Hurricane Katrina (After the Storm)

WARNING: I am about to play "The Blame Game" only I call it "Governmental Accountability" (and yes these days that is an oxymoron).

None of the the people listed below are responsible for this disaster. Nature is what it is but response is everything when you are dealing with the lives of people you have been charged with protecting.

















LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Mayor Ray Nagin
Mayor Nagin faced aging population of people who have grown very accustomed to waiting out storms. In the simplest terms many people could have left and choose not to leave in order to stay with an elderly parent who would not leave. My great-grandmother in Baton Rouge is the exact same way. She refuses to leave when storms are coming. The mandatory evacuation was announced. After that, it became a statewide issue because once the storm hit, all communication was wiped out. It would have been impossible for ANY local government to handle a disaster of this magnitude and scope (Consider the possibility of the entire local chain of command being dead--would we stil be waiting for people to be rescued?). The mayor asked for help. More help should have come faster. Period. The moment the storm hit and flooded the city this became a State and Federal problem.

What ELSE could Nagin have done?:
He could have provided buses to transport citizens who wanted to leave and could not afford it or lacked personal transportation on the day he declared a mandatory evacuation.

STATE GOVERNMENT
Governor Kathleen Blanco
I feel the most regret for the middle-woman in this tragedy. She is female governor amongst men, a democrat among republicans and is less charismatic and spotlight oriented than her male counterparts. Her status as a Democrat made her the official scapegoat of federal administration for their lack of response (although the exact same things happened in Mississippi). Haley Barbour, Mississippi’s Governor has been both protected and held at bay by the same administration. Blanco declared a state of emergency and asked for Federal intervention days before the storm.

It has recently come out that Governor Blanco asked FEMA Director Brown for busses, on the day of the storm so that they could to be dispatched to the superdome to bring the people there to inland shelters. As Brown said, “I asked for it and it just fell into a black hole.” It was Thursday when the buses arrived. Brown has further admitted that Blanco had the appropriate paperwork completed and submitted before the storm hit and provided information obtained by her office to him immediately after the storm(although informaiton was skewed in some cases because of the breakdoen of technology). As a governor, her main job was to declaare the emergency and secure and submit the correct paperwork to enable the federal government to the BIG job that partially obliterated states probaly can't do. BUT she also mobilized her troops, the national guard, (and borrowed a few from other states) and got them to New Orleans in short order. Sadly the majority of Louisianas Army reserves were deployed in the middle east (and that has never really been discussed). Governor Blanco has done many great things for the state of Louisiana before and after Hurricane Katrina and I think when history judges this time in history she will be placed in a favorable light. If this were a greek tragedy, Governor Blanco would be Antigone (charged with seeing to the honor of her state and being bullied by Creon--President Bush).

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
President Bush
Homeland Security & FEMA

For the federal response I have a keyword : Incompetent
I could just put the keyword in big bold letters and conclude my appraisal of the federal response but that wouldn't be my style.

Mr. President, incompetent describes your reaction to Katrina. Incompetent also describes your decision to continue your schedule while a natural disaster was taking place in your country. The “fly over” the gulf-coast was un-presidential. Okay, so President Bush is no statesman, big deal. Not everyone has the same gifts. I can live with that. Here’s what I can’t live with: the lies. Better yet, my president glad-handing political cronies when he should have been tending to our country. Appointing unqualified people is despicable in general but appointing them to such necessary and important posts is inexcusable. People died because of your lack of response. Deal with it. Above all, the most despicable act was playing the blame game in lieu of assuming responsibility for your overwhelmingly sluggish response. As a president who ran his first campaign on restoring honor to the presidency, you have been quite the disappointment in that particular area.

Moving on, incompetent also describes what the W. Bush administration turned FEMA into. I remember when FEMA was the shining star of the federal cabinets (yes, it was once treated as a cabinet). Remember, if you can, the work of FEMA during the Clinton administration. Before FEMA was placed under the bureaucracy of homeland security, it was a very useful department. If you do nothing else Mr. President please remove FEMA from Homeland Security. Give them their own cabinet seat, how about, “The Department of Homeland Response”? At least then everyone will be clear that the job is to respond.


In closing:
What happened at the superdome (and convention center); A hot, wet environment where people were packed in together in the dark without food or water, being prayed upon by less moral people. All the while awaiting shipment to other places was the visual equivalent of slavery to my psyche. My mind could not help but draw the comparison. I saw the superdome as a slave ship. What hurts so much is to know that my people are always the recipients of this kind of treatment. I have always believed in the beauty of the process of this government (I even became a Political Scientist to preserve and make it better) but watching the photo ops after Katrina and going home to view the damage I was left with one realization, in times of crisis we only have ourselves. Mississippi was obliterated. It does not get as many sound bytes as Louisiana does but be clear the American gulf coast was reduced to a third world nation and the federal government of the richest country in the world stood by and watched. It was shameful. In light of that, we need to build stronger city and state governments and prepare to help ourselves more. The veil of false security about federal disaster response has been thrown off and cast aside. We should act accordingly.


So say the polity,
-A

Immigration Reform

Firstly let me dispel a misconception, illegal immigration is not a Mexican or Hispanic issue. This country attracts people from nations all over the world. But since the Mexican diaspora have made themselves the poster children for this particular issue I would be a foolish not to address it the way it is being presented.

