Thank you CarolC for once again putting meat on the liberal position. And for your glowing comments about how you feel about me. I was wondering if you might be a little more clear though ;)

In regards to FEMA, I did not say that their operations were perfect. In fact, if you look at the thrust of my arguement, I stated that the primary problem was the Governor in the immediate aftermath.

Just like in Iraq, someone needed to stop the violence before NGOs and first responders could do their job. That responsibility lies to the local police and the Governor. They failed and as a result the resources that were prepositioned before the hurricane by both FEMA and the military, could not be brought to help.

I don't think people were ready for the flooding or the violence. I think if it was just the hurricane and no levee damage, we wouldnt be having this discussion. The reality is that the worst case scenario of the levee breaking was something no one was prepared for, least of all the governor.

If you want to go back and argue that the Mayor warned, then why did he not ask for help before the storm? Why did the government have to call him to evacuate? Why did Bush then have to call again to tell him he had to evacuate?

Why didn't anyone heed the gizzillian reports and articles about the danger of the weak levees and building below sea level? We can do this all day. The proximate failure was the Governor. If you want to go back you can blame it on lack of federal funding, lack of state funding, lack of leadership from the local state and federal, lawsuit by the Save our Wetlands group that stopped construction on water locks, blah blah blah blah.

Ultimately someone has to take responsibilities. And instead of blaming the feds it seems to me that the people who are going to benefit for the levee shoudl pay for it, just like the people of Galvanstan Texas did when they had their disaster.

Where was that leadership? What kind of leadership says we know the problem but we are going to wait for federal hand outs. Sounds pretty weak to me.

Liberals are so keen on what 'can't be done' because of 'the problem dejure'. Let's talk about what can be done when people start taking responsibility for their actions. Let's start a dialogue, not about what we can get from government and how that very same government and 'society' has failed us, but instead what can we do individually to improve our own situation.

The reality is that the more government does, the less people do for themselves. Which really was the point of my original post (you know, the one where I allegedly made all those 'racist' remarks).