September 01, 2005

Katrina: Let the Finger Pointing Begin

Former Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal:

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

Apparently the gloves are already off in some quarters.

UPDATE: Eu Rota points out that the Clinton administration wasn't exactly tops when it came to flood control projects in New Orleans. What we have to keep in mind is this: no administration does these things on purpose! And the area that was hit (New Orleans and the surrounding cities, including Biloxi and Mobile) is simply in a bad spot. As scientists have been saying all along, this was bound to happen sooner or later. Now we have to worry about cleaning up and helping those in need. It will be a long, drawn-out process--one that will be hampered if people keep sniping and backbiting. All of the looking down of political noses will not help those citizens whose homes have been lost, whose livelihoods are in tatters, who have lost loved ones. In a word: get over it and do something. Now.

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