Three points of comment

....and that are usually not addressed, or considered.

1) It is not kind to allow people to act like 'monsters'.
2) The general Public still believes in basic law enforcement, especially when this concerns more serious crimes. When major, hard evidence is ignored, and covered up by not only state/goverment, but also 'lawyers', then the public just will not believe the crime. Usually, as a result, the victims are blames and the crimes projected onto the innocent.
3) If these 'Federal Officers' are not held accountable by those in /with the authority to do so...who will?...who can?
4) You can tell the difference between an employee who is as sociopathic as his boss, and those, (the majority) who are basically good people, and who suffer by being placed in a position where they have to lie and deceive. The fist type 'blooms in his elements'....becomes happy and calm. The latter becomes abusive towards their victims, disturbed and negligent themselves.

by Katrin R. (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 514 comments) on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 10:18:38 AM
 

Justice is blind

deaf and dumb as well. Should the Democrats retake the House we may see hearings and investigations commence but with the same party holding all the branches it remains impossible to think that these rascals will be made to pay for their crimes. Bush will undoubtedly, as a last act of his Presidency, pardon them all.......

by ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments) on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 7:29:57 PM
 

Bush Pardon

If Clinton had pursued Herbert Walker Bush's criminal actions, the spawn of Bush would not have been electable. A candidate litmus test should include commitment to prosecute Dubya.

by Rob Kall (867 articles, 3998 quicklinks, 344 diaries, 1839 comments) on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 10:09:25 PM
 

I feel so inadequate, having no picture....;=)

If the next President was decided only by the left I believe that your litmus test might fly, I love the picture of Bush and Cheney sitting behind bars but, as a realist, must turn away from such a satisfying dream.

I would settle for an administraion that would heal us as a nation......

by ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments) on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 7:19:32 AM
 

Untimely deaths changes their loved ones, for life.

So, as in "Cape Fear, "Counselor, let us figure out the time due me in prison. You say $10,000?

"No, ... 50,000 dollars."

"Okay, counselor, let's use that figure. Now 14 years would equal, ... ."

So, ... what do the parents of those who died in Falugah, which the United States is moving out, because they have lost control of it. A young man loses his life over an ignorant move by an ignorant president.

by Dale Hill (58 articles, 0 quicklinks, 102 diaries, 347 comments) on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 2:12:37 AM
 

Katrina...

I think there is plenty of blame for all, and we need to focus on what to do, if and when it ever happens again.

If you're going to go after criminally negligent Officials, you need to start with the Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, and the Governor of Louisianna. Nagin failed to follow through on his own city's emergency-response plan, which acknowledged that thousands of the city's poorest residents would have no way to evacuate the city. You've probably seen it by now the photo showing 2,000 parked school buses, unused and underwater. How much planning does it require to put people on a bus and leave town? Several rest or retirement homes refused to evacuate their residents during Katrina and they drown. Governor Kathleen Blanco, the other major leader vested with responsibility to address the hurricane disaster) loaded the remaining New Orleans residents into the Superdome and the city's convention center. We all know how that plan turned out. There was no emergency food nor water there nor even city police protection. Add to that fact that several Presidential Administrations, not just the Bush Administration, were tasked with strenthening the levee, and were blocked by budget and environmentalists who did not want to strengthen the walls inside of the levee with simple concrete.

Whenever you plan for disasters that you hope never come, they cost money, often lots of money. Common sense approaches are often lost in politics, left and right. But you have to ask yourself? If you were living in a place, that when you looked up. large ships were passing above you on either side. You immediately should realize you are below the water level, and need to put a very large wall up to hold out the water, or you need to build your house like a boat!

The school buses needed to be part of the emergency plan. The Superdome needed to be stocked with water and emergency food, instead of the "for sale" items for the sports fans. And when FEMA and the National Guard wants to pre-position supplies just in case, it costs your state money to do that. Put that into your budget!

I think we need to look for solutions, plan for them,
and Democrat or Republican or anyone else, the politics
be discarded, by all!

by LordyLordy (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments) on Thursday, September 14, 2006 at 12:02:21 AM
 

Lordy lordy

the world is seldom as simple as we try and make it to be. One might sit in judgement of others so easily when the truth is not as elusive as all that. When levees break school buses become useless, when people are floating dead in the streets findind drivers for those now useless buses becomes problematic. When the local government is overwhelmed by the enormity of the tragedy is it not practical and necesary to turn to the federal government, to FEMA for the aide they are created to provide?

When this length of time has past and trash still litters the streets, 3000 are still missing, so many facts of incompetence at the national level have been uncovered and published, when the white areas of New Orleans are being rebuilt but the poor and black areas are not, when the facts of the Army Corps of Engineers failures to maintain the levees, as is their charged task is so well known, I find your post puzzling and perhaps agendized.......

by ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments) on Thursday, September 14, 2006 at 7:25:46 AM
 

the levees always held

what a shame the people didn't leave when advised to, yes some couldn't, but most could. But they had been through other storms and hurricanes before, they were told to leave and didn't and they survived, the levees always held. They were told once again, "a terrible hurricane is on it's way, you need to leave for you and your family's safety." They had been through it before, the levees had always held hadn't they? This time was different though. They made it through the storm, but the levees didn't hold. This was the tragic event that nobody thought would happen. In all the years through all the storms, the levees always held, but not this time.
There is enough blame to go around, local officials, state officials, and federal officials.
But nobody was prepared for what happened, why would they be? How many times in our history has an ENTIRE CITY been turned into a giant 14 foot deep swimming pool in a matter of hours? It had never happend before, the levees always held, didn't they.

by sbaker (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 137 comments) on Thursday, September 14, 2006 at 4:44:27 PM
 

The levees always were repaired before

werent they? For three years , under Georgie's rule, the Corps of Engineers failed to make routine repairs on those levees. Contractors charged with maintenance on certain parts of the levee system had gone unpaid for about the same length of time as well....

Whether intended or not I seem to get that you try to blame the victims...am I wrong (I hope)?

by ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments) on Friday, September 15, 2006 at 7:36:22 AM
 

It's All Just Cronyism

All these officials who failed to do the appropriate things in these emergencies were simply appointees chosen for their loyalty to the establishment without regard to their capabilities to perform their jobs. So, just as George W. looked confused, without a clue what to do when he heard about the 9/11 attack, these apointees weren't expecting to be required to do any real work. So they froze up, planned meetings on future dates(convenient for the "team") to discuss the problems, and headed for their favorite rec spots. They were not really negligent, just incompetent.

by Bacchus (16 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 34 comments) on Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 11:50:29 PM