In Washington DC a mother has risen to power and she leads an interesting group of protesters. You can see the mad mother, Cindy Sheehan, along side Jesse Jackson who never fails to find a camera. At first I pretty much ignored this protest and then some names being mentioned caused me to take notice.

This rag tag group is a mixed bag of extreme leftist, the ones that really scare me. There is the group known as ANIMAL, what ever that is to mean, that supports Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavaz. These people want to take away the right to own land in the United States, one of the founding principles of the country.

This might be enough for me to take notice but there is a buzzword I listen for in any speech, demonstration or debate. That would be “progressive”. The more times you hear that word the farther to the left is the organization or person using it.

pro·gres·sive   

1. A person who actively favors or strives for progress toward better conditions, as in society or government.
2. Progressive A member or supporter of a Progressive Party.

This is the definition according to dictionary.com. Now that we know what progressive is, lets define “better”. Something being better is objective to the point of view. These people want to take away private ownership and distribute the world’s wealth. This might all sound fine unless you are the one giving up the wealth.

Most people gather wealth through selling or manufacturing a product. Usually this requires the one acquiring wealth to hire others who in turn acquire wealth. One can see how this trickles down as the one that was hired uses his or her pay to purchase food or other goods.

Now lets take the wealth from the first guy and see what happens. He will close his factory or store since why strive for wealth when it cannot be attained. The person hired would quit anyway since he or she gets the money without working. One day you look up and you are standing in long bread lines and there is so little of it to go around. Why, do you ask is there so little, because the baker was the man who strived to gain wealth?

Now pay attention to those like Cindy Sheehan who gathered in the pretence of stopping the war. Ending the war in the correct way would be a noble cause. This rally was about everything but ending the war. I wonder if the mad mother understands the group she has fallen in with. She is being placed out front as a figurehead because she can draw the cameras these progressive groups can’t. Her being arrested and carried off by officers while she laughed was well rehearsed.

Since I am on this topic I am going to touch on the left wanting to raise taxes. This is just a reminder this is all part of the plan to redistribute the wealth. Please keep this in mind when you are following other’s leads on saying we need higher taxes. Sure we have a huge deficient but this country has had some unusual circumstances. We can reduce it through spending cuts.

As for you mad mother Cindy Sheehan, go home and grieve for your son and get on with your life. I am sure he would be ashamed of your actions and the new group around you that you call comrade.

In the days following hurricane Katrina, there were few rational minds. From all aspects of life in the devastated areas they were calling on the federal government to help them. The news people were slamming President Bush for not doing enough. Could these reporters have been hunting for people or even prodding people to say vicious things about Bush? Even FOX news, which has been purported to be a right wing news agency, was shouting the loudest.

Along comes the mayor shouting profanities at Bush and the federal government. I am sure he was caught up in the heat of the moment and having to face his own failures. Earlier I had talked about the blame game. This may just be a continuation but with added facts.

Was Bush to blame for anything? Of course he was but his fault lies in not having people around him that kept him informed of the true facts. Reporters wanted to know if the president ever watched television. I am sure he does but do we want a president that makes decisions based on media reports?

In the beginning of the second week after the disaster it is starting to look like President Bush was the only one making good decisions. The mayor now says that as soon as he was able to talk to the president and make him aware of the facts there was immediate and massive action.

In every war a good president is no better than his generals. Apparently Bush put the best man on the job. That man would be Lt. Gen. Russel Honore.

This man, under the leadership of President Bush, did more in one day than all the local officials had done in a week. While Nero watched Rome burn, George W. Bush put the right man on the job.

Each day that passes Bush is slowly becoming the hero even thought the standard Bush haters will never admit it. Those from the left that think anything from the right is a joke will never accept the fact that for once Federal government did do something right.

I did not mean to turn this into a left/right issue but its just part of the facts. I suppose I need to write a separate entry as to why the left always want more government but always wants to blame government for their woes.

In closing there have been mistakes made on all levels of government but that is to be expected in something of this magnitude. In my book Bush may not be the hero but he surely put the man in charge that is the hero of the hour. Thank you Lt. Gen. Russel Honore.

I said I did not have enough information on Homeland Security. I have rectified that, at least in part. I have learned that before Katrina struck the gulf coast, Louisiana had 7000 National Guard at the ready to enter the disaster area. In addition I have learned that the National Guard is under the command of Homeland Security.

