But Remember: Katrina's Aftermath is Still All Bush's Fault!

The Reasonable mouth-foamers of the left got some 'splaining to do! They made lots of cheese and media spots blaming Bush for the entire flawed response of all leaders to the Katrina disaster. They dismissed any consideration of NO and Louisiana officials' complicity in the mess as playing the blame game. Well, guess what? Louisiana Homeland Security officials had been indicted on charges of misappropriation of government funds, waste, and mismanagement. Before Katrina struck! Captain's Quarters has the story here.

Ed's not smiling. He's really not:

Even in the notoriously corrupt government of Louisiana, having receipts for only three percent of government spending has to set a new record for opacity. Those undocumented expenditures will no doubt implicate the subcontractors in some sort of money-laundering scheme, especially if the investigation finds that little of the work got performed -- and based on the response to Katrina, that appears to be the case in general, if not in specifics.

More money got sent to Aegis Innovative Systems, a consultant firm that ate up most of $2.8 million in government grants for that purpose. Aegis, it turns out, is run by Michael Howard, a former Louisiana DHS official. More money went to buying LL Bean parkas, a Ford Crown Victoria, a junket to Germany for the DHS director, and so on. $10.7 million earmarked for buying up low-level property for condemnation and conversion to non-residential use wound up in the coffers of other government agencies and consultants.

It looks like the DHS officials in Louisiana wanted to prepare for a rainy day, but just not for the kind of rainy day that Katrina brought the Gulf Coast. The feds had already tried to clean house where the state couldn't or wouldn't, bringing indictments against the deputy director of hazard mitigation, Michael L. Brown (no relation to the former FEMA director) and Michael C. Appe, who led a team tasked with identifying abuses. Louisiana put the foxes in charge of the henhouse, it seems.

But not to worry! The Reasonable have already spoken. The LA Times only chimed in because of the Ka-ching! rule! They can't get scooped after all! No, nothing to worry about; It's still all Bush's fault! He kept appropriations headed to Iraq instead of Louisiana State's gravy train levy infrastructure development! He didn't micro-manage the entire local and state emergency preparedness since the beginning of his administration! He clearly kept the US out of Kyoto so that he could foment the perfect conditions to produce a C5 Hurricane! He then used covert DOD- classified technology to crash that storm into NO and break those levies, killing manly the poor--and Black--citizens of NO that stayed behind! All so that he could give his cronies cushy government contracts and undo LBJ's proud legacy (even if it didn't change the National poverty rate an iota!) Yes, the Reasonable have it covered. Even with the tin-foil hatters coming out of the woodwork, they'll still smile and say, "Nothing to see here!" The truth doesn't serve the Agenda. Politically brickbatting the President for Louisiana's complicity in Katrina's aftermath does.

The Federal government had better mobilize an army of Inspectors General to supervise every cent of reconstruction appropriations the Louisiana DHS receives. Every indicted official had better not come within a mile of any of it! Their ambition to live fat off of money meant to save lives has already cost the most vulnerable of New Orleaneans their lives. They, and the soul-less dead-men-walking that would gladly do it again must never have the opportunity to break Louisianians' trust again.