Right hook

“To be prepared is half the victory.”
—Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

As of this writing, the losses in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have yet to be fully counted.

Yet, even as rescue efforts continue, the blame-Bush game has begun.

On a recent airing of Air America Radio (KJFK 1230 AM) chief airhead Randi Rhodes said this regarding the devastation in New Orleans: “This president is never going to do the right thing. I think somewhere deep down inside him, he takes a lot of joy about losing people, if he thinks they vote Democrat or if he thinks they’re poor, or if he thinks they’re in a blue state, whatever his reasons are not to rescue those people who are [planning] for their safety.”

Some choice [paraphrased] telephone calls followed:

• Katrina was caused by global warming and Bush’s oil buddies.

• The president cut funding for the New Orleans’ levee system, and so Katrina’s damage was his fault.

• The Louisiana National Guard troops were all in Iraq and hence unavailable to help.

And on it went.

OK, time for a reality check.

Let’s recall that there have been many hurricanes greater in intensity that caused more damage before Katrina ever hit New Orleans. Oh yes, and they hit long before the president ever took office.

In fact, hurricanes have been around since the beginning of time. To the best of my knowledge, the president doesn’t have the ability to order them up like strategic nuclear strikes.

Also, there has been no clearly established evidence that global warming even exists, let alone as a man-made event. Even assuming it does exist, I’m quite certain that it started long before President Bush took office and before his rejection of the Kyoto Protocol Treaty in his first term.

(And let’s also recall that the 1997 Byrd-Hagel Senate Resolution opined, by a vote of 95-0, that Kyoto was bad for America.)

Federal money for local projects (aka “pork") is doled out by Congress, not the president.

The president doesn’t have the constitutional authority to make emergency-preparedness plans for municipalities, cities or states.

The president, however, did urge New Orleans Mayor Ray Naglin to perform a mandatory evacuation of the city two days before Katrina hit (which His Honor neglected to mention in his oft-reported cry for help from the federal government.)

Why a good percentage of the population didn’t leave sooner is the mayor’s fault and perhaps also of the residents themselves—not the president. (How do you live in a freaking hurricane zone and not comprehend the term “evacuation?")

And as for the Guard? James S. Robbins at National Review Online wrote this: “According to Lieutenant General H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, 75 percent of the Army and Air National Guard are available nationwide. In addition, the federal government has agreed since the conflict in Iraq started not to mobilize more than 50 percent of Guard assets in any given state, in order to leave sufficient resources for governors to respond to emergencies.”

So let’s be honest. Katrina is proof positive of what happens when our safety and welfare is put into the hands of idiot bureaucrats and the government.

Consider the following resources to prepare yourself for emergencies of all kinds: www.redcross.org/services/disaster/beprepared; http://federalistpatriot.us/useprpc.

Supplies can be found at camping stores (or my local favorite, Twin City Surplus).