Republicans in Congress agree, Katrina was a failure, Do you agree with Congress?
113044
A failure? I would call it a horrific farce. I mean bad enough it was celebreties going down there to get people out of New Orleans instead of the government(Thank the Godess for people like Sean Penn) but the fact that there was NO follow up...I mean COME ON!!! How many were turned out of their hotel rooms and shelters with NO place to go? It makes me sick to my stomach. Where is the humanity???
172500
I live in New Orleans.  I am one of those other thousands of people that you are NOT hearing about; I found a place to live, I did not ask for more FEMA money.  It has been over 5 months since we all lost practically everything.  That's 5 months.  That's a lot of time to pull oneself together and get on with getting on.  Thousands of us did just that, but you aren't reading about us, are you?  I think it is right, and anyone still expecting FEMA to pay for a hotel room should be able to show FEMA proof why they would still need it.
631497
For the good of the nation and the good of the world, God, I hope so!\n\nThen we need the GOP congressives to stop spending like drunken sailors and read the Constitution, and GDubya to start vetoing the bloated bills that come to him.\n\nDo the congressives understand that their low polls are due to their failure to restrain themselves and the growth of government and their failures to support good and necessary legislation (immigration, soc.sec. reform, etc)?
966706
The general incompetence, cronyism and downright dishonesty of the republicans. I voted for change! We need to have people who know what they are doing running agencies like FEMA, not big GOP money people.
83621
Katrina handling was a complete diaster which still isn't being handled well but rather than spending our time blaming others I think Congress should take the insights learned from this and devise a better emergency plan which may include removing FEMA from the Homeland Security department.
864831
11: Failing to Act on the Gulf Coast\n12: Failing to Use mine and your FEMA trailers(they are rotting now)\n13: Failing to keep spending in check(blew 630 billion x2)\n14: Failing to hold the Levee Board accountable.\n\n\n\nI think I added enough LOL...I vote for change..today..and in 2 years.
932780
In my personal opinion, it was a failure of communication.  Everybody seemed to want to be in charge at that point.(city,state,federal etc.)  But nobody actually took the bull by the horns to make the very important decisions that needed to be made at the last minute. \nOnce the hurricane did hit,  the were no communications what so ever. No cell phone, no radio, nothing, for I think it was 4 or 5 days.  Nothing but each other.  \nIn short, to many chiefs and not enough Indians.\nI would like to note, that New Orleans was not the only affected area by the hurricane.
445367
No. The worst part about the whole thing is that he thinks hes right. He probably doesnt think what you and I consider mistakes are actually mistakes. Although he did surprise me by taking the blame for Katrina last year...I guess he can notice his own f*ck-ups if theyre big enough.\n\n\nPeace
993604
no, on either count. They failed.
939631
You have a good point. I just returned from a trip to the Mississippi coast. There is still a lot of storm damage yet to be fixed. Insurance companies have refused to pay settlements claiming the storm surge flooding caused all the damage. People are still living in campers in the driveways of their destroyed homes. More than half of the businesses haven't reopened, and lots of people are without jobs.\nIt was hard for me to believe I was still in America.
827221
Katrina was the turning point in this country. Seeing the habitual lack of care for humanity is what sent his poll numbers to where they are now. \n\nBarbara Bush's words: "So many people in the arena here were under privileged anyway, this is really working out quite well for them".\n\nThe family doesn't care about anyone without a thick wallet. Its time we started realizing that, both true conservatives and liberals alike.
339733
Gees...another "blame it on Bush" answer.  Fact is the death toll on Katrina lies squarely on the shoulder of the state gov't of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans and it's residents.  It was their responsibility, not the federal government's, to ensure they were prepared for a natural disaster.  Those who could have left should have when they had the chance and let's not mention all the misappropriated funds by one of the most corrupt state and local governments in the history of the U.S.
165407
yep, it makes sence.\n1)  Katrina was a fluke.  It is something that engineers expect to see once every 100-200 years.  No reason to waste time & resources planning for such a rare occasion.  It would cost more to plan for that event than to rebuild.\n2)  New Orleans is a very important port city because of its access to the Mississippi river.  Lots of shipping to midwestern states.\n3)  There is too much pride in our government to ignore one of our own cities when billions of our tax money goes to helping other countries deal with similar tragedies.\n4)  There is a lot of money to be made in the new New Orleans.  This is a chance to adjust zoning laws to attract new businesses.\n5)  The failure to respond exposed massive city corruption that will be corrected so that the city will have a second chance to prosper instead of being dragged down by red tape.  This will also attract more businesses to the city.\n\nIf America was to abandon every city that was struck by tragedy these cities would not exist today:\nWashington, D.C. - War of 1812\nSan Francisco - Earthquake\nChicago - Fire\nAtlanta - Civil War
811344
They are wrong! I\n\nI believe their defeat had more to do with their lack of oversight, corruption and being a rubber stamp for Bush and his unwelcomed policies played a large part in their defeat. It was their actions, or lack thereof! They had no oversight, they gave away power relegated to Congress and the courts of the United states. They, like Bush, thought they were above the law, and they were a congress of exclusion, even to elected democrats!\n\nIf you look at history, especially lately, it is seldom we let one branch have total control of government! Now you know why!\n\nI would say that Bush and his war were rebuked by the electorate. It was clear the election was a referendum on Bush and one can't say he was a rotten apple in the election! I hope he got the message! I hope Republicans got the message as clearly many voted against their own party, as well as people who make between $50,000 and $100,000 a year! They know who got the tax cuts and they know who shares the largest tax burden!
