Anna Pou speaks

We are still a nation of great people–governed by moral pygmies. It brings tears to my eyes to have watched the courage and spiritual faith with which this woman has dealt with this affair. It enrages me that a petty career politician who, like me, was safely hunkered down when the winds blew, would so shabbily treat those who had to courage to put leave off securing their own property and loved ones, and stay in the path of apocolyse to serve.

Anon 5:06, whose hands have miscarried justice, the doctor’s or the prosecutor’s? Your comment is a bit vague.

What I find most remarkable about this is that literally nobody is held responsible for the conditions that lead up to this – the fact that nobody came to evacuate them, that the patients were left there to die. And yet the one attempt by the government to hold someone responsible is… someone who had no responsibility for the situation devolving to where it did, but chose to stay behind and help others. Anna Pou could have just left and avoided the hell of the Katrina nightmare altogether. There was absolutely nothing in it for her to stay. What did she get for it? A political witch hunt. What a pathetic indictment of our government.

7:13:

Were you thinking of the other four-letter university, Duke?

I’m afraid Katrina is one of those events that can’t fully be understood unless you were there. The only real disaster assistance came from those that chose to step up to the challenge. The US Coast Guard that risked their lives rescuing stranded and sick; Cajuns that ran police road blocks to take food and water to Orleanians dying on the road; Drs and Nurses who chose to stay behind. I treated police who had been beaten by other police, critical patients abandoned by their families to die in the flood, gunshots and fractures, bone cancer patients with no pain meds, HIV/AIDS patients with nowhere to go, drug addicts insane from withdrawal. I know Nurses that took turns bagging patients in the dark until they just couldn’t anymore. Almost every Doc I know was armed with good reason and stayed that way for several months post storm. You really had to be there to understand the perversion of this filthy politician’s actions or at least have lived through a similar event where those expected to provide civilized support failed or even became part of the problem and your survival depended on the character of those around you.
Just my opinion and observation.

This doc didn’t have the guts to run road blocks or sneak into New Orleans. I hunkered down in a nearby city, did a little desultory service at the local field hospital which he found overwhelming, and focused on taking care of MY family. Can I judge my peers who voluntarily stayed in those conditions? Hell, no. In fact, I don’t think that I am their peer.

Where was Foti and his assitants when the NOPD was confiscated guns from otherwise helpless old people living in lawless chaos, when some elements of the NOPD were running as rampant as street gangs, when the authorities were forcibly preventing rescue of people, when his old bud running the NOPD was cracking and spreading hysterical rumors? When inmates were drowning in the hellhole of Orleans Parish Prison that he built his carear creating. He is the chief law enforcement figure in the state. Where was he? I have never heard an answer to that.

He wants to do some good? He needs to help address the complete collapse of the justice system in New Orleans where the murder rate is skyrocketing to astronomical levels but the district attorney’s office has virtually lost all compacity to prosecute or even bring charges.

Who holds Foti to accountability???

Well, although the voters may act as a positive force this time, we have to keep in mind that this system in which people can vote for the AG, prosecutors etc. is to blame for this problem in the first place.

AG is an office that has been abused in the past in Louisiana, and it’s powers curtailed in the current 30 year old constitution. Foti apparently thought the old one was in effect, as some of his actions were outside of the scope of his office.

Given our political system in LA, an AG appointed by the governor would be predictably a sort of political police and serve to create a fascist state. Election is probably better, but when the culture itself is corrupt, not much better. Just in his power to dispense state legal work to law firms, the AG wields tremendous power in the legal community beyond the direct powers delegated to him. Why do you think the state sheriffs association has endorsed him for reelection already, dispite his embarassing incompetence? Because of the power of incumbency.

Why was he willing to go after a physician without even the appearance of fairness and not even bother to pick a prey on the fringe of the herd, instead going after a target that he knew would enrage the docs? Could it be because he beefed up the Medicaid fraud unit, and, given the imprecision of coding rules, they all know that they can be brought down for a minor mistake and dare not get politically involved? Don’t laugh. I have seen it happen in Louisiana: the investigations for a few diverted scripts starting days after a foray into the political arena.

Docs need to give every spare dime to his opponents and let him know they will not be rolled this way–but due to campaign finance disclosure rules and the tradition of using office not just for rewarding friends but for punishing enemies, I doubt that they will.