New Orleans

I wasn’t going to write about the New Orleans hurricane problems, because people will think I’m blaming the victims. However, someone then asked me if I thought George W. Bush’s response was too slow, so I decided that I would write about New Orleans. To begin with, contrary to popular belief, I do not take up for George Bush on everything. I disagree with him on immigration policies. I think he should have vetoed the completely ridiculous highway bill that Congress recently passed. I didn’t like the Medicare drug coverage because it included everyone instead of basing it on need. I also don’t think baseball is that interesting. However, to say that he was late in the game for Hurricane Katrina is silly. For one, no part of the federal government is built for speed. If that’s what you’re relying on, you will be disappointed. Actually, I’m not sure what constitutes a long time for federal reaction. When the city was flooded, who do you think the guys in orange suits hanging underneath helicopters to pick people off their roofs were? It was the Coast Guard which had been positioned to move in from day one. The military mobilized before the hurricane even hit, but the logistics of moving the Navy and Army will take about 3 to 5 days. Also, I went to Homestead, FL less than a week after Hurricane Andrew hit 1992 for a relief trip. I wasn’t that far behind the National Guard. Remember this – Katrina hit on Monday, but the levee breeches didn’t really begin flooding the city until Tuesday. Yet, the first buses started the evacuation of the Superdome on Wednesday. And by Saturday, 30,000 people were evacuated from the Superdome, and another 25,000 from the convention center by Sunday. That means in the same amount of time it took to get the Guard in Homestead, they had convoyed into a flooded and crime ridden New Orleans and evacuated thousands of people. The federal government wasn’t any slower in this disaster than others. It just looks worse because there were circumstances that other natural disasters don’t have to deal with. Mainly, 80% of the city under water because you were dealing with a city that never should have existed that way. I loved visiting New Orleans, but it doesn't make sense to have half a million people in a city with most living in a bowl between a big lake and a big river and under sea level.

Another factor is that with the federal system of government means natural disaster issues are primarily the province of state and local government. That’s not just in tradition. It’s often by law. George Bush was in contact with the mayor of New Orleans and governor of Louisiana two days before the storm hit to urge them to call for an evacuation. However, by law, that call had to be made by them, and in fact, the city of New Orleans has a hurricane emergency plan that was unfortunately virtually ignored. It stated that school and metro buses would be used to help evacuate people who couldn’t get themselves out. They also had a second evacuation once they realized the levees were breached and the city was flooding on Tuesday. Yet, there’s an AP picture of a couple of hundred school buses not that far from the Superdome that could have been used, but weren’t. By Wednesday, local officials were trying to round up buses from out in the state. Not only was the resource ignored, but by not using them, they were left to be flooded which means they will need to be overhauled or replaced. I’ve been to New Orleans so I know where the Super Dome and Convention Center are, and the streets around them were not washed out yet on Tuesday morning when I watched the news. If they had used those buses, they could have gotten many of the people out. Barring that, once the state decided to open the Superdome as a shelter, they needed to supply it and secure it. I’ve heard about 1000 excuses from New Orleans’ idiot mayor (who has since moved to Dallas and bought a house) about why they didn’t, but he’s obviously failed in his duty. What’s even worse is that we’ve since learned that the Red Cross was ready to take relief supplies to the Superdome after the storm passed on Monday, but state officials stopped them because they wanted the people there to leave. FEMA has been highly criticized, but by law, they are set up to “assist” state and local government during a disaster. They do not take the lead. The mayor and governor abdicated their responsibility to their citizens, because they just wanted to wait for the feds. Well, Florida gets hit with hurricanes pretty frequently, but they don’t have near the problems, because they take care of their own and let the feds come in later.