The illegal immigrants lost me as a possible ally when Vicente’ Fox said they, “do the jobs that not even the blacks will do.” That day I resolved not to get involved in this madness but the insults continued. Here, in Houston, the misguided high-schoolers likened their “struggle” to be illegal and be afforded the rights of citizens to the struggle of African-American citizens who marched and protested for basic human rights in this country. They called themselves “sleeping giants”, and after a day of boycotting and waving flags of their nations had no effect (except a loss of revenue for Mexican-American businesses) they released what was the final straw for me, the Spanish version of our national anthem. I consider myself a patriot and a gentle-lady but that display of disrespect was the last straw. In a lot of ways this anthem is symbolic of the way these cultures have treated our nation. We are in a sense a test tube for their babies. We provide safety, healthcare, room and board for them but when they are born they will raise the flag of their mother (country). I applaud the right of any citizen to wage lawful protest on any issue of our country but if we continue to allow non-citizens to take to our streets in protest we have done ourselves a great disservice. Why don’t these people demonstrate in the countries of the flags they raise, instead of on our soil? A lot of columnists have asked the question, “Why are we responsible for people who willfully abandon their countries and illegally enter ours?” It is a good question. The answer is simple, we’re not.

I sympathize with the people trying to do things that right way. To the others I say, I’m sorry if our system isn’t fast enough for you but we’re not obligated to accept anyone into our nation. Personally, I welcome any person who wants to be an American, learn the language and contribute to society. Period. To the others I ask, what is the problem with going through the appropriate channels? My deepest belief is that a lot these people do not wish to be American citizens. Instead they want to work here and diminish our economy by sending money home to Mexico (or wherever). I pity these poor people marching and siding with the people who are using them as cheap labor, all the while taking jobs away from American citizens (Yes, Mexican-American, Anglo-America, African-American, Native American…any way you slice it, we are all American).

Dear Mr. Fox:
I know Mexican nationals are hard-working people but this is a country of hardworking people so, among us, they simply blend into the crowd. To clarify, Mexicans don’t do jobs Americans won’t do. They do jobs Americans won’t do for the same minuscule wage. If your people were not here those jobs would get done by Americans who have social security numbers and pay taxes. I hope this clears it all up for you.
-ADJR

Bottom line: Amnesty is an insult to law abiding immigrants who have chosen to follow the laws of this country and go about citizenship the right way. Those who go about being here illegally obviously have no respect for the laws of this land or they would simply follow protocol. Mexican immigrants already have a preference under the current administration (if you doubt that, ask a Haitian). I'm in favor of giving these hardworking people three months to register, and get in line behind immigrants who went about it legally, to begin the legitimate process toward citizenship or be shipped back to wherever they are from. That’s a lot fairer than an illegal American would be treated in any of those countries. If you want to be an American go through the proper steps and channels like any other, would be, naturalized citizen. Learn the language. I’m not saying abandon your culture but let all the other immigrants be your measuring stick. Pick any culture (Chinese, Italian, Indian, Canadian-Americans) we all speak English at work or school and our native tongue at home or in leisure. That is the strength of this nation; we accept all and become all. It’s a melting pot, polarized though it may be at times, but we are one nation derived of many cultures (not many nations in one culture). Furthermore: We raise one national flag, and we speak one national language. This is a land of freedom, and you can choose to adapt to that or be free to choose another country.


The Big Picture:
National security is really what that this immigration reform should be about. Where national security is concerned this is just an American/Mexican issue because the Canadian/American boarder is patrolled by both governments. We need appropriate border security. At the very least, that means a defined border with a fence or some equally effective barrier in place. This country has been launched into terrorism and the plots will probably never stop so we have to protect our citizens. By the same notion Mexico needs to protect their citizens. If the relationship between these countries was not so co-dependant it would be an easy fix. After all, it is in the best interest of both nations.

Dear Mr. President:
The citizens of this country implore you to fulfill your promise to keep us safe, by securing our borders before any other plan involving immigration reform is put into play. When you said, “America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people,” did that only apply to war? If not Mr. President, then think now about our security at home on a comprehensive level. Threats to our nation may come from anywhere and it would be unwise of us not to defend all borders vigorously.

So say the polity,
~A

Introduction

Welcome to "Just Politicking" !
In the coming days and weeks I will systematically go about addressing the political issues of these United States.

For Starters: Let me just define the parameters of this Blog.
I am a moderate, so I'm accustomesd to people disagreeing with me, in fact, I'm very comfortable with it. As a political scientist, I am not bogged down with the need to impress party members. I simply want what is best for this country and fair for its citizens and I will persue that which is right with vigor. My perspective is impartial to party politics and only clouded by the act of being just, hence the blog title, "JUST POLITICKING". I hope you enjoy your stay.

" just ( P ) PronunciationKey (jst)adj.
Honorable and fair in one's dealings and actions: a just ruler. See Synonyms at fair1.
Law. Valid within the law; lawful: just claims.
Suitable or proper in nature; fitting: a just touch of solemnity.
Based on fact or sound reason; well-founded: a just appraisal.

pol·i·tick ( P ) Pronunciation Key (pl-tk)intr.v. pol·i·ticked, pol·i·tick·ing, pol·i·ticks
To engage in or discuss politics."

~A