Yabbut: Katrina remembered

An old friend taught me the word "YABBUT" many years ago, and defined it as follows:

"The Human's innate desire to always be right"

In the wake of the "storm of the century", I have been repeatedly reminded of this phrase; tirelessly overwhelmed with its implications in this time of human suffering and national (read political) crisis.

At the outset here, let me give my own condolences and sorrow for the loss of life and property in the gulf coast. I can't begin to appreciate what the citizens have had to endure and continue to endure. I can say with certainty that, given it's southern location, the sense of community and brother and sister helping brother and sister has been immense, and consistent with our traditions of pulling together in the greatest times of need. If you, as a non-southerner are offended by that...too bad. Having lived many years in the north, I can factually say the sense of community differs dramatically beween these two regions of the country, so get over it.

The theme of this post is intended to deal with everything BUT the specific issues on the ground for people in the region. I was very unfortunate to be locked up in a hotel room in the first days after the storm, with CNN as the only news outlet available, and if you hate Bush this was a media coup d'etat. If you happen to like Bush, this was worse than a root canal without novocaine. I witnessed a media outlet take control of driving the national conversation...complete with ONLY the "it's Bush's fault" voices getting airtime. It was disgusting, but expected from the media...with one exception...

When the media's Bush-bashing creates policy we have a problem. Whatever your opinion, whoever you support, whenever you politicize a horrific event, we can all agree to one truth; we have and are entitled to our own perspective(s). Given that fundamental truth, consider the result of the last few weeks of events. Just about everyone knows there was a hurricane and just about everyone knows there were many lives lost and many places damaged or destroyed. The media has steered the focus to New Orleans...they will quickly point out that Alabama and Mississippi were affected and will just as quickly do the Yabbut thing...yabbut, look at new Orleans! Look at what Bush DIDN'T do! Look at how many people died to prove he is incompetent! Watch us and only us for all the gory details!

I quote from a decreasingly influential document in our country; the US Constitution:

Article 10 of the Amendments to the Constitution states this:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

CNN isn't bringing this up; it doesn't sell ad space. The Washington Post, NY Times, LA Times, etc aren't bringing this up; it doesn't increase readership. No one, anywhere, has played out for the viewing or listening or reading audience what WOULD have happened if Bush had tried to PREVENT this catastrophe; he would be or (according to the Constitution) should have been arrested, tried, and impeached!

I will bite the bullet and play this out for my reading audience(however small it may be). Imagine this scenario:

Bush sees the weather report, sees the storm intensifying, sees it bearing down on New Orleans. He calls out the National Guard, and INVADES New Orleans, physically removing her citizens against their will from their homes and places of employment. All "prisoners" are forced into evacuation shelters such as the Superdome, Astrodome, or where ever else they would be placed. Wait. These places are in other states...oh no! Bush's storm troopers will have to invade these other states and seize control of them in order to execute his order to remove and displace the citizens. Now, realistically NO ONE would have accepted this from this or any other President...but you Bush haters would say...

Yabbut...he coulda done more, he shoulda done more...it's his fault...he's a racist...etc, blah blah blah

Another scenario for you:

Bush sees the weather report, sees the storm intensifying, sees it bearing down on New Orleans. He calls the Mayor and suggests he evacuate (oh wait...he did that).
The mayor says he is working on that (oh wait, he did tell the President that). He calls the Governor and asks what the Feds can do to help (oh wait...he did that). The Governor says everything is under control...but she'll get back to him as things unfold (oh wait, she said that).

And the storm hits, and people don't leave, and they aren't forced to leave by the people whom the Constitution assigned responsibility to for protecting its citizens. And people died unnecessarily, and media outlets have projected blame where it can not legally be placed, and the media consuming public gets on the "it's Bush's fault" bandwagon like the good sheep they are, and we will take money we don't have to pay for everything out of pure guilt and political opportunism...and another hurricane will hit somewhere else, and more people will suffer, and we will continue to rise to the moment of hysteria, like the good sheep we are. And we will elect new politicians, and enable their "in the name of getting or keeping power" self-importance addictions, and we will continue to forget the most fundamental of points; the Constitution.

We wanted to be a collection of states, each with our own basic independence and freedom to live as we chose within our states' borders and come together as one nation for the fundamental COLLECTIVE needs we would ALL share...

Read the Preamble gain:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The state of Lousiana and all its layers of government are SOLELY to blame. The Governor to the Mayor, and the Legislature for spending money on everything BUT the levee system. They are assigned all these responsibilities by the Constitution of the US AND their own state...they failed, people died, property destroyed...end of story.

I am ashamed of the media. I am ashamed of opportunistic politicians. I am ashamed of the President I strongly support that he would forfeit his political soul to quiet the screaming masses who are dancing to the media's yabbut claims that he should have done something before the storm(even though he couldn't have done anything legally) so he must now spend money to pay for everything after the storm(that isn't his money to give). Insurance companies, private donations, all manner of volunteerism; not the big government that can't get out of its own way. Check back in 6 months, and I'll review for you all the media potshots about what else is done wrong; wrong Czar; wrong Contractors; wrong epa law relaxations; wrong areas for minority businesses; and on and on. Stay tuned.