One of the biggest issues was security which is once again, by law, a local responsibility. That is where the local failure was most acute. While the Coast Guard was being videoed rescuing people on roofs, New Orleans police officers were on the news stealing shoes and DVDs from Wal-Mart or they might have been former police officers still in uniform because about a third of the force quit. I wasn’t surprised by that because NOPD has never been known for its professionalism. When I was in Homestead, I was never told to watch out for snipers. Yet, in New Orleans, the police had no control over the criminal element, but that isn’t surprising either. When I was down there, they pretty much let you know that you were safe in the tourist areas, but they couldn’t protect you elsewhere. So, if they can’t control the criminals in good times, why would I expect a hurricane to make things different (although they began confiscating guns from the law-abiding which made sense because then they could no longer defend themselves against the criminals that the police wouldn’t arrest)? The police were even chased out of the convention center. When they went back and caught someone breaking the law, they just took them to a different part of the center. They didn’t even throw them out. The lack of security kept the Red Cross out and caused FEMA to leave the Superdome. Evacuations were halted, and air ambulances stopped coming in for the sick because they were getting shot at. When local control fails, the National Guard gets sent in, but they need to be under control of the governor who has to request them before they get sent in. Louisiana’s governor didn’t even send a request to other states until Wednesday, and when you factor in the deployment time, they were actually quite fast. As long as they are under state control, Guardsmen can do law enforcement duties, but the president cannot send in federalized troops for law enforcement because of Posse Comitatus laws. Unless the governor of a state asks them to, but when the offer was made to Governor Blanco of LA in order to put the active duty troops and the Guard under one command, she didn't want to give up control of the Guard. In fact, it’s still considered iffy whether or not Bush sending in active duty troops was completely legal. It’s pretty obvious that the governor did not use her National Guard troops effectively, but I'm sure if Bush had used the Insurrection Act to federalize the Guard without Blanco's permission, the Democrats criticizing him now wouldn't be accusing him of usurping her authority. Yeah, I'm real sure of that.

And now I think I will blame the victims. I’m not talking about the ones who couldn’t leave because of lack of transportation or infirmity. I’m talking about the ones who chose not to, and got stuck. When government officials up to the President of the United States tell you to go, you go. There’s still people who refuse to leave. I saw one guy say that he didn’t leave even when the flood waters were rising because his car was a five seater, and he had a wife and five kids. Well, two were very young, but he didn’t double stack some kids because he thought the state police might stop him. Is getting a ticket worse than trying to flag down a boat from your roof? I don’t consider him a bad person, but that was a bad decision. If you couldn’t get out of town, but lived in a shack in the bottom of the bowl and didn’t move to higher ground when the flooding started, you made a bad decision. Unfortunately, I have a feeling there was a large group that stayed simply for the opportunity to loot, so I have no sympathy for them. In fact, there are a lot of people who deserved to be shot. Shooting at helicopters, police, telephone repairmen. Give me a break. I’ve been hungry, tired and frustrated, but I think I could refrain from turning into an animal in two days. I know I could refrain from trying to sexually assault someone. Thanks to these lowlifes, help was slower in coming.

Great College Football Weekend

I remember some chump telling me that college football wasn’t worth watching. Of course, same loser also told me that Styx was the greatest rock band ever which could be true if by rock band you only mean Styx and Nelson. As for college football, this past weekend certainly proved him wrong. Sure there were some clunkers, but for the most part, it was one of the best days of college football viewing I’ve seen in a while. Obviously, the best game was Texas beating Ohio State by three. Neither of the teams wanted to lose as they slugged it out until the whistle. Vince Young moved to the head of my mythical Heisman ballot with his performance. Yet, during this game, I’m also flipping over to the Arizona State/LSU game that would also go down to the wire as LSU throws a 39 yard touchdown pass on 4th and 10 with just over a minute left. Not only that, Alabama is scoring the last 20 points of the game to beat Southern Miss 31-20. Not to mention trying to keep up with the NASCAR race which will determine the last of the ten teams that will be in the points chase. My channel changing finger is worn out.

