I think Scarborough is either playing dumb or purposefully distorting the facts. The blame game usually does very little to solve problems . The analysis of the things that worked and didn't is much more productive.
One would have to be a typical uninformed dolt to not be able to figure out what happened. First you would need to go all the way back to the dumbasses that put a city there in the first place. Then blame the developers that added to it knowing how stupid it is to have a city under sea level so near the coast. To add to the stupidity there is a BIG lake 3 feet above sea level north of the city. Add, just for good measure, a huge moving body of water running through the city, the Great Old Mississippi River(A mile wide in some places and deep with a strong current and a mind of it's own).
Then one must consider a political history of corruption within every department state wide. Bring in almost three decades of mayors who have been elected purely because of the color of their skin and the corruption not only continues but escalates. Then you have to consider the election of a Governor who seemed perfect to the politically correct but has proven to be just as incompetent and egotistical as the worst of them all.
When the hurricane looked like it was definitely going to hit New Orleans the mayor suggested to the fools that had outside communication with the world and hadn't already left to go ahead and evacuate, good move but, he didn't follow his own evacuation plan. On page 13 paragraph 5 of that plan it states to use city and school busses to evacuate those that have no mans of getting out. I'm sure there was a lot of grumbling about the possibility that they would spend the money evacuating that many people and the storm would dissipate like so many before had. Hoping for the best the city opened the Superdome and the Convention center to many thousands of people that tend to not understand the idea of helping yourself and each other in times of emergencies. Instead, a great number of these people are totally dependent on Govrnment for everything, they had very little survivor skills but the city didn't think that would matter, they would only be there a few days at most. The storm hit, the damage was bad but not as bad as it could be and people started wiping their brows stating that they had avoided the "big one'' once again. Then levee failure surprised everyone 2 days later. After that a full scale disaster was happening now, the Governor should have recognized this and jumped on the red phone to the White House, she didn't. Relief agencies had already assembled for the relief effort needed before the levees broke. The red cross and the Salvation Army were ready to go in with food, water, and hygenic kits. . . the State said no, theydidn't want the Dome and Convention Center to be magnets for the rest of the egg heads that didn't see a reason to flee a category 5 hurricane. After that, pride and lack of knowledge took over completely. The President met personally with the Mayor and Governor and received no plea for help, the Governor needed another 24 hours to sign the declaration that basically stated that the situation was out of her control and she needed the Federal government to come in and rescue her. The media was there reporting on the violence being perpetrated by those that do it for a living or were going through withdrawals so bad that they felt that the rescue helicopters were some kind of paranoid dillusion, this made the people worried about tourist dollars very nervous. They couldn't afford to let the world know what a cesspool the city had become. When mother government didn't show up to feed the helpless in the Superdome and Convention Center the standard racist accusations started to errupt from the crowd and it was time to revert to the riot mode to get attention. Rape, murder, destruction. . . because you haven't had anything to eat in a few days? A lot of blame needs to be placed on the citizens that came empty handed to the evacuation center thinking they would be serviced like they were on an airliner. What in the past would make them confident that the local goverment would do much of anything for them. Add to the many in one space, hunger, thirst, outragous heat, no lights, no sewerage system and nothing provided to keep them busy and you have a recipy for total lack of civilization.
Help was everywhere and the Governor has nobody to blame but herself. Once the Feds were allowed in they kicked ass and are continueing to kick ass.The buck stopped at the state lines.
