Heck of a job-- interesting detail followup

[infrogmation]

One of the many stories in the Federal level bungling of dealing with Katrina was the FEMA "upside down" disaster declaration, specifically listing north Louisiana parishes, and omitting Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines etc where the storm actually hit.

Here's an interesting followup article and references:

The August 27 Katrina emergency declaration: Harmless mistake or deadly bungle?

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I recall some people attempting to come up with an explanation for why this declaration would actually be rational: maybe the southern parishes had already been covered by something else, etc. But it was all post hoc and never resolved into anything that made sense.

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

Trying to explain why Bush administration mistakes aren't really mistakes seems to be one of the country's most thriving industries.

A True Paranoid Checks In.

[jdquintette.livejournal.com]

Anybody check to see if those parishes voted republican?

Re: A True Paranoid Checks In.

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

Yep, north of the state is the most heavy concentration of Republican votes.

The real southerners live up north.

[jdquintette.livejournal.com]

yes, I'm aware of that. I was wondering if anyone had done a parish by parish match up.

25 years ago, when I was doing a lot of touring in western Canada, whenever we hit a patch of bad road we'd shout "NDP riding!" (The New Democratic Party was the 'socialist' opposition party at the time. The governing Social Credit Party were, despite the 'social' in their name, slightly to the right of Attila the Hun).

Finally someone thought to bring along an electoral map on the next tour. Sure enough, we'd be sailing along on a nicely paved highway, then suddenly it would deteriorate into a cracked, potholed mess, and, according to the map, we'd just entered a district that had voted the 'wrong' way.