Unfortunately, it seems the author took a rhetorical tip from Bush himself. I am pondering the purpose of this paragraph, wedged in between two seemingly unrelated paragraphs:

Two years ago, New Orleans residents — the only area in the entire state that voted in huge numbers against the candidacy of George Bush — also fought off attempts to privatize the drinking water supply. There have also been major battles to block Shell Oil’s attempt to build a Liquid Natural Gas facility, and to preent the teardown of public housing (which failed), with the Mayor lining up in the latter two issues on the side of the oil companies and the developers.

He seems to want to suggest that someone is deliberately punishing NOLA for opposing the GOP or Big Oil or something, which is a very serious accusation. However, rather than say that (and be taken to task on such crazy speculation), he just provides you with some factual information and leaves you to fill in the blanks.

Guilt by verbal proximity. It worked for Al Queda and Hussein!

One of the first acts of Governor Kathleen Blanco (a Democrat, by the way) during this crisis was to TURN OFF the drinking water, to force people to evacuate. There was no health reason to turn it off, as the water is drawn into a separate system from the Mississippi River, not the polluted lake, and purified through self-powered purification plants separate from the main electric grid. If necessary, people could have been told to boil their water — strangely, the municipal natural gas used in stoves was still functioning properly as of Thursday night!

There are thousands of New Orleans residents who are refusing to evacuate because they don’t want to leave their pets, their homes, or who have no money to do so nor place to go. The government — which COULD HAVE and SHOULD HAVE provided water and food to residents of New Orleans — has NOT done so INTENTIONALLY to force people to evacuate by starving them out. This is a crime of the gravest sort.

We need to understand that the capability has been there from the start to DRIVE water and food right up to the convention center, as those roads have been clear — it’s how the National Guard drove into the city.

Generally I find articles on this site well balanced and credible, but this accusation is so explosive (that the Governor turned off the drinking water), I’m not sure. Any other source to confirm this?

How proud you must be that only a few dozen died of dehydration! On world-wide TV too.

In the richest country in the world, when the largest natural disaster ever strikes, people expect the federal government to provide support and leadership as needed. Clearly, the 25,000 needed “re-rescuing” and ball was dropped. Some blame can be placed on the local and state authorities, but frankly, given the scale of this, only the federal gov’t could handle this.

25,000 survived the storm but then some died needlessly. It’s a national disgrace that old, poor people in wheelchairs where allowed to die in the Louisiana sun when the slightest flexing of federal executive muscle could have saved them.

I’m sorry, but what is your point?

The uneasy paradox which so many live with in this country – of being first-and-foremost rugged individuals, out to plunder what they can and paying as little tax as they can get away with, while at the same time believing that America is a robust, model society – has reached a crisis point this week.

Some have to die before they get help?

How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

“How can the US take Iraq, a country of 25m people, in three weeks but fail to rescue 25,000 of its own citizens from a sports arena in a big American city? ”

How many of those 25,000 died?