So you ask what took them so long? It was the shear size of the disaster area. Those 7000 guardsmen were just not enough. I have not heard how many in total moved into the disaster areas. I am sure it is a lot more than the 7000 Louisiana guardsmen. How many would have been enough? More than anyone could have guessed.

Again lets wait till we get all the facts before we start finger pointing. I am sure there will be a lot of people having to eat their heated words. The victims will be frustrated for a long time to come. There will be instances of preferential treatment, such as the mayor of New Orleans having his friends airlifted from the Hyatt while others were begging for help.

Lets have cooler heads prevail and get these people some normalcy in their lives. Donate with your heart, not you brain.

In the aftermath of the worst disaster in the history of our country you at first have tears in your eyes for the victims. Then comes the blame game, namely finger pointing at President Bush. I have somewhat been involved in disaster preparedness and from my point of view; the state of Louisiana let these people down. The mayor who should have seen to it they had some type of disaster plan played the blame game when he himself is to blame.

Lets look at all the blame here. Lets start at the top where most say all the blame lies. Bush may have waited longer to act than I would have. Yet, how do we know when he acted? Could he have sent in federal troops sooner, maybe, but at what cost? I heard reporters screaming for troops to come in and restore order. If Bush had done that he would have been arrest for one of the most horrendous acts a president can make. He would have violated the posse comitus (sic) act. No federal soldier in this country can act as police force without martial law being installed. I doubt anyone wanted that to happen in New Orleans.

I live in South Carolina that has had its fair share of hurricanes, albeit none as bad as this one but we have in the past had category 4 storms. We have never had federal troops brought in, especially because we were shooting at our rescuers. Most civilized places in the world accept rescuers with open arms.

In All states the governor is in charge. They see to the statewide preparedness. Through out the three states hit, the preparedness was not what it should have been. If the news reports are right, the Louisiana governor did nothing to prepare. From what I hear she had that preparedness to close to the storm and lost much of it, due to the fact the storm’s destruction was more than anyone predicted.

Lets move down the ladder of the blame game to the mayor and what other town official that ere in charge of the local preparedness of New Orleans. Apparently they did absolutely nothing. They left their fire and rescue equipment sitting in low lands and was lost. They did not evacuate the city and when they needed to evacuate, they had no busses. They had left them sitting in the low spots and were covered with water.

Then there are the people of New Orleans themselves. Apparently they have been taught to just sit back and wait on government to do for them. A few took control of their environment, commandeered vehicles and drove out of that swamp that used to be New Orleans.

Even now there are people that will not leave. They try and hang onto their homes. Oddly, I feel for those the most. I would probably be one of them. They at least are taking some control over their environment.

The last segments of the blame game are the news reporters and the New Orleans residents that made it a black and white issue. What person in their right mind would believe those people was not rescued because of the color of their skin. Look around and you find a sea of white rescuers in a sea of black victims. Lets not fall victim to the reporters that are only out to dramatize this unfortunate disaster. Lets just hope all this blaming is just being brought on by the heat of the moment and clearer heads will prevail in the days to come. Blaming never solves anything.

The death and destruction was not a racial thing. New Orleans was the only predominately black city that was hit. No city is getting more help than another. There are a lot of white families that are displaced as well and believe me, all are not affluent whites. It’s really sad that this disaster has brought about the blame game, a game that I refuse to play.

We made the biggest mistake of all in thinking that we can outguess Mother Nature. We will keep trying and some day we may come lose in predicting the actions of a storm enough to take better precautions. Sadly that day is not here yet.

Lets ban together and give these people the best life possible, even the ones that called us racist because their life became what it is. We give a shit no matter what the news reporters say.

In closing I would like to send a message to many of you reporters out there. I personally would have arrested you for inciting a riot. I’m sure some of you helped when you could. I suspect you got food and water in by helicopter. Why didn’t you use your helicopters to help feed these people? I guess you had to be objective and couldn’t get involved.

From someone who has been through a hurricane, lighten up. It’s going to be a long time before these people’s lives return to anything close to normal. That’s not just for the people of New Orleans.

I almost forgot homeland security. At the time I don’t have enough information to determine their blame, if any.