And it started way before then. The Marshall/Kansas State game began at 10:30 in the morning, and Marshall drove to the Kansas State 21 yard line with 9 seconds left and trailing 21-19. Non-aggressive coaches would have simply attempted a 38 yard field goal for the win, but Marshall knew that the only way to have a game losing interception was to throw a pass. Which they did. But no time for worrying about that. Notre Dame is going into the Big House and knocking off Michigan. And making them look bad. I don’t really like Notre Dame, but I don’t Michigan either, so I’ll take it. At the same time I get to watch Oklahoma try to dump another game to a mid-level conference foe. They don’t, but still look like crap. Later in the afternoon, North Carolina invades Georgia Tech (who was coming off a beat down of Auburn at Auburn) and almost pulls off the upset. Steve Spurrier takes a mediocre looking South Carolina team to Georgia and falls short by only two. The amazing thing is that South Carolina keeps it close with defense. Finally, Oregon State kicks a field goal with 1:03 to go to beat Boise State. And this was all just leading up to the evening games.

However, as I said there was some clunkers. Oklahoma looked really bad. They needed 220 yards from Adrian Peterson, and yet were only beating Tulsa by 2 with just over 3 minutes left. This was a week after losing to TCU. TCU celebrated that win by losing 21-10 to SMU who was coming off a loss to Big 12 bottom-feeder Baylor. Of course, that begs the question, since Oklahoma lost to a team that lost to a team that lost to Baylor, is Oklahoma now the bottom feeder of the Big 12? And while it didn’t happen on Saturday, Pitt’s loss to Ohio on Friday showed that Dave Wannstedt doesn’t need the NFL to fail as a coach. I also can’t wait for the big UK/Indiana slugfest this coming weekend. Both teams were trailing in the fourth quarter to Division 1-AA teams. Every year UK hangs around with someone they shouldn’t to make people think they are really improving. Then they crap in their mess kit again. It wouldn’t bother me except this year they play UL tough, and now they’re going to screw up our strength of schedule.

College football

Here are my picks to win the six BCS conference titles, plus a little bit about those that won't.

ACC
I think the conference championship will come down between Virginia Tech and Miami. Even though I don't have the high confidence in Michael Vick's little brother Marcus that ESPN's college analysts do, I still think their defense and special teams is strong enough. They get Miami at home and don't play Florida State. Miami's got a stout defense, Devin Hester on special teams and no more Brock Berlin, but their conference schedule is tougher. The only other team I really see challenging those two is Florida who should win the Atlantic Division, but I think they'll lose the conference championship game. The rest of the ACC is typical ACC. Duke will suck. Wake Forrest will scare some teams, but still manage to finish last in their division. North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia Tech will shuffle around between 3 and 5 in the Coastal Division. NC State, Boston College, and Maryland will do the same for 2 thru 4 in the Atlantic. Tommy Bowden will be fighting for his job (again) at Clemson by week 4.

Big East
I think this is clearly a two team race. Pittsburgh is a good team with a lot returning talent, but I think Louisville will take it. I may be biased, but I think UL has the players to make up their losses to the NFL, plus they get Pitt at home. West Virginia will probably be a perennial contender most years, but they are in such a rebuilding mode, I'm not sure they'll be able to hold off an up-and-coming team like Rutgers for third. Of course, until their defense begins to match their offense, Rutgers is capable of imploding every year. UConn seems to have become a real solid program, but replacing Dan Orlovsky at QB could be hard. Ditto with South Florida, at least as far as having a solid program. Syracuse has some tradition, but they have some big changes in coaching philosophy going on, so I don't see anything coming out of there this year. Cincinnati lost a lot of players, so even though they have a good coach, I think they'll really struggle.

