“Hurricane Katrina” on The Daily Caller

When I attached myself to New Orleans in 2003, I didn’t know I was signing up for the role of Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill. Falling crime rates in the city were replaced by Hurricane Katrina. And just as the city turned the corner on Hurricane Katrina, things got bad again—BP oil now lingers in the Gulf of Mexico, one of our principal sources of entertainment and revenue. (more)

During the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, FEMA Administrator Michael “Brownie” Brown got a lot of flak from the mainstream media for, well…everything. Some of it was deserved and some of it was little more than mendacious piling-on, but all of it was intense and it lead to Michael Brown’s resignation from FEMA mid-Katrina response. The media is extremely powerful in this country, and what the press coverage of the latest disaster to hit the United States—the BP oil spill—proves is that the media wields this power very selectively. (more)

The 2010 hurricane season is in full swing and summer storms are already popping up almost daily. Fishing, shrimping, and tourist seasons are under way and all are desperately needed to buoy the Coastal economy during this ongoing national recession. Local and state government budgets continue to see shortfalls in tax collections resulting in the loss of constituent services. (more)

It’s a rough schedule for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — a near daily grind of military helicopter flights or roaring airboat tours to remote steamy marshes and sun-baked barrier islands increasingly endangered by the BP oil spill. (more)

By more than a 2-to-1 margin, Americans support the pursuit of criminal charges in the nation’s worst oil spill , with increasing numbers calling it a major environmental disaster. Eight in 10 criticize the way BP’s handled it – and more people give the federal government’s response a negative rating than did the response to Hurricane Katrina. (more)

Over the past few weeks, as federal government confusion has become all too obvious in the Gulf, political commentators have delighted in debating whether the oil spill crisis has become Obama’s “Katrina.” The reason for this is simple. The argument allows those on the right to somehow demonstrate that all presidents make mistakes, while pointing out the other side’s hypocrisy. For those on the left, it’s another opportunity to drag President Bush’s name through the mud, blame him for a crisis he is two years removed from and to remind those on the left that the last guy would’ve made this all worse. (more)

Just as Hurricane Katrina dealt a fatal blow to the credibility of President George W. Bush in the second year of his second term, the question swirling in political circles is whether the BP oil spill will deal a similar fate to the administration of President Barack Obama in the second year of his first, and potentially only, term. (more)

Nothing leaves one feeling more in need of a Corexit shower than finger pointing during a crisis. Ruined oyster-men’s testimonials and pictures of tarred sea critters frame the Gulf Coast oil leak as a tragedy. Blustering ex-politicos turned cable news pundits and press conferences obsessed with finding fault trivialize that tragedy. (more)

 (more)

With each passing day, the crisis in the Gulf becomes worse for South Louisiana. Our delicate ecosystem is being destroyed as we wait for BP and the federal government to take action. Every day, the Deepwater Horizon well is spewing thousands of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. As the oil reaches the marsh, fishermen are giving chilling reports of dead fish, birds and other wildlife. The seafood supply is dwindling everyday, hurting our famed restaurants and our tourism industry. (more)

One of the most mind-jarring images of the current disaster in the Gulf, besides the thousands of dead wildlife in the water so far, has been the sight of lawyers and environmental activists getting out of their monster Escalades or Yukon SUVs in Louisiana to “investigate the damage caused by that awful oil company, BP America.” (more)

The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is slowly shaping up to be one of the worst environmental disasters in American history, as well as something of a political disaster for President Obama. (more)

On the one hand, living in one will give you cancer and make you reek of desperation. On the other hand, FEMA had to get rid of these things somehow: (more)

The spray-painted X marks from the search-and-rescue teams still mar the dilapidated buildings where the bodies of people, dogs, cats and even chickens were found in Hurricane Katrina’s wake. (more)

NEW ORLEANS — People lined up by the hundreds to buy Monday’s Times-Picayune, which hollered “AMEN!” from its front page. The Saints’ Super Bowl victory was a prayer answered in this struggling city, and New Orleans itself seemed different for it. (more)