928785
Ashamed - no.\nHorribly disappointed - yes.\n\nThere are policies this president has supported that I don't understand and really worry about.\n\nYes there is the war in Iraq and there are terrorist threats that I don't feel are being dealt with.  \n\nHowever, I'm honestly very concerned about some of the stuff going on a little closer to home.  \n\nWhy is the president spending so much time and money trying to define what a marriage is?  (Please don't give me the God said it's bad for a man and a man to hook up and it's bad for a woman and a woman to hook up, I'm looking at it as a tax payer, and I'm sick of the government spending money telling me that I can only marry a man legally.)\n\nWhy did the federal government screw up so badly in response to Katrina?  (We had to know that a hurricane was coming and we didn't prepare for it or what?)\n\nWhy does our president think that a teacher in this country is leaving any child behind?  (No child left behind is a great idea, but it's completely useless.  It is a completely under funded idea that the government decided would be a nice catch phrase to get voters to agree with, but if you actually know how it works, you would cry for the teachers and students.)\n\nWhy are we spending around 520 billion on the department of defense versus spending about 60 billion on the department of education?  (I'm not arguing that I want to feel safe in the country that I was born in, but why are we spending almost 9 times the amount of money on education on defense.  Maybe it's just me but I think the kids in our schools across the country deserve more than what they are getting.)\n\nYou may disagree with what I have to say, and that's fine with me.  I support what our country stands for, but I have some serious concerns about how our fearless leader is currently directing our country.\n\nHave a great day from the Land Of Lincoln.  :)
106294
The Democrats were certainly capable of establishing the safety net that the storm victims were expecting long before Mr. Bush took office, but they did NOT.  To account for all reasonable disasters that could strike the US, to the standard of reclamation that you seem to be expecting would, in my estimation, consume the entire US budget for 10 years, and would take billions annually to maintain.  (That's no road work, no medical plans, no school program support, no Social Security, no military, Nothing for 10 years.) President Bush did not dismantle any disaster programs or plans. He did not sell off supplies, trailers, food, clothing, instant homes, instant levies, yet you are holding him soley accoutable for what the State's are equally responsible for?  That is just so very irresponsible... and so very much represents the extremist closed minded left.\nTo say that anyone could have actually stopped Katrina from hitting has simply been watching too many Science FICTION movies.\n\nAh.. Name calling, that always solves things! we skate so closely to abuse. Okay, simple.... here we go...\n\nThe civil engineering effort to prevent a city that is largely below sea level from ever being submerged was within the grasp of the leadership of the State, but apparently was not pursued with much earnest as other projects were deemed (locally) as having more importance.  \n\n"In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times as large.\n\nMuch of that Louisiana money was spent to try to keep low-lying New Orleans dry. But hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to unrelated water projects demanded by the state's congressional delegation and approved by the Corps, often after economic analyses that turned out to be inaccurate. Despite a series of independent investigations criticizing Army Corps construction projects as wasteful pork-barrel spending, Louisiana's representatives have kept bringing home the bacon.\n\nFor example, after a $194 million deepening project for the Port of Iberia flunked a Corps cost-benefit analysis, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) tucked language into an emergency Iraq spending bill ordering the agency to redo its calculations. The Corps also spends tens of millions of dollars a year dredging little-used waterways such as the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the Atchafalaya River and the Red River -- now known as the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway, in honor of the project's congressional godfather -- for barge traffic that is less than forecast...."\n\nThen there's New York City (see second link). When the next big storm sweeps northward and hits that city, what happened in New Orleans will look like a summer rain.  Is anyone looking to storm proof that city?  What will its residents yell afterwards?  Should we spend 100 Trillion dollars storm-proofing NYC?  What about San Francisco?   The basic lesson is, that we cannot control the weather, or geology.  People elect to live where they may. When they live in risky places, there should not be any surprises when disasters strike. (read Geohazards: Natural and Human\n by Dr. Nicholas Coch)
754828
yes, that's right KATRINA!!!!   sad, but true!!