September 2, 2008- Self-Congratulations

   This week was supposed to be all about John Mc Cain and that Palin chick that he has as a running mate, as the Republicans tried to emulate and maybe even surpass what the Democrats did last week in Denver invterms of getting their message out and their candidate sold. They are behind the eight-ball here for sure, no one much expects them to even make a respectable showing, so they needed this week to try and reverse some of that going into the homestretch of the campaign season. They had their own arena rented out up in St. Paul, Minnesota and had the same media outlets that covered the Democrats last week assembled to give them their moment in the sun, and they had a lot riding on this week besides nominating Mc Cain to be their Presidential candidate. Then, Mother Nature interceded and started whipping up a story that was due to push the Republicans right off of the news, a story that started even before the Democratic convention last week, but one that became a major thing right as the Republicans were getting ready to start things up in St. Paul. That story was Hurricane Gustav, or rather the real story was where that particular hurricane was headed. That fucker had New Orleans and Louisiana on its mind from the start, and that was where it was clearly headed, and that was what pushed the Republicans off of the news, at least for a day or two. The fact that this was a major hurricane, not the largest that America had ever seen or anything, but that it wasa major storm heading towards New Orleans made everyone freak big time. Just three days ago, America observed the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the last major hurricane to hit New Orleans, something that unleashed a disaster that America had never seen the likes of. Everyone remembers the footage of the stranded people standing on rooftops, waving for help, and the flooded and devastated neighborhoods all over town, and the dead bodies floating in that floodwater, the Louisiana Suprdome itself became a symbol for the size and scope of the disaster, it was something that America was not about to forget after only three short years. New Orleans has been trying to rebuild itself in some way ever since, and this Hurricane Gustav threatened to destroy all that over again. So that was why America freaked over it and the Republicans and John Mc Cain have had to shorten their week in the sun to like a couple days in the sun, but no one seems to  mind that except for the businessmen and such in St. Paul that are out a lot of money. If Gustav was anywhere near the disaster that Katrina was, New Orleans might never recover, so there was more riding on this one hurricane that perhaps with any other hurricane in American history, and that was how this was being looked at. The Bush Administration, the New Orleans City government, the Louisiana state government, they all had a lot riding on this , because the public relations disasters that they suffered after Katrina damaged thme more than any storm surge or winds of flood ever could. In fact, many are pointing to Katrina as the last straw for the Bush Administration in the minds of many Americans, when they saw the horrible fiasco that went down in New Orleans after Katrina, they lost whatever confidence that they had left in Bush and he has never really recovered since. So governments on all levels had everything riding on how they responded  to Gustav, and they had to do good this or else face even more serious fallout, so they sprang into action last week already on this.

   The problem with the whole Katrina situation was that many felt that the various governments were not able to work together at all, that they were about as disorganized as they could be, and that was what led to ity being such a terrible disaster. Fingers were pointed every which way on that one, and the buck was passed from here to there and back again. So this time, they decided that they were all going to work together smoothly and make sure that things did not get that fucked up again. That was why they started things up so early this time, way before they were even sure that Gustav was coming their way, they took no chances and started evacuating people and all that shit. Last time, there were thousands of desperate people milling about in and after the storm looking for a way to get the fuck out of the disaster zone, and there were none. This time, they had shit set up with bus companies, Amtrak, and even some airlines to get the people out of town well before the storm struck. Last time, they had a major problem with the Pigs, because many of them deserted their posts to help save their own families, so they gave them a lot of last week off so that they could get their families out of harm's way and do what they needed to do so that they would not run away this time. What they had going this time was a coordinated effort between these various government agencies, something that is remarkable in Lousiana, where the governments are as corrupt and dishonest as thyy can be, and because of this, they are always at odds with Washington, because the Feds are always investigating some sort of scandal or another that these fucking Louisiana and New Orleans politicians get into. But this time, they put all that aside, at least for now, and Washington was working with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin hand in hand, no political shit going on at all. Nagin told the people of New Orleans to get their butts out of town over the weekend, and instituted curfews and shit to make sure that they did that. He made sure that Washington brought in enough National Guard troops so that the Pigs were not overwhelmed by everything and that the evacuating people would nopt be afraid of getting their houses looted and ransacked while they were gone. He got over 90% of the people out of town before the strom struck, the only ones that stayed were these hick alcoholics that wanted to ride the storm out in a bar and drink the whole time, and shrimp boat captains and the places that they sell to, because right after a hurricane is a great time to catch shrimp because the whole ocean has been tossed about and mixed up, and the shrimp are right at the top, waiting to be caught. Other than that, the only people in New Orleans by the end of the weekend were the likes of Geraldo Rivera and the other TV reporters and the Pigs and National Guard, about the only opnjes that were going to be allowed to be there legally. That was about all that the various government agencies could do, then they had to sit back and hold their collective breath and see exactly what Gustav was going to do, if it was going to be another Katrina, even worse, as some feared, or if it was not going to be that bad a thing after all, like the drunks at the bars insisted that it would. No amount of preparation can accurately predict what is going to come down when a hurrican comes ashore, especially in a city that was wiped out badly three years ago and was not quite ready for something like this again yet. So everyone waited until Gustav made its appearance to see how it would go this time, and they had quite a pleasant surprise when it did.

