Michael Oberndorf
Isaac ain't Katrina, Final Part
By Michael Oberndorf
As I predicted, it was the slow movement of Isaac and the rain that caused the problems on the Gulf Coast. Isaac was never the killer storm Katrina was. Sadly, a handful of people died, but nothing even slightly approaching the hundreds killed by Katrina. The criminal media — for their outrageous attempts to turn this disaster into a partisan political event were nothing short of criminal in their distraction away from the real, immediate dangers posed by the storm — failed, utterly, to create the fear, panic, and finger-pointing blame they had intended.
For those who have read any of my columns, the following will sound very strange: government did a pretty good job handling the disaster caused by Isaac. Even the much maligned FEMA was where they needed to be, dong what they needed to do, in a very timely manner. State and local governments functioned smoothly, talking to each other, before, not after, the need to do so arose. Quite remarkable.
I talked to my Congressman, Jeff Landry (R-LA), last week, just before the storm moved inland. He had spent the day talking with sheriffs, emergency coordinators, folks from the Governor's Office of Emergency Preparedness, and the like, making sure they had his contact information, in case there was something that he could help them with.
"I think that as a Congressman during a time of calamity, especially a major storm, our role is that of support. Local officials and first responders are the heroes and work horses during these times of disaster. The federal role has always been one of support."
I mentioned in my last report that I thought power outages were going to be a problem. Prophetic. I lost power Tuesday around 1:30 am, and didn't get it restored until 6:30 am today, Monday. No power, no Internet, no refrigeration, no air conditioners, not even fans. But I was not alone, as between a quarter to a half a million other people in the New Orleans area were in the same predicament.
An unexpected sidebar of this was that we had the opportunity to see in a microcosm what the devastation caused by an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attack would be like. Virtually everything was shut down. Business came to a near total standstill, since nearly all transactions today require electronic registers and card machines. Anything that needed power to keep it usable — like milk, fresh meat, fish, and vegetables — was gone within 24 hours, and not replaced. Gas and diesel could not be pumped, so even if generators were in place, they would eventually run out of fuel. Doctor's offices were closed, putting a huge burden on hospitals. A successful EMP attack could cause the country to collapse in a matter of weeks. This is undoubtedly why the Islamist Sympathizer in the White House has done nothing to safeguard the country he so clearly hates from this sort of attack. But I digress.
The problem here in Louisiana was not government, but state-sanctioned monopoly power companies that had done zip, zero, nada to storm-proof their equipment. The CEO of Entergy, the Big Power company here cried that it wasn't their fault that so many people lost power — nearly a million, total — because over 40 of some essential part had failed. Excuse me, but that says to me that there was a huge systemic flaw that the company chose to ignore, probably because it would have meant actually spending money on R&D to upgrade the system. With no competition, no incentive to act, and We, the People, suffer for it.
In the meantime, life apparently went on in the rest of the world, pretty much unchanged. The hysterical lies pouring out of the mouth of every Democrat who opens theirs have been uncritically amplified by the media in a way that, as I noted above, can only be called criminal. To knowingly spread false information with the intent of causing political intimidation and harm, can, with a not-all-that-strict reading of the official government definition of terrorism, could be reasonably classified as a terrorist act. Frankly, I am inclined to see much of it as exactly that — leftist political terrorism, disguised as "news." The criminal media, indeed.
Speaking of criminals, Eric Holder has still not been removed from office. Seems the Republican Establishment misleadership really has no problem with him carrying on business as usual, in spite of having been formally charged with contempt of Congress. Actually, it seems John Boehner (R-OH) is trying to emulate disdain for rules against fraud with his pre-scripted vote result at the RNC convention. Frankly, if I lived in Boehner's district, I would vote for his Democrat opponent. But that's for another day...
© Michael Oberndorf
September 4, 2012
As I predicted, it was the slow movement of Isaac and the rain that caused the problems on the Gulf Coast. Isaac was never the killer storm Katrina was. Sadly, a handful of people died, but nothing even slightly approaching the hundreds killed by Katrina. The criminal media — for their outrageous attempts to turn this disaster into a partisan political event were nothing short of criminal in their distraction away from the real, immediate dangers posed by the storm — failed, utterly, to create the fear, panic, and finger-pointing blame they had intended.
For those who have read any of my columns, the following will sound very strange: government did a pretty good job handling the disaster caused by Isaac. Even the much maligned FEMA was where they needed to be, dong what they needed to do, in a very timely manner. State and local governments functioned smoothly, talking to each other, before, not after, the need to do so arose. Quite remarkable.
I talked to my Congressman, Jeff Landry (R-LA), last week, just before the storm moved inland. He had spent the day talking with sheriffs, emergency coordinators, folks from the Governor's Office of Emergency Preparedness, and the like, making sure they had his contact information, in case there was something that he could help them with.
"I think that as a Congressman during a time of calamity, especially a major storm, our role is that of support. Local officials and first responders are the heroes and work horses during these times of disaster. The federal role has always been one of support."
I mentioned in my last report that I thought power outages were going to be a problem. Prophetic. I lost power Tuesday around 1:30 am, and didn't get it restored until 6:30 am today, Monday. No power, no Internet, no refrigeration, no air conditioners, not even fans. But I was not alone, as between a quarter to a half a million other people in the New Orleans area were in the same predicament.
An unexpected sidebar of this was that we had the opportunity to see in a microcosm what the devastation caused by an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attack would be like. Virtually everything was shut down. Business came to a near total standstill, since nearly all transactions today require electronic registers and card machines. Anything that needed power to keep it usable — like milk, fresh meat, fish, and vegetables — was gone within 24 hours, and not replaced. Gas and diesel could not be pumped, so even if generators were in place, they would eventually run out of fuel. Doctor's offices were closed, putting a huge burden on hospitals. A successful EMP attack could cause the country to collapse in a matter of weeks. This is undoubtedly why the Islamist Sympathizer in the White House has done nothing to safeguard the country he so clearly hates from this sort of attack. But I digress.
The problem here in Louisiana was not government, but state-sanctioned monopoly power companies that had done zip, zero, nada to storm-proof their equipment. The CEO of Entergy, the Big Power company here cried that it wasn't their fault that so many people lost power — nearly a million, total — because over 40 of some essential part had failed. Excuse me, but that says to me that there was a huge systemic flaw that the company chose to ignore, probably because it would have meant actually spending money on R&D to upgrade the system. With no competition, no incentive to act, and We, the People, suffer for it.
In the meantime, life apparently went on in the rest of the world, pretty much unchanged. The hysterical lies pouring out of the mouth of every Democrat who opens theirs have been uncritically amplified by the media in a way that, as I noted above, can only be called criminal. To knowingly spread false information with the intent of causing political intimidation and harm, can, with a not-all-that-strict reading of the official government definition of terrorism, could be reasonably classified as a terrorist act. Frankly, I am inclined to see much of it as exactly that — leftist political terrorism, disguised as "news." The criminal media, indeed.
Speaking of criminals, Eric Holder has still not been removed from office. Seems the Republican Establishment misleadership really has no problem with him carrying on business as usual, in spite of having been formally charged with contempt of Congress. Actually, it seems John Boehner (R-OH) is trying to emulate disdain for rules against fraud with his pre-scripted vote result at the RNC convention. Frankly, if I lived in Boehner's district, I would vote for his Democrat opponent. But that's for another day...
© Michael Oberndorf
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