Thursday, August 30, 2007

Natural Disaster Deaths... Who's Fault Is It?

Ok so today I was reading yesterday's NY Times and I came across the article talking about the governor of Louisiana being summons to testify in the Hurricane Katrina deaths that killed 35 enfeeble nursing home patients at St. Rita's in St. Bernand. The owners, Salvador and Mabel Mangano, face the charges of negligent homicide.

It appeared to me that this situation was more of a blame game and Gov. Kathleen Bablineaux Blanco was not having it. John Reed, lawyer for the Manganos, stated, "You, Governor, never issued an order of mandatory evacuation." Ms. Blanco responded that is was not how the chain of command usually happened. She states that the local officials would have given the mandatory evacuation to the local people.

OK so let me get this straight... the family of the victims are blaming the owners, the owners are blaming the Governor, and the Governor is blaming local officials!

The defense then asked Ms. Blanco why Johnny B. Bradberry, the state transportation secretary in charge of nursing home evacuations, had "failed to do so." She responded with... (and i'm paraphrasing) even though there was an emergancy plan in place, no one had faced a natural disaster of this magnitude and "Everybody was scrambling to make sense out of a situation that had nothing sensible about it."

This is exactly the point of my blog today. God Bless the people who died in Hurricane Katrina but... this was an accident! I understand that when a person is hurting inside, they need someone to blame. America is getting so "sue happy" they forget that people are human, and mistakes will be made! This was a terrible tragedy but will putting someone in jail really make you feel better? Think about it!!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Sen. Craig: GAY or NOT GAY?

Today in our POLS class we briefly discussed Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig's scandal. According to many different news sources, the senator allegedly solicited an undercover policeman in a Minnesota airport restroom on June 11, 2007. He plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct on August 1st and then it was filed on that following 8th at the courthouse.

According to this particular article, Sen. Craig did several gestures such as tapping his right foot, extending his feet under stall to touch the undercover officer, and running his hand under stall partition... palm up.

What I do not understand is where the line of entrapment starts and stops? And even beyond that, wouldn't the Senator have to verbally ask for sex? I do not claim to be any type of pro at law but I always thought that it was legal to have sex with someone; it just was illegal to pay for it!

Call me crazy but I think there is more to this story then being told. After reading another blog, Huckleberries Online, and the comments made in regards to this matter; I may have to agree that it sounds like some good ole fashion mud raking. Nothing seems to "add up" in the big picture of this scandal.

Give me a reply back... let me know your thoughts on the matter.