The Heiracrchy of Blame and Responsibility

All politics are local. Don't ever forget that.

Mayor Daly, Giuliani, Et Al
Great city mayors have one very important public trait: they are first and foremost leaders within their own spheres. They know where to go for the services (corrupt or otherwise) that keeps a city going.

Many city mayors have large, effective police forces and people who will take the heat for them when the going gets bad. If they're really good at their jobs, they have trump cards to pull during the bad times.

The great mayors of big and large cities are the jewels in our crown. Without their powerful presence managing their cities, what we would have are real disasters like New Orleans.

All that Jazz
Mayor Ray Nagin showed his be-hind as he ranted, raved and called the president everything but a white person. Meanwhile, hizzoner didn't have a clue and decided he'd blame everyone but himself.

Even the city official, laughingly called "Director of Emergency Planning," stated that there was no planning. Huh? How much you wanna bet said director's former occupation was matre' de somewhere in the Vieux Carre?

Meanwhile, the Governor, that perimenopausal idiot who is so glad the president came, she clung to him like his mentally unstable sister-in-law, simply couldn't lead when required.

She clutched! She didn't order troops even though the president gave her the gift of an early state of emergency status. Why didn't someone scream at her, "For God's sake, Woman, make the call!" What a terrible character defect is weakness.

FEMA maybe didn't plan well enough, but the will was there. Logistically, this could have been avoided if the mayor had done his job AND the governor had stopped being hysterical long enough to take control.

President Bush shares the blame, in a much smaller way. He should've followed his gut and got the militias going sooner. Live by delegating, die by delegating. In this case, his advisors failed him.

Finally, the media. I don't know what to say about them. They also failed; I'm just not sure how yet.

Thuggery and Why
These individuals, thugs, would be the ones the mayor called " a few Knuckleheads." These tiny cliques of misanthropes have placed our country at risk. We must use the powers of the posse commitatus to rid our cities of them. We have to eradicate these vermin.

Why do these people do these horrible things? Because they can. No one stopped them. Meanwhile, everyone who understands that force must be met with force, that law and order has to be the top priority in crises, step forward.

Not so fast, Mayor Nagin.

What We've Learned
It matters not that this is a 150-year event. We have to assume that any emergency can be bigger than we think. I guess we should have back up plans. I'm not a professional, so I can only use my common sense.

If you haven't figured out that we are on our own in a biblical-style emergency, then you'd best find someone to take care of you--and not the government. You'll be on your own for a very long time. Imagine this type of emergency occurring in a large city--like L.A. I can't bring myself to think of it very long.

I've always known intellectually this truth. Now I'm a believer. My action item is setting up communications plans with my family. That's a good place to start.

Thanks for the read.