New Orleans, then and now

One year ago this morning, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Buras, LA, with winds reaching 125 mph as a Category 3 storm. Although power failures prevented accurate measurement of wind speed in New Orleans, it is likely that much of the city experienced sustained winds of Category 1 to Category 2 strength.

Later that morning, the levees completely failed, including the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (in 20 places), the 17th Street Canal, the London Avenue Canal, and the Industrial Canal. Those failures dumped water on the Big Easy, and all hell broke loose. The levee failure killed over 1800 people and stranded many more. Today, nothing has changed.

The main stream media blames the disaster in New Orleans on Katrina. That is a lie. The major fault on this catastrophe lies from the failure of the levees, and the levees is owned by the government. The fault immediately after Katrina past through today (and beyond) was solely by the government. Standing in Jackson Square on September 15, 2005 (around 2 weeks after it happened), George W. Bush stated in the Address to the Nation, "This government will learn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina" and promised to "get the work done quickly." A year later, here's a look at the current state of New Orleans:

Less than half of the city's pre-storm population of 460,000 has returned, putting the population at roughly what it was in 1880.

Nearly a third of the trash has yet to be picked up.

Six of the nine hospitals remain closed.

A 40 percent hike in rental rates, disproportionately affecting black and low-income families.

A 300 percent increase in the suicide rate.

Eighty-four percent of Orleans residents rate the government's recovery efforts negatively, and 66 percent believe the recovery money has been "mostly wasted".

At the same time, nearly all New Orleans residents pay taxes without question. Do you see a disconnect here? There are government ineffectualness in the past, and I am 100% convinced there will be government incompetence in the future. I would rather quit paying taxes to pay for the government's fiascos and do it myself, or find a competent private business to assist me.

But, the vast majority of the people of New Orleans are dependent and rely on the State to do everything. Not only does the people want the government official to be their representative, they want the government official to be their "daddy"; in other words, they want their officials to nurture and take care of their adult-children. So they reap what they sow.