Maureen Dowd on New Orleans

Maureen Dowd is my hero. She has an acid wit, a sharp tongue, and a straight-to-the-point style of writing that gets her ideas across in few words. It's sad that she has to comment on such a tragedy of errors to make her point. But she's right about everything. Moaning that 'It couldn't have been forseen' is ridiculous when everyone knows it was one of the three worst case scenarios possible for the US. For years there have been documentaries, studies, shows, and papers written on the eventuality of a hurricane hitting New Orleans. Not a possibiliy. Something that would happen eventually. Like the volcano looming over Naples, like the faultline running through California--those are all things that will cause a disaster someday...and everyone knows it.

That isn't any comfort to the survivors of this hurricane who have lost everything. I don't see the people in LA starting some mass exodus because they live in an area that can literally fall into the sea one day. New Orleans was as good as its levees - and the money ear-marked to repair them and strenghthen them got moved to other places--like a bridge in Alaska, from what I read. If that is true, then the federal government should be tarred and feathered, like in the good old days when politicians had to answer for their acts.
Luckily, people are generous. There are offers to help from all over the US and all over the world. old Europe has donated reserves of oil. All the writing organizations and publishing companies I work for are trying to find ways to help. Donations are coming in from everywhere. And Maureen Dowd is telling it like it is.