Please ‘splain to me how I’m supposed to muzzle Landrieu or Blanco? I didn’t vote for either one and I’ll be right there to vote for someone else, anyone else, as soon as I have the chance. I didn’t vote for Jefferson or Nagin (I don’t live in NO). I am a state employee so I can’t get involved in any political campaigns, if that’s what you mean.

The whole country DID do a lot, but there is still a lot to be done and things are still terrible. It’s not just NO that’s bad. It’s the ENTIRE LA coast and lots of MS. If you look at a map, you’ll see that the LA coastline is a lot longer than the MS coastline. There’s a lot more to LA than just NO.

Did it every occur to you that the reason you hear the whining is the media? They’re interested in the whiners from NO. Just as we don’t see many positive stories about Iraq, we don’t see many positive stories about the hurricane recovery. The news media just doesn’t bother to cover MS or other parts of LA. I think you’d be hearing complaining if they did. I know people who have steady jobs, who had insurance, who are hard workers, and they’re complaining because they can’t get anything done. They’re not sitting around on their butts waiting for someone else to do it, but they’re not happy either. The media doesn’t interview them.

I haven’t been to MS but a friend of mine says that there is nothing there on the coast. The MS coast is less populated than NO. The storm surge there just flat tore everything down. There’s debris to remove, but not too much in the way of houses to be demolished. In NO, the houses flooded. Everything has to be removed and disposed of before demolition can be completed. There are acres of appliances in some landfills.

The situation is a lot more complicated than you seem to think it is. Again, the sheer area that has been affected is incomprehensible, and I live here!

Her comment was “This President” didn’t even mention NO or Katrina in his state of the Union, as if he were a “pretender” to the “throne.”

Who the “F” does she think she is. He’s not “this president,” He’s THE President of the United States of America. And she’s a pissant politician from a corrupt family, who is carrying on her family’s tradition.

And I may be wrong, but everything I’ve heard/read about Katrina points to the fact that Mississippi got hit as bad as NO… so why haven’t we heard Mississippians complaining about not getting help?

All that federal money – I don’t know where it’s going, but I know don’t know a soul who has received a check for more than a thousand dollars for homes that were totally destroyed. The management company that Blanco selected is lowballing estimates, then they deduct (and this part is fair) whatever insurance money you got, and FEMA, then they write you a check. One guy got $216 dollars, when he has over $50,000 in repairs left to do.

Laura on January 31, 2007 at 12:07 PM

Laura I sympathize with what NO residents must be going through, but if the the gentleman only got $216 (after getting his check from the ins. company) but still has $50,000 in repairs, then he grossly underestimated his insurance needs… so why should that deficiency on his part be something that taxpayers have to cover?

All the Louisiana-bashing is just showing your ignorance of how bad the situation is here, excluding the political situation. It reminds me of the Libs’ attitude about Iraq.

Yes, the money isn’t flowing to the people as rapidly as it should be. The flip side is that there have been lots of cases of fraud so there’s a balance between paying too fast (and spending lots on fraudulent claims) and paying too slow. Regardless of what is done, there will be people who are unhappy about it.

Homeowners insurance… Policies specifically have exclusions for rising water so most houses that were flooded or destroyed weren’t covered unless they had flood insurance. Most of those houses weren’t in areas that routinely flooded so there was no flood insurance. People are having trouble collecting their insurance money. (And getting coverage now is a challenge, and if you can get it, it costs, and the deductibles for wind/hail are atrocious. I live in a townhouse complex and our deductible is $25,000 per building, for buildings with 5-12 units.)

As for the rebuilding. How long did it take to clean up Ground Zero? I don’t know exactly how big that site is, but it’s miniscule compared to the size of the area that was hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita (which everyone seems to have forgotten). Ground zero hasn’t been rebuilt yet and that was ONE site with an organized cleanup. It will take years to clean up the damage from the hurricanes, even under the best of circumstances. There are regulations that must be followed and sometimes the tear-down is a catch-22.

A lot of people aren’t sure whether to try to rebuild. Some of them are elderly and have never lived anywhere else until now. It’s a tough decision for people to make to abandon the only place they’ve ever known. Some want to rebuild and some realize that going back home isn’t a god idea.

In theory, I was not affected all that much by Katrina. My electricity was out for three or four days and that’s about it. I worked at the pet shelter on the LSU campus for about a month, too, so was exposed to some of the aftermath and was involved peripherally in some of the rescue operations.

On paper, things are great for me and they don’t look that different. However, my life changed drastically because of Katrina. Overnight, Baton Rouge became the largest city in Louisiana. Traffic was a nightmare 24 hours a day for several months. There was the stress of changing class schedules twice in one semester and dealing with shell-shocked transfer students (all but one of whom didn’t do well in my class). The insurance on my townhouse almost doubled and because it’s a group policy, we had to jump through hoops to authorize collecting the extra money and get the dues raised to cover it in the future. I was on the board, so trying to get that taken care of was stressful.

I have felt so stressed for so long, and I haven’t really been affected, not like those who lost everything! I can’t begin to imagine what those who truly were directly affected have gone through and are going through.

It’s very easy to bash when you’re sitting far enough away that you really have no concept of what’s involved. I can understand people lashing out and pointing fingers, whether it’s justified or not.

I am grateful for the outpouring of money, goods, labor, and everything else that has come our way. We would be far worse off without that generosity. Unfortunately, there is still so much left to do. Anyone who doesn’t realize that it will take years to recover from this, even if everything is done as fast and efficiently as possible, is painfully ignorant. All that was destroyed took years to build and grow and it’s not going to be replaced in a few months.

I probably shouldn’t admit it, but I find myself having trouble feeling sympathy for Louisiana in general or New Orleans in particular.