   What ended up happening was that Gustav was a major hurricane, but not the apocalyptic one that many felt that it would become. It ended up not being anywhere near as bad as Katrina was, just a run of the mill Gulf Coast hurricane. As of now, nothing has flooded badly, the levees are holding on, although some just by a thread, but they are out working on those and are shoring them up right now. If there has been no major flooding by now, there should not be any later on, as Gustav has left the area long ago and things are starting to settle down a bit. They have seen that the damage has not been anywhere near as bad as they thought that it would be, and that the city has been able to weather the storm and come out relatively unscathed. This Hurricane Gustav has been totally unlike Hurricane Katrina, and things could not be more different down in New Orleans today. Instead of Gerlado Rivera running about town breathlessly telling us all about the looting and other such chaos that he was witnessing, he was fawning all over various New Orleans Pigs, National Guardsmen, and dues that he said did heroic things during the storm. So if he is making jokes about other reporter's personal lives and shit like he has been tonight, that means that New Orleans is not in the state of disorder that it was after Katrina, in fact, according to Geraldo, there has not been one arrest for looting this time around. So that has meant that the various governmental agencies that took such abuse after Katrina are all starting to come out and pat themselves on the back big-time and starting to congratulate themselves on a job well-done. Already, they are ruminating on the differences between last time and this tme, and what they did this time that kept things from becoming such a disaster like Katrina was. By the time that the sun rises on America today, they'll be in full swing with that, you shall see these governmental types everywhere talking about what a great job they did this time and how they learned so much from Katrina and  put it into use this time. Since there seems to be no major disaster down on the Gulf Coast this time, the Republicans should be back in theh spotlight maybe even later today, for sure by tomorrow, because there's no compelling stories down in New Orleans this time, so it is way too expensive for the TV stations and such to keep their star reporters there, besides, they need them to get back to St. Paul, where they were supposed to be this week to begin with. That should mean that we will not see endless days of the governmental officials patting themselves on the back over how they handled things, but rest assured that they'll continue to do just that, because these are the people that took it on the chin  last time with Katrina and were made out to be Keystone Kops and stooges and such, and that shit hurt their egos a lot, so they wanted a way to make that up, and Gustav seems to have provided them with that opportunity, so do not expect them to skip such an opportunity like this. In fact, they are already calling this Gustav response the "blueprint" of how to respond to such a thing, how they are amazed at how well everything went, how much they can learn from this, and so on and so on. They are patting themselves on the back so hard and fast that they could end up having to have Tommy John surgery because they may very well blow their arms out by what they are doing. However, what they are all congratulating themselves for may be a bit premature as of yet.

   Yes, things went very well with Gustav, but that does not mean that it was all because the various governmental agencies worled together so flawlessly. What hapoened wass that Gustav started losing steam as it neared New Orleans, it did not gain strenght and become the monster hurricane that many feared, so when it hit land, it was not even as powewrful as Katrina was, so it was just not strong enough to do that kind of damage. Plus, it blew through New Orleans rather quickly, it did not sit there and linger like some had feared, so again, it did not have the opportunity to do the kind of damage that Katrina did. So no governmental agency had any control over that shit, and if they do get a major hurricane that is as strong as the feared that Gustav would be, it is not going to be as easy as it was here. They lucked out this time, and one day they won't be so lucky, and that day may even comelater this month, as there are two other hurricanes out there, and Hurricane Ike is looking at taking the same route that Gustav did and they may not be so lucky if that one folows suit. Plus, the fact that there was nowhewre near as much damage and shit as befoe means that the evacuations that the governments are congratulating themselves over may not be so successful next time. The truth is that those drunks that were getting wasted in the New Orleans area bars as the storm approached were right, that it was not that big a deal, hell, if a bunch of drunks can drink a bar dry and still come out of the storm unscathed, it must not be as bad as they say. It has been a major haassle for the people of New Orleans to evacuate, even if they went on the free trains or buses, it is still a major problem to do that shit, you have to leave your life behind and go to some strange place and hope for the best. If you see fucked up alcoholics getting through a storm with no problems except hangovers, it makes all that hassle and shit that you went through to evacuate look like it was not necessary at all. Considering that the people of New Orleans may have to go through that shit again in a week or so with Ike, they may figure, fuck it, it won't be so bad, if drunkards can survive it, I sure can, and besides, there are ample Pigs and National Guardsmen here to help when needed, so why the fuck should I go through all that hasle and expense of evacuating again? So next time, they may not get so many people evacuating, no matter how bad the storm seems to be, because they'll all feel that it will slow down like Gustav did and not be so bad. If you take a gamble like that with a hurricane and find out that you were mistaken, you won't do so until it is far too late and then you are fucked. That is probably the situation that New Orleans will face the next time that this happens to them, so it would seem that this Gustav thing is really a one-time deal, that it worked like this the one time and won't ever come close to that again in the future. This is what these governmental agencies need to be concentrating on instead of patting themselves on the back and throwing congratulations every which way. They need to figure out how to duplicate this success on a public that won't be anywhere near as scared and freaked out next time, and would rather sit back and have a drinking party like those others did this time instead of going through all the hassle of evacuating again. If they do not deal with that properly,they'll have a disaster on their hands that will make Katrina look like nothing, so they need to put a quick kibosh on the self-congratulations and start thinking seriously about how they can duplicate this success next time so they don't take one on the chin again and look like imcompetent idiots all over again.

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