I guess the only part I really liked about Ana Menendez's article is the first paragraph stating - "If Castro helps us ... we need help."... right now what I am really worried about is Senator Martinez. Has he gone crazy or has he always been so totally disconnected with the Cuban American community????? I know Orlando isn't exactly Little Havana but come on!... I hope all of Hialeah is calling and complaining. In DC we were all worried when his original Cuba point man had to leave (he was also behind the Terri Schiavo memo) and the Senators Washington office was left with no Cuba experts... scary! I guess we now see the results!

What the White House needs to do at this point is to take the gloves off and come out swinging - because the facts will show where the source of incompetence and inaction really lies. So it is time to hammer those facts home. Whether or not that is perceived as "insensitive" or "politically incorrect," by certain ideologues or self-appointed "activists," whose opinions should be disregarded at this point.

Bush should tell the whiners and finger-pointers to come, get a bucket, and start bailing water out of the 17th street canal in the Big Easy. Failing in that, let them be handed a shovel so they can work on the baseless, whiny shit they're spouting.

Sirimba,

As I stated in another post, perhpas calling fidel's bluff on sending doctors isnt a bad thing. Does anyone with any familiarity of castro's political machinations truly believe he would allow himself to be set up for a mass exodus to the US of his prized medical slaves?

Seriously, doesnt anyone else think that the majority of those doctors in Cuba are just praying for the US to accept so they can defect?

think about it.

I feel the same way Val. Let's call out Fidel's bluff. He only proposed it because he knew that our government and Bush were not going to accept his offer. Therefore again making our country look like the bad guys in front of the world and him Mr. Humanitarian.

I'm sure he knows that more than half those doctors will not return if they are sent here unless he threatens them with hurting some family member if they don't.

I say that he should take the 75 ton of medicine he is offering us and give it to the people that live in Cuba and are always beggin those other countries for the medication they need and can't get in Cuba. Shouldn't he be taken care of his own first before anyone?

Damn Right!!!

Bush does deserve some blame for not funding the reinforcement of the levees. Clinton too. His government refused the same thing in 98. The coverage may be lopsided against Bush (people are taking advantage of this opportunity to bash him), but he does deserve some of the criticism.

I'm surprised this piece got past the editing desk - it's an inarticulate argument blending facts and fiction and tons of sarcasm. As an essay, it's a failure.

Meyer,

I have been involved with construction project for GSA and other federal agaencies, and from my experience, in order for these levees to have been in place pror to the storm, the work would have had to have been implemented during Bush I. The amounts of beaurocracy at the federal level is insanely ridiculous.

On the funding of the levees, I read elsewhere that there was plenty of federal dough sent over the years but that it had been misdirected by Louisiana's own lawmakers. This isn't the same as Bush or Clinton not funding them. He may have recently cut it off because the funds were misused in the first place.

Yes, there are plenty of dropped balls at every level, but let's not get to the point of, "My hair got split ends; it's Bush's fault!!" It doesn't help the situation at all.

One line in Ana Menéndez's essay is priceless: "In New York, a study conducted for The Times found that the very rich make 52 times what the very poor make, an income disparity that is on par with Namibia. Congratulations to Namibia, which used to be considered part of the Third World." Exactly the way to view this study, even though I know she was being sarcastic.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/12586326.htm

what surprised me was that there hasnt been much talk about the mel martinez comments..

How about sending them rice cookers in exchange for the doctors?