If they’re going to keep electing these people, if they’re going to keep managing their state and local affairs with utter incompetence …

… why should I be surprised or impressed or sympathetic when the obvious result eventually happens?
Professor Blather

Louisiania professionals are leaving in droves.It’s a welfare plantation here where the liberals can easily buy votes with welfare and social programs.What a shock and disappointment that Nagin and Jefferson were reelected.You just cant find 10 people in this state that thinks stealing is a crime.Someone once said to me”he’s a crook,but he’s a good crook.”They were talking about former governor Edwin Edwards social programs.Yeesh,shoulda got out then.
The money that Governor Blanco recieved was from the Bush administrations LRA(Louisiana recovery assistance) program.Its not Blanco’s road home program.She tacked her name on it once she got the money for political points.
The only thing I see being recovered is the democratic voting base and uneducated,trifling,welfare recipients.
We will be moving.

It would have been better if you would have quit playing the blame game a long time ago, and focused instead on getting aid to those who need it.

There are countless dollars in federal money in place; it’s up to Louisiana to do something with it. Of course, ugly La. politics couldn’t be holding things up, HMMMM???

Quit whining, get off of your sorry a$$ and do something. Then you will have earned the right to be listened to.

Not until.

Of course, you spell your name with a capital (D), so I’m not expecting anything much besides finger-pointing, jumping up and down and holding your breath, and press releases blaming everyone else.

You guys are pretty good at that, at least.

I probably shouldn’t admit it, but I find myself having trouble feeling sympathy for Louisiana in general or New Orleans in particular.

If they’re going to keep electing these people, if they’re going to keep managing their state and local affairs with utter incompetence …

… why should I be surprised or impressed or sympathetic when the obvious result eventually happens?

The blame for Katrina goes first to Mother Nature, and then to the state and local officials. Sure, the federal government botched it’s post-storm response … but if Nagin had done his job, there wouldn’t have needed to be a federal response at all.

And then they re-elect him.

I gave a nice chunk change last time. When the next Katrina hits, don’t call me.

I know, I know. It’s that personal responsible thing that liberals hate about conservatives. It’s so out of style these days, isn’t it?

Professor Blather on January 31, 2007 at 9:57 AM

It’s a perfect example of people getting the government they deserve.

It’s one thing to elect these idiots in the first place. It’s something else entirely to re-elect them when you know you won’t like what you get from them.

Cognitive dissonance, I guess.

Did she forget the terrorist attacks on our country a few years ago and the suffering that the people of New York and the country as a whole felt?” stated Republican Party of Louisiana Chairman, Roger Villere, Jr.

well done sir.

I am under the understanding that the Federal Gov’t (that’s you and me) have now funded the diaster in LA to the tune of $60,000 for every man woman and child in the state.
What if we funded them at $100,000/head? Do you think anything would get done at a quicker pace?
Where does the responsibility of the citizens of the United States stop and the responsibility of the citizens of LA kick in?
Hello, Mary? Can you hear me?
Babs on January 31, 2007 at 10:47 AM

Beat me to it, and you wrote it better than I would have.

Every American has in some way paid or helped the region damaged by Katrina. The dems in charge there are despicable, absolutely the most selfish low-life despicable germs.

I say PULL OUT of N.O., give them no more. I’m quite sure they have already wasted or embezzled enough to finish the Chocolate city.
Many near-by residents are worthy of the help and it’s desperately needed in some of those small communities.

All that federal money – I don’t know where it’s going, but I know don’t know a soul who has received a check for more than a thousand dollars for homes that were totally destroyed. The management company that Blanco selected is lowballing estimates, then they deduct (and this part is fair) whatever insurance money you got, and FEMA, then they write you a check. One guy got $216 dollars, when he has over $50,000 in repairs left to do.

but if Nagin had done his job, there wouldn’t have needed to be a federal response at all.

And then they re-elect him.

Professor Blather, the Nagin’s competition was Mary Landreiu’s baby brother. Believe it or not, in the race, Nagin was the reform candidate. Sad, but true.

Mazztek, the failure of the levees is a complex problem, but the bottom line is that the Corps of Engineers publically admitted that it’s their fault. They weren’t built to specification. Add to the corps’ malfeasance, which the gov’t did a tidy job of sweeping under the rug, the fact that our local pols populated the levee board, which was supposed to work with and watchdog the corps, with political hacks for decades, and you get levee failure. Paul at Wizbang had the best analysis and reporting on this anywhere, including the MSM. If you want to know what really happened to the levees, read it at Wizbang.

Nice to see how appreciated we aren’t.

Levees rated for a Class 4. A class 5+ hit them. “Why did they fail?!?” I wonder…

Now, the Gov got the levees fixed. The roads opened. Power and telephone back up. But guess what? It’s up to the individuals to rebuild their own homes. That’s what HOI is for.

Blanco, Landrieu, and nagin have all been trying to add fuel to the anti-bush fire lately. “Why hasn’t bush helped?” Well, WTF have YOU been doing?!?!

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention….

LA Senator: ‘Would have been better off if the terrorists had blown up our levees’

No, they would have been better off if they’d elected some leaders worthy of the name that would have served the interests of their people. But instead they elected Louisiana Democrats, possibly the only creatures on earth more corrupt than Chicago Democrats.

The difference between the reaction to Katrina in Mississippi, where the brunt of the storm actually hit, and that of Louisiana is just breathtaking.

New Orleans murder rate on the rise
Jan. 5: There have been 14 murders since Jan. 1 in New Orleans, outpacing any other U.S. city, and even the number of troops killed in combat in Iraq. NBC’s Martin Savidge reports.

.

But what are the chances of that?