PATIENTS

You did notice that they say patients, not staff. The staff put those they could on mattresses and then fled, leaving those patients to fend for themselves. And I was rumored that the owners were spotted shopping in the next parish.

Still, it was the responsibility of the mayor and governor to make sure people got out. But I'm thinking that since both Nagin and Blanco are Democrats, could they be so cold blooded as to sacrifice their own citizens just to make President Bush look bad? It wouldn't be the first time lives were lost to prove a point.

In 1898, the USS Maine, a battle ship was anchored in Havana at time of civil unrest. When it blew up, it was the rally cry for the Spanish/American war. Even as far back as the Alamo, the US and Mexico had been fighting over Texas. So, a rag tag team of well known politicians and frontiersmen went down there to defend the Alamo. Sam Houston and his army were also in Texas at the time but claimed they couldn't reach the Alamo in time to save those who were fighting. The rally cry of "Remember the Alamo" was used in the fight to free Texas from Mexico.

During WW I, the US and became an isolationist country, we didn't want to get involved with foreign affairs. WW I was raging and our

LUSITANIA

President Woodrow Wilson had been wanting to get into the war in Europe but the people were against it. Now, he knew that using a civilian ship to carry arms was illegal, but the Lusitania was not only carrying soldiers but arms and ammo as well when she was torpedoed.

Because the loss of American lives in a seemly unprovoked attack, the US joined the war in Europe.

After the war, the 7th Fleet's headquarters was moved from San Diego to Pearl Harbor. The Navy wanted a study to see how vunerable Pearl Harbor would be to an attack. They showed that the only way it could be attacked without warning was if bombers flew from the opposite side of the island and through the mountains. And guess what? The Japanese did it like they stole the playbook. Of course the rally cry then was remember the Arizona.

After the Kennedy assassination, and it was known that Kennedy wanted to pull out of Vietnam, one of our navy ships was supposedly attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. I say supposedly because it was never proven that it was. But it was enough to get Johnson to increase our involvement in Vietnam.

So, history is full of politicians setting up sacrifices to get their way. SO, is Nagin and Blanco so cold and calculating that they would sacrifice their citizens just to make Bush look bad?