Big Ten
I could easily see one of four teams winning this conference - Ohio State, Michigan, Purdue, and Iowa. I'm a little bit concerned with the number of close games that Iowa and Michigan won last year. Add to the fact that Iowa has to play at OSU and Purdue and I toss them. I think Michigan's defense is a bit too susceptible to a mobile quarterback running hog wild on them, so I'll toss them. While I think Ted Ginn Jr is an amazing talent at wide receiver, I'm still not sold on Ohio State's offense, so forget them. Purdue doesn't face Ohio State or Michigan and play Iowa at home. Bingo. As for the rest, I could see Michigan State making a jump if they can keep QB Drew Stanton healthy. Wisconsin and Minnesota are both pretty solid bowl teams, but no threat for the Big Ten title. Joe's got to go at Penn State. Their defense was really good, but their offense last year was atrocious. Northwestern lost a lot of starters from a mediocre team, so I see a dropoff. Indiana hired a good coach, but they are still Indiana. Ron Zook drove Florida damn near into the toilet in two and half years, so why should I think he can make Illinois good.

Big 12
In the North, I think Colorado has the most talent and was a decent team last year. So, they'll win the North again over Iowa State which is turning into a decent program. I think Nebraska will actually take a step forward, which at this point means a winning season. Kansas is actually a team on the rise that could make some noise. Kansas State is really slumping, and I don't see that changing, but a winning record wouldn't be impossible. Missouri is fun to watch when Brad Smith is on, but I don't see them doing much as a whole. In the South, I like Texas to win the division and the title game. They are the most talented team of the whole conference and have a star in Vincent Young. And they will get by Oklahoma who I think could actually drop behind Texas A&M and Texas Tech. The Aggies will have their best team in years behind Reggie McNeal, while Tech has a high powered offense and a defense that is actually improving. Oklahoma will have Adrian Peterson, but I think there will be quite a drop off on offense without 12th year senior Jason White. I think Baylor will move ahead of Oklahoma State this year. Baylor has improved over the last couple of years, and Oklahoma State is bringing in a coach to completely change their offense which could lead to some growing pains.

PAC 10
While I don't think Southern Cal will win the BCS, I do think they'll win the PAC-10. Mainly because I see at least two conferences losses for the other teams. Cal is the closest thing to a second contender, but I'm not sure if they're good enough. Arizona State finished the season on a high note, but they looked like crap in most of their big games last year. While Oregon State lost their QB, they've got a lot of talent returning from a team that finished strong last year. UCLA should have a strong offense, but their defense will keep them from moving up. Last year may have been a momentary blip for Oregon, but I'm not too quick to put them back into the mix for the PAC-10 title. Washington State isn't the WSU of a few years back, but they could finish mid-pack and make a bowl. Arizona is a team on the move, but they started so low that it could be a long climb. Washington finished 1-10 last year, and 10 losses is 10 losses. Stanford blows.

SEC
In the West, LSU is obviously the most talented, but I think Alabama could sneak in and take. Their defense is great, but their whole season will probably hinge on how well they keep Brodie Croyle healthy. LSU does have the talent to contend, but I'm not sure new coach Les Miles is the type to make the quick jump to the top. People conveniently forget that Auburn was considered an underachieving team before last year, so I won't be surprised to see them drop off quite a bit with the losses to the NFL that they suffered. Arkansas is an interesting case. Houston Nutt's team was rebuilding last year when they went 5-6 in his first non-bowl season, but he's apparently on the hot seat. He's a good coach, and while I don't think they have the talent to win the West, I think they can screw it up for someone else. The Mississippi schools aren't very good, so mediocrity would be a plus for them. Unlike Miles, I think Urban Meyer is a coach who can step in and immediately contend. With the talent he has at Florida, I think he can win the East and the SEC title game. I'm not buying Tennessee as a national title contender. They choked at home against a weak Notre Dame, and for God's sake, they almost lost to UK. And Vandy. I think Georgia will be pretty good, but definitely a step down from the past couple of years. South Carolina may be a year or two away, but I wouldn't count out Steve Spurrier hurrying up the timeline. UK and Vandy fight for the cellar again.