Between you and me, I have to say that Mary Jo is by far the more articulate of the two.

Posted by civil truth at September 9, 2005 01:20 AM

Did I read that article correctly? The Presses finger pointing caused the relief effort to jump into overdrive. Why is the Press in this country so self rightious?

Posted by Trey at September 9, 2005 07:17 AM

So these people deserved to die because they couldn't afford their own transportation?

Posted by A Curious Liberal at September 9, 2005 07:26 AM

I don't get that interpretation from this post. The point is the hypocrisy of Ted Kennedy, who worries about people drowning when he didn't even try to help the one person whom he put in that very peril. It's "don't point out the splinter in my eye until you take the log out of yours."

However, regarding your point, many people (not all) were left primarily not because of lack of transportation but because of the same reasons that made them poor--bad choices and lack of reasoning ability (not to mention failure to order, facilitate, and enforce an evacuation, which is still a problem today with the mayor and governor.)

Posted by Woody at September 9, 2005 08:36 AM

NOLA's evacuation plan specifically noted that approx. 135,000 would lack transportation to evacuate, and evacuation would take about 72 hours. Nagin waited until 20 hours before landfall to call for his version of a mandatory evacuation, which turned out to be voluntary anyway.

The Red Cross was not allowed, by the state of LA Office of Emergency management, to take food, water and supplies to the Superdome and Convention center. The reason given was that they (paraphrasing) didn't want to encourage people to go to those sites.

Unbelievably, the Gov. (Blanco) is still waiting for "water test results" to order forced evacuations in NO.

Despite the fact that the EPA announced numbers on the toxicity of the water days ago.

This is why people are dead or dying. The state and local governments let their people down by giving them reasons to stay, and still not forcing them to leave, for their own safety.

Posted by Scott at September 9, 2005 09:44 AM

Maybe Ted Kennedy is responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne; maybe he isn't. I can't say either way. Regardless, I think he brings up a very valid point: Why were so many of the poor (regardless of their "lack of reasoning ability") left behind? Blaming local and state officials is a good place to start. Any decent evacuation plan should absolutely have had a contingency for evacuating the population that does not (for whatever reason) have their own means of transportation. At the same time, it doesn't hurt to look at the causes of systemic poverty and try to come up with ways of mitigating the effects that a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina can have on the poor. That's what I think Ted Kennedy was doing and I applaud him for it.

Posted by A Curious Liberal at September 9, 2005 12:29 PM

Curious Liberal wrote: "Maybe Ted Kennedy is responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne; maybe he isn't. I can't say either way."

Let me help you. I can say, and he was.

Kennedy isn't looking for ways to help the poor. He's looking for political points. If he wanted to help the poor, he'd shut up and would be offering help rather than lip service and attacks only against Republicans. I wouldn't be so quick to applaud someone who uses this tragedy for political gain.

CL, you seem genuinely concerned. I do appreciate that. I just don't want you or anyone fooled by people who say they are but don't act that way.

Posted by Woody at September 9, 2005 01:09 PM

Ted Kennedy is concerned about folks drowning? He just needs to stay away from any mention, whatsoever, about anything having to do with water!!

Plus, he'd never last as a volunteer actually working in the disaster area. I don't think they allow drinking while on duty. So, Ted, stay in Massachusettes or D.C, go have a drink and shut up, will ya!

Posted by Elizabeth at September 9, 2005 02:44 PM

Ted Kennedy - "What the American people have seen is this incredible disparity in which those people who had cars and money got out and those people who were impoverished died."

Curious Liberal - "..try to come up with ways of mitigating the effects that a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina can have on the poor. That's what I think Ted Kennedy was doing and I applaud him for it."

If that's what he was trying to say, why didn't he say it?

It was estimated that 134K people had no transportation. Why, if there were 134K people without transportation, did Nagin keep saying, "I told them to leave. I told them to leave," when there were literally hundreds of buses that never left the parking lots? Why did they have to later evacuate over 190K? Why, in Kathleen Blanco's letter to the President, didn't she ask for the feds to step in? Why is it that she spoke of all the preventive measures that were being taken, that in fact WEREN'T, and merely mentioned the need for money for "debris removal" about four times. Did she mean body removal?

I too think CL is genuinely concerned, but lets not equate that concern with a need to defend Ted Kennedy's sophomoric remarks. Of COURSE the poor were affected. It would have been the same anywhere.

Posted by Oyster at September 9, 2005 04:25 PM

Gee... turns out the poor weren't even allowed to walk out of New Orleans.

http://washtimes.com/upi/20050908-112433-4907r.htm

Hey, don't blame the liberal media. It's the Washington Times, a source most conservatives trust.

Posted by A Curious Liberal at September 10, 2005 09:55 AM

A Curious Liberal: "don't blame the liberal media."

Interesting take since we are not blaming the media, in fact, we have made the point here time and time again that there were plenty of problems in the evacuation and that there were lots of folk who slipped up. However, the responsibility of the State Government under K. Blanco cannot and will not be hidden in all the "liberal" hype. The fact of the matter is that the Gretna City Police (from the story you linked to) came under the jurisdiction of overall state authority. The Mayor of New Orleans should have been there directing services from his department and both of those worthies were democrats.

Perhaps because Nagin backed Jindal in the Governor's race (Jindal is a republican) Blanco decided to stick it to the poor of New Orleans as payback to Nagin. An awful thought, yes? But no worse than the claptrap that the dems are pandering to.

Again, the efforts of the far left to use this as (Kos stated) the Political Perfect Storm and the DNC's attempt to raise money on the backs of the hurrican's victims says way too much about the far left than it does about anything else.

Posted by GM Roper at September 10, 2005 10:55 AM

A few things to clear up:

#1) I am not a representative of the Democratic party. Most Democrats aren't really as "far left" as you seem to think. I'm much further to the left than the dreaded Clintons or John Kerry or Kos.

#2) I am less interested in seeing a victory for the Democratic party and more interested in a victory for people trapped in systemic poverty.

#3) If Republicans often find themselves on the defensive when it comes to the issue of poverty then it's their own fault. They simply have not been proactive on the issue. (Please do not respond with a lesson on trickle-down economics. Thank you.) I'm not saying the Democrats are doing the right things for the poor (or if they are doing the right things, I'm not saying they do them well) but, you have to admit, they are at least doing something.

#4) When I said "don't blame the liberal media" what I meant was, you can't blame the liberal media for distorting what happened in mostly white/mostly Republican Gretna, LA because it wasn't the liberal media reporting it but rather the very conservative Washington Times.

Posted by A Curious Liberal at September 11, 2005 12:33 AM

"If Republicans often find themselves on the defensive when it comes to the issue of poverty then it's their own fault." - ????

Um, nope. They go on the defensive when they get blamed for every thing that isn't right. They don't get defensive out of nowhere or nothing. The problem with poverty in many instances is the approach Democrats and Republicans take. Democrats are of the "entitlement" mind and Republicans aren't. The real shame is that many of these people prefer a handout over opportunity. (Please take note that I said "many" and not "all" before you lash back).

And if you're that far left, CL, (left of Kerry or Kos) and you're not representative of the Democratic party then what are you anyway? Socialist? If this is the case, then I won't waste anymore of my own time with you.

Posted by Oyster at September 12, 2005 06:57 AM