Race after the storm - The Daily Targum - Opinions

Race after the storm - The Daily Targum - Opinions: "At this point, I'm sure that we've all come to terms with the fact that President George W. Bush is solely responsible for the events that devastated New Orleans two weeks ago. On vacation at his ranch, the president did not receive any briefings from Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin regarding the incoming threat. The Northside Journal reported that Kathleen Blanco, the Democratic governor of Louisiana, did not receive two phone calls from the president on Aug. 26 and 27, warning her to call for an evacuation of New Orleans and to offer federal assistance. Blanco did not refuse to do either one, both times. Max Mayfield, National Hurricane Center director, did not call New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and urge him to call for an emergency evacuation of New Orleans. The mayor did not fail to call the evacuation until less than 24 hours before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, despite a five-days warning that he did not have.

Now I want every reader to replace 'did not' with 'did,' and 'is' with 'isn't' in each of the last six sentences. Now I want all of you to thank me because I've brought you back from the edge of insanity.

But what about the federal response, you ask? Aside from the fact that, according to the Pineville, La.-based Northside Journal, Blanco waited until Sept. 1 - three days after the storm hit and two days after the levee breaks began to seriously flood the city - to finally allow federal aid and National Guard assistance into Louisiana, well ... well, I guess there isn't an 'aside from' that. It, kind of, just stands on its own.

How about this? According to Lise Olsen of the Houston Chronicle, 'City officials had 550 municipal buses and hundreds of additional school buses at their disposal but made no plans to use them to get people out of New Orleans before the storm ...' This, at a time when, according to the same article, 'More than 100,000 o"