Let’s start with CNS News
In the two years since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005, the Bush administration has failed to restore the city because of its reliance on conservative policies, a liberal organization charged in a report released Tuesday.
"The failure we see in the rebuilding of New Orleans is without any question a failure of conservative governance," said Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, during a telephone news conference announcing the group’s report, "Compounding Conservative Failure: Hurricane Katrina Two Years Later."
"Katrina was a natural disaster," the document states. "The failure of rescue, reconstruction, and recovery is a conservative failure. Conservatives tried to use the hurricane disaster to prove their theories and consolidate their power."
You know, Borosage is partially correct. Conservative theories of self reliance, empowerment, personal responsibility, and good old fashioned "can do!" attitudes failed, to some degree, in New Orleans. Mostly because too many of the effected people were liberals, who have no concept of any of those theories. In Liberal World, the government is supposed to take care of them for their entire lives, for almost everything. And it did not help that neither the mayor of New Orleans or the governor of Louisiana have done virtually nothing for the people they are responsible for.
Bush "promised an unprecedented response to an unprecedented crisis," Borosage said Tuesday. "He promised the rapid return of the survivors who were dispersed across the country," but one-third of the city’s population has yet to come back.
Why come back? Those people are ensconced in public housing in other cities, raising the crime rates, over-working the public infrastructure.
"In New Orleans, public hospitals are still closed; a significant number of the public schools are still closed; the sewage system is near collapse, leaking over 50 million gallons a day; public transport has been cut by two-thirds; and public housing is down," he added.
So, I wonder what the La. state and New Orleans governments have done with the billions allocated for reconstruction?
…"the fact that Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the Democratic senators in that state decided to take the money they got to build levees and spend it on other things is not a reflection on the idea of limited government, it’s a reflection on their judgment," said Grover Norquist, president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform.
Bill Lauderback, executive vice president of the American Conservative Union, agreed, telling Cybercast News Service that Nagin and Blanco have "demonstrated a level of incompetence beyond imagination both during the Katrina disaster and the two years following."
"The current level of cronyism and corrupt politics has been Louisiana’s stock in trade going back well before Katrina," said Lauderback. "When they have a problem pointing to their corruptness and incompetence, their response is to immediately blame someone else, and in this case, they have a convenient scapegoat in President Bush."
Bingo. Take corrupt and unresponsive government, add a dollop or government dependent people, sprinkle with money, and you do not get a nice meal: you get a mess.
Meanwhile, what about the folks that have not been captured by the liberal system of government reliance?
Entire strip malls remain shuttered in east New Orleans.
Apartment buildings are abandoned, and rows of utility poles still lean at precarious angles — a reminder of how viciously the area was battered by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the subsequent flooding — and how hard it’s been to rebuild.
But one enclave, the Vietnamese neighborhood known as Versailles, has rebuilt itself nearly to pre-Katrina conditions.
Homes in the community 12 miles east of downtown New Orleans have been gutted, rebuilt and repainted. Nearly all of its 7,000 residents have returned, and nearly every business has reopened.
While many projects across the Gulf Coast wait on billions of dollars in promised federal funds, Versailles residents have taken matters into their own hands. The rebuilding effort has centered around Vien The Nguyen, pastor of Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church.
"We believe that when you rely on someone else, you’re at their mercy," Vien says. (emphasis mine)
Really, what else is there to add after that?
Well, Ogre has an interesting post up, so go read that one. He loves entitlement. To smack around, I mean.
More: The Good LT. at The Jawa Report finds a report on Katrina being the worst hurricane evah! But, not so fast.
You should check out Sister Toldjah’s post, as well, and this one from Wizbang.
Kinda surprised that so few bloggers, including those on the Left, mentioned it today.
