From the Oakland Tribune (scroll way down)
Feds to blame for slow response
IT WAS BAD ENOUGH watching all those people suffer in New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast area without help. I am beyond outraged to read that President Bush and his administration are trying to pin the blame for this slow response on state and local officials.
On Aug. 27, the day before the hurricane struck, the governor of Louisiana sent a letter to President Bush urgently requesting federal aid to deal with the impending disaster. Did Bush not get the letter?
The hurricane hit several states in the area, not just one. That makes it a federal issue.
The damage from the hurricane and flooding were so massive, it requires resources and people from all over the country and as far away as Canada to deal with it. No state or local official has the right to order troops or equipment or vehicles from other states. The federal government does.
Who works to maintain and shore up the levees? I do believe it's the federally-funded Army Corps of Engineers.
If nothing is the federal government's responsibility, if it's all up to the states, counties and cities, then why do we have a Department of Homeland Security?
It has just been clearly demonstrated to all that the last four years of talk about "protecting and defending the homeland" are so much hot air. Worse, the Bush administration has no qualms about kicking people when they're down — or in this case, half-drowned.
Katherine Falk
Oakland
