Junto Boys

KATRINA HEARINGS, part 2

The most sensible comments came from the corrupt William Jefferson, D-LA. I met Mr. Jefferson once when I was working at Tulane and didn't trust him, but that's like saying I met a dog that panted, you kind of expect it. Louisiana politics are notoriously corrupt.

He explained that four classes of people suffered harm post-Katrina:

1. People who chose not to evacuate;
2. People who were required to stay, e.g., emergency workers;
3. People who could not evacuate because old or infirm; and
4. People who could not evacuate because no means to do so, i.e., poor.

Of the fatalities, most were old or sick and already vulnerable. Like a storm blowing through a forest, the weaker branches are the ones that snap (my analogy). The number of healthy poor people who died as a result of Katrina was small, in any event certainly not worthy of the massive outcry. (See previous post.)

He flatly declared that the proximate cause for the suffering in New Orleans was the breach in the levee system, not the failure of this guy or that guy or such-and-such agency or bureaucracy. He stayed focused on learning from and fixing the problems rather than blaming the enemy for political gain, so I had to hand it to him. He took the high road -- although the cynic might say that he does so because of the investigation into his own dubious affairs and therefore needs to recast himself in a favorable light. (What, me skeptical?)

He detailed how 92 percent of the local population, about 1.2 million people, were successfully evacuated, and that's pretty good.

But still, if Bush hadn't caused global warming, none of this would have happened. Hopefully Clinton can take care of that with his "surprise" appearance in Canada. (See "No Class" post.)