Working for the Louisiana government (not high up,so my expert opinion is not so expert) I feel the best way to pass out blame for what happened is 80% state/local and 20% federal. By this I don't mean what should have been done over the past few decades (i.e. levee strenghtening and coastal restoration) because to dole out blame for those mistakes would probably lead to the imprisonment of several dead governors and congressmen...not to mention the derission of the administrations of nearly every President since LBJ. More to the point, as far as what could have been done from Saturday morning (when Louisiana awoke to learn that Katrina was headed our way)onward, the blame should almost all be levelled at state and local officials. Because of how both federal and Louisiana law was written concerning disaster preparedness and response, tight cooperation between Governor Blanco, Mayor Nagin and FEMA was required. The Feds couldn't move until the State and local governments requested help and that is where the real trouble occurred. Federal help was already prepositioned just outside the area to be hit by Sunday (the night before the Hurricane made landfall) awaiting permission from the locals to enter...none was given. National guard under Governor Blanco's command were not utilized effectively and have, despite near requests by FEMA and Bush, not even now been federalized (Blanco must agree to have them federalized in all cases except insurrection). To me it seems the failure of FEMA and Bush were hampered so greatly by the lack of cooperation from and between Blanco and Nagin that successful prevention and response were nearly impossible. Also I always tended to think that Hurricane Katrina had a little something to do with the way things turned out.

Well, now we know who is to blame for the "Dry Foot/Wet Foot" policy still being in place. Mel Martînez: that well-connected Republican and totally disconnected Cuban. His recent comments about being "grateful" for Castro's proferred aid have exposed him as a worldclass useful idiot, completely divorced from his Cuban roots and reality. We wonder what other kinds of advice he has given the president. Perhaps he is responsible for the Bush administration's failure to implement the provisions of the Helms-Burton Act and its acquiescense in sending trade missions to Cuba, such as Gov. Blanco's. If Mel is Bush's idea of a Cuban-American, we are all lost. And Florida is lost to the Republicans.

I posted my own response to Ana Hernandez, yesterday.

I think that she is trying to do a MoDo lite kinda' thing. It's not working, though.

Who to blame?
First, blame the storm.
No storm, no levee breach.
Second, blame the first responders responsible for....first response: The Mayor of New Orleans is the "responsible" party for the basic safety of his city.
Third, it is becoming cleat that Gov. Blanco is wrong woman for the job: She actually prevented First Aid from being pre-positioned in the state, and then delayed aid getting to the Superdome.
Fourth, yes Prez Bush is the Exec in Chief. He has the responsibility to lead even though the Gov. and Mayor behaved as dithering idiots, are in the opposition party and have demonstrated that when the giong gets tough they melt down. Prez. Bush has to ultimately take responsibility becuz the buck stops there.
That said, the system can't work if the elected people who are in charge of the first response don't respond worth a flip.

I was reading the news today, and truly I am dissapointed with Mel Martinez....I think he is another FLIP-FLOPPER in the US Senate!
God HELP US!!

Don't know, but the way you act defending the Bush administration reminds me the way Chavez supporters defend his goverment when a similar calamity occurs in Venezuela: not his fault, it has already done by others, when he arrived it was like that, etc etc.

All that I can say is that Ana "cubana resentida" Menendez is a mediocre pretentious author and that her editorial/journalistic skills are just as bad.

That lady had her mind obscured by the time whe wrote the article, I hope it was a temporary episode not a permanent state of mind.
From blaming only Bush, to bringing Fidel, science, god, namibia!!, etc is a tremendous demonstration of not being able to make a single clear point.
An old strategy: When you cannot shed light into a problem, bring more problems on the top of it!

Don't forget that Ana Menendez signed the useless petition to reinstate Jim DeFede at the Herald, although she "forgot" to mention that in the article that she wrote about him.

I understand a molehill aspiring to mountain status, but a troll?

I love idiots who use keyword searches to find a comment section to dribble their spew in. It saves them all that tedious stuff like reading and thinking.

It wouldn't surprise me to find out K-2's just a journalism school drop-out. He's got the ad hominem down, but he forgot the bit about finding a forum where his stupidity wouldn't be challenged.

Well Mr aelfheld, insulting me would not change anything. And no, I am not a journalist, I do not even want to be one, but what I said is true: yeah, the problems where there before the storm, even before his term; yes, he is not the only responsable; and yes, this is the same kind of answer you get from your average chavista. And that's the pat when they start saying: the media is lying (you call them in USA liberal), now he is responsible of everything, etc etc. Same speech different speaker. The problem stays.