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Pastimes : Lake New Orleans -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: paret who wrote (398)	9/6/2005 10:47:14 AM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Respond to of 1118

Tuesday -- September 6, 2005 KATRINA Just a collection of notes made over the past weekend, most prompted by just sitting here and watching the coverage of the Katrina disaster on television: THE BLAME GAME It seems that Americans spent just as much time trying to assess blame for what happened in New Orleans as they did trying to find ways to fix it. The blame game started before Katrina even made landfall. The first trash can hadn't been blown over before people were saying that the hurricane was -- of course -- George Bush's fault. And why is that? Because Bush hadn't implemented the Kyoto Accords. Two things seemed to be forgotten during this initial rush to blame Bush. First, there were killer hurricanes like Katrina long before this scare over so-called "global warming." Second, the United States Senate, while Bill Clinton was President, turned down the Kyoto Accords by a unanimous vote of 99-0. So, the Senate under Clinton unanimously rejects Kyoto, and then the hurricane is Bush's fault because he didn't implement it. That logic could only work for liberals. By the way ... we are now learning that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco might have had a direct role in delaying federal assistance in the Katrina disaster. The story is surfacing that at one point George Bush offered federal help, and Governor Blanco, a Democrat, by the way, said that she preferred to wait for 24 hours before she made that request. That sure gets in the way of the Blame Bush game, doesn't it? Wolf Blitzer has been one of the biggest race baiters and Bush bashers in this entire incident. On Saturday and Sunday, time after time after time, Blitzer was at the forefront of those asking questions about the racial component of this disaster. Then on Monday Blitzer started to fixate on Bush ordering flags to be lowered to half-staff for the victims of Katrina. So .. .now we're going to have a new national custom that flags be lowered to half-staff every time someone dies in a natural disaster? Oh, you say, it's because so many died? OK, fine What's the number then? At what number do you order the flags flown at half-staff? The tradition has been to lower flags to half-staff when some luminary dies -- someone who has made an important difference in our culture. Now we're going to have recriminations every time someone dies and the flags don't come down. Then, after the hurricane hits, it all becomes Bush's fault because the federal government didn't respond fast enough. Much of this is based on a lack of understanding of our system of federalism. By law disaster relief is the primary responsibility of local and state governments, not the federal government. When the Islamic terrorists struck New York City the disaster response was local, not federal. When four hurricanes hit Florida last year the disaster response was local, not federal. By law the federal government steps in only when the state government requests it. Do we know when Governor Blanco stepped in to ask the federal government for help? boortz.com