I’d say managers and leaders are mostly to blame for Katrina — change that to almost entirely to blame.  The rest of the people–96%–are followers, sheep, sheeple, who can’t, don’t and won’t think for themselves.  Whether it’s in government or in business, whatever you’re talking about, this country is in a mess.  Our managers, leaders, and elected officials got us there.

You don’t hear people say it so much anymore, but everything is changed since 911.  If Hurricane Katrina had happened before 911 — during the Clinton years, would New Orleans still look the way it does now two years later?  Bill Clinton would have done more than fly in and fly out. 

There would have been no "Heckuva Job, Brownie" nonsense.  Before 911, America would have gone to the aid of New Orleans.  There would not be over 200,000 missing persons two years later from New Orleans.  Yes, that’s the number of people who used to live in New Orleans, but don’t live there anymore.  They’re missing, and they’re never coming back.

But we had leaders and managers in this country before 911.  Where did they all go? Where have they all gone?

"A Failure of Initiative" is the 379-page final report of the select bipartisan committee to investigate the preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina. 

A quote on page 8 puts the response to Katrina in perspective:

“Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off.
How many are left?
Answer: five.
Why? Because there’s a difference between deciding and doing.”

MARK L. FELDMAN and MICHAEL F. SPRATT
American businessmen

The preface of the Katrina report has one sentence that tells it all:  "It remains difficult to understand how government could respond so ineffectively to a disaster that was anticipated for years, and for which specific dire warnings had been issued for days. This crisis was not only predictable, it was predicted."

Our leaders haven’t gone anywhere – they’re just not doing their jobs.