For collective ball-dropping, from all levels of government, agency and administration, this has been a brass plated, three alarm, cluster-f@@@. No one, in any area of government, be it city, state or national with any responsibility, is in ANY position to be pointing fingers at ANYONE else. Gentlemen, and I use the term loosely, you all screwed the pooch on this one, whether your office is on Bourbon Street or Pennsylvania Avenue.

I think it is time that Mayor Ray Nagin take some personal responsibility for his city. He knew well in advance that the storm was coming. He could have evacuated his residents that did not have vehicles to a safer location other than in the path of the storm. The protection of any community does not always fall back on the shoulders of the federal taxpayer. New Orleans is the 23rd largest city in the USA and is not a poor city; yes it has poor people but the city has money and the mayor has dropped the ball here and he is not being a very good leader. The city had years to fix its levees and failed to do so, although in this case it would not have really mattered. Mr. Nagin and mayors prior to him have messed up and now are pointing fingers away from themselves to anyone but themselves. The People who decided to stay and ride out the storm after being told to leave must assume personal responsibility. Granted some could not leave without assistance and in those cases the ball falls back into the court of the leaders of the communities. You can't blame the President for the shortcomings of every mayor and county judge. Flooding is a very difficult disaster but still, much of the failures are local and state, NOT federal. Where were the local and state people/resources on day one after the event? Why did it go downhill so fast? Who was in charge? It sure wasn't the mayor! (Yes, I watched the news and yes, I know the answer...) My heart aches for the people down in the south, they suffer now because of mistakes that were critical in nature. I believe the Governor is really trying to get things corrected, I hope the mayor will also. I also hope and pray that the other states that are not getting all the media attention because they are not stealing, killing, raping, burning and who knows what else will get help soon too.

Absolutely horrifying. The city of New Orleans screwed itself. It's mayor did not get his city ready for a widely predicted disaster, and many of its residents showed themselves to be animals in the lawless days following the hurricane. But that doesn't excuse the incompetence of the federal government in the days following Katrina. This is exactly the sort of disaster we supposedly have been preparing for since 9/11. When New Orleans proved itself unable to fend for itself after the hurricane, that's when we needed some leadership at the federal level. We needed security, aid, medicine, doctors, and transportation. Instead we got excuses and press conferences, and nearly five days before federal aid rolled in. Utter incompetence. The FEMA head was fired from his last job overseeing the International Arabian Horse Federation. Big shocker he didn't step up in this situation. And frankly, I'm shocked at how Bush has failed during this crisis. I've always seen his greatest strength as his decisiveness and ability to get things done. He showed neither here, and it cost lives.