The Quiet Conservative 08/28/2011
Pulling the Trigger
Hurricane Irene was over hyped by the media desperate for a movie of the week type disaster that they
could say they were an integral part of. President Obama hurried to the Hurricane Command Center
to be in command...of...of what the press never said. How can you be in command of a hurricane? As
for the response, that is done by state and local officials. The Feds write checks. Liberal economists,
who long ago sold their souls for ideology, began to tout how the hurricane that hadn't hit yet was
responsible for the economic woes brought on by seventy years of liberal governmental policies.
Local news stations across the country featured breathless updates of how New York City was going
to be destroyed by the monster storm of all monster storms. Satellite pictures from space showed how
immense the storm was, and how this was a crushing disaster to come. Local news stations didn't
seem to be aware, but whole swaths of the country didn't really give a fig about New York City and
the difference between Queens and the Bronx. Computer tracking models were flashed on televisions
that showed a path everywhere from your doorway through the drive thru of Starbucks in Reykjavik,
Iceland.
Now, in the aftermath of the big fizzle, the metrosexual hysteria is being pointed out as being a bit,
well, gay. NOT the gay that we should now be teaching in kindergarten as perfectly acceptable and
equal in all respects to heterosexuality and you are a homophobe to think different. NOT the gay that
means gay marriage is equal or even superior to heterosexual marriage and as soon as Christianity is
banned the better. NOT the gay that is promoted as the new family value norm by every Democratic
politician (especially Catholic Democratic politicians). NOT the gay like in the back of a limo with
Larry Sinclair and an Illinois state senator gay. I mean the gay that is outwardly flamboyant, over the
top emotional, Anna Nicole Smith/Beyonce/Liza Minelli/Top Designer/Toddlers in Tiaras gay. You
know, the gay that gives gay the bad name. That gay.
But, I gotta go with the decision by Bloomberg and Cuomo on this evacuation shut down call. They
pulled the trigger and they were right. They learned the lesson of Hurricane Katrina. The real lesson
of Hurricane Katrina. They learned that there was no fall guy to pin their potential incompetence on,
so they had better error on the side of caution.
Look at the satellite image of the hurricane again, or any Google image of a hurricane from space.
They are immense storms covering hundreds of miles. Yet, the 2005 Katrina only spanned the width
of New Orleans. It only hit that one city and the entire Democratic structure from the local ward reps
right through the governor of Louisiana were locked up in a GOP headquarters being held hostage by
Dick Cheney, while President Bush dynamited the levies that caused the flooding.
Tell me that isn't your impression. Go on, tell me. The press portrayed it that way. They portray it
that way to this day. It is how the public remembers that storm six years ago because that is how it
was impressed upon them. That monster storm is only remembered for what it did to New Orleans, as
if it was a missile strike that didn't devastate the rest of the Gulf.
Of course, if you lived in the area your remember it different. But we are talking about nationwide
perceptions. And, there was a huge difference between how the people and governments reacted in
Louisiana versus Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Georgia. New Orleans and Louisiana had the big
government, liberal, dependent philosophy of the government doing everything for the people, and
infantilizing them so they couldn't think or act for themselves.
Now, it isn't too hard to go back and find out that the entire disaster sits squarely on the shoulders of
the incompetent local and state officials. It isn't too hard to find out that the Feds respond with to
disasters with checkbooks, not bulldozers. But the state level liberals were shielded from blame. All
the rightful blame was transferred to President Bush, whose only fault was that he didn't take over the
state and throw those bums in jail until the crisis was over. (Yea, I know you can't just do that. He
knew it too. But it should have happened.) He offered to nationalize the Louisiana National Guard
after standing by helplessly, but Governor Blanco rejected the offer in writing. The state officials even
refused to allow the Red Cross access to the city of New Orleans.
The dead tell the tale:
Alabama 2 (Governor Robert Riley, R)
Florida 14 (Governor John "Jeb" Bush, R)
Georgia 2 (Governor George "Sonny" Perdue, R)
Mississippi 238 (Governor Haley Barbour, R.)
Louisiana 1,577 (Governor Kathleen Blanco, D)
The numbers had to be pinned on someone, and the press and the liberals were damned sure it wasn't
going to be Blanco, Nagin, and the crews that worked for them. They were responsible and the other
states showed that working governments prevented such abject loss of life.
Oh, but you say, New Orleans is below sea level. New Orleans was different! Which seals the case
against the liberal Democratic governments that oversaw them. They knew their situation and failed to
act. They failed to plan long term and they failed to follow plans developed by the federal government.
A hurricane doesn't pop up overnight and catch people by surprise. Everyone saw it coming for days.
The most iconic photograph from that disaster remains the aerial photos of the unused flooded buses.
They failed. Because they failed people died. So Bush got stuck with the blame.
Now, not to get sidetracked correcting your mindset about what happened six years ago, flash forward
to Irene. Now there is a Democrat, (playing as an independent) mayor of New York City named
Bloomberg, and a Democrat named Cuomo as Governor of the state of New York. They are the new
Blanco and Nagin team. This time there is a Democratic president in office so there is no one to pin
the blame on if they blow it. One would think that if there had been a Democrat in the White House in
2005 there might be fifteen hundred more people alive in Louisiana. There would have been no one
to pass the buck to if things went sour. (Louisiana figured it out and elected Governor Piyush "Bobby"
Jindal (R) to governor after Blanco decided not to try for reelection. When Hurricane Gustav came
ashore in 2008 it hit Louisiana. A Category 2 storm, it wasn't the monster that Katrina was. Yet,
Governor Jindal evacuated the coast in the largest evacuation in U.S. history.)
Anyway, these guys in New York know that they are the ones who will catch the media's ire if things
go wrong, so they didn't take the chance. Evacuations, closing the public transit, issuing the warnings,
all were done on time and enforced. Because, no one knows the future. What if Irene hadn't
weakened? What if it had strengthened instead? What if it had tightened up and became ferocious
instead of losing shape and energy? Would you flip that coin if it meant the lives of thousands could be
lost because you made the wrong call and didn't want to look foolish by crying wolf? Especially if you
didn't have a fall guy to pin it on if it all went wrong? Assuming you wouldn't act the right way to
begin with?
They made the right decision. They acted with caution and planning and as luck would have it, the
weather went their way. Flooding, damage, but not catastrophic, the northeast will absorb and deal
with the work and the clean up.
The President lost a photo op to look manly. The Northeast, including New York City, got wet. Time
to say a prayer of thank you and learn how to respond better the next time in case the next time is
different. We can hope that the lesson of Katrina sticks and the state and local officials do their jobs
right again, just like they did the first time in 2005 in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Georgia.