Four Years Ago Today

As many of us mourn the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy let's not forget the passing of nearly 2000 Americans on this date.


Four years ago today Katrina made landfall as a category 4 hurricane. Later that same day the levees were breached in New Orleans. This was just the beginning of tremendous devastation made worst nightmare by government inaction and ineptitude.

While Sen. Kennedy, thankfully, died in his bed surrounded by loved ones, four years ago others drowned in their attics or were simply swept away.

Kennedy was a champion of the best of what government could do for the people. The aftermath of Katrina was the outcome of what believing that government is the enemy will get you.

Katrina timeline here.

Some photos of victims here (which were kept from the public via the Bush Administration and the mainstream media).

Proof that the tragedy which Bush officials claimed that no one could have predicted was already concerning little liberal bloggers -- and others -- the day before Katrina hit.

.

Newt Gingrich on Katrina Victims

Via the Huffington Post, I found this blog entry.

Newt's one of the guys over there in God's Own Party that wants to be President of the United States and this weekend he had something deeply disturbing to say about all those pesky Katrina victims. According to this blog over at Huffingtonpost, good ole Newt started his speech with stuff about conservatives elevating the debate (tell it to Ann, Newt) and then ended it with:

How can you have the mess we have in New Orleans, and not have had deep investigations of the federal government, the state government, the city government, and the failure of citizenship in the Ninth Ward, where 22,000 people were so uneducated and so unprepared, they literally couldn't get out of the way of a hurricane. (emphasis original)

Here's an audio clip if you don't believe he said it.

Aren't conservatives supposed to be compassionate these days? Or was that just another smoke screen from dubya? I'm just asking. Somehow blaming victims for their victimhood (in this case, in the face of a hugely devastating hurricane) just seems, well, mean - though par for the course for that subgenre of conservative thinking.

Harry Shearer fact-checks Newt:

In case Newt hasn't been reading up (try Path of Destruction or The Storm), the folks in the Ninth Ward weren't caught by a hurricane. They were surprised at 5:30 Monday morning (according to Van Heerden's timeline) by an eighteen-foot-high wall of water as their federally built flood protection structure catastrophically failed.

Who's the uneducated one?

I wonder.

‘Katrina Kids’ Sing ‘Congress, Bush and FEMA…Have Come to Rebuild Us’ at White House Egg Roll

From Think Progress:

Today at the White House Easter Egg Roll, dozens of children “from the stricken Gulf Coast region serenaded First Lady Laura Bush with a song praising the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency.” To the tune of “Hey Look Me Over,” the kids from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama sang:

“Our country’s stood beside us
People have sent us aid.
Katrina could not stop us, our hopes will never fade.
Congress, Bush and FEMA
People across our land
Together have come to rebuild us and we join them hand-in-hand!”

A poster commemorating this event is available at the White House Gift Shop/FEMA Gift Shop:


(Click on image for larger version)
.

Katrina Aftermath: The Pictures That Bush (Rove) Will Not Let YOU See

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.