and to see the situation deteriorate into a total cesspool "soggy version of the wild west" (as one friend called it) after Katrina passed, is putting me into a fit of absolute distress and anger.

I want my leaders to reflect that anger when they get in front of the cameras.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) said in a cool interview yesterday that people needed to remain calm. She said that this is not the time to find fault, that there would be plenty of time in the future to assign blame. I haven't heard a single peep out of Sen. David Vitter (R-LA).

I called both of their offices today, and I want to ask everyone who visits this blog to do the same. What I told the person who answered was to write down the following things:

"criminal negligence"
"heads should roll"

I then explained that I don't want to see either senator in front of a camera asking for deferred judgment. I said I want to see them screaming at the top of their lungs, amplifying the extreme frustration and growing rage of New Orleanians that the official response has been a worse disaster than the actual hurricane.

Homeland Security? All I have to say is, if the United States is hit with another attack, all the billions spent thus far will appear to have been flushed down the toilet. Those billions were apparently spent for things like the "National Preparedness Month" observance for the month of September, announced by Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff this morning. If anyone needs to be doing any preparing, it's the Department of Homeland Security.

The reason this whole fiasco is unfolding is because our leaders at all levels of government - but especially at the federal level - have failed over and over again to heed the warnings, and when disaster finally struck, to respond quickly and effectively.

This crisis is being caused precisely because there has been a total void of leadership. People died, homes were lost, because President Bush, in particular, and the rest of his administration, have been slow to realize, and slow to respond - as he was with 9/11 and with the Tsunami disaster last year.

I can't continue this post any longer, since I'm now getting kicked out of the only wireless cafe I can find in Pensacola.

Please people - speak up so the world hears our voices. We are taking it day by day, trying to figure out what tomorrow will bring, but nobody making the decisions that are impacting our lives in very serious ways seems to get it.